The Empire isn’t willing to let Kenobi go that easily. Welcome to the second to last episode of ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’.
We begin with a flashback to ‘The Clone Wars’ era and see Hayden Christensen as a young Anakin Skywalker! He’s sparring with Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to prove he’s ready to be a Jedi Master but then we’re quickly brought back to present day and now see Anakin as Darth Vader.
Reva (Moses Ingram) walks in and tells Vader exactly where Obi-Wan is headed. She’s also finally given what she’s always wanted, the Grand Inquisitor title.
The rescue ship lands, and Kenobi runs into Haja (Kumail Nanjiani), who explains he’s now wanted by the empire after his confrontation with Reva. They ask Roken (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) for help getting back to Alderaan, but he explains that they need to save the refugees first.
Vader is on his way, and he is not happy. It’s revealed that the tracker Reva planted was in Leia’s droid, and she directs it remotely to close the hideaway’s doors and trap the refuges inside. Obi-Wan then confronts a wall of messages from Jedi who have previously been there, as well as a box full of lightsabers.
The droid locks down the facility, as Kenobi tells Roken that Vader “has no patients for a siege.” We’re shown another flashback, and the Empire lands on the planet. Obi-Wan takes the lead and promises everyone they will be safe if they can hold off the Empire long enough to escape. He gives Roken an hour to bypass the lockdown as the Empire prepares their attack, and Reva lands with an army of Stormtroopers.
Obi-Wan receives a message from Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits), worried that Vader has discovered the truth about his offspring and offers to go to Tatooine and help Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton) protect young Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely).
Tala (Indira Varma) then speaks to Obi-Wan and tells him about the force sensitive families that she watched be killed, explaining how she moved from the Empire to the Resistance. “There are some things you can’t forget, but you can fight to make them better,” she explained.
Haja recommends climbing through the vent to fix the doors, and Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) offers to help. Roken dismisses her but Kenobi orders him to let her try. He then puts Haja in charge of Leia so he can confront Reva and buy them some time. Kenobi tells the Empire that he wants to talk the Inquisitor. Reva agrees and the two meet at the door. She instantly sees through his charade and realizes that he is just stalling for time.
Kenobi then asks her how she knows Vader is Anakin. He soon realizes that Reva was a youngling during the events of Order 66 and knows what Anakin did. We are then shown a flashback revealing that Reva had to play dead to avoid being killed by Anakin.
Obi-Wan goes on to discover her big plan. Reva isn’t helping Vader, she wants to kill him and have her revenge. But she turns the tides, blaming Kenobi for Anakin’s murder spree. She strongly asserts that she needs no help, not even his, breaking the door open and fighting her way through.
The Stormtroopers break through with her, and the rebel group retreats. Leia is still in the vents attempting to get the doors open. Tala is shot but her droid protects her as she closes the hallway door to save everyone else, before sacrificing herself by setting off an explosive to slow the attack.
Vader tells Reva remotely to stand down, as we get another flashback to Anakin’s Jedi test. Kenobi realizes that Anakin is expecting him to surrender, and once again leaves Leia with Haja to keep her safe, while giving himself up to the Empire.
Obi-Wan informs Reva that she isn’t bringing him to Vader, but that he’s bringing Vader to her! He tells her about the refuges and asks if Reva is really going to let Vader slaughter innocent people again, offering to help her end it together. Considering his offer, Reva questions if Vader will see it coming. Kenobi replies “all he’ll see is me.”
In the flashback, Anakin downs Kenobi as he explains how the young man’s need for victory blinds him. In the present, Vader lands on the planet and goes to get his old Master.
Back in the air vent, Leia finds the broken piece and gets attacked by Lola, freeing her from the empire’s control, while Vader enters the base. Leia gets the doors open and is reunited with Kenobi, as he has escaped from the Empire. A transport goes to leave, and Vader stops it, breaking it open in a rage to find Obi-Wan, only to discover that it was a distraction, as the real ship flies away.
In the flashback, Anakin finally loses to Obi-Wan, with his Master saying, “You are a great warrior Anakin, but your need to prove yourself is your undoing. Until you overcome it, a Padawan you will still be.”
Back in the present, Reva is ready to end Vader’s life until he stops her cold, revealing that he knew of her plans and blames Kenobi for using her. They fight, but she is no match for Vader, as he tosses her a blade, so they can duel it out fair and square.
