'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Episode 6: "Part VI" Recap and Review
Light vs Dark, Order vs Chaos, Justice vs Rage, Master vs Apprentice, the Obi-Wan we expected and the finale we deserved.
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Call it ‘fan service’, call it pandering, no matter what you want to call it this series has weaponized it for it’s final episode. Vader’s presence, Obi-Wan’s isolation, and Leia’s aimlessness were all used in the beginning as a starting point far enough away from where fans expected to give them room to grow into where they should be. They were so far away that there was a large amount of backlash from the more vocal of the fanbase. But by season’s end they were all where they needed to be. The journey did have it’s hiccups along the way, several odd character moments and questionable decisions, but the simplicity of the story and inconsequential nature of it’s place in the timeline gave the series some breathing room to just be. In a series with that kind of nature and beginning the journey itself doesn’t actually matter. The only thing that did matter was where we find ourselves now, the finale, the destination.
The finale begins on Tatooine, Third Sister (Moses Ingram) is injured but made her way back and is in search of a farmer with the named Owen. In space, the Refugees continue to flee Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) and his ship. Things look dire as Roken (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) explains the situation to Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). To buy them time, Obi-Wan decides that he needs to leave them and draw Vader away so the Refugees can get to safety. Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton) takes his nephew Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) to buy parts on Tatooine. While there, a local warns Owen about Third Sister. Back on the ship, Princess Leia (Vivian Lyra Blair) is having trouble letting Obi-Wan go off on his own, but his mind is already made. At their moisture farm, Owen tells Beru Lars (Bonnie Piesse) about the situation, Owen wants to run but Beru refuses and arms herself with a blaster. After Leia calms down. Obi-Wan says goodbye to the princess for what could be the last time. Before he does, he gives Leia Tala’s holster, saying that she would have wanted Leia to have it. They hug, and Obi-Wan prepares by reaching out to his former Master for answers, which do not come. Roken pleads with Obi-Wan to stay one last time, to lead, but Obi-Wan knows that Roken is all the people need. Obi-Wan leaves in a small dropship and Darth Vader does not hesitate to follow him. Obi-Wan heads to a baron planet and waits, Vader follows, alone. Sundown on Tatooine, Third Sister skulks her way onto the Lars Farmstead, Owen and Beru set up to stop her. Vader lands on the planet and waiting for him is his old Master, ready to end it. Their sabers clash in a chaotic flurry with neither looking weaker than the other. As Third Sister stalks the family, Owen and Beru open fire, only to delay her for the moment. Neither Vader nor Obi-Wan gain the upper hand, until Vader uses all of his power to seemingly bury Obi-Wan alive. Owen and Beru do their best to fight off Third Sister but even as injured as she is, they are no match. Luke is forced to flee into the desert and Third Sister follows.
Using the force, Obi-Wan frees himself from the rocks and goes on the offensive against Vader. He beats Vader down little by little, taking out the electronics keeping Vader alive. With one final strike to the head, Obi-Wan brings Vader to his knees. Vader looks up and Obi-Wan sees the eyes of his old apprentice, then hears his voice. Obi-Wan apologizes for failing him, and calls him Anakin. Vader says Anakin is truly dead and it was Vader himself who killed him. Obi-Wan leaves Vader to his solitude then heads out to Tatooine where he senses the danger Luke is in. As Luke runs away, Third Sister catches up to him and renders him unconscious. Third Sister tries to attack Luke, who is helpless, but she remembers Anakin’s face, when he tried to do the same to her. Obi-Wan arrives on Tatooine and joins Owen and Beru as they look for him, but out of the desert comes Third Sister carrying the still unconscious Luke back to the Lars family. Owen picks Luke up and the family heads back to the farm, leaving the Third Sister and Obi-Wan alone. Third Sister weeps on the ground, claiming failure to avenge her Jedi family by killing Anakin’s. Obi-Wan explains that she showed mercy and avoided becoming Vader. She relinquishes her lightsaber, finally freed of her guilt. Back in his castle on Mustafar, Vader informs the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) of his failure and his intentions to keep going after Obi-Wan. The Emperor sees that Obi-Wan is clouding Vader’s mind and encourages him to give up on Obi-Wan, to which he agrees. On Alderaan, a newly focused Leia prepares for guests when she is taken to her father, Bale Organa (Jimmy Smits), by her mother Breha (Simone Kessell). To Leia’s surprise, the guest is actually Obi-Wan come for a proper goodbye. On Tatooine, Obi-Wan gathers his belongings, and leaves the cave to have a life beyond the obligation to keep Luke safe. But before he leaves for good, he stops by the Lars farm to bid farewell to Owen. Before he goes, Owen introduces Oni-Wan, or Ben, to Luke to whom he greets with a “hello there.” As Obi-Wan heads into the desert he is greeted by an old friend, the ghost of his former Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), and the two Jedi’s head into the unknown together.
