The Rescue Mission
In the latest episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, we follow our Jedi Knight as he is taken to Jabiim to be healed by the powerful and powerful Tala. She abandoned her young daughter last week in order to save Obi-Wan, and now she is willing to do anything in order to help him. We see her work tirelessly on his behalf, and it is clear that she cares deeply for him.
After some nice flashes of Vader, Obi-Wan awakens and remains desperate to get Leia back.
Obi-Wan and Roken enlist the help of Roken to find a base within the Mustafar System that doesn’t have any shields. Unfortunately, they are not successful in finding one.
In order to get Leia back, Tala decides to rest this whole plan on her officer clearance in order to infiltrate the base and find a way to get Obi-Wan inside undetected. It’s certainly a risky plan but she teams up with Obi-Wan to bring Leia back.
Meanwhile, Leia is kept imprisoned by Reva who mocks the young princess, claiming that Obi-Wan is dead and no one is coming for her. Leia is interrogated by Reva, who demands to know where the path is. Instead, Leia asks questions about Obi-Wan and resists Eeva’s force powers, in a lovely little echo back to A New Hope. ..
Obi-Wan and Tala touch down on their ship in the base. Tala is not cleared to pass, but she questions the lead security, demanding he call her “sir” and claiming she has classified information. So naturally, her intimidation is enough for the guy to stand down and she’s allowed to pass. ..
Tala “whispers” into her comms device. “I’m inside the system. Here we go.” She says. “Ben, I’m overriding an entry port.” She continues. And in doing so, Obi-Wan manages to infiltrate this shield-less base, swimming up from under the water.
After taking out a stormtrooper, Obi-Wan progresses through the base while Tala somehow avoids detection for a while, despite talking loudly and someone next to her turning to look at her strangely.
Anyway, Tala is eventually forced to leave with her superior officer, whom she knocks out behind a partition wall before returning to her station like everything is okay. “I had some company,” Tala says, as the camera pans from the unconscious body behind a wall with visible holes in, “but it’s been taken care of.” And as she says this, we see there’s an imperial officer SITTING OPPOSITE HER. We’ll get to that later on. ..
Leia is taken out of her cell to an open area for interrogation by Reva. She’s ready to get answers, and demands Leia speak or die. Leia remains defiant until the end, and thankfully Tala sets up a distraction for them all.
Reva is skeptical at first, but after seeing Tala bring out her friend Talia, she is convinced that there is indeed a connection. Tala continues to lie to Reva, but eventually she comes to the realization that she may have been duped.
As Obi-Wan shuts off the lights and manages to free Leia, we’re treated to some clumsy choreography as Tala staves off two stormtroopers and manages to leave the room while Reva hurries off to track down Leia and Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan and Leia thwart the threat of numerous stormtroopers, whose blasters cause the glass to shatter in this underwater base. As the glass cracks, Obi-Wan uses his force powers to hold off the water but it proves too much. Tala shows up, manages to take Leia out just in time, with Obi-Wan seizing the opportunity to run, shutting the door and holding off the water for now. ..
In a scene that looks ripped right from a comedy, Obi-Wan disguises himself in a huge robe, with Leia hidden underneath. Somehow in this base full of imperial guards they don’t arouse any suspicions as they walk to the port, not even when Leia takes a peek out in full view of stormtroopers.
The Inquisitors and stormtroopers are surrounded by two modified snowspeeders. Thankfully, deus ex machina saves the day! Two modified snowspeeders appear out of nowhere and shoot up the port.
The three Jedi are rescued by the Rebel Alliance while Darth Vader appears out of nowhere and forces him to choke Reva, who is livid at her incompetence. How did Vader get on the base? When did he arrive? And why didn’t Obi-Wan sense his presence?
Reva has managed to place a tracker on Obi-Wan and the others, which is actually inside Lola. While the motley band of survivors all remain down heartened over the death of a character we’ve known for 2.5 seconds, the red light of Lola blinks on. In a moment of beauty though, Leia and Obi-Wan hold hands.
The Episode Review
The show has a lot of potential but it’s clear that not a lot of effort has gone into making it great. The positives are that the story is interesting and the characters are well-developed. It’s also worth noting that this show is very affordable to watch, so if you’re looking for something to entertain you for an hour or two then this is definitely worth checking out.
Reva is a compelling figure here, with a hint of humanity in her as she toys with Leia and discusses her past. We get to see her menacingly question Leia, and there are some nice little nods to A New Hope in the way this interrogation is played out. ..
Some of the lightsaber action and general aesthetic of this show looks promising, including the “lights-out” fight and the moments of menace in the hallway. But then we get goofy CGI scenes or moments like Obi-wan trying to ferry Leia out in a massive trench-coat. ..
The best example of continuity in this story is Tala’s scenes. She’s constantly talking about her family and her home, even though we know nothing about them. This makes it difficult to follow the story, as we don’t know what’s happening with any of the characters.
Tala infiltrates the base, has a lead security guard call her “sir” instead of “miss” for…reasons? and then proceeds to sit at a desk, whispering and arousing the suspicions of an officer right next to her. This is not only an interesting story but also raises some important questions about how much power Tala has as a female infiltrator. ..
She’s then questioned by another imperial officer, who she beats down behind a partition wall several feet away. The camera here visibly shows that there are holes in that wall. After beating him down, she returns to her desk, talks on the comms unit… in full view of another officer sitting opposite her that must have seen the whole thing?
Officers sitting at their desks in an otherwise empty room suddenly notice an unconscious man behind a wall 3 minutes after he was initially noticed. ..
Fans of the Star Wars franchise are frustrated with the sloppy writing in the show. This level of writing is littered right throughout the show and while I appreciate Obi-Wan may look pretty, and others will point out I’m nitpicking, given the sheer amount of money that’s gone into this project, it just feels like fans deserve better than this level of sloppy writing.
