After months of hype, the new Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi dropped on 27th May 2022. The show is filled with easter eggs, hidden details and a lot of references to the greater Star Wars universe.
Full spoilers ahead from this point so run now if you haven’t watched the show yet…
When we last saw Obi-Wan we were watching him taking the moral and literal high ground as he got rid of his apprentice like Alan Sugar. The Jedi had fallen and Order 66 was now in full effect with the last remaining Jedi having to hide out in the bowels of the universe. After dropping Luke off at his Aunt and Uncle’s, Obi-Wan left on his Eiope (who ends up popping up again). Jedi’s hiding out after Order 66 and taking menial jobs is something that was a big focus in Fallen Order and in that we watched Kal Kestis hiding out whilst the Inquisitors searched for the rest of his kind. Inquisitors make a big entrance in these episodes and along with the new one Reva, we also have some of the classic ones like The Grand Inquisitor and Brother Five that we’ll talk about in just a bit.
We open on the planet of Coruscant getting introduced to some of the Younglings that end up getting drafted into the Inquisitors. We see the events of Order 66 play out first hand and this show really goes from 0-100 in the space of a couple of seconds. We see Jedi Velti who defends the children and it tells what I believe is the story of Reva. We learn that she is Third Sister a reckless Inquisitor that strikes first and asks questions later, but here she’s just a scared kid.
Reading the online discourse I’ve actually seen a lot of people triggered over this because of recent world events and it is pretty harrowing to watch this play out from the perspective of children. Obviously the creative team didn’t know this and taken on it’s own I think this is one of the most powerful scenes in Star Wars history.
We discover later on that she’s fixated on Kenobi but don’t learn why this is. She might see him as being the person that left her to fend for herself and for also being the reason for the creation of Darth Vader, the man who likely tormented her after the events of Order 66. This is a major moment in Star Wars history that has been brought up across a number of media including Fallen order, Clone Wars and The Bad Batch.
Cut to 10 years later and we find ourselves on Tattooine, namely Mos Eisley. We can see this by the crashed ship in the middle which you might recognise from A New Hope. It a hustling hive of scum and villainy that reminds me of my comments section and the black shadow of the Inquisitor ship looms overhead.
Shadows have been used at several points throughout the Star Wars films to show dominance and here it’s no different. The black ship and uniform of the Inquisitors cuts out against the white desert planet and it’s structures making for a highly constrasted image that adds a lot of weight to their arrival.
Who Are The Inquisitors?
Now, incase you don’t know Inquisitors are basically Jedi hunting Force-sensitive soldiers that scour the Galaxy looking for the remnants of the Order.
They’re all extremely tragic figures and at one point most of them were actually Jedi themselves. Between the events of Revenge Of The Sith and A New Hope, Darth Vader built up a group of them and he enhanced their abilities by teaching them the ways of the Dark Side. Typically, Sith always come in two with there being a master and an apprentice, however, nice little loophole here, you can actually have as many as you want if you call them Inquisitors.
The Jedi were called Peacekeepers and The Inquisitors are very much a black mirror of them, keeping the peace through oppression.
Beyond that though, The Inquisitors were assembled together after The Emperor sensed a new threat rising and this came in the form of children who slowly started to tap into their abilities.
Now as for the Grand Inquisitor, he first made his debut all the way back in the Star Wars Rebels premiere. Initially voiced by Jason Isaacs, he’s now played by Rupert Friend. My Homie Grand Inquisitor is a Pau’an male who actually worked as a Temple Guard on Coruscant. When the Jedi Order fell, Vader ended up taking him under his wings and acting like a mentor to him, though he was probably a bit of a d***head.
He basically rules over all the other Inquisitors including Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, Seventh Sister, Eighth Brother and Ninth Sister. What’s terrifying about the group is that they weild double bladed lightsabers with circular handles that spin around mercilessly during combat.
Now because the character has already popped up in other shows and the comics we know what happens to him and he will be making it past the events of the series. I’ll do some spoilers, not for this show but just his arc in general now so if you don’t wanna know what happens to him in Rebels and the comics then skip ahead.
In Rebels, he managed to capture Kanan Jarrus and Ezra and co ended up going to save him. Both Kanana and Bridger ended up having a lightsaber battle with him and it appeared that he killed him at one point. This spurred Kanan on to fight as hard as he could but Ezra didn’t actually die.
