Viewer Log: Obi-Wan Kenobi ep 4

 Into the Bowels of the Beast.

Last time on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan and Leia made it to the planet Mapuzo. When their promised pick up doesn’t arrive, they hoof it for a bit and are picked up by a trucker. They’re taken to a checkpoint where Obi-Wan is made by an Imperial Probe. Obi-Wan kills all the Stormtroopers but surrenders when another group arrives. Their office, Tala Durith, kills them and reveals to be their contact. She takes them to a safehouse in a nearby town and prepare to be taken off planet. Their escape is complicated by the arrival of the Inquisitors and their master, Darth Vader. Obi-Wan sends Tala and Leia again and tries to lead Darth Vader away. This works because Darth Vader is kind of obsessed with killing his former master. Obi-Wan, out of practice from a decade in the desert plus his PTSD, is easily overpowered by Vader in a one-on-one fight. Because Vader is Drama King, he attempts to horribly burn Obi-Wan as payback. He’s saved by Tala, who came back to free him. Unfortunately, while Tala was going to save Obi-Wan, Leia was found by Reva. Damn. Enough recap let’s get to it.

 

Episode 4: Part 4

 

Bacta tanks look so weird.

We open with Obi-Wan waking up on a starship. Tala tells him he’s going to be okay. As Obi-Wan drifts in and out, they seem to land on Jabiim, and take him to their bacta tank. For those who don’t know, the bacta tanks are tubes of a special liquid that’s designed to accelerate healing and/or work as a painkiller for the patient. As Obi-Wan is submerged, we’re also shown Vader in his own tank. The two seem to be reacting to the memory of their fight. Obi-Wan wakes up and tries to get out of the tank, but Tala explained what happened. He asks where Leia is.

 

We cut to Leia being held hostage at the Inquisitor Stronghold. She tries to put on a brave front, but Reva comes in and tells her Obi-Wan is dead and no one is coming for her.

 

Let's make a plan.

Back on Jabiim, Obi-Wan and Tala try to get the help Roken, the man in charge of this leg of the path. Roken wants Obi-Wan off the planet and away from his underground, but as Obi-Wan and Tala point out, they need to get Leia back as she’s aware of a fair number of Path secrets right now. When Obi-Wan tries to pull the ol’ “You don’t know what the Empire is capable of,” card, Roken counters by relaying his own backstory. His wife was Force Sensitive, they tried to hide her for as long as they could, but eventually the Inquisitors found her and took her away. Roken agrees to help after that outburst. We get a quick overview of what they know about the Inquisitor base, Fortress Inquisitorious, as one guy puts it. It’s on Nur, a water moon in the Mustafar system. While they know that it’s Vader’s system, Vader himself isn’t home, according to their intel. They don’t know how deep the spire goes down. The fortress is pretty much impenetrable, Obi-Wan wants to go but the others are hesitant. Until Tala volunteers. If her clearance is still intact, she has the credentials to get them inside. They hope on Tala’s ship and head out.

 

On the flight over, Obi-Wan tries to manipulate a pin with the Force but is having trouble still. Tala sees and tells him that it’s not just his body that needs to heal but his mind too, that the past is hard to forget. He’s not sure he can forget, but Tala reminds him that if he wants to save Leia he’ll probably have to.

 

Reva interviews Leia. I must assume even the Empire would take issue with interrogating a minor but we’re glossing over that. She tells Leia they intercepted a transmission from Balnab last year, information of the secret Path network. She wants Leia to tell her what she knows of it. Leia how Obi-Wan died. Reva tells her that he was burned on Mapuza and claims that the Path folks left him to die, to get an emotional reaction for Leia, but she doesn’t bite.

 

Obi-Wan and Tala land on the fortress. Tala goes in alone to check if her clearance still works. She has clearance to go through, but as this isn’t her sector, the guard says he can’t let her through. Tala rolls a nat 20 on her intimidation check and gets through. She gets to the command post and tells Obi-Wan that she opened the underwater entry port for him to enter. Obi-Wan swims up and in. Inside, he kills the guard guarding the port and throws the body in the water.

 

Meanwhile, Reva tries to probe Leia’s mind, but as it turns out Leia’s extremely resistant to the mind trick. Who’d have guessed? Reva grabs Lola and threatens the little droid to intimidate Leia.

