I wonder if the prisoners were even told, or if their numbers just quietly jumped overnight.
Yes, they were doubled, but they didn’t say if it was remaining sentence or original sentence.
They knew it was due to the Public Order Resentencing Directive, and they were desperate from news from the outside from Cassian, who hadn’t even heard about the PORD. So one of the guards at least told them something about why their numbers all doubled. Makes sense - you’d have confusion & maybe even riots if they had no idea what happened, tell them “Shut up, new directive from the Emperor, back to work” and they know it’s not a mistake and there’s nothing they can do about it.
From a transcript of the episode:
MELSHI: Ask him already. They doubled everyone’s number last month. P-O-R-D. - People must be talkin’ about it. - About what? TAGA: The Public Order Resentencing Directive. JEMBOC: It’s been a tough month here waiting for news. Can’t help but wonder what people are saying. (BREATHES DEEPLY) He’s never heard of it. - He never heard of it. - Told you. The Public Order Decree. The resentencings.
Dang it. I clearly looked away at the wrong moment.
The dialogue is very good at talking in a circle about things without being too expository. As a viewer you have to do some work to figure out what’s going on. I find it a bit of a struggle to follow a lot of it, to be honest, and am surprised when I watch a reaction video that can parse things much more cannily than I can, when they zero in on details I missed.
Though I am enjoying this series for all the same reasons everyone else is, the tense drama and the more adult nature of the tone, I do prefer my Star Wars to be whimsical adventure, so this is all to say that, unlike popular opinion, Andor is not my favourite SW series.
I really expected that someone at Cassian’s Keef’s table to get their arms crushed/mangled in the machinery.
Not sure how they can get zapped with no circuit (not like I expect accurate physics from Star Wars) – and how hard would it be to make socks?
Some folks think there are making Tie Fighter parts, some think Death Star
I hope something comes from the sign language.
Brian
bugger, the man is messing with me. Still, as I’ve said previously the show has earned my trust so I’m happy to wait.
Thrilled with this show. That said I just rewatched Rogue One and I am going to have to work on making things up to get these to fit together. The show is good enough to make that effort worthwhile though!
R1 Andor specifically mentions he never been in a cage before (imprisoned by Team Saw, “This is a first for me.”), and he makes a big impassioned deal of how unlike her he’s been in the battle since age six.
How much time is there supposed to be from events in Andor to R1?
5 years. There was an on-screen title in the first episode indicating 5BBY - Before Battle of Yavin, the climax of the original film. R1 ends at most a few hours before the original film starts.
If his parents, who all seemed to be absent from his planet after a “mining disaster” that was likely just the Empire’s fault, died when he was six, then that statement still counts.
Thanks.
Except for two things …
His not being in the fight to being in it is the story being told, and
He was stating that to and in comparison to Jynn, who also lost her parents, one shot in front of her and one taken away. Who fast tracked the same arc of trying to stay out of it to sacrificing all. Except that for part of it she was actually fighting with Saw’s group … until he abandoned her for her safety.
I don’t think he can be talking about the Empire there, because I don’t think the Empire existed when he was six. And when the scavengers rescue him from the planet and take him away from the other kids, it’s the Republic they talk about needing to avoid.
Andor from episode one is clearly already an experience operative. He takes down two armed guards easily, barely hesitates to kill the second when he realizes he doesn’t have other options, is skilled in breaking into highly secure Imperial facilities (where he stole the nav box he was going to sell to Stellan Skaarsgard), and during the training scenes before the raid on the payroll, he corrects them on marching order and has already memorized who’s left handed and who’s right handed among the group. He’s not a novice, he’s just not working for any covert organization anymore.
“The fight” Andor said he’s been in since hew as six is, I think, a generalized covert resistance to oppressive governments. The central arc of the show is getting Andor to become involved in a cause again, after he got disillusioned by the Separatists.
I’m going with this!
Episode 9 thoughts:
I’ve never been so angry an episode of television has ended, and that I couldn’t just keep watching it for the rest of my life.
Ok, maybe that’s a little over the top, but I love heist movies and prison escape movies and sci-fi dystopian movies - and this is hitting the sweetest of spots that every episode just drills directly into my cortex. It’s the exact opposite of Dr. Gorst’s headphones. God I love this show.
I like how we started out being able to empathize with Dedra in the office squabbles and yet how believably sadistically villainous she is now. The mannerisms the actor brings are great.
Really though not a dud performer or underwritten character anywhere. Even minor bits seem so well formed.
She’s good isn’t she? I was a bit thrown by The Syril stalking incident. Didn’t quite see that coming and not entirely sure where that is going to lead (surely not in some hot, Empire action).
Also, her assistant is a helpful little chap isn’t he? I’m sure she’s very happy he is so confident and uses his initiative. I can’t see that ending badly at all!
I didn’t quite understand the deal with the prison. I get the net result: they’re keeping people there forever, just moving them around, and as a result Kino is willing to help since his 270 number is now meaningless. But I didn’t get why they had to kill everyone on a level because of some transfer mistake. Was the prisoner supposed to have been sent to some other area for people who have served their sentences but aren’t being released? But if so, isn’t there just as much risk of a riot at the new area as one of the existing ones? Or, if they aren’t expecting much in productive output, why not simply kill them at release instead of moving them? And–aside from the weakness that Cassian will clearly exploit next episode–isn’t their compliance system pretty effective at quelling any uprising?
I didn’t get a clear understanding of it either but the upshot was that they were willing to get rid of a full level just to either make a statement or quell dissent. Up to that point perhaps there was a “firm but fair” regime with the chance of release. Now the prisoners are pretty much of a mind that there is no hope.
No one ever gets released, and I’m guessing they threaten prisoners to keep quiet after being moved but someone recognized him somehow?
It’s a brutally effective system based on knowledge, but also very fragile. Hopefully when Andor gets out word somehow spreads to the other buildings.
I think what happened was that a prisoner was returned to their old unit instead of a new one, which sparked unrest, which resulted in the whole sections getting fried.
I’m not sure whether we’re supposed to believe that there are prisoners in Cassian’s section who have already been through this process and are keeping quiet about it, or whether it’s a new thing. Seems unrealistic that if there are people wandering around who have been “released” that it would stay secret for long.
More generally, I thought this episode did a great job of shining a light on the low-grade banality of the Empire’s evil. Dedra’s menace was fun, but the real chill factor came from the casual just-doing-my-job vibes the doc gave off.