He once more tried doing the baton twirling technique and during this, Kanan put his lightsabers in the middle and bust up the handle which sent the blades over the edge into the ships reactor. This started off a chain reaction and the Inquisitor fell to his death even though Kanan tried to save him. He said that there were some fates worth than death and in comics we discovered that Vader trapped his soul on Tempes where he was forced to serve as a guardian for the Jedi outpost there.
Luke battled it out with his spirit and he won, but the Inquisitor still remained behind. He asked to be freed from his torment by Vader but he went, nah chump see ya later.
Inquisitors on Tatooine
The Inquisitors are on Tatooine hunting Jedi. I know that people don’t really like the design especially with a pu’an popping up in Revenge Of The Sith and looking way better but I just kinda went with it. Guy is super intimidating and definitely riffing on Hans from Inglorious basterds. We can catch the patrons drinking blue milk and shoutouts Simon A Burman for pointing out that these are in the same cups Luke had in a new hope.
We’re told that the Jedi’s compassion is their weakness and see this in full effect when they attempt to throw a knife at the bartender which the Jedi then stops. He manages to escape, however.
Catching up with Obi-Wan
We cut to Obi-Wan, who’s working for a small crew cutting meat off what I believe is a Krayt Dragon fin. This is something we saw in the Mandalorian as well with it’s hide being transformed into a massive steak. Like Kal Kesitis, he’s having to lie low and basically do this job in order to stay fed. We watch a worker only get half the credits he should have through using a gonk droid as a clocking in and out machine. In the Star Wars universe these are basically walking batteries and they always get dunked on. Dunk droid. Later on it shoots steam out of it’s top, which is of course playing on real-world factories.
Now in the comics we learned a lot about Old Ben’s time on Tattooine when Luke went back to get his journals. He often put survival above being a Jedi and he’d let injustices happen on the planet so long as it kept him hidden. This pulled from the comic The Journals Of Obi Wan Kenobi which the series seems to be based upon quite a lot.
We see one of these injustices happen at this moment as a workers pay gets half off like Darth Maul and he doesn’t help out. This is long before he established a home and Obi-Wan lives out in a cave, which of course represents how ostracised the Jedi are at this point. A jawa called Chicken Teeka arrives and they say that they could smell him from Anchorhead which was one of the first settlements on Tattooine. It was basically a central hub for everyone and it offered quick and easy travel to other ports on the planet as well as ships offworld which is why Boba wanted to go there during the first episode in his solo show.
With him he’s brought a T-16 model which is a gift for Luke who ended up riding one in the comics and the game Rogue Squadron.
Teeka also brings with them news of the other Jedi at the start and this sets Obi Wan off a bit that night.
We get lines from Padme, flashes of the good times and bad times with Anakin, Yoda and Qui-Gon who Obi-Wan attempts to reach out to. As we learned at the end of Revenge Of The Sith, Qui-Gon had learned how to become a Force Ghost which explained why only Ben, Yoda and Anakin ended up doing it even though we had countless Jedi at one point. He doesn’t appear in these first two episodes but this could be hinting at him coming down the line.
That morning we catch a Scurrier, a little native creature on Tattooine that is often confused with a Womp Rat.
Now at this moment we see Obi Wan looking over Luke and this actually pulls directly from the comics in which he watched over him.
He is of course also pretending that he’s pod-racing which his father did and I love the little reference to Anakin here.
Joel Edgerton is playing Owen Lars and he’s once more reprising his role from Revenge Of The Sith before he was a star. In the books and series Obi-Wan knew that he should be training Luke and though this could put him in danger, it would better prepare him for if his father ever managed to find him. Obi-Wan knew that the temptation of the Sith was very powerful and that if he hadn’t been trained in the ways of the Jedi first that he would instantly give into it.
Now on the other side of this was Owen who didn’t want Luke getting involved in any of it. After Obi-Wan sent Luke a gift, Owen angrily returned it and told him to stay out of Luke’s life.
However, Owen did somewhat come to appreciate him after Obi-Wan saved the pair from Black Krrsantan. You’ll likely recognise him from the Book Of Boba Fett and I think that they purposely introduced the character there so that it’s way more impactful when he shows up in this series.
