Andor 2×4, 2×5, 2×6 Review – 3 BBY

The theme of Andor 3 BBY seemed to be “love under a totalitarian regime.”  We see it both among the rebels and the fascists themselves, leaving no corner of this conflict untouched by this complicated and often messy human emotion.

Be warned that this discussion will include some pretty heavy spoilers from all three episodes of Andor released this week, so if you haven’t watched all of them, stop reading now and come back after you have completed them.  And, just like last week, I want to apologize for this one taking a while.  This one has taken even longer than last weeks by, uh, a lot! And I’m so sorry, but three episodes at once is quite a lot to sort through.  That’s quite a choice, Disney!

I’m once again amazed that my favorite storyline involved Syril and Dedra, considering I’m actively rooting for their downfall.  Perhaps this mirrors real life, where I’m watching horrific authoritarianism do horrible things, but in such a clownish way that I can’t help but laugh at the spectacle.  It’s uncomfortable to laugh at evil and get any sort of amusement out of it, but that’s what we have born here on Andor and in real life.  Gotta find the funny moments while the world is crashing around us, I guess?  I don’t know, man. It’s a weird feeling.

Syril and Dedra’s romance is very clearly a D/s type of relationship, which is a bold move on the showrunners’ part.  I do worry about having that sort of relationship portrayed only among the Imperials and how that can further stigmatize healthy kink relationships, but I don’t necessarily think Star Wars is an appropriate place to explore healthy kink in the first place, so what are you gonna do? I’m just surprised it showed up at all.  Asking Star Wars of all things to be considerate to the kink community might be way too big of an ask.

The immediate contrast to Dedra and Syril is the relationship between Andor and Bix.  For the first time, Andor and Bix are explicitly shown as a romantic couple.  It’s a romance forged out of friendship and bonded by the trauma of the rebellion.  They’re gentle with one another and protective in their own ways.  While Syril and Dedra are rigid and harsh, Bix and Andor are fluid with their touches and movements with one another. The way they touched hands with each other stayed with me for a long time afterward.

I appreciate that the narrative doesn’t portray Bix as conveniently weak or in need of saving just to prop up Andor.  Bix, like Mon Mothma, needs to self-medicate to deal with the trauma that comes with being a rebel.  But she’s still strong.  She’s still capable.  This aspect of her doesn’t negate those deeply ingrained character traits.  Bix was going through an extreme amount of trauma and needed help working through it, which Andor helped provide.

I’m not sure the revenge Bix got at the end of this episode grouping is going to “fix” Bix exactly, but it was certainly enjoyable to watch.  It reminded me a bit of Inglourious Basterds in a way.  Just pure revenge fantasy for the sake of it.  Where it’ll lead we’ll have to see when the next grouping of episodes drop, but for now, I got quite a lot of joy from watching it play out.

The last romance we saw was Vel and Cinta, who we saw kiss for the first time.  I clocked them as Lesbians the first time a character hinted at them “sharing a blanket” way back in the first season, but people absolutely love to deny the obvious, and a lot of homophobes loved to ignore the clues.  You can’t ignore that, though.  They finally kissed explicitly and clearly.  And then Cinta promptly died, and we have Another Dead Lesbian.

I’m not exactly pleased that a show I love so much fell into such an unfortunate trope, but I am glad we finally got very clear queerness in cinematic Star Wars that can’t be denied, shoved into the background, or cut out for international releases.  It’s truly a double-edged sword for me here.  I also keep telling myself that this is Andor, and most of these characters will probably die.  The titular character, who is involved in one of the romances depicted in this grouping of episodes, dies in 3 years time.  This is a story where everyone dies, so how much weight should I let killing the lesbian carry here?

This is a tough one, folks, and I’m open to other people’s opinions on this.  

Beyond the romance, we had a huge focus on the planet Ghorman which, outside of the unfortunate focus on spiders (please stop), I find myself enjoying quite a bit.  The political class of Ghorman thinks that if it appeases the Empire, it’ll escape being harmed by it.  The lesson is obviously that this doesn’t work, but we see it playing out right now.  Every Democrat who approved a Trump appointee or considered tossing some vulnerable group under the bus in an effort to appear moderate is doing that right now.  Senator Schumer is basically a Ghorman, is what I’m trying to say.

The Ghormans are so obviously based on the French resistance, it’s almost ridiculous to even include that observation in this review.  Their language had clear French influences and, like, they were wearing berets for goodness sake.  Add on the fact that they were a cultural center in the galaxy known for fashion that has a heavy political sway due to their luxurious exports and, well, you might as well have given them some baguettes and tossed up an Eiffel Tower just to make it more clear for everyone watching what the influence was here.

But don’t get me wrong.  I think they’re fascinating and their inexperience says a lot about eager young fighters who want to push back against fascism.  Perhaps they don’t have the know-how that Andor has.  Perhaps they’re going to make mistakes and burn themselves in the process.  But their eagerness to fight back shouldn’t be discounted.  Andor isn’t wrong wanting to leave them behind to keep them safe, but Luthen isn’t exactly wrong wanting to harness their willingness to fight back to further the rebellion either.  It’s a tricky situation, and people are going to die, but fighting back against fascism sometimes requires risky moves.

I’m looking forward to the next grouping of episodes, and I’ll try my best to be quicker next week.  Three episodes at once is hard, guys!  But man, I’m enjoying the hell out of this season and I’m going to stick with this to the best of my abilities.

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.

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