Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord Season 1, Episode 6
"Night of the Hunted"
Writer: Christopher Yost
Directors: Steward Lee
Cast: Voices of Sam Witwer, Wagner Moura, Dennis Haysbert, Vanessa Marshall, Chris Diamantopoulos, Gideon Adlon, Richard Ayoade
Once again, I am impressed by the show's pacing, and its admirable insistence to push the narrative and/or characters further along in every single episode. It would be easy to turn the Jedi hiding in the Lawson's apartment into a multi-episode arc, but since we all know how this is going to end, "Night of the Hunted" cuts to the chase before the first spiritual commercial break.
That Escalated Quicky
Opening with another establishing shot of a Star Destroyer just to remind us the Empire is hanging around, "Night of the Hunted" proceeds downwards into Maul's lair as we get a glimpse of his morning calisthenics routine. He makes like every Star Wars fan ever and swings his lightsaber around fighting imaginary foes, before being interrupted by Rook Kast, bearing news of the arrival of Jedi hunter Marokk on the scene.
Over at the Lawson household, Lawson is dealing with the fact that two Jedi fugitives are chilling in his apartment. Sending Rylee to his room with Devon, he hears out Daki, who asks for his help and knowledge of potential smuggling or criminal routes out of the city. Lawson is sympathetic to the plight of Daki and Devon, but also concerned about the kind of trouble their presence will bring, especially as it regards his son, an eminently reasonable response despite Lawson having mostly ignored Rylee up to this point.
Sure enough, just as Lawson assures Daki he didn't tell the Inquisitor about them, said Inquisitor shows up at the apartment and knocks by stabbing his red-bladed lightsaber through the door. A furious fight ensues, in which Daki does his best to fend off Marokk while any plausible deniability Lawson may have had regarding Jedi fugitives is blown out the same window out of which he, Devon and Rylee climb.
After Daki briefly subdues Marokk by dropping part of the ceiling on him, the Lawsons and Jedi gather on the roof of the apartment complex, where Devon and Daki proceed to commandeer one of the Stormtrooper gunships. It's hard not to feel like the lives of the entire Lawson family as they knew them are over as the Stormtrooper bodies pile up amidst the Jedi's mad scramble to escape. Poor Rylee is still trying to wrap his head around the idea that the Empire are not the good guys, and he just became like the fifth most wanted person in Janix City.
Five Blade Showdown
Now all of them full-fledged fugitives, Lawson leads his group to Rheena Sul's casino in the hopes that she can get them off-planet. Meanwhile, Spybot brings news of the pursuit to Maul. Over Rook Kast's objections, Maul leaves to seek out Devon. Back at the casino, the Empire arrives on the scene, and Lawson sends Devon and Rylee into a turbolift to escape while he and Daki hold off the Stormtroopers. The kids end up fleeing into a subway terminal, but are pursued by Marokk. Devon engages him and Rylee jumps onto a departing cargo train. Devon joins him at the last minute, but Marokk follows, and Devon is clearly outmatched by the Inquisitor.
With Devon at his mercy, Marokk demands to know where Maul is, creating the perfect dramatic opening for Maul to reveal himself. The two dark Force users proceed to duel, with Devon getting back on her feet and fighting by Maul's side. As they threaten to overpower Marokk, he activates the second blade and spinning mechanism of his lightsaber. As if to say, "I invented the double-bladed lightsaber game, son!" Maul activates his own second blade, and the pair re-engage their duel.
Eventually, the fight works out such that Rylee, Devon and Maul are all one carriage of the train while Marokk is on another, allowing Devon to slice the connection between the cars, leaving Marokk behind. One foe down, she turns to face Maul, but he simply disengages his lightsaber, telling her that now she's seen the face of her true enemy.
Later, Marokk storms through the Star Destroyer hovering over Janix City and enters a chamber where he activates a holoprojector. He kneels before an unidentified cloaked figure and declares that Maul is alive, and working with two Jedi. He then asks his master how he should proceed.
Force Facts
- This episode is written by Christopher Yost, a longtime TV, movie and comic book writer (often with his writing partner Craig Kyle). Amongst other things, he co-wrote Thor: Ragnarok and created Laura Kinney/X-23/Wolverine.
- Devon and Rylee's brief conversation before all hell breaks loose does an effective job of showcasing their different upbringings, and underscoring just how sheltered knowledge of the Jedi is from the general public even for people who were around before the Purge.
- The gunships the Stormtroopers are using are the Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry (LAAT/i) vehicles which debuted in Attack of the Clones and were staples throughout Clone Wars stories. With this show set early in the Empire's existence, it's clear the idea is the full industrial complex hasn't fully spun up yet and older Clone Wars-era tech is still being used (similarly, I would suspect most of the Stormtroopers we see in this show are still clones).
- The proto AT-ST patrolling the streets outside the TDF headquarters is a AT-AC (All-Terrain Armored Cannon). It first appeared in The Bad Batch (and is an example of a piece of newer Imperial tech being deployed alongside the older Republic era gunships.
- The traitorous Two Boots finally gets some comeuppance when his beloved Empire tells him to get rid of his boots since they're not regulation.
- The alien who seems suspicious of Lawson and his crew when they enter Rheena Su's casino (and who presumably rats them out to the Empire) is a Devlikk, one of the less ubiquitous Star Wars species (their only previous appearance was in The Phantom Menace; one of the podracers was a Devlikk).
- Catalor, the world where Lawson and Rheena Sul formed their bond, is a new world.
Maul/Vader Fight Probability Index: 40%
I mean, I don't KNOW that's Vader Marokk is talking to at the end of the episode, but it makes it clear Marokk won't be the only evil Force user Maul tangles with this season, so that ups the odds of a Vader showdown significantly.
If you haven't already, consider supporting worker-owned media by subscribing to Pop Heist. We are ad-free and operating outside the algorithm, so all dollars go directly to paying the staff members and writers who make articles like this one possible.
