After the first three-episode block has wrapped up, we are able to move forward a bit in Andor. Jump to lightspeed and join us.
1. Rebel Luthen is Superman; Coruscant Luthen is Clark Kent
I find it really interesting to see how Luthen is able to slip between being a rebel and being an antiques dealer on Coruscant. He doesn’t appear to have an alias, but rather puts on more foppish clothes and a wavy wig and speaks with some flair and slips into the role of a member of high society quite well. This somewhat splits the difference between someone like Mon Mothma, who cannot drop her political persona, but works around the system, and someone like Cassian, who is a nobody who can blend in wherever he goes because he’s unknown.
It is laid pretty bare that the rebellious Luthen is the ‘real’ thing, and not just because it is when the wig comes off. While no one would call the spaceship flying Luthen exactly happy, he seems pretty exacerbated to wear that face of high society. This is not where he wants to be at all.
2. Oh, so there is a Mr. Mothma
The scene between Mon Monthma and her husband was interesting for a few reasons. First of all, it appears that he is not aware of her seditious activities, and thinks her just a ‘regular’ senator. This shows how surface level their marriage is, as even if he wasn’t similarly inclined to join her in burning down the Empire, if their marriage was a close one, he would at least be aware of her feelings.
But the more interesting part, to me, was how he is positioned as essentially a fat cat who wants to ‘have fun’ despite the fascist Empire around him. This is an important viewpoint that we haven’t seen much of in Star Wars. We see people who are Imperials and lackeys for the Empire, we see people who are Rebels or are sympathetic with the Rebellion. But we rarely see people who are apolitical in the sense that they neither support nor condemn the actions outside of their windows. If they’re well insulated enough, they can live through any regime.
So while he seems like sort of an ass, I think we can all relate in a way to this, even if we (hopefully) wouldn’t stand by as jackbooted thugs take over our societies. There are days that it seems far easier to just tune out the chaos of evil and just binge watch a TV show or get lost in a good book. And so, while you may want to punch Perrin Fertha in the face, I think we can all see a little of ourselves in him.
3. The bureaucracy hard at work
The flipside of Perrin’s antipathy towards the Rebellion is the look at a few rank and file Imperials this episode. While we see Syril Karn dismissed and sent back into civilian life, there are a number of Imps who get some focus this week, and they range from middle management mucky mucks to inspired leaders in the making to ladder climbers. None of these people may be technically evil-hearted, but all actively participate in the evils of the Imperial machine, and we see the frustrations and power plays from a few different sides.
Again, this is important. I’m sure many of us have worked for organizations that had some shady practices, or were jobs that we took despite not believing in the mission statement to put food on the table. It doesn’t seem unlikely that, had I lived a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away that my penchant for audio would’ve led me to work as a radio operator for the Empire. I like the believe I wouldn’t do that, but who knows? This gives us a look at the people who may not be signing up to fire up the Death Star but who aren’t bothered enough to actually quit.
4. The mission on Aldhani
I don’t know about you, but I love a good heist story, and the heist on Aldhani is shaping up to be a fun one. The cover of the meteor shower that’s not really a meteor shower is a fun element and adds some context as to why this mission was so rushed from Cassian’s Clem’s perspective. I do wonder how the television budget of Andor will allow for this phenomenon.
As for the team that Cassians Clem joins, I like the tone that the series is setting for them. These are no nonsense rebels who are jumpy, distrusting, and highly motivated. While you may still call the Rebels of Rogue One that, these are far less organized and far more ramshackle than anything we’ve really seen before, including Star Wars Rebels. I like this ‘boots on the ground’ approach, though I am afraid to get too attached to any of these, as it seems likely that some/all of them will be space dust by the time we get through this arc of episodes.
5. More complete, still not complete
Rumor has it that Andor was shot in three-episode clusters, which makes sense for how the first three, and this fourth episode, were paced. If that’s the case, I wish they’d have done a series of four 90-minute films, maybe released once a month over a quarter, to allow for a better viewing experience. This was the most complete feeling of any of the episodes, perhaps because it is the first time I wasn’t waiting for the scene screened in the IMAX Rogue One experience, but it still ends in what feels like a random moment.
Allowing different types of releases, especially when Disney own the pipeline to bring this to us, would have made these episodes even more enjoyable. That said, this episode was easily my favorite of the bunch thus far, and seems like a good preview of what is to come.
