Andor Season 1
Episode Number 11 Preview and Review
Episode 11 of Andor begins with Cassian attempting to escape the empire with another escaped prisoner, Melshi. The couple find themselves hanging on for dear life on the edge of a cliff. A nice fade edit cuts to another scene involving B2EMO on Ferrix needed to help the Daughters of the planet. Maarwa is dead.
A large funeral is planned to mourn the death of the mother, but the Empire is always on the lookout and wants to make sure nothing goes wrong. Meero explains the customs to the other officials and decides to give them permission for this 2-day event.
Meanwhile, Andor and Melshi make a run for it, intending to board the quadruped and exit the planet. Unfortunately, as soon as the net comes out and catches them both, they fall right into a trap. The two aliens watch with puzzled expressions. Their names are Freedi and Greedi, and after some back-and-forth, they admit that they’re not happy with the nearby prison that drained all their water and made them search for scraps. Thankfully, Cassian and Melshi talk their way out of the problem and board the ship to a more secure system.
One not-so-good man here is Bix, who is still reeling from his torturous ordeal. He didn’t give much information, but it’s a complete mess. Exhausted, she asked about Anto and his connection to Kasian Andor. She starts to cry but doesn’t break down. At least not yet. But how long can he last?
Meanwhile, Vel Mon learns of the problem with Mothman. Rebellion isn’t cheap and he confidently admits to borrowing 100,000 a month from the family trust to pay for the rebellion. All was going well until a few months ago when one of the bankers back home contacted him to warn him that Imperial inspectors would be taking a closer look at his books.
Mon admits he did his best, pulling everything he could into the main account. Unfortunately, it was not enough. In the end, one empty ledger was out of balance and used Thai Kolma to replace the credits to fix this. Of course, it’s a slippery slope and now 400,000 credits are missing – and as a result, all eyes will soon be on Monday.
Luten doesn’t even know how bad it is, but he warned her. Vel narrows his eyes and admits that it can’t work out…but Mo has a solution. It’s not very pleasant, but it’s a workaround. And it could seal a deal with the shady Davo Skuldun.
Sergeant Mosk informed Cyril about Andor. He brings up how Maarva passed away and it’s the perfect opportunity to catch Andor so he can come to the funeral.
Speaking of showing off, Lt. Saw warns Gerrera about the trap the Empire has set for them. He is willing to burn his ally Kreegyr to keep everything they currently have in place. A mole within the empire is priceless, and Lüten knows it. However, this is Saw’s decision. Do they let Kreegyr go low or play the long game? Or did they warn and save his life, but put an end to everything?
Luten knows how the Imperium works and believes that allowing this sacrifice to happen would make the Empire invincible, if not itself. This superior confidence would allow them to exploit the Empire’s weaknesses and strike more powerfully. The alternative would make the Imperium more suspicious than before and make counterattacking even more difficult.
On the way home, Lute is picked up by an Imperial Star Destroyer – apparently an early model – and armed with a powerful tractor beam in the form of several large satellite dishes on the front. Lüten tries to escape, and although his fake ID passes, the commander aboard the Destroyer is determined to board and search Lüten’s cargo, claiming they “need the experience”.
TIE Fighters attack when Luten tries to escape by avoiding the tractor beam with countermeasures. Thankfully, Lute’s ship has lasers on the side that he cuts through with complete ease. I wonder if they would have cut the Star Destroyer too. We can’t wait to learn that Lute jumped into hyperspace and managed to evade the Imperials.
Meanwhile, Andor tries to send a message home to Maarva, only to receive word that she has passed away. He is understandably heartbroken, and after handing over his weapon to Melshi, who promises to spread the word about the horrors of Narkina 5, Andor makes a difficult decision.
Episode Review
Andor’s penultimate episode sows the seeds for a very exciting finale to come next week. There’s a lot to like about this chapter, and the handling of Maarva’s death is certainly a nice addition that works really well in the context of the story.
All roads lead to Ferrix now, the Empire is sure to want to throw its weight around. However, Syril is the wildcard here and it remains to be seen what exactly will happen at this funeral.
The show has done a good job of making all of these moving parts come together and understand how hard Mo is going, which helps contextualize her situation and how hard it will be for her to actually stay in this rebellion and not raise suspicions. Either way, next week’s finale should be a pretty interesting watch.