Obi-Wan Kenobi - Part V

The writing for Obi-Wan Kenobi reminds me of that of WWE who consistently write themselves into a corner and have to write even worse outcomes to break the downward spiral they've trapped themselves in only to later complain they had no choice (other than, you know, not making the initial bad decisions that led them into such untenable situations). For Obi-Wan Kenobi the big takeaway appears to be that lightsabers are far less lethal than we've been led to believe. In a move that reeks of desperation after the discovery of a huge timeline mistake, Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend) returns. Turns out he's fine. Lightsaber through the chest? Nah, that's not enough to keep a good Sith down.

There are a couple of big problems here. First, it makes Third Sister (Moses Ingram) look incredibly incompetent and incapable of knowing how to kill someone. You'd think an Inquisitor should know better. Her falling into getting her ass kicked by Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) later in the episode is another blow to her character that comes out looking like a prime chump. As for Vader, apparently surviving Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) on Mustafar didn't teach the Dark Lord of the Sith how to make a killing blow either. And, of course, for this storyline to work Vader has to be compassionate to save the Grand Inquisitor's life. You know, the guy who was so bad at his job he got stabbed in the chest by one of his subordinates. Compassionate. Hmm, doesn't much sound like him, does it? And then, Vader needs to keep him around hidden in the background to play "gotcha!" whenever Third Sister's treasonous nature resurfaced again. LOL.

Getting back to the plot, such that it is, our heroes don't go directly to Alderaan where they would no doubt find assistance from the eternally grateful Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) who would likely send an entire fleet to help the refugees who have been waiting to be smuggled out of the Rebel base. Instead, thanks to Third Sister's tracking beacon, they lead the Empire directly to the base where the Rebels need to race off quickly because of something to do with a hyperspace route soon being shut down. Even in space, looks like road construction is still a problem.

Aside from Darth Vader shooing away the annoyance of Third Sister without any effort at all, and Obi-Wan's side-trip only necessary to force in a big action scene into the series involving the defense of a Rebel base, "Part V" also gives us a cameo to Obi-Wan and Anakin. Even here, the show misses a bit of an opportunity where they could have given us Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker (a first live appearance of the character outside of Episode III), but instead offers us the far too old looking whiny Episode II Anakin who is just about the worst thing ever. Even in blatant fan service, they fail.

With Leia's (Vivien Lyra Blair) rescue still not complete, the episode closes with the teasing of another dark turn for the not-so-dead Third Sister and finally weaving Luke back into the series who we've only seen in the briefest of cameos. Although the message isn't complete enough to tell Third Sister why some boy in the desert is important to Kenobi, no doubt she'll take a trip to find out after dusting off the minor flesh wound of a lightsaber stab through the heart and finding a ship that the Empire will likely have conveniently left sitting around.

• Title: Obi-Wan Kenobi - Part V
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