Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord Season 1, Episode 2
"Sinister Schemes"
Writer: Matt Michnovetz
Director: Saul Ruiz
Cast: Voices of Sam Witwer, Wagner Moura, Dennis Haysbert, Vanessa Marshall, Chris Diamantopoulos, Gideon Adlon, and Richard Ayoade.
After an exposition-heavy premiere episode setting up the new series, "Sinister Schemes" settles in for a bit of character work. Granted, there's still a lot of "telling, not showing" with characters stating their motivations for other characters, but it's a step in the right direction, and anchored by some astonishingly good animation.
Father of the Year
"Sinister Schemes" opens with a bravura action scene, as Maul and his henchmen Scorn and Icarus fight their way out of the Tactical Defense Force headquarters with the captive Vario and Devon. It begins with an electric vertical fight, as the group descends a service ladder, with the action oriented up/down instead of left/right. It then spills out into the streets as Lawson and Two-Boots pursue Maul's armored car transport (stolen last episode) in their airspeeder, prompting a waiting Daki to enter the fray and flip Maul's transport. But Maul, in true villain fashion, uses heroic virtues against the heroes, triggering a bridge collapse that distracts both Daki and the TDF long enough for Maul to escape.
The next morning we meet Lawson's boss, Chief Klyce, and there's more talk of the planetary governor wanting to call in the Empire — and Lawson further resisting that course of action. But he has grown intrigued by Maul and his capture of Devon. Meanwhile, Maul and his crew return to their headquarters in the lower level of the city, and Maul explains to Rook Kast how he intends to mold Devon into a weapon to use against those who betrayed him — especially Darth Sidious — emphasizing how the primary drive behind Maul's actions is revenge. As Devin and Vario are placed in separate cylindrical cells, Maul tells Devon it's time for her to start questioning her Jedi indoctrination and learn to adapt.
Later, Lawson returns home, and we get to meet his son Rylee, a teenage shockball aka space-lacrosse player. We also learn his parents are separated in some form, with his mother having invited him for a visit, which Lawson insists can only happen when he's able to accompany Rylee. Lawson promises he'll spend more time with his son soon, but his assurances are undercut almost immediately when Two-Boots calls to tell him he has new information and Lawson goes back to the office to hear it in person instead of over the space-phone. It's kind of a dick move, especially when Two-Boots' new info is mostly non-info. No one seems to know anything about Maul or the "shadow collective" Vario mentioned. Notably, we get another "don't involve the Empire" push from Lawson.
"A Certain Point of View"
Back at Maul HQ, the former Sith Lord strong-arms Vario into arranging a meeting with Marg Krim, the leader of the Pyke Syndicate, so Maul can — what else — kill him out of revenge. Elsewhere, Lawson continues to not spend time with his son, and instead performs that classic film noir move, hitting up a sympathetic criminal for information about a different criminal. In this case, he visits Rheena Sul, a sultry purple woman who seems to have a thing for Lawson. She tells him about the Shadow Collective — a conglomeration of crime syndicates assembled by Maul that arose on Mandalore during the Clone Wars and included the Pyke Syndicate, Crimson Dawn, and Black Sun. Rheena says that Maul eventually disappeared and the collective fell apart, but she's still glad she never had any dealings with them.
Meanwhile, Maul is taking some time away from his "revenge on the Pyke's" plan to further his "revenge on Darth Sidious" plan by doing some more Dark Side seduction of Devon. He tells her she can escape anytime she likes, so long as she adjusts her "point of view" and offers to show her new paths to power the Jedi never would have taught her. Devon insists she still believes in the Jedi's dedication to peace and justice, and Maul genuinely suggests that perhaps the galaxy would be in a better place if more Jedi had been as steadfast in that belief. He pushes her to accept a less binary view of good and evil, and repeats that she is more than capable of leaving whenever she'd like.
This philosophical tête-à-tête ends when Rook Kast arrives to segue Maul back to his "revenge on the Pykes" mission. This involves Maul's Spybot droid sabotaging a departing Pyke transport, causing it crash on a forested moon of Janix, where the Mandalorians and Maul are waiting. As the Mandalorians loot the ship's cargo of funds, we get another kinetic action scene as Maul slashes his way through the Pykes, killing them all.
Returning to his base, he tells Vario he will remain a prisoner until Krim is dead. He then taunts Devon some more, saying she needs to see the galaxy for what it truly is. Chewing on his words, Devon tries to use the Force to unlock her cell door, but it won't budge. Catching a sliver of light from the back of the cell though, she switches tactics, and proceeds to lift the whole cell slightly off the ground while Force pushing against the back wall of the cell, revealing that it's not attached to the rest of the cell. Creating a large enough opening, she apprehensively slips out.
Force Facts
- The Pyke Syndicate appeared in The Clone Wars, as well as Solo (they're the group running the spice mines of Kessel, suggesting Maul's plans here won't entirely come to fruition, as they're not part of what new collective he forms that leads to his control of Crimson Dawn in that movie) and The Book of Boba Fett (they're the group Boba ousts from Tatooine).
- Chief Klyce debuted in the first issue of the comic book tie-in to this series, Shadow of Maul.
- Rheena Sul is a new character, and I'm not sure what her species is. She is voiced by Pamela Adlon, who in addition to being the voice of Bobby Hill of King of the Hill, is the mother of Devon voice actress Gideon Adlon.
- In addition to his brief engagement in the opening action sequence, Daki is seen surreptitiously following Lawson. On the one hand, his methodical, measured approach to the situation involving his Padawan having been kidnapped by a former Sith Lord and wannabe crime lord seems fitting to the "classic" Jedi approach to a situation. On the other hand, perhaps a bit more urgency is warranted, as Daki's approach kind of emphasizes Maul's point about the Jedi having lost the forest for the trees before they were wiped out.
- Maul using the "certain point of view" line on Devon is pretty great given it's a signature Obi-Wan line and how much Maul especially hates Kenobi.
- Accordingly, the way Devon escapes the cell is an effective example of what Maul/Kenobi are talking about (push, don't pull, start at the back, not the front, etc.).
Maul/Vader Fight Probability Index: 12%
Nothing concrete here, but ticking this up a couple notches since this episode goes out of its way to twice emphasize how much Lawson doesn't want the Empire involved, turning it into a "Chekhov's Imperial Meddling" situation.
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