Welcome to my weekly review of Andor, where I will be walking us through each episode and giving my thoughts on the show. My reviews will follow my usual format: an overview of the plot (so be aware, there will be spoilers!), my review of the show, then a few “Moments in canon” – references that link to other media and the galaxy as a whole. Today, we’ll be looking at Episode 6: “The Eye”.
Plot Summary
As “Echo Team” (the men in the Aldhani team) prepare for the mission, Nemik, who has been unable to sleep, tells Cassian about updates he has made to his manifesto. Taramyn uses an old Imperial fieldcomm to contact “Valley Team” (Vel and Cinta), and having both found the common frequency, they lock their communicators in.
At the garrison, the commanding officer Commandant Beehaz is updating the engineer from Coruscant, Colonel Petigar, on how they have manipulated the local people to reduce the numbers attending the old holy sites, which will make Imperial efforts to build up the area much easier.
Echo Team begin to make their way down into the valley as the Eye of Aldhani begins, attaching themselves the back of the group of pilgrims to make it appear that they are part of the Imperial escort. Meanwhile Valley Team travel underwater to the dam that creates the Imperial garrison and Vel plants a jammer on the communications hub, undeen by the comms officer Colonel Kimzi. Having got the go-ahead from Vel, Taramyn subtly communicates to Gorn that they are good to go, and he has Echo Team escort him, Petigar, Beehaz and the commandant’s wife and son back up to the base. Gorn orders the remaining guards outside the base down into the valley and holds position outside. Echo Team follow the VIPs inside and immediately hold them at gunpoint. Petigar pulls a blaster on Nemik but is himself held at blasterpoint by Cassian. The stand-off ends as Cinta arrives unseen behind Petigar with Vel and shoots him dead.
“Nobody has to die.”
While the hostages are bound and gagged, Cassian and Taramyn secure the interior communications centre, while Kinzi, in his hub on top of the base, begins noticing the interference due to the jammer. The hostages are taken to the communications centre and left with Cinta, who is there to keep the comms disabled, while Beehaz is taken with the team to the vault as they need his handprint to unlock the vault. Arriving at the vault, the team take the workers down there hostage and force Beehaz to open the vault while Cassian and Nemik begin prepping the freighter. With the vault opened, the team use Beehaz and the prisoners to fill up the freighter with the credits. Nemik contacts Cinta with an update, but Kimzi is able to hear a distorted version of the message and hears mention of the vault and the freighter.
The nearby airbase at Alkenzi contacts the garrison after receiving a notification that the vault had been tripped open, but Cinta—who has changed into an Imperial uniform— blocks the messages and turns off the power in much of the base. Kimzi gathers a unit of troopers and leads them to the vault. Gorm makes his way down to join the team in the vault. With no reply from the garrison, 3 TIE fighters are dispatched from Alkenzi. Kimzi arrives with his unit of troopers and Gorm tries to pass it off as a classified mission. Gorm tries to get Beehaz to confirm what he is saying, but the commandant has a heart attack and dies, which prompts the 2 sides to enter a firefight.
With Cassian and Nemik already on the ship, Vel and Skeen manage to get aboard, but Gorn and Taramyn are killed in the firefight, while one of the trolleys full of credits had not been secured, and the sudden take-off of the freighter caused it to run into and crush Nemik, badly injuring him and leaving him unable to walk. Vel and Skeen carry Nemik into the cockpit and he is able to direct Cassian through the Eye, while the 3 TIEs chasing them are destroyed. From the valley, Cinta and the Dhani pilgrims watch the Eye.
“Between the two of us, we could be the winners here.”
With Nemik in a bad condition, Skeen directs Cassian to a doctor, Quadpaw, who was built in as a contingency. While Vel assists Quadpaw, Cassian and Skeen wait outside. Skeen notes that they have stolen approximately 80 million credits, and suggest they ditch Vel and fly away before each going their own way with 40 million, however Cassian shoots him. Cassian makes his way into Quadpaw’s hut to find that Nemik has died of his injuries. Cassian tells Vel what happened outside but she doesn’t believe him. Cassian says that he will leave Vel the freighter and its contents, minus his cut, and he will buy Quadpaw’s ship to go on his own way. Cassian gives Vel the Kuati Signet to give back to Rael, and she gives him Nemik’s manifesto, which he insisted was for Cassian.
