Watch Andor Season 1 with Tony Gilroy, and catch the first three episodes from Season 1 on the Disney+ YouTube channel or enjoy the entire first season now streaming on Hulu for a limited time.
At the start of Andor's third story arc, most of the main characters are approaching precarious turning points. The Empire is cracking down on citizens throughout the galaxy for the smallest infractions as their Imperial Security Bureau is determined to close in on the rebels responsible for the heist at Aldhani. In “Narkina 5,” “Nobody’s Listening!,” and “One Way Out,” all directed by Toby Haynes, the production design and dialogue from writers Beau Willimon and Tony Gilroy take center stage as many characters are literally or figuratively trapped by the Empire.
Narkina 5
Cassian, still using the pseudonym Keef Girgo, is shipped out to the Imperial prison Narkina 5. Notably, one of the first things the prisoners are required to do while in transit is remove their shoes. The prison is a sea of white hallways, bunks, and work rooms where inmates are required to quickly work together to build pieces of equipment for the Empire. Order is maintained by electric floors that send shocks through barefoot prisoner’s bodies if they break a rule or work too slowly. Andor soon settles into life in captivity, but always keeps an eye towards a possible escape.
Cassian and the audience soon learn the pristine interior of the prison hides a dirty truth — the Empire is lying to them and has no intention of ever releasing them from their forced labor. The transformation of fellow prisoner Kino Loy from a rule-following floor manager to a key figure in the prison escape illustrates the desperation that the brutality and cruelty of the Empire elicits in people who can only take so much before they punch back.
Managing the Empire
Much like the prisoners on Narkina 5, ISB officer Dedra Meero and Senator Mon Mothma spend much of their time in sterile white rooms during these episodes, but their paths could not be more different. Both women are surrounded by powerful figures in service to the Empire — some in crisp white ISB uniforms, others in luxurious clothing only the elite have access to. Meero sees a pattern of stolen Imperial technology as a sign of coordinated plans by rebels to disrupt Imperial activity. In a high-stakes ISB meeting room, Meero presents this information to Colonel Wulff Yularon, who thinks she might be onto something. Seeing this as her shot at moving up the Imperial ranks, Meero becomes laser focused on finding Cassian Andor and the mysterious Axis figure from Ferrix.
Shaken by the events at Aldhani, Mon Mothma realizes that her problems transferring money from her personal fortune to fund rebel activities will only become more difficult. With additional eyes on large financial transactions, Mothma’s Imperial-issue, luxurious, and light-filled Coruscant apartment is slowly becoming her own prison, where forced smiles at dinner parties are her only armor. While Mothma’s senatorial small talk and discussions with fellow Chandrilans about new banking rules isn’t as visually exciting as a heist or a street fight, her work remains critical to the rebel cause, and is just as dangerous; many of her party guests would likely happily turn her over to the Empire to gain Palpatine’s favor.
Surprising connections
As the lead up to the final two episodes of the season, this arc of Andor brings several key characters together for the first time in the series in humorous, intriguing, or terrifying ways. While Dedra Meero’s motives can easily be read as ambitious in these episodes, nothing compares to the actions of Syril Karn, who is even more obsessed with finding Andor, the person he blames for his downfall. Karn’s current work in Coruscant takes place in an enormous grey monotone room where he visually appears trapped in his cubicle behind datapads and screens a floor below his superiors. Despite Meero repeatedly ordering Syril to stand down and drop his interest in Andor, Karn stalks the ISB officer in a desperate attempt to break free from the drudgery of his current life (and likely his mother, Eedy Karn) and to establish a personal connection with Meero.
As the Empire's hold on far-flung worlds, like Ferrix, tightens, it becomes more apparent that few people on Coruscant are who they appear to be. Vel is revealed to be Mon Mothma’s wealthy cousin, and Mothma encourages her to embrace her role as a rich and privileged Chandrillan to hide her true work as a rebel. Both Mothma and Vel are alarmed that Mothma’s daughter, Leida, has become enchanted with Chandrillan customs they find distasteful, but both women also know that anything that brings them more attention might endanger their lives and their work.
“I’ve made my mind a sunless space.”
Rebel insurgent Luthen Rael’s network of spies also widens in the episode “One Way Out” with the reveal that ISB officer Lonni Jung, who audiences have seen in scenes with Dedra Meero, has been working deep undercover for years. Jung seeks out Luthen Rael in hopes of leaving his work as an undercover spy to protect his new family. Rael’s response to Jung’s question “What have you sacrificed?” was a speech that will be long remembered by Star Wars fans. Rael discloses to Jung that he is well aware he uses the same tools as his enemy to defeat them, morality be damned, as he believes his actions are a necessary sacrifice for the future of others — a future he recognizes he will likely not survive to see. Rael is suffocated by impossible choices: burning an undercover asset he spent years building up or sacrificing the lives of dozens of rebel soldiers. The audience is left to decide for themselves if choices like Rael’s decision to doom fellow rebel Anto Kreegyr or Mon Mothma’s decision to work with the shady banker Davo Sculdun, and possibly intertwine her daughter’s future with his, are worth it.
“The building is ours”
The arc ends with a flash of hope as the prisoners unite to overwhelm Imperial guards and break out of Narkina 5. After taking over an Imperial control room, Kino Loy implores his fellow prisoners to take advantage of their one chance to leave Narkina 5 — an escape he may not survive. While the Empire treated the inmates like livestock, they never lost their humanity, helping their fellow prisoners climb up and out of the factory, freeing additional workrooms when they could have left them there to rot to prioritize their own safety. The prison break is both a fight for freedom and a cry against the Empire.
While it’s unclear how many prisoners successfully escape Narkina 5, audiences track Cassian and Melshi as they escape Imperial patrols and receive assistance from a couple of aliens who have no love for the Empire. Cassian’s next moves from here are unclear, but fans of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story know that Cassian and Melshi will later be reunited. While the fight against the Empire many times seems insurmountable, the actions of a few brave individuals prove, once again, to be the key to its eventual downfall.
