*Episode premise spoilers.*
I already loved Andor in episode 1, but I swear this show keeps getting better and better. And honestly, my Diego Luna bias has very little to do with it. I’m just blessed that the Star Wars show starring one of my favorite actors is also one of the absolute best Star Wars properties around. This episode goes hard and doesn’t stop.
The rebels have been preparing for months for the Aldhani mission, and Cassian has only had a few days in which to catch up. Now, the time has come: they’re going to rob an imperial garrison of their quarterly payroll. Tensions run high the whole episode as our scrappy little band of rebels enters the belly of the beast. Cassian may not know what he believes in yet, but he’s holding on for dear life.
This episode expands on the theme of really depicting the lives of people under the Empire, as the displaced Dhanis make the trek to their sacred temple near the garrison in order to partake in their most holy festival. I love a Dhani elder asking the interpreter to tell the garrison’s head honcho, “our ghosts have strong hands and long memories.”
Meanwhile, the series has been getting inside the lives of people within the Empire as well. It’s not just “evil people doing evil things.” We’ve seen those who are zealously devoted to their fascist ideals, those who will do anything to get ahead, and those who are just looking for a paycheck. In this episode, we see the casual bigotry that the head of the garrison has for the Dhanis, his patronizing contempt toward the people whose planet the Empire has coopted.
Our character of the day is Vel, the leader of the rebel group. She’s played by Faye Marsay, who I saw first in Doctor Who’s “Last Christmas” but who I love best as Steph in Pride. Vel is fierce and dedicated, even if she and her whole team are somewhat in over their heads. She knows that they might not survive this mission and that terrifies her, but it doesn’t stop her from pressing forward. She’s able to call forth her inner badass when she needs to, delivering the line, “One path, one choice. We win or everyone dies.”
Considering that I only met these rebel characters a few episodes ago, it’s a solid feat that I’m thoroughly invested in all of them throughout the heist. Every near miss fills me with suspense, and every loss means something. I’m reminded of the best base-under-siege stories on Doctor Who, where 1-2 episodes are all it takes to care about a team of guest characters who have a strong chance of being at least half cannon fodder. But that’s why it works: if they didn’t draw us in, we wouldn’t be moved as we find out what happens to them.
Gaahhhh, Diego Luna is just so damn good. Despite all the other (awesome) things happening around him, the series remains a complex character study of Cassian Andor, and it’s incredible to watch. I can’t say enough about how well Luna inhabits Cassian through his body language, his expressions, and his dialogue.
In this episode, we see other rebels summing Cassian up, and more importantly, we see how Cassian reacts to these statements. Compared to Nemik, the young revolutionary with his ideals, Cassian has “nothing,” while, according to the hardened and self-serving Skeen, Cassian was “born in the hole” and knows only “climbing over someone else to get out.” As much as Cassian wants to stick to his “pay me, then let me go” mindset, it’s clear that he’s realizing that these claims don’t fit him as well as him might think. And yet, he’s still too deep in survival mode to really face up to that. He keeps finding himself getting drawn in with these people, while everything in him is telling him to cut and run. The inner conflict is really compelling, and we get all of it play out on Cassian’s face.
No comments:
Post a Comment