Obi-Wan steps out for a daring rescue in a tense and emotional episode.

Spoilers ahead!

Hello there! 

And we’re back almost immediately, since Disney+ released the first two episodes together, back to watch and back into the action. A fair warning: they came for our emotions last time, but they’re tearing them apart in the second hour.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) arrives on Daiyu, the location of the bounty hunters who kidnapped Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair). He can no longer track their ship’s signal, since criminal paradise Daiyu blocks all such tech, so he’s forced to wander the streets, just a little bearded fish out of water. An all-too-familiar voice interrupts his musings to Qui-Gon for help: a Clone trooper veteran (Temuera Morrison), begging for spare credits on the street. Obi-Wan gives him some, and the pair exchange some pained glances before Obi-Wan moves on. It’s another sign of the careless destruction that the Empire leaves in its wake, a collection of broken people on crowded streets. 

A spice dealer approaches Obi-Wan, slipping him a freebie/plot device after he explains that he’s searching for his “daughter” and a kid named Jayco overhears his inquiry and offers to take Obi-Wan to a “Jedi who helps people.” Said “Jedi” is Haja Estree (Kumail Nanjiani), whom Obi-Wan watches arrange transport off of Daiyu for a woman and her Force-sensitive son. Haja is seemingly using the Force to open and close window shutters and influence the gate guard over the comm, but once the woman and her child leave he’s swiftly confronted by Obi-Wan, who doesn’t reveal his own Jedi identity but easily calls out Haja’s fakery. Faced with Obi-Wan’s blaster, Haja reluctantly offers up Leia’s location, though he doubts Obi-Wan will be able to get inside.

Said inside is the backrooms of a spice laboratory, into which Obi-Wan manages to sneak after causing a slight drug lab explosion, and he makes his way to Leia’s cell to find…a little droid in a cloak. Whoops. It’s a trap! He’s caught by Vect (Flea) and his buddies but manages to escape by smashing his freebie container of spice. He seals the kidnappers in the cell and locates the one that’s actually holding Leia. He almost loses her immediately as she’s waiting with a chair to hit whoever comes in the door (just like her mama!) but he manages to tell her he was sent by her father (Leia: “Where’s the army?”) and they sneak out of the lab.

Reva (Moses Ingram) heads to the lab and is less than pleased to discover the bounty hunters tripping out on the floor of the cell and both Obi-Wan and Leia gone. Even more unfortunate for her is the arrival of the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), Fifth Brother (Sung Kang), and a new pal this week, the Fourth Sister (Rya Kihlstedt). The Fifth Brother rats Reva out for wanting to catch Obi-Wan to earn points with Lord Vader and the Grand Inquisitor insults her a little before smugly telling her that he’s going to be getting the credit for capturing Obi-Wan. The other Inquisitors leave and Reva calls Vect and orders him to send out a bounty on Obi-Wan, with the hunters reporting only to her.

Obi-Wan and Leia make their way across the city to the port, though Obi-Wan is having a rough time dealing with Leia’s incredible sass. How old is he? If he’s a Jedi, why isn’t he using his lightsaber? Can he make her float? She wants to float! When Obi-Wan stops at a small clothing stand to buy her a disguise, she wants a sparkly coat that he won’t even consider! She ends up with an Endor-reminiscent green cape and a bonus pair of gloves that Uncle Obi-Wan can’t help but buy for her. When they’re waylaid by a bounty hunter and Leia sees Obi-Wan’s wanted poster (featuring his real name, since he introduced himself as Ben), she grows suspicious of him and flees. 

Obi-Wan’s pursuit of Leia turns into a firefight on the rooftops with a couple of bounty hunters, the firefight alerting Reva, who begins heading in their direction. Leia falls off of a roof and Obi-Wan has to use the Force in order to save her (she got to float!) which also gets them an unfortunate amount of attention. They arrive at the port to find all flights canceled and the place swarming with stormtroopers and Inquisitors. Obi-Wan explains to Leia that the Inquisitors are Jedi who fell to the Dark Side and now hunt their own people. A bounty hunter almost gets them but they’re saved by Haja, who provides them with coordinates to sneak off-planet on an unmanned cargo pod. Obi-Wan is naturally suspicious of Haja’s intentions, but Haja says he’s trying to redeem himself just a little bit. 

Obi-Wan continues on about how this is all likely a trap when Leia gives him a talking-to about trust and taking help when it’s offered. “You just remind me of someone,” Obi-Wan tells her in response. “She was fearless too.” There’s a lot of talk about how very much like Anakin Leia is (and she is) but she’s a lot of her mother as well. McGregor is a master at letting emotions cross his face; between this moment and one coming up, he’s doing more to showcase Obi-Wan’s pain than a thousand words of exposition possibly could. Reva ambushes the pair, having taken their location from Haja’s mind (though she left him alive, so we may see that charming con artist again). Leia runs to the cargo pod while Obi-Wan avoids Reva. 

As Reva stalks Obi-Wan, she tells him about her plan to take him alive to Lord Vader. This name hits Obi-Wan like a ton of bricks and Reva can sense it, informing him gleefully that Anakin Skywalker is alive (here’s McGregor’s second heartwrenching face). She’s close to getting him when the Grand Inquisitor shows up to bicker at her some more and send her away so that he can capture Kenobi. Reva’s response is to stab him in the gut with her lightsaber. This is an interesting turn of events! It’s highly unlikely that the Grand Inquisitor is dead (very highly) but I suspect he’s not going to be best pleased with Reva’s actions. 

Obi-Wan takes advantage of this situation to meet Leia on the cargo pod, though he’s even more broken up with this new knowledge. He can only whisper “Anakin” at his reflection while a worried Leia asks if he’s all right. 

Elsewhere (possibly Mustafar), a familiar pair of eyes in a burned face open inside of a bacta tank. 

Directed by Deborah Chow, “Part II” once again brings tension and worry to a plot full of characters that we know will be fine. It’s clear that Obi-Wan will have to use the Force to save Leia (just as it’s clear he isn’t using the Force throughout his chase of her) but when it happens it’s still a powerful moment of a man having to unlock a part of his life that he thought was behind him. I mean, he’s using blasters for goodness’ sake, this is a man having to go against his personal beliefs. Daiyu is a fun new location, a nice change from Tatooine, and it’s easy to see why Leia is immediately taken with the lights and atmosphere. To be fair, it has elements of a Star Wars amusement park, but doesn’t every location at this point? Obi-Wan Kenobi has started with a bang and honestly, the biggest disappointment so far is knowing that we’re likely losing Leia as Obi-Wan’s partner in crime soon. 

Bantha Droppings:

• My daughter may never forgive Obi-Wan for not buying Leia the sparkly coat. 
• Vect is killed by the Grand Inquisitor and his spinning lightsaber, welcome to live-action, spinning lightsabers. 
• The veteran clone trooper was wearing the colors of the 501st, making him one of Anakin’s men. 
• This Obi-Wan and Leia adventure certainly makes Ben Solo’s name make more sense. And more sad, as well. 
• It also adds context to Leia’s “Ben Kenobi? Where is he?” from A New Hope. Turns out she didn’t just recognize the last name. 
• There’s already some debate about how Reva knew Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker and the simple answer is we don’t know. We’ve seen that she can read minds, so there’s that, and also it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that she might have simply figured it out. It’s happened before.