Andor 2×7, 2×8, 2×9 Review – 2 BBY

This week’s episodes of Andor were incredibly intense, despite almost all of the major plot points being already established in previous canon. It’s simply different to hear about something happening and seeing it play out in all of its brutal, detailed, and emotional glory. I fear Star Wars may never top what we just saw, but I thought the same of the first season of this show, so I’m keeping my mind open.

I want to start this week’s review off once again reminding people that this will contain SPOILERS for all three episodes of Andor that were released this week, so if you haven’t watched all of them, come back here after you have.  I try to get these reviews up as quickly as possible despite the high volume of episodes that come out, so thank you for your patience!  This week’s batch of episodes took place in 2 BBY and covers some massively important events in the lead up to the Battle of Yavin, most of which we knew about from previous installments in the franchise.

While all of Andor is a prequel to Rogue One, which in turn is a prequel to the original Star Wars, this grouping of episodes was specifically a prequel to Rebels 3×18 “Secret Cargo” as well. In Rebels, we watched the Ghost Crew react to Senator Mon Mothma’s speech regarding to slaughter on Ghorman, then we see them help smuggle her to a meeting where she would unite various factions of the rebellion. In Andor, we saw the brutal slaughter on Ghorman that we’ve thus far only heard about, then watched as she was smuggled directly out of the Senate chambers to the rebel safe house.

The only piece missing of Senator Mothma’s journey from her speech to her rallying cry to the various factions of the rebellion is the bit between the safe house and the Ghost Crew, but that’s fine because Gold Squadron is probably the least interesting pack of rebels when stacked up against the Ghost Crew and Andor anyway. We don’t need it. Perhaps she took a nice nap between these two bits or something, I don’t know. She probably needed it. Heck, I needed it as a viewer! That was a lot!

I decided to watch that particular episode of Rebels immediately after these episodes, and despite the drastic tonal shift (these are two dramatically different mediums and different target audiences), they do flow together rather nicely.  It helps that Genevieve O’Reilly did the voice work for Mon Mothma in the series as well, so it truly felt like a continuation of her journey.  It’s absolutely unhinged to think of her going from the brutal and serious demeanor of Andor to the off-the-wall nature of Ezra, Hera, Chopper, and Zeb.  The rebellion is quite diverse!  But despite this, it still worked as one continuous story and I recommend watching them back to back for a unique viewing experience. 

But here on Andor, things are serious and intense, and we see the brutality that pushed Senator Mothma to make her speech.  The massacre on Ghorman was some of the most anxiety-inducing Star Wars I’ve ever watched. I can’t tell if it’s because I knew a massacre was imminent thanks to Rebels, or if it really was a masterful build-up, but I’m inclined to think it’s the latter. I’ve seen a lot of people on BlueSky who haven’t seen Rebels express similarly intense anxiety.  I think it was just an incredibly great build-up, and the sound design of the whole sequence was a major factor in how hard it hit.  Those horns were haunting and spiked my heart rate every time they were used by the Ghormans.

The characters were very blatantly being kettled (a very real tactic that any protester should be on the lookout for when attending demonstrations).  They were corralled into the plaza, then instigated into a fight with the very inexperienced Imperial soldiers that were basically fed to them as a sacrifice.  Once a shot was fired, it was over, and the slaughter began. Very few Ghormans seemed to realize the danger they were putting themselves in by letting themselves be kettled into the plaza. Carro Rylanz was the only one trying to warn others away, in fact, and his efforts had very little impact in the end.

Rylanz was, however, responsible for Syril Karn’s death, and for that, I am incredibly thankful. As I mentioned in both my previous reviews for this season, I was feeling rather conflicted getting so much amusement from the relationship between Dedra and Syril. Turning deeply fascist characters into clownish sideshows could detract from the overall message of how big of a threat these types of authoritarians are, but I have an immense amount of faith in these writers. That faith paid off, and I’m incredibly satisfied.

Syril dies knowing that the person he’s had a grudge against for years doesn’t even know who he is. His last moment is spent being disappointed by the revelation that he’s insignificant, a complete unknown with almost no impact of those who he spent his energy on, and was used by the Empire and the woman he loved as a tool for the larger goals of the Empire that he had no hope of ever being part of. His last thoughts were probably a reflection on how much of a waste his life has been and how useless everyone thinks he is, and honestly, that’s the most satisfying conclusion for this character. Because he was a useless fascist tool, and I’m glad he knew it in the end.

