A tense, stunning Andor takes us to the fireworks factory
Andor's sixth episode, "The Eye" delivered on its promise of a spectacle, but dealt some shocking blows in return.
TV Reviews Cassian
“Wouldn’t you rather give it all at once, for something real?” Luthen asked Cassian Andor in a conversation that feels like it happened a lifetime ago. Once desperate to cut and run, Cassian’s time embedded with the rebel cell on Aldhani has changed him—and the show—for the better. Halfway through Andor season one, Cassian has finally found a purpose that fits him; a cause to believe in. But no good deed goes unpunished, and Andor’s shining moment of its hero’s self-realization comes at a heavy, heartbreaking price that reminds us war has very few winners.
As promised, “The Eye” gives us a spectacle on a level heretofore unseen in this particular corner of the galaxy, but we’ll get to all that. First and foremost: does it count as a Star Wars bottle episode if the whole thing takes place on one planet? Everything, up until the final two minutes of the episode, goes down on Aldhani, starting with another spirited sparring session between Cassian and the “true” rebels. He’s had enough of being dismissed as a mercenary waiting to put his feet up and forget the world when the mission’s done. His rage against the Empire, which has lingered at the margins of his character for so long, has finally found its center.
While Cassian, Vel, and co. get into position, we get a little more backstory on the would-be heroes. Alex Lawther has done excellent work as the determined but vulnerable Nemik, and has a sleepless night ahead of the big robbery. We also find out Taramyn is a former Stormtrooper. It explains his proclivity for barking orders and for the practice drills that Vel runs. Skeen tells Cassian that Cinta flew off the handle when she found out. “They slaughtered her entire family.” As much as I’ve enjoyed the time on Aldhani, I wish we’d gotten more into the dynamics of the rebels, rather than mostly learning about them as individuals via Skeen’s narration.
And hark! The first meteorite whooshes overhead. As far as ticking clocks go, I’ve yet to see one as cool as a slowly increasing frequency of multicolored shooting stars over the foggy highlands. As the Aldhani pilgrims file into the valley for their long-standing ceremony, Nemik, Skeen, Taramyn, and Cassian all blend in as Imperial officers. Their movements are seamless, their backstories airtight. Basically, they make Luke Skywalker bumbling around the Death Star look like a Benny Hill-ass chump. As the other officers stay in the valley to keep an eye on the “Dhanis,” Gorn takes them up to the base. If only it were that easy.
Immediately inside the base, the standoff begins. We get one of the most genuinely upsetting sequences in the franchise as Skeen holds Commandant Beehaz’s wife and child at gunpoint (blaster point?) It’s a brief moment, but it feels like an eternity, reminding us there’s no such thing as a peaceful rebellion.
One of Andor’s main strengths has been its thoughtful and measured approach to just who benefits, and who suffers, in a war. The scene is imbued with as much moral ambiguity as there can be in a story about spaceship nazis. Thankfully, no little space boys were harmed in the making of this scene. Cinta makes the save, and the group does an excellent job capturing and nullifying any and every threat on the base. They even enlist the help of the skeleton crew left at the base to load up the freighter. Industrious!
Safe to say, it’s all going a little too smoothly. As the Eye forms in the night sky, TIE pilots prepare to make chase. During takeoff, a big stack of credits crushes Nemik (capitalism metaphors don’t get much more explicit than this), and as soon as he gasps, “I can’t feel my legs,” we know the inevitable is coming. Grunting through the pain, he can still guide Cassian through the eye (destroying the TIE fighters in the process) before collapsing. He did, indeed, give everything all at once to something real. Nemik was the first true hero of the formal rebellion, and we know now that without him, there would be no escape. No Death Star blueprints. No celebration on Endor. Thank you, Nemik.
But there’s more heartbreak to come. As the group waits on a doctor to help Nemik (he can’t). Skeen gets Cassian alone and proposes the two of them split the haul in the freighter and take off. 40 million credits each. Cassian’s acute disappointment is palpable. Skeen thinks he’s seen a kindred spirit in Cassian, who once said he wants to win and walk away. “Your brother, with the orchard?” Cassian asks, already knowing the answer. “I don’t have a brother,” Skeen tells him, claiming he’s a rebel, but his rebellion is “me against everyone else.” Diego Luna’s preternaturally sad eyes have never been sadder as he hears this, and kills Skeen before he can do any more damage. Cassian’s just lost a friend and has to lose another in rapid succession.
The final moments of “The Eye” are, on the surface, small moments of victory. Mon Mothma, giving a speech to the Sante, notices increasing whispering and activity around her, indicating something big has gone down. In his Antiquities shop, Luthen gets wind of the robbery on Aldhani and retreats to laugh in celebration. It hits a few seconds later, that while the comfortable orchestrator of the plan revels in peace, his team has never been more broken. Like I said at the beginning, war has very few winners, and those winners rarely fight.
Stray observations:
- It’s a safe bet we won’t return to Aldhani, so director Susanna White (who helmed the previous two episodes) sends it off in style. It may be my favorite Star Wars world in a long time. The term “grounded” has been used a lot in describing Andor so far, but it really has been a joy spending so much time on this tactile little planet.
