We continue on our quest with Obi-Wan and Leia, to get back to Alderaan, in episode 3 of Obi-Wan Kenobi today, but this episode was more about the damage caused to everyone after Revenge of the Sith. A thrilling third part to the series, everything about this episode just feels like a perfect continuation of the emotional journey that all of these characters would go through after the prequels, and it’s exciting to see the show putting the time into each character to explore that.
There is still a lot that needs to be done and answered in the series as a whole, but “Part III” was a nice continuation and continues to set up motion for the rest of the show. So, let’s talk a bit about why it’s so emotionally charged.
**Spoilers for the first three episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi lie ahead.**
Episode 3 of Obi-Wan Kenobi is a painful look at, well, everything. What the prequels left us with is just a hole in our hearts where Anakin/Padmé/Obi-Wan used to live, and Kenobi showrunner Deborah Chow and company said “Let’s rip that hole even further apart” and just caused us more emotional damage. I’m talking specifically about how this entire episode is just Obi-Wan exploring the pain he still has from what happened in Revenge of the Sith.
The episode, overall, was about getting Leia back to Alderaan and Obi-Wan dealing with a mini-version of his two friends. She might look like Padmé and have her spark, but she’s also Anakin’s child and she refuses to listen to anything that Obi-Wan tells her to do (this time, to their advantage, because she did get them passage even if they almost were captured by the Empire.
An escape plan
The episode has a lot of back and forth between Obi-Wan and Leia about their plans. He doesn’t trust anyone, and she’s willing to give everyone a fair chance, so the two of them are nearly always at odds about who they can and cannot reach out to. But when she’s tired of walking and just wants to go to the port, she asks a passerby for travel. Granted, he does turn them in to the Empire, which leads to them being found by Indira Varma’s Tia. A former Imperial officer who turned to the alliance when she realized what the Empire really stood for, Tia is willing to help Obi-Wan and Leia get to safety, the problem being that Obi-Wan saw Anakin and everything changed.
The end of part 2 left us with the emotional baggage of Obi-Wan learning that Anakin isn’t dead, and this episode just kept hammering it home that Obi-Wan was going to have face his friend and brother once more. All of that mixed with his emotions about Leia, and the episode just felt like a constant punch to the gut in a way that Star Wars hasn’t for a while, mainly because we’ve sort of left the Skywalkers on the sideline for a minute.
Not that we need more of the Skywalker drama, but getting to see the emotional impact it has on Obi-Wan is a change of pace that’s worth it. But all of this boils down to their escape plan that … doesn’t really work out. Obi-Wan is confronted by Anakin, Tia tells Leia to run to the transport, and Reva is hot on their tail, only for Tia to run to Obi-Wan’s aid in the midst of Leia being captured by the Third Sister.
The episode left us on quite the cliffhanger, and it’s going to be a ride to see where we end up in episode 4.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
