Andor Andor Episode 1.12 (Season Finale!!) Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Also, that mini storm in the fandom wherein a leak indicated Maarva said “**** the Empire” was of course for nothing, as she says “Fight the Empire.” But still. Wouldn’t be the Star Wars fandom without some preemptive freakouts.

 

Remind me - who was the kid who built the bomb?

 

Yes, it was leaked (mis-leaked) a few days ago and there were some nice little meltdowns on Reddit.

 

Guys, this series is not my personal favorite of Disney's SW, but is easily the best series, and probaly, top 3 of best all things of this era,
Now only in 2024....

 

I don’t see a big difference (in terms of swearing levels) between hell and the four letter s-word, so that was just fine on my end.

 

I really, really enjoyed this final episode of the first season. The entire season for that matter has been beyond brilliant.

Like many others, my favourite parts were the funeral procession, Maarva's speech and the subsequent mayhem that unfolded once the Paak kid threw the explosive device at the Imperials.

Where the funeral procession is concerned, I love the definance shown by the people of Ferrix. They were told only 40 people were allowed to march, but they weren't told how many amounts of 40 people were allowed. And the people of Ferrix were never going to stand for not being allowed to attend the funeral of one of their favourite daughters. With the various processions starting at different points and as the Imperial Commanding Officers started hearing funeral tunes coming from multiple directions, it immediately put them all on edge. And I really like how the procession was filmed. For me, it really drew me in as though I was part of the procession too. I've been praising the various characterisations all season from Cassian through to minor supporting characters. But in this episode, I praise the characterisation of the entire Ferrix population. It felt real and sombre during the entire procession and then the Ferrix population acted out the revolt in a really intense and dramatic fashion. Again, you (the audience) felt like you were part of the fight back.

Maarva's speech was brilliant and moving and I felt like it wasn't just for the Ferrix people, it was aimed squarely at Cassian too; whom she knew would attend in some shape or form. I can't remember any of the words, but its exactly the kind of speech that inspires a Rebellion and for people to rise up and conqueror evil. As she intimated, she wished she had done more when she was alive to fight back against the Empire, but her speech in death had the desired effect. And even in death and in addition to her powerful and motivating speech, she was still able to fight back against the tyranny. Her brick didn't end up in the wall. Instead, it was used to smash over the head of the nearest Imperial as the uprising began.

And I enjoyed the mayhem that followed the explosive device as for me, it felt real too. I've never been in the military and have never seen an explosion or explosive device go off, but I'm guessing that this is sort of what its like. Bodies everywhere - and not just the bad guys. The good guys too get caught up in the blast. Then Dedra's authority breaks down completely as the head Imperial officer orders the Stormtroopers to open fire. And whilst I'm not embracing death for death's sake, again its the realism thats impactful with citizens actually dying. There's no glossing over what happens in these situations, people die.

So with people like young Paak safe, I guess, with the help of people like Saw (for a while until he gets too crazy), this is where the Rebellion starts to develop the skills and experience to engage in guerrilla warfare with the Empire. Young Paak appeared to be quite adept at making explosive devices and I can see him repeating similar events for the Rebellion; perhaps on a larger scale.

A couple other things I forgot to comment on was the Mon situation and the end of credits scene.

It was mentioned that Mon threw her husband under the bus in an attempt to use him to explain away the missing funds to the "spy chauffeur"; and then ultimately onto the people (ISB) looking into Mon's financial irregularities. Its funny because that is the exact same term I used when talking to my son as we watched Andor together. Thats exactly how I felt too, but I feel zero sympathy for him despite the fact that he is innocent this time around in respect of gambling. The guy is a douche-bag and its about time Mon got a little payback on that weasel. I agree that it was a very cunning move by Mon and demonstrates her intelligence and tactical nature. And despite it appearing to be a tradition among Core World planets (in elitist circles) and Leida really appearing to be into it, I feel sad for her that her life is just to be some rich guy's wife. I shared the same reaction that Mon had on her face.

So it can never be levelled at Mon that she hasn't given up anything for the Rebellion like the lower rank and file soldiers. She has given up more than anyone could realise.

