It’s Wednesday morning, and that means you’re gonna watch Andor. Season 1, Episode 11, Daughter of Ferrix, starts with Cassian and his buddy from prison hanging on a cliff face. So we’ve literally opened on the cliffhanger. I’m kidding. I mean, it’s funny.
They’re hiding from a patrol that’s flying around, obviously looking for them, and you find out later there’s a bounty of a thousand credits per head for anybody who turns them in.
Then we cut back to Ferrix, and you find out that Cassian’s mom has died. Maarva has passed away, and it’s a very sad scene. Everybody’s collecting and gathering up some things. And it doesn’t take a genius to know the Empire is ultimately going to try to use this to their advantage somehow.
I Wanted More of Maarva
The Daughters of Ferrix carry her out. I don’t know if that’s the official name or title for women from Ferrix, or what the deal is, but it’s a sad moment.
I feel like Maarva is a character we didn’t really get to see a lot of, or enough of, or understand her true motivations. We saw that she wanted to be part of the Rebellion. She wanted to help protect Ferrix. But I don’t know, I wanted more. I wanted more out of her, especially with that actress. I like Fiona Shaw. I thought she was really good, I think she’s a very talented actress, and I believe she could’ve given a lot more to that role.
The Locals Are Done With the Empire
Cassian and his dude see a quadjumper. We’re all familiar with quadjumpers from various Star Wars projects in the past. And there are these locals, Narkinians, who I guess are fishermen of some sort. So they make a bolt for the quadjumper, and that’s when these guys push a button that shoots a very convenient kind of netting, made out of big, thick, sticky, wet material, and they’re being dragged toward the thing.
The aliens are talking amongst themselves, and they’re like, these people, they come from the prison. That’s where we find out it’s a thousand credits per head. And they’re super complaining about the fact that the Empire showed up, caused trouble, ruined the waters, and now they’re ruining the land with these people.
Cassian manages to catch that they’re complaining, and he’s like, no, no, we’re not with the Empire, we’re against them, we’re just like you. And the guy’s like, oh yeah? So he releases them, and then asks where they’re going. Cassian has to get back to the place where he was staying, and we find out why a few minutes later. Finally the quadjumper powers up, and clearly they’re being taken somewhere to be dropped off.
So these locals, who are tired of the Empire ruining their planet, are willing to help them. Obviously the trend’s probably been going on, but this is the first time we really understand what’s happening. The more the Empire pushes, it’s literally what Leia said: the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. Lady knew what she was talking about.
Everybody Finds Out Maarva Is Dead
Then the report goes out, and everybody who’s watching finds out that Maarva is dead. It’s everyone, starting with Dedra Meero and the ISB. She’s like, you’d better watch this thing, I want it watched closely. The locals keep asking for a permit to have their funeral, the answer on the ground is we’re not going to do that, and she’s like, oh no, you are. I want a funeral. You want to box them in. She has a whole plan. Dedra Meero, I love to hate her, because she’s brilliant, and I love seeing that. But she’s still a very dangerous woman.
Then Luthen’s assistant finds out, because Vel comes and tells her. And Luthen’s assistant, that poor girl’s holding it together. Gosh, she’s holding it together so well. She’s trying so hard to keep everything together, down to the whole espionage thing. She’s like, we have rules for a reason, what are you doing, and she’s trying to play it off like, oh yeah, let me show you some things. And Vel’s like, are you crazy? It’s a fun interaction.
Bix is hauled out, and she’s shown a hologram of Anto Kreegyr, and she’s asked, is this the person that you saw? And she can’t answer. She’s so disturbed by everything that’s happened with how her questioning went. Remember, they tortured her, and specifically the way they tortured her was with the sounds of an alien species who, when they’re injured, make this wailing sound that’s very disturbing and messes with the human psyche. Sorry, the humanoid psyche. Whatever.
Mon Mothma Is Thinking About It
We cut to Mon Mothma, and at Mon’s place Vel’s coming to visit. You see Mon’s daughter at a table in almost a sorority setting, meaning there are other girls who are dressed similarly, and they’re doing a chant about the old ways. The way Vel and Mon react to it, apparently this is a really old thing that was done in their culture, and it had fallen out of fashion on Chandrila, but here at the capital, on Coruscant, it’s coming back stronger than ever. So Vel asks the question: are you taking proposals? Clearly this is some sort of coming-of-age ceremony for the women, and especially for Chandrilans.
And the whole time, she’s just thinking about dude’s offer. Oh yeah, she’s thinking about it. Little Miss “I’m not.” And he was all like, that’s the first thing you’ve said that’s a lie. Yeah. She’s totally thinking about it, because she’s desperate.
She explains the financial situation to Vel, and it’s bad. It’s mob style stuff. I guess for the whole first year of the Rebellion, or the beginning of the uprising, she was just cranking out money from her family’s fortune. Tons of it. She explains this whole network she’d set up, subsidiaries and bank accounts and the whole bit, and it would trickle down, and at the very end she’d collect the money and give it out to whoever needed it. Then all of a sudden Aldhani happens and everything gets locked down. Now there’s one ledger with a hardcore discrepancy and she has no means of fixing it, which is why she’s ultimately considering this thug’s offer.
And Vel’s like, oh man, you’re screwed.
