<i>Andor</i> Questions Every Loyalty in Three New Episodes

As a person with a terrible fear of spiders… those spiders are cute.

“Ever Been to Ghorman?”

It is one year later (three years before the Battle of Yavin). Bix wakes in a safehouse apartment on Coruscant to a nightmare once again featuring Doctor Gorst (Joshua James). Cassian takes the blaster from her sleepwalking hands and tries to get her to talk about it, but she won’t. On Ghorman, Syril Karn has been working for the Bureau of Standards much to the dismay of his mother. He keeps his door rigged to know if anyone is breaking in and has allowed his office to be tapped by the Ghorman Front so they can hear him claim that the Empire is using propaganda against the planet and its people. The Front decides to attempt his recruitment to their cause, and he’s given a trinket from a street salesman named Samm (Abraham Wapler) with information about a meeting. Cassian and Bix are making dinner, and she wants to know what he’s going to tell Luthen about the soldier Cassian killed because he saw Bix’s face. Cassian insists that he’s right to protect Bix, but she points out that in a war, they don’t get a say in whether they’re safe. They have to give everything if they want to win.

Syril calls Dedra securely to let her know he’s been contacted; she encourages him to get more information. At the next ISB meeting, Supervisor Lonni Jung (Robert Emms) voices the opinion during a tense moment that they’re arresting too many people. Dedra prods Supervisor Heert (Jacob James Beswick) about letting her in on the Axis project despite it being taken off her desk. Mon Mothma is going around asking people to vote with her to end P.O.R.D., including the rep from Ghorman, Dasi Oran (Raphael Roger Levy). No one is willing to go against he Emperor in this moment, despite her efforts. Lonni contacts Luthen to let him know that Dedra is in charge of Ghorman now, not Axis, and that it’s been hidden from everyone, framed as her quiet demotion. He doesn’t know why she’s on the project, and Luthen presses that he needs the endgame, and Lonni needs to be in contact more often now.

Syril goes to the meeting on Ghorman, which is largely locals decrying Imperial overreach in their native language, Ghor. The man who invited him translates; everyone knows the Empire is building an armory in Palmo, but they only have rumor to substantiate. They introduce Syril to Elector Carro Rylanz (Richard Sammel), who encourages Syril to give them information that comes through his office and to perhaps poke around for more intel that might help them. Luthen calls Cassian despite the fact that he hasn’t been back long, and asks him to do a covert mission where he assesses the Ghorman Front to see if they are worth aiding.

On D’Qar, Wilmon is offering a device to Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) that will allow his group to tap into any rhydonium line and get fuel wherever they need it; they only need to learn the device’s variations to use it correctly. Rhydonium itself is highly explosive and dangerous to the body, and Saw tells Wilmon that Pluti (Marc Rissmann) will learn the variations from him, and that he will be there teaching him longer than the single day he expected. Cassian and Bix say goodbye, and Bix takes a drug to help her with nightmares.

“I Have Friends Everywhere”

Kleya picks up a transmission from a mic they planted in Davo Sculdun’s private art collection, learning that one piece in his collection is a forgery, resulting in his desire to check the entire collection—a problem for their plant. Cassian picks up his ticket and kit to Ghorman: His cover identity is a man named Varian Skye, an up and coming fashion designer who wants to make contacts with the textile makers there. Syril tells his mother that he’s planning to visit home right as the ISB raids his office to find bugs. Syril makes a big stink about it, feigning upset as they clear the place. The Front finds Syril’s file, which has been doctored to omit any recent connections, only noting that he was fired by the ISB from his Pre-Mor work. Rylanz and his daughter Enza (Alaïs Lawson) contact Syril again to find out what the raid was about and ask him if he could find out what certain Imperial transports are carrying on Ghorman.

Luthen pays Bix a visit, and she realizes that he was planning to offer her a job and changed his mind. He tells her they need her healthy, and warns her against the drug she’s using: It helps with sleep, but makes the dreams worse when you stop taking it. Syril passes intel to the Front before leaving for Coruscant, giving them all the transport schedules. Cassian arrives on Ghorman and asks his bellhop about the monument they erected in the city square to commemorate the massacre caused by Moff Tarkin. The bellhop was a child when it happened—his father shielded him from it. Syril arrives on Coruscant and tells Dedra he was careful; she knows because she had him followed. Enza confronts Cassian ahead of schedule at a cafe in Palmo, and he warns her against rushing, telling her that he’ll meet her father tomorrow as planned.

