Ah, Andor: politically relevant, emotionally weighty, cinematically gorgeous.
Also: crusher of dreams, breaker of hearts, murderer of my soul.
Well, let’s not get hyperbolic. Let’s just try to focus on the next three episodes of Andor before I have to remember the ending all over again. Episodes 4-6, let’s go!
Episode 4
The fourth episode of Andor opens in the year 3 BBY, answering a burning question of mine since episode 1 – where are we gonna be spending all these years before R1? Now, the setup makes sense. Each three-episode chunk will take place a year apart from the others, leading directly up to R1. Makes sense, I’m excited! And now the ending of episode 3 hurts more when I’m realizing that Brasso’s death was our final glimpse of 4 BBY. It hits harder as a standalone, the end of a chapter!
So now we’re only three years to R1. Cassian and Bix are laying low in a rebel safehouse between missions, Syril is situated on Ghorman as tensions rise, and Dedra is becoming just as impatient as Luthen. While Mon’s struggling for allies, Cassian is trying to balance his duties to the Rebellion with his duties to his girlfriend, but both are slipping.
Ah, Cassian/Bix… I finished episode 3 confidently assuming they weren’t romantically involved, only for episode 4 to tear the rug out from under me again! So YES, they are dating at this point (possibly married, it’s VERY unclear) and Bix is… not well. The “previously on” clips made it clear that the man she had nightmares about last time was the Imperial guy who gave her those evil headphones last season, so that was a good refresher. But Bix not only having nightmares but also sleepwalking hallucinations while armed… much as I like her, this is the point where I once more started my weekly betting pool of “how much longer will Bix stay alive?”
Despite her trauma, these kids have other topics of discussion. I enjoyed their discourse on killing Imperials and what it is Cassian is actually killing for, especially the mention of people becoming statistics toward victory when Cassian himself is fated to be one of those statistics. “It’s not up to us what we save” is one hell of a foreshadowing line!
As for the other side of the coin, Syril and Dedra are hard at work being the best toxic fascist couple they can be. I’m pretty proud of myself for calling early on that Syril was faking sympathies for the Ghorman people to ingratiate himself among their rebellion. Good luck on that long-distance plotting, guys.
I was impressed by how the Empire chipped away at Ghorman in seemingly small ways, such as by erecting a building casting a shadow over their memorial. Paves the way for Syril to come in looking to help!
The ending of this episode revealed my least and most invested in characters in one go – Wil and Saw! Wil, I don’t care if he lives or dies (nor about his bland romance), but Saw… he’s an objectively flawed person and I can’t get enough of him. I fully believe he would say “if a building has one Imperial and twenty citizens, I have a moral and ethical duty to blow up that building.” He’s Luthen without the patience and structure and I adore every second he’s on screen.
But, on the flip side, looks like Bix is getting on drugs, so… uh oh. “Next episode” from my “when is Bix dying?” pool just got more expensive!
Episode 5
Definitely my favorite episode of the triad here. The end of this one (and a certain part of episode 6) are the standouts of this batch, but we’ll get to that.
Cassian’s reluctantly out on a mission again, one with a very detailed backstory. You’ve gotta love the precision Luthen puts into his failsafes. And, just as in the first batch of episodes, Cassian is once again proving to these fledgling rebels that he’s smarter and has seen more shit than they have. But just as before, he’s not seeing them as ready yet.
Back at home – or what passes for it – Luthen approaches Bix with the possibility of a mission but backs down after seeing her current state. I want to believe that he actually cares about her, given how far back the two of them go, but… I mean, it’s Luthen; how sure can you be?
But his “Bring it down or die trying” line… damn, like Bix in the last episode, he’s just fully predicting Cassian’s future! You really have to love the subtle foreshadowing in this show.
As for our most relevant problematic faves, Syril is securing his place in the Ghorman rebellion, to Dedra’s relief and trepidation. I stand by my live note about them: “power couple but their marriage is on the rocks.” And you have to admire how Syril’s backstory makes him look like the perfect Imperial turncoat despite the reverse being true – because Syril is just so Syril.
As for our other couple experiencing trouble in paradise, Luthen and Kleya are hitting a rough patch. If Sculden finds their bug, the two of them aren’t the only ones who’ll be majorly screwed!
But all these moving pieces aren’t the most fascinating part of episode 5. Saw has Wil, and he’s forcing Wil to train one of his men on the rhydonium extraction devices. I’m usually looking forward to spending time on D’Qar, don’t get me wrong, but I should’ve known that Saw would be the one to make me gasp out loud and need to rewind the episode. Saw demanding results from Wil about Pluti’s progress and Wil vouching for his own skills, causing Saw to kill Pluti?? What a HELL of a scene, and so in-character for Saw’s instability!
