Recap / Obi-Wan Kenobi — Part V

Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode Recap Index
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI

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Obi-Wan Kenobi, part five of six.

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As the Path evacuates Jabiim, Vader and the Third Sister corner Obi-Wan, forcing the old Jedi master to make any necessary sacrifices to buy his new friends as much time as possible...

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Tropes:

• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Reva has several for Obi-Wan back-to-back:
    Obi-Wan: Let me help you [kill Vader].
    Reva: Why should I trust you?
    Obi-Wan: Because we want the same thing.
    Reva: Do we, Obi-Wan? Do you really want Anakin dead? Where were you while he was killing my friends? He was your Padawan. Why didn't you stop him? Why didn't you save us?
  • Obi-Wan also gives one to Reva that clearly rattles her.
    Obi-Wan: There are families back there. Children. Are you going to let him do it again, what he did to you?
• The Atoner: Tala tells Obi-Wan that in the past, when she served the Empire, she followed orders and rounded up four Force-sensitive families (fourteen in total, including six children) to be handed over to the Inquisitors. She was horrified to know that they had all been killed, and ever since she's atoned for her actions by helping agents of the Path.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: The flashbacks to the Clone Wars remind us that this has always been Anakin's style. Then he was a Lightning Bruiser who brought relentless speed to the table, now he's a Mighty Glacier who will never, ever stop.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Thanks to having trained Anakin, Obi-Wan knows Vader will launch an immediate attack rather than besiege the Path into surrender, and plans accordingly. He then arranges for a decoy ship to attempt to leave as Vader arrives, allowing him to tire himself out pulling it back to ground with the Force, before the real ship takes off immediately after.
  • However, it's also subverted when he convinces Reva to help him by pointing out Vader's obsession with killing him will blind him to all else, including her making an attempt on his life. It turns out he's wrong on this point, as Vader has known all along that Reva wanted to kill him, and thwarts her attempt with ease.
• Big "NO!": Obi-Wan lets one out just before Tala sacrifices herself.
• BFG: The stormtroopers use a huge laser cannon to blast open the doors to the Path's hidden base.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Vader and the Grand Inquisitor leave Reva to die from an injury that the Grand Inquisitor has already proven is survivable and that Reva has already survived once before, because they see it as poetic to leave her in the "gutter". That said, it is very possible they just don't care and view her potential survival as Cruel Mercy at best, especially when Anakin made it clear minutes ago that Reva didn't even register as a minor threat to him when she attempted to kill him.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In their Flashback training duel, Obi-Wan chides Anakin for his aggressiveness, pointing out that the Jedi endeavour to spare lives rather than take them, while Anakin notes that showing mercy to a foe won't necessarily end a fight. Any in the audience who have also watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars will know both will be proven right in many ways.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Vader averts it. While it isn't said out loud, it's clear that Reva doesn't expect Vader to remember a random Jedi youngling (especially since he killed several of them during Order 66). After defeating her, Vader lets her know that he knows everything.
  Vader: Did you really believe I did not see it, youngling?
• Call-Back:
  • Obi-Wan asks to negotiate with Reva as a means of stalling for time, a tactic he's used repeatedly in the past, and it's well-known enough that Reva lampshades the tactic.
  • One is made to the opening scene of the first episode, which shows younglings running through the temple on the night of Order 66, with it revealed that Reva was one of them. Also, the terrace where the younglings are practicing at nightfall is the same location where Anakin and Obi-Wan's practice duel takes place.
• Call-Forward:
  • In the opening to the flashback scene, the young Anakin is gazing across Coruscant's cityscape at 500 Republica, where Padmé's (and Palpatine's) senatorial apartments are located in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
  • The choreography of the sparring scene between Obi-Wan and Anakin manages to invoke their future climactic duel in Revenge of the Sith, particularly the constant parry/block of lightsabers they do against each other. In retrospect, it further gives additional weight and heartbreak to their long history together (if the backstory previously shown in Star Wars: The Clone Wars wasn't enough).
