Obi-Wan Kenobi (Part 9)

Welcome back, everyone.  I hope you’re all excited to dive into the 2-part finale to the Obi-Wan Kenobi rewrite.

Please check out the previous parts if you’d like to see the earlier episodes.  Otherwise, let’s get right into Episode 7.

Series Recap

Obi-Wan grew obsessed with his mission to destroy Vader and the Empire while in his isolation, focusing more on the marital skills he’d need to protect and train Luke than his connection to the Force.  When Leia is abducted by the radical rebel cell known as the Hidden Path, he refuses the call to action.  Only when he is found by the Path’s leader, Jedi Master Jorus C’baoth, does he agree to leave Tatooine, and only then to divert C’baoth’s attention away from Luke.

During his brief alliance with the Path, Obi-Wan’s principles begin to resurface.  He is horrified when the Path needlessly throws away the lives of hired clones.  When he learns that C’baoth is using mind tricks to brainwash the children under his command, he confronts the Jedi Master.  C’baoth, however, overpowers him with Force lightning, then breaks Obi-Wan’s will with a powerful mind trick.

Now, Obi-Wan retreats to Tatooine, more committed than ever to his warrior mission.  However, he is not alone …

EPISODE 7 – HEIR TO THE EMPIRE

Opening Scene

Leia is in the mining facility medbay, with her arm still in a cast.  Out the window, she sees the landing pad.  The shuttle for Obi-Wan is being prepared.  Thinking fast, she seizes the opportunity to escape.  Using the mind trick (still unknowingly), she asserts her way out of the medbay and onto the landing pad, claiming that C’baoth wants to send her home. Once on the shuttle, she tucks herself into a storage compartment beside Obi-Wan’s speeder bike (which, while I didn’t spell it out in Episode 2, he did bring on the ship to Jabiim).

C’baoth, Obi-Wan, and Haja approach the shuttle shortly after Leia hides.  We watch the shuttle take off from the ground level.  The view cuts away to a perspective several miles distant, from which the departing shuttle is only a spec.  A probe droid tracks it back to its point of origin.  It raises its antenna to make a report as it drifts towards the Path’s base.

Cut to title cards.

Father and Daughter

Obi-Wan stares at the white vortex of hyperspace.  The camera pans over to reveal the vision of Anakin in the co-pilot’s chair.

ANAKIN: How could you leave them behind, Obi-Wan?  How could you leave her behind?

OBI-WAN: I have my duty, Anakin.

ANAKIN: You are a Jedi.  Since when does your duty come before what’s right?

OBI-WAN: My duty is to what’s right.  I must restore the Republic, not to meddle with C’baoth.  I must attend to the boy.

ANAKIN: What about Leia?

[Camera pans in for a close-up on Obi-Wan’s face.]

OBI-WAN: She is not my responsibility.

LEIA [from out-of-frame]: Who are you talking to?

[Obi-Wan jumps, pulling the mask up over his face as he turns.  The vision of Anakin has disappeared.  Leia stands at the door to the cockpit.]

OBI-WAN: You … How are you here?  [He rises from the chair.]  Are you actually here?

LEIA: Of course I am here.  [Her voice grows commanding.]  And since I’m here, you will take me back to Alderaan.

What follows is a brief back-and-forth between Obi-Wan and Leia.  Obi-Wan, still laser-focused on returning to Luke, refuses her demands.  Leia grows increasingly frustrated; her voice gets louder and louder, until she is practically shouting at him.  Finally, Obi-Wan puts his foot down.

OBI-WAN [speaking calmly]: You can’t bend the galaxy to your will by shouting.  [He settles into his chair.]  If your father wants you so bad, he’ll have to come to me.  Get comfortable.  We have a long way to go.

Leia scowls.  However, seeing that she’s lost, she climbs into the co-pilot’s chair.  She and Obi-Wan stare at the vortex of hyperspace together.

Discovery

C’baoth is livid when he learns that Leia escaped.  It doesn’t take long for him to find out about the guards that Leia mind-tricked into letting her on the platform.  Furious, he returns to his office with Haja, telling Haja to remind him to “reeducate” the guards about whose orders to accept in the future.  He then orders Haja to go to recover Leia from Obi-Wan. “Obi-Wan won’t deviate,” C’baoth insists.  “He’ll head right to his hovel.  Bring the Skywalker child back.  Spare Obi-Wan if you can.  If you can find some leverage on him to ensure his compliance, use it.”

