No other way to say it: Obi-Wan Kenobi had an unfortunate dip in quality this week. Not that the sets or CGI looked bad; rather, Part 4 was less engaging than previous installments because so much of it felt like something we’ve seen before. The “rescue a character from an Imperial base” plot has been done to death, resurrected, and then killed again. Just off the top of my head, there’s the Death Star rescue mission in A New Hope, at least two similarly staged rescues in The Mandalorian, the Starkiller Base “rescue” (of Rey, who didn’t really need much rescuing) in The Force Awakens, and the last mission of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (which also took place in the Fortress Inquisitorius,[1] featured in this episode of Obi-Wan).

            This plays into one of my other complaints about the episode: I think the audience could have used some more time with the rebel[2] characters instead of spending a chunk of the episode’s runtime watching Obi-Wan sneaking down identical-looking corridors in a relatively low-tension sneaking sequence. We know he’s good at sneaking around Imperial bases! We saw it in A New Hope! Having another scene or two with the rebels would have made their appearance at the end of the episode (and the death of Wade, one of the pilots) hit a bit harder. As it is, the way the rebels flew in to save Obi-Wan, Leia, and Tala in the nick of time came across as somewhat contrived (although, as mentioned later, I can give it a pass because, well, it’s Star Wars and you don’t come to Star Wars without expecting conveniently timed rescue sequences).

            I gotta say, Tala’s infiltration skills could use some work. Although her intimidation of the security chief at the entrance to Fortress Inquisitorius was a lot of fun to watch, the way she plonked herself down at a control station and started conversing with Obi-Wan via walkie-talkie[3] when there were several Imperial officers in the same room was a bit on the immersion-breaking side. So too was her completely unnoticed disposal of an officer who questioned her presence in the area; either all the other Imperials in the room were deaf, or officers brawl with each other in the command center on a near-daily basis, because they did fuck-all to stop her while she introduced the guy’s face to the nearest blunt objects.

            Reva’s interrogation of Leia, deep in the bowels of the fortress,[4] was a high point of the episode; the scene didn’t overstay its welcome and had Reva bouncing between different tactics (and Leia countering them) in an entertaining way. I just wish we had a bit more information on Reva at this point; I’m not saying that her entire backstory should have been spelled out by now, but the slow pace at which show is drip-feeding us little nuggets of information makes me worry that we’re in for a big, clumsy exposition dump later on down the line, and that’s never fun.

            The seeker droid[5] was a neat iteration on the classic Imperial probe droid design. Other than that, I found most of Obi-Wan’s infiltration to be…kind of boring. The “tomb” in the basement with all the frozen Jedi was a cool reveal (and I’m sure the editors over at Wookiepedia are having a field day figuring out who’s who), but I doubt it will actually go anywhere. Other than that, the only good scene in this (approximately) 1/3 of the episode was the bit where Obi-Wan kills the lights (and then a pair of stormtroopers) in the interrogation room. It had an almost horror-movie vibe, with Kenobi stalking around in the dark while the surviving trooper freaks out.

            It also helped that most of the scene was in the dark. Unfortunately, a lot of the (visible) action in this episode was shot in a very static fashion – I’m not saying I need 20 camera cuts per second, but a little camera movement can go a long way, especially in battle scenes. However, there’s a larger underlying issue with the episode – there’s just not a lot of tension to milk out of this scenario. We’ve seen the movies. We know Leia and Ben will live. Tala’s an intriguing character, but the question of her survival shouldn’t be the only tension-inducing element in a story like this.

Since I’ve played Fallen Order, I thought the hallway-flooding scene wasn’t very interesting or original, but the shot of the drowned stormtroopers floating outside the emergency doors was well done.

…and it was all downhill from there. I laughed out loud – well, cackled, really – at the image of Obi-Wan smuggling Leia out past the Imperials under a trench coat. I’ll give the overly timely appearance of the rebel speeders a pass (it’s Star Wars, after all), but to me the sequence was just a bunch of explosions with no stakes. Pretty, I guess, but forgettable.[6]

Vader’s appearance at the end of the episode was suitably intimidating, but I think it would have behooved the show to spend a little more time with him to get a sense of his reaction to the confrontation with Obi-Wan at the end of Part 3.

Finally, Reva’s plan to track Kenobi & Co. makes sense, but it would have worked better from a plotting standpoint for the tracking device to be revealed (or hinted at) a bit earlier – that way the audience wouldn’t get distracted wondering why no Imperial ships went after the escaping speeder with Obi-Wan and Leia on board.

            Part 4 didn’t do a lot to advance the overall plot of the series, which is maybe not the best way to spend an episode when you’ve only got six to work with. Add to that a few immersion-breaking plot devices – and the fact that we’ve seen iterations of this same scenario so many times before – and you have an episode that’s a bit of a letdown. Definitely not as strong as previous entries in the series, although it’s not bad. I’m being generous with the score here; I think some people will find it disappointing, and many others will meet it with a resounding eh. Here’s hoping the series picks back up next week. I bet Qui-Gon shows up.

Score: 7/10 (+0/-2)

Adjusted for Sentimentality: 6/10

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[1] I made this joke last week and I’ll make it again here: Warhammer 40k called, and it wants its nomenclature back.

[2] I know they’re not technically in “The Rebellion” yet, but you know what I’m talking about.

[3] Fine, space walkie-talkie.

[4] Not going to lie, I constructed this sentence specifically so that I could use the phrase “the bowels of the fortress.” It makes me think of a fortress taking a shit, and I find that hilarious.

[5] Pretty sure that’s what it’s called.

[6] Also, I’m not sure those speeders were the best choice for flying around at close quarters in a hangar bay full of stormtroopers, but what do I know. (I know enough to see that those things shouldn’t be able to hover, that’s for fucking sure. And I’m a guy who gets a headache anytime I ask the aeronautical engineer I’m friends with about work.)