Andor: Announcement

October 19, 2022 1:26 AM - Season 1, Episode 7

The fallout from the Aldhani heist is swift and seismic, shaking the Imperial Security Bureau into action. Meanwhile, Cassian returns home to find a much-changed Ferrix.
posted by EndsOfInvention (55 comments total)

Lots of plot threads here, post-heist:
- Luthen and Mon Mothma aren't agreed on whether direct action should be starting yet.
- Mon's recruiting a school-friend banker to help her with another "charity" (funnelling her family wealth to the rebels).
- ISB agent Meero's theories about rebel operations are gaining traction (and gaining her enemies).
- Cassian is shocked, shocked that everyone's pissed he murdered some corpos and brought down the Empire's fist on Ferrix. Then when spending his wealth in a holiday resort a cop decides he's too sweaty to be innocent of [undetermined crime] and thanks to that tightening Imperial fist he gets 6 years in prison. Oops.
- We get a flashback to Cassian's father getting caught up in an anti-Empire fracas in the early days of Imperial rule and subsequently being lynched by some clone troopers.
- Karn has a shitty office job now.
- Vel is being sent to tie up loose ends (ie kill Cassian). Will she break him out instead?
- Cinta lives!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:38 AM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Major Partagaz is a good boss. I said it.

Watching Anton Lesser be terrifying in this is a bit of a trip after first seeing him in Endeavor.
posted by hototogisu at 2:55 AM on October 19, 2022 [15 favorites]

Major Partagaz is a good boss. I said it.

Hate it when I'm rooting for people in a workplace drama then I remember they're all fascists and I should want them to be bad at their job. Awkward.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:14 AM on October 19, 2022 [28 favorites]

Lots of nice moments here, and damn this show does some beautiful shots. I love where the family favor leaves Karn; the infighting at the ISB while the Rebellion gains strength; Mon's small joy at realizing she can trust her banker; Luthen holding a club out to her while they talk about the future of the Rebellion.
posted by nubs at 4:56 AM on October 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Love Space Yalta! And we got to see some more aliens, the lack of which has been my sole complaint about the show so far.

Glowup Vel and Kleya had a very interesting scene. Vel really doesn't seem to understand what she's gotten herself into. And I half expected Luthen to tell Mon that a revolution isn't a dinner party!

Sad to see our clone boys terrorizing civilians; I guess Order 66 really was a factory reset. Commander Cody would never!
posted by orrnyereg at 5:37 AM on October 19, 2022 [5 favorites]

Is anyone takings odds on Meero the ISB officer being Cassian's long-lost sister? Despite the show not adhering to the typical Star Wars tropes, I feel like a "secret family connection" reveal might be the Season One cliffhanger.
posted by reclusive_thousandaire at 7:17 AM on October 19, 2022

I was thinking Kleya might be the sister, but Meero could work. She's the right age I think.
posted by orrnyereg at 7:44 AM on October 19, 2022

This show is so good.

I did have a rare quibble with this one; I find the six year long sentence at the end excessive. It's obviously excessive legally, but I mean dramatically. It's so over the top; six days would have been better. I think the lengthy sentence limits options in the next steps for Andor's development to some pretty worn out tropes. We'll see if I'm wrong and they surprise me again.

Is anyone takings odds on Meero the ISB officer being Cassian's long-lost sister?

This is the first episode where that occurred to me, but yes.
posted by mark k at 8:35 AM on October 19, 2022

So, some thoughts now that I've had time to digest a bit:

-did Luthen order the hit on Cassian, or is this Kleya acting to protect Luthen? If so, nice reflection of the divides and compartmentalization between Mon and Luthen.
-I get the sense that Cinta has another mission she's on, one that started immediately after the heist; Vel might have been the official leader on Aldhani, but I think Cinta is the more highly placed within whatever structure Luthen has. Again, divides and compartmentalization within the the emerging Rebellion.
-the choice of items Luthen has offered Mon is becoming increasingly transparent as a metaphor - he's offered her the war club twice now, and she has refused it twice. I suspect the third offering, probably towards season's end, is when she will pick it up.
-Andor wanted to "win and walk away"; well, he can't even walk on the beach now and he sees the consequences of his win; a win he can't even share with Maarva, though it has changed her life in ways he didn't expect.
-Blevin is going to come for Meero hard; I love the fact that she called them all out on believing the Rebellion would follow their lines on their maps. I think its a call back to the conversation earlier in the season, in which its made clear she's an unusual member of that group with her background in Investigation. She thinks like a criminal (like a Rebel), not like a bureaucrat. It's a skill they need, but will she survive the infighting, or does her ability to think from other perspectives mean she might be an eventual Rebel herself? I do think her getting control of Ferrix will bring her and Karn together, because she's going to want to investigate the shit out of the situation regarding the stolen tech.
-there's a line early on about the Empire tightening its grip, which is a nice callback for the future line from Leia regarding things slipping through their fingers the more they tighten their grip.
posted by nubs at 9:44 AM on October 19, 2022 [13 favorites]