Cut to the exterior of the mine.  The probe droid rises above the cliffs, taking in the ships sitting at the facility, and dips out of sight.  We hear that iconic probe droid transmission sound from Empire Strikes Back.

The Hunt Resumes

Third Sister is meditating aboard her Star Destroyer when she receives a transmission from the surface.  The ISB officer reports confirmation of the Path’s presence on Jabiim.  With a feral grin, Third Sister congratulates him on his success.  She then ends the call and opens a line to the Stary Destroyer’s captain, ordering that the fleet depart from Jabiim.  We watch as the Star Destroyer and support craft make the jump to hyperspace.

Intervention

Obi-Wan rises from his bunk in the back of the shuttle to find that Leia is in the cockpit, studying a datapad that someone left in the shuttle.  He checks the controls to ensure that she hasn’t altered their course.  She makes a grumpy remark about how she didn’t do anything, as she couldn’t get past the lock he put on the computer.  Relieved, Obi-Wan settles into the pilot’s chair.

LEIA: Mr. Ben, why do you hate the Empire so much?

OBI-WAN: My duty is to the Republic.  To democracy.

LEIA: We still have democracy.

OBI-WAN: Not like we did before.  The Emperor made sure of that.

LEIA: He’s just making the galaxy safer, isn’t he?

OBI-WAN: Yes.  That’s the lie he told everyone, from the very beginning of the Clone Wars.

LEIA: Did you fight in the Clone Wars?

OBI-WAN: I did what the Republic needed me to do.

[We cut to look behind Obi-Wan and Leia.  The vision of Anakin is standing there, scowling at Obi-Wan’s back.  Obi-Wan shudders and changes the subject.]

OBI-WAN: Yesterday, when you were shouting at me … Did C’baoth teach you to do that?

LEIA: He told me that strong people need to assert themselves.

We then get an extended back-and-forth where Obi-Wan counters C’baoth’s teaching, all while dancing around mentioning the Force, Jedi, or mind tricks.  Leia insists that she managed to sway the girls in her barracks; Obi-Wan counters by pointing out how that sort of aggressive behavior just escalated things and ended up with her arm being broken.

LEIA: What about the Jedi?  I heard they used mind tricks.  How’s that any different from being assertive?

OBI-WAN: The Jedi … They practiced restraint.  They didn’t use their power to win arguments, only to defuse tension.  The point was never to control people, or to tell them what to think.  When it came to points of view and decisions that truly mattered, the Jedi relied on diplomacy and understanding.  They sought common ground and compromise.

LEIA [curious]: Have you met a real Jedi?

OBI-WAN [nodding]: A few.  One of them … was the greatest man I knew.  He was a true hero of the Republic.

LEIA: How could a Jedi have been a hero?  They’re all criminals.

OBI-WAN: It’s a lie.  The Jedi were servants of the Republic.

LEIA: The Empire and the Republic are the same thing.

OBI-WAN: No, they’re not.

LEIA: The Emperor took power legally, you know.  The Republic Senate let him.  So, if the Jedi are criminals against the Empire, they were also criminals against the Republic.

OBI-WAN [raising his voice]: No.  The Jedi were betrayed.

LEIA: If they served the Republic, then the Republic couldn’t have betrayed them.  They had to betray the Republic.  That means that the Empire is right when they –

OBI-WAN [snapping]: The Empire is not the Republic, Leia!  The Republic is dead!  All of it is dead!  There’s nothing left but a memory to be avenged!

Leia stares at him, wide-eyed; she retreats from the cockpit without another word.  Obi-Wan is breathing heavily; he clutches at his head.  He then disengages the hyperdrive.  The shuttle drops out into the interstellar void.

Visions

C’baoth is meditating in his office.  Visions flash before him: Third Sister, a Star Destroyer overhead, and a clash of red and blue lightsabers.  He smiles.

Cut to NED-B, lumbering about on the cliffs above the mine.  The probe droid emerges from cover to drift after the loader droid.  A sniper fires from the other side of the mine; the probe droid is shot through one of its eyes.  It promptly self-destructs.

We then see Tala arriving at the site, sniper rifle over one shoulder.  She uses a commlink to contact C’baoth, confirming that there was indeed a probe.  On the other end of the call, we see C’baoth’s smile widen as he tells her to come back and prepare for evacuation.