 

Tala leads Obi-Wan through the fortress… no one questioning who she’s talking to on her com link. One officer finally calls her over to see her id, right when Obi-Wan could use help avoiding a probe droid. He slips into a hall to avoid it. Tala meanwhile beats the officer to death and get’s back to Obi-Wan… right as some Stormtroopers were passing. He uses the force to move something and distract the, before continuing.

 

Master Senube, no!

Reva keeps trying to break Leia’s spirt by telling her Obi-Wan is dead and no one is coming for her. Leia finally says okay. She says she must tell her Dad first. Reva realizes that Leia is just trying to get to her dad and orders her taken for interrogation. She’s taken to a torture chair and strapped in. She screams for help but obviously no one is there. Obi-Wan enters the secure sector. Inside he finds dozens if not hundreds of individuals in some type of Amber casing. He claims that this place isn’t a fortress, but a tomb. Reva demands Leia reveal her secrets, but she remains tightlipped. Reva powers up the chair as Obi-Wan gets close. He asks Tala for a distraction. An officer slips into the room and tells Reva that there’s news for her that can’t wait.

 

Reva meets Tala in the Inquisitor meeting room. She tells Reva her military history and tells her the Path runs out of the planet Florrum in the Sertar sector. She does tell Reva how the operation works, using salvage business to launder money and resources to give people new identities. Reva says that’s impressive work… unless she’s lying. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan cuts the Stormtroopers down and cuts Leia free. Leia says she didn’t say anything and Obi-Wan knows and promises to get her home. Reva points out that an old man and little girl shouldn’t have gotten through a checkpoint on their own. Tala bluffs, saying she’s a double agent infiltrating the Path.

 

Damn, Obi.

Obi-Wan and Leia get out of the detention area, but a drone spots them and sounds the alarm. Tala pulls a blaster on the two Stormtroopers that were going to take her to interrogation on Reva’s orders and runs to meet them. Obi-Wan starts cutting through Stormtroopers as they come at them. He ends up cracking some underwater glass as he deflects blaster fire. He finally seals the door with other deflection, but then is stuck trying to keep the glass from cracking. Tala joins them and Obi-Wan tells her to take Leia. He strains to hold the water back as they back off and block blaster fire. He ultimately divers the water, drowning the troopers as he runs through the door Tala kept open for him.

 

Obi-Wan and co make it to the top level as the other Inquisitors arrive, Fifth Brother swearing Third Siter will pay for this. They make it to the hangar as Reva catches up to them. She asks Tala if betraying the Empire is worth it for an old man and a little girl, to which Tala says this was never who she was. Two fighters fly in, distracting Reva long enough for to pick up the crew. One of the two pilots, Wade, is killed by Reva as they escape.

 

So close and yet so far.

Vader arrives and starts choking Reva out via the Force. He says he’ll tolerate her weakness no longer. Reva reveals that she let them get away through choking breaths, saying they’ll now have the Path and Kenobi. Vader says there can be no mistakes and asks if she’s sure the tracker is with them. Reva says yes.

 

They link up with Roken, who was piloting their freighter. They tell him Wade is dead, which seems to bum everyone who knew him out. Sad for them. Leia holds Obi-Wan’s hand as they fly, looking for and to give comfort. We’re shown Lola in her coat, her eye glowing red as the credits roll. Damn.

 

This was another good episode. I think that makes this one of the better runs for Disney+, as most of their shows have at least one true dud by this point. I like prison break stories. Reva interrogating Leia is an intense couple of scenes. It takes a really deranged mind to be willing to torture a child to get what she wants. Obi-wan finding the Jedi tomb was kind of jarring. Like, I assumed there’d be some sort of holding cell or Jedi prison of some kind, but a bunch of corpses in amber was not something I expected. I guess they are about 15 years out from figuring out freezing someone in Carbonite, but still, odd. Obi-Wan going from barely moving a pin to holding back a metric ton of water seems fitting. What? Most of his weakness is in his head, so obviously he could do more in a life-or-death situation than he could just puttsing. I think the only real negative of this episode was treating Wade as a character that had been in more than one scene before his death. Like, I get it, people that know him are mourning, but *I* don’t know him so I don’t know why we’re focusing on it. Lola having a tracker in her feels a bit obvious, but I’ll let Obi-Wan off for not checking Leia for trackers. All I’m saying. So yeah, good episode. Have a good night. 

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