Thread by @ericgeller

If you didn’t get chills or cry watching this week’s episode of #Andor, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

Cassian rises to meet the moment, Mon Mothma confronts a horrible choice, and Stellan Skarsgård and Andy Serkis earn their Emmy nominations.

Unparalleled storytelling.

The opening scene shows Cassian's come a long way from the meek fish out of water who first arrived on Narkina 5.

He sees the prisoners' power, the guards' fear, and the resulting opportunity. We’re seeing him turning insights about the Empire into motivation & logic for action.

“Power doesn’t panic” is such a great line, and I love these consistent reminders that, while Cassian is far from a Rebel leader at this point, he already has an excellent grasp of the way the Empire operates — and the weaknesses inherent in its approach.

Speaking of great lines: “I’d rather die trying to take them down than die giving them what they want.”

Cassian's at an intermediate stage of radicalization. He’s not selfless yet — his insurgent impulse's driven by fatalism & spite. But he's moving toward more selfless bravery.

Where Cassian's anger emboldens him, Kino's shock unbalances him.

When Cassian shouts “Program!” at the end of the opening scene, it’s a nice juxtaposition with Kino’s earlier command to him. Cassian’s now the calm one trying to shake Kino out of the grip of uncertainty.

Tony Gilroy said in an interview that true leadership is convincing someone else to step up. That’s what Cassian does in persuading Kino to take charge.

We're not just watching Cassian radicalize; we're watching him develop the ability to lead and inspire.

He's come so far.

We see Cassian's steady, motivating presence repeatedly in the ep.

He inspires prisoners to keep their wits about them: “Don’t die until you put up a fight!”

He issues quick, almost offhand orders during the escape, showing his burgeoning tactical abilities.

Kino's big speech to the prisoners is a key moment for him, but it's equally key for Cassian, who uses savvy persuasion to embolden him.

It's b/c of Cassian that Kino can deliver this inspiring call to arms. Kino even repeats Cassian's earlier line, vindicating the wisdom of it.

I love watching the completion of Kino's transformation into an insurgent. As he listens to the prisoners argue, the conflict on his face slowly melts away as his will solidifies and he accepts Cassian's plan. You can literally see him realizing it's the only way. It's brilliant.

“I’m going to assume I’m already dead and take it from there.”

Amazing line that captures the fatalism that often drives insurgency.

The prisoners don’t have anything to lose, so why not rise up?

We see this all the time in the real world, and I love how Andor portrays it.

Andy Serkis' acting is just marvelous here, too.

I love watching him deliver his speech to the prisoners for the benefit of the guards. The way his voice falters and his eyes dart around shows you he’s putting on a show — and starting to get nervous as the moment approaches.

I appreciate that Kino exhorts the prisoners to help & protect each other. The Empire tried to stamp out their fundamental decency, & earlier scenes made us think it succeeded. But a tiny glimmer of decency remained alive inside Kino this whole time, & Cassian helped him find it.

The revelation that Kino can’t swim is just...brutal.

We're so excited for him to escape, but he’s known all along that he’s trapped.

He admits it in an almost upbeat tone, like he's still elated from the jailbreak, but his sadness is clear.

What an incredibly tragic figure.

And to make it even more sad, Cassian is pushed off the edge of the platform and into the lake before he can say a proper goodbye or offer heartfelt words to Kino.

We yearn for them to have a meaningful final moment together, but that's not always how life works.

Oof.

Speaking of the prison break sequence, there were so many great moments, but I want to just call out a few…

The cuts b/w the guards preparing to lower the new prisoner onto the floor & Cassian furiously slicing away at the water pipe are so gripping.

It’s like when Cassian first arrived — the uneasiness, the franticness, and the time crunch make it incredibly tense.

The initial escape from 5-2-D — with the prisoners, fittingly, turning work tools against their captors — is brutal.

Yes, most of them escape, but many are cut down with no chance.

It's so chaotic and messy. It really drives home the difficulty and risk of what they’re doing.

I love the “one way out!” chant.

Imperial brutality and oppression left the prisoners no other way to get the dignity and purpose that makes life worth living. They had to seize it when and how they could.

By restricting freedom, fascism breaks down barriers to radical action.

I enjoyed watching Cassian order the control room guards to get “on program!”, in a nice illustration of the prison break’s reversed power dynamic. The prisoners can now make the guards submit to them.

But I was surprised that Cassian didn't just shoot the guards!

The final shot of the jailbreak sequence is perfect: tiny white dots spreading out across the lake from the hulking mass of the prison.

The prisoners are miniscule compared to the system that trapped them, but you *can* beat a seemingly overwhelming force if you work together.

Speaking of being trapped, let’s talk about Mon Mothma, who goes through almost as much of an emotional rollercoaster in one scene in this episode as Cassian and Kino do in many more.

It must be said again how amazing Genevieve O'Reilly is. Mon's humanity is astounding.

Compared to Mon's warmth with Tay and her fervor with Luthen, her attitude with Davo Sculdun is bracingly cold. She hates him and hates that she has to even talk to him, let alone ask him for help. There’s an exquisite precision to how she speaks and holds herself. It's great.

When the conversation turns to what Mon wants from Davo, she looks down, almost embarrassed. Davo makes her personally admit that she needs his help.

Mon's not used to relying on someone so different for so much. The closest comparison is Luthen, and she clearly hates that too.

When Davo makes it clear he expects Mon to marry Leida to his son, you see her blood go cold. You truly feel the horror of the moment.

Despite Leida's scorn, Mon still loves her — and on principle, she hates the idea of perpetuating the ritual that left her trapped and isolated.

I love the layers of Mon and Davo's subsequent conversation. He says one’s position sometimes forces one’s hand, and this is more true than he realizes. So much of Mon’s life is out of her control — even as she exploits her privilege for the benefit of the Rebellion.

The best line here is Davo saying, “Neither of us have lived a life that encourages nonconformity.”

Mon, of course, is highly nonconformist, but she can't admit that. Her public persona validates Davo’s argument, and she can’t reveal that she's anything other than that persona.

It's striking to watch Mon lose her composure. It starts when she denies considering Davo’s offer, and once she's alone, the dam really breaks.

She has to trap Leida in the same system that trapped her, which she must've sworn never to do. You can see the realization hit her.

Davo Sculdun is so well written. In just a few lines, you get that, despite his wealth, he craves a form of power he's been denied: respect. Chandrila has labeled him an unsavory character and tried to isolate him from respectable society, and that disrepute burns at him.

It's fitting that Davo is proud of being rich enough that he doesn’t have to answer to or gratify anyone.

His freedom contrasts sadly with Mon's constraints. She has to appeal to so many different people (family, rebels, senators, constituents) by being what all of them need.

Davo offers a high-minded privacy rationale for the pride that he takes in hiding people’s money, but his speech is really about gloating.

He knows that Mon needs him despite hating him, and he seizes the opportunity to needle her about this.

When Davo delivers his demand that Mon introduce Leida to his son, there's a viciousness to the casual way he says it and his profession of innocent intentions. You can tell so much about him based on the the joy he clearly takes in putting pure, noble Mon in this position.

Now for the Luthen/Jung scene that everyone's talking about.

First, Jung being a double agent for Luthen is just a great twist. The fact that Luthen was able to plant someone in the ISB's ranks and put them on such a rarified trajectory speaks volumes about his capabilities.

Luthen’s willingness to sacrifice a rebel cell to protect Jung's cover chillingly underscores his devotion to the cause. He won't let sentiment — for innocents or allies — get in the way of the endgame.

Turns out he's already sacrificed his own people to advance Jung's career.

This scene is also great b/c we rarely dwell on the agonizing struggles of low-level informants, which are omnipresent in real rebellions.

Luthen forcing Jung to stay in the ISB highlights rebellion's collateral damage. Mon & Luthen chose long-term double lives; Jung's trapped.

Luthen’s speech about what he sacrifices is the best writing that's ever appeared in Star Wars. Stellan Skarsgård delivers it with unparalleled mastery.

Luthen has given up so much to lay the groundwork for a victory he’ll never see, benefiting people he’ll never meet.

Luthen makes the necessary moral compromises that others won’t and accepts that he’ll never be loved for it or reap the rewards of it. He understands both the inevitability of his ignominy and the way in which his actions have transformed his soul.

It's a haunting self-portrait.

"I burn my decency for someone else's future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see."

I get chills just reading his speech.

Beau Willimon deserves immense credit for the whole ep, but especially for making cold, steely Luthen so sympathetic in this scene.

It isn't merely the best writing in Star Wars but some of the best writing anywhere.

We're just lucky enough to have it here in Star Wars.

A few miscellaneous thoughts to close us out.

* Maarva's continuing decline is so sad. In a brief Ferrix scene, we learn she isn’t taking her medicine b/c it makes her less hungry. She’s rebelling against any effort to control her. Will Cassian find out & return to save her?

* The brief ISB scene with Jung, Partagaz, and Dedra contains an interesting moment: As soon as Partagaz agrees to Jung's plan, Dedra hurriedly leaves with her assistant. She clearly wasn’t expecting this development, but why does it bother her? Does she think his plan's foolish?

* Shoutout to Kleya. When Jung makes contact, she's afraid it's a trap. She always assumes the worst, which is exactly what Luthen needs from a close aide. He's willing to take big tasks for the cause, and if Kleya isn't there to warn him, he might get himself into trouble.

I can't believe this show just keeps getting better and better and better.