'Obi-Wan Kenobi Part VI' - A Good-Not-Great Wrap-Up That Finally Gives Its Namesake His Due
Obi-Wan Kenobi has come to a close - that is, until Episode 4 A New Hope, or if Disney+ decides to further his story with another season.
But for now, we are left with a finale that left as quietly as it arrived.
This is not to say the final episode is without merit - it's more that it empties the tank far too early and leaves much of the runtime to tying up loose ends.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Part VI begins with a gut-wounded Reva (Moses Ingram), who was left for dead by Darth Vader and the Inquisitors (Why? No clue.), tracking down young Luke Skywalker on his home planet of Tatooine.
This arc for such a built-up character feels so disjointed, almost silly, begging the question: What, exactly, will she get out of finding the boy?
I guess to cheese off Vader. Let's go with that.
Cut to Obi-Wan, Leia, and the rest of the refugees -
- who escaped Vader's clutches in Part V, now being pursued by Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer.
Dipping and dodging their way to safety, the shields are at their limit and the hyperdrive is being repaired, leaving their only hope for survival in the hands of Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) who has decided to take a ship in order to get Vader to go after his real target. A solid plan, for sure, but the question remains; how can a Star Destroyer be so bad at shooting one little ship on the brink of collapse?
Best not to think about it.
We soon meet young Luke.
Played by Grant Feely, a towheaded little boy who looks and sounds exactly like his father. Owen (Joel Edgerton) has been warned about Reva, and suddenly Aunt Beru (Bonnie Piesse) is a bad-ass soldier, whereas before she was just known for pouring blue milk at dinner.
She wants to stay and fight with a couple of guns she had tucked away for just such an occasion. Needless to say, her plan to hold their ground makes no sense when running is the best option.
The episode is merely a reason to set up its two final conflict resolutions: A showdown between Vader and Kenobi, as well as Reva's redemption. One of these sticks the landing.
What follows is Kenobi leading Vader away from the refugee ship - only to later have the Star Destroyer catch up to him on a remote planet, which Vader flies down to, alone, to face his former master. This begs yet another question: Why didn't Vader follow Kenobi alone, and leave the Star Destroyer to chase the refugees down?
Understandably, Vader is blinded by hate - a running theme for the character throughout the franchise - but even his henchmen seem confused by his plans.
Soon, there is an epic battle between Kenobi and Vader -
- with not only a well choreographed lightsaber duel, but a refreshing display of Force usage, where the two are doing more than just putting on an impressive light show.
To be honest, this is one of the best moments of the show by far. (And it should be, this is the moment fans clamor for with Star Wars.)
Kenobi takes a licking at first, trying to resolve the issue with words, only to find himself buried under a pile of boulders Force-dropped on him. Then Kenobi gets his Force on, and gives Anakin a taste of his own medicine, even slicing his helmet enough to give Hayden Christensen a moment to act unfettered by the costume.
The results are much like the final fight they had in Revenge of the Sith. Battered and defeated, Vader is left to fend for himself. Guess it's a good thing the Star Destroyer came with him.
Cut to Reva nearly killing Owen and Beru -
- only you know they live, so the tension is less than it hould be.
Reva's arc kind of falls apart as she chases Luke through the desert, only to knock him out, realize she has become what she hates, and carry him back to his family - where Obi-Wan has arrived to drop some sage-like advice on her.
Reva proved to be a needless element to the show, other than to show that one can defeat the Dark Side before it takes you over completely - even though we already learned that when Vader threw The Emperor down that shaft in Return of the Jedi.
I'm sure she will be back in future stories. Still, this is a shame, because she started as such a strong and complex character, only to become a weak B Plot.
The day is saved, Leia goes home, and Obi-Wan is back to being the Master Jedi we know and love - that is, until the silly and needless Qui-Gon Jin Force ghost cameo as wedged in as Kenobi is doing his ride off into the sunset.
Why did they have to remind us of the guy who, honestly, started this whole mess in the first place when he just had to train Anakin all those years ago?
In the end, the show is paced randomly episode to episode, often focusing on pointless plotlines where simplicity could have worked just as well.
Serviceable, fun at times, and not a failure in the least, the only real issue with this show is having to shoehorn in characters who we don't know, because we know where the main characters end up already.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, even with its shortcomings, is worth a watch, though not the greatest narrative in the Star Wars Universe. It will be interesting to see what they come out with next.
