Disney Plus’s Original Series Obi-Wan Kenobi Season One Episode Four “Part 4” starts with Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi in a medical pod to recover from the burns he suffered in his last battle with Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader. From here, the viewer can see just how deeply he is connected with Darth Vader due to how the series portrays their relationship using flashes of their recent fight as a way to show that they think about each other as they both are in medical pods. It appears that the series is foreshowing another fight between the two in a later episode. The difference in this possible fight being that Obi-Wan knows how Darth Vader now fights and could probably find a way to beat him. Additionally, the viewer gets a peak behind the curtain of his fear of losing Vivien Blair’s young Leia Skywalker to the empire. This is demonstrated by how the first thing he asks his allies about is her when he wakes up from the medical pod. In his mind, he feels as if he has a duty to make sure she is safe from harm. It could also be inferred by the viewer that he sees Leia as his second to do the right thing and not fail someone he cares about due to how he failed her father and let him turn evil. Seeing Darth Vader again probably has made it so that he does not want her to go down the same path her father did and turn evil when he became Darth Vader.
Furthermore, as Leia is being interrogated, she reveals the fighting spirt she has inside as she refuses to reveal where the underground rebel cell is located. Even when Moses Ingram’s Reva Sevander threatens her with brutal torture, she still refuses to give them up along with Obi-Wan. In her mind, she knows the empire will kill them and Obi-Wan should she tell her everything she knows. Not to mention that given how she has seen the length Reva will go to get Obi-Wan Leia can assume that even if she tells them she will still get tortured. The interesting part is when Reva is interrogating her the viewer can see by the look on her face that she does not want to hurt Leia. This is further proven by how, as she is preparing to torture Leia, she yells at her to tell her something. However, by the look on her face the viewer can see that she yells at her more as a plea than an order. In her mind, she does not want to hurt Leia, she just wants to get Obi-Wan to further her goal. As a matter of fact, after everything she has done, doing this to an innocent little girl is by far something that will truly haunt her for the rest of her life. That is why she pleas with Leia as she is the one with the power to stop both of them from going through this.
At the end of the episode, the viewer sees Obi-Wan escape with Leia thanks to Indira Varma’s Tala Durith who is an imperial officer. The fascinating part is that originally, she was in full support of the empire until she saw what the empire was capable of. Now she works as a double agent for a rebel cell due to how she has seen that the empire chooses to enslave and hurt others. In her mind, she sees that she had a part in the atrocities that the empire committed such as taking over planets, kicking people off their lands, and enslaving people who do not cooperate. She hopes that by helping she can atone for the things that she has done or did not do when she supported the empire. Which is why she is willing to risk her life if it means that Obi-Wan and Leia are safe.
Rating: 8.5/10