Part IV (Obi-Wan Kenobi - S01E04) - Live Action Series

Discuss the latest Chapter! (Discussion)

"It seems I have underestimated you!" SPOILERS.

A day at the spa for Obi-Wan

Part IV of Obi-Wan Kenobi is a rather short episode, the shortest so far, if you exclude the "previous on" segment and the credits then Part IV just barely scratches the 30 minute mark. And thus not much actually happens in Part IV, the episode is about one thing only, rescuing Leia from the clutches of Reva who has brought Leia to the inquisitor fortress. The episode begins on some kind of pre-rebellion base, a hub for the "path", the underground railway that gets Jedi and other people to safety. Obi-Wan heals for a bit in a bacta tank but he is very eager to save Leia from Reva and doesn't want to waste too much time.

You really don't want to be there

Tala eventually offers her assistance and with the help of her imperial officer disguise she hopes she can infiltrate the fortress and provide assistance to Obi-Wan who will enter the fortress from some hidden underwater entrance. Reva meanwhile interrogates Leia and first tries to sweet talk her into giving up the info she wants. When that doesn't really work she tries to extract the information by using the Force, but Leia proves to be surprisingly resistant to that and Reva gets nothing from Leia. Why Reva still doesn't suspect anything yet about the child is a bit surprising, instead she takes Leia to an unpleasant and very uncomfortable torture chair. Yes, torturing little kids is now a thing on Disney+!

Leia gets a taste of what her future husband will have to endure about a decade later

Tala and Obi-Wan successfully infiltrate the fortress. Tala gives Obi-Wan the directions he needs and Obi-Wan meanwhile sneaks through the hallways unseen. Security cameras apparently dont't exist in the Star Wars universe and easily avoidable security droids roam the hallways instead.

Tala approaches the fortress. Take a good look at the many, many TIE fighters

Reva's torture of Leia is cut short before she can get serious when Tala creates a diversion by pretending to have vital information about the path, thus requiring Reva's attention. Leia is left alone in the torture chamber with two stormtroopers. Obi-Wan meanwhile makes his way to Leia and comes across a hallway with frozen people, one of them a Jedi youngling from the temple. It is not entirely clear if the people are merely frozen and still alive or dead.

The Obi-Wan series really has it out for children

Obi-Wan eventually finds Leia, makes short work of the two hapless stormtroopers and makes his escape with Leia. However, it doesn't take long for the alarms to sound and soon stormtroopers are after Obi-Wan and Leia. However, Obi-Wan is much more in touch with the Force now, we also got a short sequence while approaching the fortress where Obi-Wan practices a bit. Thus Obi-Wan is no longer so desolate and weak and instead has virtually zero problems with stormtroopers coming at him and Leia from both sides of a hallway. He can easily reflect the blaster shots back to the troopers who get killed by their own blaster fire left and right.

Obi-Wan is now in video game mode and kills stormtroopers with ease

Reva, who had just become very suspicous of Tala cannot interrogate her any longer when the alert is blaring and makes haste to catch up to Obi-Wan. Tala then takes out two stormtroopers with ease by gently knocking one stormtrooper on the helmet and then shooting both. How the Empire can get anything done with these stormtroopers is still beyond me.

It's either three Ewoks standing on top of each other under a coat or it's Obi-Wan with Leia...

Things get a bit dicy for Obi-Wan when a stray blaster shot cracks a window in an underwater hallway of the fortress, but his Force powers and the punctual arrival of Tala save the day, the pursuers drown when the window finally breaks and Obi-Wan makes his escape with Tala and Leia. The three somehow manage to make it back to the hangar deck undisturbed, with Obi-Wan hiding Leia under an Imperial coat he's wearing. How no one notices the other pair of legs or the very much non regulation haircut or beard is probably something even the scriptwriter does not know.

Those Snowspeeders must have a sensational cornering abilities.

Reva eventually does catch up to Obi-Wan and Leia but then two snowspeeders piloted by pre-rebel pilots arrive on the scene and lay suppressing fire, giving Obi-Wan, Tala and Leia a chance to escape in all the mayhem. One snowspeeder is shot down by Reva who throws an explosive canister at it. But our three heroes are now back in safety and board the not rebel cruiser. Too bad that Reva planted a tracking beacon on Leia's little droid L0-LA, and even though it blinks very suspiously no one seems to notice.

Vader lets Reva live after all.... for now.....

And finally Darth Vader arrives at the fortress and is less than pleased. Reva's life is only spared when she reveals to Vader that she planted a tracking device on Leia's little droid that will lead them to the location of the path headquarters. Vader is satisfied for now and releases Reva.

On the surface Part IV of Obi-Wan Kenobi was entertaining, but you really need to turn off your brain to be able to enjoy this particular episode. As you may have guessed from my summary I believe this episode is the epitome of stupidity when you think about it all for even one second.

