So finally, in the last episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi got on its feet. The show and the character. Credit, I think, really needs to go to John Williams, Andrew Stanton, and the actors. Prominent problems still exist in the teleplay and definitely in Deborah Chow's directing. But on the whole, it was a win. Meanwhile, like a seesaw of quality, when Obi-Wan improves, the normally delightful Ms. Marvel diminishes. I'd hardly call Ms. Marvel episode three a total disaster but it was definitely outshone by the Star Wars series this time.
We finally got a good rematch between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christenson have spoken in the past about how much work they put into their sabre duel in Revenge of the Sith and here McGregor clearly aimed to get back in that action. It was just terrific watching them go at it, and in an appropriately fantastic location this time. The dialogue helped, too, and I suspect this scene was written by Andrew Stanton. The lines about how Vader killed Anakin perfectly flow with the dialogue in the original trilogy, buttressing what some might consider slightly weak retconning Lucas did after A New Hope. The dialogue in last night's duel was clearly written by someone who'd watched those movies a million times and really thought about them. The writing for the rest of the episode, as for most of the series, felt like it was written by people who aren't particularly interested in Star Wars.
The episode opens with Vader's Star Destroyer pursuing the passenger ship with Obi-Wan and the Path refugees. The first bit of old John Williams music is introduced to give a sense of tension and hurry but then Chow cuts to the refugee ship interior and the tone goes completely wrong. Suddenly the life or death chase turns into a funeral atmosphere. Everyone's whispering and even little Leia doesn't seem unnerved by the turbolaser explosions outside the window. There should have been screaming and running and sparks and shaking.
Then, when Obi-Wan heroically takes off on his own to divert Vader's attention, everyone on board the Star Destroyer figures they can only go after one ship or the other. What the hell? Why not launch TIE Fighters? Doesn't the Grand Inquisitor have a ship in the hanger? That was some incredibly lazy writing.
The resolution of Reva's plot was even lazier. So she's been run through with a lightsabre and . . . in her last desperate gasp . . . she somehow finds a ship, pilots it to Tatooine, and tracks down Luke Skywalker based on the hologram message from Bail Organa. Why? She'd just tried to kill Vader and he'd tried to kill her. She's not doing it to please Vader. Is it to get revenge on him, by killing the child he doesn't even know he has? And when it's all said and done, Obi-Wan doesn't even offer her assistance in finding a doctor or a first aid kit. Lightsabres just aren't what they used to be, I guess.
A lot of the episode worked because they finally got some John Williams music back into it. What a difference just a little bit of the Force theme and "The Imperial March" can make. It's not just nostalgia. Williams just makes better music than Natalie Holt. Which is hardly a knock against Holt, Williams is a legend for a reason.
Although it completely runs against the canon, I kind of liked Obi-Wan kneeling down and worshiping Leia at the end. But him giving her a blaster holster was too stupid. Obviously Disney couldn't have known there'd be a particularly horrific school shooting when the show was in production (though, sadly, it wouldn't have been too hard to guess). But even aside from that, it's well established that Obi-Wan considers blasters to be "uncivilised" and "clumsy and random". I feel like he'd be more likely to give her a book or something.
Ms. Marvel is still cute, meanwhile.
I liked the use of Bon Jovi in the kitchen fight scene although the wedding dance sequences were a bit cringe. The main problem with the episode, though, is it felt like a huge chunk of story was missing from the middle. These Djinn turn up and take so much time talking to Kamala nice and quiet and friendly. Then suddenly they want to kill her because . . . She isn't getting Bruno to open up an interdimensional portal as fast as they'd like? Nothing about that made any sense. But Kamala's still cute so it wasn't all bad.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ms. Marvel are available on Disney+.
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