The big surprise that was the first episodes of ‘Andor’ required that it continue to grow and exhibit that personality that differentiated it from the rest of the series in the Star Wars universe. The fourth confirmed it with a somewhat more relaxed chapter as an approach to the mission in which the character played by diego moon and with ‘The ax forgets’ The interest of the Disney + series in deepening its characters is maintained.
Obviously, that preparation prior to an almost impossible mission takes up most of the footage of the fifth episode of ‘Andor’, but there is also time to pay attention to other fronts. The result is a chapter that is light on the action but brimming with tensionboth in the purely human and in relation to the dangers that surround that mission.
The mission
‘Andor’ has taken good care of its characters so far. The way of developing them may not motivate all viewers in the same way, but the difference from other live action Star Wars series is almost like night to day. This has been stressed again here, using the logical distrust of the rest of the members of the group of rebels towards the protagonist, something that is used to enter into the motivations of each of them.
However, Cassian Andor is no fool, always clarifying what he thinks is best for the mission to have the best chance of success and then confessing the truth about himself when he finds himself between a rock and a hard place. That moment continues to be the culmination of one of the most interesting aspects of this episode. I mean that rivalry that arises with Skeen and that it is settled with the two putting the cards on the table about their respective motivations.
Also, the series gets it right by never letting go of the dangers surrounding the mission, making masterful use of TIE Fighters as a threat that could ruin everything. These types of ships had had more cosmetic importance than anything else beyond the last act of Episode IV of the saga. Here they feel fearsome, thus raising all the tension surrounding the Resistance plan.
Other details of ‘The ax forgets’
All this leads to ‘The ax forgets’ feel like preparing for something very big in the sixth episodeWell, it is already the second time that the series seems to bet on a three-episode arc to tell a story and sow the seeds for the next one. That also distinguishes it from ‘The Mandalorian’, where the usual thing was to solve any type of threat in one episode and move on to the next.
Hence also that ‘Andor’ continues to feel different from the rest. There will be those who can see in it that the series looks like movies divided into several episodes each, but the real consequence is that everything feels more worked and developed. Here you do not have to close mini-stories quickly to move on to the next one, but rather all of the above is continuously accumulating rather than maybe or not come back to it later.
For this reason, the brief appearance of a disgraced Syril Karn makes all the sense in the world to remind us how his career has sunk after what was seen in the first three episodes and to already influence the inevitable animosity that he will continue to show towards Andor and his. in future episodes, because you have to hit bottom, and he seems to have done it, before going back up. And the Empire at some point will identify Luna’s character and someone will remember that it was Karn who was about to catch him…
For the rest, small moving pieces with Luthen showing her first doubts about the success of the mission and what that could mean for the future or the senator having to deal with more and more difficulties to continue with her activities. Without forgetting that there are even a few minutes to make it clear that the Empire is aware of the importance of what they have in their hands, which ends up placing that mission as something capital. And yes, we know Andor will come out of it alive, but what about the other characters? That here they have already given us more reasons to be interested in them instead of reducing them to the condition of pawns necessary for the story to advance.
That said, it’s true that ‘The Ax Forgets’ can feel like a transitional episode, but here we should be talking more about the necessary preparation so that the movements of the protagonists have a reason in future chapters and that it is not simply doing something and getting it a little for no reason.