Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part IV

June 8, 2022 2:16 AM - Season 1, Episode 4

Obi-Wan plots a daring mission into enemy territory.
posted by EndsOfInvention (47 comments total)

This felt pretty Star Warsy.

I thought they made a good fist of making torturing Leia fit with what we know will happen to her in ten years time.

Obi Wan seems just a bit too rubbish at some of the Jedi stuff, then suddenly he seems pretty much back to normal.

The topography of the underwater corridor battle didn't work at all. The window that broke was really close to the blast door that closed and Obi Wan was right in front of it, then suddenly he wasn't and outran the wave. Someone else mentioned in a previous episode chat that this was always an issue in the animated series and I agree with that, but in the live action its more apparent when they are being lazy with this. It doesn't really make sense why Obi Wan was even still in the corridor, once he had killed the stormtrooper in the direction he was going why hang around? Also: A door in case of flooding that can be pulled apart by two stormtroopers seems underspecced? Which fits with that cheap glass I guess. And the missing signs about not firing blasters near them. Why did all the windows break after the first one went?

Effective stormtrooper armour! Four chops to kill the first trooper in the torture chamber including one to the chest. On top of that a nasty bit of lightsaber throat chopping on the second trooper!

What was the bloke inquisitor going on about with them nearly destroying the base? When did that happen? Maybe he doesn't have much faith in those doors?

I bet the Empire wishes it had some way to spot speeders approaching its secret bases on days when its a bit cloudy.
posted by biffa at 4:02 AM on June 8, 2022 [6 favorites]

"Is this a staring contest?" 🔥
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:05 AM on June 8, 2022 [13 favorites]

T-47s to the rescue! Always one of my favourite Star Wars vehicles, but one that never got re-used over and over like the various starships.

You'd think they'd have detected the speeders approaching and launched TIEs. They must have been really convinced no-one would attack them - no shields, no air defences, no early warning that an unauthorised ship had entered the system housing Vader's base, no TIEs ready to launch...

A door in case of flooding that can be pulled apart by two stormtroopers seems underspecced? Which fits with that cheap glass I guess.

Someone on the architectural team had shares in a transparisteel company. "Let's put windows everywhere so people can see the fish! It'll improve moral!"
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:14 AM on June 8, 2022 [5 favorites]

The kid-under-the-coat gag! I guffawed. I choose to think of this as an homage to Robot Chicken.
posted by orrnyereg at 5:46 AM on June 8, 2022 [6 favorites]

Also, I really perked up when Talia mentioned Florrum. Some Hondo shenanigans is just what this show needs!
posted by orrnyereg at 5:59 AM on June 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

Enjoyed the Skirttrooper. Rex proved that Star Wars armor looks great when paired with that type of thing. The Imp trenchcoats are…new, I think?…but very Nazi, which is as it should be. And Ewan McGregor looks so weird in an Imp officer hat!

I started to think Reva was going to catch on about Leia's parentage, whether by detecting her unusual Force strength or Kylo-scanning Leia and/or Obi-Wan or something. It seems less likely as of the episode's end, but it could very well still happen, say in the final episode (maybe inspiring Obi-Wan to risk everything to kill her before she can pass along the news). "The same characters escaping the same other characters over and over" was one of my gripes about Clone Wars, and it risks being an even bigger deal in a limited series like this, but one additional (conclusive) encounter isn't too many, IMO, especially considering it's Star Wars.

Some Hondo shenanigans is just what this show needs!

On the one hand, the Florrum reference seems to be a tossed-off red herring, and one Reva didn't buy anyway, thus implying no Hondo in this show. On the other hand, the new Disney/SW product "Tales from the Galaxy's Edge" which I caught a glimpse of at the store recently does demonstrate their intent to tie the theme park lands into other stuff more strongly (see also the new hotel-ship appearing in High Republic content), and that in turn DOES suggest live-action Hondo somewhere, so why not here. Plenty of people ride the Millennium Falcon ride without knowing who TF this Hondo guy is.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 6:05 AM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Poof, there's goes my fondness for this series.

