Andor

Episode Reviews

May 13, 2025—S2, E12: “Jedha, Kyber, Erso”

Cassian and company return from their extraction run. But his arrival is not greeted as warmly as he’d hoped. And the news he brings back? Rumors of this super weapon are doubted. And the one-time senator Bail Organa wonders whether the whole thing might be an Imperial trap.

Several people die during a melee before the extraction. Some are thrown into walls. One is grabbed by the throat and used as a human shield. A character commits suicide off camera. (We do hear the sound of a blaster behind closed doors, however.) Another character is whisked into medical care because of some serious injuries. Cassian and others are knocked down—and one is knocked out—after a concussive grenade explodes.

Cassian and Vel drink revnog in salute to their fallen comrades. (Vel’s former lover, Cinta, is namechecked during the toast.) A pampered resident of Coruscant drinks a glass of something (presumably alcoholic), while his female companion slumps against him, holding the bottle.

[Spoiler Warning] Bix holds a baby—presumably Cassian’s. Saw Gerrera accuses Mon and the fellow Rebels on Yavin of lying.

May 13, 2025—S2, E11: “Who Else Knows?”

Dedra Meero’s takedown of Luthen doesn’t quite go as planned. Now the Empire is scrambling to tie up loose ends and to do its best to keep their secret weapon, the Death Star, a secret from the galaxy. But Kleya manages to get out an emergency message, and Cassian (along with friend Melshi and his Rebel-ized security droid, K-2SO) flies into Coruscant to make an emergency extraction.

Melshi gambles with K-2SO before the extraction. Both Melshi and Cassian are drinking the intoxicant revnog (a fact that K-2SO makes mention of several times). Melshi tells Cassian to make sure that the droid doesn’t look at his hand of cards. “I, unlike you, have never cheated,” K-2SO protests.

On Coruscant, we see a dead stormtrooper lying in a hospital hallway. The Empire concocts a cover story to search for Kleya, alleging that she’s carrying a very infectious disease and that they need to find her before thousands die. Threats are issued. Dedra is shoved around in her cell. Someone is thrown off a ledge. A couple of other people are presumably killed off camera.

May 13, 2025—S2, E10: “Make It Stop”

It’s been a year since the Ghorman massacre, and the Empire is in the process of constructing a super-secret weapon. Only now, thanks to an Imperial mole named Jung, it’s not quite so secret anymore. Jung tells Luthen what he knows—and is found dead from a blaster wound shortly thereafter. But Luthen’s not so safe, either. Dedro Meero is closing her own web around the slippery Rebel mastermind. And if Luthen falls into her hands, can the Rebellion itself be far behind?

About half of this episode is a flashback, detailing how Luthen and Kleya (his ever-present helpmate) first met and how they both began their work against the Empire. Luthen was Sergeant Lear at the time, and an unwilling part of another, far less publicized, massacre on a nameless planet. As he listens in horror to the atrocities being committed outside his ship, Lear finds a young girl hiding behind a grill. He decides to save the girl and go AWOL. The two of them, at first masquerading as father and daughter, begin selling and trading small antiquities to keep themselves fed and moving.

We don’t see the massacre that then Sergeant Lear was apart of, but we hear it. Out of sight, people are lined up for a firing squad and mowed down. There’s talk of a building where 50 people were exterminated. A commanding officer apparently wants to set “that whole street on fire,” and someone says on the radio that “there’s nothing left to kill.” As the sergeant listens, he repeats, almost as a mantra, “Make it stop.”

But the man who will become Luthen, and the girl who will become Kleya, certainly don’t keep their own hands free of blood. Both blow up Imperial vehicles (and kill surely many in them or standing by them); and it seems likely that Luthen killed his prize agent, Jung, instead of finding a way to get him and his family safely out of Coruscant.

Someone stabs himself with a knife. We don’t see the blow land, but we do see the bloodstained blade. Several people are shot and killed. A character disconnects some medical equipment from a patient, dooming him. Imperial soldiers line up a number of civilians against a wall and gun them down. (Someone mentions that a stormtrooper “ate a bolt last night,” and the Empire keeps “finding people who did it.”)

In flashback, Sergeant Lear drinks out of a flask. He admits to Kleya that he lied about something. “Get used to it,” he says.

May 6, 2025 – S2, E9: “Welcome to the Rebellion”

The fallout from the massacre on Ghorman is in full swing, and the Empire is doing its best to keep the narrative on track. On Coruscant, the senatorial agenda has been set and fixed: Only senators bemoaning Ghorman duplicity and paying homage to fallen Imperial “heroes” will be heard. But Senator Mon Mothma won’t stay silent—not on this. She’s hatched a plan with her colleague, Bail Organa, to get a few minutes’ time, and get off the planet fast. Just one problem, though: Luthen believes that Bail’s extraction team has been compromised. So he sends his favorite operative, one Cassian Andor, to take Mon off planet instead.

Cassian is ready to get out of the Rebellion, and he tells Bix as much. “The only thing special about me is luck, and I’ve over-played my hand already,” he says. But a couple of other people wonder whether it’s not so much luck as fate—or the Force. Cassian, some insinuate, is a tool being used by a bigger hand. Bigger, even, than Luthen’s.

Three people are shot and killed. Someone is suffering from a nasty-looking leg injury. We hear talk about the outrageous fatality count on Ghorman. Weapons are brandished. Spies and counter-spies seem like they’re everywhere, trafficking in duplicity. Mon tells one of them, “I’m not sure I’ve felt this betrayed in my life. And I’ve had some experience.” Lies are told.

The s-word is uttered.

May 6, 2025—S2, E8: “Who Are You?”

The fact that a lowly spider has proven so central to the planet of Ghorman’s economy, culture and Andor’s story feels ever so appropriate here. For most of this season, the Empire has spun its own webs of intrigue on Ghorman. And here, in Episode 8, she draws in her prey.

The center of Dedra Meero’s web is the main square of Palmo, Ghorman’s capital. The public space is opened to allow “peaceful” protests. But the Ghors don’t feel peaceful, and the Empire isn’t seeking peace: It seeks an excuse to put the planet under Imperial military control so it can bleed it dry—sucking a precious mineral from Ghorman and, thus, leaving the planet as a raspy husk. Dedra’s on hand to supervise the operation. Her lover, Syril, only now begins to realize what she has planned. And Cassian is there, too—watching for an opportunity to kill Dedra before she can destroy anything else.

The chaos in the square is as violent and visceral a sequence as perhaps we’ve seen in a Star Wars show. Dozens of people, both Imperial and Ghor, are shot and killed with blasters. The Empire unleashes droids that pick up civilians and throw them—into walls, and onto the ground. Several people die in this way. An emergency broadcast tells us that hundreds died in the square, and that thousands are dying in the streets. “If you believe in truth … please mark this message and pass it forward,” the broadcaster tells us. “This is murder!”

Two men get into a physical, life-or-death struggle. Both are knocked around and knocked nearly senseless. Someone grabs the neck of a woman and threatens to choke the life out of her—or throw her out a window. Bombs and Molotov cocktails are thrown, blasting through doors and lighting detritus on fire. Plenty of people are knocked to the ground. A droid is severed in two, and someone asks if it’s “dead.”

Someone shouts “b–tards” in Ghor (but the profanity is subtitled). The same Ghor word, unsubtitled, seems to be heard elsewhere.

Wilmon and his girlfriend apparently share a place, and we see both of them sitting on a bed in their undergarments.

May 6, 2025—S2, E7: “Messenger”

It’s a year after the events of episodes 4-6, and the fledgling Rebel base on the fourth moon of Yavin is alive with activity. The Rebels are building an army now, and many of our main characters are there. Cassian’s on planet, dealing with a stubborn blaster wound, and Bix decides to take an unorthodox route to help him. But Wilmon has just arrived on Yavin 4, as well. Speaking for Luthen, he wants Cassian to return to Ghorman and assassinate none other than one of the Empire’s wiliest masterminds: Dedra Meero. Meanwhile, Dedra is in charge of wresting control of Ghorman from the Ghors and mining the valuable minerals found there. “We need what’s in the ground,” Dedra’s superior, Partagaz, says. “And when we’re done, there won’t be much left to call home.”

Bix takes Cassian to a “Force healer” to treat Cassian’s wound. Cassian wants no part of it. But the healer senses his presence, walks over to Cassian, touches his injured holder—and thanks him. She senses a mysterious clarity inside him.

“It’s so easy to lose faith,” the healer says, speaking of her own convictions. She then refers to the faithful who come to her for treatment: “They come no matter what. Sometimes it even works. But you … all that you’ve been gathering. The strength of spirit. Surely you must feel it.”

Cassian storms off (though later he realizes that his injury does feel better), but Bix stays behind. “You scared him,” Bix says. “It’s not easy to do.” The healer tells Bix that Cassian is a “messenger. There’s someplace he needs to be. … maybe you’re the place he needs to be.”

Bix asks Cassian to take off his shirt (to deal with his lingering wound), which he does. And that leads to some romantic banter.

Dedra—who’s been lying to her beau, Syril, about the Empire’s real plan for Ghorman—gives Syril a massive kiss and tells him to be ready to leave when she tells him to. Syril (who’s been serving as a double agent and gathering information from the Ghorman Front) meets his contact. It seems that, in the year gap between episodes 6 and 7, Syril’s allegiances may have begun to waver, and he may even have feelings for his female contact. But when Syril suggests that there may be away to diffuse the tension on Ghorman, the contact slaps him in the face and walks away.

We see people drinking at a bar. People talk about past massacres and planned acts of violence. Someone says that she’s stopped smuggling for the Rebellion for a bit.

Apr. 29, 2025—S2, E6: “What a Festive Evening”

It’s Investiture Banquet season on Coruscant, a time when new senators are sworn in and parties galore are thrown. Mon Mothma and her husband, Perrin, try to juggle all of their societal responsibilities. But Rebel operatives Luthen and Kleya have more pressing problems on their minds: They need to remove a bug planted on an artifact owned by the rich, shady businessman Davo Sculdun. And the only opportunity to do so will be at his Investiture shindig—where many Imperial bigwigs will be present. Meanwhile, the Ghorman Front seeks to capture a weapons shipment. And two of Luthen’s operatives, Vel and Cinta, are on hand to run things.

We first met Vel and Cinta in Season One, when the two were working together and were, in fact, in a same-sex relationship. The pair hasn’t been together since—until now. The two of them share a few tender, passionate kisses with one another, and one displays a bit of cleavage. Bix and Cassian also kiss passionately in their safe house on Coruscant. An Imperial partygoer asks another male officer where his “buddy” is. “Oh, he’ll be here,” he says, perhaps suggesting another unseen same-sex relationship. (Or, just as possibly, the reference could be regarding one of the officer’s superiors.)

A transport vehicle is sabotaged and blown open (with no apparent casualties). Two people are shot and killed—one accidentally, another very much on purpose. Someone straps a victim into a torture device, turns the device on and walks out. A character cuts her hand. We hear about how a group of people skinned trespassers alive. Luthen seems ready to sacrifice a great deal—be it a person or a planet—to further the Rebellion’s goals. Two people get into a physical scuffle.

Bix apparently is still taking drugs. And while she allegedly takes them to help her sleep, she hides them as if it was heroin. At times, Bix is obviously under their influence and strung out. People drink champagne and other presumably intoxicating beverages. Someone uses the s-word. (The profanity is actually spoken in the Ghorman tongue, but the subtitles translate it onscreen.) The word “p-ssed” is also uttered.

Apr. 29, 2025—S2, E5: “I have Friends Everywhere”

Playing the part of a double agent, Syril plants information with the Ghorman Front and flies home to speak with Dedra and her superiors, relishing his newfound importance to the Empire. But just as Syril travels out, Cassian Andor travels in—making contact with the same Ghorman front, the leader of which wants Cassian to help them act on Syril’s info. Meanwhile, shadowy Rebel operative Luthen visits Cassian’s significant other, Bix, even as his cohort, Kleya, worries that someone will discover a bug the two planted. And young Wilmon is essentially the prisoner of Saw Gerrera and his insurgent group—and he will be until Wil trains someone else on a tricky, dangerous piece of machinery. But might Saw be playing a different game?

Someone gets shot in the head and killed. Another character is much closer to death than he might think. We learn more about the massacre on Ghorman: Grand Moff Tarkin apparently landed his Imperial cruiser on a group of unarmed protesters when they wouldn’t move. Saw recalls a time when he was a prisoner working on a jungle planet. He says that the old men he worked with “died where they stood,” the environment was so harsh. And the rest watched as their clothes “just melted away. So they worked us naked.”

When Syril returns to Coruscant, he visits lover Dedra, and the two kiss each other’s cheek. When he asks how much time they have together, Dedra says an hour—and she orders him to turn off the lights. (The scene switches shortly after the flat goes dark.)

Bix is in a pretty dark place: She lays lifeless on a bed with a blaster in her hand as an inane talk show runs in the background. When Luthen visits her, he spies the drug she’s been taking. “I use it for sleep,” Bix says. “It works for a while,” Luthen tells her, “but the dreams come back worse when it stops. Be careful.” Saw inhales the fumes of something called rhydo—an incredibly dangerous starship fuel—calling it his “sister.” He encourages Wil to do the same, and Saw compares them both to the rhydo. “We’re the thing that explodes when there’s too much friction in the air,” he says.

Apr. 29, 2025—S2, E4: “Ever Been to Ghorman?”

Cassian and Bix hole up in one of Luthen’s safe houses on Coruscant, but neither feels very safe. Apparently, Cassian killed an Imperial soldier who saw Bix’s face, and the memory haunts Bix. Cassian worries that the bustle and chaos of the Imperial capital may not be enough to protect them.

But the real action is on the planet Ghorman—a place known for its textiles but coveted by the Empire for its mineral riches below. The planet is at the center of a galaxy-wide smear campaign, an elaborate plot prepping the way for an Imperial takeover. Dedra, who’s orchestrating Ghorman’s takeover from the capital planet of Coruscant, has sent Cyril there to do her bidding. Technically the head of a bureaucratic department on Ghorman, Cyril is actually there to make contact with the planet’s discontented underground. Meanwhile, Mon Mothma does what she can to protect Ghorman from Imperial bullying. But no one, it seems, wants to vote against the Emperor.

Bix dreams uneasily of being tortured in Imperial custody (in Season One). In one dream, she’s in the presence of her former interrogator, Dr. Gorst, and they’re both joined by the lifeless corpse of the soldier that Cassian killed. (He sits, slumped and slightly bloodied, and Gorst expresses the smallest regret that he doesn’t even know the soldier’s name.) Bix sleepwalks during the dream, pointing a blaster at air. Cassian gently disarms her and wakes her up.

Before Cassian leaves on his next mission for the Rebellion, he and Bix share a romantic moment—one fully clothed and consists solely of the tender touching of hands. Bix talks to a store clerk and refers to Cassian as her husband.

Cyril’s communications are being bugged, which thrills Cyril to no end. (He’s enjoying his role as an Imperial spy.) There’s a reference to a massacre that took place on Ghorman (ordered by Grand Moff Tarkin, familiar to Star Wars IV fans), and the planet’s inhabitants worry that the Empire is building a prison and armory near the memorial site.

Bix seems to take some sort of drug via an eye-dropper-like vial. We hear characters say “p-ssed” and “a–.”

Apr. 22, 2025 – S2, E3: “Harvest”

Cassian has escaped his perilous situation and is on his way back to Mina Rau—a planet currently swarming with Imperial agents and stormtroopers. On Chandrila, 14-year-old Leida Mothma’s wedding day is here, and mother Mon Mothma would like nothing more than to call the whole thing off. But she faces other pressing matters. Tay continues to make troubling statements that threaten to undercut everything she’s been working—and paying—for. And on Coruscant, Syril and Dedra face one of the most daunting challenges of all: hosting Syril’s mother for dinner.

The episode’s most jarring sequence takes place on Mina Rau, where Bix must fend off a sexual assault. The slimy Imperial official from episode two visits Bix again, and he uses Bix’s illegal status as a lever in which to pry sexual favors from her. When that doesn’t work and Bix slaps him, he attacks: The two struggle, and the officer throws Bix against a wall, nearly knocking her out. Bix strikes back with a hammer, causing the Imperial to bleed and scream out a warning. He eventually staggers out of Bix’s temporary home and collapses—hitting his head against a metal crate as he does so—and apparently dies.

It’s not the only fatality on Mina Rau. Several people get gunned down and killed. A man is clubbed in the back with a weapon, knocking him to the ground. Several stormtroopers are buried in a mountain of grain. On Chandrila, a man is whisked away by an apparent assassin, and we’re to assume that the man will soon be dead.

Just before Leida’s wedding ceremony, Mon gives her daughter a chance to back out. She begins by telling her that on Mon’s own wedding day (when Mon was similarly a teen), her mother was drunk.

“I need to tell you what my mother never told me,” she begins. “Nothing on the other side of that door matters. Not the guests, not the gifts, not the trouble that’s gone into it. None of it matters. Money, embarrassment, pressure. We can walk out there right now. Tell them all to have a lovely afternoon. But that it’s not yet time for a marriage. We can put it off. And it will be remembered as an act of great bravery. … You do not have to go through with this.”

The 14-year-old Leida stares at her mother and says, “I wish you were drunk.” The wedding goes on as planned, with Mon wiping tears away before the ceremony begins.

Chandi weddings are apparently known for their free-flowing liquor, and at least one guest gets very intoxicated. We hear that Dedra’s parents were both criminals. She says that they were arrested when she was 3 years old, and she spent her childhood in an “Imperial kinderblock.” Syrian’s mother belittles her son, much to both he and Dedra’s discomfort.

Apr. 22, 2025 – S2, E2: “Sagrona Teema”

Cassian is being held captive by one faction of sullen Rebels, while the other faction retains control of the ship Cassian stole. But no one in the second group can figure out how to fly it, and both factions are slowly starving. On Chandrila, the multi-day wedding at the Mothma estate is in full swing. But Tay, who secretly handles Mon’s funding of the rebellion, is unhappy. And he’s suggesting that unless he’s shown more appreciation, he just might start talking. And on Mina Rau, Bix experiences some unwanted advances by an Imperial bureaucrat.

The bureaucrat asks Bix if she’d like to accompany him into town. Bix says that her husband (sadly off world, she says) would likely not approve, but the bureaucrat continues to move closer—until a friend of Bix arrives and the Imperial takes his leave.

On Chandrila, Mon’s husband, Perrin, accuses Mon of sleeping with Tay. He also says that Tay got drunk the night before. “It’s a Chandi wedding,” Perrin notes. “He should know better. Pace yourself or pay the price.” Mon and other honored guests take a ritualistic hike. When someone asks Mon what happens at the top, Mon says breezily, “We gaze at the ancestral lands, some children sing. The elder waves her hand and we’ll all be purified.” We also hear another mention of someone’s same-sex relationship, and Mon seems to express her discomfort at the arranged, underage marriage that she’s participating in.

Bloodthirsty beasts lurk on the planet where Cassian’s being held captive. Rebels find the remains of one of their associates (just a leg at this point, which we also see on screen), and the beast(s) attack and carry others off. Rebels also fight with each other, And one faction tries to rotate the heavy ship to face the other … hoping to obliterate its position with the ship’s guns.

We hear one use of “b–tard.”

Apr. 22, 2025 – S2, E1: “One Year Later”

It’s been a year since the events of Season One, and Cassian Andor has been tasked with stealing a (very nifty) TIE Interceptor prototype: Not the easiest thing to do without an instruction manual. He manages to make his escape, but when Cassian arrives at a predesignated rendezvous point, he runs into a band of suspicious, flighty and deeply divided rebels who think that Cassian is one of the bad guys. Meanwhile, Mon Mothma is wrestling with her daughter’s wedding and discovers an unexpected guest. Dedra takes part in a super-secret Imperial summit that involves the forced pillaging of a heretofore peaceful planet. And Mina Rau, a farming planet on the Outer Rim where Cassian’s close friend, Bix, is temporarily located, gets an unexpected visit from Imperial bean counters.

The wedding between Mon Mothma’s daughter and her betrothed is an arranged one, where both are (by our own culture’s standards) underage. (Both are teens.) Mon’s cousin, Vel, secretly a Rebel leader, returns for the wedding and makes mention of her now-ended lesbian relationship with Cinta (as chronicled in the first season). A guest makes what almost sounds like a religious reference, using Mon’s last name (“Praise Mothma, what a glorious turn of events!” the guest says). References are made to how much liquor flows during Chandrilan weddings, with the watchword being to “pace yourself.”

Cassian shoots his way out of an Imperial base in his stolen ship. Once he lands, he learns that Rebels shot and killed his would-be contact. The squabbling Rebel forces fight with each other, and at least two are shot and killed. Someone is threatened in a dream sequence.

The Empire plans to take over a planet and strip it bare of valuable mineral resources, though they acknowledge that it could lead to “total collapse” of the planet. A PR team suggests the best way to deal with the issue is to run a PR campaign that slanders the local populace, thus justifying the Empire’s wholesale takeover.

The s-word is used once.

Nov. 23, 2022 – S1, E12: “Rix Road”

It’s time for Maarva’s funeral. Cass’s mother, being a Daughter of Ferrix, warrants a big sendoff, and everyone in town turns out—and a few other visitors, too. Lt. Meero is there, hoping to catch Cassian Andor. Syril—the guy whose pursuit of Cass was the first domino in this story—is on hand, too. Vel, Cinta and even Luthen himself represent the fledgling rebellion, hoping to catch and kill Cass before the Empire can get to him.

Oh, and Cassian himself is there as well, with plans of his own.

A full-scale riot breaks out. People are shot by blasters (including small cannon-like weapons), blowing their bodies back. Others are clubbed or shocked into submission. A bomb is thrown, setting off a bevy of grenades. People are pushed and punched and head-butted and hit with bricks and stones. One man is stabbed in the gut. Another is knocked off a tower, falling apparently to his doom. Someone is nearly dragged away by an angry mob.

Vel and Cinta have a tender moment. When Vel asks Cinta to turn away from the window (where she spies on the activities outside), the two women lock eyes, but the scene goes no farther than that. Later, Vel worries about the blood on Cinta’s arm. “It’s not mine,” Cinta says. We hear about an unsuccessful rebel operation—hamstrung from the inside. (We know from the previous episode that 31 people lost their lives, but here we only hear that the Empire is still “counting the bodies.”

Meanwhile, Mon Mothma introduces her 13-year-old daughter to a 14-year-old suitor (as is her planet’s ancient custom, though the senator hates it). She also accuses her husband of gambling as her chauffer eavesdrops on their conversation.

We hear the word “b–tard.” Someone drinks from a flask. No god is acknowledged at Maarva’s funeral, but the attendees chant, “Stone and sky.”

Nov. 16, 2022 – S1, E11: “Daughter of Ferrix”

Cass has escaped from prison and is ready to take his next move. But a family tragedy may change things. Maarva Andor, Cassian’s mother, has died. Now the Empire’s eyes turn to her home planet of Ferrix to see if Cass returns. Meanwhile, Luthen continues to move his own chess pieces, wondering whether sacrificing an important one is worth it.

A brief aerial battle between an Imperial ship and an unassuming craft leads to the loss of several TIE fighters (and the pilots therein) and damage to one of the craft. We see a corpse being ceremonially removed from a Ferrix home. (We learn that the dead of Ferrix are cremated and made into bricks.) Two people are nabbed by nets and their lives are threatened, but they survive the encounter. Escaped prisoners sport bloody knuckles and feet.

Mon Mothma talks to her cousin, Vel, about apparently the only way she can hide some past donations to the Rebellion. The key piece? Betrothing her young teen daughter to the son of a galactic “thug.” Mon sips what may be an alcoholic drink. Someone’s threatened with a blaster. Lies are told.

Nov. 9, 2022 – S1, E10: “One Way Out”

Cass and his prison-room supervisor, Kino, know that unless they do something radical, their prison will become their—and every other prisoner’s—tomb. It’s time to rise up and fight back. Meanwhile, Mon Mothma explores an unsavory way to hide her funding of the Rebellion, and Luthen meets with a well-placed spy.

The prison riot involves plenty of casualties, both prisoners and guards. Most of the fatalities are shot and fall bloodlessly (but lifelessly) to the ground. A few are shocked to death by the prison’s charged floors. Some, off-camera, may drown. Men are pelted with tools and bits of machinery.

Mon Mothma’s meets with Davo Sculdun, whom Mon herself calls a “thug.” While he offers more liquidity for Mon’s (ahem) charitable work than Imperial accounts, he asks a hefty favor in return: The possible betrothal of Mon’s 13-year-old daughter to Davo’s 14-year-old son. (It’s traditional in Mon’s Chandrilan culture for marriages to be cemented in the early-to-mid teens.)

Luthen recounts the many sacrifices he’s had to make in order to drive the Rebellion forward—including ethical ones. “I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them,” he says. “I burn my decency for someone else’s future.” We hear how he’s sacrificed people in the past, and he’s prepared to sacrifice dozens more in the near future to keep his secrets, and spies, safe.

We hear one use of the word “d–n.”

Nov. 2, 2022 – S1, E9: “Nobody’s Listening”

Cass continues to serve out his sentence on Narkina 5 as he considers how best to escape. But when a rumor circulates that dozens of prisoners were killed on another level, the prison seems ripe for not just a quiet jailbreak, but a full-on rebellion. Meanwhile, Bix, Cass’s confederate on Ferrix, has fallen into the Empire’s clutches and is questioned by Lt. Meero, the IBS’s chilly and ruthless wunderkind. And Senator Mon Mothma continues to work quietly behind the scenes to fund the nascent Rebel Alliance in ways that might be attracting too much attention.

Meero brings in the deceptively mild-seeming Dr. Gorst to implement a new interrogation technique: the recorded screams of an alien race being exterminated. “We found a section of what we believe are primarily children, which has its own particular effect,” Gorst tells Bix. When Bix is subjected to the audio, the contortions of her face (and her own subsequent screams) indicate that the sounds are indeed excruciating. We also hear that while Meero wants to keep Bix alive, Ferrix’s Imperial supervisor plans to hang one of her similarly captured and interrogated friends.

One of Cass’s fellow prisoners grows quite sick—to the point where he’s unable to stand. A medic finds that the old man has suffered a massive stroke and euthanizes him. (We see the man gasp and struggle for a moment before he’s gone.) We hear that 100 men were “fried” on another level—an attempt by the prison to keep a secret secret. (Later, we learn that prisoners are rarely, if ever, freed.) A man is shocked by a zap stick.

Syril, the disgraced security officer whose zealous pursuit of Cass started this whole ball rolling, is now apparently stalking Lt. Meero as a kindred spirit. When he purposefully runs into her as she heads into work, Cyril tells her that “just being in [her] presence” reassures him that there is “justice and beauty in the galaxy.” (Meero tells Cyril that if he pulls a stunt like that again, she’ll “have you in a cage on the outer rim.”)

Mon Mothma visits with her reported cousin, Vel (who also led the raid on Aldhani several episodes ago). When Mon expresses concern and affection for Vel, the latter pushes her away—repeating, essentially, what her own same-sex lover told her. “The struggle comes first. We take what’s left.”

Oct. 26, 2022—S1, E8: “Narkina”

Irony, thy name is Andor.

Under an assumed name, Cass has been arrested and convicted on baseless charges of expressing anti-Imperial sentiments—charges that are being leveled more and more in the wake of the rebel operation on the planet Aldhani. The Empire doesn’t know that Cass (while innocent of the actual crimes he’s been accused of) was an integral part of that operation—and is thus far more anti-Imperial than they could imagine. As it is, they instead shuttle him to the labor outpost on Narkina 5, where he and his fellow prisoners must build equipment and avoid the prison’s unorthodox punishments.

Meanwhile, the disgraced Syril Karn continues to hunt for Cass, the man he blames for his misfortune—drawing the interest of Lt. Dedra Meero of the Imperial Security Bureau. And Cass’ mother grows ill, forcing friend Bix to send an emergency—and perhaps disastrous—message to the rebellion.

The labor prison on Narkina prides itself on its relatively restrained environs. But any prisoner who breaks the rules or falls behind on his labor quota will face an electric shock—often delivered through the metal floor.

We see Cass and several others thrust into a place of utter misery by that floor. (We’re told it’s the mildest of three settings.) At night, the floor literally amps up its game: Stepping onto the hallway kills, and one prisoner seems to deliberately commit suicide in this way. (Fellow prisoners grouse that they’ll have to smell his remains and that his worktable will be short an all-important laborer.) A prisoner/prison foreman pushes a fellow prisoner into a wall. Guards and stormtroopers push folks around. Meero apparently tortures a man in custody: We don’t see the torture, but rather the exhausted, listless man afterward.

Vel and Cinta briefly reunite, holding hands. But Cinta rejects the suggestion that they’ve given enough to the rebellion and should therefore seek out a little “us” time. “I told you up front,” Cinta tells Vel. “The struggle will always come first. We take what’s left.” We see several men shirtless in an apparent mist shower (and the camera almost reveals the top of one man’s rear).

On the Imperial capital planet of Coruscant, Senator Mon Mothma hosts another party, this one featuring alcoholic beverages that get their buzz from worms. (When Mothma declines her worm, her husband asks for it—making his drink a “double,” I suppose.) Most everyone drinks these beverages, but no one seems to be particularly tipsy. We learn that Mon Mothma was married at age 15, as was her planet’s custom.

Oct. 19, 2022—S1, E7: “Announcement”

It worked. Now what?

Cass and his rebel friends successfully stole tens of millions of Imperial credits. A few even escaped to safety. But with every success comes new problems, and both Cass and the fledgling Rebellion have plenty.

The Empire is committed to making the whole galaxy pay for this embarrassing theft—cracking down hard on any hint of disobedience. Cass, meanwhile, now has plenty of money but few friends. And despite his bold service, even at least some in the Rebellion want him dead. Cass knows, after all, what the Rebellion’s puppet master looks like.

At a vacation resort on the planet Niamos, Cass (under the alias Keef) shares a room with an unnamed woman. She’s shown in bed, apparently naked (we see her bare back) as a shirtless Cass runs water in the bathroom. She tells Cass that he needs to pick up some items that sound suspiciously like intoxicating (but apparently legal) beverages or drugs. She asks for Cass to bring back “the greenie revnog,” for instance, reminding Cass that he liked it.

In flashback, citizens throw rocks at stormtroopers, hitting a couple of them. The payback is apparently harsh. Some people are hung, including Cass’s adoptive father (even though he was trying to get the citizens to stop their attacks on the troopers, not joining in).

In Cass’s present, stormtroopers chase other people. Huge Imperial droids throw a couple of people around. They also drag two unconscious men before letting them drop to the ground. When a trooper tells a droid to “hang around” what the trooper deems to be a suspect, the droid takes the “hang” part of the phrase literally: It grabs the civilian by the throat, holds him against the wall and chokes him until the camera cuts away.

Cass pays off his longstanding debts. People lie and act duplicitously, albeit for what they’d consider good causes.

Oct. 12, 2022—S1, E6: “The Eye”

After a couple of episodes of planning, Cass and the band of rebel misfits he’s fallen in with are ready to pull of the biggest job in the history of the galactic rebellion: Stealing the Empire’s payroll for an entire quadrant. But despite their meticulous preparations, not everything goes as planned.

The plan centers on the Eye, essentially a spectacular natural light display that takes place every three years on the planet of Aldhani. The Dhani people believe the Eye is a holy occurrence, and a handful of them gather in a sacred valley to commemorate the event. “May the Eye stay open long enough to find some good within you,” the Dhani leader tells an Imperial officer. Other blessings are offered in the name of the Eye.

The Dhanis aren’t the only ones who express a sense of faith. Karis, one of the rebels, admits to unease as the operation draws near. “I’m struggling to understand why my faith doesn’t calm me,” he admits to Cass. “I believe in something. Why am I so unsettled? I mean, you have nothing. You sleep like a stone.”

Rebel leader Vel makes her feelings for fellow female Cinta more clearly, touching her hand tenderly in farewell and exacting a promise that she’ll be all right.

Several people are killed—most shot during a blaster fight. One man seems to die from natural causes. Another is partly crushed: He dies of his injuries despite a doctor’s best efforts to save him.  A turncoat is shot and killed. Three spacecraft are destroyed. Someone’s injected in the chest with a “med spike.” We hear about how stormtroopers slaughtered someone’s family. Rebels threaten the lives of several folks, including a mother and her son.

Soldiers gamble. Drinks are offered to an Imperial official. Imperials make several demeaning remarks about the Dhani, ranging from how they think to how they smell. Characters say both “b–tard” and “d–n” once.

Oct. 5, 2022—S1, E5: “The Axe Forgets”

Cass—temporarily calling himself Clem—is getting to know the rebellious team he’s now a part of on Aldhani. But trust on either side is hard to come by. Meanwhile, Syril, the corporate policeman who failed to catch Cass and lost his job because of it, is moping while his critical mother tries to get him a new gig; Mon Mothma, the rebellion-sympathizing senator, deals with personal and professional issues; and Luthen worries that if Cass and his fellow rebels fail in their work, the fledgling rebellion could crumble and crush him and many others in its wreckage.

A rebel, Arvel, believes that Cass may have his eye on Cinto, a young female rebel in the camp. “She’s already sharing a blanket, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Arvel says. The show seems to suggest that she may be sharing the blanket of Vel, the group’s female leader. (Nothing is seen or said to make this explicit, however.) We’re also told that a turncoat Imperial lieutenant changed sides in part because he fell in love with an Aldhani woman. A man goes shirtless, and Cass recognizes many of the man’s tattoos.

When an Imperial is offered a supervisory position on the planet Ferrix, he asks if he can now call himself “prefect.” His superior tells him, “You can wear a ball gown if you like.”

Someone holds a knife to Cass’s throat. An Imperial officer makes a derogatory comment about how Aldhari natives smell. A flask is passed around the small rebel camp (presumably filled with some sort of intoxicating beverage). We hear about people whom the has Empire killed. There’s one use of “a–.”

Sept. 28, 2022 – S1, E4: “Aldhani”

Cassian and Luthen successfully escape Ferrix, and Luthen encourages the fugitive to join the fledgling rebellion against the Empire. He’s already got a mission lined up for Cassian, if he’s interested: joining a team on the planet Aldhani to steal the quarterly payroll for a full Imperial sector. The catch: The rest of the team doesn’t know he’s coming, and the operation itself will take place in just a few days. Meanwhile on the Imperial capital planet of Coruscant, the Imperial’s version of the CIA dissects the disaster on Ferrix; one ambitious officer wonders if it might be a bigger problem than it appears.

Someone says of Cass (who calls himself Clem on Aldhani), “He can pilot, he can shoot, he can lie.” Speaking of which, we see several characters deceive others, all in the service of various missions. Someone bemoans how many people will starve to death because of an Imperial action. Bureaucratic infighting is thick. But we don’t see any real fighting—just a blaster wound on Cassian’s arm (suffered in the previous episode).

We hear “b–tard” and “a–” once each, and there’s talk of both temples and sacred rivers. Cass drinks some “med nog” to deal with his injury.

Sept. 21, 2022—S1, E3: “Reckoning”

Cass meets with Luthen Rael, hoping to sell a piece of valuable tech to so he can leave Ferrix and lay low. But Syril and his security team is on Cass’s trail as well. They aim to bring the killer in—either warm or cold.

In a flashback, we see Cass as a young boy, kidnapped/rescued from the planet by a woman named Marva. (Marva, gathering scrap from a crash site, tranquilizes the struggling teen—taking him to her ship against his will. But she does so for his own good: Marva knows that the planet’s few inhabitants will likely be massacred by the Republic soldiers about to land.)

Episode 3 marks Andor’s first real firefight, and several people die. We see them shot by blasters, thrown into walls by heaving chains or caught in fiery explosions. Cass smashes machinery as a boy and struggles against his rescuers. A woman bleeds from an injury to her head and is roughed up by guards. Dead bodies lie scattered about a ship, their skin tinted yellowish-green. (Whether the coloring is natural or the result of the ship’s crash, we can’t say for sure.) Another ship smashes into a massive tower of mining machinery, presumably killing its pilot. People are threatened. Luthen talks about being executed by hanging—reminding Cass (much to his surprise) that Cass’s own father died like that.

Cass tells Luthen how he came to be in possession of that valuable tech: the Empire’s own arrogance. They’d never imagine that “someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear.” A man drinks at a bar. We hear the s-word once and some other profanities as well (“b–tard,” “h—” and a misuse of God’s name).

Sept. 21, 2022—S1, E2: “That Would Be Me”

While Cass tries to finagle his way off Ferrix to lay low for a while—hoping to sell a bit of much-sought equipment to do so—Syril discovers that he’s the murderer he’s been looking for. And he organizes a crew to hunt him down and bring him in.

In flashback, we see Cass as a boy scavenge with other children on, it would seem, the largely deserted planet of Kenari. The kids’ leader prods a couple of seemingly dead bodies. One revives, though, and shoots her before he in turn is peppered with darts fired by the children.

Bix, a female friend of Cass’s, spends the night with her boyfriend, Timm. (She kisses him, and she begins to take off her clothes as she prepares to climb into bed, though nothing critical is shown.) She lies to him repeatedly, though—trying to protect Cass’s movements. Someone utters the word “b–tard.”

Sept. 21, 2022—S1, E1: “Kassa”

While searching for his sister on the planet Morlana One, Cassian Andor runs afoul of a couple of rank-and-file security guards. They try to shake him down, but he shakes them up—accidentally killing one in the process (with a blow to the man’s throat). He shoots the other to cover up the crime. On his home planet of Ferrix, quickly tries to weave a web of concocted alibis. But back on Morlana One, Syril Karn means to avenge the murders—and perhaps earn a promotion in the process.

Syril’s superior isn’t as keen on pursuing the culprit (still unknown to them at this juncture) as zealously. “They were killed in a fight,” he tells Syril, correctly. “They were in a brothel, which we’re not supposed to have, the expensive one, which they shouldn’t be able to afford, drinking Revnog, which we’re not supposed to allow. Both of them supposedly on the job, which is a dismissible offense.” He orders Syril to simply make up a story for how they died. “Something sad but inspiring in a mundane sort of way.”

Cassian and the guards do indeed cross paths in a brothel, where Cassian is hunting for his sister. We see him pass apparently other houses of ill-repute, with various aliens showing their physical wares in bubble windows (much like the prostitution windows popular in Amsterdam). Inside, a holographic dancer (clothed) writhes nearby. Cassian talks with a prostitute—asking after she’s seen his sis. “Nobody here gives their real names,” the woman says.

She bares quite a bit of cleavage, by the way. We hear insinuations that Cass is a ladies’ man, and he’s been known to cavort with married women. The security guards are drinking at the bar when Cass enters. When Cass asks a friend to lie for him, he asks him to say that he had “half a bottle of nog stashed at home, so we went there and we drank ourselves to sleep.”

Cass asks others to lie for him, too. An animal urinates on a droid. A spaceship crashes over a planet.