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 first episode of season one – Part 1. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Carl Bayliss
After what seems like years of anticipation (remember when this was one of the ‘Star Wars Story’ anthology projects?) we finally get the Obi-Wan Kenobi project thanks to Disney Plus.
And what an opening – kicking off with the familiar blue text telling us that this is ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….’ we then launch into a montage of footage from the prequels we see a condensed arc of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship, setting the scene for those subscribers who aren’t immersed in the story so far. This in itself gives the show a much more cinematic feel and heightened my excitement, as I don’t recall either The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett opening with the ‘GFFA’ script.
We’re then straight into action as we see a group of Jedi younglings at the temple on Coruscant being put through some Tai-Chi style exercises as some clones attack, with the younglings escaping following some quick lightsaber action from their tutor. This may have served as more background on the ‘Jedi purge’ but I think that one of those younglings may be Reva who we see later in the show as one of the inquisitors – so this scene then forms part of her back story….
Fast forward 10 years and we see the inquisitors land on Tatooine in search of a Jedi who is rumoured to be hiding out in a local tavern. The Grand Inquisitor, played brilliantly by Rupert Friend is very calculating, calm and almost Thrawn-esque in his interrogation of the tavern owner, before Reva throws a knife at the owner only for Nari, the young Jedi to stop it with the force, inches from his head. Reva then block the Jedi’s escape attempt and even manages to land a lightsaber blow to his shoulder before the Grand Inquistor Force pushes her aside and Nari makes his escape. This may seem like a strange move, but from here it becomes clear that there is tension in the ranks of the Inquisitors and Reva is seeking a more important role in the Imperial hierarchy whilst the Grand Inquisitor feels she is too reckless in her approach.
We then cut to Obi-Wan who is making his living as a butcher salvaging meat from the body of a desert whale, and when one of his co-workers questions his pay and the foreman tells him he’s lucky he doesn’t take more, Obi-Wan says nothing with the look of a weary and broken man.
He returns to his cave (he’s not yet living in the hut we see in ‘A New Hope’) and calls on his former master Qui-Gon but to no avail. After an amusing encounter with a Jawa who brings him a space hopper toy (perhaps a nod to the real-world collecting that accompanies Star Wars?) and sells him some parts which he has clearly stolen from him previously.
We then see the scene from the trailer where Obi Wan visits the Lars homestead, to deliver the toy space hopper for Luke, leaving it outside after nightfall. On his journey back, Nari intercepts Obi Wan and requests his help, only for Obi wan to tell him to bury his lightsaber and take up a normal life.
Obi-Wan returns to his routine, and Owen returns the toy and drops the now infamous ‘burn’ ‘Like you trained his father?’, before the townsfolk are again confronted by the inquisitors (Reva and the Third Brother) with Reva cutting off one local’s hand, and threatening to kill Owen and his family if no-one offers up any information on the missing Jedi (presumably still looking for Nari, despite Reva’s desire to find Kenobi).
We then jump to Alderaan here we meet the young, but brilliantly written and cast Leia Organa. A feisty and sassy character, she is everything fans could wish for in the portrayal of a young Leia, echoing the traits that Carrie Fisher first brought to the role some 40-odd years ago, and taking similar cues from Claudia Gray’s excellent ‘Princess of Alderaan’ novel, set 5 or 6 years after this series. We learn that she’s prone to running away from the palace and watching ships enter and leave the space port, and with her trusty pocket droid ‘Lola’ in tow, is clearly one for mischief and breaking the rules. Her costume also conjures up memories of the Bespin outfit worn by Carrie in Empire. After a disagreement with her cousin, her father (Jimmy Smits reprising his role as Bail) explains to her the importance of her role as the future leader of Alderaan and why if she doesn’t want to be a senator that will probably make her the best of them.
