Obi Wan Kenobi “Part 4” Review
Obi Wan Kenobi “Part 4” is the forth episode of the original Obi Wan Kenobi series. Following Leia’s capture at the end of episode 3 Obi Wan rushes to form a plan to get her back from Fortress Inquisitorius where she’s being held by Reva and the other Inquisitors. Obi Wan and Tala set up a plan to have her use her Empire pass to get him in through an underwater entrance, sneaking into the secure unit. All the while Obi Wan begins to try and heal his connection to the Force by practice but as Tala points out, it’s his mental wounds that need healing most of all. Leia is almost killed by Reva but is stopped by Tala’s distraction she put together. Obi Wan finally sees some action as he gets Leia out of the fortress, fighting off a couple of Stormtroopers at a time and finally his connection to the Force is shown to be much stronger than it was as he uses it to redirect a flood and drown a bunch of Empire lackeys coming for him and Leia. Obi Wan may have been captured but he gets away, just, with help from the people he just met. Reva is threatened by Darth Vader but she manages to save herself by telling him she’s planted a tracking device on Obi Wan (on LOLA really but that’s obvious as soon as she says it.)
Is Reva Smart Or Stupid?
This episode had amazing moment’s, mainly Obi Wan using his lightsaber unashamedly again and his connection to the Force becoming stronger as he begins to feel hopeful again. But mostly it was a mess. Mainly because of the questionable as all hell writing. I’ve been very forgiving with the Obi Wan show when it comes to it’s writing up ’till now, I’ve ignored things I easily could’ve and probably should’ve pointed out. But this episode was unforgivable.
Reva is shown to be very strong with the Force but she never, not once, even glimpsed that the reason Leia rejected her was because she is Force sensitive. Leia isn’t just any Force sensitive child either, she’s just as strong with the Force as her brother, something that’s not easily hidden, which the audience is reminded of by some story from some guy who helps Obi Wan. His wife was the same and she hid it but the Inquisitors found her anyway. Now I’m sure this bloke’s wife isn’t as powerful as a Skywalker so why, oh why, did Reva “I never fail unless the plot needs me to and even then I don’t” not get even a hint that a Force sensitive child was right there.
The next problem. This has always been a thing but I mention it in this episode because it’s especially obvious here. Reva has got the strongest, most ridiculous plot armour I’ve ever seen. When the plot needs her to be dumb, she’s dumb and makes mistakes except she actually doesn’t because even when she makes mistakes things go fine for her and when the plot needs her to be smart she’s a verified genius. Getting Darth Vader of all people to suggest maybe he’d underestimated her. She never fails long term, gets out of everything through sheer convenience and even her flaws are highlighted as things to aspire to rather than something to use to better herself. At least before there was some hope for her as she could’ve learned to use her rage against Obi Wan as a catalyst to become stronger and better but there’s no need when the story treats her as perfect anyway.
Oh and the entire last section is dedicated to killing a random character and expecting anyone to feel the weight of the death when he had about 5 seconds of screen time and even less characterisation, it was painfully obvious the show wanted the audience to feel as broken as the resistance fighters do with his death but it lands flat as a pancake because he’s a no one, I mean no disrespect but I can’t even remember the guy’s name.
This was the weakest of the Obi Wan episodes and considering how forgiving I’ve been until now that’s really saying something. The weakness of the writing, directing and in some places, acting is on full display here and it’s shockingly bad.
