You won’t see me go on a nice vacation cruise in the Empire for a while. Andor Episode 8 proves that this show is legit as the consequences of the Aldhani robbery are now fully being realized within the political and social worlds of the Empire.
This show is fantastic. I honestly can’t say it enough how great this series really is as it not only has given us a much more thorough and needed look into the bureaucracy of the Galactic Empire, but also heavily focuses on the characters and their intriguing motivations. Along with the Mandalorian and Season 7 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this show is the best thing Disney has put out in their nearly decade-long ownership of the franchise.
Though, I do have to say that this episode probably could have been a good 20 or so minutes shorter than what it was.
Essentially, all of Cassian Andor’s storyline for this episode revolved around him learning how the jailing system of Narkina 5 works. To be honest, I still don’t even know how Andor ended up on that resort planet, let alone Narkina 5, but it was pretty funny watching how a simple case of standing in the wrong place at the wrong time ended up spiraling into a 10-year prison sentence of hard labor.
It just would have been nice if the show didn’t spend 30 minutes going over the same concepts and scenes from this prison as 15-20 minutes would have been sufficient. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Andy Serkis joined the cast! Well, more like it was revealed that he was a part of this show as we were introduced to his character, the hardnose prison floor boss Kino Loy.
Of course, Serkis is great as always, though it’s a little too early to get a read on Loy as he’s pretty one dimensional as of this moment. I’m sure that is going to change.
Luckily, we spent a decent amount of time with one of my favorite characters from this series: Mon Mothma.
Again, we were treated to another Imperial dinner party with more fancy costumes, strange Imperial finery, awkward small talk, horrific high-class jokes, and a dose of political intrigue. Actually, more than just a dose as Mon Mothma and her old ally, Tay Kolma, have begun moving money around to help fund the Rebellion.
Unfortunately, we weren’t given too much more than that aside from a mention that Mon Mothma is gathering votes to block a bill introduced by Palpatine, but it was nice to hear about the traditions of the Chandrilan people and how Mon Mothma became a senator at only 16 years old.
This kind of world building and lore was sorely missed in the Sequels due to incompetence, while mostly glossed over in the Prequels in the name of spectacle and visual ingenuity.
As for our friend in the Imperial Security Bureau, Lieutenant Dedra Meero (aka: the Sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg), she’s now well and truly on the hunt for Cassian Andor and his former Rebel allies.
Having picked up some less than valuable information from Syril (who’s a mess, by the way; I guess obsession of their past job overwhelms an extreme overachiever when they get fired), she and her Imperial stooges flew to Ferrix and permanently occupied the place in search of Andor and Luthen, one of the true masterminds behind the Rebellion.
(Star Wars/Disney-Andor-Official Trailer)
Let me just say that Denise Gough has been brilliant as Meero. She brings the confidence, arrogance, and determination needed to make a great Imperial villain, which is a great testament to Gough’s acting range. Though, Yennefer is kind of like Meero, just a good version of her. So, I guess this role isn’t that new to her.
Anyway, it was also nice to see Adria Arjona’s Bix Caleen again. She didn’t have too much screentime, but it was good to see her involved in the Andor storyline once again. With Meero capturing Caleen and torturing most of her friends, we’ll see if Bix turns on her former lover.
Speaking of the rebel mastermind, Luthen’s storyline had a pretty big reveal this episode. Not only is Luthen stepping out of the shadows and becoming more and more visible to the Empire as he has Vel and Cinta hunt for Andor, but he also has some pretty influential friends in not so high places. Namely, Saw Gerrera.
Yup, Saw Gerrera is back and much healthier than the last time we saw him in Rouge One. And he’s back to his old, stubborn tricks.
Luthen tries to sell the stolen parts he had Andor help retrieve from the first few episodes to Gerrera in exchange for the famous rebel leader’s help in some other conspiracy he has cooking. But, due to a guy named Anto Kreeger being involved in it, Gerrera straight up refuses and sends Luthen on his way without the support of Gerrera’s guerrillas.
Apparently, even though the rebellion has many different, splintering factions spread all throughout the Empire in it, they don’t seem to get along too well. Who could have guessed that?
(Star Wars/Disney-Andor-Official Trailer)
Nonetheless, the episode ends with a mashup of Andor’s prison labor, Bix being captured by Meero, and Luthen getting rejected by Gerrera, which shows how disjointed and out-of-sync the Rebellion really is at this moment of time. But, with Palpatine more than willing to enact repressive, oppressive laws at the slightest provocation, the Rebellion is only huge incident away from sparking and setting the Sith Lord’s machinations on fire.
Even though this episode was really filler for some huge revelations and action sequences to come, it was still great fun to watch. There’s something special about this show that very few Star Wars projects, whether they were from the brain George Lucas or corporate machine of Disney, has encapsulated. Andor Episode 8 gets a 9.1/10.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Star Wars/Disney) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Star Wars/Disney) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)
In Text Image 2: (Star Wars/Disney) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)
