Obi-Wan Kenobi reconnects with the Force in Episode 4

The fourth episode of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is out now on Disney+! After last week’s gut punch episode where Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) faced off on the mining planet of Mapuzo and Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) was captured by Reva (Moses Ingram), “Part IV” has a lot of ground to cover.

Fortunately, it does so quite well. It may not have been quite as shocking as the preceding episode, but “Part IV” was an all-around solid piece of the Obi-Wan Kenobi puzzle.

As always, there will be SPOILERS for this week’s episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi below.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 4 review

It’s hard to believe, but we’re already past the halfway point in Obi-Wan Kenobi. After a rough couple of opening episodes, it feels like this limited series really hit its stride last week with the climactic showdown on Mapuzo. “Part IV” takes the multiple cliffhangers from that episode and runs with them. At just under 40 minutes, Episode 4 is the shortest of the season to date, but it’s packed with a tightly crafted rescue mission that feels like it doesn’t waste a single scene.

We start off with a barely conscious Obi-Wan being plunged into a bacta tank on the hideout planet of Jabiim, where an early predecessor of the Rebel Alliance is helping Force-sensitive people escape the Empire. There’s a nice parallel between Obi-Wan’s time in the tank and Anakin’s, which the show underlines by giving us some brief flash cuts between the two characters.

But Obi-Wan doesn’t have time to bleed. After being plagued by visions of his fight on Mapuzo, he awakens and hops out of the tank before he’s fully healed. Despite the misgivings of the Jedi sympathizers that going after Leia might bring attention to their operation, Obi-Wan manages to convince them it’s worth it. Tala (Indira Varma) volunteers to take him to a watery planet within the Mustafar system where the Inquisitors have their fortress, and we’re off.

A rescue mission gone awry

Things move pretty quickly in this episode as Obi-Wan and Tala (Indira Varma) arrive on the planet with the fortress only a scene or two later. But it doesn’t feel rushed; the episode has focus. We get some scenes where Reva tries to interrogate young Leia and we see more of the young Princess’ personality as she refuses to out the Path to the Empire.

Tala and Obi-Wan’s efforts to infiltrate the Imperial base are a highlight of the episode. This is familiar territory for any Star Wars fan; who can even keep track of the amount of times an Imperial base has been infiltrated to save someone? But this particular episode keeps things tense by leaning in to the fact that our heroes’ ability to get into the base hinges on Tala’s credentials as an Imperial officer, and they have no clue whether or not her cover was blown back on Mapuzo.

Indira Varma is really excellent at conveying this tension with nothing more than facial expressions and slight changes in mannerisms. Even though this is Star Wars and it’s a relatively safe assumption that our heroes will get through it, I was still on the edge of my seat as she walked through the Imperial base and bluffed her way through one situation after another.

Obi-Wan reconnects with the Force

One of the most common complaints I’ve seen for this show is that Obi-Wan is too “weak” compared to how he was in Revenge of the Sith or A New Hope. This has bugged me, because that’s kind of the entire point of his arc in this limited series. He’s starting at his lowest after losing a war that cost him everything and resulted in the deaths of almost everyone he cared about. We saw in the premiere that he went so far as to bury his lightsaber out in the desert, and it’s become clear as the show has gone on that he hasn’t been using the Force during his self-imposed exile, both out of disillusionment and fear of exposing himself to the Empire. Yes, Obi-Wan is weaker in this series; he’s supposed to be. This is him regaining his skill and will to fight.

We see this come more into focus during Episode 4. After being reluctant to draw his lightsaber earlier in the season, Obi-Wan uses it freely to rescue Leia. There’s no time for him to doubt, it’s life or death. The scenes where Obi-Wan and the young princess are caught in a hallway with stormtroopers on both sides and Obi-Wan has to rely on using his sensitivity to the Force in order to deflect laser fire from every direction were easily some of my favorite scenes that McGregor has had this season. He effectively sells the idea that Obi-Wan is reconnecting with a primal part of himself ; there are a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments where he deflects a bolt speeding toward his back and then almost looks surprised.

It all leads to a climactic moment where Obi-Wan uses the Force to keep a cracked window from shattering and and letting in a flood of water, and then redirecting the flood onto a squad of stormtroopers. The escape that follows is chaotic, which ups the stakes as a pair of Rebel pilots come in to rescue Tala, Obi-Wan, and Leia at the cost of one of their lives.

We then get the episode’s final twist. As Leia holds Obi-Wan’s hand and Tala consoles her fellow Rebel over the death of her companion, Reva reveals to Darth Vader that she let the Rebels go on purpose because she reprogrammed Leia’s trusty droid Lola to serve as a tracking beacon. Presumably, they’ll lead the Empire’s forces right back to the Jabiim. It’s going to get messy in these final two episodes.

Bullet Points Kenobi

• The visuals in the scene where Obi-Wan swam into the Inquisitors’ fortress were great, and reminded me a lot of the underwater sequence on Naboo in The Phantom Menace.
• Leia asking Reva “Is this a staring contest?” while the Inquisitor tries to probe her mind for information made me laugh out loud. Leia’s voice feels a little too adult to me at times, but it’s always very much in character at least.
• One thing I’ve consistently enjoyed about this show is how it fuses the aesthetics from the prequels with the original trilogy, which fits perfectly with this idea of that old galaxy fading as the new, Empire-driven one rises.
• The only real nitpick I had with this episode is how much Tala talks on her comm to Obi-Wan while sitting only two seats away from other Imperial officers. The show does have one brief moment where a fellow Imperial glances over at her, but in general I did have to suspend my disbelief.
• That tomb of Force-sensitives beneath the Inquisitor fortress was a heavy scene. I am curious what exactly the deal is with it though. Is there a reason the bodies of these people are held in some kind of stasis that never lets them decompose, as opposed to just being incinerated? It’s a nice visual effect but it did raise some questions, especially surrounding the inclusion of a youngling from the Jedi temple. I got the feeling this scene exists more for the emotional impact than any kind of logic, since showing a youngling with that helmet implies these bodies were kept around since long before the Inquisitors ever existed as an institution. (Unless of course this is some different young person with the same exact helmet.)
• Indira Varma continued to kill it this episode. The acting in Obi-Wan has been pretty great, which just makes how much of a standout Varma is even more impressive. Her and McGregor could act opposite a cardboard box and have our hearts in our throats, they’re just that good.
• We only got one scene with Darth Vader this episode, but it was a good one. Given the setup for next week’s potential raid on Jabiim, hopefully we see more of him then.
• A last thing I really enjoyed was how gradual Obi-Wan’s return to using the Force was. Early on in the episode he struggles to move a tool across a table; by the end of the episode he’s holding back a tidal wave. There’s a sense that when Obi-Wan has the time to doubt himself, he’s his own worst enemy. But when he is forced to act, that Jedi we all know is there comes to the surface. Really excited to see where it’s all leading.

Verdict

Episode 4 of Obi-Wan Kenobi was an all-around solid episode. It may not have been as shockingly good as last week’s episode, but it was more consistent. Obi-Wan’s gradual slide back into using the Force and wielding his lightsaber is handled well, and the rescue mission managed to feel tense despite the fact that it’s a well-worn Star Wars trope. Things left off on an ominous note that has me eager for next week’s episode. Safe to say Obi-Wan Kenobi has settled into a good groove.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode Grade: B+

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels