The best 2 hours and 47 minutes of STAR WARS content ever to be seen on television! For some, it is the best STAR WARS content Disney has put out since it was bought almost 13 years ago. I love the movies (EP VII-IX, ROGUE ONE, SOLO), so I’m not sure I can get 100% on board with that last sentence, but in the spring of 2025, STAR WARS never felt more exciting and relevant. ANDOR isn’t just must-see science fiction; it’s currently the best thing on television. Yes, I went there.
The most recent arc kicks off in 2 BBY with MESSENGER. It’s probably the slowest of these three, but there’s much to cover since we last saw Andor and Bix on Coruscant a year earlier. E7 is another reminder of what I wrote about during season one. Not everyone who helped the Empire build the Death Star was a Stormtrooper or working directly under Darth Vader. There are thousands of cogs in the machine. Back then, I called out Syril as a great example of this. His arc has become the perfect illustration of a man trying to do what he sees as right. He’s just following orders. He wants to see his work as successful and covets recognition, but the larger picture of all the bad the Empire is doing eludes him. MESSENGER shows how we can juxtapose Syril next to the roles of Wilmon or Cassian Andor himself. They’ve never carried the legacies of Leah, Han, or Luke, but are their roles any less important? This episode also gets bonus points from me for showing us a classic Star Wars planet (that’s not Coruscant) and some of the other things going on there.
E8, WHO ARE YOU?, picks up right where we left off, and it’s nearly perfect as an Act 2 to this arc. There’s a lot of action and espionage, and the title is a callback to things that happened early in season 1. We also get the source of one of STAR WARS’ most iconic lines of dialogue. It’s a full-circle moment for fans in this corner of the fandom, and I tip my hat to series creator Tony Gilroy for it.
ANDOR was written and planned out years ago. It’s all supposed to be fiction, yet the focus of this episode, the events in Ghorman, feel so significant to the real world of 2025. Voices of resistance can be powerful and inspiring. Brave souls put their lives on the line to be seen and heard. And as the title lets on, two of our characters we’ve been following over these last 20 episodes finally meet in person. It was sort of a shock to me as a viewer because we’ve seen so much of them that it can’t truly be their first time together on screen, can it? Director Janus Metz plays this moment so well; the confrontation is as abrupt to the characters as it was to me watching it. It’s an incredibly satisfying end to a particular story arc. Take note, other STAR WARS shows!
The way E8 relates so well to the United States in 2025 is also tragic. And that even when we see something clear as day with our own eyes, the reigning government and media can spin a convenient yarn. I’d like to believe that something like this happening in a STAR WARS show could never happen in real life, but I fear it’s only a matter of time.
I would love for Disney to release this entire series without breaks, or at least each 3-episode arc. After WHO ARE YOU?, I didn’t think that ANDOR could get any better. Then, E9, WELCOME TO THE REBELLION, showed us the greatest episode of anything ever on Disney+ and the best TV episode thus far in 2019. This is not hyperbole. This is the best of the best STAR WARS (all caps).
ANDOR might be the show’s title, but Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma has been another MVP throughout the series. We first saw Mon’s character in RETURN OF THE JEDI (played by Caroline Blakiston). Then a younger version of her, played by O’Reilly, has been in REVENGE OF THE SITH, ROGUE ONE, ANDOR, AHSOKA, and the animated series STAR WARS REBELS. Voice actress Kath Soucie portrayed Mothma in the animated series THE CLONE WARS. Now that all that is out of the way, I want to talk about O’Reilly here in ANDOR specifically.
First, her style is unmatched. If I won a large enough lottery tomorrow, I would have a designer help me create a wardrobe inspired by Mon. If I had enough money, I’d track down the folks who designed her clothes for this series and hire them directly. I want every outfit she has worn. That old joke “If I had the lottery, I wouldn’t tell anyone, but there would be signs…” Yes, the sign for me would be that I would be wearing every incredible dress and suit that she wears here. Mon Mothma, style icon. Secondly, as folks like Cassian, Bix, Kleya, Vel, and Wilmon are on active duty inside the rebellion on the ground, Mothma stands as a guarded, yet strong voice in the government. She’s using her power, connections, and money to aid the rebels. In a series full of folks acting like they have nothing to lose, Mothma has everything to lose. Her career, status, and her family.
I have not seen more than a couple of episodes of the animated series REBELS, so I had no idea what happened in E9 was coming. I knew something big had to happen to bring Mothma from the events of ANDOR to where we see her in JEDI. WELCOME TO THE REBELLION has similarities to S1’s RIX ROAD, when we saw Maarva Andor’s stance against the Empire that inspired the citizens of Ferrix. But unlike Maarva, Mothma is a senator with power reverberating across the galaxy. With the right platform, she can both unite those that want to take a stand against the Empire, and also piss those who are loyal to it.
Like E8, WELCOME TO THE REBELLION also sees two characters heavily featured in the show meet for the first time. Unlike the events on Ghorman, this is a moment of secrecy. It also shows just how much the rebels trust and rely on Cassian Andor. It’s an incredibly pivotal moment in the history of STAR WARS, and while those of us who have seen ROGUE ONE know the result, the journey there is enthralling.
The real world has leaders similar to Mon Mothma. We have politicians making big speeches against fascism. They’re speaking out for our right to free speech, our bodies’ rights, and the freedom of all. But as far as I know, they’re not secretly funding a rebellion. ANDOR is often a “how-to” guide for overthrowing fascism. But it’s much harder to be covert in our country than in a vast galaxy of thousands of inhabited planets. <Sigh>
E7-E9 of ANDOR couldn’t come together so well if it weren’t for everything that creator Gilroy has brought to the screen. Diego Luna (Andor), O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgård (Luthen), Kyle Soller (Syril), Denise Gough (Dedra), Adria Arjona (Bix), Fay Marsay (Vel), and the rest of the cast are one of the strongest ensemble casts on television (Don’t forget, SAG Awards!). This entire arc has been under the direction of Danish director Metz. I hope the powers behind the rest of the STAR WARS universe at Disney truly appreciate this series and strive to make every future piece of Star Wars content as great.
ANDOR streams Tuesday nights on Disney+.
