Thread by @ericgeller

After #Andor’s breathtaking season 1 finale, I’m calling it: This show is the best Star Wars content ever made.

Cassian finds his path with inspiration from Maarva & Nemik, Mon takes a huge step in Luthen's direction, and Ferrix reaches its breaking point.

All hail Tony Gilroy.

One of the best sequences in the ep and all of SW is Nemik’s manifesto monologue — on the inevitability of rebellion and the fragility of tyranny — playing over a montage of Bix, Luthen, and Cassian, all three of whom are rebelling in their own ways.

It's astonishingly powerful.

Nemik’s monologue is absolutely beautiful and perfectly captures the current state of the Rebellion. As Imperial oppression gets worse, more people are driven to rise up, until eventually something pushes things past the breaking point.

And b/c any lone act of insurrection could be that straw that breaks the camel’s back, it is *always* worth trying, no matter how futile the effort may seem.

That irrational persistence is the key ingredient to a successful rebellion.

The evocation of these ideas is top-notch.

Nemik's emphasis on the need to “try” contrasts with Yoda’s insistence that there’s no such thing.

That’s easy for a Jedi to say. For regular people, with far less certainty in their abilities, it has to be enough to simply do one’s best.

Andor bringing things down to Earth.

Nemik's voice might only be audible to Cassian, but his resolute, far-seeing words spring to life in the actions of the people of Ferrix, leading to one of the most incredible sequences in the history of television.

When the anvil-gong clangs, you know something’s coming.

Much like "The Eye," the finale amps up the tension by contrasting shots of various players moving into position with shots of the calm but purposeful funeral procession, brilliantly reinforcing the sense that both of these threads are about to converge in an explosive way.

As Nemik said, the Empire’s authoritarian grip depends on people not fighting back. When they do, the Empire is unnerved.

We see that on Ferrix in how the Empire, startled by the surprise commencement of the funeral parade, swings into gear haphazardly.

Meanwhile, alone in her prison cell, Bix weakly hums along to the music. It's a beautiful moment that makes your heart ache for this isolated, broken woman.

Everyone's gearing up to fight. Bix, with no fight left, clings to their music as a faint connection to her community.

As they warm up, the funeral marchers sound discordant.

But eventually, all of these different people start harmonizing, until suddenly they’re producing one coherent melody — one that unnerves their oppressors with its coordination and scale.

One big metaphor for rebellion.

I LOVE that B2 is leading the funeral procession and is the one to signal the start of a more aggressive march.

It's a great illustration of how the community sees B2 as a person, not an object, and recognizes the depth of his and Maarva’s relationship.

He deserves to be there.

As the marchers pick up their pace, so does the episode.

An incredible overhead crane shot shows the full scope of the soon-to-be battlefield — two forces converging for an inevitable clash.

Meanwhile, Dedra closes in on what she thinks is a cornered Cassian's hiding spot.

Watching the scene, an Imperial officer says they’re “wasting time” not charging at the protesters.

He's trapped by the dilemma that Luthen is ruthlessly exploiting: delaying action gives resistance more time to fester, but overreaction only breeds more resistance.

Maarva's speech is one of the most incredible pieces of writing in the history of Star Wars and a standout moment for TV in general.

I love that she finally gets to shine on a big stage. We previously just saw her as Cassian’s mom. Now, even in death, she’s igniting an uprising.

Maarva's remarks about how Ferrix has been able to ignore the Empire for years, even as oppression solidifies and spreads when ignored, are so astute.

As planets everywhere are discovering, it's getting harder to ignore the Empire. Maarva knew this made rebellion inevitable.

"There is a wound that won’t heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow, and now it’s here. It’s here, and it’s not visiting anymore. It wants to stay."

I mean, good lord, that is just astonishingly good.

What makes Maarva's speech so powerful is her reputation on Ferrix.

People take her words seriously because they loved & trusted her — and our knowledge of the effect her words are having on the characters (& why) makes them land harder w/ us.

Character development paying off.

Indeed, we get these great shots of Brasso, Xanwan, and Wilmon visibly psyching themselves up for combat as they grow emotional at hearing Maarva’s final words.

The weight of the past few weeks is washing over them, along w/ the knowledge that some of them will soon join Maarva.

As Luthen listens to Maarva's speech and watches the aftermath from a distance, I think he’s thrilled to see other people instigating the same insurrection that he’s trying to foment.

It’s one thing to know intellectually this is happening; it’s another to *see it* like this.

The way the episode cuts between Maarva’s beautiful speech & Cassian’s rescue of Bix is just incredible. Cassian is literally enacting her message of resistance in real time.

And it’s fitting that he appears to sneak in using the tunnels that Maarva was scouting earlier.

While a tired Bix visibly takes solace in Maarva’s words, the Imperials bristle restlessly.

They can’t act yet, b/c the marchers haven’t done anything to justify it, but they know conflict's inevitable.

The show does such a great job of making us *feel* that inevitability here.

In keeping with this show’s consistent depiction of the Empire as a terrifyingly efficient organization, the Imperial soldiers on Ferrix display remarkable restraint in holding their fire until ordered to shoot.

This isn’t the Empire we’re used to seeing.

Maarva's final words — that while it might be too late to stop the Empire, it's still worth trying with all your might — would have impressed Nemik.

In the end, all you can do is try.

And as the episode shifts into high gear, that's exactly what the fed-up people of Ferrix do.

I love that the inciting incident for the uprising is the Imperial officer flipping B2 over. The people of Ferrix will not tolerate B2 disrespect! They will protect their king!

The ensuing battle is chaotic, gripping, and brutal. You can feel the frenzy and fear and excitement.

Wilmon's IED takes the fight to a new level. Nurchi dies a karmic death, Syril races to protect Dedra, Cassian and Bix seize the chance to escape, and the Empire finally begins shooting.

If your pulse isn't pounding by now, you're probably as dead as brave Xanwan (RIP).

The show really makes you feel the brutal impact of every Imperial blaster bolt that strikes a Ferrix resident.

The combination of acting, visual effects, and sound design makes each death resonate, even if you don’t know who any of the victims are. That's great storytelling.

Shoutout to the anvil-gong guy for just casually kicking that stormtrooper out of the bell tower. You do NOT interrupt that guy while he's anvil-gonging.

Guess you could say that stormtrooper is a gonger.

Until Cassian shows up in the shipyard, it feels like the Empire might catch our Ferrix friends as they scramble to escape. Their mad rush to fuel up their ship is incredibly tense.

Even at this late moment, the show does a great job of making you worry about these characters.

"I’m counting on you."

"You always say that."

"And you always come through."

MY HEART.

I appreciate that Cassian & B2 got to have this sweet moment together.

B2 is proud of being so dependable, and the moment reminds us that Cassian and B2 have been through so much together.

Bix smiles as she says that Cassian will find them after they escape.

Despite everything he’s put her and the others through, she’s always known she could count on him when it mattered.

Cassian promises his friends that he'll find them, but as we later learn, he has a different mission in mind.

I wonder if he actually intends to ever find them, or if he worries that, with what he's about to do, a reunion would only put them in more danger.

I hope they reunite.

Speaking of Cassian, there’s something indescribably wonderful about his first appearance in this episode.

His quiet, understated presence contrasts perfectly with his critical status as the focal point of everyone else’s actions.

He's right in their midst, but still unseen.

The Clem flashback shows us that Cassian's adopted father taught him to pay attention to seemingly insignificant things — to look past the rust and see something’s potential.

Cassian's family did this with B2, and season 1 is bookended by examples of Luthen doing it w/ Cassian.

By the time Cassian meets up with Brasso, something inside him has changed.

When Brasso tells him to be careful, he responds, “It’s too late for that.”

He can't elude the ISB forever even if he tries, but for once, he's *not* trying to save his skin. He's fighting for others.

By the end of the season, Cassian is tired of running. He’s ready to fight back.

He’s so confident that Luthen — who previously praised his skills — will recruit him instead of killing him that he offers him the choice. And his instincts prove correct.

What an incredible scene.

Once Luthen sees that Cassian’s all in — that he’s so angry that he’s willing to die if he can't fight back — Luthen realizes that he’s just been given a hugely valuable asset.

Stellan Skarsgård masterfully plays Luthen’s dawning realization, culminating in a proud, sly smile.

The finale gives a beautiful spotlight to several Ferrix residents.

I love Wilmon calmly making his bomb while a hologram of his dead father watches him. It’s a great parallel to real-life examples of radicalization. You really understand why people rise up against the Empire.

Also, the way the episode only gives you glimpses of Wilmon’s activities over the course of several scenes, never explicitly revealing that he’s making a bomb (until he throws it) but heavily implying it, really heightens the dramatic tension in a wonderful way.

There’s a dead look in Wilmon’s eyes that makes his actions even more chilling and sad. You can tell his father’s execution has broken him, hardening his heart and sapping his joy. This is the on-the-ground cost of oppression that we so rarely see in Star Wars. Here, it's vivid.

Nurchi betraying Cassian was interesting. Cassian paid him back, so it couldn't be about the money. Was he just pissed that Cassian brought the Empire to their town?

If so, what a great bit of world-building that shows another way in which oppression ruins communities.

Of *course* Maarva knew what Cassian would say when he found out she’d died. She knew him better than he realized.

“I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong.” That’s just heartbreakingly beautiful.