Syril Gets the Call
We cut to Syril, a character we haven’t seen in a minute. Syril gets woken up in the middle of the night by his mom. He’s got a call. It’s his old sergeant, the guy who helped him way back in the first couple of episodes, when they were going to take on Cassian and chase him down. He’s telling Syril, hey, listen, you asked me for any information about Andor, and his mom has passed away. So Syril knows for a fact that if he’s going to make a move, it’s got to happen as soon as possible.
So again, everything’s converging. I used to believe we were in three-episode arcs. If you go back to the previous Mr. Know-It-Alls about this show, you end up with a setup episode, a bridge episode and a climax episode, three parts. I actually now believe we’re less in three-episode arcs and more in, well, it’s just good storytelling, man. It’s good storytelling.
And I didn’t mind this setup. This is clearly building to something, but it’s so clear that we’re all heading toward a collision. It reminds me of the episodes building up to the heist on Aldhani, in that there are a lot of things happening right now. Very exciting.
The Rebellion Finally Shows Us the Cost
Cassian breaks into the old suite he was staying in. He left a box there. There are credits and a couple of guns.
Then we shoot over to Luthen, who’s visiting Saw. Saw Gerrera is like, all right, you tell Anto Kreegyr we’re going to do this thing, it’s going to be great. And Luthen’s like, yeah, maybe not. So Saw gets super paranoid. Luthen tells him Kreegyr’s been made, and Saw’s like, wait, you’re not going to warn him, are you? Saw’s totally skeptical, a totally suspicious mind, sees everything. For a minute he’s like, who else is in on this? And Luthen’s like, oh, well, your right-hand guy here, he’s my inside man. And Saw’s like, what? Luthen finally pulls a gun on him and says, look, I’m pulling this gun on you to get you to listen to me. Calm down.
And Saw’s like, thirty men, huh? Plus Kreegyr. All right, plus Kreegyr. Well, you know, this is a war. It’s the cost of doing business. It’s the cost of the Rebellion.
This is a culture that has said the ends will justify the means. We’ve never been exposed to this side of the Rebellion. Okay, maybe a little teeny bit in some of the animated stuff, and we definitely saw some in Rogue One, but not to this depth. We all thought, with A New Hope and the rest of the Star Wars stuff, that the Rebellion’s always wearing white hats and they’re always the good guys. And they are. But the cost is something they never quantified for us until now.
This is really what’s getting me about the show. We’re seeing this level of inside involvement, and it’s staggering, and I’m really enjoying it. Because I feel like there’s no such thing as black and white. There isn’t. What there is is right and wrong, and sometimes right has to get its feet dirty in order to fight wrong. That’s where we are.
Heading for Ferrix
As the episode starts heading toward the end, Syril steals from his mom in order to travel, because he’s heading there. Luthen gets stopped by an Imperial patrol and manages to barely escape, but clearly they’re hot on his heels. And Cassian calls home. He contacts the guy he stopped off and visited a couple of times, only to find out his mom is dead.
Then we get this amazing moment where Cassian and the guy he escaped with are sitting there, and the guy’s like, people have to know what’s happening here. People have to understand what the Empire’s doing. And he’s right. You have to get the information out if you want this thing to grow and build. People have to know the atrocities the Empire’s undertaking in order to hold its grip on them. And again, the more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. That’s what this is all building toward.
Then you get this really great moment where Cassian looks out on the water, and I was immediately struck with echoes of Rogue One. There’s no explosion. The Death Star isn’t attacking and destroying anything. But man, when they’re there on Scarif and it’s just him and what’s-her-name, and they’re just watching. It echoed that for me. So I like what they’re doing. They’re looking forward into the future.
I’m still waiting for us to get K-2SO. I’m waiting for us to get that guy.
The Verdict
Andor Episode 11, Daughter of Ferrix, lands at an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
Funny enough, I usually give these setup episodes a low score. This wasn’t a bad episode. It wasn’t as good as last week’s. Last week’s was utter perfection, okay? Last week’s was 10 out of 10. This week I’m bringing it back to an eight. It’s a good episode, a solid episode. It didn’t knock my socks off, but it definitely set up some really nice things.
I’m excited for where we’re going, because we’re definitely heading toward a collision. Ferrix is gonna blow. I believe you’re going to get this massive explosion, and I mean an explosion in terms of effect, the things that are going to happen. It’s going to boil over. And as we head toward this climax, this confluence of all these different plot lines, I think what we’re going to end up with is the true birth of a version of the Rebellion.
I don’t know what’s going to happen this season. I know they’re talking about it, and we are going to get a season two.
The other thing I want to make sure we understand is that this show is to Disney+ what Game of Thrones is to HBO. What I mean by that is it’s showing us deep looks at the machinations of the Empire and the Rebellion, and the chess of it all. So when Tony Gilroy says it’s going to be two years before you get season two, I don’t doubt that, because they’re taking the show very seriously, and I love that.
I think the storytelling they’re doing is of a caliber they haven’t done in Star Wars ever, in terms of depth. Obviously there are great stories. I’m not trying to sit here and knock Rebels or Rogue One or whatever else. But there’s a depth of storytelling happening here that I’m finding amazing. It’s refreshing. It’s big.
Your turn. Tell me what you thought of Andor this week, because I’d love to hear your take. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. And never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.