And just like that, we are back to the beginning, the very beginning. By the end of this series, Vader needed to not be preoccupied by Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan needed to not be preoccupied with Luke, and the Rebellion needed a spark. Those boxes were all checked off by then along with a few 45 year old plot holes. One thing that the fans were desperate to see was Obi-Wan at full power, the result of years of Jedi training, something they were denied in the new trilogy with Luke Skywalker. But Obi-Wan’s abilities were hurled into our collective faces in his fight against Vader, literally. And what a fight it was. Their showdown was arguably the best of their three, which is high praise considering their fight in Revenge of the Sith is widely considered the best in the series. Even the end of the fight was more dramatic; the Darth Vader persona was in full control and claimed responsibility in killing Anakin Skywalker. This moment is the most emotional of the series and sets up an early conversation between Ben and Luke in A New Hope.
Obi-Wan and Leia’s goodbye is very important to her further character growth. She has not only completely absorbed the late Tala’s message she seems more focused on the goals of the Rebellion that seems to be in it’s early stages in the hands of Roken. They even tied up a plot hold created by the series by using a popular fan theory. In A New Hope Leia words her message to Obi-Wan as if they had never met but a popular theory was that she did that to cover herself if it was ever intercepted. By having Obi-Wan telling her that their friendship would put them both in danger it backs up the theory and confirms it without having to change anything. As for the other Skywalker child, Luke has been introduced to Old Ben Kenobi and still is blissfully unaware of the ways of the force. Through some clever marks for the actor it is likely he did not know the extent of who was chasing or why.
The return of Hayden Christensen finally payed off. During the emotional climax of the film, we see his eyes but more importantly we see hear his voice. Crackling in between the youthful Anakin and the bass filled Vader, his voice was the emphasis that the Darth Vader persona has completely taken over and the what remnants of Anakin that were left are now all gone. This moment was brilliantly put together and acted beautifully by both Christensen and McGregor and concluded an incredible fight sequence that saw the full force of our resident space wizard. The final moments with each were also poetic. Vader was with his new master, the returning Ian McDiarmid as The Emperor, who refocused Vader away from Obi-Wan who himself was reunited with his old master Qui-Gon Jinn which saw the return of Liam Neeson in a cameo role.
The biggest stand out performance was that of Moses Ingram. Her emotional journey came to an end when she realized that she could not kill Luke, thus enacting her revenge on Anakin and bringing justice for the death of her fallen youngling family. She could not bring herself to sink to Vader’s level. The last moments she had with Obi-Wan were brilliantly acted. Her emotional trauma came through beautifully in her performance and provided the conclusion to the most important story arc in the series. It can be argued that Third Sister, a.k.a Reva, is the true protagonist of the series. She goes on the emotional journey, faces her antagonist in Vader, and concludes with major evaluation in her character. This is not what many fans want to hear, Ingram was criticized for her acting as being over the top and not believable but placed in the context her blending in as an Inquisitor and it fits like a glove. It was mentioned that her character will be expanded upon in the promised second season and for good reason, Moses Ingram is an acting force that needs to be tapped further.
Was Obi-Wan Kenobi perfect? No. The entire story could have been condensed into a two and a half to three hour feature film. The writing was in service of the moments that created poor character choices and plot holes, The production wavered from beautifully cinematic to cable action cheap. But what was the point of the series if not to hand us six more hours of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan as well as a gift of a final showdown and a few returning names. The series was never needed. There was no grand story to tell, no Death Star plans to steal, no pressures of creating new characters to carry feature films from hear on out. The series was created out of fan service and was just that. The ending of the series marks a success, the fans were given what they wanted, even if they didn’t know it at first. But the difference between the success of Obi-Wan and the Failure of Boba Fett is that the person who help create the character was the one to bring them back. Ewan McGregor effortlessly slipped back into the role that he perfected and succeeded in spite of the story challenges. To be fair, Temura Morrison never really played Boba Fett before his series and Alden Ehrenreich’s attempt to recreate Han Solo wasn’t the sole contributor to Solo: A Star Wars Story becoming the lowest grossing Star Wars film. There is a lesson for Disney to learn here but whether or not they learn from it is a fitting question. You cannot re-create an icon. Aside from them appearing as in child form, certain characters are untouchable, that is why a CGI Luke Skywalker worked and why a recast Han Solo did not. Obi-Wan Kenobi is what it is, fan service, and in that respect it is a success in spite of its flaws. We will see Ewan McGregor dawn the robes again, it gives Disney a second chance at a meaningful story, until then we all have to just wait with quiet anticipation to hear one more “hello there.”