Andor’s second mini-movie reaches its climax with “The Eye,” and in the process it fulfills a promise Disney has been making about Star Wars for most of the time it has owned it: We get to see a sleek, tense, detailed heist-robbery sequence set in a galaxy far, far away. Rogue One had flashes of it, The Last Jedi did about five minutes of a break-in mission that the heroes couldn’t quite pull off, and Solo had an okay space-train robbery (frankly, that’s the set piece this episode most resembles in terms of logistics), but they all descended into shoot-outs pretty quickly. “The Eye,” by contrast, is full of comms blocking, tense orders, hauling goods, and that classic Star Wars action-figure standby, our heroes dressed as Imperials. Of course, it’s no real spoiler to say the mission does eventually result in Imperial-versus-Rebel shoot-out mayhem. But one advantage I’ll grudgingly grant to doing Star Wars on TV is that there’s room to spend upwards of 20 minutes on the good stuff: Rebels taking down scores.
Before the action kicks in, there’s a de facto recap of the previous episode’s waiting-game tension as Karis and Cassian have a pre-action chat. Naturally, Karis has dealt with his nerves by scribbling further in his manifesto. Meanwhile, we catch some prelude material from the Imperials, who are sipping their intergalactic coffee (or “caf”) as they prepare for the arrival of the Dhanis, a native tribe described in the most condescending terms possible: “They’re a simple people. They breed a sad combination of traits that make them particularly vulnerable to manipulation.” The Dhanis are taking their once-every-three-years pilgrimage to witness The Eye, a sort of natural space laser show (and the perfect cover for the Rebels’ potential escape); the Imperials have been slowly grinding their cohabitants down for the past 12 years, renewing the forced Empire “lease” on their land, in preparation for their eventual enslavement.
Commandant Beehaz (Stanley Townsend), so smugly in control as he outlines the grim future of the natives, is less commanding behind the scenes, where he’s provided with the requisite miserable wife and child (apparently all Imperial families are unhappy in their own way). Soon they’re ensnared in the Rebels’ plan, as Gorn waves in the fake Imperial “squad 3” of Cassian, Karis, Arvel, and Taramyn to escort Beehaz and his family. They infiltrate the garrison, turn on the Beehaz clan, and meet up with Vel and Cinta, who have done some real Ethan Hunt shit on their way in and out of the comms-jamming portion of the mission. The Rebels aren’t going to ruthlessly kill their way out of this situation, but they’re clear about the stakes: “We win, or everyone dies.”
It’s not always that simple, though, is it? The hook of a big mission like this on a show such as Andor that, like Rogue One, obviously wants to show the ground-level human costs to these engagements is partially that it is a game of Who’s Gonna Die, dovetailed with the usual heist hook of What’s Gonna Go Wrong? Here, it’s not some colossal screw-up on the Rebels’ end or some great last-minute innovation by the Empire; just enough small things break the wrong way to get to that usual shoot-out and nick-of-time escape. The Rebels don’t get every single pallet of Imperial credits, but they get almost all of it, and only Cinta is really left behind, seemingly by design. But Gorn gets killed, and in the rough takeoff a pallet of Imperial money slams into Karis, injuring him grievously. Briefly, it looks like the show might indulge the moral dilemma of whether to risk the success of the mission on getting Karis to a doctor, but the Rebels quickly decide in favor of the pit stop to see the Maz Kanata–looking (though more humanoid) multi-armed Dr. Quadpaw (a beautifully Lucasian-via-Kenner only-in-the-ancillaries name).
While the good doctor attempts to save Karis, Arvel privately makes Cassian a surprising proposal: Split the 80 million in credits they just stole and abandon the others. It feels a little too neat that he’s espousing almost the exact feelings Cassian had at the beginning of the series: Sure, screw the Empire, but get paid and also mostly screw everyone else. Less neat, however, is Cassian’s murderous reaction — he shoots Arvel dead with no hesitation — and the way this exchange seems to activate his cut-and-run instinct. He’ll take only his promised share of the payroll money, but he’s not sticking around to escort it all the way.
In the meantime, Karis has died on the operating table, which is convenient for both Cassian’s plan (he doesn’t have to reckon with abandoning the most idealistic and sweet-natured of the group; at this point, he’s only really ditching Vel and Taramyn) and for the show plotting his eventual return to the Rebellion, as Vel insists Karis’s dying wish was for Cassian to take custody of his manifesto. It’s easy enough to picture Karis wanting this; it’s also easy to picture Vel coming up with it as a guilt tactic, though on the other hand, she’s never really appeared to like ol’ Cass enough to want to guilt him into staying. Reluctantly, Cassian takes the manifesto and leaves with his 30,000 credits. (Just don’t try to spend them at Watto’s junk shop, buddy! He needs something more real.)
After around 40 minutes of tight focus on the mission, the episode finally cuts away for some brief check-ins to reactions on Coruscant: an emergency meeting of the Empire’s security council, Mon Mothma’s pleas for a more measured response dying in the vast senate, and, finally, Rael’s shop, where a joke from a customer accidentally lets him know the mission on Aldhani was a success. Rael excuses himself for a moment to enjoy the only real mirth anyone feels in this entire episode. If ending on Rael for a second episode in a row feels a little like the show is repeating itself halfway through its run, well, the next mini-arc is ready to go. You did it, guys: You heisted Star Wars.
Rebel Yells
• A handful of background revelations that are interesting, but feel a little pat this late in the game: Turns out Taramyn is a former stormtrooper, and Arvel’s tragic Rebellion-fomenting backstory was a lie. It’s Gorn, though, who delivers the best summation of his own checkered past. When told by Beehaz that he’ll hang for his betrayal of the Empire, he rejoins to the commandant: “Seven years serving you … I deserve worse than that.”
• “It’s all … compressed,” Beehaz complains about his fancy-dress belt. “Perhaps you’ve expanded?” his wife suggests. As much as I wish Obi-Wan Kenobi had been afforded the production budget Andor obviously received, I even more fervently wish it had been afforded dialogue closer to this show’s level; it would fit Ewan McGregor’s clipped authority perfectly.
• Speaking of Commandant Beehaz: He seemingly dies of (or is at least severely weakened by) a heart attack, a nicely mean grace note for the “fat and satisfied” Empire; one of their leaders is brought to the brink of death through ten or 15 minutes’ worth of physical labor.
• Nice work from director Susanna White: There’s a lovely, distant shot of Vel and Cinta swimming the comms-jamming equipment to its post, and even more beautiful images when The Eye display adds some emerald-blue lighting and rainbow sky-streaks into the proceedings. I’m thankful that this show hasn’t embraced its gritty aesthetics to the point of colorlessness.
• So far, Andor has operated in mini-trilogies. The first three episodes had the same credited writer and director (Toby Haynes and Tony Gilroy), comprising an extended pilot, while these past three have also had a single writer/director combo (White and Dan Gilroy), following Cassian’s first Rebel mission. The next six are not organized quite the same way: Episodes eight through 11 have one writer-director combo, suggesting they might function as a single story, but the next episode has a one-off writing credit for Stephen Schiff and another directorial credit for Haynes (who also returns for the final two, Tony Gilroy–penned installments). Next week, will Andor do the unthinkable-for-Disney+, and include … a stand-alone episode?! Couldn’t be, right?
