TV Recap: The Shadow Collective Faces Its Toughest Challenge in "Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord" Season 1 Finale

Today is May the 4th, 2026, and that means the two-part season finale of Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is now available to watch on Disney+. Below are my recaps of and thoughts on both episodes.

Maul - Shadow Lord episode 9-- entitled "Strange Allies"-- begins with a full-time planetary curfew being instated on Janix, and in Nico Deemis's base, Maul (voiced by Sam Witwer) meets via hologram with Dryden Vos (Scott Whyte from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, filling in for Paul Bettany from Solo: A Star Wars Story), who says his superior at Crimson Dawn named Rintero doesn't know about the meeting. Dryden proposes that he helps Maul escape from Janix in exchange for Maul killing Rintero and installing Vos as the new leader of the syndicate. Maul tells Rook Kast (Vanessa Marshall) that he still needs to attend to one more thing before leaving the planet, and suggests that Captain Lawson will "provide a way." Out in the streets in the middle of the night, Brander Lawson (Wagner Moura) and Two-Boots (Richard Ayoade) have no way to monitor police channels and consider themselves both fugitives from the law, while Jedi Padawan Devon Izara (Gideon Adlon) has a vision of Maul that startles her awake.

Izara tells her friends about a vision she had of a statue of a woman and a shield, and Master Eeko-Dio Daki (Dennis Haysbert) says it's a meeting place that was telepathically placed in her head by Maul. Lawson says they need to keep moving as a group, and they make their way to the statue, which he knows from having lived in the city. There they find Maul, and Master Daki tells him to reveal his intentions. "To find a way off this planet for all of us," says Maul. He says a ship is waiting for them outside of the city, but Lawson says he knows a better way to get there, so Maul suggests an alliance. Two-Boots says that Maul looks untrustworthy, but Daki agrees on the condition that they "remain cautious of the Shadow Lord." Joining them on the journey are Looti Vario (Chris Diamantopoulos), Rook Kast, and Spybot (David W. Collins). Lawson leads the group underground, and while they walk Daki says that Devon has been hiding her connection with Maul from him. "Did he help you for your sake... or his own?" asks Daki.

An Imperial walker stomps by as the group sneaks through the shadows and past a battalion of stormtroopers. "Our transport will not wait for us," says Maul, and Rook tells Spybot to jam the Imperial comms. Maul approaches the troopers, who open fire on the former Sith Lord, but they're no match for his skills, especially once he's joined by Devon and Master Daki in battle. Even Rylee Lawson (Charlie Bushnell) gets in on the action by stunning a biker scout. "Be careful with that thing," Lawson tells his son as he grabs a stormtrooper blaster rifle. Nearby, the two Inquisitors detect that the group is making their escape, while our team makes their way into the plant that was occupied by the Empire and down into the underground tunnels below. Lawson tells Two-Boots that the Shadow Collective will double-cross them once they get outside the city, and Maul tells Rook to leave Master Daki alive for now, as they need his help.

The Inquisitors arrive at the plant and hunt for the group, with the Eleventh Brother finding the grate through which they escaped. In the sewers below, they find that the tunnels are flooded with acid. "The jump is not possible," observes Master Daki as they reach an impossible gap, and Maul agrees. Spybot helps them hijack an old hovering platform, and they must cross two-at-a-time. While they're making their way across, Lawson apologizes to his son for putting him in this situation. "Look on the bright side: this is the most time you and I have spent together in a while." Then Spybot brings the platform back for Two-Boots and Vario, but the remaining party members start to detect someone approaching, and Master Daki ignites his lightsaber, followed by Maul and Devon. The two Inquisitors come running out of the tunnel behind them followed by more stormtroopers, and a saber duel erupts, with the Lawsons attempting to take out the troopers with their blasters from across the acid.

The fight continues, with Maul calling the Inquisitors "pawns of Darth Sidious," saying that the Sith Lord has dispatched them to die, just as he did to him. Icarus (Steve Blum) falls in the battle and Spybot dissolves in the acid, but everyone else manages to cross except Maul and Daki, who continue to battle the Inquitisors. Maul allows Daki to jump across first, using the hover-platform as a stepping stone, and Maul separates the two halves of his lightsaber, taking on the two Inquisitors by himself. But the fight is a draw and Maul makes a running jump for it, spanning the chasm. "Inform him they are headed his way," says Marrok (A..J. LoCascio) to the remaining stormtroopers. Rook says she is going to scout ahead and report back, and Devon tells Maul she is sorry for his friends who he lost in battle. Rook comes back from ahead panicked, but is pulled back through the mist by the Force. Then we hear the familiar mechanical breathing sound of Darth Vader, who steps out of the shadows and ignites his red lightsaber.

