I’m really enjoying this series. I know I was hard on last week’s episode, but what I was hard on was how it stopped, and Mrs. Know-It-All gets it now, because after she watched it she looked at me and went, oh, I see why.
It’s Wednesday morning, which means we’ve just watched Andor, and this week’s episode is called The Axe Forgets. We’ve got something else starting on Friday too, so we’re never sleeping again.
Mrs. Know-It-All liked this one because it sets up what’s about to happen. That’s also where the nerves come in. We’ve got this great buildup now. We know it’s heisty. We’re ready. The fear in our house is that with this many episodes, the heist gets split across a couple of them when it should just be the heist. Think about The Mandalorian season two, the one where they had to go into the Imperial base. He arrived at the very end of the previous episode, hey, I could use your help, and then the whole next episode was the job. I could see that happening here. I’m totally speculating.
One Long Movie, Cut in Threes
We’ve talked about this before: they probably filmed this like an entire movie and they’re cutting it up. So far, so good. These are, relatively speaking, hour-long episodes. Episode two was 38 minutes, but everything else is 43, 50, 46.
And just like the first three, you can’t have these two by themselves. I could easily see them building this in three-episode crunches. There are 24 episodes. That’s eight sections of story.
This must’ve been an arduous process, too. They had to go to a lot of locations, and you can tell this week because they’re outside. We’ve had to film outside before. Having the right lighting is only the start of it. There’s the time of day, and you have to be ready for the elements if it rains. They look cold. I can’t wait until the series is finished, because that’s usually when Disney Plus drops the behind-the-scenes stuff, and I want to see what filming 24 episodes this intensely looked like.
Skeen, and What Cassian Finally Admits
We pick up pretty much where we left off, and I’m okay with that. Cassian is with the group and they still don’t trust him. He and Skeen keep bumping heads, because Skeen is sure something’s up. What’s actually going on is simpler. There’s information Skeen doesn’t have, and he hates it, because it makes Cassian look like he’s keeping something from them. In this type of heistiness, that could be detrimental to the mission. I totally get it.
So Cassian realizes he’s got to fess up to something, and he’s not going to give them any good dirt. What he gives them is this: I’m being paid. And everybody clutches their pearls. He’s like, what does it matter? You need me.
And clearly they needed the paid help, because in every conversation this guy is going, are you kidding, this is your plan? At one point there’s this monorail thing that’s their only way to leave when they get out, and it’s latched in. He asks, you know how to get this off, right? And they don’t. He freaks out. What were you going to do if I didn’t show up? Then he says that’s it, nobody else is allowed to do this piece but me, because he’s the only one who knows how to get the thing loose. It took me a second to realize what he was getting at, and then I went, oh my God, he’s very quick.
I see him very fast becoming the Cassian Andor from Rogue One. If you remember, when we first see him there, he’s talking to the guy in the alley, the stormtroopers show up, and what does he do? He shoots the guy. You’re screaming, you’re acting like an idiot, this is not going to happen. He’s becoming that guy fast, if he wasn’t always that guy from the beginning. You can hear it in how he talks to them. What are you all worried about? They paid me to be here. That means I’m more invested, because for me this is a job. For you guys it’s your quest, your own personal rebellion.
Everyone Has Their Own Rebellion
That’s the line of the episode. The exact line is “everyone has their own rebellion,” and it’s a great one.
Look at the Imperial lieutenant, the Rebellion sympathizer on the inside. (I couldn’t find his credit, and I’m sorry about that. I don’t mean Ben Bailey Smith, who plays the lieutenant supervisor.) He’s walking around getting everything ready, and I can see him playing the game he’s supposed to be playing. That’s it, you’re punished, you don’t get the holiday off. They’re begging, please, please. One guy even has to tell him that anything more than a skeleton crew is going to piss everybody off. So he says fine, you can have the day off, and he turns around, and you know in his head he’s going, that’s right. Day off. Clear out. As few people as possible.
He’s angry at the Empire for overlooking him for a promotion, even demoting him over his local love interest. But at the end of the day he doesn’t want to murder people. These are still his coworkers. Mrs. Know-It-All made the point that this is the thing we know about the Imperials: they don’t care. And the one thing The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett established is that there are people serving the Empire, more than just stormtroopers. Back in The Mandalorian you’ve got that one guy on the ship who says he had good people on that base. People do end up dying. So yes, this lieutenant is going to help the Rebellion. He’s going to poke the Empire in the eye. But Phil works over there. Steve works over there. Joe’s over in sanitation.
Mrs. Know-It-All brought up the same thing from The Mandalorian, when they went into the Imperial base and blew it up. Bill Burr’s character was one of those people who went into a village and wiped the village out, and then his entire team was wiped out.
Everybody has their reason. For the lieutenant it’s, my girl left me and I got overlooked for promotions, F the Empire. For Cassian it’s, pay me. I was raised an orphan, and the Empire abused me and mistreated me.
Mon Mothma, and a Line My Wife Read Better Than I Did
Things aren’t going well for Mon Mothma. Poor thing, she’s a wreck and a mess. It’s funny seeing her family as Imperial sympathizers, and by that I just mean they’re very much, hey, it’s the government, it is what it is. She’s doing her best to help fund what will eventually be the Rebellion, and she’s losing her family doing it.
There’s a scene that I think is the equivalent of taking her daughter to work, and her kid literally calls her out. You’re just doing this to show you’re a mom. And when Mon leaves, she says thanks so much, everyone, for your support.
I took that as her basically admitting it. Yes, that’s exactly why I’m doing it, because that’s how our Star Wars version of Game of Thrones works. I have to look like I’m good.
That’s not what Mrs. Know-It-All got. She was a working mom at one point, and her read was that the line was aimed at the husband, because he didn’t back her up in the argument with the daughter.
She’s probably right. I took it from a writer’s perspective, and as a husband I probably should’ve caught it. We’re relatively newlywed, just over three years, and I can absolutely hear one of us saying something along those lines: wow, thanks for supporting me in front of the kid. There’ve been only a handful of times we’ve had that situation with Baby Know-It-All. Either way, we’ll find out for sure.
Vel, Cinta, and the Healer
Did you know those two were together? Vel, played by Faye Marsay, is with Cinta, played by Varada Sethu, who is a really cool actress. I like her a lot.
Cinta is the one doing the healing on Cassian, making sure his wound is all right. She tells him the wound looks really good, and he says, you’re a healer. Vel took that as flirting. Hey, watch yourself. Maybe this is a guy and girl thing, but I took it as talent sees talent. Out of all these people, you have a valuable skill set. You’re basically a doctor, and you always have to have a doctor on the team. He respects that. Vel’s over there going, all right, what’s all this.
The One Imperial Who Sees It Coming
Mrs. Know-It-All pulled out the blonde officer, Dedra Meero, who’s noticing the little factions here and there while nobody on the Imperial side listens to her. It’s one of the best scenes in the episode.
Dude flat out asks her why she’s so obsessed with this idea. Maybe it’s randomness. And she says no, you’re right, it probably is. It’s just that if there was going to be a rebellion, this is how I would do it.
That’s so smart, because that’s how you have to think. FBI profilers do it. How would I pull this off? I’d have tiny little things happening at different times so they look random, and I’d keep it that way until we’re ready to be a thing. I like her character. I like what she represents and where she’s going.
Syril, His Mother, and Uncle Harlo
Then there’s the slimy guy, Syril, Kyle Soller’s character. At the end of last episode he ended up at his mom’s front door and she took him in. You find out she’s basically Howard Wolowitz’s mom. She hugs him, and then it’s what are you looking at, get out of here, in this maybe Italian, maybe Yiddish New York accent. She’s adorable.
The punished son routine continues this week. He’s sitting in the booth at home, miserable, eating cereal, and she’s going, why didn’t you come visit when you had better means? You don’t have any prospects, do you? It’s the classic mom argument. What’s your plan? What’s next? And then there’s Uncle Harlo, who she makes sound like a bit of a criminal, or at least somebody who does something underhanded. Maybe Syril ends up his new bodyguard, or works for him.
I find it fascinating that we’re following this character, because we know he and Cassian are going to face off again. And remember, everyone has their own rebellion, and Syril has a reason to hate the Empire right now. My speculation is they fight, and then Cassian brings him over. This is where you need to be.
Mrs. Know-It-All hopes he joins, but she can see it going the other way. She can see the backstabbing, spy-ish version, where he turns them in to the Imperial forces and ruins everything. She kind of likes him and really doesn’t like him. He’s so slimy sometimes.
I think we’re going to see two types of Cassian. There’s the one I just described, the guy who goes, I’m sorry, you’re going to be a problem for this whole thing, bang, no second thought. Then there’s the other one. I wouldn’t be shocked by a scene where those two finally come to blows, and right before Cassian’s about to kill him, Syril says go ahead. I have nothing left. The Empire took everything. All I have left is my mom. And that’s where I can see Cassian going, you think I like the Empire any more than you do? He basically speeches him into joining. If it wasn’t for the fact that you’re a jerk, you do have skills, bro. If you hate them that much, let’s go. Me and these people are poking them in the face.
Mrs. Know-It-All liked my speech. I’m Puerto Rican, trust me. I know how to be Spanish, or Kenari, who are basically the Star Wars Cubans.
And from there you see Syril flip, you see his mom become a sympathizer, she tries to help him, and then either he gets caught and Mom feels all guilty about it, or some version of that. As Baby Know-It-All likes to say, the story writes itself, let’s do this. That’s what happens when you raise a kid in television. They think they’re a producer.
Where I Think the Rebels Are Headed
I keep talking about this moment in Rogue One. The council says we’re not sending anybody to Scarif, and all of a sudden Cassian walks up with forty-some-odd guys behind him. I believe that group is made of exactly the kinds of people we’re seeing in this episode. People who got picked up little by little, mission upon mission. Oh, you’re a healer, I want you with me. And the next thing you know, Cassian’s building his own team, a mercenary group for the Rebellion. His promise is that you’re going to get paid, and I’m also going to give you what your heart wants.
Mrs. Know-It-All’s last thought was Luthen. She’s starting to believe he’s the one running all those little factions. I’m with her. Last episode, when he and Mon Mothma were talking, it came up that she wants to bring someone else into the council. I think what they’re talking about is the council of allied worlds, the group that in Rogue One votes not to go help. We’re watching the greater formation of that group, and I think Luthen is the one facilitating it, just like she said.
So there you go. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. You’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.
The Verdict
Andor Episode 5, The Axe Forgets, gets two numbers on the Know-It-All Index, because there are two of us on the couch and we landed half a point apart: a 7.5 out of 10 and a straight 7.
I’m more forgiving this week. The 7.5 stopped short of a full eight for wanting a little more. Hard to say where. It didn’t end abruptly, it was just, okay.
As soon as the episode was over I said this is a setup episode, and a good one. I was engaged. There are bridge episodes, which I hate, where we’ve got to waste time to get from A to B. This one is actual build. It’s the night before the heist. Everybody’s taking a break, everybody’s chilling, and a lot of things are coming to a head, even Skeen finally confronting him. All of it is building to the next episode.
And I’m with Mrs. Know-It-All. I hope they encapsulate the whole thing in one shot. What I think we’ll actually get is two halves. I think the heist itself gets done next week, and we get the fullness of it. But the heist isn’t over until they get away. So the episode after that is the chase, the fight, your major-budget Star Wars with the fight in space and the whole bit, and eventually they get somewhere, even a small version of a Rebellion base or a Rebellion ship. I think the greater Rebellion is going to be open to them very soon.
Your turn. Tell me what you thought of the episode, and tell me whether Syril ends up on Cassian’s side or sells them all out. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. And never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.