I could say a lot, but summing it up, what was accomplished in this episode, how did the story move forward?

We still know nothing about drives Reva, Obi-Wan is just there, Darth Vader is lurking in the background, Leia is evidently strong enough to resist everything. Oh, she is recused now, there's that. But it was never in doubt that was going to happen, obviously.

So what purpose did this episode serve?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:10 AM on June 8, 2022 [6 favorites]

I started to think Reva was going to catch on about Leia's parentage, whether by detecting her unusual Force strength or Kylo-scanning Leia and/or Obi-Wan or something.

Thinking about the original trilogy, the only time when Force-users "sense" each other it's always people with a very close connection - Vader sensing Obi-Wan on the Death Star, Vader sensing "the Force is strong in this one" when pursuing Luke's X-Wing, Leia sensing Luke in trouble on Cloud City, Vader sensing Luke arriving at Endor. Maybe it's only a very close emotional link that allows them to sense each other in that way. This would fit with the fact the only way they found the Jedi in Part I was forcing him to reveal himself and literally seeing him do the Jedi hand thing.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:01 AM on June 8, 2022

"Is this a staring contest?"

When Reva is trying and failing to psychically interrogate Lil’ Leia, my immediate thought was back to 45 years ago this month when I heard Vader reporting to Tarkin, “Her resistance to the mind probe is considerable.”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:12 AM on June 8, 2022 [14 favorites]

So what purpose did this episode serve?

It echoes the second act of the 1977 movie: the improvised rescue, the escape, the tracker planted to lead the villains to their quarry.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:14 AM on June 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

Also explains how Leia knew they were being tracked way back in that original movie. She learned about that trick when she was ten.

Now of course I’m also picturing her in cell 2187 being interrogated by Vader, and getting sassy with it. “If this is a staring contest, you have to take your mask off or you’re just cheating.”
posted by wabbittwax at 9:21 AM on June 8, 2022 [6 favorites]

Well, it was the only explanation for the ease of their escape.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:26 AM on June 8, 2022 [6 favorites]

Easy!? You call that easy?
posted by wabbittwax at 9:57 AM on June 8, 2022 [15 favorites]

I feel like this script was written by someone who had a far more, um, haggard Ewan McGregor in mind. He could easily be 35. There isn't even any gray in his beard! "Old man" isn't really the first descriptor that would come to my mind; I might be like, "Hippie-looking guy, possibly has an electric sun sword, also some weaponized version of the Shining, do not approach."

I'm not really a big Star Wars fan, but I think this is a very good series.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:03 AM on June 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

During the long coat escape I just kept repeating "he has a beard! He has a beard! HE HAS A BEARD!" and not one Stormtrooper bothered to notice. The grooming standard on base is clearly not being maintained.
posted by Molesome at 12:01 PM on June 8, 2022 [6 favorites]

It echoes the second act of the 1977 movie: the improvised rescue, the escape, the tracker planted to lead the villains to their quarry.

Excellent point, hadn't considered that, so thanks for pointing it out.

However, I was hoping for narrative point that was important to the current series.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:14 PM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

The fact that this was originally intended as a film before being re-worked in to a limited series really showed with this episode. I enjoyed it well enough, as a mild distraction, but it wasn’t well crafted episodic television. It was a scene from a film with opening and closing credits wrapped around it.
posted by chill at 12:56 PM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

The fact that this was originally intended as a film before being re-worked in to a limited series

Wait, was it? That would explain the padding in the first two episodes.
posted by orrnyereg at 2:07 PM on June 8, 2022

Effective stormtrooper armour!

In that scene, I guess. But also Tala was able to take out two of them with some open-handed whacks to their helmets. Stormtroopers should be advised to stay away from golf courses and tennis courts lest they be killed by a stray ball.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 3:05 PM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

The fact that this was originally intended as a film before being re-worked in to a limited series

An Obi-Wan project has been long in the making. Yes, I believe some of the plot points from the movie version have been used in the series - my guess, the kidnapping of Leia was the inciting incident of the film. But it was reconceived once they decided to make a series instead.