She then escapes the palace again only to meet a group of hired thugs (led by Michael Balazy, better known as Flea, bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers) who have been sent to capture the princess. Despite offering up a good chase and taking out a palace guard in the process, they eventually capture her, and flee the planet – they then make contact with their employer, Reva who has instigated the kidnap as a way of hopefully enticing Obi-Wan out of hiding as she has connected him as a friend and ally of Bail from the Clone Wars era.
Bail makes contact with Obi-Wan, first by hologram and then in person, and despite Obi-Wan’s reluctance he his persuaded to help find Leia, Bail appealing to him that Leia is every bit as important as Luke and that he is the only person he can trust to find her without making too much of her disappearance, which could bring unnecessary attention to her.
As a start to a series this was brilliant – well written, superbly directed (by the excellent Deborah Chow, who was given the series after impressing with episodes of The Mandalorian) and acted out perfectly by the cast, both newcomers and the returning cast.
Jen Sopchockchai Bankard
We find Obi-Wan in the midst of a quiet life, surviving in a remote desert cave on Tatooine, going to work as an assembly line butcher (or sashimi slicer? I want to know more about whatever creature they’re cutting up for market there). He has completely given up the Jedi way, calling himself “Ben” as he does in A New Hope. Meanwhile, a team of Inquisitors — non-Sith dark side force users whose job it is to locate and exterminate all the remaining Jedi in the galaxy — arrive on Tatooine. The Grand Inquisitor is in hot pursuit of another fugitive Jedi, but Reva, his ambitious subordinate, says they need “bigger prey” like the elusive Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Director Deborah Chow’s thoughtfulness and attention to character details is the glue that holds Obi-Wan Kenobi together. Are the Inquisitors terrifying and their hunting down Obi-Wan down thrilling? Of course. But the series as a whole would not work if we did not also take the time to examine Obi-Wan’s psychological state in the aftermath of Order 66 and his complicity in Anakin Skywalker’s turn to the Dark Side. Of how those events have broken him. How they have shaken his confidence. When the Organa’s ask him to come out of hiding for “one last fight” — to save Leia — he says that he isn’t the man he was ten years ago and that Leia would be better off if they found someone else. Bail Organa has to risk going to Tatooine to confront Obi-Wan in person, essentially telling him to get over it and move on from his past failures.
Later, a young Leia calls him out by asking if he won’t use The Force or if he just can’t use the force. This made me wonder to what degree Obi-Wan would use hiding from the Inquisitors and “not drawing attention” to himself as an excuse for a self-consciousness about his use of The Force? The layering of factors that contribute to who Kenobi is at this moment in time adds a richness to the story that, for me, elevated it above expectations.
The only thing pulling Obi-Wan back to the light is his love for Luke and Leia. And here’s where I really see Deborah Chow’s hand steering the ship with those little details. In a hilarious exchange with a Jawa who steals parts from Obi-Wan only to sell them back to him, Obi-Wan buys a toy for Luke and drops it off at the Lars’ doorstep in the night. When he’s buying a cloak to disguise Leia, she expresses interest in a pair of gloves she doesn’t need and — in a way that really resonated with me as a parent, as I have many a time resigned to purchase items we don’t need, out of love — he quietly says to the clerk, “and the gloves.” This is such a small moment, but one that says so much about how Obi-Wan feels about Leia. They are not just obligations from a promise made to his old friends; they are his only remaining family.
In loving Luke and Leia, Obi-Wan can channel all of his grief for Anakin and Padme. The scene in the escape hangar was perhaps the most emotionally impactful for me because it gave the clearest window into not Obi-Wan’s guilt and shame, but grief. Leia takes charge and Obi-Wan reacts by saying she reminds him of someone else who was fearless and stubborn — her biological mother, Padme. The way Ewan McGregor stops in his tracks and looks at Leia simultaneously filled my heart and broke it.
