Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi hits its stride in Episode 3

It’s only been a few days since the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi premiered on Disney+, but Episode 3 is already upon us. Obi-Wan and Leia are on the run, the forces of darkness are gathering, and we finally get to see Darth Vader in all his terrifying glory.

Beyond this point there will be SPOILERS for Episode 3 of Obi-Wan Kenobi, so if you haven’t watched, go do that. Then come back and nerd out with us, because this was easily the best episode of the series yet.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi review: “Part III”

The second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi left off with a pretty big cliffhanger: Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) now knows Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is alive, and looking for him. “Part III” centers that conflict, both in the literal sense and emotionally as Obi-Wan grapples with the knowledge that his former apprentice and brother-in-arms survived being horribly maimed on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith.

The duality between Obi-Wan and Vader is set up as the driving force of this episode right from the opening moments, and I loved it. We begin with Obi-Wan trying once more to speak to the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn while Leia slumbers beside him on the cargo ship they used to escape Daiyu. Meanwhile, we pick up with Anakin after he’s emerged from his bacta tank and is suiting up as Darth Vader.

The imagery of Anakin is haunting. We see how horribly disfigured his body is, how he’s missing both arms and is hardly recognizable as a human being. But as the helmet lowers onto his face, it’s undeniably Hayden Christensen glaring out at the camera. We never really got to see Christensen as the classic Vader in the prequel films — he only wore the suit during the movie’s final moments. The actor really steps into the character here. Sure, the suit does a lot of the work, but Christensen is still nailing it.

Of course, it helps that James Earl Jones returns to voice Vader, just as he’s done since 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope. Jones is 91 years old; you have to wonder how many more of these jobs he’ll be able to do. It just makes his appearance feel even more special.

The people behind Obi-Wan Kenobi clearly know how cool it is to have Vader as a main character. We see him hanging out at his fortress on Mustafar, the planet where Obi-Wan defeated him and left him for dead, as he orders Reva (Moses Ingram) to continue the hunt for his former master. His presence immediately elevates the tension on this show.

Laying low on Mapuzo

All that said, everything that happens with Obi-Wan and Leia (Viven Lyra Blair) is great as well. It feels like many of my qualms from the opening two installments of the series went out the window this week; the effects are better, the writing is tighter, and the events hit much harder. I’m invested.

Obi-Wan and Leia make their way to a mining planet called Mapuzo, where we see how the Empire is changing the galaxy. It was a great decision to showcase various points of view on whether the Empire is good or not. Obi-Wan remembers the days of the Republic, so of course he sees how Mapuzo has changed for the worst. Leia, however, grew up with the Empire; it feels very natural for her to question whether it’s a good or a bad thing.

We meet various locals in Mapuzo who have differing views on the Empire as well, including a humanoid mole person voiced by Zach Braff. The mole guy is an Imperial loyalist, which makes for some awkward conversation as he shuttles Obi-Wan and Leia toward the nearest village. Along the way they encounter some stormtroopers and we get some wonderful dialogue as Obi-Wan and Leia lie their way through the situation, which leads to a conversation about Leia’s mother once the stormtroopers depart.

Focusing more on a young Leia than a young Luke is by far one of the best choices the show has made. I was not expecting so many call backs to Padmé, and Leia’s youthful counterpoint to Obi-Wan’s world weary pessimism. I could totally see how some Disney execs may have worried it was too close to the dynamic between the Mandalorian and Grogu, but it manages to set itself apart.

Obi-Wan Kenobi feels like it’s the origin story for the Leia we know from the original and sequel trilogies. She’s just now getting a feel for the Empire’s cruelty, as well as the integrity of the people fighting it. Game of Thrones alum Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand) appears as Tala, an Imperial officer who is in fact helping Jedi and other Force-sensitive people escape the Empire. Varma gives a great performance, and her character is compelling on her own and in terms of the influence meeting her clearly has on young Leia.

However, things quickly go south when the Inquisitors and Vader arrive on Mapuzo, drawn by one of Obi-Wan’s run-ins with an Imperial drone. And then things get dark, fast.

The apprentice has become the master

I’m just going to come out and say it: the scene of Darth Vader terrorizing the citizens of Mapuzo, dragging them through windows, down the street, and snapping necks with the Force as he tries to draw out Obi-Wan, might be the single most terrifying Darth Vader scene in all of Star Wars. Every time there’s a story where Vader is involved, we always hear about how scary he is, but Obi-Wan Kenobi is showing us in a way that feels shocking despite the fact that this character has been around for almost half a century.