But of course we’re not done with said instability. On the mission itself, I loved hearing snippets of Saw’s backstory and relationship with the rhydo. I crossed my fingers and hoped for a mention of Steela, as I love the role she played in Saw’s gradual unravelling. And… we sort of got that in the most insane way.
Rebels referenced Steela when Ezra found a holo picture of her in Saw’s things. Andor referenced Steela when Saw called the rhydo his sister. Because that’s the level of crazy person/drug addict we’re talking here! Damn, what a deliciously wild way to roundabout get Steela in here! It’s the kind of line that sounds intense to those who don’t know Saw’s backstory and twice as heavy to those who do!
As episode 4 ended with Bix taking sleeping drugs, episode 5 ends with Wil inhaling all that sweet sweet rhydo. Because every one of Cassian’s still-living friends is going to end this series with a drug addiction and/or dead!
God, I loved the ending of this episode. Saw’s cadence, word choice, and speaking style are so hypnotizing, and I loved his monologue to Wil! “Revolution is not for the sane” along with that music and cinematography… I was in awe.
Surely the next episode will leave me feeling the same way, right?
Episode 6
As I’ve continually mentioned, I have an ongoing pool of when Bix will die tragically, but this episode made me wonder if I was wrong from the start. This episode began with Luthen bringing Cassian back to Bix and not mentioning either his girlfriend’s drug addiction or mission offer. After a cute reunion scene, Cassian learns what Luthen didn’t tell him, hardening his growing distrust of Luthen and his lessening faith in the rebellion to protect Bix at all costs. But maybe those costs could become greater than he anticipated…
With Cassian’s intensity and Bix’s bristling, I started to wonder if Cassian could lose Bix not to death but by her leaving him for one reason or another. Maybe she’d want to have her freedom again by leaving the rebellion, maybe she’d fully snap and break away. That could be a heck of a lot angstier than her dying, in the end. But the more I anticipate Bix’s death, the more I’m fearing it. How close is her end going to be prior to R1? I stand by the fact that it’ll be insane to kill her off a year (or less!) before R1, but we could be heading in that direction.
Well, stepping away from that snippet of trouble in paradise, let’s move on to my favorite Andor romance (and the one I genuinely feared we wouldn’t see at all in the first two episodes): Vel and Cinta!!
I’ll gladly theorize about hypothetical SW gays all day long, but the true delight of canon SW gays is unparalleled! And SW gays with a deliciously angsty past finding their way back to one another? Heck yes! I was initially hesitant as to whether or not these two would be reigniting their romance – after all, they both changed their hair, symbolizing that they’ve been changed – but the ambiguity made me all the more invested in them!
Their heart-to-heart prior to their mission was one of the softest and loveliest romance scenes in all of SW. I adore the layers to their relationship, their open communication, and their clear love for each other! That kiss felt so well-deserved after everything they’ve been through! Just the way Cinta looks at Vel absolutely kills me.
But, surprisingly, there’s more to this episode than my beloved space sapphics! Luthen and Kleya are on the move for their party heist, and they’ll be crossing paths with Mon and Lonni. And we’re seeing a familiar face for the first time – Bail Organa himself! I was hoping he’d be in this show, as it’d make sense both time frame-wise and given his friendship with Mon, but I was surprised he wasn’t portrayed by Jimmy Smits. A quick bit of research showed that he was unfortunately unavailable for Andor, but I’m not complaining (too much), as I have no complaints about Benjamin Bratt. But I remembered Bratt’s name coming up when I read the 2019 SW book Master and Apprentice. The author, Claudia Gray, credited Bratt as her faceclaim for Rael Averross, the first apprentice of Count Dooku when he was a Jedi. And “Rael” happens to be Luthen’s surname in Andor! Funny how these things come around, isn’t it?
Anyhow, while the Coruscanti upper crust are making their moves, Vel and Cinta’s mission is actively underway. From my live notes, I have “Oh god imagine if Cinta dies I’d actually throw up” and “Frick don’t let Vel die I beg of you please.” So this was definitely an unstressful episode for me! But Mon’s concern for her cousin was nice; I like her and Vel’s relationship.
As the tensions build, we come to the point of two very different heists happening concurrently. Vel and Cinta are making a weapons run while Kleya is recruiting Lonni to help her steal a bug in plain sight. And we’ve got opposition! Syril could pull the cord on the Vel/Cinta racket at ANY point, and Kleya has made the spectacular decision to go for the bug while KRENNIC IS IN THE ROOM. Like, I get that you’re on a time crunch, but can’t you sneak back in here once Krennic isn’t five feet away??
Was it fun to watch Mon openly debating and arguing with Krennic in public? Yes! Was this episode stressful to the point of my stomach hurting? Also yes! This applied to both fronts: I feared Kleya knocking over the entire art piece or getting caught with the bug in her hand, and I imagined a dark scenario where she’s exposed and Luthen has to make the hard call to abandon her for the sake of the rebellion. But on the flip side, I was terrified that Vel or Cinta would get shot on their mission. Ha ha, crazy, right?
…well, in my live notes, you can pinpoint the exact moment Cinta went down! My notes on this episode just dissolved into various swearing and curses upon everything this show stands for. I had a brief moment of thinking “wait, maybe she’s just been shot, she can’t be dead-dead, right??” only for the show to destroy what little hope I had remaining.
But let’s get back to that clusterfuck in a bit! Other stuff happened at the end of this episode, right? Kleya and Luthen’s heist succeeded, for one thing, and Bix tracked down the guy who tortured her last season! And she brought those headphones with her… and left the room. But her revenge arc really isn’t the most significant part of her actions here! It’s Bix shooting the stray Imperial when she previously scolded Cassian for killing others. You can tell she’s changing… but she still has Cassian by her side for this! That last part surprised me, as I thought this would be the point where they’d go their separate ways. And… I kind of wish that’s what did happen, because I was salty over Cinta at this point and didn’t want to see a still-living couple!
When they cover a body with a blanket in SW, that’s not a good sign for their eventual revival… and neither is their living partner making a long, heartfelt speech about them. And that part just pissed me off too! I’m not going “aw, how sweet, Vel is calling Cinta a miracle!” You KILLED Cinta!! Just when she and Vel made things work! Screw everyone who had a hand in this show! I don’t want the cute little gay speech; I want the cute little gay herself!
Really though, what purpose did Cinta’s death serve? Is this the same as Brasso’s death, just here to show “things are serious”? Vel’s always been firm and committed to the cause, so killing her girlfriend isn’t going to harden her or anything!
I finished this episode feeling supremely empty and disappointed. As I said in my live notes: “Star Wars AND gay? The odds were against them from the start.”
The more I thought about it, the more I realized what I would’ve liked more from this episode. Sure, it would’ve been ideal (and preferred) if my beloved space lesbians had BOTH lived, but in the case that one of them had to bite it… it should’ve been Vel to die, not Cinta.
Imagine it! We know Vel as the duty-focused rebel leader and Cinta as the rebel assassin with a dark past. Switching their places and having Vel die would be the more unexpected reversal. Throw in a line during their heart-to-heart about how Cinta looks up to Vel and can’t compare to her (but more subtly, obviously) and twist the knife. Then, when Cinta loses Vel after having gone through so much, she nearly snaps. She’s killed before, and she could do so again – but she doesn’t. For Vel’s sake, she holds back. That speech would hit so much harder from Cinta instead! Steeling herself to take Vel’s place, to move forward in the rebellion in her name… I’m genuinely so disappointed that this isn’t what I have to look forward to in the next batch of episodes!
The one sticky wicket (wystri warrick) in this concept is Mon. Since these episodes are self-contained, we have to get everyone’s reactions by the end of the third one. Vel is the only one who cares about Cinta (ouch) so we’re not missing anything by only getting her reaction. But if Vel died, Mon would have to find out and process that. And while it wouldn’t be bad for episode 6 to end with Luthen pulling Mon aside and saying he has news from Ghorman, it’d be supremely rough on Mon. With Tay having been killed at the end of episode 3, killing Mon’s cousin at the end of episode 6 would be a lot. In relation to Mon, Vel’s death would suck. In relation to Cinta, however… I really wish the show went in that direction. It’d be unexpected and full of delicious potential! But alas.
Episode 5 ended with me thinking “wow, I can’t wait to see where this goes!” Episode 6 ended with me thinking “uggggh fuck this.” My space lesbians were making me eagerly watch this damn show, and now I have six episodes left without one of them! Screw that!
There’s technically still stuff to look forward to, right? Cassian/Bix, Dedra/Syril, Luthen/Kleya… Wil, I guess? Bail again, maybe? Or just sad Vel, in the end.
I can’t believe Dedra and Syril get to continue their toxicity when Vel and Cinta got one beautiful kiss before being torn away from us. How is this fair?
Episodes 7-9, I’ve got my eye on you. Find a way to make this up to me, or I’ll fulfill my promise from my notes and burn this whole show to the ground.