Young Leia’s role in this series has been the best surprise thus far. I want to applaud the teaser and official trailer for this series because the misdirection, implying that Luke would be the focus of this series and that we would spend a lot more time on Tatooine, paved the way for surprise and delight when we see that first exterior of Alderaan. There’s also a notable meta-text at play here, commenting on the original trilogy or, more accurately, the fan expectations that have evolved out of a love for the original trilogy. Fans — myself included — often presume Luke to be the protagonist of the entire Skywalker saga (or at least the original trilogy films), but this series reminds us that they were born as a pair, as equals thrust into very different circumstances by tragedy.
So when Bail Organa says to Obi-Wan that “She is as important as he is,” he’s reminding both Obi-Wan and the audience that we must not let gender color our perception of these two characters. They are both strong in the Force in their own ways and are both equally important to the upcoming Rebellion and the Star Wars franchise. This may be reading too much into the scripts, but there are two scenes in which Leia dresses down a character with her words, but specifically by way of psychologically profiling them. She says that her haughty cousin is actually afraid and she tells Obi-Wan that he gives away more by trying to hide himself from others. I saw this as an early sign of Force sensitivity from Leia, because she so intuitively can read people in a frighteningly accurate way.
I feel incredibly lucky to have this series, and to have it be as good as it is. To me, this doesn’t feel like dredging up an old character to exploit fan nostalgia. It feels like the right time to tell this story, with these actors and creators. The story itself has so much momentum and yet maintains so much emotional depth and complexity. Part of me cannot wait to watch the rest and part of me is already dreading that it will be over soon.
Mark Newbold
For 45 years, Obi-Wan Kenobi has been integral to the Star Wars story. Given a focal role in the Prequel trilogy, we saw him elevate from padawan to knight and master, and as his star rose in the three-year long battle against the Separatists and the sith, his own padawan Anakin Skywalker trod a rocky path that ultimately led to his downfall on Mustafar. This is succinctly and quite brilliantly summarised in a stunning montage introduction to the show, and as the familiar blue on black of ‘A long time ago…‘ flashes on the screen, we’re off to the (pod)races in the truest GFFA fashion.
We’re a decade on from those tumultuous events on Mustafar and we rejoin Ben a beaten, defeated man. Working in the broiling sun carving up a huge desert shark, he returns to his cave where his few possessions are stolen and sold back to him by a travelling jawa as he keeps a distant eye on the very reason for his exile, young Luke Skywalker. As expected, Luke’s surrogate father Owen Lars is less than impressed at Ben’s presence, going so far as to destroy the Skyhopper toy he repairs for Luke, and as Ben protests events take a dire turn. Inquisitors of the Empire arrive on Tatooine, led by the Grand Inquisitor and his team of the Fifth Brother, Fourth Sister and our focal villain the Third Sister, hunting for a hidden Jedi but soon asking after Kenobi.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the regular presence of a young Leia. Where we could justifiably expect to see more of Luke – after all, conventional wisdom and decades old head canon tells us Ben rarely leaves Tatooine and Luke is his sole priority – the switch to Alderaan, Bail and Breha Organa and young Leia is a joy, taking us away from a grim and dusty Tatooine to the opulence of the Core Worlds. It’s worth remembering, where Luke lived on scraps on the edge of the Outer Rim, Leia was raised as a princess, wanting for nothing and developing the acerbic, questioning nature we know so well from the Original Trilogy. Whoever cast actress Vivien Lyra Blair deserves a hearty pat on the back; she embodies everything we loved about Carrie Fisher back in ’77 and here’s hoping we get the chance to see Vivien not only in more Kenobi seasons but in other shows set in this era.
A desperate call from Bail Organa is the hook that finally takes Ben away from Tatooine, his responsibility to Luke evident but also his responsibility to Leia, and as Bail travels to Tatooine to plead for Ben’s help face to face, the weary acceptance that he needs to return to the galaxy etched into his sand-worn features, he digs up his lightsaber which sits in a box next to the blade of his former padawan Anakin. The significance of that moment – two brothers, dug out of the sand, ready to fight once again, isn’t lost. A stunning debut episode, launching on a day long remembered.
