#Andor - Episode 9 - Episode Discussion

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wanton vault
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Season 1, Episode 9: Nobody's Listening!
Aired: November 2, 2022

Synopsis: Under intense scrutiny while imprisoned, Cassian makes allies plan an impossible escape.

Directed by: Toby Hanes
Written by: Beau Willimon

What did you think!?

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next chasm
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Well, I guess now we know what Cinta meant when she called Vel a "rich girl running from her family."

fading crane
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I mean, we should have put that together, since the Mothmas are the only rich family we had in the show so far.

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Not that I did, but in retrospect it feels nicely economical.

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Cyril going full stalker fits him perfectly, too. The show's great about surprising you with things you should have seen coming.

marble shore
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The best kind of twists.

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I mean, she could just have come from a random rich family. The show's been good so far about avoiding the "People infiltrating the death star: Vader's son, Vader's teacher, Vader's droids and the guy who once saved Vader's padawan, coming to spring Vader's daughter" thing.
(Which was obviously not a thing during ANH, but has been twisted into it in the decades afterwards.)

marble shore
next chasm
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Yeeaaaah, that was definitely uncomfortable. Freud would have a field day on Syril's fixation of "strong women in an authority position."

marble shore
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oh wow, I didn't even make that connection. Oof.

fading crane
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Was he with the group that harassed Cassian's mom in episode 3?

next chasm
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Pretty sure he was. He wasn't tossing drawers, but said "You can make this stop at any time" or words to that effect.

fading crane
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Odds on him killing his mom?

next chasm
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And keeping her in the attic and putting on a wig and pretending to be her at times?

fading crane
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Yeah something like that

next chasm
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Before this episode, I'd say exceedingly remote.

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Now? I'm not too sure...

fading crane
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Also, was Deirdre not siccing security on Cyril a sign that women can't count on being backed up in those situations, like in the real world?

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As in, being dismissed as hysterical or misunderstanding things

next chasm
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Eh, as much as this show has been on point with its social commentary, I didn't read it like that.

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I think she legitimately pities him.

marble shore
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I think she could easily have him locked into a dark hole and throw away the hole, to quote my other favorite villain spook, but it's possible she might earn a reputation in the workplace for it.

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But yeah, this feels more like "not worth the hassle" and less like "I'd get in trouble for reporting him"

fading crane
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Him grabbing her arm was a real oh shit moment

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On another note, the sound design was on point again

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The transition between torture screams and the sound of slave labor, to connect them as being on some level the same, was beautifully done

short night
marble shore
short night
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i don't think i caught that bit of lore

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ah yeah that would make sense tho

fading crane
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There were some wookies who saved her when she was hunted by trandoshans for sport

stark creek
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Chewie also knows Yoda, and he was a wookiee general during the Clone Wars. 🤣

fading crane
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Is that like a surgeon general?

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Everyone vicariously pinning their hopes of eventual release on the old guy and being accommodating of him instead of lashing out was a nice bit of mature writing. Would have been so easy to have Andor or someone from his team be awful to the guy, instead they were all doing their best to help him see his release date.

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Which makes it all the more crushing when he's euthanized by the doctor, who is in no position to actually help anyone.

stark creek
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Also the dreadful realization that being "released" means getting sent to another part of the facility to work..

short night
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i had a suspicion that nobody was actually leaving that prison. the whole setup to those final lines between Cassian and Kino was perfect

fading crane
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The show continues to deliver these extremely strong moments of determination for its characters that hit much harder than some FX extravaganza

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Cassian's work buddy walking away from the shuttle after sabotaging it in ep3, now this. Such powerful moments created mainly through tight writing, great acting, and flawless cinematography.

marble shore
fading crane
low schooner
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this show

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is amazing

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it does suspense so freaking well

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i keep forgetting this is even star wars, it feels too good to be connected to the current universe XD

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i think this show deserves more attention than its getting

rich frost
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This show keeps going from strength to strength.
Star wars for grown ups 🤔

short night
tight rune
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There's definitely some lining up at the very least.

fading crane
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for me, this episode is taking the entire show from great B series to brilliant A list.