Maarva called Cassian "the first spark of the fire" in describing the inevitability of Imperial occupation.

But she also recognized that Cassian had the potential to light his own spark of rebellion by combining his knowledge of how to rebel with a latent emotional motivation.

Things are bleak for Bix.

She recalls Cassian's previous visit as a dream, suggesting reality has blurred for her in confinement.

And when Cassian tries to get her to leave, she fearfully says that the Imperials will "get angry." She's been thoroughly conditioned to fear them.

No one has higher highs and lower lows in this episode than Dedra.

For eight episodes, we’ve watched her in positions of either contentious equality or supreme command. The show primed us perfectly for the jarring experience of watching her wind up in a very different position.

While in her element, Dedra repeatedly warns her officers that she wants Cassian alive. It's a reminder of her strategic vision. The others are just focused on suppressing discontent on Ferrix, but she's thinking about the bigger picture. She knows that “Axis” is the real prize.

We’ve seen Dedra jostling w/ colleagues & torturing rebels, but finally we see her really flexing her authority by bossing around subordinates. As you watch her overseeing preparations for Maarva’s funeral, you get a real sense of the power that she wields as an ISB inspector.

But ISB authority doesn't matter much in a melee.

It's actually kind of scary to watch as Dedra's knocked off balance, disarmed, and set upon by a mob.

Dedra's not a soldier, so she’s not used to seeing combat, and we’re not used to seeing her overwhelmed and not in control.

Just when you think it's over for Dedra...Syril saves the day!

I do love this, to be honest. It gives him a chance to prove his worth to her.

Dedra, normally calm and composed, is now panicked and disoriented, and Syril is something familiar that she can latch onto.

Speaking of Syril, I love how this show balances humanizing and mocking him.

The finale found a way to inject a bit of humor with the scene of Syril and Sergeant Mosk wordlessly switching hats and donning them.

There’s something so funny about their lingering camaraderie.

The fact that Syril and Mosk are so eager to see Cassian brought to justice that they’re content to just hang out on the perimeter of the action and watch what goes down really speaks to the intensity of their passion for what they consider justice. It makes them so relatable.

At the end of the episode, Mosk sits alone, sipping a drink. You have to wonder what he's thinking.

He wanted to make a difference on behalf of the Empire, but once again, everything has gone wrong.

Mosk’s posture and expression suggest a relatable weariness and disappointment.

I’m glad we finally got more Cinta/Vel scenes; their relationship felt pretty underdeveloped thus far.

That initial scene is so sad. Cinta's completely focused on the mission, and the knowledge that she’s doing the right thing pains Vel, who wishes they could just be together.

You can see the hurt in Vel’s eyes, but Cinta barely notices her disappointment. Only when Vel tells Cinta to turn around does Cinta seem to realize that Vel is frustrated.

Poignant illustration of how the obsessive work of rebellion takes a toll on people’s personal lives.

Speaking of Cinta, I was surprised and thrilled to see her kill Corv just when you think he’s cornered her in a climactic spy-vs.-spy showdown. She takes advantage of being underestimated to ruthlessly tie up a loose end.

Does this open up a position on Dedra’s staff for Syril?

Fifty tweets in, having thoroughly covered events on Ferrix, this thread can now turn to our elegant Machiavellian dissident queen, Mon Mothma.

Boy oh boy does the finale take her desperate scheming to an amazing new level.

Needless to say, Mon displays astonishing ruthlessness and shrewdness by feeding the ISB, through her driver-spy Kloris, a false cover story for her banking moves. By tainting her husband’s name with false gambling allegations, she’s protecting her finances from scrutiny.

Putting Perrin in the ISB's crosshairs for something bad that he *didn't* actually do (this time) is easily the coldest thing Mon’s done yet, and it shows a dramatic evolution in her willingness to get her hands dirty for the cause.

Can't say enough about how much I love this.

There will be some who say that Perrin doesn't deserve this — that, sure, he's a jerk, but he's not a monster.

Well, (a) celebrating the Empire does make you a monster, and (b) the greater good demands it regardless.

Only now has Mon reached the point of realizing (b).

Mon’s nervousness at the beginning and end of the scene shows that she’s not entirely comfortable w/ what she’s doing, which is a great detail to add.

She recognizes the necessity of this betrayal, but it still doesn’t come naturally to her.

Will we see that, too, change in S2?

Blevin's later convo w/ Kloris wonderfully illustrates exactly how much Mon annoys the Empire. She’s “of great interest” to the ISB — but you get the sense that the Empire doesn’t yet see her as a major threat. Her strategy of presenting herself as a mere annoyance is working.

Blevin hinting that the ISB might use Perrin’s gambling debts to publicly embarrass Mon not only adds another layer of ruthlessness to the show's portrayal of the ISB, but it also nods at the sordid history of real-world intel agencies doing this with their political opponents.