I don't think this episode proves that this is just a film stretched out, though. It's definitely an episode in the sense that "this is the rescue/escape from the base episode". It has a beginning/middle/end in that sense.

That would explain the padding in the first two episodes.

I dunno, I'm pretty averse to padding. Streaming series can really fall into that trap. I don't think the first two episodes are padded but allowed to breathe and let us understand the characters better than in a film. I don't think any of the Leia stuff, for example, is padding - even though you could excise it for the film version. You get to know her and her world better.

As for this episode, it is a bit more plot heavy than exploring character like the previous episodes BUT the action was solid and in continues the overarcing story quite well - unlike the Boba Fett show where I rarely knew what the dramatic throughline was supposed to be.

This might be my favourite Star Wars thing since Rogue One.
posted by crossoverman at 5:17 PM on June 8, 2022 [4 favorites]

We still know nothing about drives Reva

I think that everything that Reva told Leia during the non-torture-rack part of the interrogation was probably true; she was herself just a kid with a toy droid who got darksided. And she's playing a risky but deeper game if she really deliberately let them go.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:22 PM on June 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

No way, Halloween, Jack: she was just a kid with a toy droid who got Jedi'd, and those damn Jedi took her pet and told her some philosophy horseshit that she played along with until her circumstances changed drastically. That's my guess, anyway.
posted by 4th number at 8:44 PM on June 8, 2022 [8 favorites]

I’m still inclined to think possibly Reva is one of the Jedi padawans we see in the first scene of the series, which remains otherwise unconnected to the narrative. I guess it could be just deep background to frame why Kenobi is hiding out, but I think few people are watching this show who do not know about Order 66. And in any event it could have been dropped into the opening recap of the relevant bits of the prequel trilogy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:51 PM on June 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

The MSE-6-series repair droid getting shot must be a reference to Star Wars: Dark Forces (PC 1995).

I'm with 4th number, Third Sister was totes talking about the Jedi originally abducting her from her family.

It wasn't something that she was amenable to, and became an easy crack for dark side to exploit.
posted by porpoise at 9:41 PM on June 8, 2022

Someone on the architectural team had shares in a transparisteel company.

It was probably transparent aluminum, I hear the inventor became rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:54 PM on June 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

I was NOT expecting this series to make me laugh out loud with a "kid-under-a-trenchcoat" gag! That was ridiculous and delightful.

The setting and infiltration plan were both soooo Clone Wars. Obi-Wan just strapping that rebreather back on like the old days to infiltrate an underwater base with a bunch of super breakable walls. Dude could do this in his sleep.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, "Now tell me, where is Hondo, for I much desire to see his dumb ass on this show" but yeah I don't actually believe he is going to make an appearance, much as my ears pricked up when I heard Florrum mentioned. I actually had the thought "how dare she throw Hondo's sainted mother under the bus like that" which should probably be some kind of warning to me that I should lay off the Star Wars but I SHALL NEVER, SO.

I knew the second Reva said it that she'd put the tracker on Lola. Please, please, just take Leia home to Alderaan, proto-Rebels! She's got to go home anyway, just drop her off first thing!!
posted by potrzebie at 10:57 PM on June 8, 2022 [3 favorites]

I think there were two very effective visual moments in this episode: Obi Wan's blue light sabre suddenly appearing in the blackout dark when he finally shows up to rescue Leia; and when he is able to use his Force powers to temporarily flood the corridor.

I'm extremely easy to please with Star Wars stuff. If I think critically about it, I'm not entirely sure how effective the echoing of other Star Wars properties is - the whole structure of this episode echoing A New Hope, Obi-Wan and Leia echoing Mando and Grogu - like when does it stop becoming an intentional echo and start to become lazy/derivative? But as a person who enjoyed the prequels, The Clone Wars and Rebels, this show makes me very happy. I feel that that period of time in the Star Wars chronology is really well-realised and lived-in, I like seeing that universe breathe.

Meanwhile... Yoda chillin on dagobah.
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:29 AM on June 9, 2022

Well, Yoda has to sleep sometime. His waking hours are filled with anxiety about seagulls.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:54 AM on June 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

I’m still inclined to think possibly Reva is one of the Jedi padawans we see in the first scene of the series, which remains otherwise unconnected to the narrative.

The opening shot BEGINS with the face of the black female padawan. How could it not be Reva? Also, I felt like her monologue in this episode was almost like she was trying to convince herself more than Leia. She can't decide who ruined her life more, the Sith or the Jedi, and she hates them both, which makes the Dark Side strong in her. I rhink that's also why she keeps just missing catching Obi-Wan.

This episode also pretty much removes any ambiguity about whether Leia knows that Ben and Obi-Wan are the same guy, and I think Star Wars fans just have to let go of trying to make it fit with the "Help me Obi-Wan" hologram from ANH.
posted by briank at 5:00 AM on June 9, 2022 [8 favorites]

Also, she says to Leia, "The braver you act, the more scared you are." In which case, Reva is by far the more frightened of the two.
posted by orrnyereg at 5:30 AM on June 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

So what purpose did this episode serve?

For me to watch more Ewan McGregor on my teevee. Aside from the fact that he's my imaginary boyfriend, his Jedi-ness is my favorite in the SWU. Love the way he wields a lightsaber; it's so natural-seeming to him.

As for him being kind of shit at the Force stuff and then suddenly not so shit, I took it as similar to when people find themselves capable of immense *whatever* under extreme stress. He's been searching for his previous Force abilities and the pressure (ha) of the window situation made him find it.
posted by cooker girl at 7:18 AM on June 9, 2022 [9 favorites]

It’s fine, he hasn’t used the force in a while, went up against someone who has and is very powerful. So he got his butt kicked.

Then he was fighting against people who don’t use the force for someone very important to him. So yeah a lot of the old reflexes came back.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:51 AM on June 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Obi-Wan suddenly being good at the force when he needs to be was possibly the most Star Warsy of Star Warsy of things ever and anyone who questions it is just being obtuse. I like that it was kind of understated. I watched it a couple of times and Ewan is doing an amazing job there. He starts out sort of deflecting the shots and they're ricocheting all over the place and he is concentrating hard. Then as it progresses he starts aiming them back, with each strike getting more and more accurate until the last few where each deflection hits a target. At that point Ewan's no longer concentrating but has a more "of course I can do this" look. When he's holding back the water it seems like a small thing but it is a direct reference to the Fallen Order video game where the only way the protag escapes Vader is by letting the water collapse into a hallway and Vader has to hold it back.

"Do or do not. There is no try."

General Kenobi can hold back the ocean if he needs to. That is what the Jedi do.
posted by M Edward at 10:08 AM on June 9, 2022 [11 favorites]

Using the Force after a long hiatus is apparently like riding a bicycle. A little wobbly at first but it comes back fast.
posted by potrzebie at 11:03 AM on June 9, 2022 [7 favorites]

Last week Ben shot a control panel to open a gate. This week he shot a control panel to close a gate. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, DOOR-CONTROL-PANEL DESIGNERS
posted by ejs at 4:22 PM on June 9, 2022 [17 favorites]

Love the way he wields a lightsaber; it's so natural-seeming to him.

I was actually thinking the opposite - in this one, he doesn't seem at all comfortable waving it around. Crudely hacking at the 'troopers around Leia, etc.

None of the elegance and grace I'd come to expect. It does align neatly with "haven't touched this in a decade" rusty jedi vibes, though.

