Andor 2×1, 2×2, 2×3 Review – 4 BBY

Andor is back, and it’s unsurprisingly incredibly timely. Who would have guessed that a show about pushing back against fascism would feel oddly prescient amidst all the chaos going on today? Fascism is an unfortunately relevant topic much of the time I guess. History has a habit of repeating itself.

As Andor is releasing three episodes per week, we’ll be tackling them in batches. This review will cover the first three episodes, which take place 4 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin), and contain spoilers accordingly. If you haven’t watched all three episodes, hold off on reading it and come back until after have watched them all. This also means the reviews might take a little bit longer to get up onto the site, and be longer in length than normal, so I apologize for that! But the release schedule demands that we adapt so we hope you understand. 

For the most part, the three episodes consisting of 4BBY are spread across four groupings of people, though they do get mildly shaken up in the last episode. The first grouping of people takes place with Andor, who has stolen a TIE fighter and been taken hostage by a stranded rebel crew who is in the midst of bitter infighting. The second is the Ferrix rebel crew, who are hiding out on an agricultural planet and waiting for Andor’s return. The third is Mon Mothma’s daughter’s wedding on Chandrila, which includes appearances by Luthen Rael, his assistant Kleya Marthi, and Mon’s cousin Vel Sartha. And lastly we have a glimpse of Dedra Meero’s evolving work/life balance, which brings back fan favorite Rogue One alum Director Krennic and season one’s Syril Karn and Syril’s mother.

Andor’s plot was, shockingly, the “weakest” of the four parallel storylines playing out in 4BBY.

Of course this show is incredible, so even labeling something “weak” means it was still pretty damn good. It’s all comparative, really. The bar is set incredibly high here right out of the gate. I just didn’t vibe with this particular grouping of people.

I get the narrative reasoning for him being held captive by this messy group of rebels. We need to see that the rebellion is scattered, disorganized, and full of holes. Nobody knows who else is an actual rebel, and people are betraying each other and scrambling to survive. There’s a deep sense of distrust through the entire network at the moment, and it’s incredibly dysfunctional. As it stands, they’re at a disadvantage.

But the truth is, I just didn’t care much for these characters. It felt like a repurposed scene from Alien: Prometheus with stock characters- stuck on a planet with a busted space ship, bickering crew mates, and something lurking in the jungle. But it delayed Andor just enough for him to have his Big Damn Hero moment in the last episode of 4BBY. I’m glad Bix got to save herself from the primary attacker in her sub arc, but Andor still had to have his moment as the titular hero, and the infighting of the rebel crew allowed enough of a delay for them to both get these wins in the story.

There might be lessons to be learned from this short narrative adventure in our current push back in our fight against fascism, but I wasn’t as invested in this arc as I was the others. Besides, the petty arguments playing out in modern fights against fascism aren’t a direct enough parallel for me to do a deep dive in any meaningful way.  It felt too much like a horror genre and not much like a political drama, which is where the stronger parallels can be drawn from. I’m sure someone can do it, though, and I look forward to reading that analysis. But I’m not going to attempt it here. I can’t do it justice.

The most jarring comparison to our modern times – and the one I’m most comfortable doing a deep dive on – are the survivors of Ferrix. 

They are undocumented immigrants working without visas and hiding from authoritarian government inspectors on Mina-Rau. Their employer, whom they initially trust, was willing to use them for cheap illegal labor until he’s threatened and then he turns them in to the authoritarians. This is unfortunately very realistic. Employers of undocumented immigrants can be incredibly opportunistic and exploitative. 

Undocumented immigrants being deported are in the headlines all day every day in the United States right now. In fact, even documented immigrants are being deported. Our government is even considering sending citizens abroad to foreign prisons, which is incredibly bleak. In fact, wasn’t being arbitrarily sent abroad to prisons that they have no hope of escaping from on trumped up charges a major plot point last season? Funny how that works. That’s fascism, folks. The writers didn’t predict the future. Fascists just work from the same playbook. You can find these stories repeated through history.

TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSION OF ATTEMPTED RAPE

There’s another layer to this, though, in regard to Bix being threatened with rape by the Imperial officer. Unfortunately that’s also a realistic element of this whole ordeal. Vulnerable populations are subjected to rape as a weapon, because they lack the ability to fight back through legal means, and often physical means. Bix is a badass and she beat her assailant to death in self defense, which not everyone has the power to do. They were outgunned, however, and if Andor hadn’t shown up when he did, all of the Ferrix survivors would have been killed in revenge for Bix’s act of self defense.

Honestly, I’m impressed this plot point made it into a Disney production. I’m thankful it did, as distasteful as the subject matter may be. If anything in the Star Wars universe is going to touch on something that dark, it’s going to be Andor. It may be too dark for some, but this show took risks in the first season and it’s not backing down now. My heart goes out to anyone triggered by the subject matter, though. It’s not an easy topic to deal with by any means. I understand if someone is upset by its inclusion, though.