Ah, I see they finally made it to planet Barbican. Red tiled floors and pebble-dash columns. I was there only last month and recognised the courtyard immediately.

As with previous episodes, there are scenes that are just gorgeous to look at, framed exquisitely to contrast humans moving through environments that evoke story through architecture and exchanges of dialogue that are dripping with subtext and nuance. I appreciate this series so much.

Oh, and Mon's dinner party attire was just *chef kiss*
posted by Molesome at 12:35 PM on October 19, 2022 [15 favorites]

I find the six year long sentence at the end excessive.

Six years is dramatic irony; if the character was in prison for six years, he'd be alive when the rebels blow up the Death Star. But he'll be out next episode and dead in five.

I'd almost forgotten I was watching a Star War until they mentioned Palpatine and showed an Imperial Cruiser overhead. I know, I know, Mon Mothma is always there and Coruscant but this show feels so different.

Ah, I see they finally made it to planet Barbican. Red tiled floors and pebble-dash columns.

I thought it must have been! I've only been there once, a few years ago.
posted by crossoverman at 2:31 PM on October 19, 2022 [10 favorites]

Niamos - Come for the beaches, stay for the kangaroo court.

The soundtrack in this ep really stood out for me. (Sounded like Boards of Canada.)
Made me want to go back and listen to the previous episodes for comparison.
posted by dogstoevski at 2:59 PM on October 19, 2022 [7 favorites]

I find the six year long sentence at the end excessive

The wildly excessive sentence is a direct callback to the changes in Imperial sentencing policy that are announced near the beginning of the episode in response to that pesky robbery on Aldhani...

Anyways, I expect the next little story arc will revolve around Andor's rescue or escape from prison. I'm just wondering if Vel plays a role in that, and if Andor picks up a K2 unit as he leaves.
posted by nubs at 4:35 PM on October 19, 2022 [4 favorites]

If this were a mediocre show we'd have five minutes of terrible, corny scenes with Karn in a brutally monotonous office job. Instead its a shot of a computer, the reflection off his eye, a look upwards. This show trusts us! It trusts us to see the tics, the slight increases in walking speed, the cold breath in an underheated home.

Everything else on looks so shabby!
posted by Slackermagee at 7:18 PM on October 19, 2022 [19 favorites]

I expect Karn to find some important statistical link in his job in Fuel Purity which elevates him into ISB, working hand in hand with Meero.
posted by mono blanco at 7:48 PM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm just going to go ahead and call this my favorite show right now.

The soundtrack in this ep really stood out for me. (Sounded like Boards of Canada.)

Nicholas Britell is so good. SO GOOD.
posted by thivaia at 7:49 PM on October 19, 2022 [5 favorites]

Yeah, that Niamo Vice intro goes hard.
posted by rodlymight at 8:10 PM on October 19, 2022 [21 favorites]

Man, this is so good. I am in desperate need of a detailed fashion analysis of this show, I'm just saying.

I did not expect to see Vel on Coruscant. And yeah, I'm not convinced that Luthen wants Andor taken out, given the amount of energy he invested in that asset.

And in the dinner party, it's really striking: Perrin is totally wearing Jedi robes. WTAF.

I am impressed that Mothma is actually having that conversation with Kolma in the middle of a dinner party.

Maarva is my fucking hero: It's overdue, and probably doomed, and I'm too old, and I don't care anymore.

This show is SO GOOD.
posted by suelac at 9:27 PM on October 19, 2022 [12 favorites]

When Cassian was on the beach, I figured they had moved from British Imperialism to Spanish but based on the behavior of the cop bot, I think we've gone directly to American-style oppression. I expect to see waterboarding, rebels held without charges or trial in a secret prison and drone assassinations in an upcoming episode.
posted by fiercekitten at 11:32 PM on October 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yeah, that Niamo Vice intro goes hard.