- I loved the juxtaposition of the Aldhani celebration against the gritty robbery. No matter how dark things get, peace and community is resilient.
- A lesser show would have ended on the high note of the escape through the eye. Andor sticks around to reckon with the consequences of the “war” part of Star Wars.
- Someone said “shit” a couple of weeks back, and in this episode, we get a quick, crude scene of an Imperial officer denigrating the Aldhani natives and taking a piss. George Lucas’ hapless band of Stormtroopers would never!
- I mentioned Aldhani is among my top Star Wars planets. Does anyone else have any sentimental favorites?
134 Comments
Man, this episode was truly fantastic. Tense, full of great flourishes and world building, bolstered by top notch performances, and it really made me question if the heist would be a success. And some really fantastic visuals, from the Eye to the reveal of the doctor having four arms. By tuning out all the noise of fan service and Jedi/Sith back and forth, Andor has really hit on something special in the Star Wars universe.
Oh, and the Commandant dying of an apparent heart attack was some sweet poetic justice.
Everything with the Commandant in this episode highlights the difference between actual storytellers like Gilroy compared to the people running all the other shows, who are content with merely dumping all the toys on the table to show you Boba Fett’s new hat.Cassian had spoken before about how lazy the Imperial apparatus had become, growing fat in their own contentment. In this episode, the Commandant is forced to physically work and load the ship, and he’s done in by a heart attack caused by years of inaction. Going beyond the in-show callback, it’s a metaphor for the rebellion being willing to do all the dirty work while the Empire slowly chokes on its reliance on technological superiority.
He’d argue it was down to his wife compressing his clothes whenever he wasn’t looking.
This was a beautiful metaphor. Gilroy sad on Maron’s WTF that he’s using literally every writer’s tool to convey the complexity of the people, the relationships, and the politics, but this was a Shakespearian-level metaphor, calling back to a statement in the very first episode.
Andor is also succeeding in how real it feels. The good guys suffer losses in firefights, characters have motivations outside of the main plot, and you can feel the rebellion building through small clues like the little extra commotion in the senate or the guy joking about it while reading the news. A lesser show would have had one of the Imperial officers say something dumb like, “we are going to squash this rebellion” to show that a rebellion was brewing.
I thank Anton Lesser for bringing his “Mr. Bright” character from the “Endeavor” PBS series into space.
So glad I’m not the only one!
“full of great flourishes”I liked when Gorn translates the elder Dhani rather more politely than originally spoken and the elder looks at him, because of course he understands the language he just refuses to speak it to the Imperials.
Unpopular Opinion: the amount of, or lack of, fan service, jedi/sith, Skywalkers is completely irrelevant and this series is fantastic simply because it’s WELL WRITTEN. (along with well done at all the other traditional film metrics like acting, cinematography, story, etc)TL;DR: It’s good because it’s good.
That’s a fair point! Correlation does not equal causation, even in this case- but the fan service we’ve been getting from Star Wars in the last few years has been poorly executed.
Are you sure? I thought correlation always equals causation. I could tolerate the fan service if you have good writing. Better Call Saul was about 84% fan service but it still managed to entertain but the Star Wars series seem to specialize in having the thinnest of plots possible. Its like Dsiney have placed this incredible value on each Star Wars story and so they’re dispensing it with an eye dropper.
Was really hoping to wait and binge this, but avoiding spoilers was getting tricky. So I went ahead and knocked out the first 6 last night. Now, waiting for the next three and then the second season, it’s safe to say I haven’t felt this level of anticipation for something Star Wars related since I was a kid in the weeks leading up to the release of Empire and then RotJ. I was far from theaters when the prequels came out, and by the time I was able to watch them I’d heard so much negative that I went in with tempered expectations (I ultimately thought they were fine.) I looked forward to the sequel trilogy until I was about 30 minutes into the first one. Those were garbage. The Mandalorian was pretty good until Luke showed up. Boba Fett was just alright. I did genuinely love Rogue One though, which gave me high hopes for this, but I never dreamed it would be as good as this despite my love for Tony Gilroy’s work.Everything about this from the casting to the effects, costumes, and design, and especially the writing and direction has been pitch perfect for me. And how fantastic is that score?! This all feels like something that takes familiar pieces and advances the level and quality of storytelling rather than doing yet another retread that’s trying to appeal to my inner grade-schooler from 40+ years ago. CANNOT wait til next Wednesday!
I believe this season is 12 episodes, so we are halfway there with six more to go and then an additional 12 episodes in season 2. Truly a bounty of riches!
I didn’t realize. Even better!!!
For me, 6 bonus episodes as I thought there were only going to be 6 episodes.
You see, that scares me, because I’ve seen other shows nose dive with less than that number of episodes.
After watching the first ep, I actually tried hard not to watch the next two right away, just because i wanted to save them as a little viewing treat. But now, I’m ever more thankful I live on the west coast and am turning this on at 12:01AM on Tuesday night.