But Vader gets the upper hand as Reva flashes back to when he attacked her friends during Order 66. Vader defeats Reva, leaving her gravely injured, as it is revealed that the Grand Inquisitor is still alive and working with Vader to reveal Reva’s true intentions.
Kenobi and the rebels get away, as we see Reva still fighting for her life, and discovering the message Bail Organa left for Kenobi, revealing Luke Skywalker. Back on the ship, Kenobi senses that something is wrong. The scene then cuts to Tatooine and a sleeping Luke. Fade to black.
Director Deborah Chow made a brilliant choice to use the flashback to the prequels in this episode. Not only did we get to see Hayden Christensen back in his old Jedi robe and wielding his lightsaber, but we also saw Ewan McGregor with his famous mullet!
But fan service aside, the use of that flashback was to illustrate the seemingly never-ending battle between good and evil through Anakin and Obi-Wan’s long relationship, as it was playing out in real time. While yes, we saw it as a memory, it still got its point across.
Without that choice, we would just have a back and forth between Master and Apprentice, neither of them literally in the same room! It shows the audience a time when the two were (relatively) friendly, but also giving us hints of what’s to come in this series.
Like in the flashback, Anakin is impulsive and full of anger. While this is obvious to longtime fans of the franchise, it shows how little he has changed in the long run. Not counting the missing limbs.
But it’s not just Anakin’s flashback that we see in this episode. Reva gets the same treatment, as we’re shown a firsthand account of Order 66, when Anakin completely turned to the dark side. The parallels of her trauma as well as Kenobi’s, while different, are nearly one in the same.
Reva lost her family in the Jedi order, just as Anakin lost his Master in his welcoming of the dark side. While I wouldn’t say that her path parallel’s Anakin’s, she does what he seemingly cannot, which is fight back!
We only have one episode left of ‘Obi-Won Kenobi’ and so much more can still happen.
See you all next week for the finale!
And we’re back! With what is certainly the coolest show on television. Yes, I feel comfortable saying that. Just like I feel comfortable wearing jeans to formal events. But “Legion,” based on a specific corner of the “X-Men” universe, is also arguably the most confusing (in an agreeably abstract sort of way) show on television. So once again I’m going to recap this week’s excellent episode (once again written by series mastermind/all-around genius Noah Hawley) in the form of a series of questions.
So, What About His Father?
“Legion,” which premiered last night on FX, is maybe the most un-recappable show in the history of modern television. There are so many time jumps, narrative shifts, flashbacks, and potential dream sequences, that even following it can be a bit of a challenge. Actually putting it into some kind of linear analysis seems like a fools errand at best and actively self-destructive at worse.
What Actually Happens?
Warning: Spoilers ahead, not only from the “Game of Thrones” Season 5 finale but also the “A Song of Ice and Fire” books.
Here are the deaths we’re sure about:
• We had the first death within the first five minutes of the episode when Stannis Baratheon was led into the woods to find his wife, Selyse Baratheon had hanged herself. We’d feel worse about it if she hadn’t been such a horrible mother up until the point when her daughter was already burning and it was too late to do anything. Stannis also faced a mutiny of men who apparently didn’t want to follow a king who was willing to burn his daughter alive. Didn’t see that in your flames, did you, Melisandre?
• Sansa watched the battle play out, then worked to make her escape. She was stopped by Myranda with her bow and arrow, next to Theon. While Myranda was threatening Sansa, and about to shoot, Theon pushed Myranda over a ledge and killed her. (When does Sansa get to save herself?) He and Sansa went to escape.
• Meryn Trant beat the girls around him, until Arya was revealed as one of them — she had used one of the faces. She gave it right back to him and then some. Will anyone mourn this pedophile sadist? No. Arya told him she was the first name on her list. Now he’s no one. Nothing. His death was gruesome.
• While sailing from Dorne to King’s Landing, Jaime tried to tell Myrcella the truth about her father. She already knew. And she was glad. (Gross) However, that was followed by Myrcella having a runny nose — she was poisoned by the Sand Snakes. Ellaria drank the antidote, but Myrcella didn’t get any. Uh oh. Another death?
