Best Episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi

Part VI. Obviously, the finale is the best episode. Ok, that's not always obvious, I mean sometimes the finale is kind of underwhelming, in fact a lot of the times it happens to be, but in Kenobi, I can safely say that I was blown away! I don't even have the words for it. In terms of Star Wars TV-show season finales, it is up there alongside Victory and Death, and Twilight of the Apprentice. It's the epic culmination of what happened right in the square middle, between Revenge of the Sith and a New Hope. The entire episode consists of merely two seperate duels. One of them sees Reva trying to avenge her dead friends by killing the one thing Anakin has left (his son), while the other sees Obi-Wan meeting up with Darth Vader, to settle it once and for all. And this lightsaber duel is lit. There's so much emotion in the air, when you've seen their confrontation on Mustafar. You truly feel Vader's wrath, and Kenobi's will to protect those he love. In fact, it's probably my 4th favourite lightsaber duel in the entire franchise. It's an excellent mix of great choreography, and excellent emotion. One thing I noticed, was how much inspiration this duel took from Ahsoka vs. Vader on Rebels, which is by the way, my 3rd favourite duel in the franchise. From Vader's "Then, you will die", to Obi-Wan slicing up his helmet, being emotional, and then Vader almost becoming Anakin but then retreating to the dark side. I loved every bit of it. Oh yeah and Reva gets her redemption by not killing Luke, and Obi-Wan meets up with a force ghost of Qui-Gon. That was cool and all, but we all know deep down what was, the best moment of the entire series. "Hello There".

In 4th place we have Part I, the first episode of the bunch. And I've got to say, it's a pretty good way to start off this series with. The opening scene, with the Inquisitors landing on Tatoonie to hunt jedis, was perfectly handled. Prior to watching this, I had little to no hope for these characters. The Grand Inquisitor looked nothing like his Rebels counterpart, or the Pau'ans in Revenge of the Sith, the Fifth Brother didn't ooze any danger at all, and where the hell was the 7th sister? But I was pleasantly surprised with this first scene. Rupert Friend was surprisingly great as the GI. He didn't have quite the same personality as in Rebels, as he was a little less sassy, but I'm willing to let that slide. The rest of the episode is great too. You can truly feel Kenobi's depression during the aftermath of the Clone Wars, and it was perfectly portrayed by Ewan McGregor. And then there's also the Leia storyline, which ultimately ties into this rescue mission I'm not so fond of but hey, it would've been fine if it was just one-two episodes and thus, it didn't destroy the episode completely, since to be fair, what other way would Kenobi come out of the closet? Well..., except for that godawful cahse scene. But speaking of which, fun fact, this is the first time we ever see Alderaan in a live-action Star Wars media, and it's just as beautiful as everyone says it is. It feels a bit like Earth, but its still got its own touch to it, in the architecture, you name it. Really enjoy that they used a physical setting and not just CGI for the forest. Overall, there's not much else to say about this episode, other than that it's great introduction to this series.

Part V, was probably the episode in the series when it transitioned from simply okay, to great. Which is admittedly too late for a 6-episode series, but hey, better late than never. And there are a few reasons as to why. The Leia Rescue storyline has finally toned down, and as a result, the focus could be put on other more interesting aspects of the show, and they sure did. Up until this point, Reva was a bland character. Nothing about her really stood out, other than the fact that she was impulsive, and slightly ambitious. In this episode, we finally get to see her motivations and why she's been so obsessed with catching Kenobi, which, spoilers, is so that they could kill Darth Vader together after he slaughtered all her friends during Order 66. After knowing this, her aggressiveness makes much more sense, as she wants to finish off Anakin as quickly as possible. But not only does Reva become a much better character, the somehow, the Grand Inquisitor returned. We all knew he survived because of his appearence in Rebels, but we were still sceptic on wether they actually decided to kill him in Episode II, so this re-appearence is all the more welcome. Not to mention, throughout this entire episode there are these flashback scenes of Obi Wan and Anakin dueling for a training session, and it flows so organically with the episode. When something within the duel happens, something of similar style happens in real time, like when Anakin pulled the ship back out of arrogance. Part V, was great. But not as great as...

