u/Dear-Yellow-5479

From his IG. As very briefly seen in episode 1 when Brasso comes out of the Grapplers’ meeting hall.

Clip is from one of a series of excellent interviews from last year. Dan (brother of showrunner Tony Gilroy) wrote the Emmy winning ‘Welcome to the Rebellion’ episode along with the other 2 in that block, and from about 17 minutes in he starts discussing the Force and Cassian being called a “Messenger”.

Of all the Andor writers, he’s clearly the biggest fan of the Force. He mentions how it was deliberately kept out of Season 1 but that Tony agreed that it was necessary to bring it in to Season 2 albeit in an elliptical way. He discusses the Force healer scene in detail, including its impact on Bix and Cassian. Crucially, he highlights this encounter as the moment when Bix becomes a full believer in the Force - but also as when Cassian starts to open up to the idea of “an organised principle behind all this”, simply because he’s aware of how many strange occurrences have happened in his life. With the “Messenger” idea, D Gilroy makes interesting comparison here to the biblical apostles. So that would make Cassian not “the chosen one” but still somebody with a message they need to spread, and someplace they need to be - with Bix and his sister as driving influences.

I was intrigued that Gilroy wondered about Diego Luna’s thoughts on the matter. So at a Q&A panel at a Con last year I plucked up the courage to ask Diego about all this - and specifically what Cassian believes about the Force at the end of his life. He said he agreed with what Dan says here… that he does have some sense of continuation and of a greater purpose. So his apparent resistance to the Force healer in ep 7 comes initially from cynicism but then from fear that it is all, in fact, right. Implicit in this also is understanding and acceptance of why Bix abandoned him. After all, if he doesn’t start believing that she’s maybe right about the Force and about him the alternative is the bleak concept that she left him for no good reason… and it’s pretty clear in the final arc of episodes that he doesn’t believe that as he’s not bitter - he’s bruised but purposeful. It also gives considerable new weight to his line in Rogue One: “ I’m starting to think that the Force and I have different priorities”.

Interview Link: https://youtu.be/KeXed1Kozwg?is=ls8CWAMWF6gXNrhj

Vel’s first scene is another of those that drops us right into the middle of a pre-existing relationship. It’s happened several times so far with Cassian: the first scenes with Brasso, Bix and Maarva are all interactions with him. But in this case the pre-existing relationship is that between Luthen and this new character, with Cassian as the outside observer. Quite literally - he’s waiting in the ship and can’t hear what’s being said. He can only pick up from observation that Luthen’s words about this woman are being proven true: “She’s not going to like this. She’s going to argue with me.”

The “this” is of course Cassian being forced upon Vel as the seventh member of the Aldhani heist team. The scene is, as with so many others, built upon the conflict between the two characters. Vel is horrified at the idea of having to take in this complete stranger for several highly legitimate reasons. Firstly, she has no say in the matter whatsoever, and Luthen is adamant that it’s a case of “Take him or call it off”. Secondly, she seems to have a genuine distaste at the idea that this man is a mercenary and draws an angry contrast between his being a last minute addition of uncertain loyalties with the rest of the team “eating roots and sleeping on rocks for this rebellion”. Finally, the combintation of both of these: the angry resentment that she is not the one who gets to decide about this despite being supposedly the leader of this team… and the related trepidation about how the rest of the team are going to react to this newcomer. As their leader, she knows well enough that it’s going to be extremely difficult for her to lie convincingly about this being a fellow committed revolutionary who was “able to fight his way free”. Luthen tells her that this all part of her role: lying about it. She’ll end up suggesting that “Clem” was supposed to join them all along but didn’t mention it in case it didn’t happen. All highly ironic considering the immediate and deep-rooted suspicion about “Clem” that will become a major feature of this arc.

What’s particularly fascinating about the scene is that this is immersing us in a conversation that feels completely natural yet contains absolutely no obvious exposition designed to help the viewer. We just have to lock in, concentrate and pick bits and pieces up as we go along. For example, “we go in three days” versus the “five months” spent on preparation tells us now why Luthen was so desperate to recruit Cassian as well as why Vel is so reluctant. It’s easy to see that Vel will not have an easy time of convincing the others and has a reason to resent “Clem” before he even steps out of the ship.

To be honest, it’s Luthen who dominates the scene. He is the obvious authority. His commanding “LOOK AT ME!” when Vel acts petulantly distracted had me jump the first time. But in terms of Vel herself, very little about who she is is given away at this point so it’s one of the many scenes that’s worth re-evaluating on a rewatch - that way, we can see how what we later find out is shown in glimpses here too.

Unlike the Ferrixian characters, we are meeting Vel well away from her home. But even once we discover, much later, all about her Chandrilan background - that she’s “a rich girl running away from her family” as Cinta harshly yet accurately puts it - we realise that Vel is a driven rebel despite or even because of these origins. Unlike others including Cassian, Kleya and Cinta, Vel has no obvious traumatising incident that kickstarts her journey towards being a rebel against the Empire. Instead, the story concentrates on her commitment rather than the origin. This is seemingly her first time leading a mission (“You wanted to lead. This is what it takes!”) and it makes sense that she would have self-doubt about her abilities. But that still means that she’s an experienced operative, and is the first ‘boots on the ground’ agent that we meet in the series. Her obvious antipathy towards Luthen is interesting as it’s hard to tell whether it comes from the situation here or some pre-existing tension, leading some at the time to even speculate if they were closely related, eg father & daughter.

He spins the situation positively in the way he later does with Lonni, suggesting that this is good news, and of course he’s ultimately right. Repeating that this new addition can pilot already suggests that they simply weren’t very well prepared before now. (Was Vel going to be the pilot?) So the scene is full of that tension from her resisting the situation… and yet it also ends with Vel and Luthen reaching the agreement that he had wanted all along: her acceptance of Cassian. She puts up a fight that she knows she’ll ultimately lose but eventually gives in because she does realise that Luthen is right. So she grudgingly puts aside her emotions and accepts the logic of it all instead.

The series’s major theme of choice vs no choice runs throughout the conversation. “Are you giving me a choice here?” “Yes - take him or call it off”. So that’s really no choice at all - it’s a Hobson’s choice, the illusion of it. Similar to what so many other characters will eventually face too, including her cousin Mon. But this is what revolution looks like: making a choice to be a rebel rather than to live a life of luxury is still an act of free-will, and what I find particularly admirable about Vel in general is that despite times of crushing uncertainty and loss she remains committed to the cause. Even when she loses the love of her life she keeps going however she can and gives strength to others, knowing herself well by that stage and confident that she is doing the right thing. Being gay in a conservative society also likely means that Vel’s earliest acts of rebellion were quiet ones: against the heteronormative expectations of “finding herself a husband”. As she herself will later tell Cassian, “Everyone has their own rebellion”.

But we don’t find out any of this until later. The knowledge does enrich this first scene though, and I think you can see here a glimpse of the woman Vel will become over the next five years: accepting that “This has to be a win”. Luthen knows that the rebellion consists of lots and lots of losing “until we’re ready”, as he explains to young Kleya in the flashback.

In Vel’s final scene we just get a glimpse of her in the finale montage, chatting away (we can’t hear the words) to a contemplative Mon. She looks at home. They both do. By this time Vel has come to know and respect both Cassian and Kleya better and her interactions with both in that final episode are some of my absolute favourites; they show her selflessness and drily humorous pragmatism as well as her vulnerability. She also pays due respect to Luthen despite having good reason to at least partially blame him for her personal loss.

TLDR: To be honest, I would not have guessed from her first scene that Vel would become such a personal favourite character of mine but her quiet strength is harder to detect there, at least on a first viewing. Another reason why, imho, Andor is always better on a rewatch and I’ll be forever grateful that it was written this way.

Next time: Lio Partagaz

Vel gets a moment to look appropriately thoughtful when she recognises the Pre-Mor blaster that Melshi has brought with him. A little awe-struck, even.

I imagine that by this time Cassian has filled her in about his history but it’s interesting that she remembers the blaster in particular. Back in season 1 ep 5 Skeen tells Cassian “Vel told me to take a look” at his belongings. The blaster must have been a big clue that “Clem” was in trouble with the law and Skeen tellingly recognised it as “Corporate issue”. I always wondered if Vel had genuinely told Skeen to go through Cassian’s things or if it was an excuse to snoop on this newcomer. I suspect the former - Vel was genuinely suspicious.

I think it’s particularly interesting that Vel looks a little awe-struck at this connection across time, as if she’s fully appreciating this is a significant moment of some kind. So it implies to me that Cassian also said something about giving the blaster away to a friend from the Narkina breakout. The suggestion is that she’s becoming very aware of the “coincidences” surrounding Cassian that also make even Luthen a little in awe of his life’s path hinting at some Force-related destiny.

It’s also interesting that Melshi and the blaster arrive the day after Syril himself is killed, and the day before Bix leaves and K-2SO is re-animated. I also wonder whether Vel is implied to be thinking a lot more about the bigger picture these days, as she is probably still struggling to make sense of Cinta’s death.

It’s a bit disheartening also to see a majority of YouTube reactors completely miss not only the significance of the blaster but not even recognise poor Melshi.

My cruise ship just passed the disused Coryton Oil Refinery on the River Thames. Seriously ugly but the location used for the Ferrix breakers’ yard shots and the Morlana 1 causeway in the opening scene. The lights are real! They had poor Diego Luna out there filming in the middle of a cold winter night in 2021.

It had to happen - I forgot a character. So Vel will be next, but meanwhile here’s an appreciation of the character who Tony Gilroy described as the kid he “had to throw on the truck” (the ship out of Ferrix) at the end of season 1 but whose actor was another one of those who pleasantly surprised Gilroy so much that he ended up getting an expanded role in Season 2.

Wilmon’s first appearance in ep 1 is a genuine ‘blink and you miss it’ situation (which is my excuse for missing it and I’m sticking to it). The basic reason is that his only word is “Dad” to alert Salman of Bix’s presence, and it’s soon clear that his father is the more important character to the plot at this stage in the story. Salman is established as a friend of Bix’s and (more importantly) the business owner who hosts the Ferrix fractal radio. We don’t know why this set up is the way it is until many episodes later when Dedra reports that under Gorst-torture interrogation Salman revealed that he has had the radio for two years since attending a ‘Separatist meeting on Jondora’. There, a woman - presumably Kleya - said that if he was ‘serious about politics’ he would be recruited as the Ferrix liaison. Salman then introduced Luthen (they met just the once) to Bix who became the sole operator of the radio.

Wilmon is 16 in this scene and from his reaction to Bix’s use of the code phrase he’s well aware of what his father is doing, and how potentially dangerous that is. But there’s nothing more to go on in this appearance other than the look of slightly concerned understanding. Wilmon will go on to report that the Pre-Mor corpos are looking for Cassian and will help start the alarm signal, but he doesn’t get significant dialogue. Only when his father is arrested in ep 8 do we hear the passion in his voice for the first time as he screams at the Imperials “Where have you taken my father??” and the next time we see him after that is when he is preparing his bomb and then using it at the funeral. Muhannad Bhaier’s silent grief and rage was one of the most memorable aspects of the season 1 finale.

In retrospect, Wilmon is set up as a kind of parallel to Cassian in much the same way as is Jyn in Rogue One: witnessing horrific violence against a parent at a young age and then committing to revenge against the Empire. But unlike Cassian and Jyn, Wilmon appears to have full and unwavering commitment throughout - quite possibly because he didn’t have the punishment that Cassian received back when he was a teenager attempting to avenge his father. This time, Ferrix rises up alongside Wilmon and he is whisked away to safety. I think the devastating loss of Brasso at the end of ep 3 also likely (re)fans the fire in him.