Marry me. Right now.
posted by Molesome at 11:44 PM on October 19, 2022 [8 favorites]

Just realised the "Niamo Vice" music is the same music playing when Cassian enters the brothel in episode 1.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:24 AM on October 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

This episode crystallized really the only criticism I have of this show so far, and it's a minor one: weird pacing. I'm fine with it because of the nature of the story—and because I'm invested in every subplot, even Karn's—but it stood out here most so far.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:48 AM on October 20, 2022

Wow - almost every scene had excellent acting and great, believable dialogue, and juicy emotional AND dramatic stakes. It's wonderful that the eponymous protagonist has such a relatively small amount of screen time (but that second scene between him and Maarva - Fiona Shaw amazing!) yet everything keeps hurtling along with such momentum. It's ironic that such an ensemble piece is named after only one character. Bravo!
posted by domdib at 4:34 AM on October 20, 2022 [5 favorites]

Also, it's great to see Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma get a longer scene - the little reminders to Tay to keep smiling really drive home how high stakes the conversation is.
posted by domdib at 4:54 AM on October 20, 2022 [10 favorites]

The way Fiona Shaw says "that's just love. There's nothing you can do about that." was the greatest acting class I've had in years.
posted by minervous at 6:38 AM on October 20, 2022 [36 favorites]

Fiona Shaw is the real MVP in this episode, although it really has great work from the writers and all the actors; Karn in a sea of desks, all alike, and the beach scene and the ensuing "trial" are all like slightly-more-futurized versions of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. And I wouldn't be at all surprised that Kleya took it upon herself to put the hit out on Cass, just to protect Luthen.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:26 AM on October 20, 2022 [15 favorites]

> Watching Anton Lesser be terrifying in this is a bit of a trip after first seeing him in Endeavor.

Same, but he's a terrifying boss in that, too. And then having Patrick show up at the dinner party made me laugh. (I'm sure he's an accomplished actor etc etc but that's where I know him from.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:49 AM on October 20, 2022 [7 favorites]

When Mon Mothma said "Tay," I was like, <8D , "Tay Vanis?!", but alas.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 6:44 AM on October 21, 2022

Andor's "holiday" spot is the sea front in Cleveleys, Lancashire.
posted by NailsTheCat at 11:58 AM on October 21, 2022 [9 favorites]

When Cassian was on the beach, I figured they had moved from British Imperialism to Spanish but based on the behavior of the cop bot, I think we've gone directly to American-style oppression

I'm not sure what your mental image of British imperialism is, but they are credited with the invention of the modern concentration camp--and that was to deal with dissenters who were white and protestant. The brutality towards people who were neither could be quite impressive.
posted by mark k at 11:59 AM on October 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

The show music from the first 4 episodes is now available at your music purveyor of choice!
posted by orrnyereg at 12:23 PM on October 21, 2022

Fiona Shaw is the real MVP

This is often true. It's even somehow true in Sarah and Duck.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:42 PM on October 22, 2022 [5 favorites]

I love how this series slow rolls the Star Wars references. The light touch is so refreshing after the ham handedness of how previous series have been.

We get to see a K2 droid, but it’s not our K2.

Imagine if the mass produced robotic armies didn’t act like looney toons characters! It’s terrifying!
posted by Fleebnork at 6:30 AM on October 23, 2022 [6 favorites]

I wonder if we are so starved for official competence that we are more inclined to be sympathetic to honest & hardworking & capable fascists at this point? To be serious for a microt, that's how the whole fascism deal works right?

I wonder if the capable (Meero) and idealist (Karn) will self-sort into the Rebel camp?
when Coruscant comes inspectin.
I really dig how the makeup gives the Major and Meero and especially her aide those sunken/dead Tarkin eyes.

Speaking of the stereotype looks of the Star War factions, and to indulge my fannish know-it-allness for a bit ... if I were an Imperial commander I would tell my stormtroopers to shoot any dude-presenting people who are wearing Imperial uniforms but who aren't tidily shaven. These scruffy nerf herders are always infiltrating those squeaky-clean Imperial bases. As a bonus measure this will make my officers tidier for when Coruscant comes inspectin. Win-win.
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:03 PM on October 23, 2022 [2 favorites]

Did he have Nemek's book in his little stash?

