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Star Wars: Andor: 2.07 - 2.09
In which the Force was truly with Tony Gilroy and his team, and they created some stunning episodes not just of SW, but of all time tv, full stop. There is a scene that speaks directly to us today, which I'll highlight in a separate lj cut so you can decide whether or not if you want to read it. I don't think the quote I'll give there qualifies as a spoiler, but better to be on the safe side, I myself hate being spoiled, after all. Otoh it is something that is evidently very much written apropos today, here and now - yet also works perfectly in universe - and really really needs to be said and heard. Whether or not it's heard by people who don't already agree is as ever another question, but here's hoping.
I didn't mention this earlier, but I did see in recent weeks various people from the production team referred to the scene at the start of this season where various Imperials discuss how to get rid of the Ghor so that they can stripmine Ghorman over snacks as being written and acted as a deliberate echo of the Wannsee Conference, and while I get the narrative point, direct Holocaust comparisons in a fiction franchise selling toys make me, shall we say, uneasy. Otoh, when this latest bunch of episodes arrived, and Wil told Cassian his latest missions was to assassinate Dedra, I thought, of course, Ghorman is Lidice (which would have made Dedra Heydrich), without such a flinch, perhaps because there is no Disneyfication happening with how the Ghorman massacre is presented. As it turns out, Dedra, unlike Heydrich, does not die, more about her later, but the Lidice echoes were still very present for me. However, if "all" these episodes did were to invoke past examples of totalitarian states going genocidal, they might still be powerful fiction but not without the burning urgency you feel from them, as a watcher. Instead, and very much unlike many an invocation of Nazi-coded villains in pop culture, these episodes turn their gaze on us. Now whether nor not George Lucas rewrote his own personal history when he said, years later that the rebels in the OT being presented in jungle locastions (both in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi), with the Ewoks as the world's least likely Vietcong (I have to say I was sceptical the first time I heard that one, although of course it is true that the first SW movie hit the theatres only three years after the Vietnam War officially ended, and Coppola had originally wanted his protegé George Lucas to film what became Apocalypse Now), which would have made the OT Empire at least partly the US: I bet not many, if any viewers not just back in the day saw it this way, being firmly and utterly convinced that if there were any stand-ins for the US in the OT, it was of course the brave Rebel Alliance. By the time the Prequels were produced, though, I do believe there was some intentional warning and present day political subtext in the depiction of a Republic being destroyed from within. But not until Andor did storytelling ambition, creative skills, the Star Wars universe and current day politics really combine to produce something this good. Because no longer does the Empire use Nuremberg Rally evoking imagery to spread its propaganda, oh no. Instead, they're evoking Fox News or Russia Today. (And some more likeminded "news" in other countries.) And when Mon Mothma decides to go from secretly funding the Rebellion behind the cover of a well-meaning but ineffectual senator to becoming an open Resistance fighter after one last speech that becomes the J'Accuse of the GFFA, this speech isn't meant to evoke anything from WWII. Instead, it is this.
“The distance between what is said today and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.”
Indeed, Mon. Indeed. Now, on to other aspects of these three episodes.
It looks like I was right about Bix leaving Cassian as opposed to being killed off to explain her absence in Rogue One, and very relieved am I. (Now here's hoping Kleya also somehow survives; Luthen clearly won't.) Cassian being willing to leave the Rebellion behind to save what he has with her (and without asking her first assuming that's what she wants as wellL) feels very understandable and logically leading up to this. The other break-up that happens, about half an hour before one of their deaths, is that between Syril and Dedra. Now through episode 8, I wasn't sure whether Syril had truly started to either empathize with Ghorman the tiniest bit and/or to develop some independent non-imperial thinking, or whether he was simply hurt and insulted that Dedra didn't tell him the true reason for what he thought was their cunning plan and his undercover mission, but then we had his last encounter with Cassian (whom Syril thought to be his arch nemesis while Cassian didn't even remember who he was), culminating in the moment where he could have killed him but doesn't, instead lowering his gun, only to be shot a moment later by theFrench Ghorman resistance leader, and while I wouldn't call the moment of not killing Cassian redemption, I think it was meant to indicate that Syril basically had the full Javert-on-the-bridge experience, i.e. the law and order he had built his entire life and self justification on clashed with the evidence of his own eyes, and he could not cope with the result. Whether or not he might have actually done something (productive) about this later, we'll never know.
Dedra, by contrast, did not get assassinated, and might even get that promotion (though I did wonder during these episodes whether her boss had in fact hoped she would be assassinated, for the sheer propaganda value and because it would mean one less person knowing the truth), but she had actually come to care for Syril, and she lost him even before he died. Whether or not the complete believer she is is even capable of seeing the horror of the massacre she and the Empire she serves are responsible for is highly questionable, but like most people, monstrous or not, she is capable of feeling the loss of one person, and given what we know about her upbringing, Syril was probably the first one, ever, to get close to her in any fashion whatsoever. In case I didn't say so before, the actress playing Dedra does a great job throughout both seasons, making even miniature facial movements in Dedra's usually tight-locked face incredibly telling, let alone the trembling hand and breakdown she has at the end of episode 8 once she's alone. Since totalitarian states need not just one or two or five evil supervillains to work but needs exactly the Dedras and Syrils of this world, the wheels in the machine, Andor deciding to make them individuals for us without excusing them was a brilliant storytelling decision.
