By George & Josh Bate
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for episodes 7-8 of Maul – Shadow Lord
Maul – Shadow Lord ascends to new levels of quality with an action-packed batch of episodes that finally begins to peel back the layers of Maul’s psyche and, in turn, live up to what one would expect from a Maul series.
Chapter 7: Call to the Oblivion
In the aftermath of the duel with Marrok, Devon and Rylee flee the scene alongside Maul. For the first time, Devon inquires about Maul’s background, in particular his master. The Kiners’ excellent musical work kicks in as hues of Palpatine’s theme can be heard while Maul acknowledges that his former master is still alive. Maul then notes that, while Palpatine betrayed him, that this wasn’t the worst thing his former master did to him. More than likely, Maul is referring to Palpatine’s murder of his brother Savage Opress in The Clone Wars episode “The Lawless.” Sam Witwer stated in an interview with Star Wars Insider that Savage would play a role in Maul – Shadow Lord, and we begin to see this during the conversation between Devon and Maul.
Shortly after, Devon and Rylee attempt to escape from Maul, who, at last, loses his patience. This is the first time that we’ve seen remnants of the old Maul emerge as, so far, he has been more restrained and calculated than ever before. Maul grows frustrated at Devon’s failure to waver on her stance and alludes to a grand plan he has to destroy the Empire. It’ll be interesting to see just what Maul has up his sleeve to take down Palpatine’s regime. We obviously know Maul is not ultimately successful in this endeavor, but it will be nonetheless interesting to see Maul lean into the skill of meticulous planning that Palpatine helped him cultivate. We think that, if the series continues beyond this season, we will almost certainly see Maul and Palpatine face off again. There’s no way that their last confrontation in canon will be on Mandalore when Savage was killed.
Now that the Empire has its sights on two jedi and Maul, they ramp up their efforts by bringing in the Eleventh Brother. Also known as The Crow, this Inquisitor first appeared in Tales of the Jedi before making a brief cameo in Tales of the Empire. The Crow has such a cool design, which evokes the plague doctors from the bubonic plague. Between The Crow and Marrok, the Empire has dispatched arguably its most intimidating Inquisitors to quell the situation on Janix.
The Crow interrogates Rylee, who has been captured after Imperial forces clash with Maul’s crew. In this conflict, we once again get to see Maul and Devon team up and their styles of combat even sync up.
Lawsen and Daki, meanwhile, try to find Rylee and Devon respectively. While journeying, Lawsen reveals that he once worked with a Jedi and never believed the lies that the Empire spread about the Order. In a touching moment, Daki puts his hand on Lawsen’s shoulder and tells him that the comments mean a lot to him. Daki may not have the inner drive to fight the Empire that others have, but he has an undeniable warmth about him that exudes the best of the Jedi.
As we predicted last week, Two-Boots is slowly turning against the Empire in an arc that parallels Kino Loy’s from Andor. The droid voiced by Richard Ayoade is recognizing that his conception of a fair and just Empire may be flawed as he witnesses Lieutenant Blake cut corners, break rules, and even kill his former boss.
With Rylee captured, Devon reluctantly follows Maul and his team through the underbelly of Janix. Several of the Mandalorian mercenaries begin to dissent as they want more compensation for their involvement in Maul’s growing Shadow Collective. This could have been an interesting subplot that explores the fragility of paid soldiers compared to loyal followers, but, unfortunately, it comes crashing down (both literally and figuratively) as the Mandalorians are shot down while attempting to flee the conflict.
This conflict sees the Empire and Maul’s forces face-off, and Maul duel both The Crow and Marrok. The duel is lit beautifully, with a backdrop of a waterfall that gives the lightsaber blades a different texture. Maul still carries the injury he incurred in Chapter 4 and yet is still able to hold his own against two trained Inquisitors, such is his proficiency with a lightsaber and capacity to wield the Force.
Eventually, it seems as if The Crow and Marrok have defeated Maul as the former Sith lord kneels on the ground with his hands up. Marrok tells Maul that his surrender is pointless as the Emperor wants him dead, after which Maul replies, “Likewise.” He goes on to use the Force to bring the roof of the cave crashing down, thus concluding Chapter 7.
The only other notable occurrence in this episode is the death of Icarus, one of Maul’s Zabrak Nightbrothers. While his brother Scorn mourns his loss, the audience doesn’t really feel this pain as we never knew anything about Icarus to begin with, other than he has a cool character design and some neat weaponry.
