After five short weeks of episodes, Obi-Wan Kenobi has finally arrived at its final act and Deborah Chow and Joby Harold manage to tie up all the loose ends while leaving just enough to keep fans curious about the future of new characters that the series introduced. Following the tragedy on Jabiim last week, the finale opens on Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair), and their newfound friends desperately trying to escape from an Imperial Star Destroyer that is bearing down on them. Despite Roken’s (O’Shea Jackson) upbeat attitude toward the refugees, Obi-Wan sees straight through the bravado and realizes that they are in a dire situation.
Repeating a similar strategy that he employed to get them off of Jabiim, Obi-Wan reveals that he’s going to use himself as bait to draw Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) off their trail so that they can escape to safety. This decision leaves Obi-Wan with palpable guilt as Leia reacts poorly to the mere thought that someone other than Ben would be taking her home to Alderaan. Kenobi once again tasks Haja (Kumail Nanjiani) with caring for the princess, affording him a level of trust that seems to take the con-man by surprise. In the end, Leia was right about Haja—he was someone they could trust. Before Obi-Wan leaves the vessel, he says his farewells to Leia, and it genuinely feels like it may be the last time we see these two together until an older Princess Leia is saying “You’re my only hope.” Obi-Wan gifts her with Tala’s (Indira Varma) holster and, of course, the clever girl slips L0-LA into his robes, subtly informing the audience that these aren’t their final moments together, at least not yet.
Darth Vader falls for the bait and pursues Obi-Wan alone to a nearby planet where they will once again engage in battle. Obi-Wan is visibly uneasy about the impending encounter. Rather than shedding his robes with the dramatic effect witnessed in Revenge of the Sith, Kenobi carefully removes them and folds them. In this, he seems less like a Jedi Master who is ready to fight, and more like a man headed to his execution. The last time Darth Vader and Kenobi faced off in the series, Obi-Wan was out of practice and at a disadvantage, but not now. As soon as he assumes the Soresu pose (Kenobi’s iconic battle stance) it’s clear that this time he’s come ready to kill Darth Vader or die trying. The series does well with building up the anxiety and tension of this encounter, something that might otherwise not be there because we as an audience know when their last duel occurs in A New Hope.
Darth Vader has arrived just as determined as his former Master to kill Obi-Wan or die trying. Despite Obi-Wan’s newfound connection to the Force, he is still no match for the power of the Dark Side that flows through Vader. At least not at first. After a fairly even fight, with choreography that was reminiscent of the flashback in last week’s episode, Darth Vader gains the high ground, literally causing the ground beneath Obi-Wan’s feet to collapse and burying him alive in the rubble.
Ultimately, it’s the children that give Obi-Wan the strength to survive. As he struggles to keep the stones from crushing him to death, he sees flashes of Luke—and perhaps more importantly Leia—and it gives him the push he needs to fully tap into the Force. After climbing out of the pit (like another Ben once did) Obi-Wan confronts Darth Vader once more, but this time with a slight advantage. With the full force of his abilities at play, Obi-Wan is able to drive Vader back, pummeling him with rocks and injuring him. But with those injuries comes the revelation that there is still something of Anakin left beneath the monster he became.
As the duel wears on, Obi-Wan strikes Darth Vader, shattering his mask and damaging his vocoder. It is one thing to know that your oldest and closest friend has fallen to the Dark Side, but it is something else entirely to see the evidence of it. Obi-Wan is visibly shaken as he stares into the eye of his former Padawan for the first time since the flames of Mustafar consumed him. Kenobi attempts to apologize for everything that happened between them, perhaps hoping to appeal to the man he once knew and show mercy, but that man is gone. With a broken vocoder blending the voice of Anakin Skywalker with Darth Vader, he snidely tells Obi-Wan that his former Master didn’t kill him—he killed himself. It’s a heartbreaking scene on multiple levels, but it pushes Obi-Wan to a point where he realizes that there is nothing that can be changed about their situation, and Anakin is truly gone.
In the Season 2 finale of Star Wars Rebels, Ahsoka Tano faced a similar scenario with Darth Vader. As the pair of former friends dueled, Ahsoka shattered Vader’s mask, revealing the man beneath. But even with his face revealed, she quickly learned that there was no humanity left in Darth Vader—just as Obi-Wan did. These moments provided painful revelation for two people that Anakin was once closest to, and both make his eventual turn back to the light in Return of the Jedi even more profound.
While Obi-Wan faced off against Darth Vader, Reva (Moses Ingram) set off on the path of vengeance on Tatooine. Led to Owen (Joel Edgerton) by the message that she discovered from Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) last week, she starts asking unsuspecting townsfolk where she can find Owen. Fortunately, someone tips Owen off, giving him and Beru (Bonnie Piesse) just enough time to arm themselves and prepare for Reva to arrive at nightfall. In contrast with the battle of wills taking place between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan, this fight is fairly straightforward. Reva might injure Owen in the process, but her goal is to find the boy and Owen and Beru are simply standing in her way.