There are a ton of useless fascist tools out there in the media right now in our real world.  They are being manipulated by their fascist overlords who are willing to throw them under the bus the moment things get too hot, but they don’t know it yet. They still think they’re an important part of the game, much like Syril Karn did right up until the end. Unfortunately, those tools either won’t be watching Andor because they “don’t want politics in Star Wars” (lol), or aren’t the kind to watch this sort of media with any semblance of a critical eye. Will they ever realize how much they’ve been used before the bus they’re thrown under runs them over? Who knows. But Syril did, and I’ll take that as a substitute for real-life schadenfreude for now.

Dedra’s reaction was somewhat unexpected, however. She seemed to really care for Syril in the end, even after he choked her out in a rage (evil Star Wars men really love choking out their partners, don’t they?). She was genuinely rattled for the first time on this show, and for an incredibly brief moment, I felt a bit of sympathy for her. It was brief, though! Because, again, she’s a fascist and she chose this life. She made her choice to use the person she might have loved as a disposable pawn of the Empire. She chose to pull the trigger on Ghorman and commit genocide. Whatever sympathy I had for her was fleeting, but I appreciate that the writers could even pull that out of me considering the context. Truly masterful work.

And ah, yes, we’ve used the g-word. GENOCIDE. The reaction to that word both in real life and in the Star Wars universe is usually shouting and arguing, often about granular details about what does and does not make a slaughter of a people a genocide. On the one hand, I get the importance of defining words and acts clearly, but at some point, the avoidance of that word for certain conflicts begins to feel like a desperate need to make excuses for blatantly evil behavior. 

People can pretend they’re morally justified if that word isn’t attached to their slaughter.  They can say it’s self-defense or collateral damage, or blame the other side for instigating things, and frame their own behavior as merely a reaction.  But once that word gets attached to a massacre, you can’t wiggle your way out of being guilty of a heinous crime, and the people arguing against it are well aware of that.  That’s why they act so outraged and start shouting when it gets brought up.

Let’s be clear here: this is an entertainment blog. I have a degree in the arts, not sociology or humanities, so I’m not claiming to be an expert on these types of arguments in the slightest.  But anyone can tell that that word is like throwing a lit match into a lake of kerosene. Outrage soon follows its use, regardless of how blatantly cruel the acts are against a people. In my view, what happened to the Ghormans and what’s happening to many groups of people on our own planet are clearly genocides. But hey, what do I know?  Again, I know words are important, but I’m tired of excuses for evil acts, and I’m glad they used that word so unabashedly.

Shifting gears from that incredibly heavy topic to the mystical side of the Star Wars universe, this episode marked an important first for the series: the first clear use of the Force.  Andor has thus far steered clear of the mystical side of the universe.  There has been no Force usage and no Jedi.  Arguably, there are still no Jedi as the healer wasn’t explicitly labeled as such, but we’re in a time in the universe where a woman her age who was Force sensitive would likely have at least been tested for training at the Jedi temple, so it wouldn’t be a bad assumption to make.  Regardless of what her title is, the Force has entered the narrative.

There are two major implications from these scenes.  First, Andor’s fate seems to be to die after delivering the Death Star plans.  He’s referred to as a ‘messenger,’ and while none of the characters know what that means yet (even the Force-sensitive woman who brought the revelation forth), we as the audience do know it.  His destiny is already written at this point, and everything is building towards it.

The second implication, which I haven’t seen discussed much, is that Bix seemed to be mildly Force sensitive.  The Star Wars universe has spent the last few years telling us that the Force is accessible to everyone, but some are more inclined towards using it than others. We saw the child in The Rise of Skywalker using it without much thought, and we saw Sabine using it in Ahsoka.  Bix may not have been strong enough to get noticed by the Jedi (if the character is the same age as the actor, she would have been a small child before the Jedi Order was destroyed), but she has feelings and she has dreams.  That’s not nothing.

Her decision to leave Andor was heartbreaking, but perhaps she felt that his love for her could derail his destiny as a messenger and knew she had to do this for the overall good of the galaxy.  It hurts seeing her say they’d reunite after it ends, however.  It was an absolute gut-wrenching moment and I nearly cried.  If you want to cry, too, just think about the fact that if Bix is somewhat Force sensitive, she might feel him die on Scarif.  Yeah.  That’s some pain right there.

Next week we’ll get the last three episodes of Andor that we’ll ever see, and I’m really not ready for it.  I would love to see Tony Gilroy do even more in the Star Wars universe.  So far, Rogue One is my favorite of the films and Andor is my favorite of the shows, so he’s two for two with me so far.  Perhaps more Mon Mothma, since expanding her story here has been so perfect.  But I’m not in charge here, so it’s in the hands of Disney now.  In the extremely slim chance that some important Disney exec is reading this though, maybe toss around some ideas with him?  I really want more of this.

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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