It’s Wednesday morning, we’re cracking down early, and this is the second time we’re doing this show, because the first time I didn’t press the button. This time it’s red and it’s glowing. So Mrs. Know-It-All and I are back on the couch for Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 6.

They’re calling it the series finale. I think we’re going to get more.

Out of the gate you get a really great Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader duel, so you get all the things you wanted. Reva has found out about a very important child on Tatooine and she’s going after him, which means you get to see Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen kicking butt and being defenders, and it’s pretty great. Then there’s a nice little coda with Obi-Wan at the end.

I liked it. Mrs. Know-It-All liked it too, and she was a little nervous coming in. She was only okay with last week, so the show had some ground to make up with her. She liked the ending, and she liked that it can end right there or we can get more stories. They left it pretty open-ended.

Let Me Do This Part Now

I really liked the stretch where Obi-Wan leaves the ship. They’ve got to fix the hyperdrive to get it working, they’re being pursued, and that scene felt epic. A Star Destroyer comes shooting into the image, there’s laser fire everywhere, and you’re sitting there going, how do you hope to get out of that?

What I liked was that we’re still close enough to the Republic that everybody on that ship is telling him no, what are you doing, you can’t give yourself up. They don’t want to see this Jedi sacrifice himself, because sacrificing themselves is what the Jedi have done for most of the time now. That was the job they volunteered for. And I liked the way Obi-Wan answers it: no, you’ve done this, let me do this part now.

Two Old Fighters in the Street

Then you get the duel, ten minutes in, and it was so amazing. I didn’t think we were going to get a full-on, flat-out duel, and I’m glad we did. I was hoping Qui-Gon would interrupt whatever fight they were going to have. You do get Qui-Gon, just not like that.

To me this is a better fight than most of the Vader lightsaber battles we’ve gotten. It wasn’t all young and choreographed, like Episode I or Episode III. These are two older men, and essentially it was two fighters clubbing each other in the street. Both of them were giving intensely and there was hardly any finesse. But the minute you see Obi-Wan drop into his stance, the Obi-Wan stance with the fingers, I’m like, oh, he’s back. That was awesome. I absolutely loved it. Around our house, that’s a chef’s kiss.

And how about the agility this younger Vader has? Think about A New Hope. He walks with determination, with purpose: I am wise, I’m going to do this, and I will pinch a throat today. This Vader is throwing rocks. Big, huge ones. At one point he buries Obi-Wan under these giant rocks, and Obi-Wan pushes it all back off of him, and it’s so great. Then Obi-Wan is hurling boulders at Vader, and Vader’s not even blocking them. He’s just kind of covering up while they smash into him, so he’s off balance and he can’t really concentrate.

It was nice to see that they didn’t shy away from it, that they’ve kept Vader young. He’s still looking pretty ambitious in Rogue One, toward the end. He’s still got a lot of steam in him.

There’s a shot from the sky where all you see is two dark figures, one red lightsaber and one blue. The camerawork is amazing. The practical lighting of the modern-day lightsaber is so helpful, because the old ones were lit and you never saw any color coming off of them. Now you’re seeing so much intense color from the blades that you’re like, man, that’s great. I think that was one of my favorite scenes.

Anakin Under the Mask

They start fighting more, and Obi-Wan hits him in the face and opens up the mask, and you get to see Anakin inside. It was really cool.

And the voice box. As he’s talking you hear Anakin, but underneath it, overlaid with it, is Vader as well, because the voice box is damaged but it’s not done yet. What you get is this really intense moment where they’re talking, and I feel like deep down inside Anakin was saying, I’m going to give you this. If you think your actions killed Anakin Skywalker, you’re wrong. I did that.

From a Sith perspective, that’s exactly how it would happen. The new Sith person kills the old person. I love that mentality.

Then Obi-Wan essentially calls him Darth, which is a callback to A New Hope, where he says “only a master of evil, Darth.” And I believe this gives a lot more light to the line about a certain point of view. His point of view is that Vader killed Anakin. It’s even what he tells Luke later: I knew your father, and Vader killed him.

Owen and Beru Hold the Farm

Reva shows up, and Beru and Owen are ready to defend Luke. They catch word of someone looking for him, and Owen goes straight to Beru and says we’ve got to run. She’s like, no, where are we going? We can’t go anywhere. She’s handing him a rifle. And sure enough they defend as best they can, and they’re not doing too shabby. I think it helps that Reva is injured.