At ISB headquarters, Partagaz holds an urgent meeting, wanting ever Star Sector and Planetary Emergency Retaliation plan ready for presentation by midnight. In the Senate, Mon Mothma’s attempts to pass a bill that will help the Ghorman people go ignored. At the galleria, Rael hears that the garrison on Aldhani has been hit by a rebel attack.
Review
This show just gets better by the week! I’m to that point now where I am confident in saying that—as much as I loved having Ewan, Hayden and Joel back—this show is blowing Obi-Wan Kenobi out of the water!
One again, 2 weeks of steady building reached a wonderful crescendo, and while I think that Gorn’s death could have been a little clearer with a close-up shot or some reaction—similar to what we had for Taramyn’s—that was my one issue with the action, which gave us a great mix of firefight, brawl and high-speed chase.
And oh the chase! The Eye sounded so beautiful whenever it was mentioned previously, and wow did it live up to the hype, creating some of the most stunning visuals that I have ever seen in Star Wars. It was a visual treat for the eyes and while a little reminiscent of the escape from Jedha, it was also something completely new for Star Wars, while it also filled me with joy to finally see a live-action depiction of pilots getting into their TIEs and taking off, with a beautiful background to boot!
And now for the team. It was obvious that not everyone would make it out of the mission alive, so I love how this was dealt with, with a couple being killed off in the firefight, but Nemik—who felt like the most obvious one to die from the moment we met him—actually survived that and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time somehow made his death even more tragic, while also allowing him his hero moments by shooting the Imperial attacking Cassian and then directing him through the Eye. And then for Skeen, who survived, only to turn on the team. I loved the way that this team was always disrusting of Cassian over the last 2 weeks, and yet it was one of their own (Vel) who hesitated and another in Skeen who betrayed them.
So what next? Well I imagine that we see Vel at least once more to tell Rael what happened. While it looks like this brazen attack on Aldhani will prompt more of an Imperial response, bringing Dedra and likely Syril as someone will probably identify the rebels and Dedra will realise that Cassian was responsible for both Ferrix and Aldhani. But what of Cinta? Will she manage to get off-planet safely, or will she be caught as Imperials arrive to investigate? Or is that it for her? I can’t wait to see what comes next!
“I did my job. I’m done.”
A few final thoughts on the episode:
- I love how Commandant Blevin was made so unlikeable in this episode that we don’t feel at all sorry for him, but still have that twinge of worry for his wife and son as they are held hostage, while forcing him to work hard leading to his death of a heart attack—having early insinuated during the episode that he has grown fat over the last 3 years—was a great way to kill off such an evil character in an unexpected way that would then cause issues for the rebels.
- While I wasn’t expecting a surprise cameo, I did feel that the continued hype of the Imperial engineer ended up being a damp squib for what he actually did in the episode. Had we been watching the last 3 episodes as 1 long episode, I don’t think it would have felt like such a build-up. Again, my only real issues are around the way that the show has been broadcast rather than the content themselves.
- Cassian’s reactions to Nemik’s directions through the Eye and asking what they drugged him with was just the right amount of levity to get a slight chuckle but keep the tension going. The series has done a very good job of inputting comedy as and when it is required without doing over the top.
Moments in Canon
- This is the first time that we have properly seen the Imperial Senate in action, though we heard about it way back in 1977 with the release of A New Hope. Judging from the trailers, it looks like it will also be making another appearance soon in season 2 of The Bad Batch.
- Mon Mothma’s political conversations in this series have been about the way that the Empire has been mistreating the people of Ghorman. in season 3 of Rebels, it was the Ghorman Massacre that led to Mon Mothma publicly condemning the reign of Emperor Palpatine, leading to her having to go into hiding and becoming a full-time member of the Rebellion.
What did you think of the episode?
Thanks for reading. Rebellions are built on hope….
The Canon Padawan 