“Justice”
Episode 6 of Obi-Wan Kenobi starts with us back on Tatooine with Reva looking for Owen. Somehow she’s got there before Obi-Wan and the others, and she’s at full power now too. How did that happen? How did she recover from her injuries enough to make it here? “Don’t ask questions, just consume product” and all that. Her goal here though is Luke, whom she’s desperate to find.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan and the other rebels attempt to hold out from relentless blaster fire from Vader and the star destroyer. Obi-Wan admits to Leia that he’s scared, but he’s going to try and give Roken and the others some time by drawing Vader’s attention away. He tasks Haja with getting Leia home and hugs the princess goodbye before leaving to face Vader one more time.
Roken sets up a dropship, which Obi-Wan jumps into and takes off. The Grand Inquisitor believes they should keep tracking the rebels but Vader is blinded by hate and demands they follow Obi-Wan. With the blaster fire failing, and Obi-Wan heading toward a deserted planet, Vader prepares his ship as he wants to face Obi-Wan alone on this planet. It turns out Obi-Wan has Lola in his possession. Why? Well, it’s to stop him feeling so scared, apparently.
On the surface of the planet, Obi-Wan and Vader fight. This time Obi-Wan isn’t running away. But Vader gets the upper-hand, taking out Obi-Wan and burying him under a whole rabble of rocks. “You have failed, Master.” Vader says, taking off.
Through the power of remembering Leia, Obi-Wan causes a shockwave to blast the rocks off him and confronts Vader, using rocks of his own to take out his former pupil.
This time, Obi-Wan bests Anakin, knocking him down and causing sparks to fly from his helmet. In fact, he rips it open and manages to see Anakin inside. Obi-Wan’s heart breaks as he sees his former pupil. “Anakin is gone. I am all what remains.” Vader says.
Obi-Wan eventually takes off, leaving Vader alone on the planet and the Star Destroyer, surprisingly, not firing or chasing Obi-Wan’s ship. That’s lucky!
Meanwhile on Tatooine, Reva breaches the perimeter of Owen’s farm after Owen puts Luke in hiding. When Reva approaches, with her broken lightsaber, Owen starts firing on her with his blaster.
Owen protects Luke while he’s inside the house, using a bit of metal to try and stave off Reva’s lightsaber. It obviously doesn’t work! “What do you want?” Owen asks. “Justice.” The murderer says. Reva is blinded by hate, anger and suffering (sure sound like traits those in the Dark Side have!) and eventually chases after Luke, lightsaber flashing an angry red.
With Obi-Wan fresh from his victory over Vader, he heads down to Tatooine where Reva knocks out Luke and looks set to kill him. Before she does, she sees herself in Luke’s position and, realizing she’s pure evil, changes her mind.
Reva carries an unconscious Luke across to Owen while Obi-Wan is watching on. This time Reva is on her knees before Obi-Wan and starts crying. “I couldn’t do it.” She says tearfully, somehow regretting the fact she was unable to kill a little boy with a lightsaber. (I know this is her referencing the Jedi Temple and the Younglings, I jest.)
“Have I become him?” The murderer asks, tears staining her eyes. Thinking back to the merciless way she cut an old lady’s hand off, hunted Jedi, hung a Jedi in the middle of town before everyone, killed and murdered children and adults alike, tortured Leia and almost killed Luke, Obi-Wan says “No. You have chosen not to. Who you become now, that is up to you.”
Reva drops her lightsaber, Obi-Wan helps her up and tells her she’s free. And he walks away, leaving Reva to her devices.
Meanwhile, Vader heads back to Mustafar and speaks to the Emperor about how he’s going to probe every system and find Obi-Wan. The Emperor is not sure he’s thinking clearly.
Time passes and Leia is back on Alderaan, armed with the blaster holster that Obi-Wan gave her, something that’s a reminder to Tala’s sacrifice in episode 5. Leia decides she wants to change some things in the established hierarchy, as Obi-Wan touches down and admits that Leia is the one who has saved him.
After gushing praise on her, he warns Leia not to tell anyone about him if she should call on him in the future and takes off. What about Luke? Well, Obi-Wan decides to leave the cave and rides over to Owen’s farm.
Obi-Wan decides that Owen and Beru are the only protection Luke needs and decides to walk away, after meeting Luke with his trademark “Hello there”.
After handing over the toy plane, Obi-Wan takes off and notices Qui-Gon’s force ghost out in the desert. He encourages Obi-Wan to follow as they leave Luke unprotected.
The Episode Review
A nostalgia-baiting final episode sees Obi-Wan Kenobi stumble over the finish line, a move that will undoubtedly paper over a lot of the problems this show has had for many fans excited to see a lightsaber duel and the nostalgic nods to the past. The most notable problem comes from Reva within the first seconds of the episode.
The character has been poorly written from the start, with skewed motivations, and there’s absolutely no mention of how she managed to teleport from the “gutter” of that planet all the way over to Tatooine given the hangar was empty, Vader left and she’s supposedly badly injured. And doing so faster than Obi-Wan who’s being pursued by Vader, I may add.
The fight between Obi-wan and Vader is a nice touch and one that sees this duel bring their conflict “full circle” back to A New Hope. But at the same time, it also slips into even more continuity problems.
In Revenge of the Sith it makes sense that Obi-Wan walks away from Anakin given he’s a crispy mess and close to death. Here though, he just walks away from Vader while he’s on his knees. And then he manages to leave the planet without the star destroyer bothering to chase him or send anyone down to check on Vader.
Problems aside, this is still the best part of the episode, and that’s just as well given it’s sprinkled around skewed scenes involving Reva.
Reva’s new mission is to kill a young boy because she wants “justice.” But the only reason she can’t kill Luke is because she sees herself in that position. And then, by the end, Obi-Wan lets her live. And on that same subject, are we to believe a 10 year old Luke forgets what a lightsaber looks like after a traumatic experience from a crazy lady wielding one around in his house and chasing him?
I personally think it would have been a more fitting end if Obi-Wan killed her, seeing what happened to Anakin and not wanting Reva to succumb to the same thing. Or, if Disney don’t want that, then have Reva shoot herself in the head, unwilling to live with the guilt from causing so much pain and devastation on everyone around her. Instead, she’s just forgiven for torturing and murdering numerous innocent people.
As for Obi-Wan, he’s basically been a foot-note in his own story and ends it by deciding not to watch over Luke after all, letting the dangerous Reva live in suffering (which is a path to the dark side of course) and leaves Luke in the care of Owen and takes off to parts unknown. But hey, we saw force-ghost Qui-Gon which is at least a nice touch!
Bad writing and editing have been a staple of this series from the first episode and no amount of nostalgia bait can hide that. At least not from those asking questions or looking at this critically.
I know I’m in the minority as a lot of the media and other people are gushing over this series but when it comes to storytelling, directing, editing, acting, visual design and continuity, Obi-Wan is lacking in all those areas – especially when you start asking questions and looking at the logic of this. The finale is probably the best episode of the entire show, but that’s hardly a high bar to set.
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Episode Rating
(2.5)
You and I are in the exact same page.
When did Lola become a non-tracking device?
This episode, by far, was the worst of them all. It’s obvious in Episode 5, Vader holding that transport ship back was the climax of the story (to be cheapened with the other one taking off), but Episode 6 was all “Falling Action”—-for those who are writers, there is a path to story telling. Although the fight between Obi-Wan and Vader was okay as a visual; in continuity, it degraded the fight between Obi-Wan’s Alec Guinness vs. Vader we all know and love in 1976. As in, with all that stone throwing at one another, why did they not tear up the corridors of a small moon-like Death Star the same way in “A New Hope”. Also, this series Vader was in pieces at the end of the fight, how did he get fixed up again so quickly for the scene with The Emperor? This series puts the blame flat on Kenobi for the creation of The Death Star and all those planets being destroyed, when he could have popped off Vader for good (we knew both survived, so what’s up with this BS anyway).
For the 10 year old Leia Organa, I despised that version of the character. IMHO, she was too young and too bratty to have a mind of an 18 year old decision maker. Maybe is she was 12 – 14, there would have been more credibility and a better emotional involvement with Ben to learn. Mind you that silly flying droid device she was attached too like a pet will not sell as a merchandise toy, what is Disney thinking!? They could have given her a Gremlin instead of Baby Yoda though.
Lastly, The Victim Reva—-a disgrace!! Was she Flip Wilson at one point, I couldn’t tell? We now just dump all 6 episodes, and do it all over again with a different point of view than this actress and woke agenda implored with it. “Justice”…..No, GUTTER. In the end, it just labeled Luke as a growing boy afraid of black people who chased him in a dark alley and made him fall on his head (I thought he had The Force too). This was done to attach it to the original trilogy (much the same by attaching Spock to this fake adoptive non-Vulcan sister he never had in Star Trek—-who happens to be a woke victim). In reality, if these 6 Star Wars episodes are not ignored, one could say that this Luke kid grew up, took a spaceship, went through a Time Warp, found Earth in a Galaxy Far Far Away, and ended up as Ritchie Cunningham in Happy Days to meet The Fonz.—-I mean I swear to The Force, he was Ron Howard.
That’s my take. These episodes are ignored (especially since Laim Neeson didn’t even get a film credit for his appearance (I did not see Special Guest Star: Laim Neeson in the end credits at all). IMO, these episodes do not exist. And Luke was never chased by the victim Reva; instead, he was shooting Womprats. Qui-Gon Jinn got it in the belly and croaked, so did the victim Reva in the gutter (where she belongs). Start Again, Anne Elk.
𝗥𝗲. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝘀𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗯𝗲𝗹𝘀: The thing that explains both that and why it didn’t bother Obi-Wan as he left the planet, is that Darth Vader ordered the Star Destroyer to help him, as he was in pretty bad shape and would have died. He did not seem like he could pilot his ship alone.
The Star Destroyer could have done both, but there could be a deleted scene where Darth Vader orders them to leave Obi-Wan alone, because he clearly wants to defeat Obi-Wan by himself, which he has never done. It would even make more sense that Darth Sidious would go on to discipline Vader about the whole thing.
