Major casualties start to mount as the Disney+ "Star Wars" series careens toward next week's big finale.

If we never hear another character ask someone how long it will take to fix something and then immediately tell them they have significantly less, it will be too soon.

Aside from that painfully cliché moment, the penultimate installment of "Obi-Wan Kenobi" delivered when it comes to meaningful secrets revealed, which went a long way to explaining so many of the questions we had about Moses Ingram's Reva.

We got some more stellar work from the cast, including Hayden Christensen getting to have a meaty series of scenes opposite Ewan McGregor where they almost stepped back in time to their prequel days. In fact, we're still not sure if that was a flashback or some kind of weird fantasy sequence.

That's because despite both "Star Wars" and Marvel showing time and again that they have the will and the way to de-age people for various movies and television productions, that wasn't done here.

Hayden was there in all his 41-year-old glory playing what amounted to a pouty Padawan teenager opposite his 51-year-old Master. Were we not supposed to see that these were middle-aged men? Another flashback sequence later that also featured an older Hayden has us thinking we're expected to just ignore it and pretend it's still 2005 in those moments.

Were they that concerned after everyone questioned their very sketchy CGI Luke Skywalker over on "The Mandalorian"? At least they didn't trot out current day Mark Hamill to try and pretend he could pass for a young adult over there.

Still, this isn't the first show to try and pull off a flashback with a clearly older actor. And it was nice seeing Hayden and Ewan sharing the screen together, both stepping right back into the vocal cadence they shared together all those years ago.

That flashback sequence, though, didn't seem to do much to serve the story, other than show us what we already know -- that Anakin Skywalker has been seeking validation and approval his whole life and feels like he constantly has to prove himself. Wethinks that was just a fan service sequence (and we can certainly appreciate it for that).

Reva Revealed

One of the more enigmatic characters of the series, beyond bringing out all the racist trolls to cry because a Black woman has a significant role in the franchise, Reva's motives never made all that much sense. Why is she so driven to capture Obi-Wan and gain Darth Vader's favor, and willing to go to reckless lengths to get there?

Actually, the answer was right there all along if we'd been paying attention -- and we're sure plenty of you were. Most Inquisitors are fallen Jedi, but Reva is awfully young to have been a Jedi before Order 66 all but wiped them out.

She's too young to have been a Jedi, but not too young to have been one in training! As it turns out, that premiere episode flashback to the moment Anakin was killing Younglings wasn't just to set the tone and mood of this story. It was to introduce a key character!

Reva was one of the Younglings in Anakin's path. Thinking he was there to save them, she was horrified to see him slaughtering the only family she'd ever known. She hid among the bodies to escape. As such, she was one of the few who knew (or could ascertain) that it was Anakin who ascended to the title of Darth Vader.

She wasn't hunting Obi-Wan so relentlessly to gain favor with the Sith Lord, but rather to get close to him. At the beginning of this episode, Vader granted her the title of Grand Inquisitor for placing a tracker on Leia's droid LOLA. He then followed her to Jabiim to secure Obi-Wan for himself.

Obi-Wan had turned himself in to Reva to afford the refugees hiding there time to escape, but there was also another reason he did it. "You’re not bringing him to me," Obi-Wan told Reva of Vader. "I’m bringing him to you."

After she had him "secured" in the refugee base while Vader arrived, Obi-Wan promptly escaped and made his way to the transport. He and the refugees barely managed to escape as Vader proved his strength in the Force by pulling down a transport ship trying to take off and ripping its hull apart, only to find it empty as the real ship made its escape.

It was at that moment that Reva tried to make her move, with a sneak attack of Vader from behind. Unfortunately, she was no match for Anakin, with our without a lightsaber. Their duel was epic only in that it was clear throughout how outmatched she was.

In the end, just as she feared when she saw Anakin looming over her as a Youngling (yes, it was an older Anakin in the flashback), Vader then stabbed her through the gut with his lightsaber. The original Grand Inquisitor then emerged when Vader revealed he'd recognized her and known all along.

So then what was his play here? Was he just messing with her? Or was it worth the risk of her attacking him to use her to bring Obi-Wan to him. It did nearly work, after all. Nevertheless, he and the Grand Inquisitor left her there to do, but with a cauterized wound in her gut, mayhap she won't die after all.

Tatooine Trouble

She certainly wasn't dead when the credits rolled on this episode. In fact, she'd created a disturbance in the Force large enough for Obi-Wan to feel it on the transport when she discovered his communicator with Bail Organa's latest communique.

Luckily, it was damaged enough she got no names, but she heard enough to know that there was a boy and he was on Tatooine. She could probably figure out the rest. Considering she knows who Anakin is, she may also know about Padme and Leia, at least.

Now, this by no means makes Reva a good person or a sympathetic person. We did, after all, see her indiscriminately slaughter a child in the first episodes, and she's been utterly ruthless throughout, killing indiscriminately.

Even after Obi-Wan figured out the truth of her past and her drive to get close to Vader, she still managed to open the base door herself and let her Stormtroopers pour in, slaughtering defenseless refugees and rebels alike. In the slaughter, we lost Indira Varma's Tala, which was heartbreaking for Obi-Wan, and loader droid NED-B, which was heartbreaking for us!

Clearly Reva's so eaten up by hate and revenge, she's just about as bad as Vader. At the same time, Vader got a redemption arc in the original trilogy, so could a similar fate await Reva in the season finale? Wouldn't that infuriate that certain segment of fans.

A final confrontation between Anakin and Obi-Wan seems inevitable for next week's finale. With Reva knowing that there's a boy on Tatooine, and that last glimpse of Luke Sywalker sleeping in his bed at the Lars farm, could that final confrontation be back on the same planet where it all started?

It's hard to imagine Anakin returning to Tatooine this early in Luke's life and somehow Luke never knowing about it, but it's certainly possible. Plus, now that Reva's been betrayed by Darth Vader, what would her goal be in going to Tatooine?

Does she think she'll get another chance at him by bringing Luke to him? Or does she think killing Luke could be revenge enough?

Will Leia get dropped off on Alderaan and out of this story before we even get to Tatooine? She's been a fun surprise and addition to Old Ben's story, but we know he's got to get back to hermiting it up on Tatooine and being that crazy old man that Luke knows about growing up.

We'll see how it all shakes out when "Obi-Wan Kenobi" wraps up its first season (with a possible second teased) next Wednesday on Disney+.

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Title: Obi-Wan Kenobi Recap: Reva's Secret Connection to Darth Vader, Anakin and Obi-Wan Battle
Sourced From: toofab.com/2022/06/15/obi-wan-kenobi-recap-reva-connection-darth-vader-anakin-obi-wan-battle/
Published Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2022 09:43:45 +0000

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