Episode 1
**The following contains spoilers from Episode 1 of Obi-Wan Kenobi**
The truest sentence in the premiere episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi is when the titular character says “I am a different man now than I used to be.” Everything we have seen so far through the runtime of the first episode of the series is clearcut evidence of this.
While the premiere took a couple of hard left turns I wasn’t expecting, which I’ll get to shortly, it also showed a bit of what we were expecting to see: a weary, pessimistic Obi-Wan who is simply going through the paces and attempting to be anonymous as possible while keeping a sharp eye on Luke Skywalker with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.
Firstly, Ewan McGregor is brilliant as the titular character, showing very small glimpses of the energy and sarcasm that he brought to the prequel trilogy while also showing us a completely different side of him that we haven’t seen yet. Completely lacking hope and not wanting to come to the aid of anyone other than the boy he is tasked with watching over, including a desperate Jedi, you can hear the pain in his voice as he recites what feels like repeated or rehearsed rejections of pleas or requests from those around him.
It’s obvious Obi-Wan is having limited interactions with people around him; he doesn’t appear to want to say anything to those he works with (is it a meat mill? Meat farm?) even when his supervisor asks him a direct question, nor does he speak on the shuttle to and from the work site. His faithful Eopie, Uncle Owen, and a Jawa who he trades with appear to be the only consistent sources of interaction he has these days, which plays into the “crazy old hermit” narrative we learned about him in the original movie.
Before even getting to the broken-down, “I’ve given up” Obi-Wan, the series opens with the (live-action) introduction of the Inquisitors led by Rupert Friend’s Grand Inquisitor searching for a Jedi on Tatooine who turns out not to be Obi-Wan. By the end of the episode, the Jedi is caught and (presumably) killed, and we’re left with Reva, the Third Sister, hunting for Obi-Wan despite the insistence from the Grand Inquisitor to forget about him.
This raises the question, why is the Grand Inquisitor, who is leading the hunt for Jedi across the galaxy, so insistent that she stop looking for Kenobi, by far the second-highest profile Jedi still on the loose (Yoda would have to take top billing)? My only thought is that they have been instructed to leave him for Vader himself to search for. This could potentially lead to some friction between Vader and the Inquisitors, and perhaps could be the origin of Vader’s willingness to dispatch his underlings with free abandon, which is on full display throughout the original trilogy.
The other thing that needs to be mentioned is it seemed like the name they were saying they were looking for in the saloon was going to be “Ahsoka,” and if they’re looking for her on Vader’s orders, that makes sense since Anakin/Vader know her to be alive and know what she is capable of. Maybe he is looking for her to try and turn her to the dark side? Maybe he is looking for her to simply capture her and make sure she won’t damage the new Empire? Who knows what the motivations are, but if Ahsoka is who Vader is looking the hardest for, it makes complete sense.
On the topic of Vader, I have to pause and just mention that Obi-Wan likely believes Anakin to be dead, having left his mostly limbless body in flames next to the lava river on Mustafar at the end of Revenge of the Sith. How much of a shock is Obi-Wan to be in for when Darth Vader reveals himself? Precious few people in the galaxy know Vader’s true identity, and I wonder if we will get to see how Obi-Wan will react when he hears of Darth Vader’s existence, knowing it is his former Padawan.
Where the series started to take a hard left turn for me was in the Alderaan scenes (how beautiful of a planet is Alderaan, though? So glad we are getting to spend more time on this doomed planet) with the young Princess Leia and her family. I don’t know if I missed this in any of the pre-show promotional material but I was completely not expecting to spend as much time with Leia as we did. In watching the episode unfold, though, it makes perfect sense as to why director Deborah Chow and the writing team decided to include her and make her kidnapping a major part of the plot of the series.
Obi-Wan is entrenched in his life on Tatooine, and is clearly taking his role of watching over Luke quite seriously. Now, we knew he would have to leave Tatooine based on footage from the trailers and the fact that we probably wouldn’t have an entire series just on one planet, but he would need an incredibly important reason to leave Luke’s side and travel somewhere else. What better reason than the kidnapping of Luke’s sister? While he rejects pleas from Bail Organa at first (Jimmy Smits in Star Wars is always a good thing), he eventually realizes he must come to the rescue; and of course, we know Leia knows of Obi-Wan from her hologram message in A New Hope, so this excursion has to be the beginning of that relationship.
In any case, the reveal of young Leia was fantastic for me, and makes perfect sense to the plot of the series as well as the greater franchise. I think she will play a much more important role in the show than I even initially thought when she first appeared. The trap being laid by Reva (who of course, doesn’t know Leia’s true importance) has to be the central plot A storyline moving forward as Obi-Wan will now have to navigate around his newfound anonymity to rescue the future Jedi Knight.
Also, how amazing is it that we live in a world in which Danny Trejo and now Flea are playing characters in the Star Wars Universe? I was thrilled to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist playing the lead kidnapper, and am honestly surprised he hasn’t popped up earlier in the Disney+ shows since he has exactly the type of energy that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni love.
