I’m so happy to be back, because it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Short story, real quick. I was at my daughter’s softball game and all of a sudden I felt a pain in my chest. One of the softball moms happens to be a nurse, so she looks me over and says, hey man, maybe we shouldn’t take a risk on it, and I ended up getting rushed to the hospital.
Come to find out, I didn’t have anything wrong with my heart, so thank you for your concern. What I did have was walking pneumonia. Mr. Know-It-All is a pretty hard-working guy, the walking pneumonia had begun to take its toll, and I needed to take a break for a minute. I apologize for dropping off. But we’ve got some Star Wars to get caught up on.
Mrs. Know-It-All and I had noticed a pattern in the first several episodes of Andor: every three episodes felt like its own self-contained story. We figured we’d experiment with that, so we let Episodes 7, 8 and 9 stack up. Announcement, Narkina 5 and Nobody’s Listening. I thought nine was going to be the last part of this little three-part deal. I was wrong, by the way. Episode 10 is actually the final part, so you’re getting all four.
Announcement: Everybody Goes Home, and the Empire Wakes Up
The story picks up right where we left off. They did their thing, it worked, and Cassian goes home with money in his pocket, the 200,000 credits they promised him. He’s back in the same place where we started, and he finds his mom, and she’s not all there anymore.
What he wants is to go to some pleasure planet, some vacation world, the equivalent of Planet Fiji, and ride this whole thing out. Let the Empire do what the Empire’s going to do. So he visits everybody, his mom, Bix, the whole bit, and finally he leaves. His mom, however, has decided she wants to be a rebel. She has to stay, because someone has to fight for the planet. Oh, she’s great. She’s a complete sweetheart, she genuinely is.
Meanwhile you start to notice how much more seriously the Empire is going to take all of this. It’s escalated everything. You get this really amazing meeting with all the ISB folks, and the head guy, Colonel Yularen, played by Malcolm Sinclair, who does a really good job, wants to know what is happening here. So Dedra Meero has to stand up and say, this is what I believe is happening, and we need to figure this thing out. They do some sector shifting, and Major Partagaz gives her the authority to investigate wherever this thing takes them.
She’s a bad lady. Let me just tell you, she is 100 percent a bad lady, and I love her. No, I really do. She’s utterly amazing. And now that she’s getting everyone’s support, her staff is starting to step up and flex the way she’d want them to.
Mon Mothma goes back to visit Luthen and asks him, was this us? And Luthen’s like, I don’t know what you’re talking about, I have no idea, not me. Later she tells him the Empire is going to react, and he says, “I’m counting on it.” He wants the Empire to push hard. That’s the beginning of everything, and it’s where I started to see the machinations of what’s really going on.
Then the end of the hour. Cassian’s on his vacation planet, relaxing, enjoying life, and the Empire’s there chasing some folks. He just wants to stay out of the Empire’s way, and he gets cornered and arrested anyway. And he gets judged, because the ISB has changed all the rulings on how they’re sentencing people.
Episode 7 gets a solid eight from me. I liked it. It didn’t blow my socks off, but it’s definitely a beginning episode.
Narkina 5: Barefoot on a Metal Floor
Narkina 5 is where Cassian gets sentenced to. Everyone’s barefoot, everyone works, and the floor is metal, because if you misbehave they just electrocute you through the floor. All the guards are wearing insulated boots.
And that’s where you get to meet Andy Serkis’s character. I love anytime Andy Serkis gets the opportunity to actually be something without a mask or some sort of motion capture thing, and I like this character a lot. He plays Kino Loy, the shift manager, the floor manager of this area. There are different floors, and Cassian’s on level five.
When Cassian first gets there, Kino explains the whole system. They’re competing against other floors and other tables, and it costs them if they’re behind on their quotas. They’re building something. The Empire is using them for free prison labor, which is nothing to be surprised about.
During all this, Luthen makes a trip to a good friend of ours, somebody you’ll recognize from Rogue One: Saw Gerrera. Forest Whitaker plays an amazing character, one of those who came over from the animated series, because he was actually there back then. And what’s great is he looks younger and less haggard than we see him in Rogue One.
Saw spends the conversation naming off all these different rebel groups, rebel factions if you will. Luthen’s like, look man, I’m giving you an opportunity, I’ve got this guy who wants to go do some stuff, you want to help him or not? And Saw passes. Whatever you guys are doing, I’m sure it’s going to be fun, but I’m here for the long haul.
Saw’s mindset is that everyone else should be following his cues. You want to create a rebellion, then follow my lead. He doesn’t trust anybody else. He believes all the others are eventually going to get infiltrated and destroyed. He’s not fully the super suspicious guy we know from Rogue One yet, but man, he’s on his way there. He’s not using the full-blown breather either, but he’s definitely taking hits of air.
Narkina 5 gets a seven. I don’t think it’s bad. It’s a middle, bridge episode, and it’s slow. Very, very slow. It’s one of those where I was sitting there going, is it really going to be like this?