If not, why not, you heartless arsehole

Is anyone takings odds on Meero the ISB officer being Cassian's long-lost sister?

I will take literally any odds on this. Any. Please evaluate how hard you've been hitting the Med Nog.
posted by ominous_paws at 3:02 PM on October 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

Fiona Shaw was in Sarah and Duck?!?

And just looked until she is music lady. My god that woman is a force for sure.

Also - this dovetails nicely that there are a set number of British actors that Must be in everything.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 10:18 PM on October 23, 2022

A More Civilized Age - Andor episode 07

After a nail-biting heist, what could follow for Andor? Unsurprisingly, a talky episode all about the Empire's response to the fledgling rebellion, filled with juicy details about galactic policy decisions, intelligence agency maneuvering, and a bunch of difficult emotional conversations. And, of course... Space Miami.

posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:26 AM on October 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

Loved this but seconding the comment the pacing is weird. I was particularly struck but the time jump of Andor having a Sandals Resort girlfriend. Also don't love his whole "nah I'm a scoundrel don't need the rebellion" shtick after Maarva is so convincing. It's just laid on a little too thick.

Love all the Coruscant stuff though.
posted by Nelson at 4:09 PM on October 24, 2022

Having listened to AMCA, I am left with the feeling that there's a serious analysis to be done on the nature of the relationships between Karn/Andor and their respective mothers and how they've contributed to their sons current situations.
posted by nubs at 7:54 PM on October 24, 2022 [5 favorites]

I found the the Bureau of Standards really interesting. I’ve always thought of the Empire as essentially fascists, but this show conceives of the Empire in terms of being an early 20th century colonialist state. Yes, they absolutely will commit genocide at the drop of a hat, but by Jove they care about engineering and getting things standardized just so.

I can’t tell what came first for the creative team behind Andor, whether they started with a story that required them to think through aspects of the Star Wars world that no one has had to depict on screen before, or whether they began by contemplating the fictional world as it existed, and then figuring out what kind of story they could tell.

For instance, I get the feeling the Meero storyline comes out of Gilroy et al. working out how the security apparatus of the Empire functions.

Anyway, loved the episode, no notes.
posted by Kattullus at 2:59 AM on October 25, 2022 [4 favorites]

I found the the Bureau of Standards really interesting. I’ve always thought of the Empire as essentially fascists, but this show conceives of the Empire in terms of being an early 20th century colonialist state. Yes, they absolutely will commit genocide at the drop of a hat, but by Jove they care about engineering and getting things standardized just so.

I found myself wondering if this Bureau predates the Empire because its name and function are similar to the fascinating Bureau of Ships and Services (which predates the Empire by a lot) from the SW RPG. Basically, this galaxy is really big and really populous, so changing fundamental stuff like droid battery ratings or what a parsec even is can't happen as readily as can a change of who's in power.

And on the one hand, you're right that the Empire loves to standardize, but on the other hand, maybe they just SAY they do, because FFS how many variant stormtrooper types does one interstellar autocracy need?
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:46 AM on October 25, 2022 [4 favorites]

Totalitarian bureaucracy is a pretty broad trope going back to at least the Romans. And with some reason: centralized standards are part of how governments extend their power. For me the associations here in Andor were mostly Nazi Germany but that may just be my personal history with learning about this kind of thing. The French Revolution is the origin of a whole lot of our modern global standards. And of course the associations between the Empire and the British (down to the King's English) are rife. Definitely more than a little Brazil in the writing for Andor, which would bring us towards British.

I've never been clear; just what is travel time like around the Empire? Luke dreams of leaving Tattooine one day, getting off-planet is clearly a big deal for him. Cassian's whole character motivation so far has been getting enough scratch to get a ride off Ferrix. But then Tay Kolma makes it sound like he commutes back and forth to Coruscant twice a week. Maybe it's mostly a financial thing but the actual travel is quick and easy?

Beach Resort Stormtrooper is going to be my Hallowe'en costume.
posted by Nelson at 5:12 AM on October 25, 2022 [6 favorites]

I've never been clear; just what is travel time like around the Empire?

Getting somewhere takes exactly as long as the story needs it to ;)
(I feel like they've actually talked about the Star Wars travel time inconsistency in AMCA previously during their Clone Wars discussions)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:19 AM on October 25, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've never been clear; just what is travel time like around the Empire?

