Each week, Dom from @movienerdreviews will be recapping the latest Star Wars series, Andor, now streaming on Disney+.

Episode 9

Normally, this would be the point in the show where I would quote Al Pacino’s famous line from Godfather III, a line that Silvio Dante would reiterate many times on the Sopranos: “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Only, I was never out on this show. Rather, I was already in, and then it pulled me further in. Andor has been such a joy and a treat to watch and review every week, progressively building and building its world, its characters and its tensions until we’ve reached these final couple of episodes, and this is the beginning of a build up to an explosive climax. This episode continues the powerhouse work of two TV legends, with House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon writing and Black Mirror director Toby Haynes directing, and sees Cassian planning his escape from their facility on Narkina 5. Cassian is attempting to get Andy Serkis’ character, who’s name is revealed to be Kino Loy, to go along with it, but Loy wants no part of it, just wanting to serve out his time. That is, until the oldest member of Cassian’s group, Ulef, suffers a stroke on the job. That’s what I love about the show is its willingness to bring reality into an otherwise completely fantastical setting, showing the harsh realities of slave-like labor and its harsh and completely unflinching feeling towards using human beings as worker drones, using them for all their labor until they’ve used them up completely, before disposing of them to replace them with more workers that the Empire is bringing in daily. It’s got to be the most effective demonstration of the Empire’s dealings, how more than Palpatine and Darth Vader, it's a cold, unflinching machine that prioritizes the sum of its parts more than anything. This is also shown in the other story of this episode, in which Meero interrogates and tortures Bix. Their dialogue exchange leading up to the torture sequence is Emmy-worthy, with Meero detailing all of Bix’s potential answers before Bix finally gets to the point of “we both know you’re not going to believe anything I say, so let’s just get this over with.” The coldness and downright abhorrent fascination that the doctor has with using a specific type of micro-frequency to elicit emotional pain from Bix is very much so paying homage to the sequence in the first Star Wars film in which the door is shut by the guard before the audience sees Leia being tortured by the drone. This was something that they thought people would not be able to stomach in 1977 that they know people can handle now, given how desensitized we’ve become as a species. We also get a quick check-in with Mon Mothma, in which her relationship to Vel is revealed in that they are cousins, as she is continuing to run into problems with accessing her funds and realizes she’s going to have to roll around in the dirt if she wants to continue to fund rebel activity. All of this is to say that this episode was a monumentally important one in showing off the evil of the Empire and how its affecting every level to the point where it’s making even the most passive of soles line up to join the rebellion and take them down, because as Cassian tells Kino, the Empire always underestimates their opponents by not taking them seriously and subjugating them into natural rebellion, because “nobody’s listening.”

Episode 10

It’s been a long time coming, but Star Wars finally has a new muse. His name is Kino Loy. Episode 10, entitled “One Way Out” marks the end of arguably the best sub-arc in this 12 episode act of genius that almost single handedly redeems Star Wars’ entire existence on Disney+ so far. What we have here is a thrilling, daring prison escape that functions less as Ocean’s 11 and more so Battle of Algiers. It harkens back to what made Rogue One as good as it was, the idea of good men dying for a good cause that they believe in, all while charging the enemy head on. It’s always a thrilling, daring, rush of emotions and good feelings that we crave so much more from our entertainment, and it can all be found here. As I said, the plot is less focused on in this episode, letting the emotion of the characters fuel this story. But as good as the prison escape sequence is, the episode doesn’t let us forget that there are still other parts of the galaxy being featured in this show. We finally learn a little bit more, but not a whole lot about Luthen, when we see him meet his source within ISB, whom he essentially blackmails into continuing work despite an attempted resignation, showing his true colors as a character who’s not willing to sacrifice his own goals for any one person. Mon Mothma also learns the price of doing business with strangers, as her request to entrust her affairs to Davos Sculdun does not go as planned when he requests a matrimonial pairing between their respective children. Amazing how certain story beats can exist simultaneously across multiple shows in completely separate genres. It’s honestly hard to believe that there are still two more episodes of this show, because if it had ended here, I would not have been disappointed. Nevertheless, this solidifies Andor not only as one of the current must watch TV shows, but as one of the greats to keep an eye out for in the years to come. 

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