Here are some random questions I have for the scriptwriters and showrunner....
- why has the inquisitor fortress such lousy security?
- how can Obi-Wan enter the fortress via hidden underwater entrance? Shouldn't a secret backdoor be guarded at all times perhaps? By a droid maybe at least?
- why do Tala's Imperial credentials still work? Did no one suspect anything after the events on the mining planet the week before?
- why is Leia only guarded by two incompetent stormtroopers when Reva leaves?
- Obi-Wan hides Leia under his coat and NO ONE notices anything? Maybe the extra pair of legs at least? Or the bulky coat? No one stops them? No one asks any questions while they are on their way back to the hangar even though the entire fortress is under alert? Did they REALLY just decide to have Obi-Wan hide Leia under a coat? What is this? A Saturday morning cartoon?
- how come the hangar bay of the fortress has no shields? How come two snowspeeders can approach the fortress without getting detected? Why does the fortress not have any anti air defences? Why are the many, many TIE fighters not launched when the snowspeeders approach or at the latest when they try to escape?
- those snowspeeders also seem to have fantastic cornering abilities, in one scene they are mere meters away from the hangar bay wall and I would have loved to see how they manage to avoid that wall with some insane cornering maneuver...
- how come neither the experienced Jedi nor the seasoned Imperial veteran wonder why the Empire doesn't send TIE fighters after them when they make their escape? Ten years later the Empire at least sends a few courtesy TIE Fighters after the Millennium Falcon and still Leia immediately suspects that the escape from the Death Star was much too easy and that they are being tracked? How come neither Obi-Wan nor Tala make sure no tracking devices are hidden on Leia or her belongings?
- what kind of stupid tracking device would make L0-LA's eyes shine red? What if anyone just happened to look at the droid at that moment? Do the scriptwriters really think the audience is too stupid to realize that the droid has been planted with a bug and thus have to hit you on the head with it so even the most inattentive viewer gets the message? Especially given the fact that Reva's talks about the tracking device to Vader?
- how can Tala incapacitate a stormtrooper by gently knocking him on the helmet? Do these helmets actually do anything? A gentle knock should have zero effect. Stupid and incapable stormtroopers are a time honored Star Wars tradition but it makes everything look a bit comical at times or too easy maybe?

So to make things short while this episode was fun, on the surface, it entirely relies on the Empire being incompetent, clueless and stupid (you may argue this is par for the course for Star Wars), but even worse it also here and there relies on the heroes being utterly stupid. Also, the episode, and therefore the entire series, is much too short. We have only two episodes left and the last two episodes combined have maybe one hour runtime, the first episode tried to develop things but everything after that feels incredibly rushed.

On the positive side of things Obi-Wan is getting back into shape and begins to kick some serious ass. This is a welcome change after three episodes of sad Obi-Wan. Also, Leia is once more much improved and I really liked Vivien Lyra Blair's acting in this episode, it must be very difficult for a child to play a torture scene but Vivien did that very well. Reva however is still more miss than hit and I still don't believe for one second that she is a villain. But I think this was Reva's best episode yet, even though the performance overall is not entirely convincing.

The lightsabers still look wrong to me. In my opinion the blade should flicker a bit more, seem more alive, here they look like neon tubes and the lightsabers look too much like Force FX lightsabers made by Hasbro. This is of course a purely aesthetic choice, but I prefer the pre LED lightsabers used in the six Lucas era movies.

Overall Obi-Wan Kenobi, after four episodes, proves to be a mixed bag. It's certainly not bad, but it's not really good either. It's perfectly average, which means you can have a good time with it, it won't bore you but it's also not really all that exciting. I had hoped for more. And with two episodes left and one final inevitable duel between Obi-Wan and Vader not much story is left. I had hoped for more introspection and while Reva got a lot of attention in the marketing we still know hardly anything about her. Her inevitable flashback will certainly happen in the final two episodes so we find out why she hates Obi-Wan so much, but Reva is little more than a cartoony villain with an attitude problem and a performance by Moses Ingram which I still find - for the most part - unconvincing, even though she delivers the best performance yet in this week's episode.

And lastly, it's really bad scriptwriting when your story relies on your characters or the villains being stupid, and here I mean REALLY stupid. Even more so than usually in Star Wars. A smarter enemy would make for a more exciting adventure, also, why was there no lightsaber duel between Reva and Obi-Wan? Or one of the other inquisitors at least? Missed opportunity. So all in all I rate Part IV 2.5 holocrons or a completely average 5/10. Not bad. Watchable. You can have fun. But please check your brain at the counter for this episode or else you may get a serious headache from rolling your eyes too much!

I know that Star Wars is not serious and meant to be fun, but please, some credibility and some more competence on the side of the villains is sorely needed. And don't treat your audience like clueless idiots either.