Speaking of the actors, I have to salute Joel Edgerton for embracing the role of Uncle Owen again after 17 years in which he’s become a very prominent actor. A relative unknown when he last appeared in Revenge of the Sith, he’s one of the more sought-after character and supporting actors now, having appeared in movies directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Sir Ridley Scott, Baz Luhrmann, and Jeff Nichols, among others. Coming back to the character in itself is awesome, but he seems to be completely embracing the curmudgeonly, grumpy tone that Phil Brown laid out in the original Star Wars in 1977.
I don’t know how much more of Uncle Owen we’ll see since it appears as though much of the next few episodes will be off-planet, but his limited interaction with Ben Kenobi was pretty much how I pictured their interactions based on what Uncle Owen says in the original film.
Another character whose story will be fascinating is going to be Reva; what is she owed? Who owes it to her and why? Reva seriously needs to chill out, as her hot-headedness seems to contradict the rest of the Inquisitors – will Rupert Friend be the one to discipline her, or will she feel the wrath of Vader himself? I’m not sure how I feel about her yet, but it’s not hard to pick out who the unlikable big bad is going to be in this series.
I can imagine many people’s complaints about the first episode will be “it was too long” or “it was too repetitive” or “it moved too slowly” but I believe that was the point. This isn’t the hotheaded apprentice from The Phantom Menace, the great detective Jedi Knight we saw in Attack of the Clones, or the great war general from Revenge of the Sith, we’re meant to feel and live through how changed he is, and how he is simply plodding through his days until Luke is of an age where he can be trained.
This is complex in itself, and shows growth in Obi-Wan’s character from his first appearance in the prequels. When he and his master Qui-Gon (who we’re definitely going to see at some point, right?) first meet Anakin, he is “too old to be trained” – Obi-Wan even says so himself. Now that Luke is 10, is he now also not too old? One might think Obi-Wan is not going to want to jump at the opportunity to train another Skywalker based on what happened with Anakin, but I think Obi-Wan realizes how many outside factors there were at play with his old apprentice. From the love for Padme to the relationship with Palpatine to the whole prophecy thing, none of these are at play at all with Luke, so he’s more of a clean slate for Obi-Wan to train.
While there weren’t any big cameos or reveals (aside from Leia, which like I said may have been mentioned before and I just missed), I would have to think some are on the way. With Reva bellowing in the trailer that she wants all the scum and bounty hunters to be on the hunt, I think we can expect some familiar faces to pop in at that point; maybe Cad Bane, maybe Boba Fett, and maybe even Black Krrsantan. I also feel like we’ll get the Qui-Gon appearance I’m so desperately hoping for, as well as possibly a Yoda cameo at some point (I mean, he’s the only other confirmed Jedi Obi-Wan knows about).
I’m really interested to see how the writers will work in the introduction of Darth Vader in the series, as well as if we’ll see any more flashback sequences. Starting the series in the carnage and chaos of Order 66 in the Jedi Temple was a really cool place to begin, but I hope we get to see a lot more of it since it’s pretty central to the whole Anakin-going-full-evil-Vader storyline.
We’ve only ever really seen glimpses of it here and there in Revenge of the Sith itself and now with the first few moments of this episode, but I wonder if we’ll ever get a fully fleshed out Jedi Temple sequence. It would be hard to pull off in some ways, but after seeing the aftermath of Order 66 and seeing its effects elsewhere in the galaxy in The Clone Wars and to some extent The Bad Batch, seeing it happen in live action is something I think the Star Wars universe is missing, but of course can’t be shown to its full extent without Anakin Vader himself, Hayden Christensen.
Christensen has seemed extremely gracious and happy in the marketing appearances he has done; in his Star Wars Celebration appearance on stage, when asked if he had any final words before people saw the series, he replied: “This is where the fun begins” and I cannot think of a more perfect answer. Seeing him being re-embraced by the Star Wars fandom has been wonderful to watch, as I think he got a bad rap in his prequel roles (let’s be honest, he did the best he could with some absolutely horrific dialogue) and I can’t help but think we’ll see some more pre-charred, pre-mask Anakin in some flashback work. Seeing him back in action sans burns and sans mask would be the icing on the cake for Christensen’s (presumed) victory lap in the Star Wars universe.
Despite only having watched one episode, I think this series will be much different from the expansive The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, at least initially, and will undoubtedly have a much tighter plot considering here we’re bound by already having a clear start and finish line to the key characters. There are some other differences as well – I don’t believe the other series have begun with “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” unless I’m mistaken, and this series does not have Chapter Titles like the others do. This could either be a by-product of telling a story and having main characters who are more prominent in the Skywalker Saga, or could simply be a choice by Deborah Chow to distance this series, likely a one-off, from the running series helmed by Favreau and Filoni. And on that note, while those two aren’t listed as Executive Producers on this series, it’s obvious they’ve had some input, right?
With two episodes streaming currently, I have only watched the premiere episode; my plan is to watch the second on Sunday morning so I have time to fully digest the premiere as well as complete this review. So check back here on Sunday for my review of the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The third episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi streams on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 1.
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