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 fifth episode of season one – Part 5. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Carl Bayliss
The episode that all prequel fans have been expecting/hoping for finally reaches us with Episode 5. From Obi-Wan and Anakin sparring on Coruscant (nicely informing us how Obi-Wan is constructing his strategy from knowing Anakin so well), to other nods such as Vader and Reva’s battle where he approaches her with two lightsabers – lovely call back to Attack of the Clones. Some other delightful scenes too – Vader on the bridge of his ship mirrors a scene with Ahsoka from The Clone Wars, the transport leaving Jabiim echoed both Clone Wars and the Falcon’s escape from Echo Base in ‘Empire‘.
We also get some of the ‘answers/holes plugged’ with more of Reva’s backstory explained – and as I spotted from the early character posters (which showed Reva with Vader in silhouette, similar to Obi-Wan’s poster) she is actually out for revenge on Vader/Anakin for his slaughter of the younglings and is using his obsession with Kenobi as a screen to get to him. Needless to say this doesn’t go particularly well for her, and after a lightsaber to the stomach we get one of the other ‘gaps’ filled in – the return of the (original) Grand Inquisitor – given that Reva herself seems to survive this too, I can only think Obi-Wan will be kicking himself that Qui-Gon could have potentially survived! Maybe that’s the premise of the rumoured season 2, ha ha!
An action-packed episode and really added to the depth of the characters and their motivation. So just one episode to go, and this has been solid from it’s start with not a bad episode in my opinion.
Mark Newbold
When a TV episode of Star Wars presents a version of Darth Vader who honestly feels like he dropped into the show directly from the big screen, you know you’ve done something massively right, and despite a very TV-like penchant for shaky hand-held camera shots, the fifth part of Obi-Wan Kenobi was an absolute delight. Opening with a flashback / memory / dream to the Attack of the Clones era of Anakin and Obi-Wan, fiercely training at the Jedi temple as the young padawan’s unbreakable desire never to be beaten overwhelms his logical actions, this encounter frames the proceedings as both men look back to that fateful day. Anakin’s power is evident, overwhelming Kenobi with powerful swordsmanship but never quite gaining the advantage as Obi-Wan evades his attacks and finds a way to outwit him. It’s a clever scene, done without de-ageing which leads me to think this is a memory rather than an immutable flashback, but shows again why Anakin’s mounting frustration and desire to prove himself came to a head – and failed so spectacularly – at Mustafar.
Anakin and Ben are far from the only key players this episode. As expected, the Grand Inquisitor returns, taking his badge of office from the prone body of his predecessor, Reva who is elevated to the role and swiftly loses it as she turns on Darth Vader, the long game she has played escalated after a quiet conversation with Kenobi. We learn she was indeed that young girl seen in the opening frame of the first episode, playing dead under their cold corpses as she cursed the inaction of Kenobi and planned revenge on the hero of the Republic who had turned and slayed her friends. While unsurprising, seeing her plan fail was not as Vader showed his mastery of the Force, dispatching the fiery Reva with her own blade while displaying some of Anakin’s trademark swagger. It’s a stunning scene, ending with an injured but still breathing Reva watching the broken recording of Bail Organa, desperate to contact Ben and find out if Leia lives and inadvertently giving Reva a reason to return to Tatooine.
Where next weeks final episode takes us is open to discussion, but so far we’ve been given a glimpse into the lives of not only Ben Kenobi but an early look at Leia Organa and briefly Luke Skywalker (both age 9, the same age we first met their father Anakin in The Phantom Menace) as well as Bail Organa and of course the tortured lord of the sith, Anakin Skywalker. Whether we end the series with Qui-Gon, Yoda or Palpatine is anyone’s guess, but whatever happens we’ve seen in live action moments we couldn’t have dared to dream about just a few years ago. Here’s to a second season in 5 years time giving us a look at Luke and Leia they are 14, the same age as their mother Padme when she was the Queen of Naboo.