Gilroy presumably didn’t think much about what else to do with the character in advance until the time came to start formulating the story for the now-compressed season 2 and it can definitely be argued that Wilmon is a character who suffers a bit from the time compression. For example, he clearly develops a close relationship with Luthen but we never see the two of them interacting on screen - all the clues come from the dialogue. We don’t even know where he’s living in 3BBY as the few days covered show his eventful trip to Saw and a year later he is kind of half in Yavin and half still with Luthen (in an implied longer stint on Ghorman).

Yet I think it’s easy to forget how little Wilmon was in season 1 and therefore I’m very grateful that his role was expanded as much as it was. One of my favourite aspects of his character by the end is how much he is shown to have grown over the years, via attachment to a sequence of mentor figures and also romantic connections. In 4 BBY his relationship with Beela on Mina-Rau is very much that of a young an idealistic teenager, and although even Gilroy likes the idea that Wilmon is a player with a girl in every port, as it were, we only really see him with Dreena after that, and that relationship is (after a year, at least) implied to be a much more emotionally stable one: Wilmon’s last appearance literally shows him having breakfast with her in the final montage. He’s been wounded by then, has a permanent limp that I think is meant to imply that he is likely away from the front line fighting as the war develops. Gilroy’s way of saying ‘please let him live’ to any future writers of these characters, perhaps (he does something similar with Vel and even Kleya). Either way, that last shot has the sense of ‘Wilmon - the boy - has become a man’.

Next time: Vel Sartha (but probably not till after my holiday :) )

What’s turning out to be a really interesting feature for me doing this series of posts is noticing that some of the characters get really long and densely packed introductory scenes (Bix, Syril and Maarva so far especially) but that’s not always the case, and considering his major importance Luthen’s first scene is fascinatingly sparse. As such, it’s a fitting introduction to a character who while being one of the most pivotal in the series and a huge fan favourite remains something of an enigma right through to the end.

The plot here is simple. Despite her intitial reluctance Bix contacted her “friend who buys” who has wanted to meet Cassian for some time. And despite the issuing of the Pre-Mor bulletin in the meantime it’s “too late to call him off” and this scene simply shows his arrival on Ferrix and the start of his walk to the shuttle ferry to get to the city. And that really is it.

But of course there’s far more to it than simple plot because this is a character introduction, and it’s clear from the outset that there’s something mysterious and charismatic about this man. Like Cassian and Bix, we don’t know his name - they spend the entire season not knowing it. This desire for anonymity had already been established in the earlier scene, with Bix making it clear that this particular “secret friend” has an interest in Imperial equipment left behind on scrapped ships and also in Cassian himself as a supplier of some of those items. An early hint that it’s not just the Starpath unit but Cassian himself that Luthen is coming for.

The only dialogue in the scene is with the Fondor mod droid, and its calmly confident voice kind of echoes Luthen’s own. It’s established that he is trusting to it to find a good place to land, and the fact that he’s keen to evade detection is quickly established too by the line “How long a walk this time?” and by the answer that it’s 2.3 klicks (kilometres - I had to check!) away because there’s “nothing safe” that’s closer. The “this time” reminds us that he’s a regular customer and in a few episodes we’ll be told that this is at least the sixth time he has come here to Ferrix to buy parts from Bix. So every time he comes here he uses the shuttle from what is presumably the Ferrix spaceport - he’s seen looking at it here through his binoculars. Later, on the shuttle, ‘Willi’ will ask him “How much did they stick you to park your ship?” and Luthen lies “60 credits” (quite an amusing reference to the cost of airport parking, I always think :). So he’s deliberately landed in the middle of the wasteland in a secretive location that presumably changes each time.

Then there’s the Fondor itself. It already looks like a much sleeker and more sophisticated vehicle than anything we’ve seen so far on Ferrix and the sound design here is pretty awesome. The mod droid feels like an added extra feature and the folding wing design allows it to land in smaller spaces - the Art of Andor book reveals the design of the ‘garage’ at the back of the gallery allowing for it to land there. We don’t yet know of all its hidden capabilities but there’s an intruiging air of sleek sophistication here. It suggests that its pilot is somebody who is careful and cautious yet also confident - here to get something and going through well-practised protocol to acquire it as safely and efficiently as possible. We’ll later find out that Luthen is “desperate” for the Aldhani heist to work and views this apparently talented thief as valuable enough to come for himself; it’s also revealed that he knows full well that Cassian is now a wanted man but Luthen has come anyway because he’s that keen to get him. Both men are driven by need here but Luthen is giving nothing away about that so far and will be calmly controlling of the conversation once he meets Cassian too.

The sense of mystery is also maintained by the simple directorial decision to not show Luthen’s face until towards the end of the scene. We see him from behind, in his dark cloak-like coat. I think there’s a meta reason too: Stellan Skarsgard is one of those actors who many casual viewers would recognise immediately by his voice or face or both, so keeping the scene largely light on exposition might have been a deliberate choice for that reason too, because I think it does briefly break immersion when you recognise an actor.

My single favourite feature in the scene is the music. The cue here is called simply ‘Luthen Rael’ and its one of those Nicholas Britell themes that pops up again and again throughout the rest of the series in different versions and in enormous variety, from slow and mournful to upbeat and badass - a notable example of the latter being the ‘Full Fondor’ moment when Luthen shows the Arrestor Cruiser captain that he chose the wrong ship to detain.

As Luthen walks off towards the ferry lot, dark coat swirling dramatically, he is seen to be using his retractable walking cane (later revealed to have a hidden knife inside the hilt). This excited some viewers into thinking it might be a lightsaber or at least some kind of Jedi artefact, but it turns out it really is just to help an ageing man to walk distances such as 2.3 km. But there’s no denying the charisma and aura that Luthen conveys in this first appearance. We’re hooked by his mystery and want to see more.

Last scene: Luthen’s final scene with dialogue is with Dedra in s2 ep 10 - ‘Make it Stop’. Many of the questions raised about him by then have been answered or at least explored in more depth, but even though Dedra believes in triumph that she has found Axis we know by then that there is more to it than that. With his double life Luthen Rael is, similarly to Mon Mothma, “a front, a projection”. Maybe not just even a ‘double’ life. Sergeant Lear became Luthen Rael when he “wrote that equation” all those years ago, and whoever he really was is an indentity that was sacrificed for the sake of Kleya and his attempts ever since to atone for his part in the slaughter of her people, despite knowing “I’m damned for what I do”. Perhaps Lear was also an alias. “Is it real?” Dedra asks re the Nautolan Bleeder before handing back to him the weapon he will shortly use on himself. “We still don’t know! The tension mounts!”. It’s a brilliantly written scene of double meanings and an intense battle of wits.

Luthen’s last scene of all is in some ways unexpectedly quiet and melancholic: Kleya ending his life just as Dedra had tried to save it, but Kleya’s the act of both mercy and dire necessity because it is all for the Cause they both serve above all else. The music track that plays then: another incarnation of the ‘Luthen Rael’ theme called this time simply “Luthen….” and the ellipsis gives that sense of a gentle fading out on a man who in many ways remains an enigma. The fact that he will fade into anonymity next to the new leaders of the Rebellion the least of his sacrifices.

TLDR: Luthen is a spymaster who is introduced as a man of mystery and in many ways remains one. This was a man who burned his decency for someone else’s future and sacrificed the finer emotions, but without figures like him the Rebellion would fall at an early hurdle.

Next time: Vel Sartha

I wonder who the actor was. Also remembering the detail that they put props in the drawers on the Ferrix set, and how surprised and delighted the actors were to find such an immersive world.

This is the second scene where Mon comes to the gallery under the pretence of buying something for her husband, but this is an unscheduled visit because it’s the morning after the Aldhani heist and she’s desperate to confront Luthen about it. She lets Kloris know that she won’t be long, so this time he waits outside. Previously, Kleya distracted him while Mon and Luthen talked privately in the back room.

This time, Mon is so horrified that she forgets protocol and says “Was this you?” even before the doors behind her have closed! Thinking quickly, knowing that Kloris might have heard that, Luthen quickly steers the conversation to something slightly less suspicious sounding by saying loudly “Is it true?” - all while smiling affably in a “nothing to hide!” kind of way. It’s clearly designed to make Kloris think he must have misheard Mon with Luthen seemingly repeating what she had just (possibly) said.

It reminds me of the scene in season 2 where a furious Cassian comes to the shop after hours and confronts Luthen over his visit to Bix at the safe house. Luthen has another “just in case someone is watching/listening” contingency then too, letting Cassian know that he’s actually come to the gallery to return a missing medallion from a consignment, even thanking him for coming all this way to do that. Completely in role as well as also pointedly reminding his volatile operative how dangerous it is to break protocol in this way.

Luthen, Kleya and indeed Mon are never able to truly relax their guard for even a moment, but here Luthen is almost mopping up the mess as they go along. Fortunately, Kloris seemingly can’t hear the details of the conversation from outside anyway but I like how the subtitles reveal that he can hear something – but muffled.

It’s a sign of how excellent the writing is when a character can have less than 15 minutes of total screen time yet have such a massive impact. Maarva’s first scene is one of only three with Cassian and just like the scene with Bix in ep 1 there is a lot going on in this one, with plot exposition unfolding at the same time as some very revealing characterisation. All this tells us not just about Maarva herself but also that crucial and complicated relationship with her adoptive son.

Plot: Cassian comes home with the clear intention of not telling Maarva anything about the trouble he is in and his plan to leave Ferrix for a while. After greeting her and noticing her and B2EMO’s telling silence he attempts to go to his room get himself cleaned up, pretending he “tripped on a cable while helping Pegla” to explain his cuts and bruises from the deadly fight. At this point, Maarva commands B2EMO to read aloud the ‘Kenari male wanted for questioning’ bulletin from Pre-Mor (that Timm has already read and is soon to act on) and immediately demands of Cassian “Who else knows?… that you were born in Kenari”. A short and passionate discussion follows about who has told what and to whom with Cassian deflecting blame until distracted by B2EMO trying to tell him that Bix was looking for him. Finally, he admits that he himself told Pre-Mor that he was from Kenari and that “I messed up”. The scene ends with Maarva lapsing into worried silence at that with Cassian seeming ashamed.

We pick up quite a bit of new information about Cassian in this scene. He’s had multiple “women” and he’s likely told a few that he was from Kenari rather than Fest as per his official documents. He’s tellingly defensive of Bix over any of those women (taking real offence when B2EMO appears to be dropping her name into the list of suspects… he’s mistaken, the droid is just trying to start his message). Most importantly, although he was last seen sleeping in a ruined ship this is the place he regards as ‘home. It’s only on returning to the scene that we have the full picture though: the ship he’s been sleeping in is the old family hauler that took him from Kenari when he was nine. 13 years ago his adoptive father Clem, Maarva’s husband, was murdered by the Empire and Cassian himself was thrown into youth prison for three years for trying to avenge his death, followed by an unclear time of military conscription on Mimban where as per Luthen “you lived because you ran”. Most importantly of all, we will soon discover that Maarva is the one who forcibly sedated young Kassa and took him from his home world; an act that undoubtedly saved his life but also one that took him away from his sister.

Knowing these later details adds a huge punch to this first scene because it explains so much of the very uneasy dynamic between Maarva and Cassian here. On a first viewing, she probably comes over as a strict but fair figure who is rightly concerned about her adult son as he’s clearly been in trouble before - absolutely no-one on Ferrix so far has seemed pleased to see him. But knowing the full context makes so much sense of the details here and especially the one that really puzzled me on a first viewing.

For the first minute or so Maarva doesn’t mention the bulletin and instructs B2EMO to keep quiet. So she’s actually setting up a kind of test to see if Cassian will tell her of his own accord that he’s “messed up”. She’s disappointed when he doesn’t but the fact she was hoping he might confess and confide suggests to me that his lying to her is quite habitual. Cassian does indeed employ an overly casual manner as he lies to her. Diego Luna made the great choice to have Cassian head to the kitchen and casually raid the cookie jar or whatever while he’s lying, apparently something the actor used to do in real life when young to make lying to his father easier. The main point is, Maarva seems really used to it. And they both know it! Just like a child he tries to keep up the act even when he knows he’s likely ‘busted’ in some way - that really awkward peck on the cheek and the cautious “Don’t you look comfortable!” suggests to me his guilty conscience; that in total contrast he is feeling reeeeeally uncomfortable here.

The whole scene makes sense to me in this context: Maarva is still feeling conflicted about what she did all those years ago and feels that Cassian is probably at least a little resentful towards her still. Looked at harshly, she is at least partly the reason for his trauma regarding leaving his sister behind. But the flip-side of that is that she saved his life and has loved him unconditionally. Because of his behaviour, behaviour she might at least partly blame herself for, her love shows most often in worrying about him. As she will later remind him: “That’s just love - nothing you can do about that”. Yet I think she’s also feeling genuine disappointment in him, and though she’s obviously not going to explicitly say that it’s something that they both silently acknowledge in this scene. He’s in trouble. Yet again.

My main evidence for that last point is the way that Cassian alters the lie that he and Brasso worked out together into something much more likely to impress Maarva. “I was helping Pegla and tripped on a cable” is trying to tell her that he was doing something to help others rather than just get drunk with a friend. But the real elephant in the room is of course the fact that he went to Morlana 1 at all. When Maarva says in their final scene together “Stop searching for your sister” it tells us very elegantly, even if we didn’t know before, that Cassian has been going on searches like this and trying not to tell Maarva. Maybe because he doesn’t want to seem ungrateful to her. Maybe because he’s ashamed that he is so consumed by his past. Either way, it makes for a really complicated relationship in the present and rather sadly it’s not something that is resolved in their final scene together either. Cassian also clearly has mixed feelings on trying to take revenge on Clem. That was probably the start of Maarva’s decline and you can imagine Cassian blaming himself for fighting back as it effectively deprived Maarva of her adoptive son as well as her husband.

From a technical perspective, it’s a really well blocked scene. One early detail I like in this clip: Cassian deliberately putting his bandaged hand in his pocket before entering in the hope that his mother won’t spot it. Maarva’s home is quite sizeable but she’s static on her chair, with Cassian the one moving around her or attempting to escape to the kitchen and his bedroom. The atmosphere is cluttered and worn but quite cosy looking, yet we already know it’s cold in there from Brasso’s comment “Tell your mother she can afford to put the heating on”. Maarva appears both elderly and quite frail so it’s a surprise when she gets so forceful later in this clip. Fiona Shaw is effortlessly charismatic and you can sense at once that Maarva is in absolute command here, from her stern warning to poor B2EMO to her humorous outrage re Cassian’s love life: “There’s some whose names I don’t know!” In turn, Diego Luna plays Cassian as furtively evasive, nervous and - very tellingly - highly respectful, despite his lies.

This is a scene that works on so many levels but I do think that its main function is to establish how important Maarva is to Cassian. Just as with the scene with Bix there’s a lot of antagonism and confrontation in the actual dialogue, but also a clear signal of a very deep and long-standing bond. In short, Maarva is so upset in this scene because she loves Cassian dearly and is terrified that he’s going to get into serious trouble once again. And because Cassian loves her dearly too, he respects her and wants to shelter her from unpleasant truths - from the pain he so often seems to cause her. Unpleasant truths about the wanted bulletin and how deeply in the shit he yet again is, but also unpleasant truths about his behaviour more generally. He thinks he’s a disappointment to her and I think the harsh truth is that in many ways he is. That’s clear in the atmosphere from the end of the scene. He hates to admit that he “messed up” because he wants more than anything to make her proud of him. When he tries to get her to run away with him after the Aldhani heist he’s clearly expecting her to be proud that he’s “scored” a load of credits and I think that’s why she doesn’t have the heart at first to tell him that she’s not going. Later, when he tries to get a message through to her from Niamos he instructs Xanwan to tell her “She’ll be proud of me”.

He wants to earn her respect because he respects her so much. In this way, Maarva will stay with Cassian after her death - throughout Season 2 and all the way to Scarif, because one of the most moving ways in which Andor ‘reconfigures’ Rogue One is to makes us believe that when Cassian is attempting to comfort Jyn with the words “Your father would have been proud of you” he is very much thinking of his own complicated relationship with the parent figure who was so important to him, and whose faith that he would one day “be an unstoppable force for good” helped carry him through.

Last scene: Everyone on Ferrix respects Maarva. She’s a totemic character, despite her short amount of screen time. Choosing her exact final scene to mention here is tricky because her last on-screen appearance is posthumous: the hologram at her own funeral, inciting her beloved community to stand up to Imperial oppression. Her final words for Cassian are delivered posthumously as well, via Brasso, and together with “That’s just love” are some of the most beautifully moving expressions of faith and love that any parent could express for their child. Her last living appearance is a sad one: she has fallen trying to check the old flood gates under the hotel and she appears weak and frail as Bix and Brasso attempt to care for her in Cassian’s absence. But even there, her words live on with Cassian literally using those same tunnels to rescue Bix a week or so later, and in terms of wanting to be part of the rebellion Maarva is in a strange way doing exactly that at her own funeral: calling her beloved community to “Fight the Empire” and then the beautiful sight of her own funerary brick being whacked into the head of one of the oppressors. It’s just what she would have wanted. All of these are also great examples of how a character can continue to “haunt the narrative”. Tony Gilroy has even said in one interview that the very last scene of the series shows Bix as Maarva, on a metaphorical level - Bix is hugely influenced by her too. Even the series title isn’t necessarily exclusive to Cassian.

TLDR: Maarva Andor has less than 15 minutes of screen time but is one of the most powerfully influential and memorable characters in the series. Her love for and faith in Cassian isn’t immediately obvious in her first scene, but her fear and disappointment are in fact the evidence that she feels he is capable of being so much more than he currently is, and she will continue to be an inspiration in the coming years. Maarva Andor lives on long after her death.

“We’ve already gamed that out” indicates to me that he’s been part of some secret working party and might even be some kind of personal assistant to Krennic. Either way, it’s clear that as with the real life inspiration for this scene - the Wannsee Conference - the “Final Solution” to the “problem” of the Ghormans is already well underway even before this meeting. Just as in the real life planning of the Holocaust, this whole meeting is not about “if” so much as “how”.

Planning genocide over coffee and canapés. All intercut with scenes of the starving Maya Pei Brigade in a state of chaotic dissolution and infighting.

Timm is another one of those minor Andor characters like Chief Hyne who is interesting in his own right but even more interesting in his first scene for what he reveals about other characters and their relationships by contrasts and parallels. His first scene is effectively the one I covered last time about Bix but Timm bookends that long and densely packed scene in addition to bursting into it mid-way through. This clip is from the end.

Timm, played by James McCardle, is another Ferrixian who works in salvage but although we first see him behind the reception desk it’s quickly established that he is employee rather than boss. He’s first seen being amenable with a variety of customers, all smiles until he spots Cassian and says “She’s in the yard” in a tone of voice that immediately tells us three things: Cassian has been here to talk with Bix before; Timm doesn’t like this happening; Timm doesn’t like Cassian.

Timm’s completely transparent attempt to interrupt or even in some way ‘catch them in the act’ in this middle part of the scene is kind of funny on a first watch but on subsequent viewings is a clear warning sign that this is a man who is extremely insecure. It’s literally all that’s needed for Cassian to pick up for the first time that Bix and Timm have started dating, and for Bix to get mildly defiant and defensive in response. One of my favourite details is the awkward silence after she says (re a customer who wants to “know if we’re bidding on the Wobani run”) : “He’ll know when I’m ready.” Her line immediately establishes her as the boss but the look she gives Timm afterwards always reminds me of the one a parent might give to a child who had interrupted adults talking about something they don’t want the child to hear. Cassian’s reaction is even more inflammatory: he doesn’t turn at all at first but then he half turns and gives a furtive and reserved glance that also somehow manages to be dismissive. He’s annoyed and concerned about what Timm might know about their little black market business arrangement but also a little amused at Timm’s pretty clumsy attempt to assert himself and remind Bix of his presence. But for Timm it’s going to look very suspicious. He is of course correct that they are keeping something from him, and although it’s not what he thinks suspicion can turn to jealousy in an instant … and it’s not as if this is the first time.

Timm’s encounter with Cassian at the end of the scene starts with “She seems upset…Seems like that always happens whenever you come around”. Cassian pointedly takes the moral high ground with “Good to see you too, Timm” and in the next few seconds literally sidesteps around Timm who is standing confrontationally in his way, delivering some pointed banter. Precisely no-one has been happy to see Cassian in this first episode so far except for B2EMO but this is probably the first time we sense open hostility in addition to the weary impatience and disappointment of Brasso and Bix. The banter itself is more than a little spiky but it has a good pinch of a truth they both know. “She’s tougher than both of us” is demonstably true in that scene but there’s also a note of real admiration for Bix there from Cassian, with intriguing implications for his own past romantic relationship.

Timm then saying “I’m getting tired of hearing that” immediately tells us that this isn’t the first time they’ve had a confrontation like this. I think that this is also the biggest clue about the reason for one plot detail that on the surface seems highly unlikely: that Bix has told Timm that Cassian was born on Kenari. Why would she do that, especially if the relationship is in early stages? It seems like a betrayal of Cassian’s biggest secret. But I think the suggestion here is that Timm has been bothered enough by the repeated visits of Cassian to the salyard *and* the way that Bix always seems to find the time to talk to him in private to have brought it up with her directly. Knowing that she can’t tell Timm anything about what is *really* going on in terms of their black market operation Bix has probably gone down the route of “He’s my oldest childhood friend and I do like to be kind to him because he’s had a rough life…” In retrospect not a sensible thing to do at all but as we are soon to find out Cassian himself and also Maarva have been very lax with keeping the secret in recent years.

Timm almost certainly knows about Cassian’s reputation as a womaniser and as a shady operator with debts so does have some legitimate cause for concern. But I still think that this is a convenient self-justification for an action that is ultimately to do with jealousy rather than a genuinely selfless concern for Bix’s safety. And going back to Bix trusting him with Cassian’s secret: my main takeaway from that is that Ferrix in general is a community that is tight-knit and trusting of each other. There’s also the context we discover later: at age 13, Cassian witnessed his adoptive father getting killed and was harshly punished with three years in youth prison followed by forced military service. So there’s a sense in ep 1 in general that even though Cassian is a hot mess and a bit of a dick he’s *our* hot mess and a bit of dick, so the community as a whole cuts him some slack. Bix is perhaps naive not to see disaster looming, but I think she genuinely thought the priority was keeping Timm from knowing about the black market deals. There’s another brutal truth too: it’s quickly established in their next scene that Timm is far more into Bix than she is into him. Even without the persistent skulking presence of the handsome ex, that is going to be a problem going forward.

Timm’s final scene is him getting shot dead by the very forces he called in to supposedly protect his girlfriend and/or his relationship. His blind rush at the armed Corpos comes from genuine horrified concern but I wonder how much of his own guilt is exacerbated by knowing this is all something he brought upon the woman he is supposed to love, onto his community and onto himself. His motives were, ultimately, selfish and deluded ones. There are some similarities with Syril here in that both have the strong characteristics of a literary tragic arc. Timm’s jealous suspicions are fuelled by a combination of bad timing, bad choices and the vicious circle of his own insecurity. In short, he’s out of his league and believes - not without justification - that Bix regards him (as Adria Arjona puts it) as her Plan B romantic choice. At the same time, he seems to be a possessive and even obsessive man in a way that rings a lot of warning bells. If “He’ll do anything for me” is the main reason Bix likes Timm it’s going to be a shock once she realises that that ‘anything’ extends to betraying a fellow Ferrixian to the authorities.

