It’s a new Wednesday and it’s already a tradition for me to wake up to the sound of ‘Andor’ with a coffee and a notebook. This time the series Star Wars faces an arc that we can consider somewhat atypicalin which our protagonist has a passive (or null) role in the course of events in which the Empire begins to close siege.
By the way, from here spoilers for ‘Narkina 5’, the eighth episode of ‘Andor’.
work makes us free
After the arrest and conviction of Cassian Andor in ‘Declaration’, we come to the typical moment of “what now?” since our thief turned rebel unintentionally doesn’t have much room for maneuver, let’s say, in what we see him transferred to a peculiar imperial prison. Rather, a labor camp.
Which is hardly surprising considering that much of Tony Gilroy’s idea for the series is to explore the Empire as a totalitarian organism. Cassian’s arrest without the possibility of claiming is an example of this, and this labor prison designed to break the prisoner, in which the prisoners themselves are the ones who report if there are problems to avoid punishment.
But that “Keef” (as he calls himself) is in Narkina 5 assembling pieces does not imply that the rest of the world stops. Returning to BSI headquarters, Dedra (Denise Gough) has a first confrontation with Syril (¨Kyle Soller), who is making it difficult for him to investigate what is happening in Ferrix due to the continuous requests he is making about Cassian Andor in order to clear his own name.
A Andor of which nobody knows anything and everyone is looking for him. Among them, Bix (Adria Arjona) and Brasso (Joplin Sibtain), who are taking care of the mother (Fiona Shaw) as her health deteriorates. Bix’s attempts to track down Cassian are unsuccessful and lead to trouble when Dedra arrives on the planet and begins arresting and interrogating Cassian’s friends.
Secondly, Both Mon (Genevieve O’Reilly) and Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) continue to orchestrate their rebellion.. Each one continues with their purposes and their ideas. While the first continues on the political plane (with many obstacles), the second goes further into the underground and dangerous companies such as a meeting with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).
In what the Empire is putting fence, we have a jump month with Cassian in jail, where we see him apparently bent to the system. If in the first act of the episode we saw him observing the guidelines as much as possible, the incompetence of the guards and everything that could be useful for a possible escape, here we see him totally focused on his task. Of course, I do not think it will take long to see our protagonist in action again, but the difficulties are piling up and it will not be easy.
In short, this eighth episode has been vibrant in which both rebels and the Empire are placing their pieces. At least the players that are already familiar to us. Another good chapter that shows how well Star Wars works when you want to go to the difference.