Reckoning
Episode 3 of Andor starts with Kassa exploring that crashed ship. He’s alone, given the rest of the tribe have retreated with their leader. As he begins bashing the consoles, Maarva, of all people, shows up. Kassa starts speaking his native tongue but of course, they don’t understand him. Maarva decides to take the child and hide him. It’s not a smart move, given the Empire are in the system, but it explains how he left the planet. Cassian waits in the shadows for Brasso, pointing out that he’s going to pay the guy back after his meeting, and that he need to speak to Maarva to get his funds. “I’ll find a way,” He promises and jogs away. Now, Bix and Cassian’s contact happens to be Luthen, the man who arrived on the planet at the end of last episode. Bix walks with him to the meeting spot, with her reassuring Luthen that he’s there. For now, they’re confident that the Empire don’t have his picture, but as we know… they do. The soldiers touch down and immediately head for the city. Time is of the essence, but they arrive at Maarva’s to arrest Cassian. They turn the place inside out, with Sergeant Mosk finding another resident hiding in the house, which of course happens to be B2EMO. Cassian speaks to his droid and immediately gives away his position – and compromises Maarva too. The signal is locked in and both Mosk and Deputy Inspector Syril travel together, having got a lock on his position. That’s bad news of course, given Cassian has just secured his meeting with Luthen. News of the Empire’s taskforce reaches Bix, who realizes that she needs to warn Cassian before it’s too late. Of course, Timm gets involved and tells her that Cassian can handle himself. This is enough for Bix to realize Timm has betrayed her. At the meet, Cassian is given another 1000 credits to reveal how he got the unit. It turns out he snuck aboard and took it out right from under the Empire’s noses. Cassian scoffs at the arrogance of the Empire, while Luthen prophesizes that this regime will end at some point. As for Luthen, he’s actually been looking for more than the unit. He knows Cassian killed those two soldiers and encourages him to join so they can fight back properly. Luthen has a ship near the ferry port ready to take them away. The grunts are near though, and unfortunately Bix is captured in the streets as she’s en-route to warn them. After destroying Cassian’s comms unit, realizing it can be traced, Luthen and Cassian devise a plan to get out. Unfortunately, they’re ambushed by soldiers who begin firing on their location. Unfortunately, it’s too late to save the starship unit, which is lost under debris that falls from the ceiling. “I thought you were smart?” Luthen tells him and to be honest, I’d be inclined to agree. Out in the street, Timm is shot dead when he rushes at the soldiers holding Bix. Before she can even process the news, the soldiers are forced to abandon her when they realize what’s happened inside that warehouse, leaving Bix on her knees and shocked at what’s transpired. Cassian gets the better of the Deputy Inspector, taking his radio and destroying it. Luthen encourages him to kill the man, as he shakily answers Cassian’s questions. Instead, he’s just tied up and left there. As for the rest of the group, they fire on a ship but it’s a decoy, given Luthen and Cassian manage to slip away on a speeder. However, the ship is rigged with an explosive and they blow it up. With more soldiers killed, Luthen and Andor leave, while Maarva also leaves with Kassa on her ship.
The Episode Review
So the third episode sets things up nicely for the rest of the season, which is slowly edging its way toward a much larger conflict. The show still has issues with its pacing, which is a bit too slow given the story being told. It also doesn’t help that Cassian doesn’t have that much charisma. Not only that but the antagonists aren’t that capable either, especially given how easily the Deputy Inspector was stopped and ambushed by Cassian. Why was he alone anyway? These sort of niggling contrivances make for a rather disappointing confrontation when personally, it would have been nice to have a more menacing enemy to go up against. However, this is a perfunctory Star Wars show thus far and I’d imagine it will be praised to the high heavens, especially after the mess of Obi-Wan earlier this year. We’ve got plenty more time to play with though and quite what will happen next is anyone’s guess. With next week’s chapter clocking in at around 46 minutes, the extra run-time should give us more clues over exactly what Andor’s purpose is in all of this.
