The Rescue Mission
Episode 4 of Obi-Wan Kenobi starts with Obi-Wan saved by Tala, who abandoned Leia last week to save our Jedi Knight. In order to heal him from his wounds, Obi-Wan is taken to Jabiim and placed in a tank to heal. After some nice flashes to Vader, Obi-Wan awakens and, despite not being fully healed, remains desperate to get Leia back. Enlisting the help of Roken, he agrees to help Obi-Wan. Thankfully they have crucial intel to help, namely that of a base within the Mustafar System. This base doesn’t have any shields, with Tala admitting that it’s because they’re confident no one will attack them. 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 prisoner 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. We then cut to a really cheap looking CGI shot, as Obi-Wan and Tala touch down in the base on their ship. 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. Sitting down at a desk, around a meter away from another officer, 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, she 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. Reva takes Leia out of her cell to a large, open area to be interrogated. 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. Tala brings Reva out and claims that she’s found evidence of the path. Although Reva sees straight through her deception, Tala is persistent. Obi-Wan meanwhile, shuts off the lights and manages to free Leia. As alarms wail, we’re graced with 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. Speaking of which, 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, Ob-Wan uses his force powers to hold off the water but it’s 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. Then, 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. They make it to the hangar but they’re surrounded, as Reva shows up with the other Inquisitors and stormtroopers gave them surrounded. Thankfully, deus ex machina saves the day! Two modified snowspeeders appear out of nowhere and shoot up the port. Leia, Tala and Obi-Wan are rescued (although I may add, we don’t actually see them get inside the ship) while Vader appears out of nowhere and force chokes Reva, livid at her incompetence. Wait, how did Vader get on the base? When did he arrive? And why didn’t Obi-Wan sense his presence? Anyway, Reva has the last laugh. She’s 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 budget for each of these episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi is in the region of $25 million. But watching this show, it’s clear none of that has gone into the writing, continuity or character development. Let’s dive into the positives first though. Reva is actually really compellingly used here, with a nice glimmer of humanity in her as she’s toying with Leia and discussing her past. We actually 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 pretty good, 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. That’s before mentioning the story which has, so far at least, been awful. There’s some terrible continuity here and the best example of this stems from Tala’s scenes. So 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. She’s then questioned by another imperial officer, whom 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? And then 3 minutes later, this otherwise empty room is full of officers sitting at their desks and not one person noticed the unconscious guy behind said wall? These sort of moments are littered right the way through 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.
