A lot of important stuff goes down on this week’s characteristically excellent episode of Andor, so you’ll pardon my impudence in pushing this particular news upfront: Syril has feelings for Dedra, but they do not appear to be returned! Just as I wrote “stalking†in my notes to describe Syril showing up outside a visibly put-off Dedra’s office to offer an intense thank-you for his recent promotion and new lease on life, she uses the word herself, reasonably asking if he’s stalking her. He doesn’t exactly say no. He does exactly look at her with great fervor, grayish blue eyes to grayish blue eyes, as he explains that she single-handedly showed him that “justice and beauty†(!) still exist in this galaxy.
Like so much of what Syril does, it’s an overreach. Syril all but professing his love for the order that Dedra imposes only strikes her (correctly) as vastly out of bounds. The feelings brewing inside him are pure disorder, arranged in a cleanly groomed and fastidious-looking package, made all the more discomfiting by Syril gathering all of his confidence to perform this “deranged,†as he says, act of fealty.
Where should sympathies, if any, lie in this situation? Syril obviously has Stalker Personality and makes Dedra feel unsafe; Dedra, on the other hand, is a torture-happy fascist, so maybe this is a “let them fight†situation. It would be fascinating to glimpse her family life with the same clarity we see Syril and his mother at the breakfast table, all miserable cereal consumption, browbeating, and talk of that bastard Uncle Harlow.
It’s a testament to the strength of Andor that a comparably small subplot (or at least one where we’re only doled out a scene or two each week) can inspire such tantalizing thoughts. I really enjoyed most of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but its new characters didn’t live in the offscreen space quite so vividly as they do on this program. To manage this growing ensemble, this episode is structured a lot like last week’s “Narkina 5â€: The first chunk features swift and tense cross-cutting between Cassian in prison and one other subplot, in this case Bix’s torture at the hands of Dedra and the ISB, before Mon Mothma makes an appearance around 40 percent of the way through as the rest of the episode broadens in scope, which includes the aforementioned Syril.
Syril isn’t wrong to think he and Dedra are some kind of spiritual match; both characters are performed with coiled relish that never quite crosses the line into cartoonland. But there is a sadistic joy visible beneath the officiousness, and poor Bix picks up on this too as she faces off with her oppressor. “You seem to enjoy this,†she comments after we see Dedra cracking her neck in anticipation of preparing her “nuanced†view of the torture she’s about to inflict, and later cocking a single eyebrow at he prisoner. Equally tortured: Dedra’s metaphors! Or at least the metaphor that ends with her asking “Are you a fish or are you a thief?†sure lacks the elegance we’ve come to expect from this show. (Commentary on the Empire’s lack of emphasis on the liberal arts, perhaps? I tend to think not, but maybe!) Conveniently — insofar as explaining why Bix isn’t horribly injured for the rest of the series, if she survives — Dedra pries information out of her using recordings of “choral, agonized pleading†of an alien race being wiped out by the Empire.
There is a fantastic sound-matched cut from Bix’s agonized scream to the whir of Imperial equipment in the jail on Narkina 5. Cassian is still quietly casing the joint, formulating a plan of attack with some fellow prisoners. He notes that moving parts are not electrified/weaponized, and that there don’t seem to be a ton of guards or weapons on them at all times. He begins making the case — even or especially to Kino Loy, the prisoner and supervisor — for escape, which is really the case for rebellion. He believes that the Empire is so vast that some of it must be spread thin with bean-counting bureaucracy, rather than true believers that the prisoners should fear. “Nobody’s listening!†he screams, loudly proving his point when he’s not carted off for possible sedition.
Nobody’s watching either, at least not closely enough to observe what Cassian sees during one of his many prison line-ups: Distant communication between various units of prison labor indicate that something is amiss on Level 2. Soon, a rumor hits that the whole level has been wiped out — 100 men sacrificed to the electric floor. Kino doesn’t want to make a big show of it. “Just another day, another shift!†he barks at “his†men, trying to debunk the rumor as the camera lingers on Andy Serkis’s face, showing the panic barely contained therein.
On a purely physical level, it’s easier going in Mon Mothma’s corner of the galaxy, though not necessarily more reassuring: She faces vocal and belligerent opposition in the senate just for pleading for a slower march toward authoritarianism than the current draconian prison sentences. We also learn some unexpected back story: Vel is Mon’s cousin from an equally posh background. They don’t know much about each other’s covert rebellion activity beyond that they’re both in it (and Vel is a lot more confident that they haven’t gone in over their heads). By episode’s end, Mon is seeking a “certain kind of loan,†from the seemingly disreputable Davo Sculdun, at the suggestion of her old grade-school friend Tay, and to her great consternation.
On a lot of big-canvas sci-fi shows, having the lead character spend several episodes behind bars is never a highlight (Feels kinda like Lost season three). With all the galaxy to explore, constraining the action to the inside of a prison feels about as much fun as being inside said prison. Cutting back to the prison storyline after Mon Mothma and Syril and Dedra would, you’d think, prompt groans. But the prison story line on Andor is shaping up to be one of its best. Back on Narkina 5, the oldest member of Cassian’s pod collapses, the victim of a stroke, and Cassian and Kino see that the treatment prescribed to him is severe. He’s quietly put to death about a month out from his supposed release, and similar circumstances inform what happened with Level 2: They noticed that a just-released prisoner had been immediately looped back into the system rather than actually leaving his sentence behind. When this became obvious, the Empire killed them all rather than letting word of this deception spread. The prisoner-doctor attending to Cassian’s fallen friend puts it plainly: “No one’s getting out.†Cassian, sensing an opening, repeats his earlier question: “How many guards on each level?†This time, Kino stops evading, stops scolding, and provides an answer: “Never more than 12.†It may be the best cut to black of the series so far.
Rebel Yells
• All right, time for me to eat crow: Andy Serkis, whom I last week described as guilty of overacting in his non-mo-capped human form, is quite good in this episode. I’m won over. I will probably buy the Kino Loy action figure when the time comes. (I wish I could pretend this is the highest honor one can bestow upon a Star Wars character, but collectors are living proof that it is absolutely not. Buying a pointless plush of a character, though, or a Taco Bell drink lid … perhaps.)
• Cassian makes his case that they must act because human labor, for the Empire, is “cheaper than droids, and easier to replace.†I don’t doubt it, but it does make me wonder, since Andor throws around more actual figures than a typical Star Wars movie or show, what your average model of battle droid costs as opposed to, say, the stormtrooper armor. (Again, I don’t doubt that the latter is cheaper; from what we’ve seen, it barely seems to work at all.)
• This week in galactic firsts: Andor has depicted what I believe is the first toilet in live-action Star Wars. We catch a glimpse of what may be Jango Fett’s washroom in Attack of the Clones, but only briefly, and not much of a look at the plumbing. Congratulations to all involved!