Andor Episode 9 Review: This Show Is FANTASTIC

What other great things can I say about this show? Andor Episode 9 proves that Star Wars doesn’t need its legacy villains to make the Empire intimidating when the writers and actors are so supremely talented.

I’m calling it now: this show is the best Star Wars content released since George Lucas sold the franchise to Disney back in 2012. This show has surpassed everything Disney has produced, including The Book of Boba Fett, the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, Rebels, The Tales of the Jedi, the Sequel Trilogy, Rouge One, Solo, and even The Mandalorian. None of those shows have the grit, plot intricacies, character development, or consequential decision making that Andor has displayed in its nine episodes so far.

Nearly everything about this show has been fantastic to watch, which is a huge compliment to the writing and directorial teams. They have learned from where Disney has failed in the past and have capitalized on those mistakes to make a brilliant show.

Speaking of brilliant, Denise Gough has once again proven that she is an incredible actress.

Andor(Disney/Star Wars-Andor-Official Trailer) — Andor
(Disney/Star Wars-Andor-Official Trailer)

I know I said that Mon Mothma was my favorite character in this show (and she still is), but Gough’s Lieutenant Dedra Meero is a close second. Again, she had the most intriguing plot to follow this week as she showed why the Empire doesn’t need Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, an army of Inquisitors, or even the classic stormtroopers to be intimidating and vicious.

Essentially, she spends the episode discovering the connection between Cassian Andor and Luthen’s murder and robberies on Morlana One and Ferrix and the robbery on Aldheni through torturing Bix Callen and the rest of Andor’s friends on Ferrix.

And, let me just say that her methods (well, it’s actually a guy named Dr. Gorst that performs the torture, but she’s in charge of him) of torturing Bix was extremely brutal and honestly kind of ingenious on the part of the writers.

In order to get Bix talking, Dedra has Dr. Gorst stuck a headphone-like machine on her head that forces poor Bix to listen to the dying screams of Dizonite (an alien race) children, which the Empire recorded as they killed them for opposing an Imperial refueling operation a while back. Once the machine was on her head and the sound was turned on, Bix immediately started screaming and convulsing in her chair as she was broken almost instantaneously by the device.

Now, of course, torture is not a great to have to watch, but this specific mode was really creative by the writers. Using the screams and suffering of children as a form of torture is a remarkable way to not only get the point across that killing child in war is abhorrent, but is also akin to a form of torture on all those who have to listen and watch it in the real world. Kudos to the writers for making the Empire that much viler.

Anyway, the rest of Dedra’s time was spent informing the other members of the IBS (Imperial Security Bureau) of her findings and other boring administrative tasks, though she was interrupted on her way back from work by Syril…again.

Our boring, dull, useless friend came back again to waste our time as he couldn’t help himself but to seek out Dedra and tell her how enamored he is by her because she is still hunting down Cassian Andor.

I can’t tell if she is starting to grow feelings for the guy or if she is a second away from spilling his guts all over Coruscant as she was very lenient with this stalker by allowing him to walk away unharmed. Now, I know I wouldn’t hesitate to blast his face off as I can’t stand the guy.

If there’s one thing I really don’t like about Andor, it’s that the show keeps harping back to Syril and his mother having breakfast. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Did they even build a full set for Syril’s house other than the kitchen? Obviously not.

Aside from this scene and the meaningless interrogation scene last episode, Syril has offered nothing to this show since Episode 3. Sure, he’ll probably be important to Dedra later, but he’s really getting on my nerves every time I have to watch him and his mother eat Coco Puffs for 5-8 minutes per episode. ENOUGH WITH THE COCO PUFFS!

Nonetheless, we were finally treated to a Mon Mothma arguing in the Senate scene, even though it was really brief and mostly drowned out by angry, contempt senators shouting her down. I wish this episode would have spent some more time with Mothma engaging with other senators as it would have been nice to see how they view the Empire and Palpatine, but I guess we’ll have to settle with the fact that it was revealed that Vel is Mon Mothma’s cousin.

Yup, you read that right: Vel is Mon Mothma’s cousin. Cinta’s complaints about Vel’s background makes a lot more sense as not only is Vel an extremely wealthy individual, but she also belongs to a wealthy family that is deeply entrenched in Imperial politics. No wonder it seems like Cinta can’t stand her sometimes as she is the very antithesis of everything she fights for.

Regardless, nothing much comes from Mothma and Vel’s reunion other than a few hushed conversations about their commitment to the Rebellion, but Tay Kolma did stop by and reveal that Mon Mothma can no longer draw money out of his bank without the Imperial’s finding out.

So, now she must meet with some cruel, vile Chandrillian banker (that may or may not have had some kind of relationship with her in the past) in order to obtain the 400,000 credits needed for the Rebellion.

If I had to guess, this banker probably tried to marry her or something in a callous way back on their home world but was coldly rejected by Mon, and she has despised him ever since. We’ll find out soon enough.

Finally, we end the review ride at the Cassian Andor stop. So, what is Andor up to? Uh, nothing much.

Yeah, unfortunately nothing much really happened with Andor other than the fact that we learned that nobody is getting freed from jail. Instead, they are getting shipped to other parts of the facility and their sentences are being renewed. This shouldn’t really come as a shock for any of the viewers as that’s just kind of what the Empire does, but I’m sure I’d be furious if I was in Andor’s position.

We’ll see his and the rest of the prisoner’s rebellion next episode.

Nevertheless, even though some parts of this episode felt a little repetitive, it’s still miles ahead of mostly everything else Disney has ever produced with the Star Wars franchise firmly entrenched under their thumb. Andor Episode 9 gets a 9.0/10.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)