I’m in Ireland now, so I’ll catch them before I roll out of bed to start my day from now on. I hate not being able to just watch them all at once though. It’s 2022 not 1972. I don’t want to watch tv episodes week to week anymore than I want wait a week between chapters of a book.
Yeah it’s annoying but that’s the economics of it and why Netflix might be doing away with the binge model and/or adding ads.
Counterpoint: I have a job and a kid and a girlfriend and need to get to the gym if I don’t want my body to rot away. I prefer not having to find an 8-hour block of time in which I don’t need to do anything but watch television so I don’t have to avoid spoilers and be completely left behind by the online discussion.
I have to wait until my kids go to bed, and my wife is done watching whatever she wants to watch with me (quality time!), so I basically start watching “my” shows at like 11pm. Go to bed around 2am. Worth it!
Though lately I’ve been watching shows while on the Peloton, which has been pretty nice.
Some incredible cinematography in this episode, like for example when the Tie Fighters take off with The Eye in the background.
And the Empire built taverns with big screen TV’s along the pilgrimage trail to keep the Aldhanians placated and out of the valley. Jesus, show. Offhand comment making me reevaluate my life n’ shit.
Goddamn is this show ever great. It’s reminding me a bit about the early 70s cinema turn to grit and antiheroes and the whole embrace of moral ambiguity. I particularly loved how, during the robbery, the Rebels haughtily self-justify themselves while kidnapping a relatively innocent woman and her son, basically delineating themselves from the Empire simply because they might not end up killing them if they get away.Also, the visual and sound effects of the precursors to the Eye – the sonic booms as the individual meteorites hit the atmosphere – were simply outstanding. What about that shot of Vel and Cinta underwater as the sky lit up above them? And the plan nearly being squandered as Vel tried to psyche herself up for that horrific bungee jump down the side of the wall? And then… Cassian just wasting Skeen right in mid soliloquy, the minute that Andor realized that there would be no reasoning with him.GODDAMN is this show ever great.
Forgive the self-reply, but… in retrospect, can you imagine what Rogue One might have been like with the original script intact and none of the hasty rewrites and reshoots?
It makes me consider just how much of the success of Rogue One was indeed Tony Gilroy rather than Gareth Edwards.Although the characters didn’t really get to breathe in RO, the right tone and atmosphere was there, and the amazing Battle of Scarif was not just the scale (which was likely Edwards) but more importantly the tension created by having both the Rebels AND the Imperials being competent, which so far has been one of Andor’s greatest achievements.
Well, apparently it wasn’t all that great, hence all the hasty rewrites and reshoots.
Yeah I thought they all survived or something. I don’t understand the original commentor because Gilroy who is the creator of Andor is the one that did the rewrites and reshoots getting it closer to the tone of this show. I’m not sure what the OP meant because he didn’t say if the original Rogue One would be better or worse as original but was ambiguous.
Yeah, it was a confusing comment. That said, I don’t think we can say that “everyone dies” was Gilroy’s idea. Gareth Edwards has talked about how that was the plan fairly early on in the development. I do think it’s too bad that Gareth Edward’s contributions have been downplayed – he’s still the credited director! – and he really hasn’t done much of note since Rogue One.
Yeah I wasn’t sure what was changed as I read it along time ago. I just looked it up and he added more character moments for the non jyn and cassia characters so we’d feel they sacrifice more.
I thought Gilroy was only brought in to do the rewrites and reshoots? So the original script wasn’t him at all.
Exactly. The OP comment was confusing.
I thought Rogue One was “Okay”, but I’m curious about the rewrites too.
Of course, Andor is by the guy who did those rewrites and reshoots… So maybe it was better for them? Would love to see the original version however.
The rewrites and reshoots came from Tony Gilroy, the head writer of this show. Rogue One likely would’ve been worse without them.
Really? That makes even more sense to me if that’s the case. If I remember the original trailer correctly, there was a lot more spectacle that was cut (a bunch of big setpieces on Scarif, Jyn Erso facing down a TIE fighter, etc.), so there may not have been room for some of the storytelling beats we ended up getting.I dunno, I guess it’s just confirmation bias because I want it to be the case that Tony Gilroy is a secret genius for Star Wars content. All I know for certain is that Andor is a legitimate gift for me, as someone who began to sour on the franchise at the start of Return of the Jedi when it first hit theaters.
It won’t happen, but I kind of want them to end by having another set of reshoots and a producing a new Andor-finale-cut of Rogue One, bringing the film even more in line with what they’re achieving here.
Damn – I checked out of the SW universe about 3 pointless episodes into Book of Boba. That plus Rise of Skywalker kinda turned me off the whole thing. But reading these reviews, I’m feeling like maybe I should pick up Andor!
Dooooooo it. I am not one for hyperbole, but this show is basically saving Star Wars.
It is worth it, not just for everything these reviews point out, but for the fact that there’s a lot of subtext. Multiple performers selling stuff just through expression. It really underlines how little Lucas appreciated such things when he was directing.
Did you like Rogue One? Because Andor is like that, but even more character- and tone-focused. It reminds me more of The Americans than it does Star Wars, and that’s great as far as I’m concerned.
You most definitely should.
“It’s reminding me a bit about the early 70s cinema turn to grit and antiheroes and the whole embrace of moral ambiguity.”There’s definitely something about the costuming and makeup, particularly the look of Lt. Gorn, that feels very 60s/70s, which I guess makes sense, since this is supposed to take place 5 years before A New Hope. It’s just funny that they chose to match the look of a movie that just happened to be filmed in the mid-70s by matching the hair/costume of the sci-fi world to that time in the real world. Its these little touches that contribute to making the show so good.
In Rogue One I know that they went so far as even making sure extras were told to do things like grow out sideburns and mustaches to match the 70’s era look of things. And that hairdressers were consulted on if a hairstyle would have been 70’s appropriate. I don’t know if they’re doing that sort of thing with Andor but it wouldn’t surprise me just based on the look of it.
The episode was quality TV from start to finish. Not just the best Star Wars, but the best hour of sci fi. Up there with Battlestar’s “33″ and The Expanse’s “Nemesis Games.”
“reasoning”: Uh-huh?!?Isn’t ReasonⓊ an antonym of: Emotion?And isn’t “[conventional-]morality” derived from the development of emotions in humans.If anything, Skeen was being reasonable!(A-gain, much as the writer made it clear that he’s just another opportunist, who exploits verifiable ground-realities bka “truth”, for his own good — to spell-out: Getting Nemik’s fatal injuries treated timely.)
Andor has gone from the name that I didn’t really care about on that big MCU-style Star Wars Wall-O-Announcements screen to now the guiding light for every major Star Wars project going forward.That’s partially a slam on the people that have been running Star Wars for the last 20 years, but also a statement on just how damn good this show is. Andor isn’t a paint-by-numbers collection of action setpieces drizzled in fan service. It takes its time building the characters of its heroes and villains, fleshing out worlds with their own unique cultures and languages, establishing an ugly status quo that drives ordinary people into rebellion.Only when everything has been properly setup does the hammer drop, and when it does, the struggle is so intensely personal for each of the characters that you’re glued to the screen. It doesn’t need the cheap “Absolutely everything is at stake, therefore nothing is at stake” nonsense that Star Wars had relied on for way too long.And even after paying off all that hard work, there’s no victory lap when it’s over; Andor goes right back to work in service of its characters.
It’s probably the most “low stakes” mission in SW history, in that we’re not saving literal planets or the galaxy as a whole. They’re just taking….money.But, man, it’s emotional hooks and visceral impact are second to none in this franchise.
Yeah, and I love that the stakes are so remarkably unremarkable to the point where the heroes could have all been wiped out in this mission, and it probably would have affected absolutely nothing in the greater scheme of things.Maybe it triggers some internal review of Imperial security policies that will ruin the afternoon of some middle management officer that has to thumb through a revised manual and make changes to satisfy his boss, but the circumstances for the ordinary people living under the Empire aren’t getting any better, and there’s inevitably going to be another uprising somewhere else.I’m amazed with how much I’ve enjoyed this show so far. I don’t think I’ve been this excited for anything Star Wars since waiting for the QuickTime file of the original Episode I trailer to download.
What struck me is that their plan was to steal all of the Imperial stash of credits, and in the end they barely made a dent just because there was too much money to steal. It’s an enormous victory for the Rebellion because it’s a huge sum of cash that will fund Rebel cells across the galaxy. To the Empire it amounts to a rounding error on an accountant’s balance sheet. It really drives home how daunting it is to take on the Empire. They meticulously plan for months to deal a blow to the most minor of backwater garrisons, the heist goes mostly to plan, and they still don’t really make a dent and loose half of their team in the process. And that counts as a win.
The plan was never about hurting the Empire, it was only about helping themselves. You’re right in that it’s small potatoes from the Empire’s POV in terms of the actual amounts. Doing damage to the Empire was never the plan. It was only about giving their nascent rebellion some desperately needed funding.
I know the funding angle was the more important goal, but I seem to remember part of the benefit also included disrupting their payment/bribery schedule. At least for a while. I could be mistaken.
That money is important. That money will pay for arms, pay people to help with the fight, pay bribes for access, pay bribes to the right people, help move people, and things into places where they need to be. That money was the first step in proving that the rebellion could be successful.
I didn’t say money wasn’t important. It’s hugely important to getting their fledgling rebellion on its feet. But if the mission failed, they could have always tried something else. There was very little relative urgency and zero lives at stake. From a Star Wars POV, that’s low stakes.
I was in a similar boat. When that first slate of Star Wars announcements was made, my reactions ranged from ‘sounds good’ to ‘we’ll see’, but Andor was the only one that I straight up doubted and thought “really?” And I say that as someone who greatly enjoyed Rogue One.
Ironic then that it has so thoroughly outshone everything else, eclipsing Mandalorian to say nothing of everything else. I guess they still have to stick the landing but nothing gives me reason to doubt at this point.
