Apple TV+ ‘Chief of War’ Episode 4 Review - A Kingdom on the Edge

Episode 4 opens with the kind of tension that makes you think something monumental is about to happen - and, to be fair, some of it does. Kaʻiana’s pursuit of Tony has urgency, purpose, and just enough grit to keep me leaning forward. Jason Momoa plays him with a mix of exhaustion and determination, the kind that says, “I haven’t slept in days, but I’ll still row across the ocean if I have to.” Meanwhile, Kamehameha’s new marriage to Kaʻahumanu stirs up more than political stability; it quietly cracks open questions about loyalty, love, and the price of leadership.

The episode is at its strongest when it sits in the quiet discomfort of these dynamics. There’s something satisfying about watching a scene where no one says the thing they’re all thinking. The camera lingers just long enough on an expression, a glance, or the twitch of a hand, and the tension feels earned. The cinematography, as always, is rich in textures of sea, skin, and cloth rendered with a care that almost makes you forget to blink. The score slides in like an undertow, never too loud, but pulling you along all the same.

But for all that, there’s an itch the episode never quite scratches. The pacing has moments where it seems to stall, as if the script is too nervous to let a scene fully live. Big moments - like Kaʻahumanu’s secret or the culture clash Kaʻiana faces - don’t quite land with the force they deserve. They’re not bad, just… half-charged, like a wave that looks massive from a distance but fizzles before it reaches shore.

Some of the side characters are still frustratingly faint. Vai, Tony, even Kaʻahumanu feel more like outlines than living, breathing presences. I can see the potential in them, but they’re not given enough oxygen to burn bright. When they do make choices, they make sense on paper, but I don’t always feel them in my gut.

Dialogue, too, has its bumps. There are a few lines that sound like they wandered in from a rehearsal of “Generic Period Drama: The Musical.” Phrases like “We must act now” or “The world is changing” don’t exactly ignite the screen. I found myself wishing the writers had gone for sharper, stranger, or more specific beats - words that linger in your head instead of politely excusing themselves a minute later.

Plot-wise, the pieces are in place. Kaʻiana is torn between temptation and duty, Kahekili is slipping toward tyranny, and Kamehameha’s political maneuvering is both pragmatic and deeply personal. It’s a mix that should have been explosive, but the fuse burns a bit too slowly here. You can feel the setup for something bigger, but the episode spends more time circling than striking.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments. There are stretches where the mood is so palpable you could almost taste the salt air. The visual storytelling remains one of the show’s biggest assets, and when the direction leans into that - letting the islands and silences speak - it’s engrossing. You sense the weight of history without it being forced upon you.

Still, there’s a sense that the episode is holding itself back, like it’s waiting for permission to go all in. It plays with tension but doesn’t fully pay it off, and that leaves an aftertaste of “almost.” As a viewer, I wanted to be swept away, but instead I kept finding my feet in shallow water.

By the final moments, the stakes are clearer, the fractures deeper, and the path forward thornier. I’m still invested in where it’s going, even if I wish this chapter had been braver, messier, and less polite about the chaos it’s building toward.

Episode 4 is a solid step in the story, but it’s one that occasionally forgets how to run. When it works, it works beautifully; when it falters, you feel it. And maybe that’s the strange charm here - you get pulled in despite the flaws, because somewhere between the lush imagery, the layered performances, and the stubbornly restrained drama, it still convinces you to stay for the next wave.

Final Score- [5.5/10]