The following contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi Part V, now streaming on Disney+.
Obi-Wan Kenobi's penultimate episode refined its focus and revealed that the story will culminate in an expected location. After most of the series' episodes took Obi-Wan off-world in his ventures to save Leia, the finale looks to see him returning to Tatooine to save Luke, following Reva's discovery of the boy's mysterious importance. This sets the stage for Obi-Wan Kenobi's finale to essentially adapt an iconic and influential Star Wars comic from 2005, Aaron McBride's Old Wounds.
Old Wounds was an entry in Dark Horse's Star Wars: Visionaries, which was a collection of comics all illustrated and conceived by concept artists who had worked on Revenge of the Sith. Released in April of 2005, Star Wars: Visionaries acted as a key bit of multimedia connective tissue aimed at filling in the story around Revenge of the Sith while also serving as incredibly successful marketing for the film's subsequent release. Though the collection featured many great entries the most popular by far has remained Aaron McBride's Old Wounds.
Old Wounds tells the story of Darth Maul appearing on Tatooine and attacking the Lars homestead in pursuit of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul quickly evades Owen Lars' attempts at self-defense and incapacitates him before moving on to Beru and the infant Luke Skywalker. This leads to Obi-Wan emerging and dueling Darth Maul, ultimately defeating him. With Maul kneeling at his feet, Obi-Wan remains hesitant about killing Maul just long enough for Owen to shoot him in the head, finishing the job. This leads to a falling out between Owen and Obi-Wan, with them both agreeing that it is best for Luke's safety that Obi-Wan stay far away.
If a lot of the elements present in McBride's story from all the way back in 2005 sound familiar, it's because this is a story Star Wars has returned to time and again. Though the entirety of Star Wars: Visionaries is now officially non-canonical, much like Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars, it has remained a wellspring of inspiration for many modern-day Star Wars storytellers, including Dave Filoni. George Lucas and Filoni so loved McBride's design for a post-bisection Darth Maul and the hook of Maul's quest for revenge against Obi-Wan, that they incorporated the character and driving motivation into their own The Clone Wars animated series. Maul subsequently appeared again in Filoni's Rebels series, which saw Maul fulfilling his Old Wounds arc in 'Twin Suns.' Not to mention that Star Wars: Visions was directly influenced by Star Wars: Visionaries, both in name and approach, giving artists similarly free rein on storytelling.
In other words, despite its non-canonical status and the fact that it's now nearly 20 years old now, Star Wars: Visionaries and specifically Old Wounds loom large in Star Wars. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, with a number of reveals during the climax of 'Part V', the series sets its finale up to deliver a reframing of Old Wounds' story, with some crucial differences. Despite previous rumors, Darth Maul is not making an appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi, because for him to do so would entirely contradict his arc in Rebels. In his place, Obi-Wan Kenobi has subbed in another dual-sided lightsaber-wielding rogue: Reva.
There are some essential similarities to note here. For one, the Maul of McBride's comic and subsequently of Filoni's animated series is a rogue agent. When Obi-Wan brings up Palpatine to Maul in Old Wounds, Maul responds, "There is no Palpatine. No Empire. No Jedi... Just you and I here now." Divorced from clear identification with either side of the larger conflict, Maul is only out for himself. Obi-Wan Kenobi has deliberately painted Reva into this exact same corner, with her now having been betrayed and left for dead by Darth Vader and her fellow Inquisitors. Furthermore, Reva knows enough to make her a threat but doesn't know the entire story. She learned from Bail Organa's distorted recording in 'Part V' that something to do with Owen and the young Luke was of great importance, but she doesn't know what. Maul was in the exact same position in Old Wounds, having acquired the knowledge from Watto in Mos Espa that if he sought out the Lars homestead, he was sure to find Kenobi.
Aside from this antagonistic switch, another key difference comes in the form of Luke himself. In Old Wounds, Luke was an infant, but in Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke is 10 years old. He is certain to be an active participant in the story, just as Leia has been for the rest of the series. This is in addition to the fact that characters like Bail Organa and Owen Lars are certain to play crucial roles in the finale, all of which makes for a much larger-scaled conflict than McBride originally envisioned. The wild card is, of course, Darth Vader who has certainly been set up for a rematch with Obi-Wan, but who looks unlikely to return to Tatooine.
With Reva going after Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi will ultimately wind up delivering the story that so many fans expected but in a completely unexpected way. In utilizing the bones of McBride's Old Wounds as the culmination of the emotional and captivating adventure that the series has taken audiences on thus far, Obi-Wan Kenobi looks set to deliver an explosive and satisfying finale.
To find out how this story ends, new episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi stream Wednesdays on Disney+.