Nobody’s Listening: A Hundred Men to Keep a Secret
They don’t tell you how much time has passed, but it’s enough for Cassian to have established himself with the group that works his table. Early on they show him connecting with a guy from a different table as he goes to the bathroom, and the two of them are assessing the place. They figure out the lifts that move up and down don’t have the electrical connection in the floor, and they guess it’s because it would short out the lift. Kino’s not stupid. He can tell they’re plotting something, and he tells them so: you think you’re going to do something, you’re going to get everybody in trouble, stop acting ridiculous.
Meanwhile one of the old guys at the table is starting to get sick, and they try to help by taking some of the work off him.
Let me back up, because I don’t want to go too fast. Mon Mothma has a dinner, an event of some kind, and her buddy from before, the other Chandrilan, shows up. He says, look, I can help you move your money, but they’re setting up new banking restrictions and overseers and all kinds of processes, so there’s somebody who might be able to help. He says a name, and she’s immediately like, that’s not a banker, that’s a criminal. He’s a thug. Essentially the Chandrilan mafia.
There’s precedent for this in real life. Back in World War II, in order to protect our docks, the United States government, Secret Service and whatnot, employed the mob. It’s not uncommon for people to turn toward less reputable characters to help maintain order or move things forward for their cause. So she’s going to talk to this guy, but she’s not really feeling it.
Back in the prison, all the groups are out on their little bridge platforms, and one of the guys who’s been sign languaging with somebody on another floor is frantic. There’s a rumor something crazy happened two levels up.
Then the old man has a stroke. Kino and Cassian stay with him. The guards bring in a medical inmate, same outfit, but with blue on the shoulders instead of the orange, and he looks real upset. They’re telling him it’s okay, he gets out in 41 days, and dude keeps implying, look man, I wouldn’t worry about when he gets out.
When they realize the old man’s dead, Cassian asks him what happened up on level two. He doesn’t want to talk about it. So Kino finally asks. The guard has stepped away to see what’s taking the stretcher so long, and in that brief window they find out. Someone from level four was released and then showed up on level two. Everyone found out, and they had to kill the entire floor. A hundred men, killed to keep the secret.
Cassian had been asking Kino one question the whole episode, how many guards are there, and Kino wasn’t going to talk to him about any of it. Now he answers. Eleven on at any given time.
Man, it’s good stuff. The title comes from earlier in the hour, back in the bunk area, when somebody’s telling Cassian to be quiet. And he goes, what are you talking about? They don’t care about us. Nobody’s listening. And he shouts it.
Episode 9 gets a nine. It began to turn, and I really liked where it was going. It just wasn’t the ending I thought it was going to be.
One Way Out: The Stake in the Ground
The episode starts with the medical guy carting out the old man’s body, and Kino and Cassian standing there having witnessed the whole thing. Cassian tells him, we’ve got to break out, and it’s got to be tomorrow. We can’t wait.
I didn’t even know this until now: there are 5,000 men in that place, and only about 11 guards on deck at any given time. It’s the old circus adage. You raise an elephant from a very young age with a stake in the ground, this long, keeping it there. The elephant gets huge and never tries to fight the stake, because that’s how it was kept in line since it was a baby. One day you find out that stake isn’t going to hold you.
That’s Cassian’s whole argument. Kino points at the hundred men they just wiped out and says, I call that power. Cassian calls it panicking. Real power doesn’t freak out. They know it’s 5,000 men against about 11. So Kino’s fighting what he already knows to be true, and Cassian’s hitting him in the face with it, and ultimately Kino decides, okay, we absolutely have to do this thing.
Back in the dorm, everyone wants to know what’s going on, and the two of them have to tell the truth. You’re not leaving. Nobody’s going anywhere. A man released from one floor was found on another, and they’re making it up as they go. But since the old man’s dead, they’re going to bring a new prisoner in to replace him, and that’s the only opportunity they’ve got: when that lift comes down. Remember the lift from the last episode.
The ISB Sets a Trap, and Mon Mothma Gets a Price
Over at the ISB, Dedra has a really interesting scene with a guy we’ve seen before, Supervisor Lonni Jung, played by Robert Emms. They catch a pilot off a rebel ship, and the plan is to kill the pilot and make the whole thing look like nobody knows what happened, then see who comes to investigate. They’re trying to trap the rebel group Luthen was going to use since Saw Gerrera wasn’t available, and come to find out that group is already being watched by the Empire. It’s a whole thing.
Sure enough, people begin to investigate. And that’s when Lonni has the great idea: we need to investigate this ship ourselves, because if we hadn’t set it up, that’s what we’d normally do. Partagaz is like, yes, let’s do that. It’s smart. Dedra’s people are all taking their cues from her now and reacting the way she would.
Then Mon Mothma. The guy she doesn’t want to talk to shows up at her place. He’s not the mafia, but he’s a criminal for sure, and he’s so smarmy about it. Hey, let’s just talk, we’re all Chandrilans here. She’s doing her best to tell him he’s a criminal, and he’s like, what are you talking about? It’s your money. The Empire set up these new financial laws and didn’t even ask you guys in the Senate.