Cassian goes to the twillery and meets Rylanz, who insists that they have an opportunity because of their source on the inside (meaning Syril). Cassian points out that the Empire is good at feeding false intel, but the group wants proof of the armory that they can show their own people. Syril debriefs to Partagaz—he believes that their mission is using the insurgents on Ghorman to bait larger groups into assisting. He also believes that Partagaz is pleased with his work and tells Dedra that this is the best day of his life. On D’Qar, Pluti admits to Saw that he’d rather they kept Wilmon around, because his device is very hard to operate: There are too many variations. He asks Saw what station they’re hitting so he can focus on one variation. Saw gives him the intel, and tells Pluti they can keep Wilmon for now. Kleya tells Luthen that they need to go to Sculdun’s party before he has his collection reexamined to remove their microphone. They fight about it, but Kleya insists that they have no choice, and need to be prepared if it goes wrong.

Saw kills Pluti in front of Wilmon, calling him a traitor, showing proof that he was transmitting their plans to Empire. Wilmon has to stay and do the job now. Rylanz asks Cassian what he’s going to tell his people, and Cassian admits that he has more questions than help to offer. Saw reminisces about being forced to work in the Onderon jungle as a boy when there was a rhydo leak, while Wil works his machine and collects it for them. Saw inhales the rhydo vapor, and Wilmon asks how he can do that; Saw claims it’s because he understands it. He encourages Wil to be here with him, and Wilmon takes off his mask, breathing it in too. Saw cheers him, saying they are like the rhydo itself, explosive.

“What a Festive Evening”

Cassian arrives at the flight connection with Luthen; he tells Luthen not to get involved with the Ghorman Front because they’re too impatient and rushing and not ready. Luthen calls him out for trying stop people who are willing join the fight, even if it goes up in flames. Cassian is displeased and says he wants to skip this one. Luthen advises Kleya to send someone else—she sends Vel to Ghorman. Cassian reunites with Bix and tells her about his mission, and she tells him about the mission that Luthen almost offered her. Cassian is furious because Luthen didn’t mention it to him and knows that they’d talk about this. Meanwhile, Perrin complains to Mon about how all the new senators are hosting banquets when it used to be custom to wait a few years. They have dozens of events to attend in the space of a few nights.

Cassian goes to Luthen’s storefront, violating protocol to have it out with him. Luthen is unmoved, but Cassian insists that they’re humans, not droids, and that it’s easier for him to work when he’s alone. Luthen promises that he also wants Bix healthy, but tells Cassian that he’s disappointed with him lately and how cautious he’s being. Cassian tells Luthen that if he wants his blood, he needs to help him fix all this. At the ISB, Partagaz tells Heert and Lonni that Gorst’s interrogation techniques are about to be expanded throughout the Empire, and they’re in charge of aiding in that project. On Ghorman, Vel meets with Cinta, telling her that she only agreed to this mission if they were partnered on it. Cinta admits that she had an accident in the previous year, and had to rest up for a long while. She thought of Vel the whole time. Dedra talks to Partagaz about the Ghorman Front’s movements, and he reminds her that Syril must never know what her true mission is.

Vel and Cinta hash out the plan to hit an Imperial transport with the Ghorman Front, letting the group know know that they cannot do this mission if they’re not willing to follow any order they’re given. They get some resistance, but everyone ultimately agrees, and the plan is set for tomorrow night. A new mission comes up for Cassian and he insists that Bix will pull it with him. Vel and Cinta talk; Cinta apologizes for hurting Vel, and Vel tells her that Luthen should have told her when she got hurt. Cinta knows they’re more valuable to Luthen separate than together, and Vel recommends that have a talk with him about that before they kiss. At the Senate, Mon and the room swear their oaths to the Empire. She leave in a furious rush and runs into Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt) as she and Perrin arrive at Sculdun’s party. Syril is back on Ghorman, observing the Front’s operation. Luthen runs into Mon at the party and she asks after her cousin. He wants to know what is so important to tell her; Mon says what’s important is that she cares about her. 

