The Lawless

"Morality separates heroes from villains."

- Moral

"The Lawless" is the sixteenth episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' fifth season. It aired on February 2, 2013.

Official description
"Using Duchess Satine as bait, Darth Maul lures Obi-Wan into a trap."

Plot summary
After Darth Maul and Savage Opress took the lead of Death Watch, Almec is the Prime Minister of Mandalore. Duchess Satine is in her cell when she is rescued by Korkie. When they are about to be arrested outside the cell, Bo-Katan and several renegade Death Watch members arrive to help. It turns out that Bo-Katan is the sister of the Duchess, and that they turned against Maul and his followers. Outside on a landing platform several other followers of Satine, including Lagos, Amis, and Soniee are ready to rescue her in speeders. As they flee, they begin to be chased by several Mandalorian super commandos. Bo-Katan and the others hold them off, but finally the speeder is shot down, and the Duchess is cornered by the commandos. However, she still has time to send a hologram message to the Jedi asking for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi personally. After she manages to send the message, she is taken back to her prison cell.

Meanwhile, in the Jedi Temple's communication room Obi-Wan, Yoda and Ki-Adi-Mundi receive Satine's message. Yoda, mentioning the neutrality of the planet, tells Obi-Wan that the Jedi can't send help until the Senate agrees on it. Obi-Wan doesn't want to wait, so he immediately starts his way to Mandalore in Anakin's ship, the Twilight. After he lands, a small fire bursts and is extinguished by a built in fire extinguisher. He says that was the last time he borrowed a ship from Anakin. Meanwhile, Maul is informed by Almec that Satine had tried to escape, and she managed to inform the Jedi. Maul just smirks, and he points it out that if Kenobi wants to help, he has to come alone.

Upon his arrival, he appears dressed up in the armor of Rako Hardeen. He is "welcomed" by a super commando, who tells Kenobi that he should take the ship for repairs, and asks if he has a landing permission on the planet. Obi-Wan guides him into the ship, where he knocks out the commando and gains his armor. In the meantime, he doesn't notice that Bo-Katan and the Nite Owls had been watching him the whole time. He than heads towards the prison cells, where he ultimately finds Satine. After an intimate moment, they try to escape. However, they are being unfold when knocks out a commando who asks for the authorization code upon the rescue of Satine. They are chased by several commandos until they reach the Twilight on its platform. Darth Maul also arrives, and orders his commandos to shoot rockets from their jetpacks towards the Twilight. Obi-Wan and Satine manage to jump off the ship, just moments before it explodes. They fall to the feet of Maul, who orders his men to take the two inside. There, he starts torturing Satine by choking her while addressing Kenobi, encouraging him to embrace his emotions and turn to the dark side. After Kenobi refuses, Maul draws and ignites the Darksaber while pulling Satine towards the weapon, impaling the Duchess. Satine falls into the arms of Kenobi, and tells him that she has always loved the Jedi Master and always will. After the Duchess dies in Kenobi's arms, Maul orders his men not to kill him, but rather imprison him below so he may "rot" in his misery.

Obi-Wan is transported to his cell when a group of the remaining Death Watch members rescue him with the lead of Bo-Katan, who have followed him until that time. They tell Obi-Wan about the situation, and help him towards a Death Watch frigate in the middle of a battle with the super commandos of Maul. When they reach the ship, several reinforcements arrive to hold up the commandos. Bo-Katan tells Obi-Wan to report the Republic about the incident, and when Obi-Wan says that the Republic will likely invade the planet, Bo-Katan replies that while Maul will die, Mandalore would survive because they "always survive". Obi-Wan realizes that Bo-Katan is the sister of Satine, and states his condolences about the loss of her sister before he leaves the planet.