Eric Onkenhout
Obi-Wan Kenobi continues to shine in Part 5, and there is one aspect that is contributing to its success, and that is the countless queues or nods to the other trilogies, especially the original trilogy. Every episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi has had references or lines of dialogue that are very similar to what came before, reinforcing the idea that Star Wars is one giant connective story. Part V begins with a flashback that could’ve been taken straight out of Attack of the Clones, and it was so lovely to see Obi-Wan and Anakin in a training scene together.
As their sabers clash, it cuts to the now as Vader peers out the viewport on a Star Destroyer. I’m so impressed by how much Vader looks like the Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (my favorite version of Vader), with his stalkier build. James Earl Jones also sounds like he did 40 plus years ago. I’m sure there was some tweaking in the recording, but there have been times in Rebels when the tone of his voice didn’t sound right. But it’s perfect in Kenobi. It’s as menacing as ever.
Even as Vader says to Reva, “You have done well,” we can’t help but think didn’t he say that in another movie, or was that the Emperor? And when he tells the captain to “set a course”, in our heads, we’re hearing, “for the Hoth system.” As she’s getting promoted, Reva’s face has two sides, as we’ll learn later in the episode. But now, she looks somewhat in disbelief that she received the title of Grand Inquisitor. The little things like this make Kenobi such a great series, and hats off to Deborah Chow for her direction.
Meanwhile, as Kenobi arrives on Jabiim with Leia, Tala, and Roken, it reminded me of The Last Jedi, where the Resistance is hunkered down inside the base on Crait. Kenobi sees Haja, the conman he met on Daiyu. Roken tells Obi-Wan that he can help Leia as soon as he helps everyone else first. Kenobi understands, and as he looks around at all the people. You can see Kenobi become part of the fight against the Empire. He sees what the citizens have been through, remembering his days as a general and using that experience to rally the people together. So it really hits hard when he reads the writing on the wall, “The light will fade but is never forgotten.”
Meanwhile, a reprogrammed Lola is sabotaging the base to keep the people locked inside. Panic hits, and people think Reva is about to attack as a Star Destroyer looms overhead. But Obi-Wan knows it’s Vader, not Reva, and he doesn’t have the patience for a siege. On Hoth, Vader wanted to attack from orbit but Admiral Ozzel goofed, and they had to land ground troops. So Vader learned his lesson from Jabiim, but it didn’t go right because of Ozzel’s screw-up. Then it cuts back to the flashback to demonstrate that Vader hasn’t learned his lesson as a padawan to now. But as he says in A New Hope, “I was but the learner, now I am the Master,” he learned his lesson later.
There is an awesome shot of Vader peering out of the viewport again, but this time his reflection is shown in the transparisteel, which harkens back to his image in The Empire Strikes Back teaser poster, where it’s just an image of Vader’s helmet in a starfield. I found it odd that Vader only sent two troop transports to retrieve Kenobi, while Kylo Ren used several Imperial Walkers to fight the Resistance on Crait. Also, no Death Troopers.
Leia volunteers to crawl into the vent to see if she can find out why the shield door won’t open. Before Leia entered the vent, I thought Obi-Wan would say May the Force be with you, but alas, he did not. Leia discovers Lola was the one who closed the doors and removed the restraining bolt. Kenobi’s space beeper goes off and listens to a holo message from Bail Organa, who’s checking in.
Tala and Obi-Wan slow the pace a little to have a heart-to-heart. Tala describes why she decided to fight the good fight. This is good because her time is running short, unfortunately. A lot of credit needs to go to Joby Harold and Andrew Stanton as writers. Kenobi attempts to talk to Reva and discovers that she was a youngling when Anakin killed those kids at the Temple. Reva is trying to kill Vader for what he did, but when was that a good idea? At one point, Reva shoves a stormtrooper. I wonder if that was in the script or was that ad-libbed. It seemed very natural and not acted.
