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
Duchess Satine sits in her cell on Mandalore when she is rescued by her nephew Korkie, his friends, and a group of Death Watch dissidents led by Bo-Katan. As they flee in speeders, they are 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 taken by the commandos, but not before sending a hologram message to the Jedi asking for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi personally.

In the Jedi Temple's communication room Obi-Wan, Yoda and Ki-Adi-Mundi receive Satine's message. Yoda reminds Obi-Wan of the neutrality of the planet, telling him that the Jedi cannot send help until the Senate agrees on it. Obi-Wan refuses to wait, so he heads to Mandalore in Anakin's ship, the Twilight. Meanwhile, Maul is informed by Almec that Satine attempted to escape, and managed to inform the Jedi.

Obi-Wan arrives and is met by a super commando, who asks if he has a landing permit on the planet. Obi-Wan guides him into the ship, where he knocks out the commando and gains his armor. Unbeknownst to Obi-Wan, Bo-Katan watches him from above. He then finds Satine in her cell and try to escape, but they are exposed when a commando asks for the authorization code for a prisoner transfer. They are chased until they reach the Twilight and Satine says that they must reach her sister. Maul then arrives at the docks, and orders his commandos to open fire on the Twilight. Obi-Wan and Satine jump off the ship moments before it explodes. They fall to the feet of Maul, who orders his men to take the two inside.

In the throne room, Maul chokes Satine while encouraging Obi-Wan to give in to his anger. After Obi-Wan refuses and berates Maul as weak for choosing the dark side, Maul draws and ignites the Darksaber while pulling Satine towards the weapon, impaling the Duchess. Satine falls into the arms of Obi-Wan, and tells him that she has always loved him and always will. As the Duchess dies in Obi-Wan'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 the group of Death Watch dissidents rescue him. They lead Obi-Wan to the docks in the middle of a battle with Maul's commandos. Bo-Katan tells Obi-Wan to tell the Republic about the takeover. When he says that the Republic will likely invade the planet, Bo-Katan replies that Maul will die, while Mandalore will survive because they always do. Obi-Wan then realizes that Bo-Katan is the sister of Satine, and gives his condolences before he leaves.

Meanwhile on Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine feels a disturbance in the Force and orders Mas Amedda to prepare his ship. He travels to Mandalore and makes his way to the palace where Maul and his brother reside. A shocked Maul feels the presence of his old master as he enters the throne room. Maul immediately drops down onto his knees, expressing his loyalty to his former Master. However, Sidious sees that he is being deceived, and tells Maul he has become a rival. They all draw their lightsabers and begin to fight. Sidious manages to keep Maul out of the fight long enough to impale Savage. He tells Maul that he was an unworthy apprentice and as he dies, the Nightsister magic used to alter him bleeds out of his body, and he returns to his original form. Sidious reminds Maul of the Rule of Two, and tells him that he has been replaced. Maul, filled with anger and grief, draws the Darksaber and his lightsaber, and starts another vicious duel against Sidious. He soon finds he is no match against Sidious' power in the Force, and is quickly overwhelmed. As Maul begs for mercy, Sidious reminds him that the Sith do not show mercy and then tortures him with Force lightning. Sidious assures Maul that he is not going to kill him, as Maul may be useful for his future plans, and the torture continues...

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.

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

Behind the scenes
During the development of the show, a 4-episode story arc entitled Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir was planned by the show's writers to tell Maul's adventures following this episode. The episodes would have been titled "The Enemy Of My Enemy", "A Tale Of Two Apprentices", "Proxy War" and "Showdown On Dathomir". However, the show was cancelled before any of these episodes could be completed.