TLDR: Timm isn’t easy to like but I think it is easy to feel bad for him even if his choices are ultimately inexcusable. He’s a deeply insecure man who acted on the spur of the moment when drunk. He was unable or unwilling to talk to his lover and was in many ways the instrument of his own downfall. He’s also a very well written character in his own right even though his main narrative purpose is to drive events that will impact on other characters and bring about his own downfall.

Next time: Maarva Andor

Bix is the character most often associated with trauma in the show, with PTSD specifically, and in this scene Luthen has discovered that she is self-medicating with a sleeping drug. In this moment he reveals that he’s familiar with the drug, and is probably talking from personal experience. Probably his own, possibly Kleya’s, maybe even both.

I think the difference with Bix is that we see her in the “before trauma” state in a way that we don’t with the other traumatised characters. She undergoes a unique form of torture, and is implied to be the only long-term survivor of that. Recovery in the face of further terrible setbacks becomes the heart of her story. But everywhere in the series there are characters who have gone through horrific events.

Cassian is an obvious example. At the beginning of the series his unresolved childhood trauma has put him in a downward spiral. He’s consumed by misplaced guilt. Not just losing his home and his sister, and his parents before that, but also seeing his adoptive father killed in front of him. The horrors of youth prison and military service. Followed even after committing by all the killing he has to do for the Cause. Even when it’s for revenge or to protect loved ones Cassian reveals that the memory of the faces of those he’s killed never fades. “We’ve all done terrible things on behalf of the rebellion” and reminding himself that it’s “for a cause that is worth it” ultimately drives him to self sacrifice. By then he’s witnessed horror after horror.

Then you’ve got Cinta, whose whole family was slaughtered. Same for Kleya. Both of these women become so focused on the Cause that it’s in danger of completely consuming them as they push their emotions beneath the surface in an attempt to control them. For Vel, she has the trauma of losing the love of her life in such a tragically stupid way. The reference to her having many months of “reckless” behaviour afterwards rang really true. As for Lonni, even if he had survived, you could imagine the strain of this “double life” staying with him for years. Mon, effectively selling her daughter. Luthen, trying to atone and sacrificing his decency on a daily basis.

I don’t know if the writers consulted any experts about all this, but I would say that it’s another part of the excellent characterisations in Andor. Just like “everyone has their own rebellion”, everyone has their own trauma in relation to it. As Luthen says, “We are not who we were when we started”.

Some great details from “The Art of Andor” book. I’m not particularly into firearms but I loved the way they showed the logic of the different configurations of this one. Also kind of ironic that on the two occasions in his story we actually see Cassian as a sniper he fails to make the shot.. the first time thanks to Syril and the second time because of his gut feeling that this isn’t the right thing to do.

So many fascinating details in this wonderful book. Regardless of whether or not she was ever going to be found, it’s pretty clear even here that Kerri’s absence in Cassian’s life is to be a defining feature of his character, who even back in Rogue One was conceived as someone who hates leaving people behind.

Also confirmation that the children at the camp are wearing and utilising old mining gear, and that they used to live in shanty towns with the now-gone adults.

Gony Tilroy filming his latest.

Bix is perhaps more than even Cassian the character who changes the most from start to finish over the course of the five years covered by the series. Episode 1 shows a Bix we never return to: an organised, smart and pragmatic business woman who has strong relationships with her friends and community, including an obvious but as yet ambiguous relationship with Cassian. She is also someone who is prepared to exploit the black market. She is working at the start at the scene, keeps working through most of it even when talking with Cassian at the same time and the fact that she is so ‘at home’ with the equipment and environment establishes her very quickly as another stalwart Ferrix citizen.

It’s hard to keep this to a manageable length because the scene is absolutely jam packed with details of different kinds. It’s very exposition heavy in terms of plot, character and world-building; one of those scenes where you really have to lock in and pay attention in order to appreciate every little nuance. It’s also extremely well blocked: the framing, camera and actor movements (including some fascinating use of eye-contact), the directing choices in general all repay rewatching. I’ll be concentrating on this clip from the end of the scene because it shows the culmination of the ‘story’ here.

That story is basically this: Cassian - believing he needs to flee Ferrix until ‘things have cooled off’ - has been working with Bix as a supplier for her blackmarket operation and as a result of this knows that she has one particular customer who could be a source of getaway money right now: “Your friend… your secret friend… the one who buys.” Our first reference to Luthen. Immediately noticing his cagey demeanour, Bix asks Cassian what’s up and he deflects but keeps pushing for her to contact this friend of hers. Bix initially refuses: she has a schedule for contacting her Buyer and at first sees no reason to bring it forward as a favour to Cassian who in turn is forced to reveal more of his desperation, clearly reluctant to say too much about why he’s in trouble.

Bix seems used to him having secrets. He finally reveals what the part he wants to sell is - the Starpath Unit - and Bix is immediately furious that Cassian has been ‘holding out’ on her, breaking the terms of their deal by not telling her about this exceptionally valuable piece of kit that she would normally sell for him, for a fee. He fires back that she’s “been skimming off the top”. She suggests he sell her the piece (for less than he would get directly) and he refuses, saying he needs every credit. Storming clumsily into this intense discussion comes Timm Karlo. Bix dismisses him as soon as possible but Cassian, noticing Timm’s apparent suspicion and latent jealousy, asks if their relationship has “turned into something more than work”. After this distraction, Cassian pushes one last time for Bix to call her Buyer and at the very end of the scene and on his third time of asking she finally agrees.

I remember that I needed to rewatch this scene, even on first viewing, to catch all of this plot and of course there’s a lot more to the scene than just the story. It reveals a lot about Bix, about Cassian, about Timm and even - in his absence - about Luthen (that he’s been asking for a meeting with Cassian for some time already).

Tony Gilroy focused on the ‘multipurpose’ nature of the scene in a Q & A session about season 1 and complimented Adria Arjona especially for portraying Bix as the one completely in control in this scene. Bix effectively has two needy men here vying for her attention: one her current boyfriend and the other one… it’s not completely clear, at first, exactly what they are. In the light of the rest of the series it’s especially interesting to see this scene in the context of where Bix “regrets every second that we didn’t spend together” begging the obvious question of why they’re not together. The answer seems pretty obvious and Bix herself spells it out further in Ep 7: Cassian is a hot mess: unreliable, always disappearing, scamming, lying. We also know that at this time he’s haunted by the idea that he might find his sister and it’s likely that that caused some conflict between them too (even in season 2 she chastises him for seeing her as something to feel similar protective guilt about). It therefore makes sense that Cassian’s newfound commitment at the end of season 1 finally makes him a stable romantic partner too, even though they do of course have a whole new bunch of challenges by then.

Bix is very much all about Ferrix - it’s her family and her home. Her home is also her workplace: she’s inherited a very organised Salyard (even the office is very clean and prosperous looking) and has a recently acquired boyfriend who is also an employee. “He’d do anything for me” comes over as a pointed and only semi-joking jab at Cassian but it’s just as revealing about Bix: she likes to be in control in every aspect of her life and it makes sense that this might be a response to earlier pain caused by something less controllable. “Bix’s plan B”, as Arjona has amusingly described Timm, is probably someone who is seemingly a lot more reliable and stable than the man she seems to have a lot more natural chemistry with in this scene, even if there’s literally nothing explicitly romantic between them at this time.

What really strikes me now about Bix in this scene is how she tries to continue to work pretty much throughout, and frequently tries to avoid Cassian’s pleading gaze, even turning her head away sometimes. The entire way they speak to each other is brilliantly written as it’s almost immediately clear that they know each other extremely well. I even thought at first that Bix might be a sibling (!) and then a friend and it was only this ending of the scene with the wistfully delicate musical cue (her theme is exquisite), lines like “Do I ask about your personal life?!” and Timm’s obvious jealousy that gave a big clue as to a romantic history. The subtext in the dialogue is one of Andor’s real strengths and there’s so much between the lines in this scene.

So a lot of the background of this central character and this crucial relationship in the series is established by one or two lines here and in their other (surprisingly few) scenes in season 1 before Bix is changed irreversibly by Gorst’s torture in Ep 9. Cassian never says “please” when asking for a favour. Bix is annoyed but not furious that he interrupts her work (even by lifting the vehicle she’s working on while she’s under it!). They snipe at each other in the way that only comes with genuine closeness. In short, they clearly know each other extremely well. “I fell.” “On what, a jealous husband?” is revealing about Cassian but also gives a glimpse of Bix’s sense of humour - something we won’t see again until the start of season 2 when she’s teasing Wilmon.

The lines are short and sharp and they often know what the other is about to say. Even in an argument situation they seem more at ease with each other than Bix does in her later conversation with Timm. There’s an intimacy here, and it’s not with her current boyfriend. She ends up helping Cassian because he’s a kind of weakness (“she always prioritises him - and that kind of sucks” Arjona observed about that) and the way he both expects her help and gets it relatively easily despite treating her pretty complacently here speaks volumes about the depth of their relationship. As for Bix herself, there’s an emotional vulnerability to her too. She’s seemingly lost her parents at a relatively young age; she’s not with the man she truly loves; she’s emotionally guarded with her new boyfriend in a way that comes back to bite them all.

But her ‘weakness’ is also her strength: she really cares about others. This is one thing about her that does not change.

Just a few days later Bix is traumatised for the first of several times by being shackled to a wall and her head slammed against it (by the Pre-Mor team) before seeing Timm gunned down in front of her. A little over a month later and she blames herself for the capture of Salman Paak before being captured and tortured herself: all for trying to do the right thing by attempting to contact Cassian to let him know that Maarva is ill. This is the start of the long and hard journey into and through the kind of profound and repeated trauma that other characters have experienced, but with Bix we see her before the start of that journey rather than already along the road. The sadness of it all is that she’s consistently someone who cares about others, and who wants to do the right thing. Her capacity for compassion isn’t affected by the awful things she experiences and that is probably the single fact that I love most about Bix as a character.

Final scene: Tony Gilroy acknowledged that the final shot might be seen as a bit ‘cheesy’ but I agree with him that it’s also thoroughly earned. There’s a full-circle poignancy in Bix embracing and reassuring her own child after being tortured with the screams of dying children and losing so many of her Ferrix family members. Cassian and Bix had plenty of time in those gaps between the years that we don’t see to discuss hopes and dreams for a life after the war, to contemplate having a family of their own - especially after so many personal losses; to have hope of enjoying a domestic life where they can go shopping or walk in the park without fear. Bix starts and ends the series at home, with all that “Home” implies, but despite the losses still to come there’s true contentment and fulfilment in that final image. If any character has earned this peaceful and hopeful “domestic” ending after all she’s been through, it’s Bix.

TLDR: “We are not who we were when we started”, as Luthen says in s 2 ep 6. This is perhaps more true of Bix than any other character. But if someone “ordinary” like her can go through so much and come out the other side as strong, content and hopeful as she is is an inspirational message, especially for anyone who is caught up in a conflict, with all the inevitable suffering and sacrifices that come with that.

So the stainless steel floors weren’t just there for the electricity but to give the “easy to clean up the bodies” vibe of men being reduced to the status of livestock.

The THX 1138 influence has been mentioned before, but it’s interesting to see Alcatraz cited too. Quote is from Production Designer Luke Hull.

Among the many other details revealed in ‘The Art of Andor’ is the one that the filming of the Narkina scenes took place at the end of the Season 1 shoot and that the last thing filmed was the prisoners jumping off the ramp. I bet that felt good!