Now Jabba had started running an extortionate Water Tax on Moisture Farmers in the area. Obi-Wan put a stop to this and Krrsantan was sent out by Jabba to find the man who’d cut off some of his income. Krrsantan took Owen hostage to draw Obi-Wan out and the pair ended up fighting each other. Obi Wan won and Krrsantan ended up fleeing the planet for some time which I think would be an awesome storyline to drop into the series.
Obi Wan ends up leaving the T-16 model for Luke that night and Nari the Jedi arrives after spotting him in town. Obi-Wan immediately denies who he is, refusing to help and even giving the name Ben. This is of course a complete opposite to how he was with Luke in a New Hope when he was like ‘thats me punk, I’m the chump.’
He’s very much turned his back on being the Jedi and he refuses to help Nari, even telling him to bury his lightsaber similar to what Rey did at the end of Rise Of Skywalker. He says the time of the Jedi is over, a line that riffs upon Luke saying that the time of the Jedi has passed in The Last Jedi.
Both were extremely broken and had basically shut themselves off from the Force.
Leia and Luke
Now next we jump to Alerdaan and find out that Leia has got herself into Alderaan places ey.
Along with the droid Lola she runs through the forest, possibly foreshadowing the training she would later have as a Jedi with Luke.
Leia shoutouts out the ships as they pass and we get a Tri-Wing which is actually a brand new ship for the Star Wars universe that was designed by Porsche.
She also mentions the Aquillan rangers which were a group synonmous with the Rebels.
Leia is sick of being put on parade and Ben is sick of looking up and seeing Obi-Wan constantly spying on his kid. Bit weird mate, bit weird.
Also at this point Owen drops a really important line about how Anakin is dead. At this point Obi-Wan didn’t actually realise that he’d become Darth Vader and to him he’d just been left cooking over what he’d become. This is the bombshell that Reeva drops on him in order to taunt him and it feels very similar to when Vader was taunting Luke in Return Of The Jedi.
The Inquisitors arrive once more and I have to hand it to them, they don’t mess about.
Owen kinda voices his true feelings about the Jedi and his family.
Reva promises to murder his family if the Jedi doesn’t come forward and even though we know Owen makes it to a New Hope, it’s still a really tense scene. Obi-Wan refuses to come forward and he very much confirms that the Jedi wouldn’t put themselves in harms way to help people even though Nari did.
Back on Alderaan Jimmy Smits is back baby and we also see C-3PO who was of course at one point a droid that belonged to him and his family. This is confirmed by the subtitles for the show and we also meet another droid called Y-O.
Leia’s cousin is a spoilt c*** who taunts her for not being a true Organa but she does a character assassination on him, perhaps even using the Force in some ways to reach into his mind. There is a slight second where she seems to sense it and later she does this psychoanalysis stuff on Obi-Wan.
Now Leia says she’d rather be eaten by a Jakobeast than apologise to him and these beasts come from snow ridden planets and are basically giant tigers.
Bail brings up how he wanted to chase Purgal when he was younger and these are giant space whales that basically allow characters to become the Star Wars version of Moby Dick.
He says that one day the planet will look to her…which…hmmm…anyway rather than putting diplomacy above her own feelings she decides to run off but trouble awaits. At this point we meet Vect played by Flea from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Now though the chase was goofy, I did enjoy these scenes overall and I think it was a smart call to have some variety to the surroundings rather than having us always stuck on Tattooine.
Trip to Daiyu
The Organa’s reach out to Obi-Wan for help in the form of a hologram which is of course a nod to Leia doing the same thing to him in a New Hope. At this point we see that Nari has been captured and hung up for the entire city to see. Once more Obi-Wan sees himself as failing to save a young Jedi and when Bail comes to him to beg personally he decides to finally step up. He begs Obi-Wan to travel to Daiyu which is a neon sign laden Blade Runner-esque style planet. In the interview with Entertainment Weekly, writer Joby Harold said it’s got a sort of Hong Kong feel to it and it’s very captivating to look at.
After digging his lightsbaber up along with Anakin’s he ends up travelling out to save her which we discover is a trap set by Reva.
Need to let it go love. I do think they heavily foreshadow that her hunt for him will be her downfall and it’s gonna be interesting to see how it all goes.
