One advantage to Andor’s reconfiguration from a five-season outline to a two-season series with frequent time jumps is that sometimes you can watch a plotline unfold and quietly thank your lucky Star Wars that it didn’t take place over two or three times as many episodes. Cassian being stuck in his unintended way station amid a bunch of quick-tempered, panicked rebels, for example, seems like something that could have been a multi-episode dead end, like those Lost episodes in the cages. Or, in the case of the Leida Mothma wedding storyline, that How I Met Your Mother season where most of it takes place on the weekend of Robin and Barney’s wedding.
On the other hand, maybe a more expansively paced Andor, one bound by neither the limitations of Diego Luna’s beautiful face nor Bob Iger or whoever’s corporate pocketbook, might have simply given an entire episode over to Cassian’s detour, and another to the wedding at the Mothma estate, and they would have stood out as discrete, memorable chapters in the overall saga. A more immersive approach might have particularly helped this portion of Cassian’s story, which was propulsive in its first installment when juxtaposed with the icy control of the Empire, but this time feels a bit like, well, watching a bunch of characters we don’t know bicker and shoot at one another from across a jungle clearing until a big cool creature comes and gores a few of them. There are still some funny and exciting moments, but the episode is a bit reluctant to provide (or even hint at) the context necessary to see why they’re there.
The Mothma wedding business is more obviously functional. Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) — or, as I’ve thought of her since we learned that she’s Mon Mothma’s cousin, Cousin Vel — reveals to Mon that she hasn’t been in recent touch with Cinta, her love from the previous season; Luthen, who is also still skulking around the festivities, knows her current whereabouts but isn’t telling. Weddings are great for gossip. Also, apparently, for bad news: Mon learns that her childhood friend Tay Kolma has taken a financial hit in the wake of more rebel activity and is essentially hitting her up for some friendly hush money in exchange for covering up her funding of the rebels. It all amounts to more updates from last season’s storylines, albeit elegantly presented in the hushed chatter of an upper-class social event.
But the most enticing story line in this episode is also the briefest check-in: Dedra, back on Coruscant following her big Empire meeting, tries to turn down the Ghorman project; she’d rather track the rebels that eluded her last season. She’s not in a position to recuse herself, though. Is anyone, once they’re working for the Empire? So she returns home to her apartment and … Syril (Kyle Soller)! His presence isn’t exactly a surprise; he is seen earlier in this episode, having climbed the ladder at the Bureau of Standards, and is quite pleased with himself about it. He recounts a bureaucratic-nazi triumph to a new employee, capping his little anecdote with what he clearly considers to be an inspirational encouragement: “There’s a future here, for those who dare.” But is he really convincing a new Empire cog, or himself?
Regardless: Syril got the girl! No wonder he’s smug! Dude is shacking up with his dream fascist! Bringing home groceries and everything! I am extremely, perversely happy for what is sure to be no kind of actual domestic bliss. Case in point: Their brief conversation when Dedra arrives at home is about whether they should postpone an unspecified social engagement, presumably at their home. Syril is willing; Dedra, true to form, is unyielding: “We can’t cancel again.” It seems clear, then, that Syril’s mother, a woman who was absolutely born for the job of nightmare mother-in-law, must be showing up soon. Unless the greatest twist of all is coming and Dedra and Syril have made actual friends.
None of these story lines are bad — well, Cassian’s diversion is a little questionable, but at least it’s not a multi-episode arc of its own — but the second episode of the season feels significantly more like connective tissue than the first, which had its own re-introductory rhythms and sharp editing. This one seems like the middle of a middle of a middle, which makes sense for a sequel to a prequel to a prequel.
Rebel Yells
• One more story line to juggle: Over on Mina-Rau, communication channels have been “temporarily” suspended as the Empire continues its audit, and a skeezy lieutenant hits on Bix, clearly not believing her when she mentions her husband. (I admit, this did make me go: Wait, are she and Cassian married? But no, the paper trail would probably make that impossible.) You know what would be cool? If Bix had a story line that didn’t involve keeping the home fires burning with trauma.
• That creature that was previously teased on Cassian’s rendezvous planet, and then did come rampaging through the place at the right time, looked a little like a reek, and also a little like a mudhorn, a creature from The Mandalorian that looks a lot like a reek. I don’t think it was either, though. If there’s one thing Andor likes less than giving alien characters extensive speaking parts, it’s showing giant weird creatures at length.
• I love that Syril seems to be the cook in the household. What do we think the salary differential is between the two of them? Does she make more or vastly more?
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