The season long build up to the Ghorman massacre and its execution in episode 8 were incredibly well done. We all knew it would happen, and yet you could not look away even for a second. Again, much applause to the way Andor, last season with Ferrix and this season with Ghorman (and C'handrila), does its literal world building, down to giving the Ghor not just their language and art but their own anthem in this episode. (Which is not the Marsellaise, though them singing it has clear Casablanca echoes. But the Marsellaise is a bloodthirsty masterpiece of a hymn with its wishing of enemy blood to drench the earth of France, while here we get the soon to be obliterated valleys and mountains praised, and the beautiful river.)
With all this darkness, it's never grimdark. Not least because episodes 8 and 9 also keep showing people finding their courage or empathy to help each other while these cruelties are going on. There's the concierge/reception guy who recognizes Cassian from his last trip to Ghorman and helps not just him but the other rebels. There's Wil staying behind to save Dreena (and both of them surviving). There's Samm, who got Cinta killed two episodes and a year earlier through his arrogance, now atoning by helping others survive. And there's Luthen NOT killing Mon. Mon suspecting he would, that he'll have her killed like Tay once she's no longer useful and because she is one of the few knowing the truth about him, was a great narrative pay off for near two seasons of tense relations between them, and honestly, were it not for the fact she is a canonical OT character who can't therefore die yet, we the audience couldn't know, either. Because according to his own proclaimed code, the moment she finishes her speech Mon Mothma is better off dead in terms of what uses or endangers Luthen Rael. In a way, that puts to the test whether he really does it all for the rebellion, because for the 'Rebellion, she does have further use. The whole escape sequence from the Senate was again Star Wars Does Spy Stuff at its best.
(As someone who still hasn't seen more than three episodes of Star Wars: Rebels, I did osmose the dialogue between Cassian and What's his Name about Mon being brought to Yavin by another ship and having to record another speech is so th econtinuities between the two shows won't clash, but honestly, even on a Watsonian level it works, because democratic organizations do propaganda, too. See Philip Scheidemann re-recording the speech with which he declared the first German Republic in November 1918, or the staging of the Iwo Jima photos, etc.)
In conclusion: a superb trio of episodes. Mind you, now I'm curious about what the last three will be about, grand plot wise. In terms of personal fates, there is of course that of Luthen to resolve. Vel and Kleya hopefully will live - there was no need for either of them to be in Rogue One, so you don't have to explain why they weren't - , and I am curious whether Dedra will die, actually get promoted (I doubt it) or spend the rest of the Empire's existence just being transferred to some insignificant post, but that's not enough to fill three episodes with.
I didn't mention this earlier, but I did see in recent weeks various people from the production team referred to the scene at the start of this season where various Imperials discuss how to get rid of the Ghor so that they can stripmine Ghorman over snacks as being written and acted as a deliberate echo of the Wannsee Conference, and while I get the narrative point, direct Holocaust comparisons in a fiction franchise selling toys make me, shall we say, uneasy. Otoh, when this latest bunch of episodes arrived, and Wil told Cassian his latest missions was to assassinate Dedra, I thought, of course, Ghorman is Lidice (which would have made Dedra Heydrich), without such a flinch, perhaps because there is no Disneyfication happening with how the Ghorman massacre is presented. As it turns out, Dedra, unlike Heydrich, does not die, more about her later, but the Lidice echoes were still very present for me. However, if "all" these episodes did were to invoke past examples of totalitarian states going genocidal, they might still be powerful fiction but not without the burning urgency you feel from them, as a watcher. Instead, and very much unlike many an invocation of Nazi-coded villains in pop culture, these episodes turn their gaze on us. Now whether nor not George Lucas rewrote his own personal history when he said, years later that the rebels in the OT being presented in jungle locastions (both in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi), with the Ewoks as the world's least likely Vietcong (I have to say I was sceptical the first time I heard that one, although of course it is true that the first SW movie hit the theatres only three years after the Vietnam War officially ended, and Coppola had originally wanted his protegé George Lucas to film what became Apocalypse Now), which would have made the OT Empire at least partly the US: I bet not many, if any viewers not just back in the day saw it this way, being firmly and utterly convinced that if there were any stand-ins for the US in the OT, it was of course the brave Rebel Alliance. By the time the Prequels were produced, though, I do believe there was some intentional warning and present day political subtext in the depiction of a Republic being destroyed from within. But not until Andor did storytelling ambition, creative skills, the Star Wars universe and current day politics really combine to produce something this good. Because no longer does the Empire use Nuremberg Rally evoking imagery to spread its propaganda, oh no. Instead, they're evoking Fox News or Russia Today. (And some more likeminded "news" in other countries.) And when Mon Mothma decides to go from secretly funding the Rebellion behind the cover of a well-meaning but ineffectual senator to becoming an open Resistance fighter after one last speech that becomes the J'Accuse of the GFFA, this speech isn't meant to evoke anything from WWII. Instead, it is this.
