Andor Season 1
Episode Number 4 Preview and Review
Episode 4 of Andor begins with Cassian looking for a medicine pack. They are preparing for Aldhani, but the reason is shrouded in mystery. Lüten encourages him to join and have “everything he wants”, including laying a stick on the Empire and getting paid for it.
Luthen came specifically for him, not a Starpath unit. He wants five days with her and promises to be 200,000 credits richer if Andor delivers. Their target? Quarterly wages only for the entire Imperial sector.
On Coruscant, we cut to the Imperial Security Bureau, where the high-level security council joins in and discusses their work. They’re mostly covert security operations, but the old Partagaz who heads this council tells them they’re “health providers”, treating the sick and making sure germs don’t spread. Germs love rebel alliances. They find out about what happened to Cassian and decide to do damage control and clean up the mess it caused.
After what happened to Andor, Deputy Inspector, Sergeant and Chief Hyne are reprimanded by the Empire. This is a major security disaster, and the entire Morlana System is now under Imperial control.
Meanwhile, Luten reveals that he is not actually in charge of this mission. This falls to a woman named Vel, who heads to their ship that has run aground. Andor takes on a new identity for himself, the name Clem.
Luten tells Vel of his piece, pointing out that Andor was paid to be a part of this rebellion. Not much of an option to be honest. Either they accept it… or the whole operation is shut down.
As Luten prepares to touch down on Coruscant, he leaves the planet, donning a new identity and setting off. Senator Mon Mothma is there to greet him, where the brilliant Lutein portrays a very different character than we’ve previously met.
However, both senators actually come to the front as they conspire together to bring down the Empire. (See the gif of the Emperor saying, “This is treason.”) Anyway, they operate in strict secrecy, but their secret conversations are certainly visible.
Mothra forgets a scheduled meeting with the counselors that evening, and is consequently confused when Perrin tells her.
Andor (now going by the nickname Clem) walks with Vel. He informs him that they looted the armory at Aldhani Garrison. There’s an imperial airfield nearby, so it’s the safest route. They go through the entire Imperial Garrison with only a few people.
The campers are understandably exhausted by this last-minute surprise, but Vel is in control of the situation. Clearly, they are not happy about the appearance of Lt. Gorn in particular. He communicates between the garrison and their camp and does not welcome Clem’s arrival.
They are quickly briefed, with a small miniature model helping Vel to show them the route they should take to break in and steal the imperial documents. They grab the paycheck boxes, load them onto a freighter, and then run down the runway. The TIE fighters will be on them for 9 minutes when they attack, and since it’s a suicide run, they only keep 40 people inside the garrison, which is way less than expected.
So what is the cover story? How will they get away? It turned out that after 3 days their window opens.
It’s a special celestial event where the sky lights up with what appear to be 50 meteor showers at once. While beautiful on the surface, it is utter chaos in the air. They have an escape trajectory to leave the planet before the Eye blinks. If they can make it through the clock, then they’ll be in the clear. if they can’t? Well, they will all die. No pressure!
Episode Review
And so Episode 4 of Andor comes and goes, tilting this chapter with a sign of things to come. It’s clear Team Andor isn’t going to have things going their way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a few deaths from this group along the way.
As for the antagonists of this piece, Andor switches things up and decides that Karn isn’t good enough to be a villain, and instead we get a higher authority than the Empire. Whether or not this will actually benefit the show is anyone’s guess, but it could work. Could we see a redemption arc from this soldier defecting to the Rebel side? We have to wait and see.
For now, Andor is still in the build-up phase, and it’s the kind of show that really needs more than one episode a week. Last week’s triple bill helped the show a lot, but now that I’m down to week one, I’m worried it might cause the plot to drag.
Aside from the visuals and practical effects, Andor’s story is just… okay. It’s a pedestrian, slow-paced romp that’s more grounded and thematically allegorical than a show-stopping action piece. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but let’s hope the upcoming episodes pick up the pace a bit more.