When I heard there were 12 episodes I figured this show was going to look like it was on a budget. I mean, I give the folks behind Mandalorian tons of credit for at least making it look better than it should with the use of that big digital screen background they’ve used in clever ways instead of shooting on location. Boba Fett and Obi-Wan looked very similar. I figured this show must be more of the same, except that since we’re getting 12 episodes (instead of the standard 10 these days), perhaps a bit lesser quality. But this show looks WAY more “real” and tactile than those, and by extension more expensive than those shows. Maybe fewer digital effects so far, and that could save $$. But I agree with everyone who is saying this is the best Star Wars property in years.
Too many directors have forgotten some of the lessons from the greats. Not to lean too much on Spielberg, but the shark barely shows up in Jaws, and Jurassic Park used VFX sparingly, keeping everything else real, which is why it looks so much better than Jurassic World.Give me a real, grounded, on-location production with smartly used CGI any day of the week.
See the live action Where The Wild Things Are. That is one of the best mixes of practical and digital effects in the current ‘modern’ period.
They all have their strengths and weaknesses. The Volume (the thing The Mandalorian uses) is an amazing step forward in making it possible to create really high-quality environments in-camera that look completely real. The Mandalorian intentionally took advantage of it by having Mando’s armor be super reflective. Doing that with blue or green screen is really expensive because you have to remove all the reflected blue/green light in post-production. With The Volume all the light is practical and correct, so you don’t have to do a bunch of post-production futzing to make it look good (just remove the camera/crew from the reflections). It also helps the actors because they have a common reference point instead of a dude with a tennis ball that you’re imagining is a dragon, or whatever. However, The Volume is ultimately still a big room with hi-def screens on the walls, so there are a lot of things you just can’t do. To your point on the difference between Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, the problem isn’t the use of CGI, it’s how they use CGI. Directors too often get the impression that, due to CG, they can do anything, get any shot, make their digital dinosaurs perform any feat, no matter how unlikely. But that’s the trap of having all that post-production freedom. Real things have weight, they have limits, they are bound by the laws of physics. Breaking those laws make things look “fake” even when it’s a practical stunt caught in-camera, but at least then you have the physical presence of the actual actor/puppet/whatever connecting the effect to reality. When it’s CG, there’s nothing to connect it. Likewise, having someone ride a motorcycle really fast down an empty alley then comping in a bunch of CGI dinos later will feel fake even if the CGI dinos are perfect because the actor or stunt guy isn’t reacting realistically to them. He can’t because they aren’t there. The first job of CG isn’t to impress you with crazy computer-generated stunts, it’s to convince you it isn’t there. Too many directors just skip that part because you can’t see what’s going to look fake during actual shooting, so by the time you figure out some crazy CG stunt looks like crap it’s too late to change the shot to make it work better. You were talking about Jaws, the reason you barely see the shark is because the shark sucked. But since Spielberg could film the crappy shark and see that it looked like garbage, he concocted ways to shoot around it and ultimately make it a better movie without a bunch of film of janky, crappy animatronic shark. Imagine how he would’ve made the movie if he couldn’t see how bad that shark would look until eight months after filming had wrapped. The bright side is that FX supervisors have been learning and now they’re much better at knowing, from the beginning, what needs to be done ahead of time to sell CG effects as real.
Excellent contribution 🙂👍🏾
I remember reading an interview with Lucas (or maybe it was one of the Phantom Menace DVD extras/commentary) that said there was only one shot in that movie that didn’t have any CGI in it. I think it was at the beginning when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are in a meeting room and the Trade Federation turns on the gas to knock them out. There’s a shot of the vent with gas coming out of it – Lucas said that is the one shot without any CGI, and he said it like he was proud of it, like it was a good thing.
“but the shark barely shows up in Jaws”That was really a lucky accident. From everything I’ve heard we were supposed to see a lot more of the shark in the movie, but the mechanical shark they used didn’t work most of the time, so Spielberg was forced to keep the shark off screen more than he had planned, which ended up making a much better film.
Just a stray observation: I love a good “throwaway alien” that the story doesn’t linger on and uses good practical effects. There was the “heavy” in either the first or second episode and now the multi-armed doctor in this one. Great stuff.
But calling him Dr. Quadpaw (that’s what the closed captioning said) is very Lucas.
lol that rules
That’s goddamn perfect, actually. 😁
I’m really curious to know what Sequel Trilogy Haters/Feloni stans are feeling about this show. To me this IS the mature ‘adult’ take on Star Wars they’ve been waiting for. Or perhaps they’re shocked that a proper intellectual take at the property doesn’t involve grimdark grittiness, requires character development and most important must possess a certain amount of humanism, not nihilism. Oh, and isn’t constantly fellating them Feloni style with fan service.This was a fantastic episode. My only minor complaints would be that Taramyn and Officer Gorn’s deaths were very blink and miss it. Not that I needed the camera to laboriously linger, but considering how long we’ve spent with them, perhaps a little more acknowledgement than the time typically given to the deaths of anonymous grunts. That said, I still admired the approach!For me, the defining moment of this episode was Vel terrified on the dam. That look of absolutely understandable fear that just sold the realism and humanity of it all. This show is full of these little touches, and what makes it so special.
