Every time an episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi lands, Fantha Tracks will be giving their responses, and here are our initial gut feelings, deep dives and thoughts on the second episode of season one – Part 2. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Ross Hollebon
Let’s go underground (at least figuratively)! Daiyu is the urban equivalent to Mos Eisley’s spaceport—scum, villainy, and even untraceable ships—and it is where Kenobi must descend to rescue Leia Organa, at the insistence of Senator Bail Organa. Starting with spice offerings on the street (from Ewan McGregor’s real-life daughter, no less) to a sham Jedi running lucrative scams, Kenobi slowly begins to acclimate to the role of creative detective once more. Constant suspense envelopes the hunted hero as he rescues the kidnapped Leia and struggles to find a path for their escape—until the scam Jedi actually appears to play the part of “good guy.”
At the other end of the spectrum, we get Reva making her seeming power play for the role of Grand Inquisitor during her unrelenting chase for Kenobi. The current Grand Inquisitor chastises her and continues to underestimate her willingness to go rogue, eventually costing him his life (maybe?) at the sizzling red of her lightsaber blade as Kenobi and Leia flee Daiyu aboard an unmanned cargo ship. But, delayed in her ultimate goal, Reva has struck a chord in illuminating Kenobi to a chilling fact he had not considered–Anakin Skywalker was not killed on Mustafar. The mutilating fight merely set him up for an even scarier transition to the newest Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Yet more for Kenobi to process as he flees for his life and attempts to return Leia to Alderaan.
Mark Newbold
After a first episode that literally reeked of beautiful Star Wars-ness, the second episode follows swiftly behind and takes Ben from the dust of Tatooine to the glow of Daiyu, a neon-lit urban jungle not dissimilar to the lower levels of Coruscant. Here, out of his depth and still visibly struggling with his own personal demons of doubt, Kenobi dusts off his Attack of the Clones era detective skills, following the trail of spice and deception to ultimately find young Leia – every bit as precocious and intuitive as she was in the first episode – and fashions a make-shift escape while staying a step ahead of Leia’s captors and the Inquisitors, who are nipping at their heels.
Access to his Force powers appears to be a tenuous silver thread, but one that is plucked when Leia almost falls to her death, only for Ben to reach out and somehow connect with the Force enough to stop her descent and lower her safely to the ground. It’s a huge moment, a brief reconnection to an old friend that has served Kenobi so well over the years, but right now it’s the dark times, and the Force is ebbing rather than flowing, rolling over the sith and their acolytes rather than bathing the Jedi and fellow Force sensitives in its warmth.
One element of the show that cannot be understated is the score by Natalie Holt. While John Williams is getting all the plaudits for the score, it’s Holt who is doing the heavy lifting, playing off Williams main theme and crafting notes and moments for all of the major characters in what will surely coalesce into a memorable score for the opening season of the show. Central to those themes is Reva, the Force-fuelled Inquisitor who runs up against her brethren constantly but stands chin high, laser-focused on her goal of capturing Kenobi. It’s a powerful performance from Moses Ingram, defining Reva’s naivety and passion as it blends into an unstoppable force chasing down Kenobi. It seems obvious that she is the very first character we saw in the opening episode, seeking vengeance for being left by Kenobi and the fleeing Jedi before presumably being taken by the Inquisitors and turned into a tool of the Emperor – her past may well be more involved than that, but either way, her determination to get Kenobi is intensely alluring.
That it’s a brand new character to the saga in Reva who confirms to Ben that Vader lives – Anakin lives – is an interesting turn. Surely Ben knew; in the decade since Order 66 Darth Vader would have become infamous across the galaxy, even to the Outer Rim Territories where Tatooine lies, but to hear Reva confirm that Anakin and Vader are one and the same not only gives us cause to pause, but Kenobi a jolt of visceral fear that sees out the episode. So many questions, and only a third of the way through this limited series, but so far so very, very good.
Carl Bayliss
As part of the doubler-header premier, which some lucky folks at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim got to see on a big screen with many of the cast and crew in attendance, we were able to go straight in to this second episode, following the cliff hanger of Leia’s capture and Ben leaving Tatooine.
We pick up on the search for Leia on Daiyu (think the downtown areas of Coruscant from ‘Attack of the Clones’) where Ben seeks information about the young princess who he claims is his missing daughter. After a brief encounter with Ewan McGregor’s real-life daughter who offers him some spice, saying after a few of these he won’t care where the girl is, he is led to a jedi by the name of Haja Estree. In reality, Haja is a con man, using remotes and magnets to fool desperate locals into paying for his services, to gain them safe passage off-world. Ben exposes Haja as a fraud but he agrees to help him and gives him the possible location of Leia.