During the shoot-out, I couldn’t help but think of L3 during the fight on Kessel, “Is it a mass breakout?!” On a sad note, and not entirely unexpected, Tala suffers a blast to the abdomen, then sacrifices herself by using a thermal detonator to take out a bunch of stormtroopers. This also reminded me of Val in Solo dying a premature death. I thought Reva may have died when the thermal detonator blew up, but gladly that didn’t happen. If that happened there would not be any women left, and I would’ve felt disappointed that Lucasfilm hadn’t learned their lesson.
At this point, Kenobi’s morale is quite low, and Roken has to pick him up. “Vader wants me,” Obi-Wan says. This is like a combination of the conversation between Lando, Han, and Leia after the guards clobber Han and the conversation between Luke and Leia on Endor. “Vader wants us all dead,” “That is why I must face him.” Obi-Wan agrees to fight Vader without a weapon. And this brings to mind Luke entering the cave, “Your weapons. You will not need them,” Master Yoda advises. Obi-Wan surrenders to Reva just as Luke gives himself to Vader on Endor.
I didn’t understand why Reva let Obi-Wan run around free within the base. Why not cuff him until Vader arrives? Vader stomps his way through the base as he did in Echo Base. He then uses the Force to pull the Rebel ship back down, a la Rey in The Rise of Skywalker, then rips two giant holes in it. This allows for the actual ship to escape. Vader’s anger is palpable. Reva sneaks up behind Vader, but he catches her blade mid-swing, and they fight. Their duel has to be one of the best in Star Wars.
Vader stabs Reva, and in walks the actual Grand Inquisitor, and they leave Reva for dead. The Grand Inquisitor reveals that vengeance kept him alive. Sound a lot like how Maul stayed alive despite being cut in half. Reva isn’t dead, but all signs turn to her finding Luke on Tatooine via the space beeper left on the ground. Kenobi can feel a tremor in the Force as it cuts to Luke sleeping.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is absolute perfection. Rumors have it the last episode will be around 90 minutes. I sure hope that’s true because there’s a lot of story left, and it needs to be adequately told. Until next week folks! May the Force be with you.
Daniel Lo
There is an unofficial saying that folks of Asian descent adhere to the 18/40/90 rule: that is, we only ever look 18, 40, or 90 years old. Being a couple of white guys, Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen don’t get to benefit from this maxim but boy do they come close. Any unlikely doubters need look no further than part V of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Flashbacks of prequel era Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were exactly what we had all signed up for, and the latest installment did not disappoint. Ethnic jokes aside, both actors did in fact age gracefully enough to (perhaps thankfully) not require any digital de-aging. The storyline intertwined nicely with this particular sparring session, with Anakin (now Darth Vader) and Obi-Wan reflecting on their shared memory in dramatically different ways. For Vader it was little more than rage fuel, while Kenobi quietly drew insights on how to outthink his now lethal adversary. To quote a 90’s chess drama, it was the Jedi Master’s “don’t move until you see it” moment.
Another highlight of this episode was Moses Ingram, known for her performance in a different chess drama. Up until this point, Reva was a character I had no strong opinions towards but has become much more interesting in her latest appearance. We finally got to see facets of her beyond an unexplained anger towards the title character. Her brief exchange with Obi-Wan from the other side of the blast doors had a nice complexity to it: we saw her simultaneously as an innocent padawan who experienced unspeakable atrocities as well as a dark side practitioner who has committed a few unspeakable atrocities of her own. Unfortunately she got stabbed by Darth Vader shortly afterwards, although it’s pretty clear that she will survive. I am no expert on crafting character arcs, but part of me wished we had known more about her earlier on in the show. Having to wait seven days between episodes probably wasn’t helpful either.
I also couldn’t help but speculate what would have resulted had Reva somehow succeeded in killing Vader. Would she have had a redemption arc like Anakin eventually did, or was she already too lost in the dark side by this point? Also, did Obi-Wan use her to escape, knowing full well she wouldn’t stand a chance against Vader? That would seem uncharacteristic of him to intentionally sacrifice someone like a pawn (no chess pun intended), even for the sake of saving many more.
