Thread by @ericgeller

Truly incredible #Andor episode this week.

Not just the adrenaline rush of the heist, but also the exquisite characterization and exposition packed in alongside the main event.

I continue to be impressed by how effectively they're serving so many people and storylines.

Let’s start with Cassian. I absolutely did not expect him to kill Skeen. Yes, we’ve seen him in cold blood before, but I thought he'd bonded too much with Skeen for that.

Also didn't expect him to take his cut of the job this way, even though we knew he was a mercenary.

Skeen said Cassian was just like him, and that pretty shocking ending proved that, at least for now, he was right.

It's still hard to get used to seeing Cassian like this, but the show is doing it in a way that makes sense.

Not quite sure why Cassian felt the need to take his cut like that, though. Why not just go with Vel and meet Luthen to get his money? Does he not trust that he’d get paid? Or did he just feel an overwhelming urge to get back to a solitary life as soon as possible?

Some other nice characterization choices for Cassian:

* Reassuring Nemik about his nerves — shows how he already has deep experience with dangerous operations

* Taking Nemik's manifesto at the end — despite everything, there's already a glimmer of ... something in there

So, speaking of Skeen, his whole thing at the end is great.

At first, when he argues for saving Nemik, we're pleasantly surprised to learn that he has a heart.

Then he tries to rope Cassian into stealing the money and reveals that he's been lying for a while.

What a wily SOB.

"I’m a rebel — it’s just me against everybody else."

Apart from just being a great line, it's also this nice reminder that the nascent Rebellion really does have to rely on people like Skeen whose motivations are hazy and whose commitment to the cause is suspect. Huge risk.

Two small things on Nemik:

* He's a great example of how even the most principled rebels come around to embracing mercenary allies as a means to an end.

* I like that he got off at least one difficult shot to to show that he was actually pretty good with a blaster!

Vel has two very different but important moments:

* “We win or everyone dies.” She'll embrace absolutism to get the job done.

But...

* “You’ll kill us anyway.” “‘Cause that’s what you’d do, right?” She may be cold, but she’s not cruel. She's proud to not be like the Empire.

Mon Mothma:

LOVE seeing the Senate!

Stilted, formal dialogue (huge contrast w/ Luthen scene) shows how her senator persona really is something she has to consciously perform.

Call for a fact-finding commission for Ghorman echoes the equally impotent Republic Senate w/ Naboo.

Like in the previous episode with her family life, you really feel for Mon as you watch everyone in the Senate ignore her.

That scene does such a great job of showing how little respect and support she has.

All she can do is keep speaking.

There's a grounded feel to it.

The deaths:

* Gorn goes quickly and ignominiously; wasn't expecting that.

* Brutal to see Taramyn fall down dead in front of Vel.

* Nemik was a dead man as soon as we met him. The idealists never last. Fitting that his fate is sealed when a money crate slams into him.

(Fitting for the team as a whole, not for Nemik. For Nemik it's bitterly ironic.)

One of this episode's most impressive accomplishments is how well it handles exposition on the nature of Imperial oppression.

On the one side, the haughty Commandant Beehaz.

On the other, the Dhani pilgrims, for whom merely existing there is resisting.

Beehaz is the perfect avatar for Imperial oppression.

His initial speech about the Dhanis highlights Imperial disdain for and manipulation of natives.

Tactic of subtly whittling down pilgrims' #s is so cruel. Metaphor for how gradual erosion of rights is harder to fight.

I love how we're seeing Imperial rule on the verge of a change in relations with natives. They still have to trade fur for land leases. But that'll end soon.

Beehaz references "old ones causing all the problems" — the proud elders resist because they remember earlier times.

The portrayal of the Dhanis as beleaguered but proud is excellent. They represent all local populations who struggle to maintain traditions amid escalating oppression.

The leader is even brave enough to try to insult Beehaz. When you're that angry, speaking up feels imperative.

This episode continues the show's stellar tradition of making everyone feel like real people.

Beehaz has a family life, and a few lines of dialogue tell us everything we need to know about how he interacts with his wife and treats his son.

It's humanizing, in a weird way.

I loved Partagaz telling the ISB officers that they’re staying late & should tell their families that they won’t be coming home.

It made the ISB feel like a regular workplace, and it made the ISB officers feel like real people.

Wonderfully economical dialog in that mini-scene.

With the heist itself, one word that kept coming to mind was "urgency."

The tense comlink calls. The cold precision of them executing the plan. The intercutting b/w the heist & the ritual. The quick, dizzying camera moves. Cassian's wait for a flight path.

Genuinely thrilling.

Stray thoughts:

* First time we've lingered on TIE pilots' boarding/preflight/takeoff routine? Nice to see things from their perspective.

* Air base shot is first time we see stormtroopers in the series, but they’re still just blurs in the background.

* Loved sequence of ship shooting out of base and everyone watching it go: pilgrims from the ground, captured Imperials from the observation tower, and us as the audience in the sky, from a distance. Composition of shots, w/ the Eye's light shining everywhere, is just great.

* I liked that after the chaos of the escape, we got a moment to watch everyone react to the majesty of the Eye. Even the Imperials were impressed, which we’re not used to seeing. The peaceful beauty was an eerie contrast with all the death and chaos that we just saw.

* “You’ll hang for this.” “Seven years serving you? I deserve worse than that.” Great line.

* Tony Gilroy really going for it with the soldier peeing on the ground just out of sight. An edgy irreverence unusual in SW.

* ISB preparing retaliation for Aldhani is a smooth way to carry the story forward & show how events ripple outward.

* Luthen's so fixated on Aldhani that he lets his mask slip when someone mentions it. He’s usually so buttoned up that the mistake highlights how nervous he was.

I'd forgotten what it was like to get halfway through a season of Star Wars television and actually be impressed by how much had already been accomplished.

So excited for the second half.