Becca Benjamin
Again, Deborah Chow sets the stage for a new but older version or shadow of the man once known as the great Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now, just Ben, his life is mundane and lonely as he watches over Luke Skywalker from afar and barters with Jawas on the regular for his supplies and toys for the boy. But, Uncle Owen is no fan of Ben and his interference with Luke’s upbringing. He makes it known loud and clear that he doesn’t want Ben to make the same mistakes with Luke as (he did with) his father, his former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker.
The shunning only continues throughout the first episode as a runaway Jedi reaches out to Obi-Wan for help. He turns the young Jedi away by advising him to bury his lightsaber in the sands of the Dune Sea. Shocked and afraid, the Jedi leaves Obi-Wan by asking him, “What’s happened to you?” It’s a question not only for Obi-Wan but for the audience too.
As the feelings of pain and regret grow, so do the emotions. We catch a glimpse of what haunts Ben’s dreams at night. Anakin’s final words, “I hate you!” seems to be a recurrent nightmare of Hell that has consumed Ben’s thoughts and motivations. Which only complicates things when an unexpected message from Bail Organa reaches him.
Bail Organa is the adopted father of the other Skywalker twin, Leia. Leia, the biological daughter of Padme’ Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, is now the heiress to Queen Breha of Alderaan. But, there’s no denying the innate qualities that she is, most definitely, her mother’s daughter. Her introductory sequence speaks volumes as she pulls off a masterful decoy tactic so that she can run off into the woods with her loyal droid, Lola.
Eventually, this behavior gets her into trouble as she ends up snatched by some real disorderly types, hired by Reva, the third sister. Still, Leia puts up quite the fight and remains steadfast and fearless toward her captors. It’s a true testament to her character, a big personality in a small package. As Yoda says, “Judge me by my size, do you?”
That said, this brings us back to Bail’s hologram message. He needs Obi-Wan’s help to find Leia, and at first, it falls on deaf ears as Obi-Wan refuses to leave Tatooine. He tells Bail, “I’m not the man I used to be,” but Bail insists that Obi-Wan will have to be. “One last fight. For her,” Bail pleads with his friend and follows up with, “She’s important too.”
All in all, it’s an emotional rollercoaster in a way that I did not expect it to be, and that’s ok with me because my Prequel mug runneth over!
Eric Onkenhout
The first episode opens with a recap of how Obi-Wan and Anakin met in The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan’s trepidations at taking on Anakin as an apprentice, and the death of Qui-Gon. From there, it shows Anakin’s strength and cockiness growing in Attack of the Clones, and eventual tragic fall in Revenge of the Sith and rebirth as Vader and Padme’s death and the birth of Luke and Leia. After the recap, when the episode begins, there is a flashback of Order 66. And here we are ten years later. A broken and defeated Ben Kenobi lives a solemn life on Tatooine, looking over young Luke, who is in the care of Owen and Beru Lars, as Imperial Inquisitors searching for any remaining Jedi close in.
The premier episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi was the most-watched original Disney Plus series ever, which is not surprising as Star Wars fans worldwide have been waiting for this day for a long time.…a long time. Ewan McGregor returning as the titular character did not disappoint. McGregor fell right back into the role like an old pair of jeans. As ten-year-old Leia, Vivien Lyra Blair is absolutely spectacular in the part. Too bad Carrie isn’t around to see her legacy live on. I’m sure Carrie is looking down with a nod and a wink, saying, “Go get ’em, kid.” Obi-Wan Kenobi has lived up to the hype, and it’s only just begun.
Ross Hollebon
Parts 1 and 2 of the Kenobi series will forever be favorites of mine if for no other reason than being able to watch them a few hours early with a teeming group of other anxious fans at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim. We were at the Galaxy Stage with our purple bracelets for entry and a vibe waltzed through the room, intensifying as each seat filled. Part 1 was beautiful and flooded my eyes, ears, and mind with “new” Star Wars stories but still trapped us in the time of tragedy beginning at the end of Revenge Of The Sith. Order 66 suffocates us like a Force choke. Jedi are murdered by Clones as desperate Younglings flee in hopes of escape. Breathe.
