Elliot Kessler

Season one of “Andor” wrapped up today with a ton of potential for the next season. This episode was a little underwhelming. While “Andor” is fantastic, it isn’t reaching its fullest potential. It stretched the story out, creating several episodes with little progression. This caused many problems for the show, making it take much longer to get through the story than needed. However, the story that “Andor” tells is fascinating, emotional, and gripping.

Characters

The center of this show is its characters. Seeing this kind of storytelling in a modern show has been refreshing. Most stories I’ve seen recently are more focused on being cool and saying the right things than having exciting characters. “Andor” has fantastic characters. This show wouldn’t have been nearly as engaging if the characters were half as good as they are now.

The characters have explicit wants and goals. They have things to lose and a purpose to keep fighting, regardless of their side.

The loss of Cassian’s mom plays a significant role in this episode. A funeral is to be held for her, and the Empire will use it to bait Cassian out of hiding. But Cassian’s mom has a message recorded on her droid, which gets the whole town in fighting spirit. A battle commences between the city and the Empire, and Cassian uses the opportunity to get Bix, who had been captured in an earlier episode, off Ferrix. Meanwhile, Luthen and Vel plan on letting the Empire find Cassian so they can kill him before he gives away any secrets he has to the Empire. The episode ends with Cassian meeting Luthen on his ship, giving Luthen the option to kill him or let him join the rebellion. Luthen and Cassian leave Ferrix, creating a large window of opportunity for season two.

These are fantastic character moments are precisely what this show is about, and the characters remain consistent throughout each episode. There is no point in this show when something a character did seems out of place. The characters were on point.

Finale

As a season finale, this episode was underwhelming. There was the battle on Ferrix, but that was the most significant moment in the episode. There wasn’t much of an ending. It was setting up the rest of the series, which makes sense because it has already been renewed for multiple seasons. But it still isn’t a good idea storytelling-wise.

Leaving a story open-ended can work very well, but I don’t think it was executed well here. The show should have given Cassian something to strive for. Maybe his mom was dying from an illness, but the medication for the disease was absurdly expensive because of an Imperial policy. Cassian would have taken the Aldahni job to pay for her medical treatment, only to get himself captured. After escaping his prison, he would have purchased the necessary medications and rushed back to Ferrix only to find that his mom had died while he was away. Blaming the Empire for his mom’s death, he begins the revolution on Ferrix using his mom’s message, and the story ends the same, leaving it open-ended for the next season.

It didn’t need to be that specific. They could have continued the story that started in the first episode, with Cassian searching for his sister. It could have been something completely different. It could have been much more creative, giving Cassian something to strive for throughout the season.

Conclusion

I’m not saying this was a bad episode or season. I thought “Andor” was very good. It was interesting, engaging, and thrilling. It explores a new side of the Galactic Civil War that I don’t think has been seen before. There might be a book or comic series from the Legends timeline that does what “Andor” did, but this is still an awesome show.

With this season’s ending, anything can happen. I am excited to see where this series leads, and I hope they learn from their mistakes and create a much better season two.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.