The two are called to the gallery room; Director Krennic is there to view the collection as well. Kleya finds Lonni at the party; he and Heert were given Partagaz’s invite. She tells him that he has to help her, and brings him to the gallery room too. She works to get their mic out of the piece they sold Sculdun—it’s a Tinian Codex that you read with your hands, from a world where blindness was considered a gift—while the group is distracted getting lectures about the other works in the gallery. While this occurs, Mon and Krennic argue about the history of a particular piece from the Battle of Carmeen; Mon believes the event they are discussing was an execution, while Krennic insists that those people were criminals who spun the story so they didn’t sound as though they died of ineptitude. The Front crew are nearly done with their job taking the Imperial transport when a local comes across the crew, and Samm stops him. Samm is carrying a blaster when he isn’t supposed to, and threatens the man, resulting in a struggle that gets Cinta killed by friendly fire.

The group at the gallery make it over to the codex and Lonni recites what Kleya told him about the piece. On Ghorman, Vel chews Samm out for crying about his actions. She tells him that Cinta was everything he wished he could be, and that he will carry her death with him for life, and work to make up for it forever. Kleya and Luthen leave Sculdun’s party; she got the mic, and Luthen jokes that they should have killed Krennic while they were up there, too. They leave laughing. At an imperial facility in the middle of the night, Gorst brings in some takeout. Bix is waiting for him and attaches him to his own torture device, leaving it on at full blast. She leaves, killing guards as she goes. Cassian sets off an explosive in the building once they’re away.

Commentary

The major theme that builds with every tense episode is the question of whether or not you can be a person and fight in an antifacist movement of any kind—or rather, if choosing to be a person while you do it can only hamstring your efforts. It’s clear that Luthen believes so, and Cassian doesn’t want to. It’s also clear that Cassian doesn’t recognize how dangerous it is to ask Luthen Rael to “fix things” for him with regard to Bix, particularly after saying outright that he works better alone.

We’re watching Cassian continually foster these moments of connection everywhere he goes, a clear conflict in his nature as his commitment to the Rebellion deepens. His argument with Luthen here is a matter of instinct on his part; the more Cassian believes in this cause, the more he wants to truly see the people in and around it. He wants to know the hotel worker’s story, even if it’s personal and painful, and not just because he’s gathering intel about this planet and the people on it. He’s learned that only feeling anger didn’t work, but now come the complexities of trying to find emotional balance. Luthen wants him to think like a leader, but Cassian isn’t capable of that yet—he can only see the big picture when he has no distractions.

Having said that, Luthen is reaching the end of his tether when it comes to his ability to manage the big picture; his fight with Kleya about their plant in Sculdun’s piece isn’t even a real fight—she knows that well enough. It’s Luthen knowing he’s lost an edge in all of this; their web is too big, and something’s going to give before long. They got lucky this time.

Similarly to The Last Jedi, we’re coming up on the argument that thinking of resistance as heroism only gets people killed. And, look, am I furious that they finally gave Cinta and Vel time to be together as characters and people, only to immediately kill one of them? Yes—it’s just not great storytelling.

But it’s still important how clear this setup was: Vel tells the group that their success is dependent on their ability to follow orders, which everyone in the Ghorman Front agrees to. Except Samm really wants to be a hero in all of this; he keeps showing his hand in small ways, never being as careful as his cohort (who, as Cassian points out, already aren’t being careful enough), the first to state that part of the goal in robbing the armory transport is to build an arsenal of their own. He equates this movement with a need for weaponry, but this show has been so exacting in its need to point out that resistance isn’t about firepower. Resources, certainly, but again, anything can be used to your advantage when you’re thinking. Cassian uses water to stage the breakout on Narkina 5, Mon uses connections and politicking to build networks and find allies, Bix uses Gorst’s own torture ensemble against him. There are endless ways to use what is at your disposal that don’t involve carrying weapons.

