"One Way Out" must be one of the best episodes of TV, ever
I know there's a lot of TV out there and I won't pretend I've even seen 5% of it. But on my third S1 rewatch, and my god this episode.
Obviously the whole prison break part is a great balls-to-the-wall action sequence and so cathartic after two episodes of buildup. But on this rewatch it's everything else that struck me. The opening where Cassian is convincing Kino to turn ("I call that power," "Power doesn't panic"), how it starts with Kino telling Cassian to get "On program" and ends with Cassian telling Kino the same. And then when he gets back to his cell the first thing Kino does is stare at the counter on his wall.
Or the Mon - Tay - Davo meeting, where Davo brings up the marriage tradition seemingly in reference to Mon and Perrin and then flips it at the end. The look on Mon's face when she realizes what he's saying. His line, "Our position sometimes makes decisions for us," and how that sums up the entire episode. And then his mic drop at the end: "That's the first untrue thing you've said."
Or Lonni riding the elevator down and how it's a tight, claustrophobic shot, and when Luthen tells him "I think about you constantly" how the lights cut out and I swear it even skips a frame, like it's a horror movie. And then when he gets to the bottom floor and the doors open, and it looks like he's standing in a coffin.
I remember watching this episode live when it premiered and being super psyched because E9 was incredible. And after Kino's speech during the prison break I was like, "Holy fucking shit I can't believe they put this in Star Wars!" And then we get Luthen's monologue closing with "I'll take all the heroes I can get" and it smash-cuts to Cassian and Melshi running through the dark with the "Heroes" theme playing, and it felt like my face had been melted off by flaming jet fuel.
Can confirm it still feels that way after three rewatches.