Then we lurch forward 10 years into relative terror at the introduction of the Inquisitors and their ruthless hunt for Jedi and Force-sensitive beings on behalf of Darth Vader. We find “Ben” Kenobi as a shell of the hero he once was. He is so focused on protecting Luke Skywalker that he ignores all other callings—leading to the eventual death of the younger unknown Force user who counted on protection from the once-powerful Jedi Knight.
Taking a step back, we are embraced by moments of levity with a 10-year-old, daydreaming Skywalker on his Uncle Owen’s moisture farm and the majestic surprise of not only visiting Alderaan but meeting Luke’s twin sister, the precocious Leia Organa. No introduction may be as jarring as that of Kenobi as a simple Neebray meat carver—his survival tactic of hiding and blending in—no longer standing up to evil. But evil is still pursuing Kenobi and it is the Third Sister of the Inquisitors, Reva, who eventually smokes out the hidden Jedi from his hole and ignites actions that fuel our upcoming journey and history lesson in a galaxy far, far away.
Daniel Lo
I had almost forgotten how young Ewan McGregor looked when The Phantom Menace was released. Thanks to the brilliantly edited prequel trilogy recap that prefaced the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, we got to see the title character age over two decades in a little over 12 minutes. Very cool. And of course, sandwiched within that time was another outstanding Order 66 scene. I hope this becomes a trend.
It’s quite possible that I may be alone in this, but in my mind resides a very specific Star Wars style guide that I’m also unable to articulate. New Star Wars material either aligns with this style guide and therefore “feels like Star Wars” to me, or it falls outside of my imagined parameters and I get instantly pulled out of the galaxy far, far away. There were some moments in the first episode that fell in the latter category, but I had no major issues with it for the most part. Residing somewhere in the middle were the Inquisitors. Being a somewhat unfamiliar class of characters to me, I had a hard time gauging how well they fit into the Star Wars universe. To be fair, this applied to their appearance in Rebels as well.
The most glaring flaw for me in this first episode was the capture of Leia. Anyone with even a faint familiarity with ten year old kids will instantly know there is no way they can outrun an able-bodied adult in an open chase. The bag should have gone over her head moments after she was initially surrounded.
As for highlights, there were almost too many to list. Ewan McGregor is well and truly back as Obi-Wan. Joel Edgerton knocked it out of the park as Owen, perfectly bridging the gap between the young man with a girlfriend in Attack of the Clones and grumpy Uncle Owen in A New Hope. The jawa was funny. Unrealistic chase sequence aside, 10-year-old Leia was an absolute joy to watch and I could not have hoped for a better portrayal of a young Carrie Fisher. Bail and Breha Organa were also great to see, and I found the brief exchange about adoption between father and daughter to be particularly touching. Have I mentioned Order 66? Last but not least: John Williams, whose music is an iconic Star Wars character in its own right. The fact that we got a brand new theme from him in the year 2022 is nothing short of astounding.
Some random thoughts: I like when lightsabers get ignited. Thanks, Reva. Star Wars limb loss test: Pass. Another underpaying business owner. Difficult to tell if Obi-Wan has ever corresponded with Force ghost Qui-Gon by this point. Very cool to see so much live action Alderaan. Anthony Daniels strikes again. Leia has a lifelong habit of being defiant in capture. Anakin’s old lightsaber surely holds the galactic record for most times buried in the sand.
Mark Newbold and Mark Mulcaster discuss Part 1 on Making Tracks Reaction Chat: Obi-Wan Kenobi Parts 1 – 3.
Clair Henry and Mark Mulcaster discuss Part 1 on Good Morning Tatooine – Obi-Wan Kenobi Eps 1 & 2 – A Reaction.
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