Andor Recap: No Creature Comforts

As we jump ahead a year (to BBY 3) from the previous Andor arc, much of the episode follows two distant but smartly entwined threads: Cassian and Bix, trying to keep a low profile on Coruscant; and Syril Karn, in the midst of fomenting change on Ghorman, the planet known for its twill, introduced earlier this season. Both locations sort of feel like the Star Wars version of Nazi-occupied France (or at least movies about Nazi-occupied France) — Ghorman in particular, because of its smaller size and its gathering Ghorman Front, a band of resistors not yet affiliated with the broader rebellion. (They are more organized than the rebels we met on what turned out to be Yavin in the previous arc, at least. Presumably they shape up, or get killed by other, more organized rebels.)

Syril, we learn, has been promoted (or placed “on the shelf,” as his dear mother suggests?) into heading his bureau’s Ghorman field office (“counting spiders” — again, per Eedy). He’s contacted by the Ghorman Front, and discreetly attends one of their meetings, where he learns of their anti-Empire movement and accompanying plans to fight back in some way. Given the off-putting unease with which Syril carried himself for much of last season, it’s sort of a jolt to see him not just keeping his cool but appearing actively sympathetic to a group of anti-Empire strangers.

The Cassian/Bix story is less eventful, which is also what makes it valuable. We’re seeing a pair of devoted but frayed rebel fighters in their downtime, which can be its own form of hell. Bix still has nightmares about the man who tortured her, chased with a lingering guilt about the men (even if Imperial soldiers) who have died not precisely in a traditional battle, but to keep her and Cassian safe. Despite all this, she seems to feel safer than Cass does, even as he argues that “the insanity of the city keeps us safe,” at least compared to other places they could be hiding out. He’s ultra-protective and therefore more actively paranoid. Bix, perhaps seeking respite from her trauma, just wants to be able to run simple errands and maybe find a way to enjoy what little they have in their shadow existence. It’s emotionally evocative stuff, especially considering how many romantic relationships in Star Wars tend to be forged in run-and-gun adventure situations. The domesticity that Bix and Cass get to experience here is a cruelly poor imitation.

The lines of communication between the two planets open several times: Once on a fuzzy connection between Syril and Eedy, who has fully bought into the anti-Ghorman propaganda that Krennic and his cronies/underlings have further stirred up since the previous arc. The real purpose of this chat, though, is it’s an opportunity for Syril to demonstrate his possible sympathies to the regular citizens of Ghorman, easy to do when speaking to his always-unpleasant mother; later, he puts in another clearer, more urgent call back to Coruscant to speak with Dedra, the partner he supposedly left behind. It turns out he’s using his bugged office as bait, to lure the Front into trusting him, so that he might gather information and feed it back to Dedra. Dedra (looking surprisingly chic back on Coruscant) seems like the truer object of his loyalty, but you also wonder: Is he just enjoying feeling wanted? Reveling in the fact that even in this supposedly unglamorous position in an unglamorous location, factions of both sides now hope he’ll inform them of what the other is up to?

There’s one more Coruscant-Ghorman connection in the episode’s final stretch, as Luthen calls Cassian in with an unusually quiet mission: Go skulk around Ghorman and assess whether the Ghorman Front can be brought into the bigger rebellion. It’s a vague assignment, but it gives Cass something to do — and that something is worrying about Bix, who Luthen does not want on the mission with him. His worry is well-founded; after he leaves, she ventures out to procure some drops, which is sci-fi for “hard drugs.”

Bix turning to drugs in her isolation and trauma is pretty hackneyed, and caps off a less intriguing back half of the episode, where Andor’s second-season weakness as a vast, ensemble-driven, multi-chapter, four-year epic moves to the fore. Rather than following two specific points of view that are about to converge in some way, the show has to throw in a few other scenes for the sake of clear storytelling — for the greater good of the series, rather than the individual episode. So there’s a sequence of Mon Mothma failing to whip votes against Empire legislation, including from a Ghorman rep, who fears making the planet into even more of a target; a scene where Luthen meets with one of his informants again; and a scene where Cass and Bix’s pal Wilmon completes his own mission, bringing some fuel-stealing tech over to the slightly batty revolutionary Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). That mission isn’t complete because Saw essentially decides to hold him prisoner until he can teach more of his group how to use the device.

These scenes are all fine, if a little perfunctory, but they indirectly point to something else that nags at me about Andor, in this episode in particular: Where are the alien creatures? (For these purposes, when I say “alien” I mean characters who do not present as purely human. That is, characters that involve some degree of makeup, puppetry, or CG. You know: Star Wars aliens.) During the previous arc, I complained about the complete lack of mention of Geonosians, the buglike creatures who worked on an early design of the Death Star. The Empire itself has always been depicted as human-driven, presuming some kind of disdain for other types of creatures as lower in some way, so fair enough that Krennic isn’t dying to give proper credit to the bug race wiped out in one of the TV shows. But it also feels like Tony Gilroy and company, hoping to be taken as seriously as possible, are just as eager to scrub those types of characters from their series, relegating them to bit parts whenever possible.

Ergo, we somehow spend a fair amount of time on Ghorman, a planet whose economy depends on spider-produced twill, without ever catching so much as a glimpse of the actual spiders, except in newsreel footage a few episodes ago, and in this episode as stuffed trinkets that merchants sell to tourists. If the aliens are meant to be the othered underclass, why is just about everyone at the Ghorman Front meeting also human? Coruscant, too, looks a lot human-heavier than it did in the prequel films. Is this the Empire cleaning out the alien underclass? Eh, maybe, but Cassian still claims it’s the high-population hustle and bustle that keeps them inconspicuous, and there are alien characters in the background; Cassian rather nonsensically side-eyes one in the grocery shop in this episode, as if he’s ever been shown having trouble with an alien-looking spy! So why not have, say, the shopkeeper be something more interesting than another English-accented human? Does it serve the story, or does the show just enjoy the seriousness of having more actors who look like they could be in the Empire, even in non-Empire roles?

It feels particularly noticeable in this episode’s odd-scene-out on D’Qar, where some familiar Rogue One alien faces in Saw’s group of hardcore rebels turn up. Okay, so that pointedly aligns the aliens with the rebels — only they’re the rebels the show doesn’t actually spend much time with, compared to several members of the Ghorman Front. It’s an odd choice! And it might nonetheless feel like an odd complaint for an episode that is, by and large, well up to the high standards of Andor. But it does sometimes feel as if Gilroy and company are ignoring a very particular aspect of Star Wars not necessarily for thematic reasons but for aesthetic ones — a classic Empire move, I must say.

Rebel Yells

• I like Whitaker’s performance as Saw Gerrera in Rogue One, and I understand that it would be weird to leave him out of Andor’s five-year narrative entirely, yet I’m not sure he precisely needs an onscreen presence here, especially given that as Rogue One opens, he’s alienated enough from the Rebel Alliance that they need Jyn Erso to ensure their people aren’t shot on sight.

• I do love that Syril, whether out of genuinely nerdy interest or, more likely, just having been previously pressured by a local merchant, collects spider trinkets from Ghorman.

• The lack of alien stuff is also weird because while I truly believe Gilroy doesn’t care about broader Star Wars lore (often to the show’s great benefit), Andor is nonetheless packed with planets and concepts from other movies, shows, and ancillary media. For example: D’Qar, the planet where Saw Gerrera is based, is the headquarters of the Resistance in The Force Awakens. I would love it if any of Saw’s buddies became even minor supporting characters this season, but let’s say I have a bad feeling about those prospects.

• Relatedly, sad to report that Bix does not wile away any of her time on Coruscant by grabbing a bite at Dex’s Diner.

Related

• Let’s Get Back Onboard With Andor
• Andor’s Mon Mothma Dances So She Won’t Scream
• Where in the Galaxy Is Andor Now?