The newest Star Wars series Andor premiered with its first three episodes on Disney+. The show has a gritty, human feel as it dives into the backstory of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his journey to become a hero for the Rebel Alliance as they fight against Emperor Palpatine. The series takes place five years before the film Rogue One, which took place directly before the events of A New Hope. Andor is set to run for two seasons that will run straight into the events of Rogue One, with 12 episodes per season.
A Bad Night Gets Even Worse
It’s the year 5 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin). Cassian Andor is roaming the dark, rainy streets of the dystopian planet of Morlana One, home to a cool sci-fi inspired brothel (a brothel? In a Disney series? What universe is this?). He enters a brothel and asks questions about his sister, a Kenari woman who works there. He’s told she disappeared several months ago, and nobody seems to know what happened. While in the brothel, he’s harassed by two bullies… I mean two corporate security force (Corpos) officers. The two Corpos follow him outside and an altercation ensues. Cassian accidentally kills one of the officers during a fight over a blaster. The remaining Corpo tries to give Cassian a reason to let him live, but Cassian kills him instead. Sorry, no loose ends. Cassian escapes Morlana One and returns to Ferrix.
The next morning, his droid B2EMO AKA Bee-Two or Bee (Dave Chapman), wakes him up to give him the bandages he requested. He starts crafting his alibi, but Bee-Two doubts its ability to lie for Cassian — it’s too old and deceit requires more processing power. Cassian heads into town and finds Brasso (Joplin Sibtain), asking him to be his alibi. Brasso agrees, but only if Cassian cleans up his act and gets a job.
Next, Cassian pays a visit to his good friend and ex-girlfriend Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona). She runs a garage AND works as a fence — someone who finds buyers for stolen goods. Cassian asks her to arrange a meeting with a “friend” because he has an untraceable Starpath unit he wants to sell. As they talk, Cassian mentions Bix is romantically involved with Timm Karlo (James McArdle), who’s oblivious to Bix’s side hustle. After Cassian leaves, Bix lies about having to run errands, so she can leave work. Timm decides to follow her, but loses track of her in the streets. Bix presumably sends a transmission to the contact she mentioned earlier.
A Rogue Investigation
Back on Morlana, Deputy Inspector Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) discuss his report about the two murdered officers to Chief Inspector Hyne (Rupert Vansittart). While Syril wants to find the culprit and bring them to justice, Hyne decides to sweep the incident under the rug. “I suspect they died rushing to aid someone in distress. Nothing too heroic, we don’t need a parade,” Hyne suggests as a cover. “They died being helpful. Something sad but inspiring in a mundane sort of way.”
Hyne wants Syril to look at the bigger picture. The officers were in a luxury brothel that isn’t supposed to exist, drinking liquor they shouldn’t have been able to afford, while on the job. Shining a spotlight on Corpos corruption would give the Empire an excuse to take over the Morlana system. But Syril doesn’t want to let it go, so he launches his own investigation into the matter behind Hyne’s back.
Syril learns a ship with no credentials flew in the night of the murders and the suspect was asking about a woman from Kenari. Confident he’s on the right track, Syril instructs his team to put out a bulletin for Kenari human males on Ferrix.
A Wanted Man
Bix is looking at something on her computer when she’s interrupted by Timm, who wants to make plans for the night. Bix charms her way into getting their date night rescheduled for the next night. He offers to close shop and after Bix leaves, Timm immediately goes to her computer and sees this:
PRE-MOR AUTHORITY SEEKING A KENARI MALE RESIDENT OF FERRIX FOR QUESTIONING
CITIZENS WITH ANY INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE PREOX MORLANA SECURITY HQ WITHOUT DELAY
Timm isn’t the only one who’s seen the bulletin. The minute Cassian returns home, Maarva (Fiona Shaw), confronts him about it. She wants to know how many people know he’s from Kenari because, they’ve always claimed he’s from Fest. Cassian finally admits he screwed up, but doesn’t mention the murders. Later, he meets up with Bix at a bar where he partially reveals what happened on Morlana, and implies that he killed someone. He offers to sell the unit to her instead, but Bix tells him her buyer is coming the next morning.
Timm is watching the two from afar. At a distance, Bix and Cassian’s conversation looks more romantic than it really is. This prompts Timm to send in a tip to the security’s headquarters with Cassian’s name. Bix shows up at Timm’s place, unaware of his betrayal. They spend the night together and Timm begins to show some regret over what he did.
Meanwhile, Syril and his team are going over Cassian’s record: insurrection, destruction of Imperial property, and assault of an Imperial soldier. Looks like Cassian has always been anti-Imperial, even before he joined the Rebel Alliance. Syril and his team are on their way to Ferrix to apprehend Cassian. Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) is on his way to Ferrix and Cassian is making arrangements to leave the planet as quickly and as quietly as possible. During this process, we learn that Kenari was abandoned after an Imperial mining accident and considered toxic.
Past Life
Throughout the first three episodes, we see flashbacks of Cassian’s childhood. He originally went by the name Kassa, and lived with a tribe along with his sister Kerri (Belle Swarc). After watching a ship crash onto their planet, Kassa joins a tribe of older kids to investigate. Once they reach the crash site, one of the surviving humans attacks the children and kills the leader of the tribe.
Following the death of one of the children, Kassa boards the crashed vessel by himself. Everybody on the ship is dead and covered in an odd golden yellow sheen. Upset, he begins destroying the inside of the ship. That’s when he runs into a young Maarva and Clem Andor (Gary Beadle), along with a newer Bee, who are looking for fuel modules. When Bee warns them of another Republic ship coming their way, Maarva decides to inject Kassa with something that knocks him out. She decides to take him with them out of fear the Republic would kill him.
The Chase
In the present, Luthen and Syril both arrived on Ferrix looking for Cassian. Bix meets with Luthen and explains the complications surrounding Cassian, not realizing he’s been ID’d. Syril and his team head to Maarva’s house with a warrant. She refuses to give them information, so they destroy Cassian’s room while looking for evidence. Unfortunately, Cassian chooses that exact moment to send Maarva a message through B2EMO, allowing Syril to track his location.
The people of Ferrix begin their warning system by banging on metal objects to signal Syril’s presence and creating chaos as the guards make their way through the streets. Bix realizes Karn is in town and that Timm is the one who ratted Cassian out. Furious, she takes off in search of Cassian but is detained by the guards, who are suspicious of her behavior. Timm tries to intervene but is killed by the officers. The officers cuff Bix to a piece of equipment and leave Timm’s body to bleed out on the walk path.
Cassian finally meets Luthen at an abandoned building and gives him the unit. Luthen is impressed by the quality of the unit and gets Cassian to admit he stole it by using the Imperials’ arrogance to slip through their defenses. Luthen asks Cassian to come with him and join the rebels: “These days will end, Cassian Andor,” Luthen says. “The way they laugh, the way they push through a crowd. The sound of that voice telling you to stop, to go, to move. Telling you to die. Don’t you want to fight these bastards for real?”
They hear the town’s warning sounds, but they miss their opportunity to escape when Cassian realizes they’ve left the unit behind. They end up in a shootout with the Corpo officers. Cassian fails to get the unit back, and he escapes the building with Luthen. Cassian manages to tip up behind Syril and puts a gun to his head. Luthen tells Cassian to kill him, but he only asks how many men Syril brought with him, and leaves him tied up and gagged. Cassian and Luthen use a decoy speeder as a distraction and successfully escape from Ferrix.
The first three episodes of Andor are streaming exclusively on Disney+. Episode 4 will premiere on Wednesday, September 28.