Lest we think Blevin only noted Perrin's debts as an embarrassment, he specifically says they might explain Mon's “odd banking moves,” showing that her plan appears to have worked.

She's fooling the Empire — or at least Blevin. Will a more astute investigator catch her later?

Despite hedging her bets by framing Perrin, Mon still goes through with the arranged marriage of Leida to Davo’s son.

She’s learning from Luthen that you always need to have a backup plan. The gambling thing might not fool the Empire forever, so Mon needs Davo’s help too.

Mon may also be trying to connect Davo Sculdun to Perrin’s supposed gambling debts, hoping that, if Perrin goes down, Davo will go down too, and she'll have an excuse to break off Leida's arranged marriage.

If so, we simply have to stan the incredible deviousness.

Leida appears pleased to be carrying on the totally normal, healthy Chandrilan tradition of arranged child marriages. Perrin, to his credit, is clearly concealing strong distaste.

Mon, meanwhile, looks sad and resigned. She hates this — but she knows it's necessary ... for now.

Back to the ISB.

As Blevin talks to Kloris, you can hear applause from another room. When Lagret tells Blevin that he’s missing the Anto Kreegyr operation, you realize that the ISB officers are cheering for the successful ambush of Kreegyr’s doomed cell. It’s a chilling moment.

The fact that we learn so little about the actual Kreegyr op only makes it more disturbing. We know the trap was successful and the cell's been eradicated, but the lack of details about exactly what went down invites us to use our imaginations to fill in the terrible blanks.

I like seeing how Dedra’s fellow ISB officers regard her. They’re just happy to have killed a bunch of rebels, so they find her frustration with the lack of prisoners annoying. They can’t see the bigger picture like she can, so they don’t understand the need to piece it together.

Dedra thinks Partagaz will take her side, but he's enmeshed in politics. This op was more important as retaliation for Aldhani than as part of unraveling a bigger puzzle. Partagaz is under immense political pressure on him to show results. Wiping out a whole cell will do nicely.

Partagaz understands that Dedra is onto something by hunting for Axis, but until she can show him results in that hunt, he doesn’t want her second-guessing other operations. It’s a reminder that he’s her boss, not her friend, and his patience for her critiques is not unlimited.

Well, surely by now — 70 tweets in — we've talked about every scene in the finale, right?

We've certainly talked about every scene that I saw before turning off my TV the first time I watched it.

Thank god for Twitter alerting me to the existence of the post-credits scene.

That's right, Cassian and friends were building the Death Star, baby!

Or at least one widget on it. Presumably other prisoners, on other levels or in other facilities, were building the rest.

While not a huge surprise, it's a beautiful way of linking this show to Rogue One.

The composition of this brief scene is absolutely chilling: the endless scream of TIE fighters, dramatic music, and the moment of realization as the recognizable form of the widget is slotted into a structure that is at first unfamiliar and then quickly becomes obvious. Damn.

When you finally see the Death Star in all its glory, it’s presented as this haunting, terrifying *thing*, almost alive in its malevolence.

We’ve seen the Death Star so many times over the years that it’s hard to present it in a new and scarier light, but this scene nails it.

The final shot of this final scene eerily parallels the composition of Andor's title sequence. But the camera only briefly lingers on the full shape of the battle station before abruptly cutting to darkness, a jarring cut that only enhances your mounting sense of dread.

It's hardly a novel observation, but I have to note the tragic irony of the fact that Cassian helped build the weapon of his own destruction.

One might wonder: Why, prior to PORD, would the Empire ever release prisoners who'd helped build the Death Star? Wouldn’t they fear ex-cons leaking sensitive construction info?

Cassian may have already given us the answer: The Empire can't imagine rebels posing a real threat.

Final thoughts:

* Someone on Reddit said Disney should release Nemik’s full manifesto as a podcast, and hell yes, I would love that.

* Shoutout to Nicholas Britell for just mind-blowing music in this ep (& season). The music for Nemik's monologue is particularly spectacular.

* Shoutout to the editors for a cut from Dedra looking out a window, lit by Ferrix daylight, to Luthen facing same direction as he prepares to exit his ship, a dark silhouette framed by the same daylight.

Two masterminds, hunter and hunted, both willing to do whatever it takes.

The fact that Andor won't get nominated for an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, let alone win it, purely because it’s part of a blockbuster franchise is an absolute disgrace.

It's the best show of the year, and — despite strong competition — this might have been its best episode.

I am so grateful to Tony Gilroy and the entire cast and crew of Andor for all of their incredible creativity and hard work.

This show has been an absolute triumph from start to finish, a franchise-redefining masterpiece that came out of nowhere w/ grit, grusto, heart, & purpose.