END OF TRIGGER WARNING

The Chandrila plot contrasts the most with the Ferrix survivors, and I can’t help but feel that the editing of the scenes against each other was incredibly intentional, especially at the end.  

While the Ferrix survivors are hiding in the shadows, Mon Mothma and her family are living luxuriously with all the privilege their position among the elite affords them. Of course we know where Mon Mothma’s heart is, so she’s still “one of ours” so to speak, but when she’s dancing drunkenly to the Diomos techno music while it flashes back and forth to Brasso’s dead body being abandoned in a field, it’s hard to not feel even a small bit of resentment for her.

Imagine today if someone who we think has our best interest at heart was caught dancing drunkenly at a party while our loved ones were killed and abandoned? How would we feel? Even if we thought they had our best interest at heart, wouldn’t we feel resentful? I only know I will continue to love Mon Mothma because this is a prequel and I know she’s hardcore as hell, but we don’t have that luxury in reality. So get wasted, shake what Chandrila gave you, and then get back in the fight as soon as possible because people are dying, Senator. I just hope there’s no equivalent of social media in the galaxy far far away because that could look really bad, Mon.

I’m not criticizing her, here. I adore her. She really needed those drinks after realizing her friend was going to be killed in order to protect the rebellion. She needed to take the edge off from the pain that knowledge caused her, and I understand that completely. Self medicating in times of extreme distress is understandable. I’m just saying how it’d appear on, say, Coruscant Twitter, or whatever. Things like that can cause tension in a movement.

I love learning more about Chandrila culture, though. I can never quite get a grasp of it. It always seems to be this nefarious thing hidden under custom and ritual that is never quite as straight forward as it seems. The rich and unique details of the various Star Wars universe cultures can sometimes get overshadowed by how dense Andor is with the political commentary, but don’t forget this is Star Wars. Sometimes it’s fun to just gawk at the fantasy aspect a bit. And everything Chandrilan certainly provides on that front. Everything about the wedding ceremony was incredibly detailed and I want to watch it again just to absorb all the small details.

Finally we have Dedra Meero.

I think I enjoyed Dedra’s plot the most, but please don’t take that the wrong way here. That doesn’t remotely mean I’m on her side. She’s an authoritarian and I’m rooting for her downfall, but the first part of her story brought back my beloved Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennic. As a hardcore Mendelsohn fan (a Mendelhomie, if you will), I am glad to have him back on screen. I will watch pretty much anything Mendelsohn is in, even the bad stuff (looking at you, Secret Invasion), so the fact he’s in my absolute favorite installment of Star Wars fills me with endless delight!  I am blessed.

Then the second part threw us into an unexpected Odd Couple dynamic with Syril that I didn’t realize I wanted until we actually got it on screen. Somehow both these things worked for me and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you for providing, Andor. This is great. But please no more spiders, Star Wars.  I’m really tired of spider creatures in all my Star Wars franchises. This arachnophobe says heck no to spider stories. Thanks! I’ve had enough.

My view on Syril shifted a lot from last season, and I haven’t quite reconciled it all yet. I thought his stalking of Dedra was pretty pathetic and he would lash out at her over being repeatedly rejected. He radiated incel energy and I thought that’s where his plot was going, but saving her life seemed to have earned him a place at her side and it… seems to be functional? Like they seem to oddly be working well together? What the heck? 

And again, no, I am not rooting for them. I just find them fascinating and want to see more of how the heck this pair seem to have found a working relationship despite being really weird, incredibly twisted people. I guess it’s the same sort of interest that I have for the occasional salacious celebrity gossip story. None of these people are good people, but man, I’m intrigued by the story there. Like how does this work, man?

Their dynamic is also a surprising source of comedy in an incredibly bleak narrative, though I’m not exactly sure how I feel about that part of it. They are, after all, the authoritarians. Syril’s weak will and discomfort with his mother’s overbearing personality got several laughs from me, though. I only hope they don’t permanently turn into a clownish sideshow and lose sight of the fact that they are the jackbooted fascists, but people who have seen the entire season adore it and I have the utmost faith in the writers, so I’m not too worried about it. For now I’ll enjoy these moments of brevity and enjoy their inevitable comeuppance. 

This was an absolutely banger start to the second season of Andor. I’m looking forward to where it goes from here and will undoubtedly immediately follow it up by watching Rogue One afterwards. I’m eager to see just how smooth the transition will be.  Each set of episodes will cover a year, so next week will be 3BBY, then 2BBY, then 1BBY.  I’ll try to bring you reviews as quickly as I can after each block of episodes. See you next week!

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary