Kassa & That Would Be Me
With Rogue One covered, it makes sense to jump straight to Andor. This is actually a weird milestone for me, as I haven’t actually seen any of the Disney+ Star Wars shows. I’ve heard good things about Obi-Wan and The Mandalorian and… not as good about The Book of Boba Fett, but I was burned out on the franchise when they debuted so I skipped them. But burnout or not, I’m tackling all these series! And I don’t feel like covering each episode one at a time like I did for most of the Marvel shows I talked about as they were being released, which is great, since not a lot happens in the first two episodes of Andor…
Is it really media about Cassian Andor without opening with him murdering someone who may not have deserved it? After failing to get information about his sister from a brothel, two guards decide to harass him, much to their demise. Displeasure. Both? Both. Now Cassian has to hide his tracks, which no one in his life is super surprised when he starts acting super shady since apparently he’s a bit of a fuckup. He goes to Bix (Adria Arjona, AKA Martine Bancroft from Morbius) wanting to talk to her contact because he has an Imperial ship component to sell, something she’s not happy to find out he’s been hiding from her. But it’s not like he’s her boyfriend or anything! Then again, her boyfriend, Timm (James McArdle) doesn’t trust Cassian, and apparently doesn’t trust Bix when she works with the rogue. We see an attempt to shake Cassian down by Nurchi (Raymond Anum) and then get chastised by Pegla (Kieran O’Brien) when Andor is caught changing the flight logs of the ship he used the night before. While all this is happening, the most uptight security enforcer whatever you’ve ever met named Syril (Kyle Soller) has taken it upon himself to solve the murder of the two guards, despite no one in the Imperial Bureau of Standards giving a shit. He cares way, way, way too much about his job so clearly he’s the antagonist. Oh, and by investigating the murder he’ll end up with Cassian in his crosshairs too, I guess.
The second episode is mostly setup. Timm absolutely shows his jealousy towards Cassian when the call goes out that Pre-Mor Security is looking for a male Kenari. The warrant is also heard by Andor’s adoptive mother figure, Maarva (Fiona Shaw, AKA Petunia Dursley from Harry Potter), who reveals that she’s been hiding Cassian’s past and that this is all his fuckup. Meanwhile, Syril works with another total brown-noser named Linus (Alex Ferns) as they track down Cassian and Bix’s black market contact who we eventually will learn is named Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) arrives on the planet. That’s mostly it for that episode.
Throughout the episodes we get flashbacks to Cassian’s early life on Kenari, the rural planet he grew up on that was ruined by an Imperial mining operation.. A spaceship crash lands, leading Cassian’s–or rather, Kassa’s–group to go investigate. They find the ship and several dead, yellow aliens, but one of their own gets shot and killed before they can down the survivor with blow darts. We also see moments with his sister, Kerri, who is the archetypical little sister.
Not as much happened in the first two episodes as I was expecting. These Disney+ shows tend to have pacing problems where it feels like the episode count was dictated without regard for the plot, resulting in pacing issues and several episodes that feel like padding. The Netflix Marvel shows had the same problem so maybe it’s a parent company thing? So while I planned on doing two episodes at a time, that may change depending on what happens–or doesn’t happen–in the next few episodes. Gotta stay flexible!
One thing I do want to get into is the phrase “5 BBY.” It pops up on screen at the start of the first episode and I’m sure a number of people wondered what the hell that means. So the Star Wars timeline is all centered around Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and specifically the climactic battle, the Battle of Yavin. See where this is going? 5 BBY means it takes place 5 years before A New Hope–and in this case, Rogue One which takes place days before the Battle of Yavin–and just picking a random Star Wars show, The Mandalorian‘s first season takes place around 9 ABY–after the Battle of Yavin–which is 5 years after Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. The more you know! May this help you… uh… win a trivia night at a bar? Look, if I was a fount of useful information I’d be getting paid.
Next: Coming Soon
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