This brings us back to the opening of the episode, as Obi-Wan and Anakin seem to sense each other at exactly the same moment. They know each other so well; Anakin murders people because he knows it will make Obi-Wan reveal himself, while Obi-Wan tells Leia and Tala to go on ahead because he knows Vader will follow him.

It all leads to a showdown on the outskirts of the town. At first Obi-Wan tries to flee (which is kind of hilarious and totally fitting for where his character is at), but Vader, despite never doing anything more than walking slowly, manages to catch up to him. And finally, Old Ben Kenobi is forced to power up his lightsaber.

The duel itself is interesting. It’s not one of the most exciting fights we’ve seen in Star Wars, but then again, this is meant to be a bridge between the prequel trilogy, where the duels were acrobatic and fast, and the original trilogy, where they were slower. Vader comments on how Obi-Wan is old and weak; of course he’s not going to be the fighter he once was. And as powerful as Vader is with the Force, he’s nowhere near as agile as he was before his body was destroyed on Mustafar. It works.

The climax is that Vader manages to beat Obi-Wan easily, sets fire to a patch of spilled minerals with his lightsaber, and then drags Obi-Wan into the flames with the Force. It is one of the most brutal scenes I can recall seeing in recent Star Wars memory; my jaw literally dropped.

But this is only Episode 3 of this limited series, and it can’t end there for Kenobi. Vader tosses him back, telling his stormtroopers to gather his old master for more torture, just as Tala arrives and rescues him. The rescue itself feels a tiny bit contrived, since Vader has shown so much power that he probably could have just stopped it if he wanted to. Fortunately, the haunting performance by Christensen makes it almost feel more like Vader is making the choice to let Obi-Wan go this time, so the sequence still holds up.

The episode ends with Reva capturing Princess Leia, which will no doubt force Obi-Wan and Vader into yet another rematch.

Bullet Points

• Obi-Wan fixing Lola was a sweet moment. Someone get this guy a Jedi babysitter of the year award.
• However, Obi-Wan seeing a hallucination of Anakin on the fields of Mapuzo was heartbreaking. This episode really did a good job exploring Obi-Wan’s trauma when he realizes that Anakin is still alive and one of the prominent forces of darkness in the galaxy.
• The music continues to be really top notch. The percussive score that plays as Obi-Wan and Leia arrive on Mapuzo is particularly great.
• Obi-Wan telling Leia about his few memories of his own family felt like a really important moment; this is not something that was ever addressed in the Star Wars movies, and it adds an extra layer to his character.
• There was a nod to Quinlan Vos in the building with the tunnels Jedi used to escape Mapuzo. This is a deep cut Star Wars character and it was a really nice touch to pull him in here. Quinlan worked with Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars animated series and has appeared in several tie-in works. I’m curious to see whether this will just be an easter egg or we’ll actually see the character at some point.
• Speaking of Quinlan, those lines Obi-Wan said while hovering over his old friend’s inscription on the wall were, “Only with eyes closed can you see…the Way.” Is this a reference to the Way of Mandalore? Or perhaps some guidance Obi-Wan will use in his quest to contact the Force ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn?
• Reva has some interesting material this episode. She finds a carving on the wall of the Jedi escape route on Mapuzo that she seems to recognize. Combined with Tala’s reveal that Force-sensitive children are captured by the Empire and never seen again, and that opening Order 66 scene with a child who looked like Reva, it seems an awful lot like the show is setting up an eventual gut punch regarding her backstory. Which is good; the character and Ingram’s performance have been solid enough that she deserves some kind of bigger payoff, especially now that Vader is on the scene as the series’ main villain.
• My one small issue with this episode was the escape tunnels. How did Reva get ahead of Leia? How did Tala get out without crossing paths with Reva? Either these tunnels have multiple exits (which isn’t shown), or Reva just guessed where it was headed and ran around them.

Verdict

“Part III” was the best episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi yet thanks to its focus on the relationship between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader, its examination of the Empire’s effect on the galaxy at large, and the absolutely commanding performances of Hayden Christensen and James Earl Jones. I think Disney released the first three episodes so close together because they wanted to get us to this point faster. Obi-Wan Kenobi may have gotten off to a rocky start last week, but this episode felt like it really paid off the wait. Consider me hooked.

Episode Grade: A-

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