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Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord: “Chapter 10: The Dark Lord” – TV Review

The first season finale of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord delivered what I wanted from this show. “Chapter 10: The Dark Lord” was an excellent cap to a fun show.

Darth Vader is relentlessly terrifying.

There’s always a concern in a Star Wars property whenever you have a legacy character show up, especially Darth Vader. Is he too overexposed? Does he look too weak? Is the storytelling worth it?

I’m happy to say that this was excellent.

Darth Vader was a nearly omnipresent, omnipotent entity throughout this episode. He was everywhere, and he was unbeatable.

Seeing a character like Maul be determined yet spooked when facing Vader was such an excellent choice. We never got to see Maul face off against Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but we knew it was coming based on comments in Star Wars Rebels.

Like any good slasher film, no matter what they threw at him, Vader kept coming. The moment when Vader punched through a wall after Maul was a delightful jumpscare.

This reminded me a lot of how I felt playing the Star Wars Jedi series of games. When you run into Vader as Cal Kestis, not fighting to defeat him. You were fighting to survive him.

Too good to be true.

I knew Maul teaming up with Eeko-Dio Daki and Devon was not going to be long lasting. For a little bit, I thought there was a chance we were going to get out of this episode with all of our main characters alive.

It wasn’t to be.

Maul saw that Devon was struggling in her battle against the Inquisitors, and he chose her over potentially defeating Vader. With just a little nudge, he shoved Daki ever closer to Vader and slipped away. The last time we saw Master Daki, Darth Vader put a lightsaber through his chest.

Daki was a was an interesting new Jedi character. It seems like he was a long-lived species, so who knows what stories may be able to be told through his eyes.

Now, with Devon by his side, what will Maul do next?

Horror.

I love the way that the show used the horror elements throughout the season, and that continued in this episode.

As I mentioned above, Vader was absolutely terrifying. The way he moved, the way he appeared, the way he fought.. All of it was done as an intimidation tactic as much as anything else.

I particularly enjoyed the way that they made the two inquisitors feel in this show. They were scary, too. The way that the Eleventh Brother would move to fight while screeching was incredible. What kind of creature is this former Jedi?

Captain Lawson is dead.

Or… Maybe he’s not.

One thing we’ve learned about Star Wars over the years is you should question a character’s death if you don’t see their body.

I lean more toward the expectation that Lawson is actually dead. I do mostly because I’m not convinced we’re going to be following up on the Lawsons moving forward.

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord: “Chapter 9: Strange Allies” | TV Review

It’s hard for me to even think how you would make the penultimate episode for season one of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord better than what was delivered in “Chapter 9: Strange Allies”.

Everything from the moment they reached the acid pit was amazing.

Once our main characters made it to the acid pools underneath the city, I knew that’s where we would have main confrontation with the inquisitors. What I didn’t expect was how terrifying it was when Marrok and the Crow came flying around that corner.

The First Brother and the Eleventh Brother fought with such an intensity that Maul, Eeko-Dio Daki, and Devon struggled to hold them back. A thing to remember is that we have no evidence that Daki and Devon are really anything more than just your average Jedi Master and Padawan. I’m all very clearly. Maul was doing most of the heavy lifting and showed that when he stayed being to hold them off.

RIP Spybot.

I liked that Daki gave in and accepted the help of Maul. I liked the lightsaber fight. I liked the shootout that was going on all around them as well. I liked that Maul didn’t betray them while they were fighting the Inquisitors.

I’ve been expecting Darth Vader to show up in this season, so it wasn’t a complete surprise to me. They’ve done such a good job of building up the horror elements to the show, that his Michael Myers-esque appearance was creepy.

I was curious how Dryden Vos would work here.

Heading into this episode, I was curious as to how Dryden Vos was going to involve himself in Maul’s problems if he was already the head of Crimson Dawn. Why would he? Maul is furious about their betrayal, and Vos could just let him die on Janix.

So, it makes total sense that Vos isn’t the leader of Crimson Dawn yet? “Boss Rintero” is, and I can’t wait to learn more about this person.

The Rook.

Listen, if you were Rook Kast, we knew you weren’t going to be long for this world. You were always going to be the person that Maul sacrificed in a big moment when he needed to survive.

I was prepared for Darth Vader to show up in that jungle. When Rook came back terrified, I knew what was happening. I’m glad she didn’t die by a lightsaber that we could see. It was much more terrifying having her dragged off through the jungle like that. Bravo.