Meanwhile on Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine feels a disturbance in the Force and orders Mas Amedda to prepare his ship. He travels to Mandalore and lands near the palace where Maul and his brother reside. He easily dispatches the commandos who try to hold him up and enters the palace. Maul, with a realization of shock and terror, feels the presence of his old master. When Sidious appears, Maul immediately drops down onto his knees, expressing his loyalty to his former Master. However, Sidious cannot be deceived; he easily pushes the brothers towards the wall and tells Maul he has become a rival. After he releases the brothers, all of them draw their red lightsabers, and an epic duel begins. The brothers fight valliantly, but they can't overwhelm the Dark Lord of the Sith. Eventually, Sidious manages to knock Maul out of the fight. He turns his attention to Savage and quickly he impales Savage him, finishing the huge Nightbrother once and all. Maul regains consciousness, and seeing Savage dying, jumps besides his apprentice and brother, who tells them that he was never suited to be a good apprentice to Maul. As he dies, the Nightsister magic used to alter him bleeds out of his body, and he returns to the state he was in when he was found by Ventress. As Savage passes, Sidious reminds Maul of the Rule of Two, and tells him that he was replaced by someone else. Maul, filled with anger and grief, draws the Darksaber and his lightsaber, and starts another vicious duel against Sidious. Although he nearly overwhelms his Master in lightsaber combat, Maul is no match for Sidious' power in the Force. The Dark Lord uses telekinesis to slam him into the ground, then into the wall and then back to the ground. As Maul begs for mercy, Sidious reminds him that the Sith do not show mercy and then starts to torture him with Force lightning. However, Sidious assures Maul that he is not going to kill him, as Maul may be useful for him in the future, and continues to torture his former apprentice...

Cast

 * Sam Witwer as Darth Maul and Mandalorian super commando
 * James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Anna Graves as Duchess Satine Kryze
 * Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan
 * Ian Abercrombie as Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious
 * Clancy Brown as Savage Opress and Mandalorian super commando
 * Tom Kane as narrator and Yoda
 * Omid Abtahi as Amis and Mandalorian super commando
 * Whit Hertford as Korkie Kryze and Mandalorian super commando
 * Julian Holloway as Almec
 * David Acord as Mandalorian super commando
 * Brian George as Ki-Adi-Mundi
 * Stephen Stanton as Mas Amedda

Continuity
Footage from "The Lawless" was first previewed at Celebration VI in August 2012. It was adapted in the young reader's book The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy. The episode was originally reported by Star Wars Insider 137 as the fifteenth episode of Season Five, but the reported order was revised following the magazine's publication.

This episode was dedicated to Ian Abercrombie, the voice of Palpatine/Darth Sidious, who passed away a year prior to its airdate. The episode also featured some of the last of his recordings as Palpatine. The episode also marks Darth Sidious's first appearance in the flesh within the context of The Clone Wars, having previously only appeared as a hologram. However, Sidious's final lines in this episode was actually recorded by Tim Curry.

The Trivia gallery for the episode on Starwars.com stated that Palpatine being capable of using two lightsabers simultaneously was hinted at earlier in Revenge of the Sith, and stated that he was unable to use two lightsabers against Yoda in their skirmish in that film because Mace Windu knocked it out of the window during their duel. The same source also confirmed that Bo-Katan's last name was indeed Kryze, something that was only hinted at in the episode itself with Satine Kryze being revealed to be her sister.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's outfit when arriving at Mandalore was his Rako Hardeen disguise that he had earlier used in Season Four during the bounty hunter four-part story arc.

The Twilight in this episode sported a decal that depicted a cartoonish version of Anakin Skywalker in his podracer during the Boonta Eve Classic with the Aurebesh word for "Wizard!!!"

The Moogan traders briefly seen offloading supplies were previously seen in the episode "Corruption". Their presence was meant to imply that, since being reinstated into power, Almec is recalling all of his old allies.

According to Jason Fry, in the initial script, as well as Shadow Conspiracy, it was originally intended that Bo-Katan's familial relationship with Satine Kryze was to be alluded to indirectly. However, it was changed to being overtly stated in the aired version of the episode.