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We're nearing 'Shawshank's redemption' territory, here.

tight rune
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I didn't expect the prison plot to go on this long, but it has been great, especially this episode.

marble shore
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Waiting for ep 9 thread but it seems pretty clear that all those OMG Andor is broken calls seem to have been wide of the mark given how deep he already is in plans to escape
@lavish totem Both can be true - I think the "he's broken" comments were mostly about his first day in there, but by now at least a month has passed.

lavish totem
# fading crane As in, being dismissed as hysterical or misunderstanding things

I suggest it's less a gender thing than a need to be seen as always in control thing as part of the cut throat internal politicking of the ISB. If someone has a stalker trying to assert control over them, regardless of tbe genders of the individuals involved, then they're not doing their job properly as a master manipulator. Now, if she was deliberately trying to get someone fixated on her as part of some nefarious plan...

marble shore
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That said, the scene did seem to rattle her - notice how it ends once her side leaves the room.

lavish totem
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She seemed almost rattled by the competency of her offsider

next chasm
dim blaze
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.
"How many guards on each level..."
"Never more than twelve."

Me cheering so loud my neighbors thought I was hurt.

lavish totem
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Yeah. Shit just got real, Holmes.

fading crane
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you know, if the ISB secretly broke Cassian out of prison, they would look less silly later on when it turns out their vast manhunt was over a guy already incarcerated for life

fading crane
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it would be far less interesting if he was some superhuman who can just shrug off all the horrors inflicted on him and keep going unaffected

fading crane
wanton vault
marble shore
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I believe that is what people call "cursed"?

fading crane
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I think "Mother" would have been even worse

short elm
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New info on Bix's interrogation

lavish totem
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should have kept the scream

next shadow
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ive just realised who syril reminds me of

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the t-1000 from terminator 2

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when he's trying to blend in as a normal human

cedar island
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LMAOOO so THAT'S the point of Syril

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show the incel ideology and fascism

wanton vault
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Neat little segment from an interview

drowsy topaz
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I just want to mention here that I truly LOVE how Cassian is getting to Kino and getting him to see the truth that they can get out, but he needs his help

cedar island
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yo what faction of anti-imperial rebel are you tag yourself

dim blaze
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My biggest critique of Andor, and this is true for most modern Star Wars, is that the aliens are very absent from central storylines and main characters.
They're there... but decorative and often treated as monstrosities or aberrations, not as just ordinary run-of-the-mill entities you run into during your daily routines. We get the one interaction between Andor and the thugs trying to shake him down, but even then, the alien character is little more than a 'guard dog', and with a figurative "scratch behind the ear", he basically backs off...

We get more aliens during the senate chamber / Mon Mothma party scenes than anywhere else - which is ironic, since yes the Senate is the core focus of all the planets, but the Empire is traditionally 'anti-non-human' in its tendencies.
This might not be new-lore or consistent with Prequel lore... considering Palpatine worked with zabraks like Maul and the various alien advisors and councilors in the Senate who were on some level is aides... and General Grievous.

For anyone who'll bring up the 'aliens cost more money' arguement, I get it, obviously. But shows like Discovery have done pretty well with alien main characters that look remarkably high-quality (not advocating the show... just the makeup).
And I feel like 1 Twi-lek or Rodian or Bith as a central character (like Chewbacca) would be an instant fan-favourite.
What I wouldn't give for an on-screen Bothan!! hahaha

Anyways, I love Andor, but this is one of my gripes.

fading crane
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Aside from maaaaaybe Yoda, aliens aren't main cast in the movies, though. They're extras, with a few supporting cast like Chewbacca or Ackbar thrown in.

On screen, SW has always been largely human.

lavish totem
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The anti-non-human nature of the empire seems to have started as a lampshade of the lack of alien main characters, then everyone rolled with it as convenient shorthand for fascism/nazism

stark creek
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As far as the original 6 movies go. We ended up seeing more aliens as the movies went on that weren't just relegated to 5 second shots in the cantina.

The Prequels had a good few aliens as side characters and tertiary characters with some speaking roles (Jar Jar and the Gungans, Dexter Jettster, the Kaminoans, Separatist leaders, etc.)

lavish totem
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Given the 2nd arc is infiltrating an imperial depot, the lack of non-humans makes sense. Given the prison's segregation by homeworld schtick, one guesses aliens potentially have an even worse prison they're shipped to as gross slave labour

stark creek
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It did make the Star Wars galaxy seem very multi-cultural/ species in a natural way, like, yeah, it's normal to talk to a man-sized bug person and have a big four-armed chef making your favorite pancakes.

lavish totem
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Mando and BoBF have been pretty decent with non-human speaking roles

stark creek
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Yeah, Mando and BoBF have been very good with aliens, probably because Filoni and Favreau like playing in the "toybox" of Star Wars as they like to put it.

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The lack of aliens on Ferrix is surprising, since it's supposed to be within a trade sector and it's a junker/ scrap world.

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We get a good few aliens in Mon's parties as was noted. But in a lot of the crowd shots on Coruscant that aren't in Imperial places, it's still mostly human-centric.

lavish totem
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I suspect that Corruscant is probably heavily ghettoised/balkanised and gentrified

fading crane
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Coruscant and a segregated prison make sense to be human-dominated during this period

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there's not even human women in that prison; obviously the Imperials segregate prisoners

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all of those are of course not the real reasons why there's not a lot of aliens on screen, but it's nice that the world is consistent that way

lavish totem
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Well you don't want accidental pregnancies disrupting your labour efficienxy

fading crane
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just mix contraceptives into the food

lavish totem
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Not that there seems to be much chance of finding anywhere to start one

fading crane
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there is always a reason we can make up why something does/doesn't, would/wouldn't make sense

fading crane
lavish totem
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Oh you mean the security force being exclusively male as well as the inmates?

fading crane
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all of them are, if I haven't missed anything

and yeah, if the writers had wanted a gender-mixed prison, they could have come up with reasons why pregnancy isn't a thing

lavish totem
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I vaguely recall one of the trio that greeted the new arrivals was female. Let's see... nope, just a pretty boy.

There are 5 prison "towers" in the establishing shot. Quite likely they have women and aliens there.

limpid umbra
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Man, I loved the facial expressions on Dedra during the interrogation. Made me cringe!

What a great actor!

cedar island
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almost all of the acting is superb

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the guy playing the ship dude with the dogs at the start was the only performance I thought wasn't good

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I'm in LOVE with the guy playing Saw

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incredible stuff

stark creek
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Forrest Whittaker is great as Saw.

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It's been fun seeing Saw's evolution from a young freedom fighter during the Clone Wars to an extremist during the early Rebellion.

cedar island
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He was always a radical

next shadow
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DECEPTIONS

unique void
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We finally watched 9. Agree with a lot said above. The wearing down of Kino, watching Cassian’s team try to help Ulaf were great. Andy Serkis is doing great work as Kino. Just watching his face as the ep goes on, especially with the doctor and finally asking “What happened on two”.. could just see the shift to anger that ends with the “Never more than 12”

lavish totem
limpid umbra
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Yeah, we might be getting an explanation to the fan question, "Why does he have more cybers and a breather in Rogue One?"

fallen isle
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If the prison break ends the same way as the last two arcs, it would explain why Andor initially only operates with a droid in R1.

next chasm
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Well, and Melshi.

fallen isle
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Melshi seemed like he was just a contact.

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"Oh no, I'm going to get caught." "Ok" blam

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Normal Tuesday for Cassian.

toxic sapphire
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He shows up in Rogue One too

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He helps break Jyn out of Wobani and he gets shot on Scarif trying to drag a wounded rebel away from Death Troopers

carmine hawk
marble shore
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@low schooner Reminder: This is the Episode 9 spoiler thread, episode 10 is overe there:
#1039917913999671337

low schooner
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oh

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sorry i thought todays was 9

marble shore
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something big happened, so it's tempting to assume it's a multiple of 3, but nope.