We also get this really cool origin for Uncle Owen’s limp. Reva throws him with the Force, he hits a thing and flips, and the minute I saw it I said, that’s how. Sure enough, he walks in at the very end with the same limp Owen has.

Reva Couldn’t Do It

Luke, being a smart little boy at the age of 10, takes off toward the rocky canyon, and Reva follows him. I love what they did with Reva here.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill Luke. They keep showing her flashes of Anakin coming in and killing younglings, and she’s in the same kind of pose he was. At one point they even replace Luke’s body with the young girl who plays young Reva. So it’s her asking, am I becoming Vader? Killing kids, is this what I’ve become? It’s a very sobering moment for her.

That’s why I was really happy when she comes back carrying young Luke and puts him down, and she says it with tears: is that who I am now, have I become him? And Obi-Wan tells her no, you chose differently.

I thought Reva was going to be done in by the Tusken Raiders. The writers spared her life, so now I can act like I want more Reva. Moses Ingram did amazing.

Hello There

There’s a really cool Emperor cameo. He tells Vader that his feelings for his old master are too strong, and Vader says Obi-Wan means nothing. Really? Is that right? That’s why you want to chase him all the time?

Then you get this really great button where Obi-Wan goes back to Tatooine. He sees Luke and he sees Owen, and he’s come to a conclusion: I’m going to leave him in your care. He needs you. You just defended him, so I can trust that you’re going to keep doing that, and I’ll be watching from afar. Owen asks if he wants to meet him, and that’s where Obi-Wan gives Luke the little plane we see him playing with later.

And what does Obi-Wan say to little 10-year-old Luke? “Hello there.” People don’t realize that’s a callback to Episode III, and that’s itself a callback to Episode IV, because that’s how we first see him out in the desert. I like all of it. It all comes together like a poem.

We know Ben ends up running into Luke casually over time, not just this once when he was little, because in A New Hope Luke wonders whether she means old Ben Kenobi. He’s got to have had some interaction with him growing up.

The Path Is the Show I’d Make

Starting this series, I didn’t think there was any possibility of a second season, because how much story can you tell in this slot? Then you get to the end and there’s a little wiggle room. The Emperor scene is part of it. You get the sense Vader’s going to keep pursuing him. You don’t have to have it, but it’d be cool if they did. I don’t think you do much with Luke. I think you find a way for Obi-Wan to interact a little with other people, and maybe he has to leave and go do another favor for somebody.

It isn’t just Obi-Wan, either. We both feel like we could go on a journey with Reva. You could totally give her a thing where she becomes some kind of Outer Rim Jedi defender, maybe even dealing with former Inquisitors. Speaking from a canon place, Rebels is technically the next thing in line, because the Grand Inquisitor is in Rebels. So there’s a lot of story to be had there.

Mrs. Know-It-All wondered if we could get something with Roken, because he said he’s just getting started. And I think she’s right. A lot of people might argue you just go on through to Rebels, but Rebels has its own specific group of characters. I think you can do something very cool with another character and show the growth of the rebellion.

My feeling is you do the Path series. You could even call it that, The Path. Focus it on the characters who help with the Path, and now you can easily drop in live-action versions of characters from Rebels and other people who used the Path, coming in just for an episode. We’re getting an Ahsoka series. There’s a ton of characters who could be brought into live action that way. We all know Yoda’s in hiding, and it’d be kind of cool if they popped in on that too.

Heck, you could do an entire season of the Path centered around the Mandalorians. The Empire comes through, and now the wreckage of the Mandalorians has to go somewhere. Maybe the Path are the ones who say we’ll get as many of you out as we can, and help them get far enough away to start their little coverts the way they have them.

There’s so much there that’s ripe for storytelling. Books, comic books, animated series. Not everything has to be about the lead character. Sometimes, like Rebels did, it’s the secondary characters who dovetail into the bigger thing.

The Verdict

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 6 is an 8 out of 10 from me on the Know-It-All Index, and a 9 from Mrs. Know-It-All, maybe a 9.5.

I still liked the show very much. I think it took a long time to get here. We could’ve gotten elements of this last episode in the previous one, the penultimate episode. I came in really cautious, and I’m still kind of leery at the moment. So for the series overall, I’m at a 7.

Mrs. Know-It-All has the series at an 8, because it brought her back. She was nervous. She was only okay with last week, but this week they pulled it all together for her. A lot of the questions you have as you’re watching are starting to come together and make sense.

Well, there you go, now you know, and if knowing is half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.

Your turn. Do you want a second season of Obi-Wan, a Reva spin-off, or the Path series with Roken? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. And never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.