Now Part IV is a bit of the opposite to Part II. Story-wise, it's not the best. Just a repeat Episode II, with Obi-Wan rescuing Leia, but now with the help of an imperial spy, it's meh, nothing unusual. And unlike Episode II nothing really important of notice happens either. In fact lots of people don't seem to care for it. No no. The reason Part IV managed to be much better than not only Part II, but even I and II, was in the setting. No matter how deep or interesting Star Wars may be, at its core, it has always been about escapism, like I've already said when discussing Ep. 2. And this episode, utilizes that the absolute best with its setting. And underwater prison fortress, with sub-surface windows, and a tomb of carbonite-freezed people, this episode truly exemplified exploring the unknown, something completely different from anything on Earth. It was such a unique area to be immersed in that it ultimately became one of my favourite episodes of the bunch, in spite of the bland storyline. The scene in the hallway with Kenobi trying to hold together the glass window was the perfect example of something futuristic. And that's pretty much it. What else? Oh yeah, Vader also stomps in, being the scariest he's ever been in any Star Wars media. Hot take, Grand Inquisitor should've made his reveal here, and striked down Reva. It would've made for an epic comeback of the best character in the series, and it would show Vader's ruthlessness, instead of slowly putting her back down because she had a tracker. All in all, a really solid episode.

Coming in at last place, we have Part II, which premiered alongside the first episode. In my opinion, there are a whole array of reasons for why this was always my least enjoyed episode of the bunch? I wouldn't say it's bad..., ok it kind of is, the problem with Part II is combination of events that don't matter or ruin the show in the long run, and the very gloomy setting. At its core, Star Wars, for all its deep and intricate storylines, has always been about escapism. Exploring new worlds, completely different from ours. Unfortunately, this one is largely set in a slum of con-men and what not, which kind of just reminds me too much of the current world. Story-wise, Part II doesn't really do it for me either. The biggest single problem this series has for me, is that the overall main story is just, boring. 4 out of 6 episodes are all about saving Leia from the Inquisitors, and while it's a decent way to maybe kick off a series, it should not dominate a series about Kenobi dealing with depression in the aftermath of the Clone Wars. We already have a father-child series in the Mandalorian, and it pulled this off way better. They should've ended this episode by having Leia returned safely, so we could like, start off with the main story with Reva. Instead her story got introduced first in the semi-final episode. Speaking of which, this episode also has the worst scene in the entire series. Why'd you kill off the only interesting character thus introduced, who also cannot die? Subverting expectations, does not equal quality. It does pay off in the end, but it was kind of uncool to get rid of the one character who had in my opinion the best performance of them all. But wait, there's one redeeming feature. There's a five second long scene, where you get to see a Clone Trooper veteran. Wow! This, alone, puts this episode at #1. Jokes aside, that was a cool scene.

In 5th place, we have Part III, which is, slightly better than Part II, but likewise it shares a lot of the same problems as the previous episode. For starters, story-wise, it offers even less to the overall bigger picture than what Part II does. While that episode had the godawful Grand Inquisitor death scene, at least it served a bit of a purpose in developing Reva's character. The highlight everyone talks about when discussing this episode, would be the Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader duel, and admittedly, it is pretty cool. It's almost built up like a horror movie, in how the sith lord creeps up from nowhere. You can really feel Anakin's rage as he tortures the rusty Kenobi. Unfortunately, I don't think this duel should've happened at all, since it kind of ruins the dialogue in a New Hope, and it results in probably the 2nd worst thing in this entire series, the ending. Just as you think, finally this rescue mission is over..., Reva comes out of nowhere and kidnaps Leia..., again. Like we didn't have enough of this story already. That being said, I did like it a little more than Part II, because while the ending was more "come on", the episode itself was a bit more pleasant. There was a lot of great interaction between Kenobi and Leia, specifically the bus scene, and it was one of the few moments you really got a feel that Vader was ruthless.