Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord Season 1, Episode 5
"Inquisition"
Writer: Jennifer Corbett
Directors: Tatyana Drewry Carvin and Saul Ruiz
Cast: Voices of Sam Witwer, Wagner Moura, Dennis Haysbert, Vanessa Marshall, Chris Diamantopoulos, Gideon Adlon, and Richard Ayoade.
The Empire has entered the chat and, in the process, completely upended the narrative, shifting the focus from Maul's machinations to a fight for survival on both sides of the good/evil, light/dark spectrum, with the arc of every character impacted in some way by the now ever-looming presence of the Empire.
We Are Living In An Imperial World
Continuing on from the dramatic closing image of the previous episode, "Inquisition" opens with the shot of the iconic Star Destroyer looming over Janix City, as smaller craft peel away, quickly depositing Stormtroopers and Imperial personnel throughout the city. Off-world travel is cutoff, news that no one is happy to hear — not regular citizens like Lawson's near-abandoned son Rylee, Rook Kast and the rest of Maul's Shadow Collective, or fugitive Jedi Daki and Devon. The latter two in particular recognize the extreme danger the shift in the political winds has put them in, though Devon is still concerned with Maul. Daki smartly tells her he is the Empire's problem now.
At the Tactical Defense Force headquarters, Lawson somewhat inexplicably sticks up for Two-Boots ratting out the agency to the Empire as Stormtroopers, uh, storm in and the unctuous Lieutenant Blake takes command of the scene. Not surprisingly, the interrogations begin, with Chief Klyce falling on her sword as the first target, but Lawson is warned not to go far.
Meanwhile, Maul is less concerned than nearly everyone — including Spybot — about the arrival of the Empire. He waves off Kast's suggestion that they find a new system to operate in; He remains fixated on Devon as a potential apprentice. Vario is less than enthused about the current situation, with the Imperial crackdown likely to disrupt his smuggling operations. When he asks Maul if he's still a prisoner, Maul tells him he's free to go. But rather than tangle with the Empire, the one-time crime lord decides to stick with Maul instead. But others in Maul's orbit are bristling at the change of fortunes facing their group.
"You Don't Need To See Our Indentification…"
As Daki and Devon make their way out of the city, hoping to hide in the surrounding forests, they continue to argue about Maul. Some of what he said is clearly resonating with Devon, who is clearly upset with the way the Jedi are being forced to hide despite their power and good intentions. She suggests that perhaps Maul could help them in their fight with the Empire. Daki insists that while the two share a common enemy, Maul will never truly be their ally.
Back at TDF headquarters, Lawson learns Klyce has been permanently reassigned shortly before his own interrogation begins, at which point he meets the Imperial Inquisitor Marokk. The dark Jedi hunter orders Lawson to tell him everything he knows about Maul, but Marokk clearly doesn't entirely buy Lawson's version of events. It's enough to send Marokk to the factory where Lawson confronted Maul, however, while Daki and Devon attempt to catch a train out of the city. The sudden arrival of Stormtroopers scuttles their plans, however, and they're forced to use their Jedi abilities to escape, drawing even more attention to themselves.
As Marokk discovers evidence of the fight between Maul, Daki and Devon, the increasingly-desperate fugitive Jedi decide to seek out Daki's sole remaining contact for help. At the same time, Rylee returns home, his efforts to see his father rebuffed by Lawson's interrogation and the Empire's general dickery. He calls his mother, who assures him that the Empire is there to help and urges him to tell his father to comply.
Meanwhile, Spybot shows Maul footage of Daki and Devon fighting Stormtroopers, confirming they remain on the planet, much to Maul's delight. Back at headquarters, Lieutenant Blake finally releases Lawson, who wearily returns home to a relieved Rylee. Lawson tells his son he's had a challenging day at work, then spots visitors sitting at his dining table: Daki and Devin.
Force Facts
- Rook Kast being seen without her helmet is a curious sight given the relationship between the Mandalorian Death Watch (of which Kast is a member) and the Children of the Watch (the offshoot group to which Din Djarin of The Mandalorian fame belongs), given that group's adherence to the rule that clan members never remove their helmets in the presence of others. It's never been terribly clear at what point the Children of the Watch deviated from Death Watch and/or adopted that rule (though Din is with the group at this point in the timeline), but it's also interesting in light of the fan theory that the Armorer in The Mandalorian is Rook Kast.
- The term "scandoc" i.e. Imperial memos, essentially, gets tossed around in this episode.
- The Inquisitor in this episode, Marokk aka First Brother, debuted in the Ahsoka series, where he was working with Force Witch Morgan Elsbeth following the fall of the Empire, and had become a deceased wraith animated by Elsbeth's magic at some point between this episode and that series.
- Seeing the Jedi mind trick blow up in Daki's face was kind of funny, given I've always thought it should work this way (ie, sure, you trick one person, but then his Stormtrooper buddy is gonna be like, "why you doing that?" and the whole thing immediately falls apart).
- Daki's line that tyranny always falls is reminiscent of Nemik from Andor's line in his manifesto about tyranny requiring effort to maintain.
- Between his mom, dad, Two-Boots and the Empire all giving him the brush off, I'm half-hoping Rylee picks up a lightsaber and starts slashing people soon.
Maul/Vader Fight Probability Index: 18%
I'm ticking this down a couple notches, just because the whole point of the Inquisitors is to give stories of this era a way to put an evil red-lightsaber wielding bad guy into stories while preserving the power and impact of Darth Vader, so it's entirely possible a Maul/Marokk showdown is the closest we'll get to a Maul/Vader face-off.
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