Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Part 4 embraces ‘Jedi: Fallen Order’ as Ben gets his groove back
“It’s time to make those tears real.”
It is a dark time for Ben Kenobi. There’s no way around it, he got his Jedi butt handed to him in Part 3 of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the latest Disney+ live-action Star Wars series. Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) prepped Broken Ben (Ewan McGregor) for a permanent dirt nap, and he barely escaped.
Did he bounce back in Part 4, or did he spend the latest episode crying in a bacta tank? From a certain point of view, Ben Kenobi played a Star Wars video game. Kind of.
**SPOILER WARNING: From this point forward, there will be spoilers for Part 4 of Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you have not watched yet, go home and rethink your life.**
Anyone who has played the game Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order through to the end will feel history repeating itself with this new episode, as Ben Kenobi and Tala (Indira Varma) invade the Fortress Inquisitorius to rescue Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair). Roken (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and the other members of the Path think this is a suicide mission, but Kenobi is not going to give up on Leia. Not for anything.
Tala manages to infiltrate the base thanks to her active Imperial credentials, and she opens an underwater hatch so Ben can swim in. Half of the base is underwater, making this swim-filtration possible. This entire scenario sets a new low for Imperial security in the Star Wars saga, because the Fortress Inquisitorius was invaded in an almost identical way in Fallen Order, which was not all that long before this.
The events of the game are considered canon, so Cal Kestis swimming into the place has already happened. There was no one helping him on the inside, but still. Did no one think to prevent it from happening again, or did they think, “Sure someone swam right into our top-secret base, but that’s a one-time thing. Let’s save our money!”
Fool you twice, shame on you. Ben Kenobi swam right into the heart of the place, and he discovered darker secrets than Cal Kestis ever did. He also started to get his Jedi groove back, and (also like Cal Kestis) he busted some water-bearing windows.
As Reva (Moses Ingram) unsuccessfully interrogates Leia (one recalls her “resistance to the mind probe” in A New Hope), Tala guides Ben through the base. He can’t help but wonder what else is being hidden here, and before long he finds out. “It’s a tomb,” he says, coming across several dead Jedi (and possibly some Force sensitives) encased in what looks like amber. One of them is a Jedi Youngling, so the Empire is definitely keeping it classy.
Aside from this unfortunate discovery, Ben Kenobi moving through the base is a thing of beauty. He uses the “point over there to make stormtroopers hear a noise” trick that he’ll use again in A New Hope. His lightsaber is out constantly, and he proves that he’s still adept at deflecting blaster bolts. When he needs to cut a stormtrooper in half, he does.
Once he rescues Leia (thanks to Tala bluffing Reva in an extended sequence), he also uses the Force to plug a cracking underwater window. After he floods a hallway, the trio gets back to the landing pad. Tala gives Ben what may be the worst disguise possible: an Imperial trench coat that Leia hides under. He looks like he has a huge growth on his leg, and this mostly goes unnoticed? He’s more obvious than Vincent Adultman from Bojack Horseman. Reva eventually catches up to them right as they’re about to get out of there.
Members of the Path come to the rescue in a pair of T-47 speeders. One of them is destroyed, but the heroes get away in the other one. Darth Vader is ready to choke Reva out for her failure, but she lets him know that she’s planted a tracking device. The device is within Leia’s droid Lola. Lord Vader will no doubt remember this little trick when it comes time to track the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope.
Has Ben fully rebounded? His lightsaber action throughout the episode is gorgeous and he’s not hiding from the Force anymore. That said, he’s not fully back yet. “Your body is not the only thing that needs to heal,” Tala tells him early in the episode. “The past is a hard thing to forget. You just need time, that’s all.”
He’s definitely going to need time, but there’s also his reply to consider: “Some things can’t be forgotten.”
Points of Interest
-T-47 speeders are mentioned towards the beginning and swoop in to save the day in the climax. If they look familiar, it’s because they were the speeders Rogue Squadron used on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. Dak? Dak!
-One of the two pilots of the T-47s is Sully, and she’s played by Maya Erskine. Fans of PEN15 will either recognize her or think that they are hallucinating. It’s her, don’t worry.
-One of the Jedi bodies that Ben finds in the depths of the compound is Tera Sinube, an elder Jedi who was introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. His most memorable appearance took place in the Season 2 episode “Lightsaber Lost.”
-Multiple “Purge Troopers” are seen among the regular Stormtroopers, and they are taken right out of Fallen Order. They can also be seen in the Charles Soule run of the Darth Vader title from Marvel Comics.
-Seeker droids provide the Fortress with some added security. Modified versions of this droid were first seen being used by Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, and versions closer to the ones seen here are used by Seventh Sister in Star Wars Rebels.
-Tala mentions the planet Florrum multiple times while she’s trying to bluff Reva. On The Clone Wars, Florrum is home to the delightful Hondo Ohnaka. He eventually loses his crew and moves on.
-The planet Balnab gets a mention as well, and this is another location from The Clone Wars. It is where a group of pit droids play a Wizard of Oz con using a giant hologram in the episode “Nomad Droids.”
-Not only does the Path hook Ben Kenobi up with more Jedi-esque attire (something other than rags), he also gets his hands on a rebreather for convenient underwater use. We see him use one in both The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith.
-Ben did not reach out to Qui-Gon Jinn this episode, and Qui-Gon Jinn did not reach out to Ben. Quinlan Vos was not seen either.
-Reva getting increasingly pissed off by Leia (and then Tala) was very entertaining to watch.
-Leia has our favorite line of the episode once again, and it marks the beginning of Reva having had enough of this s**t. She’s trying to interrogate Leia with the Force, and it doesn’t work. Leia’s response: “Is this a staring contest?”
Obi-Wan Kenobi streams on Disney+ every Wednesday. “Nice try, Princess.”
Looking for more sci-fi? The entire run of SYFY’s Battlestar Galactica is streaming now on Peacock, along with the second season of Resident Alien, which returns to SYFY this fall with new episodes.
