Obi-Wan Kenobi fans praise 'absolute madness' of new episode

Obi-Wan Kenobi's fifth episode has been praised by many fans as the highlight of the entire series so far.

*Obi-Wan Kenobi spoilers ahead — don't read on unless you're already caught up*

The fifth episode was absolutely packed full of action, exciting flashbacks, lightsaber duels and huge plot reveals that fans have been looking forward to.

Having safely rescued Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) from the Fortress Inquisitorius, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Tala returned to Jabiim, where he was greeted by Roken, who had been holding off transporting other people off-world until they had arrived. 

With the Imperial forces massing on their hangar, Obi-Wan helps Roken, Tala and the other survivors prepare defenses to hold the hangar long enough to escape Jabiim. (A full rundown of what happened can be found later in this article). What followed has clearly struck a chord with viewers, as they are going wild for it online. 

One viewer wrote: "This episode was absolute madness. Might be the strongest ep by far."

Another wrote: "I didn't expect today's episode of #obiwankenobi to be this good... oh my god", and the reaction has been as positive amongst tons of other fans, too!

What happened in Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 5?

Throughout the episode, we were treated to flashbacks showing us a duel between Obi-Wan and a pre-Attack of the Clones Anakin Skywalker, which revealed the differences between how the two Jedi approached combat.

To try and slow the siege on Jabiim, Obi-Wan decided to speak with Reva (Moses Ingram) personally in order to buy everyone time to get off-world. During their chat, we learned that she's secretly been planning to kill Darth Vader herself, all this time. She was actually a youngling in the Jedi Temple on the night of Order 66 and was left for dead by Anakin when he led the attack. 

Obi-Wan attempted to bargain with her and offered to team up, but she refused his help and launched a full-scale assault on the hangar. The survivors were on the defensive until Tala let off a thermal detonator to slow them down, sacrificing herself in the process. To prevent further deaths, Obi-Wan surrendered himself to Reva; this time, he convinced her to use him as bait to draw out Vader, allowing her to take her revenge. 

Darth Vader arrived, and the survivors escaped his clutches once again by tricking him with a decoy spaceship. Whilst he was distracted, Reva crept up behind him to strike him down...which he sensed, and an epic duel ensued.

The Sith Lord overpowered Reva, revealing that he knew her true nature, before running her through with his lightsaber as she was "of no further use". As if that wasn't enough, the original Grand Inquisitor then returned, relieving her of her duties at Vader's side.

Reva managed to survive her wounds and found the communicator with Bail Organa's message to Obi-Wan about going to see Luke on Tatooine. Meanwhile, Roken revealed that the ship's hyperdrive was down, and the Empire was right behind them; the episode then closed with a shot of the young Skywalker asleep.

How will the final episode top all that?!

The final episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi airs exclusively on Disney Plus on Wednesday, June 22.

• Meet the cast of Obi-Wan Kenobi