Ben infiltrates the spice lab and upon locating the decoy Leia, is captured by the kidnappers from the previous episode. With an ingenious use of the spice vial given to him earlier, he leaves the kidnappers in a spice cloud and makes his escape, before locating the real Leia.
Making their way back through the city, Ben buys some new clothes for Leia, this, including a green jacket which coupled with her hairstyle harks back to the Rebel commando look from Endor – another nice touch. As Reva discovers the kidnappers have allowed Obi-Wan to escape she sends Obi-Wan’s picture to every bounty hunter and mercenary on Daiyu to capture him. During the ensuing chase, Leia questions whether Ben is actually a Jedi or if he is the real kidnapper and indeed the reason she is being chased and shot at. After a rooftop chase, Leia falls and only Ben’s timely use of the force prevents her from hitting the ground (although we know she can’t come to too much harm, can she?)
Haja locates them, and offers them a way out, via a cargo ship and gives them coordinates to meet ‘someone who can help them’. Although Ben questions whether he can be trusted they head for the ship, meanwhile Haja is found by Reva who uses the force to extract the plan from him and head for the cargo port.
Although Ben and Leia manage to hide from Reva she taunts Obi-Wan saying he won’t die, well not today, as Vader wants him, and this is the climactic moment – Obi-Wan hadn’t known until now that his former padawan was still alive (so presumably had completely cut himself off from everything).
The Grand Inquisitor shows up and once again chastises Reva for her methods, but she stabs him and leaves him for dead (bearing in mind that he appears in Rebels which is set after this then there may be some retconning required.…) but Ben makes it on to the ship and they escape.
The final scene is the real money shot here, with Obi-Wan reaching out to Anakin through the force and the screen cuts to a scarred Anakin in a Bacta tank (as per the scenes in Rogue One) and the ominous breathing of Vader is heard.
As they aired as a two episode block there is little more to say about the way this episode differs (or indeed doesn’t) from the first. The performances are once again superb (Ben asks Leia after one of her comments ‘How old are you?’, ‘Ten’, ‘You don’t sound like you’re ten’ – a lovely way to capture that ‘older than her years’ style that Carrie brought to the character) and there are again lots of character easter eggs for die hard fans, but as we got with The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, these tend to be characters or things seen in passing and not obtrusive to the story.
Becca Benjamin
As I said previously, in my review for Part I, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney Plus debuted the first two episodes earlier than expected. Including a special screening with Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel, next door to the Convention Center, for all those who were lucky enough to attend the opening ceremonies of Star Wars Celebration on May 26th.
Part II of the series picks up right where Part I left off. Little Leia is being held captive by some shady types, and Ben is off-world on Daiyu looking for her. Sidenote, we get a cameo of Ewan McGregor’s daughter as a young teenage spice pusher and rundown Clone Trooper who’s looking for credits and a hot meal.
Ben discovers a “wannabe Jedi,” Haja, who scams the innocent by pretending to help people get off-world for the right price. Once Ben calls his bluff, he gets Haja to help him find Leia. But like most scenarios, it doesn’t go quite as planned. Ben gets inside the kidnappers’ hideout only to be fooled by a decoy in place of Leia, which inevitably leads to his brief captivity. Thankfully, the spice given to him by that teenage spice pusher comes in handy. But Reva is hot on his heels.
It isn’t long after that that Ben rescues, ok, maybe that’s the wrong word here? But eventually, Ben unlocks Leia’s cell only to be knocked off balance by a pint-sized Leia, full of sass and frass. And then, they’re off and running!
Again, Reva is hot on their trail as Leia catches a glimpse of Ben’s laser sword and asks, “are you a Jedi?” Ben does his best to brush it off and keep things low-key, but Leia is wise beyond her years and too worldly for all that. Still, Ben tries to take charge, insisting they need to change clothes and that from now on, do as she’s told, mimicking a line of Leia’s from Star Wars: A New Hope.
As they change clothes, Leia picks out a green mantelet and a pair of brown gloves that mirror what she wears on Endor in Return of the Jedi. While they make their way through the city streets, Leia starts to question Ben more about his relationship with her father as her intuition starts to kick in that something is not quite right here.
Meanwhile, Reva is going hard on the Grand Inquisitor and challenging him further and further for position among the ranks. And Leia starts to goad Ben to use the Force, going so far as to taunt him to make her float. In doing so, reminding us, the audience, “exactly” who Leia is; Padme’s daughter.
Still, it doesn’t take long for things to go the wrong way again, and once Leia sees a “wanted hologram” of Ben, things go from bad to worse as Leia takes off running away from Ben! She takes a misstep, and as she begins to plummet, Ben turns on the Force and stops her fall.
