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Andor: Reckoning

“Don’t you want to fight these bastards for real?”

After two episodes of set up and moving pieces around the board, things just got real.

What a fabulous episode, and it is really mind boggling how well it pays off all those setups from the first two episodes. Every single plot thread makes sense now, and I can only imagine what is coming next now that Andor is jetting off with Luthen.

First off, let's talk about the emotional conclusion of little Kassa on Kenari. Kassa went into the ship and started breaking things. It isn’t entirely clear why, but it can be extrapolated that he is releasing frustration and anger over the people that destroyed his world. Their technology, their intrusion on his life and finally how they killed the leader of his tribe that he clearly looked up to. That little primal scream when he caught his face in the reflection was really powerful.


Enter Maarva, who sees this boy and her heart immediately goes out to him. She is simply unable to leave him there to die, so she takes him away from his world and his sister. While well meaning, this was heartbreaking in a way. It also set him on a path to become Cassian Andor, a cold, calculating, manipulative thief who is capable of cold-blooded murder. What’s clear is these foundational moments are when he lost his innocence, and gone is the sweet kid who was shy about painting his face with ash.

Cut to present day and Cassian is running out of time. He has the corpos on his tail now, and he is desperate for credits, so he meets Bix’ buyer. Except Luthen doesn’t really want his Starpath unit, he wants to recruit Andor. It’s an interesting turn about, because the scene is a lovely verbal sparring match between the two. Both are clearly intelligent, but come from different places. Things escalate quickly, into one of the most interesting shootout scenes I’ve ever seen.

The chaos of the blaster fire, combined with the massive swinging weights falling at regular intervals, the visual shorthand for tension was off the charts, and yet we never lost the geography of the action, as we knew where Cassian and Luthen were, we just didn’t fully know where the assailants were. That point of view on the battle made it feel like we were in Cassian’s shoes, and damn, it was a bad place to be.


Thankfully they did both escape, turn the tables on Syril and even made the entire squad of corpos look like fools. I imagine there will be some consequences for this, as Syril looked like someone had stepped on his grave in those final moments. I loved how competent our ‘heroes’ are compared to the bumbling rentacops with ill fitting ugly uniforms. Did I mention how awful those uniforms are? I mean, the Empire sucks, but at least they have a sense of fashion, call it Nazi chic.

The other major thing to happen is Timm’s death, and that was like instant karma. It was hard watching Bix see him die, the body just left in the streets even after Bix is freed. What a statement on the world they all live in. An unarmed civilian is killed for doing nothing more than trying to protect his girlfriend, then left like meat for someone else to deal with. Hmmm, that might be a bit too on the nose for an allegory for today. This show isn’t really pulling punches, apparently.

The corpos displayed quite a lack of humanity several times, from the way they tried to steamroll Maarva, to the excitement they showed at the prospect of capturing and possibly killing Cassian. What is painfully clear is they are a product of a cold fascist state, outsourced for grunt work like a planet-sized version of Blackwater. What absolutely incredible world building. We haven’t even seen the Empire yet, and they are already being painted as the boogeyman.

Bits:

This episode marks the first time the word ‘Shit’ has ever been uttered in an on-screen Star Wars production.

Cassian’s blaster is a classic weapon from the 1995 video game Star Wars: Dark Forces used by the main character, which has never been in live action before.

B2EMO getting the call from Cassian at the absolute wrong moment is a callback to similar issues with Luke and Obi-wan calling R2D2 in the main sequence films.

I absolutely loved seeing a shiny and new B2EMO, probably capable of telling three lies in his prime.

The action in this episode was relatively simple, but abrupt and deadly. From Brazzo’s sabotaging one of the corpo transports, to Luthen blowing up that speeder at the end. It was all really well done and very engaging.

Quotes:

Luthen: “These days will end, Cassian Andor. The way they laugh. The way they push through a crowd. The sound of that voice telling you to stop, to go, to move. Telling you to die.”

Cassian: “To steal from the Empire? What do you need? A uniform, some dirty hands and an Imperial tool kit. They're so proud of themselves, they don't even care. They're so fat and satisfied, they can't imagine it.”
Luthen: “Can't imagine what?”
Cassian: “That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.”
Luthen: “The arrogance is remarkable, isn't it? They don't even think about us.”

This wasn’t just a massive improvement over the first couple of episodes, it makes the time setting things up and developing characters feel important and earned.

3.5 out of 4 Exploding Speeders

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.

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