The latest “Andor” episode on Disney+ blew me away. How deftly the “Star Wars” series subverts my expectations with no regard whatsoever reminds me of the early seasons of “Game Of Thrones. “
I have already explained in another opinion piece that I learned to love “Andor” with episode 6 at the latest, in which I also went into the problems of Disney’s previous “Star Wars” films and series. Now, however, I would like to highlight one particular quality of “Andor”: You can call it realism, consistent storytelling, the intelligent subversion of expectations or even cold-bloodedness. All terms that also remind me of the early seasons of “Game Of Thrones”.
THE EVER-ELUSIVE “GAME OF THRONES” COMPARISON
If you’re tired of “Game Of Thrones” comparisons being made at every opportunity, I can understand you. But the first few seasons of the fantasy hit simply set new standards in so many areas and also greatly changed my expectations of series in general. Since then, I’m always looking for new stories with detailed worldbuilding, morally ambivalent characters and that “anything can happen” mentality.
In Game Of Thrones, you were never sure who was going to die. Expectations were constantly thwarted and you always had the feeling that every decision had real consequences that didn’t bounce off immortal characters and other story mechanics.
The sixth episode “Andor” gave me all that again. With the exception of the title character, no one is really safe here. A rebel crew is pursuing a high-risk plan and it’s clear from the start that they won’t all make it out alive. That alone kept me under intense tension throughout the episode. The thrilling production did the rest to get my heart racing. But “Andor” adds a lot more to it.
My expectations were constantly thwarted in episode 6, not with gimmicky tricks, but with realistic misfortunes, fateful coincidences, the abandonment of clichés and a revelation that, in retrospect, seems completely obvious, but which I nevertheless didn’t see coming because the author brothers Dan and Tony Gilroy quite cleverly manipulated me.
In the following, I will explain to you what exactly I mean by this with the help of a few examples, but beware, spoilers will of course follow!
“ANDOR”: THINGS ALWAYS TURN OUT DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU THINK
Nemik (Alex Lawther) has become one of my favourite “Andor” characters in a very short time. From the beginning, his fate was most important to me. The main thing is that he survives! The “Andor” authors were fully aware of this. You can see that in the way they play with his fate. After the death of Tarmaryn (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr), Nemik seemed at least a little safer. After all, there was already an obligatory sacrifice and the young rebel was relatively protected in the spaceship by this time.
But then “Andor” sends us through a rollercoaster of emotions. As the spaceship takes off, Nemik is crushed by one of the cargo carts in all the chaos. We already think the worst: Is he dead?
No, he is still alive, but then he says: “I can’t feel my legs…” With this sentence everything seems clear: Nemik is paraplegic, but will survive. Why else would he, at this moment of all times, so clearly point out his paralysis as the problem?
I could see it coming: Nemik would become the stereotype of a mentally gifted person with a physical disability, the likes of which abound in pop culture, from Bran Stark in “Game Of Thrones” to Patrick Stewart in “X-Men” to the limping Dr. House. It would have made sense, since Nemik was the intellectual of the rebel group, whose sharpest weapon was his mind.
But no way: Nemik dies a short time later, even though Cassian and Co. took him to a doctor as quickly as possible. The Disney+ series cleverly plays ping-pong with our feelings and expectations here.
NO WORN OUT SCRIPT CLICHÉS, LONG LIVE CHANCE!
Similarly, when Cinta (Varada Sethu) and Vel (Faye Marsay) split up, see each other one last time, and Vel says to her lover, “Promise me nothing will happen to you.” In almost any other series, that very thing would have been Cinta’s death sentence. But in “Andor” nothing really happens to her, and I was glad for the “Star Wars” series to bypass this cliché.
Instead, something happens that I really didn’t expect: The heart attack of the Imperial commander Jayhold (Stanley Townsend). Up until this point, the entire plan of the Rebel forces was going like clockwork, not because of the stunned stupidity of the Empire (as in other “Star Wars” series and films), but because it was just a really good plan and they all executed their roles professionally.
The commander’s heart attack is a logical consequence due to his advanced age, his previously made clear excess weight as well as the enormous stress situation he was in, but the timing could hardly have been more unfortunate. It is such credible coincidences that give a script the final touch and thus make a story both more exciting and more realistic. After all, real life is often peppered with coincidences and does not run along a thread that some screenwriter or screenwriter has thought up.
THE FINAL TWIST RUNS DEEP
Let’s get to the final highlight of the episode: the final dialogue between Cassian (Diego Luna) and Skeen (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). I find this scene ingenious in several respects:
First of all, it’s a fat twist that Skeen turns out to be a greedy opportunist who doesn’t care about the rebellion at all. Such twists are always good when they are not just used for mere shock effect, but when they really make sense in retrospect. And indeed: it is one of those moments when the scales fell from my eyes.
Because as someone who has a few games of the parlour game werewolf under his belt, I learned at some point how best to behave when you are a traitor in a group: you deflect suspicion onto someone else and signal that you really care about exposing them. But you don’t do this completely arbitrarily (a popular mistake), but with rational, justified objections that you would voice in exactly the same way if you were really part of the group.
Skeen has good reasons to suspect Cassian and uses this opportunity to present himself to us as a convinced rebel. At the latest when he reveals Cassian’s kyber crystal and exposes him as a paid mercenary, he has thus finally proven his loyalty. Clearly, Andor is the one we should keep an eye on, not Skeen!
That this same model rebel now wants to run off with the money is at first a shock, but absolutely believable. Cassian also finds this convincing enough and shocks us as well: with his nimble finger on the trigger and a cold-bloodedness he has already shown in episode 1 and “Rogue One”, he kills Skeen on the spot. Once again it becomes apparent that Andor is anything but a shining hero, but rather heeds the philosophy of the crook Tuco from “Two Glorious Scoundrels”: “If you want to shoot, shoot and don’t talk!”
IS SKEEN REALLY A TRAITOR?
But wait a minute: what if Skeen isn’t a traitor after all? What if this was all just a test? Isn’t that just as likely? After all, he has doubted Cassian’s loyalty from the start. It would fit Skeen’s character just as well to bait him with a lie in order to expose his true sentiments.
That’s why throughout the conversation I wasn’t at all sure what to make of his alleged betrayal (which also made the dialogue extremely suspenseful). But Cassian doesn’t even give us the chance to know the truth, because he just whacks Skeen without hesitation! How unexpected is that!
I just love the fact that “Andor” doesn’t follow any well-worn script paths, that A isn’t necessarily followed by B, but that sometimes an unexpected C slips in between, which then leads to point D again. As in real life, not everyone automatically has a perfectly constructed story arc, but is sometimes thrown off course by random coincidences. The series lulls us into a sense of security with generic false leads, only to surprise us several times with a punchline from a completely different direction.
The characters are also profoundly ambivalent. Cassian Andor simply cannot be pigeonholed and even minor supporting characters rarely seem like mere extras, but like real individuals in a living world.
Like the early seasons of “Game Of Thrones”, “Andor” so far has no regard for losses. Everything is subordinated to worldbuilding and the credibility of the story. If someone gets lost in the process, then that’s just the way it is. “Andor” is not a sentimental epic of the struggle between good and evil, but a cold-blooded thriller in the grey limbo in between – and that’s exactly what makes my “Star Wars” heart race!
