Andor Season Finale: A Fantastic Ending To A Groundbreaking Show

This is the BEST STAR WARS SHOW ever! The Andor Season 1 Finale was as epic, emotional, and action-filled as a Star Wars fan could have hoped, cementing its place as the best Star Wars show ever.

What a show. From having the least amount of trust and hype out of the many Star Wars projects in existence to now being seen as a smashing success that can pave the way for new Star Wars-centric story designs, Andor has utterly transformed the idea of what a ‘Star Wars T.V.’ show can be.

The brilliance of Andor makes the other Star Wars shows, such as The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch, look dull and tame in comparison as they represent a dull, cliched vision of what the franchise ‘should be’ rather than what it ‘can be’.

Andor actually focused on the everyday people of the Galaxy Far Far Away, which includes both Imperial and Rebel sympathizers, rather than the select ‘elite’ (which really isn’t the best term to use but I couldn’t think of any other) of the universe.

There are only hints at the Jedi Order and The Republic that dominated Star Wars entertainment for decades, while the Emperor’s name has only been spoken on a handful of occasions. And there’s been absolutely zero mention of anyone named Skywalker.

What I’m trying to say is that Tony Gilroy and the other Andor creators/showrunner/producers/executives/etc. relied upon the endless creativity and unexplored civilizations of George Lucas’ creation to tell a compelling story rather than just rely on proven franchise icons for publicity.

Even though I despise The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson was right about one thing. The Force (and really Star Wars as a whole) should be open and explorable for everyone, which has not been the case in the recent years.

It has been too focused on legacy characters, such as the Skywalkers, Solos, and The Clone Wars figures, to create saturated stories that are either lore-breaking or have no need to be told.

I mean, did we really need to see a needlessly reformed Boba Fett timidly rule over a ‘crime empire’ in which he committed zero crimes? Or what about Obi-Wan Kenobi rescuing Princess Leia and facing off against Darth Vader again in a mission that is breaking the lore of the OG Trilogy with each day it exists.

Yes, I know I was somewhat supportive of the show during its runtime, but I was a starved Star Wars fan like the rest of us. I was trying to see the one glimmer of positivity from an overwhelming pile of trash that Andor has shown Obi-Wan Kenobi to be.

Regardless, back to the episode at hand, it was another masterpiece.

Essentially, all of the major character made their way to Ferrix for the final showdown between the Empire and the people of Ferrix as they all were seeking out Cassian Andor in some way or another with the funeral of Maarva as the overarching backdrop for the episode.

I thought it was great to see how far Cassian Andor had come with the Rebellion ideals as the episode made it a huge focus to show him listening to Nemik’s (the Rebellion idealist who died on Aldhani) tapes prior to meeting up with Brasso and the rest of his Ferrix friends.

In the beginning of the show, Andor was a cynic to the core as he refused to fight the Empire as Maarva wished and he only took the Aldhani job as a way to make some money for himself.

Now, Andor has come full circle as he is fully entrenched in the Rebel ideals of Nemik that he once mocked. See, Disney, that’s what character growth is. Trials and tribulations that a character goes through to change and remold their world views. Character growth is not having a desert dweller become an all-powerful Jedi with zero training in a matter of three in-world weeks.

Speaking of embracing the Rebel ideals, Andor’s friends and the rest of Ferrix were in the same boat as him as they staged a grand funeral for Maarva, who was a known Rebel sympathizer, right in the face of the Imperial Garrison.

It was amazing to see the unique culture of the Ferrix people fully explored and showcased against the oppressive (but very cool) Imperial stormtroopers. In particular, it was an ingenious idea to came up with the ‘brick burial’ ritual for these people.

Unlike most of the Star Wars universe, this ‘brick burial’ sets apart the people of Ferrix and gives them their own special cultural signifier that fans can latch onto and easily recognize. Again, Disney, that’s how you world build in the Star Wars universe.

You don’t just throw characters on some desert-like planet (cough…Rise of Skywalker…cough) that looks exactly like the million other desert-like planets and have this huge plot McGuffin over some uncreative necklace that has an unspecified cultural significance to it.

Anyway, enough Sequel Trilogy bashing as Andor and his friends weren’t the only ones interested in Maarva’s funeral.

Both Dedra Meero and Luthen made the trek to the planet as they were searching for any trace of Andor for completely opposite reasons. Meero wanted to capture Andor to get him to reveal who ‘Axis’ (which is Luthen) truly is, while Luthen wanted the Empire to find Andor for him so that he could then infiltrate their prison and kill the titular hero himself.

This episode felt like a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off as both Luthen and Meero used their vast networks of spies and cronies to find Andor and lay traps to catch/kill him, leading to a dramatic race between the two sides as the funeral procession carried on.

Plus, Syril, who has been a complete waste in this series, also made his way to Ferrix to find and capture (I guess) Andor in order to revive his boring career (again, I guess as it really isn’t clear what he wants from Andor at this point). If you are currently thinking that this is useless information, I’m afraid it’s not as he plays a major role later on in the episode.

Nonetheless, the best scene of this show came in this episode as Maarva’s hologram speech was not only inspiring, but also kind of emotional. Having to pre-film a hologram message about your death while still being alive is a rather upsetting thing to do when you think about it. It makes death feel so much more imminent and unavoidable for the people of Ferrix, which is yet another neat cultural characteristic.

As for the inspiring part, it was more than uplifting for the people of Ferrix as her anti-Empire speech set off a massive riot, which led to the Empire’s shock troopers getting completely overwhelmed as a homemade bomb thrown at them by the crowd set off their own smoke bombs to fill the streets with smoke and blaster fire.

Sure, the battle may not have been as exciting or as well choreographed as some of the battle from past projects, but it was more than rewarding to watch. I’ll always take a battle that has meaning and emotions behind it rather than just some glorified, CGI mess.

In the end, Andor outmaneuvered Meero and her soldiers and was able to rescue Bix from prison, reunited with B2EEMO (which was super emotional) and Brasso as they escaped Ferrix, and Andor then head off to confront Luthen and then joined him. Meanwhile, Meero narrowly avoided getting ripped apart by the mob from Syril’s help (of course), and the people of Ferrix got absolutely slaughtered by the Empire’s garrison in response to the riot.

So, it would seem Luthen finally got that oppressive strike he was looking for as Ferrix is undoubtably now scared by the Empire’s tyrannical hand forever, which should attract the rest of the galaxy’s attention.

Oh, I should also mention that there were a few Mon Mothma scenes that revealed she was being investigated by Meero’s ISB rival, Lieutenant Blevin, as he found out about her shady bank transactions, while Mothma was also forced to cement her deal with Davo Sculdun by marrying her daughter off to his son.

I wish there was a few more scene with Mon Mothma, but hey, the episode was more than good enough as it is. But that was about it for the season finale.

All and all, the episode was the icing on this fantastic cake of a show. This show is the best and deserves to be in the contention for next year’s Emmy and Golden Globe Awards. It’s that good of a show.

Andor Episode 12 gets a 9.8/10.

 

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

In Text Image 1: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)

In Text Image 2: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)

In Text Image 3: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)

In Text Image 4: (Disney/Star Wars) (Andor | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)