On Daiyu he meets a clone trooper and we see what happened to them after the events of the war. Played once more by Temura Morrisson I absolutely loved this cameo and catching that he’s now a homeless beggar carries a lot of subtext with it. We are often criticised as a society of having far too many homeless veterans and just like us, the Imperials clearly didn’t look after them. In the Bad Batch we watched first hand as the Empire realised that the price of the clones was too high to be constantly paying and thus they started just conscripting citizens into their ranks. They were forced to fight which also explains why the accuracy and efficiency of the Stormtroopers went down.
What’s a great shot we get the old being replaced by the new and we meet the new kinds. He runs into a drug dealer, potentially playing on the death sticks dealer in Attack of The Clones who was played by the same guy that was Mouse from The Matrix.
A little kid comes up and offers to take him to a Jedi named Haja who has apparently been helping people on the planet. Played by Kumail Nanjini this guy definitely lightens the tone of what’s been a pretty dour run so far. We quickly discover he’s not a Jedi and he’s infact running a con. He offers a mother and child safe passage to Corellia aka the home planet of Han Solo.
Always good to get some Obi-Wan beard stroking and after he locates what I’m guessing is a met…sorry spice lab he dresses up like Walt in Breaking bad and heads in. Spice is a narcotic in the Star Wars universe heavily based on the one of the same name from Dune that Lucas admitted taking inspiration from.
Sneaking into the back he runs into two guards, one of which is a Zabrak aka the same species as Darth Maul.
Obi-Wan is careful to only use his fists and blasters on this planet as he doesnt want to draw attention to himself. If the Empire hears of someone shooting someone they’re not going to be too interested. However if they hear that someone was struck down with a lightsaber it’s a different story and they’ll send the Inquisitors there until they find the culprit.
In the words of Admiral Ackbar it’s a trap and he’s caught but he manages to escape after setting off the Spice which…ey Walt also did that in Breaking Bad to escape.
He finds leia in a holding cell and we get a scene that very much riffs on Luke rescuing her in a New Hope.
She gives him the typical sass she’s known for that she got from not only her mother but also I feel Anakin. Guy was always backchatting too and it’s nice seeing how her parents kinda formed her character.
High as s**t Reva comes and learns that Kenobi is indeed on the planet. It’s revealed this is very much a power play to gain favour with Vader but the rest of the Inquisitors aren’t happy as she had to kidnap Leia to do it which will cause issues with the Senate.
From here the show goes very John Wick and the wanted ads are sent out with every bounty hunter getting a text about him. We see one of them looks like a velicoraptor and this is actually a member of the racie Tiss’shar who look similar to the dinosaur.
Almost everyone is after him and there’s a real tense feeling to this opening as they try and lockdown the area, hunting him and Leia as he moves through the shadows.
Also can we get a shoutout to Sung Kang who plays Fifth Brother in the show. Guy plays Han in Fast and The Furious and it really makes me want to get Justice for Han…solo.
Also Leia is placed in a green coat which I think is meant to look similar to the overall that she wore on Endor.
After sprinting off we get a similar scene to when Omega left in the Bad Batch and she races throughout the city which is when everyone starts to close in. I believe one of these is a member of the Pyke Clan who we had run ins with in clone wars, the bad batch, Solo and The Book Of Boba Fett.
Reeva does some Parkour as she chases after the pair on rooftops whilst they’re fired at by the Tss’sha.
Leia ends up falling but Obi-Wan reaches inside himself and he finally embraces the Force once more and saves her life.
Haja ends up redeeming himself and we discover he got the family safe and just wants to help the Jedi. He ends up using his performance to buy Reva time and she dives into his mind in a move that we also saw Kylo Ren pull on people.
The Grand Inquisitor kills Vect whilst doing his Thanos-move and Reva tracks the pair to the cargo bay. We actually see Obi-Wan hiding out which is a major change up for the character. This is a guy that jumped head first into fighting General Grevious and it’s wild seeing him scared for once.
Saved by the bell…end the Grand Inquisitor arrives as Reva almost gets to him. She ends up stabbing him but as we’ve already talked about he does survive this and likely won’t be too happy that he got back…well front stabbed.
We end with Vader waking up in his Bacta tank and what a way to reveal the character. Hopefully we dont get 20 flashbacks whilst he’s in this next time but it’s such a cool way to close out these first two entries.
Anyway that’s the two episodes! Please leave your thoughts or comments below.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.