But Samm wants to carry a blaster, so he brings one despite the fact that he’s told only Cinta and Vel are permitted them. And instead of calming the situation down between himself and a fellow citizen—one who, given his statements at the city meeting, would likely be on their side—he gets into a scuffle that kills another operative. One whose expertise and knowledge is far more valuable than his meager participation in this fight. And Vel is right; he will be making up for it forever. What destroys her life might be a boon for the Rebellion in the long run, and that hurts worst of all.

Can you be part to a resistance and still be a person? The answer for Vel appears to be no now. And she can’t even blame Luthen for this, as Cinta’s presence was at her request. She can only blame him for the fact that he kept them apart for what little time they had.

The desire to crush blame into a more manageable quadrant also fascinates me here. Carro tells Syril he thinks that the Emperor doesn’t know what’s being done on his behalf, that the ISB is running a “shadow government.” And it makes sense to believe such a thing because the alternative is incalculably worse; if the Emperor knows and condones these things, your fight is so much larger than one rogue government agency. The Empire encourages this by making ISB the “bad guy” frequently in these ops, all to stave ire off from the central source.

I truly do not know what to do with Syril and Dedra’s Thing, or the fact that Syril is so blatantly turned on by praise from Partagaz and his girlfriend having him followed from the spaceport for professional reasons. (Also, the way that Partagaz is clearly maligning him during that meeting to Dedra and he just… misses it entirely.) And I’m deadly curious about whether this is the question of being a person reversed in the other direction: Can you be a true servant of fascism and be a person? A person who cares about people?

This is assuming that Dedra truly does care about Syril and isn’t simply using him as a means to an end, which I imagine we’ll find out in due course. And there’s also the question of how Syril will react if/when he finds out that his mission is not the true mission Dedra is running. But I’m still fascinated about where this is heading and why it mattered for these two people, specifically, to find each other.

Presumably, Wilmon is undergoing a transformation into one of Saw’s “true believers,” which is a thing I mentioned wanting to see back in season one—more of how Saw gets his followers so tied into his charisma and rhetoric. I’m glad we got into it, though I’m not sure how well this segment worked without explaining rhydonium more clearly. Saw’s story about working in the Onderon jungle when exposed to the stuff for the first time is evocative, but also incredibly vague. It feels purposeful, the same way his cadence coming across preacher-like also feels purposeful. It also might be an explanation for the voice Whitaker chose, which is very different from the original given in the animated shows? But that forces me to wonder when this jungle story would have taken place…

That’s assuming it’s real at all. Which, I trust Saw’s stories like I trust a stormtrooper to shoot straight.

Then we’re forced to deal with Krennic, who is taking time out of his busy schedule to “speak truth” to a galactic senator at a party full of rich people who have never felt the full extent of the Empire’s wrath. He’s got a lot of gems in this one, including “Criminals love to lie” and also “Words do still have meaning,” and damn if it isn’t every argument you’ve had with your least favorite uncle during some sad family holiday.

But the use of the word “criminal” throughout these episodes is also quite telling. You begin to realize how often the word is thrown around to encompass anyone who doesn’t kowtow to authority. A word made to delegitimize, as we do with so many pointed words: Thug. Illegal. Riot.

And Krennic is having a ball tweaking Mon with all this because none of it emotionally affects him in the slightest—but it affects her. And that’s always part of the game: The person who cares quivering and shaking with fury as they defend things they hold sacred, while someone who has never once considered other people laughs at how much it hurts them. Funny how that works.

Bits and Asides

• Lowkey horrified at the idea that “Senate Investiture” week is talked about like a holiday on Coruscant? I’m sure none of the festivities touch anyone on the world who isn’t filthy rich, but yeesh.

• Ghor sounds a great deal like French, which is obviously an intentional parallel to draw, along with the propaganda zeroing in on “arrogance” and “snootiness” as cultural attributes. I’m curious about who built conlang and how—hopefully there will be more information on that coming out in behind-the-scenes footage?

• A rhydonium explosion is the reason why Gregor, one of the most colorful clone troopers, wound up with brain damage and changes to his vocal cords.

•  Uh, why is Benjamin Bratt playing Bail Organa now? What happened to Jimmy Smits? Sorry, that was a weird thing to just shove in there, y’all, is the recast permanent going forward?

• Kleya, get some ointment for your hand, did you leave blood all over Davo’s floor?

Next week, and likely one year later… see you then.