Cut to the Path rousing the children from their barracks and loading them into shuttles.  Kawlan Roken (whom, if you recall his cameo from Episode 3, is one of the workers for the mine) comes to C’baoth’s office to ask what’s happening.  C’baoth assures him that the Path is simply taking the children out for a training exercise.  When Roken questions this, asking if the Empire has found them, C’baoth uses a mind trick on him, instructing Roken to keep the mine workers calm and to continue operations as if nothing were amiss.  Utterly enthralled, Roken readily agrees.

Grief of the Jedi

Leia has taken shelter in the shuttle’s tiny bunkroom.  We hear Obi-Wan try to open the door; however, Leia has locked it.  Cut to the exterior, with Obi-Wan sitting down outside the door.

OBI-WAN: I’m sorry that I snapped at you, Leia.  That … that was uncalled for.  You didn’t deserve that.

LEIA [speaking through the door]: Why did you get so upset?  Was it because you really hate the Empire, or because you really love the Jedi?

OBI-WAN [swallowing]: Both … For over a thousand generations, Jedi Knights like him were the guardians of peace and justice in the Republic … before the Empire.

LEIA: If the Jedi were so good, why did the Emperor get rid of them?

OBI-WAN: Have you ever heard of the Force, Leia?

LEIA: No.

OBI-WAN: It’s an energy field composed of all living things.  It binds the galaxy together.  The Jedi maintained the balance of the Force by serving the Republic.  The Emperor couldn’t allow that.  He knew the Jedi would oppose them.

LEIA: Wait … did the Jedi serve the Force, or did they serve the Republic?

OBI-WAN: They …

[As he falls silent, we see the vision of Anakin standing between him and the cockpit.  Obi-Wan looks up at him.  There’s pain in his eyes.  However, he then closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.]

OBI-WAN [uncertainly at first, but growing more confident as he speaks]: They thought that serving the Republic and the Force was one and the same.  They turned a blind eye to evils in the galaxy, to imbalance, all in the name of preserving the Republic.  The Emperor knew that would not last forever.  He destroyed them before they could remember themselves and turn against him.

[Leia opens the door.  She stares at Obi-Wan for a moment.]

LEIA: What evils has the Empire done?  The Empire hasn’t done anything bad to me.  Only the Path has.

OBI-WAN [nodding]: Perhaps, when you’re older, your father will explain these things to you … but had the Jedi not lost their way, were they still here, they would have stood against both the Empire and the Path.  They would have ensured that children like you were protected from the darkness.

LEIA [taking a deep breath, now speaking more humbly]: Mr. Ben … If you won’t take me home, could I at least call my father?

OBI-WAN: Yes.  We’ll send him our coordinates, too, so he can come get you.

The Siege of Jabiim

Third Sister’s fleet emerges from hyperspace at Jabiim.  We are treated to the sight of an Imperial invasion: fighters launching, smaller picket ships surrounding the planet, and the Star Destroyer moving into low orbit to release drop ships.  Bombers dive ahead of the dropships, hitting C’baoth’s parked Arquitens and other ships at the mine with heavy ordinance to prevent any escape.

Landing craft, carrying thousands of stormtroopers, stream down to the surface of the planet.  Waves of stormtroopers emerge, led by Third Sister.  They swarm over the mine, shooting the workers.

Reunion

An Alderaanian shuttle rendezvouses with Obi-Wan’s.  Bail himself is aboard.  He embraces Leia and thanks Obi-Wan (never using his actual name).  Obi-Wan warns him that C’baoth has not yet been dealt with, though Obi-Wan promises to ensure that there will be no further abduction attempts.

As Bail secures Leia aboard the shuttle, Leia asks exactly how he knows “Ben”.  Bail doesn’t outright tell her that he’s a Jedi; instead, he refers to him as a friend of himself and Amidala.  Leia then asks Bail if he knew any good Jedi.  As the Alderaanian shuttle departs, Bail begins to tell her a story of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, two Jedi who served under him during the Clone Wars.

Obi-Wan prepares to make the jump back to Jabiim.  However, just as he is about to make the jump, he freezes, sensing a disturbance in the Force.  We cut to Sotola’s yacht, hurtling through hyperspace, with Haja and two Path Jedi aboard (it’s implied that they just blasted past Obi-Wan’s location).  Obi-Wan whispers, “Luke,” and turns the shuttle around, jumping towards Tatooine instead.

