Lightsaber + Sand = Fire?

In the third episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, we see Obi-Wan trying to communicate with Qui-Gon. While sitting on his ship, there is a slick scene where we cut back and forth between Anakin becoming Vader and Obi-Wan hearing echoed flashes of the past, mixed in with Reva’s taunts that Anakin is still alive. “He’s coming master.” Obi whispers to himself, as Vader is released from his tank.

Vader implores Reva to prove herself as the Grand Inquisitor by proving her loyalty to the Empire. If she fails, she will not live to see the light of day and will have no repercussions for her actions. This is a bonus!

The pair walk as Obi explains how the Empire have ravaged everything. The place they’re on used to be full of fields and families. Now though, it’s a wasteland.

Reva figures out that Obi is on one of the mining systems, and she orders probes to be sent out to find him. Fifth Brother threatens her, but Reva ignores him. Vader has put her in charge of the hunt, so technically Fifth Brother has no authority here. ..

Leia and Obi-Wan stop a creature called Freck who offers them a ride to town. Naturally, Obi-Wan plays second fiddle here as Leia hops aboard and leads the charge, Obi follows. However, stormtroopers arrive and decide to hop aboard too. ..

Apparently, the rebels didn’t recognize Obi-Wan when he called Leia by her real name and were able to get away without any of their stormtroopers recognizing her. They went off to find “the Jedi” they were hunting, which is presumably Obi-Wan.

Freck leads the group to an Imperial checkpoint, where a probe arrives to check on Obi-Wan. Of course, it flashes up on the scanners who they are, so Obi-Wan uses Freck as a human shield to kill the troopers and save Leia too. ..

When more troopers show up, Obi-Wan and Leia are saved by a rogue agent. Unfortunately, they appear to be too late, as Reva tracks down their location on Mapuzo. The Empire quickly close down all ports making getting on and off the planet very difficult. ..

The rogue agent tells Obi-Wan and Leia that there are safehouses scattered throughout the galaxy, each one connected to a different system. The goal is to find and connect the systems by calling them “The Path.” If anyone with Force sensitivity is found on a planet connected to The Path, they are likely to be hunted down and killed. However, the agent admits that she doesn’t know what happens to the children once they’re captured. One of the Jedi Obi-Wan recognizes, Quinlan, is actually one of the people helping to smuggle younglings out. ..

As Obi-Wan leaves, he senses Vader’s presence and begins to breathe heavily. Vader arrives in town and senses Obi-Wan. In order to draw him out, Vader uses the Force to kill an innocent man. Obi-Wan instructs the rogue agent to take Leia away, through a hidden passageway leading out to their destination. She urges her to take Leia back to Alderaan.

While Obi-Wan and Vader fight, the latter easily overpowering Obi-Wan, he manages to somehow ignite the sand with his saber, as a big patch emanates angry orange flames. It burns Obi-Wan. Despite using the force earlier in the episode, Vader watches helplessly as the rogue imperial agent shows up and uses a blaster to stop a stormtrooper approaching him. Her droid picks up Obi-Wan, Vader gives up and walks away.

Meanwhile, Reva manages to find the hidden passageway Leia used earlier in the episode. Through the power of editing and teleportation, she makes it through the passageway ahead of Leia… somehow. ..

The Episode Review

The editing in this show is really poor and the final part of this chapter exemplifies that perfectly. From what we can see, that passageway the rogue imperial officer led Leia down is a straight path with no deviations. If there are alternate paths, we weren’t shown that so we’re going based on what the screenplay is showing us. Somehow, Reva manages to get to the other side of the passageway ahead of Leia, kill her pilot and wait for Leia before she can run to the other side.

That’s before mentioning the Vader and Obi-Wan fight which is a neat inclusion but then is thwarted by said rogue agent using a blaster (which Vader could just use the force to bring to him. We’ve seen him do this in Empire up at Cloud City). He doesn’t do that though, and stands around like a melon watching as Obi-Wan is saved. ..

The stormtroopers don’t recognize Obi-Wan or know that he’s a prolific Jedi that has gone into hiding, despite Reva desperate to track him down. It’s something we saw last episode too but it’s worse here, especially as Obi-Wan slips up and calls Leia by her name. Would he really do this though?

Leia is a great addition to the Star Wars franchise and the actress does a great job bringing her character to life. The visuals and general aesthetic of the show are okay, but Ewan McGregor is great in his role. This working well to bridge the gap between the prequel and original trilogy.

I mentioned before about Mary Sues and while Reva is written a little better here, it still begs the question – why aren’t there any ramifications for her actions against the Grand Inquisitor? Couldn’t Vader have force choked her a little for disobeying the chain of command, despite the fact he’s been “watching her” all this time? Is he not concerned that she could do the same thing to him? If there’s no order then what’s to stop the whole hierarchical chain of command turning into pure anarchy. ..

I don’t think anyone should love this show. It’s not good, and compared to so many other sci-fi series out there in this space, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a disappointingly mediocre-at-best effort.