[psmith2.0]

Oh my.

This episode did not screw around! It looked amazing, that desert-y planet, along with the Imperial facility in the water. Great visuals. Vader! And it's Rogue One Vader, where he's just killing the hell out of people. Obi-Wan and Vader reunite. That was a genuinely tense scene, the stalking and dueling. Obi-Wan now fully sees what became of Anakin. "I am what you made me." There's something going on with Reva. I sense the conflict within her. They're playing up the hyper-angry, always-screaming-at-everyone thing a bit too much, IMO (misdirection?). I just have a feeling she'll wind up turning before it's all over, but dying at the hands of Vader after helping Obi-Wan. Just a gut hunch. Something about her isn't fully bought into her gig as an inquisitor. She seems to hate every one of her co-workers, and I’m sure she’s terrified of winding up on Vader’s bad side. I think she will find her way back to the light at some point in the final three installments. I truly thought we were going to see Qui-Gon. That has to pay off at some point. Obi-Wan is really trying to reach out to him, and they're showing it, over and over. No way we don't get rewarded with blue, glowing Liam Neeson at some point before this is all over! Not gonna lie...for a few seconds I thought the unseen, referenced pilot (who was going to get them out of that planet) was a certain smuggler-for-hire. I was like "they're going to drop a de-aged Harrison Ford on us...". Nope. But I was kinda expecting it. Knowing now what they're capable of with this stuff, it wouldn't have surprised me one bit. According to some Googling (and current canon), he wouldn't been about ~22 during this time period. It might've been a bit much, but it would've been cool. Cool scenes/visuals: - Imperial probe droid (I love the sound it makes...takes me right back to Hoth, that whirring, sinister hum) - Vader's castle on Mustafar, as it was established in Rogue One - The stormtrooper falling from the tower and cutting himself in half on the electric gate - Obi-Wan finally ignites his lightsaber, then promptly gets his ass handed to him by a stronger Vader...so tense! Vader is actually scary here. Just a cruel bastard and in full-on villain mode. There is no conflict within him at this particular point! - Those TIE fighters hanging in the ceiling of that Imperial facility - The overall look/visuals in that water-based Imperial facility...all that glossy black, with punches of red lighting reflecting everywhere - That other inquisitor (Fourth Sister?) is kinda hot, in that meanie, hard-case way I tend to go for. What can I say, I have a type. - Getting a good look at Vader's messed-up body and the various things grafted on/embedded into him (spine, etc.). Savage. And then seeing him getting suited up by the robotic arms... - Little Leia is still adorable as can be, but she needs to learn to be quiet sometimes. On 2-3 occasions her chirping up made things tougher than they needed. Sweet that Obi-Wan fixed her little droid (Lola?) - This is like watching a movie. A very well-made Star Wars movie. Everyone involved should be very proud. It's better than anything they've put on the big screen in quite some time. The writing, acting, pacing, visuals, coherency, stakes, etc. are all firmly in place and so watchable. I'm going to hate to see this show end. If this is the future of Star Wars - episodic TV, created/helmed by folks who seem to "get it" - I'm 110% fine with that. - Confirmed in the closing credits: James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader. As it should be. - I still can't get over just how good and "real" this looks, on a TV scale/budget. Those planets/environments, just the scope and scale of it all. That planet they landed on, the hilly, scrubby desert-y one. I'd love to know where in SoCal(?) that was filmed, the basic plates and all. I'm sure there was some CGI enhancement, but I'm betting a lot of it was as it was shown. Those little trees, almost like Joshua trees. Good stuff. I'm enjoying this series every bit as much as The Mandalorian, probably even more just because of the timeframe involved, and all the familiar faces I've got so many decades of familiarity or investment in...Obi-Wan, Vader, Leia, Bail, Owen, etc. It's all making my inner 8-year-old happy. To me, this is Star Wars. It’s hitting those marks that the OT does, and it’s also making me appreciate/think back on the prequels more than I ever thought I would. It’s bridging those two trilogies really well, in a way I wasn’t expecting. A foot firmly planted in each saga, and filling in those in-between blanks nicely. Until today, I just assumed Vader and Obi-Wan fought only twice...Mustafar and the Death Star. Nope...they went at it on some little backwater mining planet too.