Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 5 Television 

Five Thoughts on Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s “Part V”

By | June 17th, 2022
Posted in Television | % Comments

Although it feels like the show still has a lot of story to tell, especially after last week’s redux episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s “Part V” kicks the story into high gear, while giving viewers a good mix of nostalgia and new storytelling.

1. “The light will fade but is never forgotten”

While on Jabiim, Obi-Wan continues to read the walls of the various stops on ‘The Path’ for familiar names. This has to be both an exciting and immensely sad experience for Obi-Wan, who gets the see that some of his friends survived Order 66, but also be faced with the reality of the past ten years where, theoretically, he could’ve been helping more people instead of keeping watch on a boy no one knows exists on a backwater planet.

On this wall, he sees a phrase that stands out to him: “The light will fade but is never forgotten.” This is, perhaps, a little on the nose in a few ways, but when isn’t Star Wars a little corny and predictable? The phrase sets the tone for the rest of the episode, which is easily the most intentionally constructed of the season.

2. That Flashback

This episode gives Hayden Christensen the spotlight that we knew would be coming at some point. The episode is intercut through an extended flashback of an Attack of the Clones-era training session between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Sure, neither man quite looks the same as he did in 2002, but there’s significantly less deep-fake and smoothing technology at play here, so we can’t complain too much.

The scene does a good job of restating a few things about each man without making it too painfully heavy handed, though it does flirt with that at times. But this segment reminds the viewer that Obi-Wan’s strengths as a Jedi are not just his ability with a lightsaber or physical control of the Force, but rather in strategy, compassion, and preparation. He knows how Anakin fights, he knows that Anakin needs to ‘win,’ and he can use that against him. Not to hurt him, but to teach him to be better.

It also reminds us that Anakin is naturally adept at many things, but is not the unbeatable monolith that we sometimes see Vader as, especially in this era. We’ve seen Vader do things with the Force that are unheard of, and it can be easy to think that any challenge to him can only end in his prowess overcoming the challenge. But, to quote Obi-Wan, there are other ways to fight.

3. Returns and Revelations

There is a lot about Reva that has been shrouded in mystery, and the question that I’ve kept asking is what her exact beef with Obi-Wan is. Well, now we know: she was using him as bait to hunt Vader. Sure, she has no love lost for the man who she sees as abandoning the younglings in the Jedi Temple, but her real beef is with Vader. By rising to Grand Inquisitor, she has greater opportunity to get at him eventually.

The conversation between Reva and Obi-Wan through the blast doors is an interesting one, as it gives a lot of depth to her character, and also allows Obi-Wan to show us something more than just the sad, broken Jedi. He’s returning to his old ways: he’s outsmarting people, he’s regaining his mastery of the Force, and his compassion for Reva was the key to all of this. Once he spoke with her, the Jedi, pardon the pun, returned.

4. Action

This episode featured some of the most action we’ve seen in the series so far, with the last ten minutes or so having a few notable set pieces that all, for the most part worked. Sure, I think that Vader should’ve been smarter than to let Reva live, no matter how assured he was that her death was imminent, but that’s Star Wars, baby. They’ll want to do more Reva stories, so this is how it works.

But let’s talk about some of those sequences. Reva’s injury and subsequent sacrifice were well done and relatively heartrending for a character we’ve only seen for less than an hour of total screen time. This was a nice reminder of the Rogue One of it all, where we finally got to see the Rebellion as what it likely was: a group of zealots and insurrectionists who, yes, were on the correct side of the issues, but also were not encumbered by conventional rules of right and wrong. And, most relevant to this episode, we saw that they were willing to die for the cause. Not in a hypothetical, ‘take an oath to defend your country’ sort of way, but in a “I will blow myself up to save the transport” type of sacrifice.

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We also see Darth Vader do an incredibly impressive bit of Force-wielding when he literally brings down a transport from the sky. This is almost the mirror version of Yoda lifting the X-Wing from the Degobah swamp, although this is clearly more impressive due to, you know, thrusters. But, again, Obi-Wan knows how Vader works. He’ll see the transport in the sky and need to win, ignoring the one on the ground that is actually full of people. This is classic Kenobi, and I loved it.

5. What’s Left?

OK, so we can safely presume that Leia will make it back to the Organas safe and sound at this point. Because of Reva’s betrayal of the Inquisitors, the path from the Empire to Leia is likely severed, and the Organas will likely have a closer watch on Leia’s actions from now on. So that plot point is wrapped up. But now Reva knows something about Luke, and so we are likely going to see the show move back to Tatooine for its finale. Will she attempt to use Luke as bait for Vader? That seems probable.

I cannot believe that this whole series will pass by without seeing Qui-Gon Jinn, or at least hear his voice again. I presume that the rehabilitation of Ben the Jedi will continue, and we will see him recommit himself to the Force, connecting with his Master and rebuilding his confidence and skill to what we will see in A New Hope, ten years hence.

While I am still unsure of a second season’s necessity, the complexity of Reva and the involvement of the Organas made this season very, very different than I had anticipated. I was expecting a desert ronin story, and we got a swashbuckling rescue tale instead. Maybe there’s still room for that desert ronin story in a second season. We’ll see, starting with next week’s finale.


//TAGS | Obi-Wan Kenobi

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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