'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Episode 4 Has Me Wondering WTF We're Doing Here
As our friend and colleague (not really) Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, hello there! A brief transmission for you.
So I'm watching Episode Four of Obi-Wan Kenobi this morning. This week's edition of Old Man Ewan features the Jedi and his new Resistance friends staging a rescue mission for baby Leia Organa, infiltrating the Inquisitor base where she's in captivity. We see Kenobi cosplaying as an Empire commander. A Sith torturing a child. Stormtroopers being Stormtroopers. Which I understand are all plot beats baked into the very DNA of a Star Wars story. But doesn't it feel a little too reminiscent of other Star Wars offerings as of late? How about The Mandalorian's Season Two finale, literally titled, "The Rescue?" Or Season One's "The Prisoner?" Is it too much to ask for more than a mandatory rescue mission capsule episode per season of a Star Wars show?
The answer is yes, apparently. After a third episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi that actually dared to tease, you know, ramifications from the Anakin Skywalker and Kenobi battle that wrecked the former's life and inspired hundreds of thousands of memes in the process, we're left with somewhat of a filler episode. It makes you wonder where Obi-Wan Kenobi is going, or even what the show's raison d'etre is in the first place. Was it intended to show us how the titular hero gets his swagger back before A New Hope? Is Obi-Wan Kenobi merely a vehicle to test out if fans are ready for more Hayden Christensen as Vader on Disney+? Or are we supposed to get behind more save-the-baby! stakes and just enjoy the ride? Maybe the final two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi will answer that question. For now, the series feels stuck between the somewhat-isolated pacing of The Mandalorian and the larger story of the Skywalker Saga.
One last note: is anyone else hyped about Maya Erskine joining the Resistance? Why can't we get a Pen15 revival in the form of a buddy-comedy-space-road-trip with Erskine and Anna Konkle? Get weird, Star Wars. I dare you.
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