Maul - Shadow Lord's Finale Echoes Some Of The Best Moments In The Star Wars Prequels

This article contains heavy spoilers for the season finale of "Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord," "The Dark Lord."

Darth Maul was one of the breakout stars of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" when it hit theater screens almost thirty years ago (yes, that milestone is only three years away). Given the importance of Maul's appearance in that film and the fact that he's now headlining his own series, it would be surprising if we didn't see any thematic echoes from "The Phantom Menace" in "Maul — Shadow Lord" as we headed into the two-part finale. 

But what we ended up getting went much further than that, giving us a rich symbolic inverse of some of the things we saw across all the prequels, not just the one that featured Maul's debut. The echoes of the prequels here not only add a deeper texture to this finale and Maul's story, but they follow that filmmaking philosophy of George Lucas, where the stories in "Star Wars" echo through each other, rippling outward like poetry. As he once famously remarked, "They rhyme."

"Strange Allies," the ninth episode of Season 1, sends the band of unlikely allies led by Maul, Brander Lawson, and Master Daki to the outskirts of the city in hopes of a pickup. In order to get there, they have to travel beneath the city and out, and find themselves having to cross a wide river of acid. The only way across is a small skiff, barely large enough to hold two people. The acid and the skiffs are instantly reminiscent of the lava floes of Mustafar, but in visual opposite. Where the lava is fast moving, bright, and red, this acid is slow and black (perhaps symbolic of the dark side?). The skiff itself is a small repulsor sled that can fit a single person and help them across, much like the small platforms Anakin and Obi-Wan use to have their battle of the heroes in "Revenge of the Sith." 

Before this group can manage their evacuation, however, they're stopped from behind by Inquisitors. This is an inverse of the situation in "The Phantom Menace." In that film, a group of Jedi, the Queen and her handmaidens, and palace guards are working to break into a palace and are stopped by Darth Maul cutting off their route, and then the Jedi are stopped from teaming up against the Sith Lord because of the energy walls and are forced to face him one at a time. Here, the opposite occurs. This group is escaping, and Maul is stopped from behind by Inquisitors, and this device off cuts the Force users and their group from escaping two at a time.

After this situation is resolved and the narrative enters the temple-like grounds in the final episode, "The Dark Lord," the parallels continue, both visual and thematic. Maul and Master Eeko-Dio Daki face off against Darth Vader together, doing everything they can to stop him. Unfortunately, that leaves Devon Izara, the Twi'lek apprentice of Master Daki, to deal with one of the Inquisitors on her own. Maul, who has been wounded, realizes that he is only going to be able to save one of them. He can continue his fight with Vader at Master Daki's side, or he can save Devon. He has come to view Devon as sort of a Chosen One, an apprentice he must train, something the Force has continued to guide him toward — a nod to Qui-Gon's overriding desire to train Anakin Skywalker. Ultimately, he chooses her and uses the Force to shove Master Daki into Darth Vader as a distraction so he can rescue Devon. Master Daki seems to sense this and resigns himself to his fate, holding off Vader as long as he can.

Devon holds off the Inquisitor long enough to watch Vader pierce her Master through the chest with his red-bladed saber, just as Maul had done to Qui-Gon. She exclaims with a short "no" or two before screaming out "noooo!", just as Obi-Wan did. Then she turns to face the Inquisitor, the Eleventh Brother, and seemingly gives in to the dark side in order to attack him out of a sense of revenge. But like Obi-Wan in "The Phantom Menace," she's overcome by a superior foe and loses her lightsaber.

When Obi-Wan Kenobi rises from the bottomless pit on Naboo, he's able to summon his master's green lightsaber and cut Maul in two, winning the day. "Maul — Shadow Lord" turns its equivalent beat into a brilliant moment of symbolism and theme. Maul is able to provide Devon with a lightsaber to replace the one she lost: half of his own red, double-bladed saber. Together, they fend off the Inquisitor and are able to flee Vader, but only after Maul promises to help train Devon so that she may get her revenge against Vader. Lightsabers have long held symbolic story meaning in "Star Wars," and this reference to "The Phantom Menace," where Maul goes from apprentice to master, is an excellent piece of writing that echoes what comes before, creates something new, and puts characters in situations we haven't quite seen before.

Season 2 of "Maul — Shadow Lord" seems as though it will highlight not only Maul's rise in Crimson Dawn, but also his training of Devon. If it takes another cue from the prequels, I wouldn't be surprised if it makes a big time jump like George Lucas used between "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones."

The entire first season of "Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord" is currently streaming on Disney+. Season 2 has been announced, but no release date has been set.