The newest episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars gives Darth Maul his very own “hallway scene,” and it’s even more brutal than Darth Vader’s in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As the final season of The Clone Wars, season 7 has been resolving all the remaining threads connecting Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, and a big part of that is explaining what happened to Ahsoka and Darth Maul during Order 66.
The “hallway scene” has become a popular action trope where a character works their way through a large number of opponents in an enclosed area, popularized by classic movies like Oldboy, the hallway scene has seen a number of popular recreations such as The Raid: Redemption or several of Marvel’s Netflix shows like Daredevil and The Punisher. Of course, Star Wars also got its own popular hallway scene when Darth Vader mowed through a squad of Rebels in Rogue One: a Star Wars Story, and now Darth Maul gets his very own, very brutal, hallway scene.
After Ahsoka captured Maul at the end of their duel during the Siege of Mandalore, he was locked up by the Mandalorians for transfer to the Jedi council, but once they were aboard the Jedi Cruiser en route to Coruscant, Darth Sidious gave the order to execute Order 66, causing the clones to attempt to execute Ahsoka and Maul. Ahsoka manages to escape, but needs time to figure out what’s going on, and maybe find a way to stop it, so she frees Maul from his prison.
Maul initially thinks Ahsoka is finally teaming up with him, saying “You’ve done the right thing by coming to me. Only together can we survive this. But she quickly puts him in his place, “you don’t understand. I’m not here to team up with you. I need a diversion, and you’re it. Now go cause some chaos. It’s what you’re good at.” Of course, Maul complains that she won’t give him one of her lightsabers, but she coldly replies “I’m not rooting for you. Now get going.”
What follows is one of the most visceral displays of raw Force power in Star Wars canon. While Vader had his scene in Star Wars: Rogue One, and it certainly is brutal, the dark lighting and use of a lightsaber hides a lot of the details and leans more into the horror than the action. The Clone Wars certainly hides some of the more gruesome imagery with clever camera work, but the implied violence, and Maul’s power on visible display, allows Maul to truly live up to his reputation like no scene before.
As Ahsoka takes Rex’s tip and tries to track down information on Fives, the clone that first discovered the inhibitor chip back in season 6, Maul is shown literally tearing the ship apart with the Force as he uses bulkheads as shields to block the clones’ blaster bolts before throwing it down the hallway to decapitate a group of clones as more wall panels are ripped apart from either side of the hallway to smash other clones between them. When Maul begins yanking blasters out of their hands, the clones retreat through the blast doors at the end of the hallway, in true Star Wars fashion only for the former Sith apprentice to reach out with the Force and yank one troopers’ arm back through the blast door as it closes and severs the arm.
Darth Maul has regularly been cited as a major missed opportunity in the Star Wars prequels since he was killed off at the end of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but his second life on The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels hasn’t only secured his place as one of Star Wars’ coolest characters, but it also gives him one of the most dynamic character arcs in the entire franchise.
While we already know how Maul’s story ends, with only one episode of The Clone Wars left, one of the most exciting remaining puzzle pieces is what happens to Maul. He still has a Jedi Cruiser full of clones to get through if he wants to escape, so this could just be a taste of what’s to come. Then again, with how slippery he is, he’s just as liable to steal a ship and blast off into space to continue to run his own criminal rebellion, Crimson Dawn, from the shadows until he encounters Ahsoka again on Malachor.
