It’s Getting a Little Worse for Everybody – ‘Star Wars: Andor’ Episode 8 Easter Eggs
Cassian may be in Imperial supermax, but at least we get a long-awaited character cameo in episode 8 of Andor.
The plot is progressing right along with episode 8 of Andor, and it’s getting worse and worse for everybody. Well, it’s getting worse for the rebel characters, the Imperials are making some pretty decent strides in the whole enforcing fascism thing. Managing to be a bummer of an episode while remaining engaging and entertaining, episode 8 has a few key nods to places around the galaxy that we may want to keep an eye on.
Andy Serkis
This week Cassian goes to a galactic super-max labor prison to serve out his sentence for… let me check my notes… visiting the space Jersey Shore. As he’s eager to tell anybody, he was just a tourist in the wrong spot at the wrong time, but he quickly gives up once he’s actually on Narkina 5. The floating fortress houses thousands of other prisoners competing to build as many ship parts as possible with the highest ranking table earning the privilege to eat food with flavor and the lowest being electrocuted. It’s a pretty bleak situation.
Here we meet Kino Loy, another prisoner with fewer than three hundred days left on his sentence who acts as the manager of Cassian’s work unit. If Kino looks or sounds familiar, it’s because that’s Any Serkis and you’ve seen him in a ton of other movies and shows from Lord of the Rings (Gollum) to Planet of the Apes (Caesar) to Avengers: Age of Ultron (Ulysses Klaue). But Star Wars fans may remember that he played Supreme Leader Snoke in the sequel trilogy. There’s already speculation of a Kino-becomes-Snoke deep conspiracy dive. But I’m pretty sure Serkis might just be a good actor who’s perfect for playing characters you have to dislike at least a little.
Tunqstoid Steel
On its own, the line about the floors being made of Tunqstoid steel sounded like good sci-ish-fi. Most of the metals in Star Wars are made, and this particular metal comes from the Expanded Universe in Troy Denning’s novel Fate of the Jedi: Abyss. We only know a few things about Tunqstoid steel, but it seems like it might be the perfect thing to build your torture-slash-work prison out of. We know that it’s a very tough metal that blast doors are sometimes made from and could be said to deter even Jedi. And thanks to this episode we also know that Tunqstoid steel is a powerful conductor. They’ve already laid out how they utilize the conductive aspects of the in episode 8, so perhaps we’ll get a look at the metal’s toughness in a future jailbreak episode.
Saw Gerrera
Andor has been so good about keeping the Easter Eggs subtle, the cameos to a minimum, and both of the meaningful, that it was exciting to finally get our second big character appearance – the first being Mon Mothma. Saw Gerrera was back this week when Luthen tried to do some business with the fellow rebel leader. Luthen is willing to give Saw the key to stolen imperial technology in exchange for meeting with Anto Kreegyr. Saw knows of Kreegyr, doesn’t like him, and refuses, flat out. So far we don’t know anything at all about Kreegyr, but we expect to know more about this character by the end of the series.
Saw, however, is a big name in Star Wars history. Getting involved with anti-separatist and anti-imperial movements at a young age, he’s been a rebel since well before the rebellion officially formed. And he doesn’t have a lot of interest in playing ball with them when his own guerilla tactics are getting the job done. Saw also made an appearance in Rogue One and was one of the primary parent figures in Jyn Erso‘s life.
What Easter Eggs and details did you notice in episode 8 of Andor? How do you think Cassian will get out of Imperial prison? where do you think the series will go from here? Let us know in the comments!
May The Force Be With You, Adventurers!