Luke manages to temporarily escape, but Reva pursues him up to the rocky hills where he attempts to hide. Once she spots him, she pulls him down from his hiding spot and knocks him unconscious in the process. One would think that this would make her plan to kill a child that much easier—he’s not fighting her, he’s not trying to escape—but it doesn’t. As Reva closes in on her ill-fated attempt to strike at the heart of Vader (by killing a boy he doesn’t even know about) she is struck down by flashbacks from her own childhood. Instead of Luke laying in front of her, she sees her younger self. Can she kill an innocent child as Anakin Skywalker did? Obviously, we know that Luke has a long and illustrious life ahead of him, but the show never wavers on the weight of its stakes.
The dust has already settled at the Lars homestead as Obi-Wan arrives to offer assistance to Owen and Beru. They managed to hold their own against Reva, but in the wake of the fight, Luke is nowhere to be found. On the horizon, Reva appears carrying the unconscious young boy. In the end, she was unable to follow through with her revenge, but she still fears that she has become the very thing she wanted to destroy. Obi-Wan assures her that by showing mercy, she has ensured that she isn’t like Darth Vader. Reva’s story feels far from complete, and hers is a story that feels long overdue in this franchise. She is someone who did unspeakable things in the name of vengeance, someone who came close to the Dark Side, but ultimately found strength in herself to come back.
On Alderaan, Princess Leia prepares to meet with an envoy that is arriving in a few moments. Unlike the premiere where she chose to shirk her responsibilities, Leia seems eager to rise to meet the challenge. Especially with Tala’s holster at her hip. With real-world experience and a deeper understanding about the people that are facing the Empire every day, Princess Leia is on the right track to become the woman we all know and love. Breha (Simone Kessel) comes to collect her and is quite amused that her little girl is wearing a holster, but as any parent knows, sometimes you just have to let your kid wear the weird thing they’re attached to. Ready to face a visiting dignitary or her cousins, Leia is met with an even better visitor: Obi-Wan.
After reuniting Leia and L0-LA, Obi-Wan decides to course-correct a tiny white lie he told Leia a few episodes ago. Crouching down to her level, Obi-Wan confesses that he did know Leia’s parents and that she was right to assume that to be the case. Without mentioning their names—which would break carefully orchestrated continuity—Obi-Wan tells her which of her attributes she got from her mother and father. Each of them is the traits that Star Wars fans have always seen in both Leia and Luke, but hearing them straight from Obi-Wan is enough to bring tears to one’s eyes. Following their final farewell, Obi-Wan returns to Tatooine and makes one last trip to the Lars homestead.
This time, instead of sending Obi-Wan away, Owen decides to let him meet Luke for the first time since he delivered the baby boy to the couple. While we don’t get to see the full extent of their first meeting, most likely to preserve continuity for A New Hope, the series does deliver on a new highly gif-able moment of Obi-Wan saying “Hello there.” Some things never change.
In the final moments of Obi-Wan Kenobi we are treated to a delightful cameo appearance that has been teased since the premiere. With Leia safely back home on Alderaan and Luke left to be just a normal boy, Obi-Wan sets off across the sand dunes of Tatooine and, at long last, is met by the Force ghost of his former Master. It seems fitting that Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) finally appears to Obi-Wan on Tatooine, as that was the place where they first met Anakin Skywalker, and where we got to really know them 23 years ago.
Obi-Wan Kenobi has been an awe-inspiring and exhilarating return to the Prequel Era, threading new vibrant stories into the preexisting tapestry of this era. McGregor’s return to the titular character alongside Christensen has been nothing short of a victory, allowing them to breathe new life into the characters with the backing of Harold’s strong storytelling and Chow’s keen ability to deliver visually stunning and dynamic scene work. As a lifelong fan of the Prequels, who could never understand why the films were met with the hostility that they faced, it has been beautiful to see the fandom’s opinions shift and give these actors a hero’s welcome.
The series has also been a gateway to introducing new characters—like Haja and Roken—who have the potential to return in future stories. This era in the galaxy is a fragile one, filled with selfless heroes trying to make a difference against a tyrannical Empire. With references to the likes of Quinlan Vos and Corran Horn, there’s a world of untapped potential for future stories, drawing audiences back in with familiar faces. While Haja and Roken were undoubtedly stand-outs in Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s Reva whose story feels the most incomplete. While we were left with a decent idea about where Haja and Roken are headed, Reva’s future is entirely unwritten. Will she follow Obi-Wan’s path and hide away somewhere? Will she take up arms and wage a war against the Empire alongside the rebels? Her final scene in the series doesn’t give a clear look at when or where she might return, and I hope that Moses Ingram will get another chance to shine as this nuanced and conflicted character.
Rating: A+
All six episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are streaming now on Disney+.