Once they reach the cargo port, Leia starts to feel home-free, and her snarkiness returns. Ben opens up a bit by telling her how much she reminds him of someone, a strong but stubborn leader. The soft and endearing moment is fleeting as Reva shows up and taunts Obi-Wan by disclosing the truth about his former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. He is alive.
Again, great episode! Emotionally driven with fantastic parallels to the Skywalker Saga. Like poetry, they rhyme.
Eric Onkenhout
Well, if anything could get Obi-Wan…sorry, Ben off of Tatooine and away from Luke, it’s his technically younger yet just as important sister, Leia. Bail and Breha Organa plead to Ben to rescue Leia, who was kidnapped by Flea, who is playing Vect Nokru, a bounty hunter hired by Reva to use Leia as bait to get to Kenobi. Ben arrives on Daiyu, which looks like a smaller version of Coruscant’s lower levels. Kenobi learns of a scammer pretending to be a Jedi (not a great idea during the dark times), Haja, brilliantly played by Kumail Nanjiani. Hot on Kenobi’s trail are the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), Reva (Moses Ingram), and the Fifth Brother (Sung Kang). The tension rises!
Kenobi locates Leia and removes her from danger. Once Kenobi learns of the heat, he gets help from Haja, who points Kenobi toward an automated transport ship headed to Mapuzo. Flea plays a bounty hunter so well! He looks the part and plays it so naturally. There is so much going on in this episode. Blair continues to knock it out of the park as Leia. The rivalry between the Grand Inquisitor and Reva adds depth to the story. Leia reminding Kenobi of Padme was a beautiful touch. It’s easy to see Anakin and Padme in Leia. Now for the uber-climax. Reva reveals to Kenobi that Anakin is still alive and that he is coming for Ben. Of course, Ben is absolutely shocked and petrified at this news. And then we see Anakin rising from the bacta tank. It’s seeing the shark fin just before the episode ends. What a cliffhanger! Return next week for the next episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi!
Daniel Lo
The prequel trilogy had its ups and downs, but one of my favorite aspects was getting immersed in one distinctly alien environment after another, with little to remind us of earth. This was an area the sequels fell a bit short on in my opinion, with too many scenes having taken place in a desert, a forest, or an unreasonably scenic island off the coast of Ireland. In this regard, the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi was firmly in line with the prequels with the introduction to Daiyu, a setting reminiscent of the lower levels of Coruscant in the best ways possible.
It’s been interesting to see how Obi-Wan as a character is during this time. He started off as an impatient and somewhat overconfident padawan in The Phantom Menace, and evolved into a skilled and measured Jedi Master by the time Revenge of the Sith rolled around. He was an old man in A New Hope, but retained a confidence and mastery of the Force that we would have expected. However, we now know it was not all smooth sailing between episodes III and IV. He has apparently lost his way, as well as his skills, during these in between years. Even his response to drug dealers has changed. It’s all jolting to see at the moment, but on the other hand makes room for some unexpected character (re?)development. I’ll reserve judgement for now.
I’ve previously mentioned a Star Wars style guide that resides only in my head, and unfortunately there were some moments during the second episode that I felt had strayed from it. Haja Estree the fake Jedi felt more like a character from a College Humor skit than Star Wars. Obi-Wan’s costume and equipment in the lab scenes probably wouldn’t have looked too out of place in Breaking Bad (“Probably”, because I’ve never watched the show). Many of the filler action scenes could have easily taken place in a myriad of other non-Star Wars shows and films. This isn’t a style guide issue, but I wish Reva hadn’t read Haja’s mind. I immediately wondered why she didn’t just read Owen’s mind in the previous episode. While it’s cool that we got to see the moment that Obi-Wan realized that Vader was still alive, it seemed odd to me that he found out through a previously unknown character.
On the bright side, Ewan McGregor continued to shine. Minus the lab, Daiyu served as an excellent and sustained immersion in the Star Wars universe. Temuera Morrison as a retired clone trooper! Was he wearing 501st armor? Leia referring to Inquisitors as “inquisiting people”. More lightsaber ignitions, again courtesy of Moses Ingram. Hayden Christensen!
Mark Newbold and Mark Mulcaster discuss Part 2 on Making Tracks Reaction Chat: Obi-Wan Kenobi Parts 1 – 3.
Clair Henry and Mark Mulcaster discuss Part 2 on Good Morning Tatooine – Obi-Wan Kenobi Eps 1 & 2 – A Reaction.
Star Wars: Vintage Collection Action Figure: Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary: Death Star Droid @ ForbiddenPlanet.com