• Cersei was encouraged to confess and, this time, she was ready — even if she wasn’t sincere about it. She went to the High Sparrow and asked for absolution. He said she could go home … after her atonement. She was scrubbed naked, had her hair shorn, and forced to go for her “walk of atonement,” aka walk of shame — with a women literally calling out “shame” as she walked. That was soon drowned out by “whore,” “c-nt,” and other insults from the people of King’s Landing, which is straight from the book. (Hearing a version of Rains of Castamere just makes it more poignant.) Can Ramsay get this treatment someday?
• Up at The Wall, Davos was arguing for men of the Watch to help Stannis. Melisandre returned and when Davos and Jon Snow asked for news on Stannis, Shireen, etc., she just stared at them. They should … not burn her, ’cause she’d like that, but do something. Another walk of atonement.
So now our Does Jon Really Die?! watch begins and shall not end until “Game of Thrones” Season 6 – or at least until “The Winds of Winter” novel is released. Which will come first?
Are you not entertained? Or at least traumatized? Maybe both? “Game of Thrones” has 10 episodes per season and the penultimate episode, Episode 9, is always a doozy. Season 5’s Episode 9, “The Dance of Dragons,” continued that tradition.
That sequence was from the books, and yet had some serious changes (sorry for blaming you for everything, Hizdahr) and the rest of Episode 9 included mostly new stuff that broke our hearts. Shireen. Sweet Shireen. One of the only characters on “Game of Thrones” that was completely innocent and completely likable is now gone, getting a Mance Rayder death so brutal even her cold-hearted mother wanted to stop it. Fire cannot kill a dragon, but it can kill a terrified child screaming for mercy. Just FYI.
Pieces of this episode were epic in scale, but other parts were just OK or just place-setting for major events in the final episode of Season 5.
STANNIS’ CAMP
Later, Shireen told her father about “The Dance of Dragons.” If she had to choose between the rulers back then, who would she have chosen? She wouldn’t choose, but Stannis — clearly talking about himself — said sometimes the world forces your hand to choose. Shireen volunteered to help her father, and he said there is a way she could help him. She’s so cute and trusting. Don’t hurt her! Stannis: “Forgive me.” Uh oh. They led her through the snow to Melisandre, who was waiting — and Shireen was tied up to be burned. Poor Shireen screamed for her life, she screamed to her mother and father. It was brutal and her mother finally stepped up to try to save her, but it was too late. RIP, angel. Sadly, Stannis is still Sansa’s best hope, so as much as we’re pissed at him and The Red Woman, we still hope they can reclaim Winterfell.
THE WALL
DORNE
BRAAVOS
Arya returned to The House of Black and White and said The Thin Man was not hungry that day. Tomorrow then. Did he know she was lying?
At least you could tell how terrified she was for him during the fight. Tyrion told her she could end it, but Hizdahr said she could not. Jorah was the battle champion, much to the crowd’s dismay … and Jorah sent out a spear to kill a Harpy that was standing behind Dany, ready to attack. He saved her life again! Jorah = Hero. The Sons of the Harpy started slaying in the stands (not a fan of the music at this point) and Daario said to protect the queen. If only Barristan were there, as he was in the book. Hizdahr was going to bring Dany to safety, supposedly, but he was killed by the Harpies. So apparently he’s not with them in this version. Tyrion killed a Harpy and helped Missandei. Jorah and Daario took Dany to safety, and met up with Tyrion and Missandei. A ton of Harpies showed up, boxing them into the center of the ring. Dany became the main event, with spears pointed at her.
So it didn’t even help to get engaged to one of Meereen’s own, the Harpies were just as determined to kill her. Jorah and Daario slayed some of the Harpies, with others just kind of waiting their turn, action-movie style. Dany and Missandei held hands, as if waiting for death. Dany closed her eyes and (on cue?) Drogon showed up. The winged shadow. Answer to Mama’s prayers. He didn’t seem that big in the ring — thought he’d be bigger — but he started eating Harpies and breathing fire at them. Dany called to him and he came over but only briefly. The Harpies kept putting spears into him, so Dany climbed aboard and said “Now.” And the last shot was of Dany flying away as Tyrion, Jorah, Missandei and Daario watched from the pit. Are they going to be able to get out of there?
NEXT WEEK’S FINALE