Chapter 8: The Creeping Fear
Chapter 8 of Maul – Shadow Lord shares the same title as the working and rumored title for Revenge of the Sith. This episode also stands out as it finally gives Maul the opportunity for introspection we’ve so desperately wanted this whole season. Up until this point, Maul has felt like the third main character, behind Lawsen and Devon. Sam Witwer has done an excellent job with the material provided to him, but Maul has been relegated to a handful of scenes per episode. So far, this has prevented the audience from getting a deeper understanding of the titular character above and beyond what we already know from The Clone Wars and Rebels.
That changes in Chapter 8 as Maul reckons with his past following Chapter 7’s climactic duel. This begins as Maul lies on a puddle in the ground, only to stand up and see the reflection of himself as a child looking back at him. Maul angrily says, “I hate you” to his child self, a striking moment that highlights just how torturous of a history the character has.
Maul’s tormented origin becomes clearer later in the episode. Unhinged and talking to himself, he begins to experience flashbacks of Darth Sidious taking him away from Dathomir and his brother Savage, who urged him not to go. We see Sidious train young Maul in the most brutal of ways, using Sith lightning on the young boy. We then hear the unmistakable sounds of the barriers in the Duel of the Fates from The Phantom Menace before Maul re-experiences the mania and anguish of being a spider-like creature, as depicted in The Clone Wars.
These flashbacks, which are beautifully rendered as fragments of a dust storm, convey just how tragic and traumatic Maul’s background is. It’s heartbreaking to see Savage want to keep his younger brother, only to be powerless to the man who eventually kills him years later. Between losing his brother, mother, and the destiny promised to him, Maul’s anger is more than justified, even if his actions are not. This scene is important as it reminds the audience why Maul is so determined to seek revenge against Palpatine. His former master didn’t just betray him or do him wrong. Palpatine took everything from Maul and is the cause of all of his suffering. It’s a shame that we’ve had to wait eight episodes to get this kind of introspection from Maul, but thankfully it overwhelmingly delivers once it arrives.
Later in the episode, Maul – Shadow Lord similarly delivers in finally adding emotional complexity to its titular character, who, up until this point, has been kept at a distance from the audience. Bookending the sentiment of hate directed toward his child self, Maul once again looks at a reflection of him as a child and promises, “I won’t let him do this to anyone else.” This is a poignant line that adds nuance to Maul’s pursuit of Palpatine. Maul is not just trying to kill the man who did him wrong – he is also trying to stop this man from doing to others what was done to him. We don’t expect (nor believe) Maul should undergo a redemption arc in this series, but him targeting Palpatine for a reason bigger than himself feels like a deserved evolution for his character.
Beyond Maul, we see Lawsen offer to give himself up in exchange for his son Rylee’s freedom. Two-Boots has finally come to realize the extent of the Empire’s villainy and turns his back on them by helping Rylee escape. They join up with Daki and Devon to meet up with Reena, who has reportedly secured a transport to get them off-world.
While heading down in an elevator, however, Devon senses that something is afoot. Her Force sensitivity clues her into the duplicity of Reena, which is shortly after confirmed by Lawsen. Reena manages to redeem herself in the end by blowing up a ship that presumably kills her, Blake, and a whole ton of stormtroopers.
The episode wraps up with Maul rejoining his crew and making an unexpected headquarters in crime lord Demis’ old office. Here, Vario tells Maul that Crimson Dawn’s Dryden Vos is requesting a meeting. Of course, Dryden Vos was the character played by Paul Bettany in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Vos reappeared briefly during the Siege of Mandalore arc in The Clone Wars and is probably yet another member of the criminal underworld who abandoned Maul at his time of need. We know that Maul eventually takes over Crimson Dawn by the time of Solo, something that Maul – Shadow Lord is bound to depict at some point.
VERDICT: 8/10
The best episodes yet of Maul – Shadow Lord arrive this week and finally give the titular character the attention he deserves. Across two episodes, but in particular in Chapter 8, Maul’s motivation for revenge is deepened and given newfound dimensionality, thus fulfilling the promise of a show about Maul. Up until this point, Maul has been kept at a distance from the audience, with little additional gleaned of the character from what we already knew from The Clone Wars and Rebels. This changes in this week’s episodes as the tragedy of Maul’s background seeps in and nuance is added to his desire to kill Palpatine. Chapters 7 and 8 also excel with a number of thrilling action sequences, in particular a beautifully choreographed and lit lightsaber duel with a waterfall as a backdrop. Devon, Lawsen, Daki, and Rylee remain on the run from the Empire and Maul, the latter of whom will presumably have a rendezvous with Crimson Dawn leader Dryden Vos in the next episode. Heading into its final episodes (which amazingly debut on May the 4th), Maul – Shadow Lord trends in the right direction as layers of Maul’s personality and psychology are, at last, peeled back.