It’s easy to draw parallels between the overarching plot of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian, with the young Princess Leia essentially being a stand-in for Grogu (besides the obvious differences in talkativeness and determination). “Part IV” of the new limited series starring Ewan McGregor as the title character goes a long way to further that comparison, with Obi-Wan having to infiltrate Fortress Inquisitorius on the Mustafarian moon of Nur in order to rescue Leia, much in the same way Din Djarin and friends boarded Moff Gideon’s Light Cruise to liberate The Child in The Mandalorian’s thrilling second-season finale.
But Obi-Wan Kenobi makes this task (though it is indeed similar) feel just a little more intimate and perhaps a bit riskier, as Ben enters the fortress practically by himself– with only the Imperial spy Tala Durith (Indira Varma) working to assist his mission from the inside.
From the outside, however, Obi-Wan has backup in the form of some newly introduced scrappy freedom-fighter characters named Roken (O’Shea Jackson, Jr., who played rapper Ice Cube in the hip-hop biopic Straight Outta Compton) Sully (PEN15’s Maya Erskine), and Wade (Ryder McLaughlin of Jonah Hill’s dramedy Mid90s) who at first don’t seem to want him around– Ben evidently poses a threat to The Path (the Force-sensitive version of the Underground Railroad) by being too high on the Empire’s wanted list. But they’re quickly swayed into lending a helping hand in extricating Leia before the princess spills the beans on their operation– and also Roken has a lamentable personal history with the Inquisitors.
At Fortress Inquisitorius, Reva (the still-excellent Moses Ingram) finds interrogating the strong-willed Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair, whose performance grows on me more with each installment) to be a more difficult task than she anticipated. Then the incursion begins, with Tala using her cover as an Imperial officer– with a couple of close calls along the way– to prepare for Obi-Wan’s arrival at the station. There’s a great, haunting scene of Ben discovering the frozen-in-whatever-the-Star-Wars-equivalent-of-amber-is remains of a number of Jedi compatriots, including a youngling, and then some energetically staged action sequences as Obi-Wan begins to regain his fighting prowess. Naturally, videogamers will recognize the fortress location from EA’s acclaimed Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order title, and some of the scenes here reminded me of its gameplay as well.
This abbreviated episode (clocking in at 33 minutes, sans credits) is the shortest in the series so far, but also feels like the most taut. It’s really an in-and-out rescue mission, ending with a by-the-skin-of-their-teeth escape from the Inquisitors, the tragic loss of Wade in his airspeeder, and the twisty reveal that Reva has placed a tracking device on the most innocuous character of them all: the unassuming little droid LO-LA59. Consequently, “Part IV” of Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t have any flab to speak of, and except for Leia somehow successfully being able to hide under Ben’s trench coat (let’s chalk that one up to the Force, shall we?) I don’t have much to complain about here. In fact, this might be my favorite installment so far, with director Deborah Chow and Oldboy cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung– who I really should have name-checked in last week’s review– deftly showing off their combined skills. The whole thing just feels very Star Wars to me, maybe hewing a little bit too close to Leia’s rescue from the Death Star in A New Hope and the above-mentioned Grogu recovery in The Mandalorian, but still making a memorable impact all its own.
The first four episodes of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi are now available to stream exclusively on Disney+.