  • Of particular note: Obi-Wan uses the exact same tactic to disarm Anakin here as he eventually does in Revenge of the Sith: elbowing him in the back and Force-pulling his lightsaber away. Anakin is defenseless against it here, but is able to counterattack in the film after having seen him try it here.
  • When Roken asks how Obi-Wan intends to fight Vader without his lightsaber, Obi-Wan responds that there are other ways to fight, similarly to how he'll tell Han Solo "there are alternatives to fighting" in A New Hope.
  • Vader attempts to Force-drag a transport holding the Path's refugees back to ground, only to realize they've tricked him by sending up a decoy; the actual refugee ship flies away unscathed.
    • It practically foreshadows, once again, his climactic hallway massacre in Rogue One — in that while it is indeed awe-inspiring, it still eats up enough time for the Alderaanian Rebels to get the Death Star plans to the Tantive IV and get away from him (if only temporarily).
    • In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey repeats the Force-restraining of a transport to prevent it from escaping with someone aboard (Chewbacca, in this case), and also finds (albeit, much later afterwards) that he was on another, unnoticed transport that does escape.
  • Vader's "When I left you, I was but a learner" remark in A New Hope initially seemed quite nonsensical after he wiped the floor with Obi-Wan in Part III. This episode makes it make sense again: Vader's ambition and desire to win blind him, leaving him open to the above decoy tactic, and he recalls Obi-Wan telling him that as long as that happens, he will always be a Padawan. It also potentially explains why he's a lot less aggressive during their final duel.
  • Vader irritably tells the Third Sister to Dispense with the Pleasantries when she makes obsequious courtesies to him upon boarding his Star Destroyer, in the same way he dismisses Moff Jerjerrod's courtesies upon boarding the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi.
  • Vader telling Reva, "[Obi-Wan] was wise to use you against me" evokes him telling Luke, "Obi-Wan was wise to hide [Leia] from me" during their final duel in Return of the Jedi.
  • The Empire uses a large laser cannon to blast into the Path's hidden base, similar to the First Order using one to attack the Resistance's final stronghold on Crait.
  • During their practice duel in the flashback, Anakin hammers away at Obi-Wan's guard with his lightsaber in an attempt to break it, a move that Luke will employ against Anakin/Vader himself aboard the second Death Star.
  • NED-B makes a Heroic Sacrifice against Stormtroopers to defend Tala and her friends, clearly devastating Tala, just as K-2SO will do for Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor, to the latter's sorrow.
  • The recording of Bail Organa may potentially cause serious consequences for Obi-Wan and Luke. Another recording left by Bail will lead to devastating consequences for Leia and the New Republic decades in the future.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Reva uses a lightsaber to quickly cut open a heavy blast door. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn attempted something similar in The Phantom Menace, but those doors were much thicker and they were interrupted by Droidekas.
  • After their brief "fight", Vader has Reva down on her knees, approaching her with one end of her broken saber in each hand. This is similar to Anakin's stance before murdering Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith.
  • The Empire brings in an E-Web to tear down the front door of the Path's base on Jabiim.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Reva's "duel" with Vader is ludicrously one-sided, showing once again just how skilled the Sith Lord is at murder. Vader doesn't even bother drawing his own lightsaber, simply helping himself to half of Reva's when he wants a weapon, and even then, she never so much as touches him.
• Darkest Hour: Yes, the Path have escaped, but for how long? Their hyperdrive is damaged and Vader is pursuing them. Also, Reva found Obi-Wan's damaged communicator and is now planning to track down Luke.
• Didn't Think This Through: Reva's attempt to kill Vader involves her igniting her lightsaber and charging at him. Not only does Vader see it coming a mile away, but the actual fight between them is very much one-sided.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: Vader makes it clear that he not only knows exactly who Reva is, but was perfectly aware of her plot against him all along:
  Vader: Did you really believe I did not see it, youngling?