In respect of end of credit scene, I sure as hell was wrong in what they were making in that prison. And it was a kind of sliding doors moment in a way for Cassian. Because ultimately, his path would have led to Scariff; regardless if he had joined Luthen straight after Aldhani, or when he has done now. But the sliding doors part is that had he joined Luthen straight away, Cassian literally would not have made parts for the exact part of a device that would end up killing him. So as all of those parts tilt those large prisons into the exact alignment to focus the Death Star's laser exactly, Cassian literally made many of those devices that would focus that laser beam onto Scariff.....sliding doors.....its like he is literally helping to kill himself.

 

I wonder if this episode with Hologram of Maarva and her speech happens just around the same time as Ezra’s speech to the people of Lothal. Be kind of neat. And Rebel cells starts fighting back more.

It feels like they're trying to retroactively give the Death Star the 'Thanos' treatment through all these prequels

A person watching Star Wars chronologically first sees a giant round space station in development at the end of RotS

Next, they see the very same station nearly 100% complete, and with just one incomplete part left in the post credits scene of Andor Season 1

Next, they see Andor facing off against the space station (now known to be The Death Star) and LOSE. One of the biggest heroes until then, gone.

And finally, a full battle against The Death Star in A New Hope

 

Well that was all kinds of great. Maarva’s speech was great but so was Nemik describing why the Empire and authoritarianism in general is flawed and will ultimately lose to insurrection.

 

Oooh, that was Nemik! Thanks

 

The Empire will come down hard on Ferrix now tho.

 

Liked that Luthen's almost devious smile at the end.

 

Yes they will but that was the point of Nemik’s recording. The Empire will have to answer with strength and many people will suffer because of it but it will only inspire more rebellion and the day will come when it’s too much for the Empire to handle. That’s also of course what Luthen has been trying to accomplish.

 

I tended to think that Luthen's reaction to Maarva's speech was that he was thinking maybe his approach is wrong.

 

Yeah Baby, YEAH!!!

 

Oh man that totally flew over my head! Wow. Well played Mon! But wait...she's still marrying off her kid to cover the unaccounted money. I guess the gambling accusation is a way for her to continue moving money around?

 

If we look at the story and lore, marring her daughter off to a rich family is probably for the best. We may see how this marriage goes for Leida in season 2.

 

Totally agree about the funeral procession and Maarva's speech being the highlights. I loved the visual of the Maarva hologram. Very powerful. Overall I thought the episode was great but it wasn't my favorite of the season, that would be One Way Out.

I am disappointed that we didn't get to see Cassian interacting with Vel, Cinta, Dedra, or Karn. Aside from killing that one imp, Cinta really didn't do much of anything on Ferrix, did she?

I was fully convinced that Karn was going to botch something up so I was very surprised that he didn't and that he saved Dedra. Also wasn't expecting to see Dedra almost killed.

I was also hoping that Mon would learn that her cousin Vel was involved in Aldhani and therefore partly responsible for the predicament Mon finds herself in. Oh well. Maybe that will be revealed in season two.

I expected Luthen to do much more than to mostly stand around and look at stuff in this episode but I did like the little we got. Maarva's speech does seem like it had some affect on Luthen though I'm not totally sure what the result of that will be.

Glad that they ultimately resolved the subplot about Luthen trying to kill Cassian. I didn't want to see that drag on into season two.

So Mon is setting her husband up as the fall guy? I'm into it.

 

Bravo!

 

But mon and Vel are both supporting the rebels, so why would Mon be bothered by this?

 

Cassian saving Bix was a bit of a stretch of plausibility. Nothing even remotely far with respect to what we usually see in SW, granted, but to me it felt a bit out of place in this show specifically. Then, well, I understand that it needed to happen for the plot, so it is what it is.

The other minor critique I have is that it felt like they didn't know what to do with Vel and Cinta in this episode, and it seemed to me that their subplot kind of went nowhere.
Actually, this could be said about Mon Mothma's role in the whole season, but we all know what she is going to become so it's hard to be bothered about them taking it slowly.

 

There was an earlier episode were we saw that Mon was very displeased with Luthen that her money was used to carry out the Aldhani heist. Aldhani was too high profile for Mon's taste and the heist is what caused the Empire to start looking at her bank accounts more closely which caused her to marry off her daughter to a thug she despises. Vel's actions played a hand in all of this.

EDIT: @3sm1r Totally agree about Vel and Cinta's part in this episode. Did they do anything? Same with Luthen. Dude did nothing the whole episode.

 

what did they do with the Aldhani money? And why not give some of it to Mon to sort out her money problems?