A few thoughts on the lightsaber scenes: The flashback sparring sequences were all well choreographed and I particularly liked how they at one point included elements from both their Mustafar duel and their latest clash on Mapuzo. While perhaps unsurprising, the intensity of Anakin’s aggression in a training context was jarring to see. We also got a duel between Vader and Reva. The choreography of this fight was somewhat less consistent, with moments that were genuinely cool as well as slightly goofy. What the scene did excel at was showing the profound disparity between the powers of an inquisitor and that of the dark lord himself. Vader never bothered drawing his own lightsaber, and instead opted to engage empty-handed which reminded me of kung fu films where an unarmed master easily overpowers a sword-wielding opponent. He did eventually arm himself with one half of Reva’s lightsaber, with the remainder of the duel being appropriately short.
On a more personal note, I also want to give a quick shout out to Dustin Ceithamer, the performance artist behind NED-B. I got to chat with him several times while in Anaheim and I’m pleased to report that the role couldn’t have gone to a nicer guy. While NED-B didn’t have nearly as much screen time as K-2SO, both droids met a touching and sacrificial end while protecting their human friends.
Some random thoughts to wrap up: The Star Destroyer bridge was well reproduced, albeit lit very differently and with freshly waxed floors. Seeing hyperspace reflections off Vader’s helmet was pretty cool. The last time we saw so many displaced lightsabers was in General Grievous’ collection. Shaky cam persists. Interesting to see a Trandoshan family amongst the refugees. The fake Jedi only knows Obi-Wan by his fake name. I’ve never been in a real gun fight before, but standing out in the open doesn’t seem like a good idea. What does Tala know about slapping stormtrooper helmets that we don’t? “You’re not bringing me to him. I’m bringing him to you.” was a cool line. Imperial shuttle! Vader’s brief and ultimately indifferent glances at fallen stormtroopers was a nice reference to A New Hope. Little Leia would have totally put Babu Frik out of business. Who was flying the decoy ship, and why couldn’t Vader just force pull the actual getaway ship too? Or later in the OT, the Millennium Falcon on multiple occasions? More shaky cam. Qui-Gon Jinn never got the memo that dying from a lightsaber stab was optional. He still has one more episode to appear as a force ghost. Little Luke!
Ross Hollebon
Kylo Ren would not be a big fan of this episode as the main characters refuse to let the past die. It is a magical memory to start—that also accompanies us through the entire episode. It felt good to see Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker having a friendly (maybe) duel, as master and padawan, at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, even if the undertones of a tragic future were present. It was brilliant how their moves in the future were predicated on the actions of their younger selves. But the episode also introduces a third Force-sensitive character into the “love triangle” with Third Sister, Reva—a former Youngling at the same Jedi Temple who evaded Anakin’s blade on the day everything changed.
All three characters are in a complicated game of cat-and-mouse meets subterfuge as the mind games and devious calculations drive action in the penultimate episode of this season. The biggest question might be who has the most tragic memories tied to Order 66 and the devastating collateral damage it introduced. And rest in peace, Tala and NED-B. You are beautiful.
Jen Sopchockchai Bankard
This episode, we begin with a flashback of a mullet-sporting Obi-Wan and Padawan-braided Anakin, training with their lightsabers. And then, once fans of the Prequel Trilogy stop losing their minds over the fact that Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen have finally returned to these now beloved roles, we interrupt the scene to cut to a close-up of Vader, in pursuit of Obi-Wan in the series’ present timeline.
Rather than quickly intercutting between Vader and Obi-Wan, though, the scene continues as he gives Reva her coveted Grand Inquisitor merit badge. We, in a more conventional way, cut to “Meanwhile, Obi-Wan on Jabiiim…” We don’t return to the lightsaber training flashback until nearly 8 minutes into the episode. But, crucially, we still always alternate between Vader, Obi-Wan, and the flashback of them both. So, in a sense, we can think of this entire episode as a magnified version of the opening montages of the previous two episodes.