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Tala holds the badly damaged NED-B until he deactivates, before pulling out a thermal detonator for her planned Heroic Sacrifice.
• Dispense with the Pleasantries: Vader dismisses the Third Sister's obsequious — and false — courtesies as she boards his Star Destroyer.
  Reva: It is my great honor to be invited aboard, Lord Vader.
  Vader: I am not interested in civilities.
• Doomed by Canon: Reva, of course. As the Grand Inquisitor is still due for Rebels, it's not that surprising that she wasn't going to last in his shoes at all.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: NED-B spends his last moments using his body to shield Tala from Stormtrooper fire, which gives her time to activate a Thermal Detonator and block the path.
• Enemy Mine: Obi-Wan convinces the Third Sister to let him help her in her desire to strike down Vader.
  Vader: He was wise to use you against me.
• Evil vs. Evil: Reva is revealed to have been after Vader all along, wanting revenge for the Sith Lord slaughtering her fellow younglings during the raid on the Jedi Temple. The two Tragic Villains face off near the end of the episode, but the "fight" involves Reva being tossed around like a ragdoll, stabbed, and left for dead.
• Failed a Spot Check: Vader is so focused on the shuttle taking off that he doesn't notice the other shuttle on the ground prepped and waiting to take off.
• Faking the Dead: Reva reveals that she only survived Order 66 because Anakin only wounded her, and she hid among the corpses of her fellow younglings until the 501st departed. Vader reveals that he knew she hadn't died, although for how long is unclear.
• Flashback:
  • A flashback to Obi-Wan and Anakin dueling when the latter was still his Padawan is shown in pieces over the episode. Though Anakin fights with determination to win and even manages to disarm Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan ultimately gets the better of Anakin and lectures him on being too focused on victory.
  • Another flashback is also shown throughout, of the youngling Reva's horrified witnessing of Vader and the 501st Legion attacking the Jedi Temple. This one ties together in the final shot of her and Vader's fight in the present day; whereas in the past she'd played dead and been overlooked, here there's an instant juxtaposition between the child Reva watching Vader approach her to impale her and the adult Reva being skewered by him now.
• Flaw Exploitation: Obi-Wan uses Vader's long-standing impatience and fixation on winning to great effect, as well as taking advantage of Reva's desire for revenge against Vader to secure everyone's escape; he surrenders himself, convinces Reva to take her shot at Vader, escapes the stormtroopers Reva had guarding him, then uses a decoy ship to draw Vader's attention away from the refugees' actual escape.
• Foil: We finally learn what fans had quickly guessed - Reva is one of the Younglings we saw in the first episode, nearly murdered by Vader on Palpatine's orders. Like Anakin, the trauma she suffered as a child turned her into a villain willing to do anything to revenge herself.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Reva was a Jedi Youngling; now she's an Inquisitor.
• Guile Hero: As Obi-Wan tells Roken, there is more than one way to fight; using his wits, insight into Vader's character, and a psychological analysis of Reva, Obi-Wan manages to turn certain doom into a narrow escape and a chance for survival.
• He's Back!: Obi-Wan reclaims yet another of his accolades from the Clone Wars, as he steps up not only as the nearly unstoppable warrior, but as the inspiring general who led an army. He reassures the terrified civilians and gives them a straightforward plan for escape.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Two in one scene: NED-B is killed trying to protect Tala and his lifeless body shelters her long enough to make sure Obi-Wan can fall back; then Tala, having been shot, triggers a thermal detonator, killing herself and potentially taking a few stormtroopers with her.
• Humiliation Conga: Reva's attempt to assassinate Vader leads to a rapid, but brutal one; not only does Vader casually use the Force to stop the attack, he demolishes her in an utterly one-sided fight, stabs her through the stomach (leaving her back where she was when he first did so to her as a child), and has the still-living Grand Inquisitor arrive to both drive home that he always knew of her plans and to insult her one last time, before they leave her to die alone. While she's a villainous character, the entire thing feels very tragic.
