‘Andor’ Episode 1-3 is ‘Star Wars’ at its Best
From new planets to old planets to lost Jedi, there was a lot to see in the three-part premiere episodes of Andor.
The massive three-part premiere of Andor hit Disney+ yesterday and the future Rebel spy’s story is off to a promising start! We’ve been promised a show largely without fan service. And true to his word, Tony Gilroy’s has given us a show that looks like it will be its own insulated story with its own characters. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t Andor doesn’t have any fun details or Easter eggs.
Wobani
“Congratulations. You are being rescued. Please do not resist.”
In the first episode new character, Timm, asks, “Are we bidding on the Wobani run tomorrow?” It’s a throw-away line meant to interrupt a tense conversation and then be immediately forgotten. But Wobani may sound familiar to some fans. Wobani housed an Imperial detention center slash labor camp. The same detention center where Cassian and K-2S0 met Jyn Erso for the first time.
Fest
We learn throughout the course of these episodes that Cassian’s true home planet is Kenari. We don’t know a whole lot about this planet yet, but the community that Cassian (or Kassa, as he was originally called) belonged to was indigenous and seemingly comprised entirely of children and very young adults. Apparently, there was some sort of mining disaster on Kenari and the planet was considered toxic and abandoned by the Separatist/Republic mining group. But we will get back to this in a moment.
But Kenari isn’t what’s written on any of Cassian’s paperwork. Officially, he’s from a place called Fest. This planet has shown up a few times, both in canon and legends timelines. Currently, it houses a major Rebel base while in legends it held an Imperial base. This a fitting place for Cassian to lie about being from considering his upcoming affiliation with the Rebel Alliance.
Plo Koon’s Mask
Luthen Rael’s office in #Andor features what looks like Plo Koon’s mask pic.twitter.com/RB8wYdbQmm
Advertisement— Star Wars Holocron (@sw_holocron) September 20, 2022
In these episodes, we meet Luthen Rael, a mysterious buyer for Cassian’s ill-gotten goods, Cassian’s recruiter into the Rebellion, and apparently a collector of sort of bummer artifacts. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, we can see what looks like Plo Koon’s mask in Luthen’s office. The fan-favorite and criminally underutilized Jedi introduced a young Ahsoka Tano to the Jedi Council back in the animated The Clone Wars. We’re pretty sure we saw this character die on screen in Revenge of the Sith, and if somebody is casually holding onto the mask he needs to breathe, he may just be gone for good.
Fighting Since He Was Six
In Rogue One Cassian told Jyn that he had been “in this fight” since he was six years old. And now that we’ve seen a young Cassian/Kassa, it’s clear that he really has been fighting his whole life. But who? We see his tribe of kids on Kenari take on an attacking adult, but it’s unclear who they are. Maarva refers to them as Republic officers while the uniforms and insignias look more Separatist to me. So who ran that mining operation? How was it destroyed? And who was the original enemy Kassa was in the fight against?
Caf
In case you’re wondering, the sign says, “CAF!” Which is exactly how I would name my coffee stand, too.
Believe it or not, episode two was the first on-screen use of the word “caf.” Which of course is coffee in Star Wars speak. Y’know, because coffee has so much CAFfeine. The word has been around since 1996 and was used in the current canon in Jon Jackson Miller’s 2014 novel, A New Dawn. But this is the first time we see somebody drink coffee caf on screen and refer to it by name. which is wild to me. You’d think that people with the sleep schedules of any Rebel or Imperial officer alike would be guzzling the stuff 24/7. Or maybe they talk about their hot brown morning potion less than us Earthlings.
What did you think of the first three episodes of Andor? Which newly introduced character is your favorite so far? Where do you think the show will go from here? Let us know in the comments!
May The Force Be With You, Adventurers!