I didn’t mind the “blink and miss it” deaths given that that went along with the realism of the heist (stuff like that all happens very fast).Although shortly afterward I did say aloud “Only the two black guys get killed before lift-off? Really?”
Oops yeah. A bit awkward that they were the only two killed.I think it worked that they didn’t linger on the deaths. It kept the tension high and consistent with the time limit of the heist- “no time to mourn”.There was at least the glance back of “where’s Tamaryan?” and the acknowledgement that “he’s gone. Nothing to do for him now”.A very fast tense scene.
“I’m really curious to know what Sequel Trilogy Haters/Feloni stans are feeling about this show.”
The sequel trilogy still sucks. Feloni is still the “Heir to the Empire”, so to speak. This show being good doesn’t change that.
I mean, I like both this and Filoni’s work so…shrug?
Faye Marsay has been absolutely incredible in her performance on this show. She was fairly compelling on GOT but obviously not given a real chance to shine with the scope of that show, but here she’s knocking it out of the park every time she’s on screen.
Gah! That’s where I recognize her from – The Waif! I do hope Vel returns in the next 3-episode arc.
. My only minor complaints would be that Taramyn and Officer Gorn’s deaths were very blink and miss it.I really liked that choice. Also, none of the deaths here were of the “noble sacrifice” variety. They were all just kind of random and dumb. And, in one case, because Skeen doesn’t do his job. (When you lay down cover fire, you’re supposed to keep firing, not shoot twice and duck behind cover).
I also noticed that Skeen was asked to “cover me” and he only fired a couple of shots and then went back to hiding, which led to the other guy getting shot. An early sign that he is not all-in on the rebellion as he claims, perhaps?
Filoni/Favreau are carrying George’s torch. They’re making Star Wars for families with kids. Gilroy is making Star Wars for the parents, after the kids go to bed. Personally I’m thrilled to have both.
Naturally I want Star Wars for everyone! I find Feloni/Favreau’s approach too fan-pleasing heavy though, and I guess I find the (adult) Feloni fanbase a bit zealous in their adoration. Potentially I’m a snob, haha!
i love the sequel trilogy (for the most part), i think Feloni definitely knows what he’s doing, and i think this show is fantastic, too. so, hi, i guess.
The one time physics works in Star Wars, and it kills that poor kid.
Man that caught me completely off guard, I had a feeling he’d die after the setup previously but when he made it to the ship and they took off, it felt like they’d deferred that death to a later encounter.
Yeah, he had real “dead meat” energy with all his conversations. Even a great show will indulge in time-honored tropes (and it’s fine!).
Yeah, when Cassian says “hold on” I just accepted it like “hold on, I’m about to floor it” and everyone else would be “woohoo, we’re flying now, we made it!” But no, actual physics came into play – if you weren’t strapped down when Cassian “floored it”, you would be flown backwards in the ship, and everything not strapped down (the pallets of money) would also go flying.
Skeen’s unwillingness to cover Tamaryn — directly leading to his death — at first I thought it was meant to show that for all his hatred of the Empire, Skeen wasn’t automatically battle-hardened against them. The reveal just changed everything.No moment is wasted on this show.
I thought he did though it was oddly delayed which made me think the same thing. Usually when people ask for cover fire you start it before they come out but he waited until after and Tamaryn still went out but I watched I woke up in the middle of my sleep to watch it so I could be wrong. I’ll check again.
He covered him, but only for a couple of shots before ducking back. The whole point of covering fire is to keep the enemy’s head down while your guy runs across a field of fire, which means you keep shooting until your guy gets to where he’s going. Skeen didn’t do that.
Yeah, I don’t think he failed to cover him, but he showed some “Ah geez” reluctance before following through.
That’s what really rules about this show so far, even the relatively quiet episode before this gave some great flavor to all of the rebels and the machinations outside of their mission and made sure that everything had appropriate weight when we finally got to see the heist.
I like the ride we went on with Skeen. A pretty great throwaway character that was basically there to further Cassian’s character development. But he went from guy you thought was gonna screw everything up, to guy with a bit of a hackneyed rebel backstory who cares about his companions, to competent heist crew member who seems to want to get the kid to the doctor, to guy who’s hackneyed rebel backstory was in retrospect a little too perfect who just wanted to stop at the doctor so he could split with the dough, who Cassian had to kill to start his list of bad things he’s done for the Rebellion.
Yeah, I think everyone he comes in contact with is going to be a goner, especially if he finds the Empire after him, which is happening, he just doesn’t realize it yet. The old guard showing up in the shop is a big foreboding shadow and I am interested in seeing how that goes.
Tis show makes me wish they had been able to make that Ron Moore Star Wars Underground show. If we had gotten a show like Andor 15 years ago, they probably would have made a lot more movies and shows like this.
I thought Rogue One was a modified script from that show?