Does the intercutting imply that Obi-Wan and Vader share the same flashback? Are they both coincidentally remembering the same exact afternoon in Coruscant at the same time? I don’t think so. I did not view this flashback as a memory for anyone, but, instead, pure subtext for the benefit of the story and the audience experiencing that story.
What we see here in the periodic returns to this earlier, happier time in Obi-Wan and Anakin’s lives, is not about how Obi-Wan and Vader directly relate to each other in the episode. It’s not about them sensing each other through the Force in the Bacta tanks. It’s not about them both sharing the same memory, through the Force or otherwise. It’s about Deborah Chow, Joby Harold, and company sharing their ideas about Obi-Wan and Vader’s relationship, and the bearing those ideas have on their encounters in this series more broadly, and, in Part V, the showdown between them on Jabiim specifically.
Obi-Wan echoes the series’ sentiment that Vader is unstoppable when he says as much to The Path refugees and volunteers; if they fight Vader, they will die, but that there are other ways to beat him. Anakin, in many ways, was always more powerful. He always had more raw talent in fighting, piloting, and in his ability to draw strength from The Force. But, as Obi-Wan says at the end, “You’re a great warrior, Anakin, but your need to prove yourself is your undoing.” His impatience, his fury, and his ego always get in the way. On Jabiim, Obi-Wan essentially leverages his familiarity with Anakin’s strengths and weaknesses — his brotherhood —to come up with a winning strategy, just as he does in the flashback duel.
Some fans, as each part of the series unfolded each week, began to question how this would re-contextualize or, from a less generous perspective, undermine the events of A New Hope. So much so that Joby Harold had to say in an interview that he and the other creators behind the series are well aware of Star Wars canon and are always mindful and respectful of that canon. The montages of Obi-Wan and Anakin in this episode, for me, have the added bonus of explaining why this series doesn’t negate one of the lines that Vader says to Obi-Wan in A New Hope. The quote from flashback Obi-Wan that I cited earlier ends with Obi-Wan saying “Until you overcome it, a Padawan you will still be.” And that’s why Vader in A New Hope saying, “When I left you, I was but the learner” still holds after this episode. Hopefully that will still be true next week when the series concludes as well.
The casualty of this extended, sometimes remote and sometimes non-diegetic duel between Obi-Wan and Vader is, unfortunately, Reva. I found her backstory reveal unsurprising based on what the interrogation scenes with Leia last week implied, but it was still powerful to watch. I had considered the possibility that she then might also have a secret vendetta against Vader. I certainly didn’t think that was the likeliest scenario, though.
Many fans, critics, and podcasters predicted a heel turn in which Reva would switch sides and possibly even join The Path. And while I was surprised by the reveal that she had her sights set on Vader, this was far from a heel turn. I would, based on her conversations with Obi-Wan in this episode, still classify her as a dark side villain. Her hate and rage seem to blind her to helping others. She’s only out for her own vengeance and, in the episode, her goals just happen to align with Obi-Wan. Their respective motivations for those goals are completely different. She is obsessed with taking down Vader, and that’s not necessarily the same thing as sympathizing with Obi-Wan and those who use or facilitate The Path. For me, all this makes Reva a fascinatingly complex villain.
I’d love to see more of Reva in another series, but, unfortunately, her new-found knowledge makes her a narrative target. Obi-Wan cannot let her live because the true identities of Luke and Leia are at risk. I suspect we may see Reva go to Tatooine in the finale and face-off against Obi-Wan in a lightsaber duel that will end with her demise and, finally, restore the safety of the galaxy’s most valuable twins.
Mark Newbold and Mark Mulcaster discuss Part 5 on Making Tracks Reaction Chat: Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 5.
Brian Cameron and Matt Booker discuss Part 5 on Good Morning Tatooine – Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 5 – A Reaction.
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