𝗥𝗲. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗢𝘄𝗲𝗻 (𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲) 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗢𝗯𝗶-𝗪𝗮𝗻’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝗕𝗲𝗻: First, he asked people to do that. Especially at the time he “feel like he wasn’t Obi-Wan anymore”, which includes the time where he was in Tatooine. Second, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦. You don’t know what’s bugged. Who’s hearing what. What technology people have. If your guards have are spies. If your children will casually comment to their friends that so and so was meeting their parents.
What we really should be asking is why the hell do people call people passing for someone else by their real name, in other movies.
@𝗭𝗮𝗵𝗶𝗱: Leia removed the tracking device when Lola attacked her, it was a little thing under her wing (which should never have had the signal strength to track them that far, but anyway).
@𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂: I don’t agree with your tone, but I’m 100% behind your message. It’s just depressing how movies keep sending this message over and over that anyone who has killed must die, which is 𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 a tiresome trope and lack of criativity, and, at worse, covert political support for the death penalty. Marvel movies (well, mostly the series, really) have improved a lot over the years, but this is something they have yet yet to overcome. I’m glad that Disney took the right step here.
𝗥𝗲: 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗮’𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Very weird. However, I don’t see how the episode could have explained that without skirting its time limit. This explains it, but does not excuse it. I’m certain they’re bound to this limit, but, especially now that episodes are streamed, and not watched on TV, they shouldn’t be.
𝗥𝗲: 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗩𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝘆: I do not see why Darth Vader would at all show mercy to Reva, as we have seen that such injuries can be healed. Medical knowledge tells us that the light saber should cauterize the bleeding, which would be the primary reason why she would have lost consciousness. I do not see Darth Vader infliciting an injury that wouldn’t kill her, neither in purpose, nor by accident.
𝗥𝗲: 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝘂𝗸𝗲’𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. They try to explain this away with the “𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘺” dialog, but it’s not enough. She was happy to do a bloodbath in the past, but wouldn’t kill them. Should’ve at least had her remember of her own parents trying to keep her from being recruited from the Jedi, and then I’d eat it that she could have spared them because they were not even her main target. But she left them armed with a long-range weapon and walked into an open field with a short-range weapon.
𝗥𝗲: 𝗢𝗯𝗶-𝗪𝗮𝗻’𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗵𝘁: I do not see how simply remembering the few days he was with the girl could have helped him gain that much strength. I could accept that his body strength, agility and dexterity could have been restored by the force, but that was not shown or even hinted at, so we’re left to be wondering what the hell happened because this is 𝘯𝘰𝘵 a done-deal. Also, if the force can grant you all that, why bother training? Furthermore, Obi-Wan was never a particularly strong force user. In the canon at the time of Episode I, that would have earned him the green saber (𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘘𝘶𝘪-𝘎𝘰𝘯).
Having said all that, let’s be honest, 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙙𝙚.
What about the tracking device in Lola? Yes, it ends up back with Leia, which doesn’t help the empire since they already know where she is (but not actually who she is). But in between, it went to Tatooine. Wouldn’t they wonder why and/or think maybe Obi-Wan could be found there?
Reva should have died after turning to the light. If the dark side was the thing keeping her alive then she would die from the stab wound when she turned. The fight scenes was quite good but yea dialogue and what they choose to show can be annoying but this is props because of they are so short. Have then all be an hour would make a massive difference.
Owen calling Obi Wan Ben might be for young Luke to not hear his true name. I think Reva stays alive for a future part if there will be a second season.
The star destroyer probably tried to catch the rebel ship while Vader fought obi wan that would explain it’s absence in the end of the dual, let’s not forget that the grand inquisitor didn’t agree with Vader in pursuing Obi Wan and we know Sith’s go after they’re own agenda behind they’re master’s back :P. As of Leia she is told by Obi Wan to not reveal that she knows him personally so sending a message that could be intercepted she might play it not knowing him in person.
What are you – like 9 years old? *The bad lady should have died* Honestly – get out some more.
I don’t think (although I could be wrong) they specified exactly how much time had passed between Reva getting shish-kebabbed and when she went after Luke so that’s borderline possible (although I agree, not likely).
Regarding the light saber duel with Anakin: I hadn’t thought of the star destroyer, but you’re right: That’s a plot hole. I don’t think Obi-Wan leaving Vader alive is one, though.
Vader was badly injured. The device that he used to breathe (and I think the whole suit) was damaged. In effect, Obi-Wan *did* leave him in the same kind of shape he was in on Mustafar. He had his limbs, but he was pretty badly damaged, and would’ve died without assistance. Sure, he was presumably given medical attention almost immediately, but that’s to be expected.
To me, the biggest plot hole is Leia not having her memory wiped by Obi-Wan. That message she sends Obi-Wan in A New Hope doesn’t really make sense given this adventure. I’m also not sure why Owen calls Obi-Wan “Ben”. Owen knows who Obi-Wan is. Why call him by a pseudonym?
You could also ask why didn’t they continue pursuing the rebels if Vader was going to take his own ship to go after Kenobi anyway.