Ninth episode and we already have three quarter views of the fascinating ‘Andor’. star wars series on Disney + he is in the middle of the prison arc for our protagonist but he continues to remember to delve deeper and deeper into how the system works in this galactic Empire. A very interesting episode in that sense.
From here spoilers for ‘They don’t listen to us’, episode 1×09 of ‘Andor’.
If in the previous episode we were shown a Cassian apparently bent on the system, this basically begins by showing us what we all suspect: that our thief has been planning the escape for some time. Thus, they return those furtive glances to control each protocol, observing the guards and the possible weak points.
prison rumors
And as time has progressed, we see that things have gotten a little dodgy in Narkina 5. It is not known what, but something has happened in another module. The rumors are growing and the nerves are blooming but a false step could be catastrophic for the plans of Andor and company.
The biggest concern on your assembly line is Ulaf (Christopher Fairbank), that is weak and “gone” at times. It will be in his last moments (and of the episodes) when we find out what has happened: there has been a riot after a released prisoner was introduced “by mistake” in the same module. This works as an epiphany for Kino (Andy Serkis) to the floating theme that the Empire never releases prisoners after serving time.
Outside of the prison/factory, things don’t look too good for those loose ends that the Ferrix case has left and the possible link that he senses it has with Aldhani. Specifically, we have Bix (Adria Arjona) being tortured to see if she lets go of Cassian’s whereabouts. A much crueler torture than we can imagine in the Star Wars universe.
cruel and effective, since now Dedra (Denise Gough) has enough information to be able to link Andor to the attack in Aldhani given the description that Bix has made of our antihero. But Bix isn’t the only “weapon” she has to find Andor, as he decides he’ll use Maarva (Fiona Shaw) as bait.
Senator without a Senate
Back on Coruscant we see that Senator Mon Mothma’s (Genevive O’Reilly) political support is getting smaller and smaller., with a speech against the Empire’s new policies that is met with disdain (visualized as lights out) by his fellow senators. Pained by impotence, the senator will find an unexpected visitor at her house.
Unexpected also for us since, although we knew that Val (Faye Marsay) and Mon would meet in the series we did not know the fact that they were cousins. After this brief family reunion with veiled references to rebel themes, Mon will continue to work with the “foundation” to raise funds.
That’s the way it is, this ninth episode is very characteristic of this moment in the series in which Beau Willimon’s script is, little by little, doing an exploration of the system and, above all, its failures and flaws, its cruelties and holes and, above all, how difficult it is to fight against it… more on a moral level than a physical one.
And it is that ‘Andor’ seems to influence from the beginning that, no matter how much power the Empire apparently has, it also has its incompetent and not very skillful officials…a few weak links that are, in the end, the hope that the plans of the rebellion (and Cassian’s escape) go well.