• Hypocrite: Vader is angry that Obi-Wan left him for dead on Mustafar instead of killing him, and has even called him out on it. In this episode, Vader leaves Reva for dead instead of killing her.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Vader stabbed Reva as a child during Order 66, and stabs her again at the end of their duel, just as she did to the Grand Inquisitor.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Of course, crack Imperial Stormtrooper marksmen were sent down to Jabiim. Despite being much better armed than the members of the underground and having strength in numbers the stormtroopers are largely unable to hit any of their targets, with Tala being one of the notable exceptions.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Anakin tells Reva that he knew she was a former youngling and didn't care that she wanted revenge on him.
  • Reva, after being stabbed by Vader with her own lightsaber, discovers Obi-Wan's damaged comlink half-buried in the sand. When she picks it up, the comlink replays part of its last message, which reveals the existence of a boy currently living with Owen Lars, whom Bail and Obi-Wan are both concerned about the safety of and their secrecy from Vader.
• It's Personal: As it turns out, it's not Obi-Wan that Reva was after, but rather Anakin himself, to get revenge for the latter having slain her friends and only family during his massacre of the younglings in the Jedi Purge.
• Just Toying with Them:
  • Vader isn't even seriously trying as he dodges or blocks every attack from Reva, not even bothering with a lightsaber until he feels like humiliating her even further with the pretense of a "fair" duel. At which point he effortlessly plucks Reva's double-bladed saber from her hands, breaks it in half, then throws the other half back at her.
  • For that matter, Reva's "promotion" into Grand Inquisitor turns out to be a drawn-out version of this as well. Vader eventually reveals he knew she was the youngling that got past him during his attack on the Jedi Temple, and has been exploiting her eagerness to get close to him for revenge to carry out the Inquisitorius mission. However, now that she has revealed she was gunning for him, he finally sets up a situation where she will fail. To add insult to injury, he then has the Grand Inquisitor (the former Sentinel) walk out alive as she is fatally injured, revealing that they were both in on it, meaning her plotting was All for Nothing.
• Kick the Dog: Reva is hardly an innocent, but Vader is a far greater evil, and, after overpowering and critically wounding her, he reminds Reva of the previous trauma she suffered at his hands as a child before he and the Grand Inquisitor mock her and leave her for dead.
• Kick Them While They're Down: After overpowering Reva, Vader goes to the trouble of having the very much alive Grand Inquisitor make an appearance to drive home that she was always an Unwitting Pawn, and the Grand Inquisitor takes a moment to further insult his would-be killer and strip her of her badge of office.
  Grand Inquisitor: We will leave you where we found you: in the gutter, where you belong. Goodbye, Grand Inquisitor.
• Kill Tally: Inverted with Tala. She keeps a count of every person she saves from the Empire by making a mark inside her holster.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Moments before revealing that the Grand Inquisitor is still alive, Vader gives the Third Sister an injury identical to the one she inflicted on the Grand Inquisitor.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: After using the Force to toy with her for a bit, Vader takes Reva's double-bladed lightsaber, separates it into two blades, then tosses one to her to hammer home that she can't win even if he handicaps himself.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Path uses riot shields to hold the tunnel against Reva's charging platoon of stormtroopers.
• The Mole: Reva placed a Restraining Bolt on Lola to force her to turn against the Path. Leia removes it once she catches Lola sabotaging the hangar doors.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: As Reva finds his discarded comlink back on Jabiim, a rattled Obi-Wan tells Roken, "Something's wrong." While he brushes it off as "nothing," his expression indicates otherwise.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bail Organa, concerned about how long Obi-Wan has been gone, breaks his own "no communications" rule to tell Obi-Wan that if he doesn't return soon, Bail will travel to Tatooine to check on Luke. Haja later drops Obi-Wan's comlink, allowing a wounded Reva to discover it, play back Bail's transmission, and learn that both Bail and Obi-Wan are concerned about a boy; part of the transmission which is still audible reveals "Tatooine" and "Owen," both of which Reva clearly remembers.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Vader effortlessly dodges Reva's lightsaber strikes as if he was toying with her.
• Not Quite Dead: The Grand Inquisitor is, unsurprisingly, revealed to have survived the wound Reva inflicted in Part II.
• Not Worth Killing: Vader stabs Reva through the stomach in such a way that she is left struggling but still alive, then decides to leave her on Jabiim without even the dignity of finishing her off.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Which is worse? Not seeing Lord Vader slaughter the Younglings, or seeing him do it with a face full of rage?
• Offhand Backhand: Vader doesn't even bother to turn around or draw his lightsaber to deflect Reva's initial attack, simply stopping it mid-strike with the Force.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Reva when she realises a mortally wounded Tala is holding a thermal detonator.
    Reva: GET BACK!
  • Obi-Wan seems to sense through the Force that Reva has found his comlink and discovered Luke's existence, and it clearly terrifies him.
• P.O.V. Sequel: The sacking of the Jedi Temple during Revenge of the Sith is again revisited from a Youngling perspective, but this time, we finally get to see Anakin in the thick of the Jedi massacre rather than just entering the Temple or cornering younglings in the Council chambers (as we saw during the film's Order 66 montage).
• The Power of Hate:
  • The Grand Inquisitor attributes this to his survival from Reva stabbing him.
    Grand Inquisitor: Hello, Third Sister. Revenge does wonders for the will to live, don't you think?
  • This is also what allows Reva to survive not one, but two stabbings from Vader, first during Order 66, then on Jabiim a decade later.
• Pre-Sacrifice Final Goodbye: Tala whispers "May the Force be with you" to Obi-Wan just before the thermal detonator she's holding explodes.
• Rank Up: For leading him to Obi-Wan, Vader promotes Reva to the rank of Grand Inquisitor. The "promotion" doesn't last all of a day before Vader reveals that the previous Grand Inquisitor is still alive and Vader leaves Reva for dead.
• Restraining Bolt: It's shown that this is how Reva converted Lola into a tracker probe. Once Leia discovers and removes it, Lola returns to normal.
• The Reveal: Reva is a survivor of Order 66, having been a youngling while it was occurring. The reason she knows Darth Vader's true identity as Anakin is because she was there during the assault on the Jedi Temple, and she has been hunting Obi-Wan as part of a long game to take revenge on Vader.
• Saved by Canon:
  • The Grand Inquisitor did indeed survive being stabbed through the gut by Reva.
  • Reva's attempt to kill Vader is, obviously, doomed to failure. What's less obvious is how much of an absolute Curb-Stomp Battle it will be.
• Say My Name: Obi-Wan shouts Tala's name several times as he tries to reach his wounded friend.
• Scotty Time: Roken says he'll need three to four hours to fix the hangar doors. Obi-Wan gives him one. Fortunately, Haja figures out the likely source of the sabotage and Leia is able to repair it.
• Self-Serving Memory:
  • Played for Laughs with Haja, who describes himself as having gotten into "a fight" with Reva. As the audience is aware, said fight consisted of her shoving him into a wall, reading his mind, and leaving.
  • Possibly with Vader; it's implied that the flashbacks to Anakin and Obi-Wan's sparring session are Vader's own recollections, and said recollection seems to end with Anakin victorious. It's not until Vader lands and Obi-Wan's plan has been put into motion that the rest of the memory is shown: despite having disarmed Obi-Wan, Anakin still lost, just as Vader assumes Obi-Wan's will is broken, yet still fails to capture him.
• Separated by the Wall: Obi-Wan and Reva have a conversation through the closed blast door at the front of the Path base.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: It turns out Reva wants revenge on Vader for killing the younglings (the closest thing she had to family) and almost killing her. She's not out to help the good guys, but she is out to destroy Vader.
• Spotting the Thread: When he confronts Reva, Obi-Wan notes that she knows Darth Vader is Anakin and questions where she learned that, since Vader would never have told her and she's too young to have been a Jedi Knight. From there, he quickly deduces that Reva must have been one of the younglings present during Vader's massacre at the Jedi Temple, and that her true goal this whole time has been to get close enough to Vader to avenge her fallen friends.
• Stone Wall: True to form, Obi-Wan's lightsaber deflection keeps most of the blaster fire away from the refugees and they make an orderly retreat behind him. Notably, Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy is defied during the one part of the battle where others act as a rearguard, and so their shots finally make their mark. Tala is shot in the stomach, Nyche takes a shot to the shoulder and is carried away by Obi-Wan, and NED-B is shot shielding Tala.
• Taking You with Me: A mortally wounded Tala activates a thermal detonator to give Obi-Wan time to fall back while trying to take as many stormtroopers with her as possible. NED-B, having used the last of his strength to shield her with his body, perishes as well.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Vader throws his half of Reva's saber at her during their duel. She blocks it, however.
• Tragic Villain: Reva is revealed to be one, having been a survivor of the Jedi Purge and seeking revenge against Vader for the death of her fellow younglings, with everything she's done being a means for her to work her way up the ranks of the Inquisitors and get into a position to assassinate him. It's made all the worse by how it turns out to be All for Nothing, and she is left terribly wounded or dying on the floor, just as she was as a little girl by his hand all those years ago.
• Unwitting Pawn: Vader always knew Reva was one of the younglings he failed to kill and that she wanted revenge, and used that anger as a means to locate Obi-Wan.
• Villain Ball: The stormtroopers spend quite some time trying to breach a heavy blast door with a specialized laser cannon, but when Obi-Wan tries to stall for time, Reva stabs through the door with her lightsaber and cuts the bar holding it shut in half, demonstrating that she wasted all that time ordering the stormtroopers to do a task she could have accomplished in five seconds. However, doing so immediately opens herself up to being shot at (with no stormtrooper defence) as she is right at the door for those on the other side to see, so it's very possible she was holding off to avoid that vulnerability before her anger got the better of her. There is also a good chance it was only because the door was already weakened by the blasts that she was able to cut through.
• Wham Episode: The show's biggest one so far.
  • Reva is revealed to be a youngling who survived Order 66. She only ever joined the Empire to get closer to Vader so she could get revenge on him for killing her friends.
  • Tala and NED-B sacrifice themselves to take out a squad of stormtroopers.
  • The Grand Inquisitor is revealed to be alive (though this should not come as a surprise to those who have seen Rebels).
  • Vader knew of Reva's plot, and was using her, stabs her, and leaves her for dead.
  • Reva learns from Kenobi's holoprojector that he and Organa have been protecting someone else... and where to find this one.
• What the Hell, Hero?: A big one from Reva to Obi-Wan for his failure to stop Anakin. Obi-Wan pretty much already feels as terrible about it as possible, so he has little response.
  Reva: Do you really want Anakin dead?
• Would Hurt a Child: A flashback to Order 66 shows Anakin cutting down younglings during the storming of the Jedi Temple. Obi-Wan also brings up the likelihood Vader will kill everyone in the Path's base, including children, to convince Reva to ally with him. Reva herself was stabbed by Vader in the temple, but survived due to The Power of Hate.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Vader has been playing Reva all along, using her to find Obi-Wan. When she finally makes her move against Vader himself, Vader tosses her around like a ragdoll, reveals the whole plot, stabs her through the torso, and leaves her for dead.
  Grand Inquisitor: [to Reva] Your rage was useful. Now, it is tiresome.
• Zerg Rush: Reva's tactic for storming the Path's base — just send waves of stormtroopers and Purge Troopers into the base to slaughter the inhabitants, regardless of how many casualties the Imperials sustain. Though this seems standard practice for many Imperial commanders.

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