The second part of the Maul - Shadow Lord finale-- entitled "The Dark Lord" (this episode was listed simply as "Finale" when the titles were first announced-- picks up right where the previous episode left off, with Darth Vader (who never speaks a line of dialogue in this episode) having emerged from the mist. He clashes sabers with Maul, Devon Izara, and Master Daki, while the others fruitlessly fire their blasters at the Dark Lord of the Sith. "This is useles. We need to move," says Brander Lawson, and they escape the tunnels out into what looks like an ancient temple, which of course Vader begins to collapse around them using his Force abilities. "You're no Inquisitor," Maul tells Vader. "What are you?" Maul and the two Jedi battle Vader, but they are outmatched by his skills, and Vader sends Master Daki flying into a corner. They use a brief reprieve in the battle to flee the area, but Vader pursues lifting debris out of his way with the Force.

Out in the surrounding woods, the Lawsons and Two-Boots discuss whether the Jedi will make it out alive, and Looti Vario talks with Dryden Vos via communicator. Vos demands that the extraction be quick. "Great risks yield great rewards," Dryden tells his underling after hanging up. Lawson leads our heroes (sans the Jedi) toward the landing site, while the Force-users are lost in a labyrinth of the ancient city. Maul says the only way they can defeat Vader is by letting go of their restraint, but Daki says they must remain calm in the face of their face. "Your master would be wise to heed my advice," Maul tells Devon while Daki it out of earshot. "I know how to defeat it because I was taught by the most devious Sith Lord of them all... Darth Sidious." Daki returns to them and tells Devon to find the Lawsons, as they will need her help, and Daki stays behind with Maul, the two still debating on the best way to face Vader, who suddenly bursts through a wall, attacking them vigorously.

Devon makes her way out of the ruins and encounters the two Inquisitors, with another three-way saber duel breaking out, and we cut back and forth between the two fights, which soon combine into one. Daki throws Devon his own lightsaber, and she duels the Inquisitors two-handedly, but the Jedi and Maul find themselves surrounded by the Imperial Force-users. Out in the mist, the Lawsons arrive at the pickup point with Looti and Rook, but instead of finding Dryden Vos's ship they're ambushed by Imperial stormtroopers there. Our heroes hide in some trees and the Imperial Lambda-class shuttle takes off, hunting for them in the mist. "We're not going anywhere with that shuttle circling," says Lawson, suggesting that Vario provide a distraction. "All you gotta do is run. I'll give you the signal." Back at the saber duel, Daki pushes Marrok off a cliff while Devon faces off against the Eleventh Brother.

Rylee Lawson tells his father he can help, but Brander tells his son to remain hidden and stay down. Lawson gives the signal to Vario, who starts running and is pursued by the stormtroopers, while Two-Boots commandeers one of the Imperial E-Web blaster turrets in order to take down the shuttle. Maul and Daki defend themselves against Vader, while the others blast away at Imperial reinforcements. Lawson tells Two-Boots to stay with Rylee, saying he'll catch up to them, and we cut back to the duel, where Vader is gaining the upper hand, Force-choking Maul and tossing him aside into Daki. We see Maul considering letting Daki fall to Vader, an idea which he briefly resists and then embraces, abandoning the Jedi Master to his fate. Devon Izara watches her master fall to Vader's lightsaber, and then unleashes her own power on the Eleventh Brother as Maul watches from the shadows, smiling. Devon is pushed to the floor in battle, losing her own lightsaber, but Maul then appears and offers her half of his, which she accepts, and the two take on the Inquisitor together.

Dryden Vos arrives but refuses to pick up the survivors without Maul. Looti scrambles up the ramp of his ship past him, regardless, and out in the mist Lawson calls his son on his communicator and apologizes once again, telling Two-Boots to get Rylee to his mother and then stepping out from his hiding spot to take on the stormtrooper horde. Lawson takes a blaster shot and stumbles out into the chaos, but we don't see his ultimate fate before cutting back to the lightsaber duel, where Devon loses the Inquisitor and then faces Darth Vader one-on-one, but Maul uses the Force to begin bringing the ceiling of the temple down on the Sith Lord. Devon tries to spring back into action, but Maul stops her, telling her he will train her... "and we will have our revenge," echoing a line of dialogue from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. They make it to Dryden's ship and it takes off without Brander Lawson or Master Daki. Dryden tells Maul that he's honored his half of the bargain. "And I will honor mine," replies Maul. Then in the ship's hold, Devon grips the hilt of her half of Maul's lightsaber and tells the former Sith Lord, "I'm ready."

All ten episodes of Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord are now available to stream, exclusively via Disney+. The series has already been renewed for a second season.