Speaking of Jedi, it was nice that all the entombed Jedi were not all wearing the same damned robes!
posted by coriolisdave at 6:07 PM on June 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

WAAAAAADE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT WADE! We just didn't get long enough! I'd comment more but there's a Wade-shaped hole in my heart, and I'm gonna need some time to recover.
posted by surlyben at 8:17 PM on June 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

For the restoration of our Republic, old and staid
We accept that sacrifices must be made
And so let it be henceforth known on this date
That the ultimate price had to be paid
By a brave T-47 pilot named Wade
posted by wabbittwax at 8:39 PM on June 9, 2022 [6 favorites]

At this point I'm surprised that we don't see the Stormtroopers just tripping over their own feet in every scene.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:27 PM on June 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Wade in the water.
posted by Grangousier at 2:34 PM on June 10, 2022 [7 favorites]

I'm gonna have to poke around Youtube to get all those Jedi identified.

The fact that they put a youngling on display is COLD.
posted by suelac at 9:16 PM on June 10, 2022

I'm liking this show, and liking how it seems to have backed off from the endless crossovers and references that were starting to drag down the other Star Wars shows. I'm sure they were very tempted to bring in all kinds of prequel BS and characters from the cartoons and all that, but so far they've either resisted the impulse or they've integrated it smoothly enough that I don't find myself lost even as a somewhat lapsed fan of the franchise.

There are stories going around that James Earl Jones may not have actually provided Vader's voice. The performance doesn't sound robot-y like pure speech synthesis, and I'm wondering if it's actually Christensen speaking through a James Earl Jones filter. They had to give the guy something to do other than wear a lot of effects makeup and glower.

I feel like this script was written by someone who had a far more, um, haggard Ewan McGregor in mind.

I'm guessing that all the harping on Kenobi's advanced age is meant to sell the idea that he's less than a decade away from being Alec Guinness' "old desert rat" Kenobi, but if that was the intent they really should have aged McGregor up with some makeup or gray hair or something. It just feels weird for everybody to be talking about him like he's this broken down old man when he basically still looks like the Revenge of the Sith guy with slightly deeper crow's feet.

If those probe droids are supposed to be sneaking around, why do they mutter so much? Seriously, they never shut up with all that crackly talk about how they're scanning everything!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:40 AM on June 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

There's a tiktok where the user comments on how well "whoever the actor playing Vader is" embodies how angry he is with the 3rd Sister when he is force choking her. It was one of those moments where I didn't know if I should feel too nerdy or too old knowing it is Hayden.

It is true though, dude walks angry. We all saw how well Pedro did at embodying so much emotion without a face I can't help but want a lot more of Vader getting real screen time. Let Hayden just bring anger and hate in a way that really highlights how pathetic Kylo was at mimicking it.
posted by M Edward at 10:41 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Well that was good fun. I'd watch Moses Ingram twirl her mustache in just about anything, I think. This is her first big role, right? Wikipedia says she was in The Queen's Gambit but I don't know how big that role was.

Am I just getting old or was the graphic threat to Leia a bit strong? To see a child strapped into a torture chair with gleaming robot instruments and her pleading.. It just seemed like an awful lot and more explicit than I'd expect for a child to be threatened on a TV show. Paired with the dead child in the tomb and, well, it was a lot.
posted by Nelson at 6:12 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I’m convinced there’s a high degree of probability that the show exists because Ewan McGregor likes to say pew pew when ho shoots a blaster.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:45 PM on June 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

There's a tiktok where the user comments on how well "whoever the actor playing Vader is" embodies how angry he is with the 3rd Sister when he is force choking her. It was one of those moments where I didn't know if I should feel too nerdy or too old knowing it is Hayden.

Whaaaaa? It's actually Hayden Christensen? Wow.
posted by medusa at 9:16 PM on July 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Some real Key-Stone Cops level bullshit going on with the Stormtroopers in this episode (but that's star for the wars)

Third Sister was totes talking about the Jedi originally abducting her from her family.
Oh yeah, it's a direct echo of Ben telling her his hazy memories of being taken from his family and getting a new one in the Jedi (creepy cult alert!).

So, did the Empire just never develop video technology? Because I would imagine some cameras and monitors is a lot more efficient way to monitor secure areas.
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:42 PM on October 29, 2022