“The distance between what is said today and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.”
Indeed, Mon. Indeed. Now, on to other aspects of these three episodes.
It looks like I was right about Bix leaving Cassian as opposed to being killed off to explain her absence in Rogue One, and very relieved am I. (Now here's hoping Kleya also somehow survives; Luthen clearly won't.) Cassian being willing to leave the Rebellion behind to save what he has with her (and without asking her first assuming that's what she wants as wellL) feels very understandable and logically leading up to this. The other break-up that happens, about half an hour before one of their deaths, is that between Syril and Dedra. Now through episode 8, I wasn't sure whether Syril had truly started to either empathize with Ghorman the tiniest bit and/or to develop some independent non-imperial thinking, or whether he was simply hurt and insulted that Dedra didn't tell him the true reason for what he thought was their cunning plan and his undercover mission, but then we had his last encounter with Cassian (whom Syril thought to be his arch nemesis while Cassian didn't even remember who he was), culminating in the moment where he could have killed him but doesn't, instead lowering his gun, only to be shot a moment later by the
Dedra, by contrast, did not get assassinated, and might even get that promotion (though I did wonder during these episodes whether her boss had in fact hoped she would be assassinated, for the sheer propaganda value and because it would mean one less person knowing the truth), but she had actually come to care for Syril, and she lost him even before he died. Whether or not the complete believer she is is even capable of seeing the horror of the massacre she and the Empire she serves are responsible for is highly questionable, but like most people, monstrous or not, she is capable of feeling the loss of one person, and given what we know about her upbringing, Syril was probably the first one, ever, to get close to her in any fashion whatsoever. In case I didn't say so before, the actress playing Dedra does a great job throughout both seasons, making even miniature facial movements in Dedra's usually tight-locked face incredibly telling, let alone the trembling hand and breakdown she has at the end of episode 8 once she's alone. Since totalitarian states need not just one or two or five evil supervillains to work but needs exactly the Dedras and Syrils of this world, the wheels in the machine, Andor deciding to make them individuals for us without excusing them was a brilliant storytelling decision.
The season long build up to the Ghorman massacre and its execution in episode 8 were incredibly well done. We all knew it would happen, and yet you could not look away even for a second. Again, much applause to the way Andor, last season with Ferrix and this season with Ghorman (and C'handrila), does its literal world building, down to giving the Ghor not just their language and art but their own anthem in this episode. (Which is not the Marsellaise, though them singing it has clear Casablanca echoes. But the Marsellaise is a bloodthirsty masterpiece of a hymn with its wishing of enemy blood to drench the earth of France, while here we get the soon to be obliterated valleys and mountains praised, and the beautiful river.)
With all this darkness, it's never grimdark. Not least because episodes 8 and 9 also keep showing people finding their courage or empathy to help each other while these cruelties are going on. There's the concierge/reception guy who recognizes Cassian from his last trip to Ghorman and helps not just him but the other rebels. There's Wil staying behind to save Dreena (and both of them surviving). There's Samm, who got Cinta killed two episodes and a year earlier through his arrogance, now atoning by helping others survive. And there's Luthen NOT killing Mon. Mon suspecting he would, that he'll have her killed like Tay once she's no longer useful and because she is one of the few knowing the truth about him, was a great narrative pay off for near two seasons of tense relations between them, and honestly, were it not for the fact she is a canonical OT character who can't therefore die yet, we the audience couldn't know, either. Because according to his own proclaimed code, the moment she finishes her speech Mon Mothma is better off dead in terms of what uses or endangers Luthen Rael. In a way, that puts to the test whether he really does it all for the rebellion, because for the 'Rebellion, she does have further use. The whole escape sequence from the Senate was again Star Wars Does Spy Stuff at its best.
(As someone who still hasn't seen more than three episodes of Star Wars: Rebels, I did osmose the dialogue between Cassian and What's his Name about Mon being brought to Yavin by another ship and having to record another speech is so th econtinuities between the two shows won't clash, but honestly, even on a Watsonian level it works, because democratic organizations do propaganda, too. See Philip Scheidemann re-recording the speech with which he declared the first German Republic in November 1918, or the staging of the Iwo Jima photos, etc.)
In conclusion: a superb trio of episodes. Mind you, now I'm curious about what the last three will be about, grand plot wise. In terms of personal fates, there is of course that of Luthen to resolve. Vel and Kleya hopefully will live - there was no need for either of them to be in Rogue One, so you don't have to explain why they weren't - , and I am curious whether Dedra will die, actually get promoted (I doubt it) or spend the rest of the Empire's existence just being transferred to some insignificant post, but that's not enough to fill three episodes with.
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