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“Inquisition / Night of the Hunted”
What They Say:
Around a year after the Clone Wars, former Sith lord Maul rebuilds his criminal syndicate and seeks a new apprentice on the planet Janix during the reign of the Galactic Empire.
Review: (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a lot of animated shows over the years since The Clone Wars first got underway in this style and approach, the latest iteration goes decidedly darker. The Clone Wars got to play in a lot of areas and characters to explore the events of the war. Rebels focused on the lead-up to A New Hope with various events that tied into well-known characters from novels. And the Bad Batch went back to explore the first few years of the Empire, showing the way things changed by former Clone troopers. This series brings us the criminal underworld at the forefront, while also showing how Maul is going to take a young Jedi who just saw their entire future destroyed, and weaponize them before our eyes.
The two-episode release is one I still don’t care for, as I definitely enjoy taking time to sink my teeth into a single episode and all that it brings with it. The fifth episode here, this has the Empire arriving with a Star Destroy and making its presence known over the city. It’s something that definitely feels significant, especially since it’s a rare daylight scene in the series so far which has its own meaning. Seeing how the Empire basically cements its position here, including stopping all off-world travel, is significant and it puts people into a state of fear on top of the city itself being locked down. We see this through Devon and her master trying to find an out, Maul’s group observing things, and Lawson watching as Klyce basically loses her job and position, and freedom, with the Empire questioning her as they insert themselves into the everyday operations of the city.
But, this is also how we see the underbelly of the city where Maul is operating out of for the moment. Maul knows on some level that they should find another system to operate out of, but he’s drawn to Devon at this point as a strong potential apprentice, and there are things he still wants to accomplish here. As much as I love a dark underbelly show, however, I’m loving that we’re getting as much daylight as we do get here. The city looks different, and watching as its people, along with Devon and her master, navigate it works well. Especially since it’s becoming clear that it’s Maul that the Empire is after, with visuals of him showing up on screens throughout. Lawsone is more formally drawn into it as well, with the Inquisitor Marrok in the defense force facility to interrogate him after putting Klyce through her paces. It has the right kind of terror to it that your regular person would feel at this point.
There’s a lot of movement around this episode with characters, including a good moment with Lawson’s son connecting with his mother that will have some payoff eventually, but that it ends with Devon and Daki in Lawson’s home with his son Rylee? Oh, his headache is just beginning after surviving the interrogation. You can understand why Rylee would do it, but Lawson can’t get them out fast enough, considering what he understands of the Empire being here at this point. Daki basically gets Lawson to sit down and listen to him, but it’s mostly because he wants to find out anything helpful from Lawson so he and Devon can escape. Lawson is naturally just trying to protect himself and Rylee since he knows how bad this can all get, and that trying to get the importance of this through to Rylee after the fact. It’s good material overall, and balancing some of that with Rylee and Devon talking in his room, a place of normality that she’s never really seen, is pretty great. Of course, all of this blows up with Marrok’s arrival in the apartment as he’s eager to face off against the two Jedi.
While the fifth episode was about tension, fear, and smaller character moments, this one definitely goe for the action quickly, especially as Lawson knows both he and Rylee are basically losing the life that they had. It’s tough for Rylee since he doesn’t understand how the Empire can do this, as he just knows it as the place his mother works with. Lawson is more aware, obviously, and being on the run with Devon and Daki just complicates everything as they end up trying to find a way to get away from all of this just as the Empire sinks its teeth into this world even more. I love the contrast of a lot of these scenes, with some of the appeal of the city visuals and the arrival of more and more Stormtroopers. This is especially true around the defense force headquarters, where Two-Boots and others are now learning that Lawson is wanted. That’ll conflict with some programming and friendships.
All of this is forcing Lawson to help Daki and Devon, since he has made connections over time as basically a cop, and it plays out well alongside watching Maul deal with this incursion here. The hatred that we see toward Marrok upon first seeing him show up on on-world is fantastic, for example, but he’s trying to keep focused on getting to Devon and turning her toward his apprentice. Again, most of this episode is just focused on the action, especially with a lot of them trying to escape Imperial grasp and Marrok in particular, and it works well as we get them moving in all sorts of ways. I loved seeing Devon protecting Rylee from Marrok, but also knowing it’s a fight she can’t win easily. It turns into an even better fight visually, and again reminds you that the best lightsaber fights are in the animated series overall.
In Summary:
Maul – Shadow Lord continues to be an excellent series that’s taken all that has been learned by the other animated series, and just keeps moving it forward and elevating it. I absolutely love the visuals here, the weird change that we get with Maul in how he’s not a hero or anti-hero, but is a fascinating character to watch as he works his turning of Devon. There are so many great little character moments throughout, but also some fantastic fight sequences that we get. The inclusion of Marrok is great to see, and a good nod toward the wider galaxy toward the end that will delight fans, and just the inclusion of the Empire taking control of this world is fantastic. It’s simply a lot of fun that’s being executed by immensely talented people.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Disney+
Chris Beveridge
http://www.fandompost.com
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
He likes to write a lot, as you can see.
