This Is Where The Fun Begins

I have not loved most of Obi-Wan Kenobi so far, a series that has so far felt like it’s kind of shuffling to a conclusion, and one that we already know, at that. But this week’s episode? That’s a different story, and while it still struggles in a few ways, it’s also full of some great moments, many of the best of the whole series so far. Spoilers follow.

You can tell right from the opening that this one is different, as finally, finally poor Hayden Christensen gets some actual screen time out from under the Vader mask. We get an extended sequence that has him lightsaber training with Obi-Wan back in what seems like maybe post Attack of the Clones, pre-Revenge of the Sith, given his hair.

The entire battle is used as an extended comparison to the current conflict between Vader and Obi-Wan, and the tactics Obi-Wan will use to slip away once more, but it’s just great to finally see Hayden back as Anakin, and we also got at least one more new shot of him killing Younglings as we learn Reva’s origin story.

While it was not a huge surprise that Reva was a Youngling (many Inquisitors are former Younglings or Padawans), it was somewhat surprising that her grand plan was to ultimately assassinate Vader for what Anakin did to the Jedi temple and the other kids all those years ago. I guess the idea was to work her way up and land an audience with Lord Vader for a chance to literally stab him in the back, but…that does not go so well, as you might expect.

This was an excellent Vader sequence, as before this, Vader catches a starship, pulls it down, and wrenches it open, showing the sheer force of his power at this point. But then the duel against Reva was a different kind of flex. Vader does not even use his own lightsaber, he force pushes Reva around until he ultimately steals her own dual-bladed one, then tosses her half of it just to be sporting. Then he plays around a little more, disarms her again, and stabs her with the patented “this should kill you but it won’t” lightsaber move that this show has now used on two separate occasions.

The episode ends with the injured Reva discovering the message to Obi-Wan about Vader’s children, as I think she’s connecting the dots on Leia being his daughter, and now will head to Tatooine, it seems, to do…something with Luke? I’m not exactly sure what the plan is here. In theory, maybe another way to bring Ben to her, and where Ben goes, Vader will go. Reva has no love for Ben either, as she openly questions where he was, and why he didn’t help save her and her friends from his own raging padawan. I mean she’s got a point.

So yes, this was a good episode. I thought outside of the Vader fight it did suffer from some awkward choreography during the Stormtrooper invasion of the hideout (a frequent sticking point for this series), and I was not terribly interested in five scenes of Leia fiddling around with wires. But overall, yes, this is an episode that finally seemed to live up to the promise of bringing Anakin/Vader back for this, and I’m definitely not opposed to the Hayden Christensen suggestion that Vader could have his own series during this era. We’ll see if Disney agrees.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.