I’m pretty sure the blonde chick contributed to the nerdy guys death with that med stim considering the big deal they made of it. Is it like adrenaline or something real life that would make him bleed internally faster? That’s how I read it but I could be wrong because they would have all died anyway in the Eye but I’m guessing she didn’t need to. Also why doesn’t every job have a backup? Any one could get killed at any point and then the job just ends? Sorry about the descriptors instead of names I guess my brain didn’t care enough about them to remember them which isn’t a complaint they were fine characters.
The whole point of adding Cassian to the heist is that that crew was horribly short on covering roles for the heist. They had no redundancy whatsoever, his addition made the heist realistically possible, but they were still very light on crew.
It’s hard to say it would be the reason she didn’t want to divert to the doctor if she knew the shot would kill him but he was the only one who knew how to use that Polaroid camera so they would have all died if she didn’t do it. I’m curious if Cinta left any survivors before she walked out.
Wow! Andor is killin’ it. A Star Wars story with real tension? I’ve waited almost 40 years for this!
“I want that word ringing in your ears!”(Cut to…)“Echo 1. Echo 1. Echo 1. Echo 1.”Also Nemik’s (almost) dying breaths exhorting Cassian to “Climb…climb” mirroring K-SO’s dying instructions to Cassian & Jyn to “climb…climb” in Rogue One.
It may be wishful thinking on my part but the Aldhani storyline really reminded me of ‘The Heroes of Telemark’ and Top Gun: Maverick is almost a remake of ‘633 Squadron’ (which in itself was one of the inspirations for Star Wars ‘Death Star trench run’), so does this mean Hollywood’s latest trend is going to be remakes of 1960’s WW2 action thrillers? If so, I’m down for that!
OK, it’s official. Mando, you are vanquished. Andor is exceptional.I don’t take much stock in the Emmys (hello, longtime robbery of Rhea Seehorn), but if Mando can get a sort of novelty nod for Best Drama, I sure hope Andor can develop the cultural cache to get noticed at the same level. What an episode. I think the only dangling thread is to know what happened to the treacherous Imperial officer mole, unless I missed his demise.And I kept thinking something was going to go wrong because of the “natives.” Did they normally burn the goat skin, or was that done in disgust?
I thought they showed the Imperial officer mole being shot as soon as the Commandant keels over. Cinta is an open thread though as she’s still on that planet and on her own.
Yeah, it might have been blink-and-you-miss it. I remember him saying, “Sir!” as the commandant fell, but I might have missed him getting shot.
Cinta went outside. I don’t think it would be difficult for her to hop in a craft and leave the planet or go find other clothes and leave with the Aldani people to go book a flight off planet when she goes back to town. The planet isn’t under lockdown so there are ways for her to leave and there must have been a contingency in place because she got into uniform and went out while the others escaped.
Yeah, Cinta’s escape plan was different from the rest of the crew, so she’s off doing her own thing, for the time being.
Disgust, methinks.
Star Wars with Brit and Euro showrunners… You’d think at least the Golden Globes would be all over this.
I also thought that maybe the natives were planning their own attack, with them burning the goat skin indicating “Ok, we’ve had enough, this is where we attack.” Glad they didn’t go through with that – the day the natives choose to rebel just happens to be the day of the actual rebel’s heist.I like to think that the rebels burn the goat skin every time – they’re just disgusted with the Imperials.
I’m assuming “Ebon Boss-Machrach” is the non-union Mexican equivalent of Ebon Moss-Bachrach?
The heist in the last 3 episodes felt like what Solo could have been, had if it had enough time to properly flesh out the characters.
What’s weird to me about Solo is that the plot is pretty damn solid for a Han Solo movie. It just got the casting, the tone, and what this time meant for Han completely wrong. It should’ve been about Han learning the hard way that everybody is out for themselves and he can trust no one in the galaxy besides Chewbacca. It still could’ve been a family friendly swashbuckling space adventure, just with more sense of danger.
One of the biggest problems with Solo is that everything we learned about Han Solo’s backstory in the original trilogy apparently all happened within the same week.
I remain convinced that how this show portrays the Empire is one of it’s greatest strengths. Their cruelty and oppression is highlighted from the corrupt corporate officers to the haughty imperial commanders, and yet it remains believable that they’re real people and not cartoonish caricatures. It portrays them as grounded, complicated people, but doesn’t over sympathize with them and forget that they’re the bad guys. That’s not an easy line to navigate!
This episode also did great at heightening tension throughout the heist via a lot of small moments and not just the threat of fighting. Vel nearly losing her nerve to give the Go command was somehow one of the tensest moments for me.
Let’s be honest guys, this is the best Star Wars material ever produced. Now speaking seriously, I acknowledge that it’s a “supporting” show that can’t exist without the founding movies, so leaving out the sacred episodes 4 and 5, you’ve basically got Andor, Rogue One, and some of Mando. What a freaking beautifully acted, written and produced (not to mention truly mature!) show.
“It’s a safe bet we won’t return to Aldhani…”
Not according to the trailers.
