Meet me (and every other Andor character) on Ferrix.
Episode 11 skillfully sets up an explosive finale.
The Short Take:
Episode 11 ratchets up the tension and dexterously puts all the plot and character pieces in place for the finale. I was in a puddle emotionally (again).
Image Credit: Wookieepedia
[SPOILER ALERT: It’s sink or swim (sorry, that was in poor taste) from here because I’m talking spoilers for the whole review.]
The Long Take:
Meet me on Ferrix, Ferrix. Meet me at the funeral. Don’t tell me the lights are shining any place but there.
I should have realized sooner that all roads lead to Ferrix.
This episode is an amazing installment on its own, no doubt, but I think it also does a perfect job of ramping up to what HAS to be an astounding finish to this groundbreaking series. One of my greatest pleasures as a television viewer is when we start to see pieces falling into place, storylines converging. While the narrative convergence may not be as intricate or well-integrated in Netflix’s Stranger Things, I think that’s partly why that series has become a pop culture juggernaut (also the 80s nostalgia, but that’s a discussion for another day). The Expanse also did this particularly well in its first season. (Remind me of others in the comments if you think of any!) In any show, I love that moment of realization that I’ve been in safe hands this entire time and that I’m about to see the payoff of sustained, precision storytelling.
That’s exactly how I felt during this episode. The convergence on Ferrix for nearly all our characters very importantly works on not one but two levels: plot and character development. So yes, the Empire’s attempt to monitor and ferret out Rebel activity does make it so that everyone has a practical reason to go to Ferrix, the planet Cassian Andor calls home. This may actually be why the show is called Andor: he’s the one named, identifiable target (aside from Anto Kreegyr — more on him later) that everyone is after, and the only known connections he has are to Ferrix. Dedra and the ISB want Andor to get to “Axis” or Luthen. Syril wants to capture Andor to clear his own name (and exact revenge). Vel and Cinta are after Andor so that he can’t identify Luthen and expose the Rebellion. And now Cassian may return to Ferrix to say goodbye to his mother.
Setting up Maarva’s death and upcoming funeral as the event that will draw out all of these plots into one massive collision is tidy and clever. It threads the narrative needle. It also has the potential for high drama as all this chaos breaks loose in the middle of a somber funeral. Just as the intercutting between The Eye and the Aldhani heist heightened the tension, I’m imagining that we could get the same technique on Ferrix.
The emotional stakes for each character’s development, which the series has been slowly building brick by Ferrix brick all season, will elevate this final showdown. Why they need to go to Ferrix isn’t the only thing that matters — it’s also what they will have to confront about themselves and their relationships with each other when they do. Dedra needs to prove herself; if her pushing for more resources and access doesn’t pay off, she’s in trouble. And we’ve seen her struggle to rise in the ranks, hampered by gender bias. We know how badly she wants to get this done. Privy to their previous conversations, we know that Vel and Cinta’s relationship hangs in the balance; Vel wants them to spend more time together, to emotionally commit to each other more, but Cinta says that they can only have whatever’s left after the cause takes its toll. Everyone on Luthen’s team has to wrestle with a moral decision — what will they do if they actually catch Cassian? Can they assassinate him in cold blood (especially when he did not betray Vel after the heist)? Will they try to recruit him again? Will they fight about what to do?
Image Credit: The Ringer
Meanwhile, Syril and Dedra’s past interactions will almost certainly color any encounter between them on Ferrix. How will they react to one another when their paths cross? I predict that Syril will get in Dedra’s way and inadvertently undermine what she’s trying to do. She’ll get dangerously close to winning, and just as she’s about to catch Andor or break this Rebel case wide open, Syril will show up and try to “help.” I’ve been saying all along that the entire story is going to hinge on him somehow — why else would he still have so much screen time? — and I think it would be fitting for his character to completely undo all the work the ISB has done when all he’s wanted to do is impress and join them. The Empire would get their just deserts for making one of their own — one of their most zealous believers — feel disenfranchised because everyone to them is just a cog in the machine.
My first thought would be that Cassian would be headed straight to Ferrix too, unwittingly walking into this wasp’s nest of conflict. I pictured him trying to say goodbye to Maarva from the shadows. But when I joined Greg @rebelbasecard and Bryan @servingpinkmilk from the Pink Milk podcast on the Rebel Base Card Podcast this week, I was surprised (and compelled) by Bryan’s idea that Cassian might not actually go back to Ferrix in the finale. That would be unexpected and fresh in a way that fits the track record of this series. And I agree that it would be delightful to see everyone else running around trying to find him and in the process fighting each other when he’s not even there.
Image Credit: Collider
But then I think about how much B2EMO needs him! Maarva’s death was devastating, even if a doctor visiting her in a previous episode foreshadowed it. And that’s because we experience her loss through B2’s eyes. I’ve never felt so sad for a droid before, which is saying a lot because I often become attached to droid characters in Star Wars stories. We see him shaking, bereft, confused, maybe even in denial, since Brasso has to remind him that she’s “in the stone” and “on her way.” The way the other Daughters of Ferrix try to keep him busy so he’s not just sitting idly with his grief really made me feel like he was a person. (Though Bryan astutely pointed out in our conversation that someone still put a coffee cup on his head! Rude.) Brasso’s acquiescing, agreeing stay with him “just one night” was incredibly touching. (And we all know how that turned out when Rey said the same thing to BB8 in The Force Awakens…)
Image Credit: The Ringer (what a great website)
This compounds the tragedy of Maarva’s death when Cassian finds out at the end of the episode. Dramatic irony adds an extra gut punch here. Having just seen B experience Maarva’s death with her, in their home, I can feel the agony of Cassian not being there — not knowing Maarva has died — that much more. I was devastated to hear him say, “Tell Maarva I’m okay. Tell her I’m thinking about her. She’d be proud of me,” but he’s too late. She’ll never know how he has become (and will continue to become) more and more like her. Less a wayward free agent and more of a rebel. Even if Cassian never physically goes back to Ferrix next week, his heart is there at the end of this episode.
Would Maarva be proud of Luthen, though? Where Luthen sits on the spectrum of villain, anti-hero, and hero has been puzzling me since Episode 10. He’s on the right side, as he seems to be leading the proto-Rebel Alliance, and yet his willingness to sacrifice his own humanity and make the cold-hearted decisions that can help them win make me not want to support him. As a viewer, I’m very uncomfortable contemplating whether the ends justify the means (and perhaps that’s the point). I was so enthralled by Luthen’s monologue last week that I was willing to say that the series points to him for its thesis. Yet so many podcasters responding to the Episode 10 scene observed that his cape lightly flapping in the breeze evoked Star Wars’ most iconic villain — Darth Vader. This week, Luthen’s escape from a Cantwell Class Arrestor Cruiser was the coolest I’ve seen in a long time, and definitely presents him as more of a classic Star Wars hero (we’ve seen the Millennium Falcon get out of similar scrapes over the years). I’m being pulled in two different directions and don’t know what to do. Send help.
Image Credit: Den of Geek
I polled my Substack app subscriber chat about this and got some great responses. Maggie made me feel better because she laid out why this is a tricky question: Saw and Luthen side by side make for a confusing comparison, especially after this week’s episode. Saw could be an anti-hero who then becomes more villainous as a result of Luthen’s influence. He seems at first shocked that Luthen would sacrifice Kreegyr and 30 men. But then they click into alignment when Saw says “Let’s call it war.” Were they both already extremists? Was saw this ruthless all along but underestimated Luthen?
Upon taking another look at the Luthen/Saw scene, I picked up on two things: the risk that Luthen was taking, and, more importantly, how much he is actually manipulating Saw. Just as he seems to be three steps ahead of the Empire in preparing his haulcraft for a miraculous escape, he knows how to get Saw in a place mentally and emotionally such that he will be more receptive to his proposal. The dance of trust and suspicion is intricate and on a razor’s edge the entire time. He first makes himself vulnerable by saying that Saw could absolutely go warn Kreegyr if he wanted. This earns him some amount of trust. Then makes Saw extremely paranoid, wondering if he has spies everywhere. In response, Luthen doubles down by saying that Two-Tubes (Two-Tubes!) is his man on the inside, to throw enough chaos into the situation to pull a blaster on Saw. Finally, in a spectacular finishing move, he uses Saw’s own paranoia as evidence to support his argument for sacrificing Kreegyr. If the Empire gets Kreegyr, they won’t become suspicious and will think themselves invincible (there’s that “fat and satisfied” hubris vulnerability again - it will get the Empire every time). If they do wave Kreegyr off, the Empire will know something’s up and will come after them harder. Power moves left and right! It was a sight to see. But did it make me like Luthen more? I like smart, cunning characters, so I think, if I’m honest with myself, the answer is yes.
Before we move on with the Luthen inquiry, I just want to admit that I got Anto Kreegyr completely wrong. In a previous review, I said that the amount of times his name get mentioned means that he must be important and he must be a recognizable actor. The unceremonious hologram of him here bursts that balloon pretty definitively. In fact, I think that Kreegyr may be more of a MacGuffin — a plot device to bring Saw and Luthen together while also providing a convenient solution to their identifying Axis problem. If the ISB thinks that Kreegyr is Axis and then they kill Kreegyr during the Spellhaus Power Station raid, Partagas might say case closed. Dedra’s whole operation may get shut down because they think they’ve got their man. She’ll know better, but no one will care. Luthen will be able to sneak back into the shadows and keep pulling the strings in Season 2 without much worry.
Image Credit: Polygon
, author of made a great case in our chat for Luthen as a classic anti-hero because “He does heroic things, but he’s willing to do some very unheroic things to achieve them — lie, kill let people die.” Matthew also reminded all of us that Luthen has said that he wants Cassian dead because he can identify him. That made me realize that Luthen applies a similar logic to Anto Kreegyr, but with the opposite conclusion. Since Anto Kreegyr doesn’t know him, he’s less of a danger in the Empire’s hands. Saw, on the other hand, could ID him, like Cassian. So he’s chosen to let Saw in on the plan in the hopes of allying with him and protecting his own cover. Does this mean that Luthen might make the same kind of offer to Cassian? My colleague P.T. McNiff agreed with Matthew’s anti-hero classification, but added that they aren’t “standard Golden Age anti-hero TV characters (such as Tony Soprano, Don Draper, or Walter White), who are guys with bad goals we root for because we like them personally.” This, to me, illuminated why I might be so confused about Luthen. He doesn’t fit the profile that prestige TV has trained me to think of as an anti-hero, and therefore offers a fresh take on the archetype. Again, this series zags in all the right ways. So perhaps my predicting how it will end is a fool’s errand.Image Credit: The Daily Dot
I can’t help but play the fool, though! Speculating is far too much fun. However we may feel about him and his strategies, Luthen could also very well set a course for Ferrix next week. In his coded conversation with Kleya, it seems as though he’s asking about Andor. Kleya says that “The negotiations are ongoing and our representatives are involved,” which to me meant that Vel and Cinta would be on Ferrix to try to pursue Cassian. When he presses her further, she tries to discourage him from going to Ferrix himself, saying “There’s other buyers involved; your presence would complicate the bidding at this point.” This sparks an argument between them that indicates that Luthen thinks Cassian Andor is important enough to go after him himself.
Luthen entering the fray on Ferrix would bookend the season beautifully. I am never one to complain about narrative symmetry; it implies forethought, planning, and a writer’s ability to keep the entire season’s story and all its intricate parts in their head. We started all this with an arc that ended with Luthen trying to recruit Andor: “Don’t you want to fight these bastards for real?” he asks. Seeing him ask that same question again, after all Cassian has been through this season, would be thrilling, showing us just how much his character has evolved. I would wait with bated breath for the answer.