Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 4 review: A gripping throwback to the golden era of Star Wars

Obi-Wan Kenobi just dropped its fourth episode, titled Part IV, on Disney+, picking up from the raw and thrilling setup from the previous week. This episode once again managed to prove how this show may very well be the best Star Wars spinoff that has come out over the years after multiple promising and vague attempts at recreating the original genius of George Lucas.

The fourth episode picked up from Princess Leia's (played by Vivien Lyra Blair) kidnapping and heavily focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi's (played by Ewan McGregor) venture into enemy territories on a risky rescue mission, aided by an outstanding Tala (Indira Verma) and other rebel allies. The episode gave a fitting tribute to the original Star Wars trilogy with its visual aesthetics, but it also turned out to be one of the most thrilling episodes in the show so far.

Read on for a detailed review of Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 4.

Note: Spoilers for the fourth episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi below. Read with caution.

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Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 4: Gripping and nostalgic to the last second

From the beginning of this episode, the show clearly defined that it meant business. After the previous episode served some twisted poetic justice, where Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) threw Obi-Wan on a burning ground and left him to die, this episode began with Obi-Wan being put into a similar tank where Darth Vader was put in at the end of Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith (Episode III).

The story soon jumped to Reva (Moses Ingram) and her wise attempt to extract information from the young Leia. While this sequence continued on and off for more than a third of the episode, young Blair showed that she was a suitable match to Ingram's brilliant Reva, both inside the plot and as an actor.

Obi-Wan and Tala planning a route to the empire's secure base is reminiscent of old Star Wars sequences, mainly focusing on the rebel alliance. After Tala decided to take a risk and enter the enemy territory using her security clearance as a worker for the Empire, things spiraled to a new level of intensity.

The show's second half was jam-packed with action, starting from a beautifully shot scene of Obi-Wan swimming into the base in a green-tinted underwater sequence. Everything that happened from there on was a direct throwback to the golden days of the franchise.

Obi-Wan Kenobi recreated the same thrill of Luke and Obi-Wan breaking into the Empire's base in Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV). The similarly shot fight sequences also saw Obi-Wan getting back to using force and lightsaber as his primary weapons (a massive cheer from Star Wars fans!).

With technological advances, the show created an even better-looking sequence, with great colors and an equally reverberating soundscape.

Tala played a massive role in getting Leia out, and in almost another nostalgic, throwback way, rebel ships managed to come in just in time for a last-minute rescue.

The tightly-paced episode did not waste a second of time piling new things off, even in the dying moments of the episode. Reva revealed to an agitated Darth Vader that she put a tracker in Obi-Wan's ship. This also set the stage for the next episode of the show.

This was by far one of the best episodes in the Star Wars universe, and it certainly makes one wonder what the last two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi have in store.

The fourth episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi is now streaming on Disney+.