There's basically nothing concrete in film/TV canon, but:

• Han's remarks about the Falcon in ANH strongly suggest that not all vessels have the same speed in hyperspace (which is taken as a given by the RPG and most sources), and

• the first Death Star probably took less than a day to get from Alderaan (in the Core Worlds) to Yavin (in the Outer Rim) because Vader says "This will be a day long remembered; it has seen the end of Kenobi, it will soon see the end of the Rebellion," assuming Vader wasn't being really inaccurately metaphorical.

(The RPG and other sources have things to say about e.g. what type of hyperdrive the Death Star(s) had, but take it from me: this is a contradiction-filled rabbithole into which you can very quickly plunge very inexorably. If you WANT to take such a plunge, I recommend the Essential Atlas book as a smart and well-researched starting point.)
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:31 AM on October 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

just what is travel time like around the Empire?

In our universe, the speed of light is the upper limit; in the Star Wars universe, it is the speed of plot.
posted by nubs at 7:34 AM on October 25, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've never been clear; just what is travel time like around the Empire?

I had an AskMe about that once.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 12:40 PM on October 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

just what is travel time like around the Empire?

The journey to Alderaan in Star Wars (1977) seems very short. The training scene in the Millennium Falcon starts with Han coming back from the cockpit saying, "Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. I told you I'd outrun 'em...Don't everyone thank me at once," which makes it sound like this is the first time they've seen him since the escape from Tatooine. Then they talk about arms, sockets, religions, weapons, tricks, nonsense, feelings, and luck, until an alarm sounds and Han says, "Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan." The whole trip seems like it takes maybe an hour.
posted by The Tensor at 11:25 PM on October 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Every time I see someone making any kind of reasonable-length journey on foot through the streets of one of SW's hive planets I'm now reminded of the twitter meme that "this sort of walkable mixed use urbanism is illegal to build in most American cities"
posted by MarchHare at 4:21 PM on October 31, 2022 [12 favorites]

Fun little bit of Lucas-ism - as Kleya walks past the stormtroopers on her way to meet with Vel, you can hear them saying:

"Four nine vector six - L-U-H-3-4-1. Security clearance code..."

LUH 3417 was THX 1138's roommate.
posted by Kyol at 8:01 PM on October 31, 2022 [12 favorites]

Totalitarian bureaucracy is a pretty broad trope going back to at least the Romans. And with some reason: centralized standards are part of how governments extend their power.

It's how conquerors consolidate their spoils. I am reminded of how Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, enacted a standardization of weights and measures over the proto-Chinese kingdoms he united, not to mention currency and the writing system itself. And of course, then came the totalitarianism.
posted by Apocryphon at 9:59 PM on November 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

the time jump of Andor having a Sandals Resort girlfriend

It is established way back in ep. 1 that Andor has pretty good luck with the ladies -- either his mom or the friend who he goes to for an alibi (or both) makes a crack about getting in trouble with the husband of one of his many women or something to that effect. And Timm obviously thought that he and Bix were back together. He's a good looking guy, definitely a scruffy-looking rascal type, but also has a boyish charm -- I imagine he plays that up to get women both attracted to him and wanting to take care of him.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:29 PM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Beach Resort Stormtrooper is going to be my Hallowe'en costume.

The one that arrests Andor was identified in the credits as a Shore Trooper. I believe we saw Shore Troopers in Rogue One, too, on Scarif.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 3:01 PM on November 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

I did have a rare quibble with this one; I find the six year long sentence at the end excessive. It's obviously excessive legally, but I mean dramatically. It's so over the top; six days would have been better.

I didn't find this unbelievable at all. This is what empires do.

The U.S. has locked people up in Guantanamo for much longer, on equally thin charges in some cases.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 4:28 PM on November 28, 2022 [5 favorites]

I really hope the antique shop, or the senator's house or party location..... isn't bugged.

---
I mean, goddamn.

"that's just love. There's nothing you can do about that."

A Seminal Line delivered with such depth. That's gonna be tattooed on a lot of people.
posted by lalochezia at 7:50 PM on December 4, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'm increasingly impressed by the low-key way this show makes obvious the Empire's misogyny along with its colonialist racism.
posted by kyrademon at 10:25 AM on December 15, 2022 [4 favorites]