Is Little Luke Skywalker in Danger?
Dragging herself across the dirt floor of the rebel cave, a wounded Reva discovers Obi-Wan’s smashed comlink, which Haja dropped during the refugees’ escape from Jabiim. On the comlink is a message from Bail Organa referencing not only Leia but “the child on Tatooine.” Yes, Bail is talking about the 10-year-old Luke waiting back on Tatooine to fulfill his destiny. Reva now knows that Obi-Wan is hiding something on the desert planet and that this mysterious child may be the key to discovering the Jedi Master’s secret.
It’s unclear if Reva actually puts two and two together during this scene. If she realizes Obi-Wan and Bail are hiding the children of Anakin Skywalker, Reva’s heading straight to kill Luke on Tatooine. If she doesn’t, Reva will likely figure it all out in the season finale and still try to kill the boy just to take him away from Vader. This will undoubtedly all lead to a final showdown between her and the Jedi Master, but I’d be especially worried if I were as helpless as Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.
What Do All Those Flashbacks Mean?
Throughout the episode, we’re also treated to several flashbacks to a sparring session between Obi-Wan and Anakin that seem to be set just around the time of Attack of the Clones — the brothers-in-arms are still master and padawan here, and Hayden Christensen is wearing the little rat tail that signifies an apprentice. In the flashback, Obi-Wan is trying to teach a headstrong and overzealous Anakin essentially what he says years later during the raid on Jabiim: “There are other ways to fight.” Young Anakin believes that only with his lightsaber can he defeat his opponents, and at first he does disarm Obi-Wan, but then his wise master proceeds to outsmart Anakin, forcing him to grow more reckless in his attacks as he tries to get Obi-Wan to yield. Eventually, a weaponless Obi-Wan disarms his padawan and roasts him for wanting to “prove himself so badly” that he’ll do it at any cost.
This whole flashback works on multiple levels: not only is this memory a way for Obi-Wan to strategize against his impulsive former apprentice’s weaknesses but it also works as a bit of foreshadowing for what’s to come down the line. We see, for example, that Obi-Wan is able to once again outsmart a rage-filled Vader without having to actually face him, planting a decoy transport to shield the real one during the escape from Jabiim.
But it also speaks to Vader and Reva’s own dynamic. It’s clear Reva is out of her depth against the Sith Lord, and we watch as he easily dodges her lightsaber without his own weapon, just like Obi-Wan in that flashback. He simply disarms her and beats her with her own sword. Reva was consumed by revenge — and the need to prove herself as the Grand Inquisitor in order to get close to Vader — that it blinded her to the way all of her enemies were playing her the whole time, just as Obi-Wan manipulates young Anakin’s attacks.
The flashback could also be foreshadowing Obi-Wan and Vader’s next confrontation. Vader clearly won their first round, just like in that flashback, but now that his former master has regained his footing and has embraced being a Jedi once again, it’s possible the old man could take the high ground in the end.