The Heir

C’baoth is meditating in the depths of the mine, in the same chamber where Obi-Wan was imprisoned.  Stormtroopers and Purge troopers sweep into the room, surrounding him.  Third Sister strides in at their heels.

THIRD SISTER: Jorus C’baoth … at last.  [She ignites her lightsaber.]  Before I cut off your head, where are your followers?

C’BAOTH [not opening his eyes]: Away.  I thought we could have a little chat.  Put away your weapons.  Take a seat … Reva.

[Third Sister recoils; she raise her blade defensively.  We catch flashes of her as a girl, attempting to escape the Jedi Temple with other younglings, as in the show.]

THIRD SISTER: Shoot him!

[The troopers lower their weapons in eerie unison and stand silently.]

THIRD SISTER: I said shoot him!

[The troopers still do not comply.]

C’BAOTH [opening his eyes]: As I said, Reva.  [Another flash from the Temple.]  There is no need for violence.  None of you can hurt me.

[With a snarl, Third Sister swings her lightsaber.  The blade switches off mid-swing.  Before she can re-ignite it, C’baoth springs to his feet.  Third Sister is shoved back by a Force push, while her lightsaber flies into C’baoth’s grip.]

C’BAOTH: Vader has neglected your skills in the Force.  Any Jedi padawan could have kept me from doing that.

THIRD SISTER: The Force won’t save you, C’baoth.  I have a Star Destroyer ready to bombard this facility from orbit.

C’BAOTH: You can’t threaten a man into surrendering when he knows you’ll kill him anyway.  Your threat mere exposes what you fear, Reva.

[Third Sister yanks a trooper’s blaster to her hand and fires.  C’baoth doesn’t bother igniting the saber, simply using the Force to knock aside the blaster.  Her shots hit the stormtroopers behind him.]

C’BAOTH: I asked for a chat, Reva.

THIRD SISTER: Stop calling me that name!

C’BAOTH: Why?  Do you fear it?

C’baoth proceeds to break Third Sister down with words.  He spells out the fear that he sees in her, how she fights so fanatically for the Inquisitors to escape Vader’s ire.  We get the flash of Vader stabbing her through the stomach – only, this time, we get a line from Anakin, telling the clones to take “the surviving younglings” back to Palpatine, explaining that he chose to spare her.  Third Sister grows increasingly feral as C’baoth pushes her farther and farther, until she is trying to kill him with her bare hands.  C’baoth finally uses to Force to drive her to her knees and pin her to the floor.

C’BAOTH: You could be so much more than this, Reva.  You are heir to a greater Empire than this – my Empire.  [He extends the lightsaber to her.]  I offer you life, Reva.  I offer you purpose.  Will you join me?

[Third Sister begins to weep.  Slowly, with shaking hands, she takes the lightsaber.]

C’BAOTH: Good.  Now, commit yourself to me.

Third Sister rises to her feet and ignites her lightsaber.  Turning to the immobilized troops, she begins decapitating them one by one.  C’baoth looks on with a smile upon his face.

Homecoming

Obi-Wan’s shuttle drops out of hyperspace above Tatooine.  He dives towards the surface.  His sensors pick up Sotola’s yacht in the vicinity of his hut.  Landing, he searches the area, including the yacht, but finds no sign of anyone.

Entering his hut, he finds that the place has been ransacked. Scattered upon the table are maps that he made over the years, detailing the region around the Lars homestead.  A look of horror crosses his face.

Cut to Haja and the other Jedi climbing the ridge that Obi-Wan and the Sand People used in Episode 1.  Haja searches the desert through macrobinoculars, eventually finding the Lars homestead.  Luke is outside, working on a vaporator.  With a grin, he tells the others, “This looks promising.”

Back in the hut, Obi-Wan grabs his training staff.  He hauls his speeder bike off the shuttle.  Mounting up, he rides out, making a beeline for the Lars homestead.

Cut to credits.

CONCLUSION

Thank you all for sticking with me through this series.  Part 2 of the finale, “Servant of the Force”, airs next week.  I hope you’ve all enjoyed yourselves thus far, and that you’re on the edges of your seats for the conclusion.  See you all then!