I can’t believe how good this show is. After Boba Fett and Obi-Wan (both shows I largely disliked), I really thought all of these Star Wars shows were going to be relatively lazy efforts featuring familiar characters and contrived plots. But this show has the quality of a high-prestige drama with great characters, plotting, pace, and visuals.
I’m with you aside from the pacing. The second episode of each little trilogy drags. I get it, that’s the episode where they breathe a little and provide character and relationship development, but still, nothing happens in those episodes. I’m okay with it, it’s fine when you know it’s coming, but it’s not the most elegant solution. Preferably there’d be some little mini-mission or something that can be a pretext for all the sitting around doing character development before heading to the fireworks factory in episode 3.
To each their own I guess. I thought the episode prior to this one was fantastic and akin to the first act of a heist movie where the gang meets each other and commits to a plot that is sure to go awry. Thought it did a great job of establishing a bunch of new players and making them all feel like real characters.
This show is gorgeous. Not just talking about how cool The Eye was either. All the set pieces, the way its shot, everything about this show is top quality.
This is why I liked Rogue One. I think back to 1977, my reaction when I first saw Star Wars in the theatre. There was no buildup, no expectation. There was no talk of a sequel, or a trilogy, or a saga. The Force had been introduced but sure, Luke had some feel for it, and he’d been introduced to it by a wizard. But it wasn’t ALL about wizards. Back then, what I’d seen was a WAR movie, about a farm kid who joins a cause much bigger than himself. And THAT was the spark.
Endor Moon is my favorite…likely because I was 5 years old and saw ROTJ in the theater and was in awe. Still my favorite of the Skywalker saga movies.
Rebels made me fall for Lothal.I hope to see it in live action soon
God bless Tony Gilroy (and his brothers Danny and John).No, this is NOT the Star Wars George Lucas created, or maybe even intended. But it’s what Star Wars has grown into. I don’t even think every single new piece of Star Wars media needs to be this grown up. I can absolutely appreciate the franchise having very tonally different shows or movies. I don’t want to see The Mandalorian suddenly sacrifice its very particular vibe to be grittier, or Ahsoka to dive away from the animation roots of the characters to be harder. This is fine. I’m happy with Andor bearing the Rogue One torch, and I’m excited for the second half of the season, and season 2, and anything else Gilroy wants to create in the universe.
If Paul McCartney ever dies (again), this Andor dude could take over for him in a second.
I’m thrilled not to be the only person who thinks he looks like Paul McCartney.
The link to this episode calls this Season 2 episode 6, that should be updated or you’ll have a problem when the actual season 2 comes out.Andor is impressive as heck. It comes off as far more mature and intelligent than any of the other SW shows and most of the movies as well. I have always been fond of Dirty Dozen style adventures of the underdogs, vs the more superhero style Jedi projects.
is Andor’s sequel Eitheror?
Eitheror was my second cousin twice removed.
Eitheror son of Neithernor enemy of Allof TheaboveIf you don’t mind my asking…what was he removed from?
The Ors are very… exclusive.
Xor
Comment at the outer-rim of the thread: Yay Nick Blood! Loved him in Agents of Shield. Good to see him in a Star Wars. Don’t think his character got killed. Hopefully see him getting interviewed by the Empire in some after-action report next episode. Would be cool if he joined “Team Bad-Guys” going forward. I’ll pause here to check IMDB…Nope, just 2 episodes. Maybe Corp Kimzi did get blasted.
My favorite part was at the literal end of the episode. Luthen, retreated to the back of the shop and has a little laugh. Then, just as it cuts to black, we hear him exhale, breathing a sigh of relief for himself and the audience after 3(?) episodes of tension. Masterful
Literally the only negative thing I’ve got to say is why didn’t they give themselves haircuts before impersonating Imperials? It strained my credulity for a spy/heist story to overlook that, but you know what screw it, this show is great.
A little moment that I liked but also made me sad was the Imperials proudly mentioning how they added some “way-stations” along the Aldhani native’s route to reduce their numbers. Obvious allusions to early European visitors to America providing the Native Americans alcohol (and smallpox).
Quite a sad-conclusion for……The ever-concerned…..“Clem” Fandango!Speaking of.. Can we meet at least Mr Shazād Latīf in the following-&-last series( it’s a mostly British production, so..!) at the very least( assuming they are not doing “surprise-surprise” for his passing role à la ‘slightly’-racist-in-his-outspokenness Mr Fuller’s leg of Mr Kurtzman’s ‘STAR TREK®: DISCOVERY™’ for the remnant-half of the series)?If not Mr Rizwān “Riz” Ahmed reprising his role from the film next series, given how less of a backstory in that “too many” chefs — or is Mr ‘Lukh-khās’ heiress in Ms Kennedy still mad over that one-time popular=mediocre remarks unfairly singling-out TWDC, as the Anglophone news-outlets have done for decades-&-decades: For oh-so-enigmatically coordinated/mutual/shared motives.(Especially given who’s the the not-WGGB® but WGA® West recognised writer for this episode.)