She tells him she doesn’t want to owe any favors, let me just pay you. And he doesn’t want money. Discomfort is probably going to be the price of doing business. All he wants is an invite back for him and his 14-year-old son. She asks if he’s asking for a betrothal, because apparently that’s a thing Chandrilans do. No, he says, I just want to make an introduction and let whatever happens happen.
She has him shown out. He says, that’s all right, give it some thought. She says she’s not thinking about it. And he turns around and tells her that’s the first dishonest thing she’s said.
He knows the deal. He knows he’s got her, because she needs this. You’ve got to remember she’s eventually going to become the Mon Mothma we know, a leader in the Rebellion, stands tall, the whole bit. So she’s got to come down off her high horse very soon, and I believe we’re going to get to see that transformation in this series. They’re eventually going to have to run, too, because they end up on Yavin. That’s where the rebel base gets built.
And Luthen gets a call for a meeting. His assistant is very distrusting. It’s a trap, you shouldn’t go. And he’s like, what am I supposed to do? I’ve got to do this thing.
The Water, the Floor, and 5,000 Men
The next day on Narkina 5 they all go to work and bide their time. Toward the end of the shift, when they know the new man is coming, Cassian goes back to the bathroom and that pipe he’d been trying to break finally breaks. Water’s pouring out, he’s covered in it, and I didn’t even understand why. I was sitting there like, is water going to make it worse?
The lift comes down. He jams the tool he broke the pipe with into the elevator and sticks it where it’s at. Him and his partner, the guy from the other table, start jumping at the thing and climbing up. Everybody on the floor starts throwing tools, parts, machinery, everything they’ve got, up at the guards, and the guards on the platform are shooting down. Finally the guards go for the floor. Kino yells for everybody to get on the tables, everybody jumps up, the electricity flares, and it shorts out the entire floor.
That’s why they did the water. I was just like, yes. So brilliant.
They fight their way up the elevator while the thing tilts. Cassian gets his hands on one of the rifles because a guard fell, and the next thing you know it’s a genuine uprising. They make it out, they’re running through the hallways, and they’re going to every floor and every workspace they can, opening the gates and telling everybody this is your one chance. One way out. Hence the chant. Oh man, it’s amazing.
They make it to the control center, and Cassian tells Kino it’s got to be him. You’re the leader, you’re the one who’s got to say it. He pushes him toward the mic. And Kino gets on it and literally says one of the things Cassian had said to him: I would rather die trying to escape than die giving them what they want. I was like, yeah man, do it.
He opens up the prison. Whoever you are, start climbing, and if you see somebody slow down or fall, you help him along too, because this is our one and only shot.
They all run for the places where the ships used to land, and it’s just big giant holes. They’re in the middle of an ocean with land in the distance. And everyone starts jumping, because that’s how much they need to be free. I don’t blame them. They show this really great shot from the sky, and all you see is these white dots, swimming.
If I was in that situation, where I was going to die no matter what, yeah, I think I’d jump too. I absolutely think I would.
Then Kino says, I can’t swim. He’s kind of resolved himself to it, and I’m sitting there like, bro, try. What other option have you got? Jump, man, jump and go. You’re going to die either way. You may as well die trying to swim to freedom as let them take you out.
Luthen’s Bill
The button on this episode is Luthen’s meeting, and come to find out, Lonni’s an informant. Lonni explains the whole situation, and Luthen essentially says, okay, we’re going to sacrifice Kreegyr’s people. He does it to protect Lonni’s cover.
Lonni wants out. He’s got a family, he’s putting them in danger, and he wants to know what Luthen has ever had to sacrifice. Luthen’s answer is everything. Love, family, people, connections, trust. All of it.
Luthen is right in line with the mentality Cassian espouses when we first see him in Rogue One: the Rebellion, the cause, above everything else, and people can be sacrificed for it. So Lonni’s staying where he is, it sucks, I’m sorry, but those are the choices. We make the ugly choices so people can eventually have their future.
It’s both a selfish and a selfless mentality. Selfish because what he wants is going to happen no matter what. Selfless because he’s right, he’s had to give everything up.
The Verdict
Andor Episodes 7 through 10 land at an 8, a 7, a 9 and a 10 on the Know-It-All Index, one number per episode.
Announcement is a solid eight. Narkina 5 is a seven. Nobody’s Listening is a nine, so that’s nine for Episode 9. And the Know-It-All Index for Episode 10, appropriately, is a 10.
That’s the second ten I’ve given an episode. It was brilliant, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. I’m enjoying the heck out of this show.
I’m going back to doing these weekly, provided I’m not sick like I was for the last two weeks. We’re also doing some new things in the areas of Star Trek and Doctor Who, because we’re trying to cover all the fandoms. We’re a bunch of geeks in this house. Mrs. Know-It-All and baby Know-It-All say hello to each and every one of you.
Your turn. 5,000 men, an ocean, land in the distance, and you’re dead either way if you stay. Do you jump? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. And never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.
