With Star Wars: Andor’s prison arc having come to a climactic ending last week, I was extremely curious to find out what might happen next on the live-action Disney+ series from Lucasfilm. And a big part of me was expecting a time jump, but instead today’s new episode, entitled “Daughter of Ferrix,” picks up right where “One Way Out” left off: with Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna) and Melshi (Duncan Pow) evading their captors on Narkina 5.
They dodge an Imperial TIE striker by hanging perilously off the edge of a cliff, then find two terrifically bizarre-looking alien scavengers and convince them (after first being caught in their slimy net) to take them off-world in their quadjumper– fans will remember that particular model of ship getting blown up at Unkar Plutt’s Jakku junkyard in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Meanwhile on Ferrix, the droid B2-EMO (voiced by Dave Chapman) is showing some real emotion as Cassian’s adoptive mother Maarva has apparently passed away. At first I thought this was a fake-out to get Maarva out of the city while it’s under the Empire’s watch, but the way characters behave through the rest of the episode leads me to believe it actually happened. Maarva’s death leads everyone to believe that Cassian might return home for the funeral, up to and including Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), who gets a video call from his old brother-in-arms Linus Mosk (Alex Ferns) informing him of the news. Syril takes some credits from his mother’s safe and heads off planet, and then we check in on Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), who expresses concern about her daughter Leida (Bronte Carmichael) to her rebel cousin Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay). It seems Leida is hewing a little too closely to outdated Chandrilan tradition for Mon’s liking, and Mothma fears she will have to follow through on crime-boss banker Davo Sculdun’s offer from the previous episode in order to conceal her business dealings with the Rebellion. Next we follow Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) back to the planet Segra Milo for another clandestine meeting with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), where Saw surprisingly says he’s changed his mind and is willing to join Anto Kreegyr’s mission.
Luthen warns Gerrera about the danger to Kreegyr’s assignment due to the ISB’s knowledge, and the two have a passionate conversation about the future of the Rebel Alliance. Leaving the planet, Rael’s ship is intercepted by an Imperial cruiser doing routine checks for partisan activity, and Luthen must enact a daring escape plan before the Empire uses a tractor beam to bring him in and board the vessel. Having returned to the resort planet Niamos to reclaim his earnings from the Aldhani caper, Cassian calls Ferrix and learns of Maarva’s death before he and Melshi part ways, vowing to spread the word around the galaxy about what happened in the factory facility. This is a thrilling, fast-paced episode, with a great variety of locations, that looks to be putting all the pieces in place as Andor prepares for its highly anticipated first-season finale, coming next week. Luthen’s getaway from the Imperial cruiser and its TIE fighters was a breathtaking, edge-of-your-seat action setpiece, but even the talkier scenes felt brisker and more driven than in episodes past. It certainly seems as though many of these characters’ paths will be converging on Ferrix for Maarva’s funeral, and I can’t wait to see how the many threads set up by showrunner Tony Gilroy and his talented creative team during this season ultimately pay off. Obviously we already know Andor is getting a season two, but I have to wonder whether this first batch of episodes will come to a satisfying conclusion in its own right. It has definitely been an interesting ride so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing just how the finale plays out.
The season finale of Star Wars: Andor will be released next Wednesday, exclusively via Disney+.