Im back with another batch of Andor episodes, I know I know its been a while since it aired but I really enjoy the rollercoster this series was and honestly I wasn't expecting another damn time jump but here we are, jumping forward a whole year again, this time landing us in 3BBY which puts us even closer to Rogue One territory at least thats my speculation as Im not so sure on a few details neither an expert on Star Wars. The thing is I think I get why they did it, revolutions don't happen overnight and if they are trying to sync up with Rogue One by the end of this season it makes sense to keep moving the timeline forward but this even give me vibes why there wont be any more Andor season, well by now we all know there wont be a third one. Episode 4 basically feels like a season premiere all over again, bad if you ask me but it does mean we gotta get confy again with everyone and their new situations and some of the momentum from those killer first three episodes kinda gets lost in the shuffle. Specially with Bix is still dealing with her trauma from Gorst's torture, she is having these nightmares where she is seeing the face of some Imperial soldier that Cassian apparently killed on a recent mission and you can tell she's struggling with the moral weight of everything they are doing its like she doesn't know on what side she is in anymore, to me is kinda annoying too. At the same time Cassian is trying to be protective but also trying to keep inside within all the violence which creates this tension between them that feels really exhausting, like these are two people who love each other but are being pulled in different directions by the war and their own opinions on what might be right or wrong or if anything makes any sense anymore.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253284/
- Platform: Disney+
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The Ghorman stuff is where things get really interesting though, it suprise me how much interested I would get about Syril and Dedra, different that from season 1 because not only we finally get to see this planet that's been talked about so much but this two are at the core of situation down there, and it's basically like this strategic place been taken by force. Syril Karn gets send on this mission there now, supposedly working for the Bureau of Standards but really he is there as part of Dedra's plan to infiltrate the Ghorman Front, which is the local rebel group that's trying to figure out what the Empire is really building on their planet. The whole setup is this elaborate double agent setup where Syril thinks he is playing spy games and helping Dedra but really he's just a pawn in this bigger chess board to get the Ghorman rebels to do something stupid so the Empire can justify cracking down on them even harder. What's fucked up is that Luthen basically wants the same thing, he wants Ghorman to burn because it's a wealthy core world and if the Empire destroys it, it would scare other planets into joining the rebellion. So it doesnt matter who is looking at Ghorman they most likely wants the planet to go down except their own people, this is a very dark side of the series. You would expect Luthen to be on their side and offer his guidance to the completely inexperienced rebels who are basically artisans and tailors, not soldiers, so when Cassian goes undercover as this fashion designer Varian Sky to assess them, he immediately sees that they are not ready for what's coming, its like watching a plain crash from very far away until it hits the ground.
Saw Gerrera shows up again on D'Qar, which is cool because we get to see more of his partisan group and how they operate, plus we learn more about his backstory and why he is so fucked up. Turns out he was a prisoner in work camps on Onderon during the Clone Wars and there was this fuel leak of rhydonium that made everyone's skin burn and itch but instead of running away like everyone else, young Saw stayed because he liked the feeling. Now he's basically addicted to inhaling rhydonium fumes, which explains why he needs that breathing mask in Rogue One and why he is so paranoid and crazy all the time, the dude's been slowly poisoning himself for years. Wilmon gets sent there to teach Saw's people how to use this fuel extraction device but of course Saw kills the engineer who was supposed to learn it because the guy was an Imperial spy, that part I never saw it coming so now Wilmon's stuck there been the only one who knows how to operate the straction device without any other option. The whole sequence where Saw and Wilmon are huffing rhydonium together is both hilarious and crazy how Wilmon gives in and feels this kind of rage, because you can see how this is Saw's way of dealing with all the trauma and loss, he's basically trying to feel close to his dead sister Steela by bathing himself in this explosive fuel that reminds him of her. Forest Whitaker is just incredible in these scenes, he makes Saw feel like this broken man who has been carrying the weight of the rebellion for so long that he has lost pieces of himself besides everything else, he is not the same guy anymore all because been with the rebellion fighting all this long.
The political matters on Coruscant get very delicate to the point that if and when Mon Mothma openly talks about Ghorman situation they going after her inmediately, because you've got all these different factions playing chess with each other and nobody really knows what the other side is planning. Mon Mothma is trying to get support for repealing the emergency measures that Palpatine put in place after the Aldhani heist but she is running into cheap excuses and walls of thought from senators who are too scared to go against the Emperor and they also know she wont hold herself for too long if the times come and could endanger all of them at once. Meanwhile Luthen and Kleya are dealing with this crisis where one of the art pieces they bugged in Scolden's collection turned out to be a forgery, which means he is gonna have his whole collection authenticated and they will find their listening device. This leads to one of the most tense sequence at Scolden's party where Kleya has to remove the bug while Luthen distracts everyone and of course Krennic shows up to make things even more complicated, I truly though Kleya was going to get caught on this mission. The whole party scene is like watching a spy movie all in one scene, with all these different conversations happening at once and everyone trying to figure out what everyone else knows not only at the knowledge level but on whose side they are. Lonnie, who's the ISB agent that is secretly working for Luthen has to help Kleya get the bug out while pretending like nothing happening and you can tell he is shitting bricks terrified that he is gonna get caught.
Its three episodes and I cant how to put everything into a single article so its hard to call it a recap, although thats what it is, these three episodes really shows what makes Andor special compared to other Star Wars content, its about the tense scenes and the spionage side of things, it's not afraid of the complicated reality of fighting against fascism, where good people have to do terrible things and sometimes the cost of victory is higher than anyone wants to pay, thats basically what every one of the main characters call him Cassian, Luthen or Mon Mothma go through. The time jump thing is still a bit annoying but I think it works better here than it did in the first three episodes because we get more insight into what happened during that missing year through the characters conversations. Bix's drug use and PTSD been one of the most annoying topics but I get how she just cant get over it, reminds me a lot to The Wheel of Time when Egwen had to deal with all her trauma after been a Damane, there is also Cassian's increasing willingness to kill, Syril's weird relationship with Dedra that is very very interestind how she gets on his side that even makes you believe she really cares for him but its all selfishness its her way to get what she wants to go higher in the ransk to show off that she matters, all of these developments make the series more interesting as it goes, season two feels different too although not as good as season one and thats a flaw of design of anything that gets done after the "original" in this case season one, its not easy to top out. The Ghorman storyline becomes a bit draggy specially when they start talking on this local language, very like French I think but it shows how both the Empire and the rebellion are willing to sacrifice innocent people for their larger goals, which is a pretty dark message but feels true to the moral complexity of both sides. Cinta's death hits especially hard because we just got to see her and Vel reconnect, and now Vel has to carry on without the person she loves most and this is gonna make her even more dangerous and unpredictable going forward. Ghorman looks like a real place with its own culture and history, and the way they have designed everything from the architecture to the costumes but the plaza made me feel cloustrophobic at times and not only that, its like the show ran out of money and also everything feels so human and not "Star Wars" like on this vast universe. The political stuff on Coruscant is getting more intense too, with Krennic starting to play a bigger part and Mon Mothma getting more desperate as she realizes how little power she actually has in the Senate and running out of options after knocking on so many doors to get some support but she is willing to risk it all, probably for nothing. Overall these episodes felt better as the series makes progress, even though the pacing feels a bit different from the first season, it's still some of the best Star Wars content we have gotten in years.
https://i.imgur.com/NFNfXhz.png
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