Warning! This review contains spoilers for the season finale ofAndor.
The season finale ofAndortakes fans back where it all started – the dusty desert world of Ferrix – for a thrilling hour of grittyStar Warsaction as both the Rebels and the Empire await Cassian’s arrival at his mother’s funeral. The slow-burn pacing ofAndorhasn’t been to every fan’s tastes, but that patience is paid off spectacularly in “Rix Road,” which brings every ongoing story arc to a head without losing sight of the broader study of the sacrifices necessary for a rebellion to succeed.
Showrunner Tony Gilroy continues to provide some of the strongest writing in the history of the franchise, using the fantasy setting to explore real-life atrocities and giving the characters dialogue and actions that make them ring true as real people. With its nuanced characters, shocking plot turns, and mature political themes,Andorhas played likeStar Wars’Game of Thrones, and the wildly satisfying finale solidifies its place as not justa greatStar Warsseries, but a TV masterpiece in general.
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Benjamin Caron, the helmer of many of the series’ best episodes, returns to the director’s chair for the finale. In keeping withthe visceral spy thriller aestheticthat he helped to establish earlier in the season, Caron expertly pulls off suspenseful cross-cutting during the funeral. He keeps track of around a dozen characters dotted around the service – mourners gathering in the street (including the droid who’s afraid to be alone), Imperials waiting for Cassian to emerge, Cassian watching silently from a distant vantage point – without ever losing focus or confusing the audience. The somber music of the procession ties the whole sequence together before the anti-Imperial rhetoric of Maarva’s self-eulogizing hologram incites a riot.
All the characters converge on Ferrix for Maarva’s memorial, but not for a big, messy climactic battle that resolves all the plotlines with explosions likeThe Book of Boba Fett. The whole episode revolves around Cassian. He wants to save Bix Caleen and grieve the loss of his mother without being detected; Dedra Meero wants to capture Cassian to make an example out of him; Brasso wants to protect him because he’s a great friend; and Luthen Rael wants to kill him before the ISB can interrogate him for information. Everybody’s goals and motivations are well-established, thanks to 11 episodes ofslow-burning build-up.
The large-scale skirmish between the villagers and the Imperials isn’t there for cheap thrills; it rounds out the backdrop of Cassian’s story. It’s not just mindless spectacle;it’s the spark of rebellion, with death and destruction on both sides. These action scenes are full of powerful images evoking real-world conflicts, like Maarva’s posthumous call to arms and the oppressed people of Ferrix pushing against the Imperial officers’ riot shields. When bombs do go off, it’s not for escapist fun; it’s a harrowing visual representation of the deadly cost of revolution.
Rumors that a legacy character like Emperor Palpatine would appear inAndor’s finale episode ultimately turned out to be unfounded. But that’s undoubtedly for the best, because Gilroy kept the focus on the characters that are crucial to this story instead of pushing them to the side to hand the baton to an established icon. Gilroy used the last 11 episodes effectively enough that fans don’t need to see Palpatine orDarth Vaderor Princess Leia. Throughout the season, audiences have become just as captivated by newcomers like Luthen Rael, Dedra Meero, and B2EMO.
The fact thatAndor’s storytelling and character development are much stronger than otherStar Warsshows just exemplifies that those other shows used fan service as a crutch. Whereas Easter eggs became major plot points inThe Mandalorian,The Book of Boba Fett, andObi-Wan Kenobi,Andor’s Easter eggsare just little details peppered around fascinating original characters and their original stories. Canto Bight is mentioned, but that’s not Gilroy saying, “Hey, kids, remember Canto Bight?” He’s using a familiar setting from the lore to dig into Mon Mothma’s opposition to gambling and her husband’s addiction to it. The Death Star is glimpsed in the post-credits scene, but Gilroy isn’t saying, “Hey, look, it’s the Death Star!” It’s there to tell the audience that Cassian unwittingly helped to build the war machine that he would later help to destroy (and would eventually kill him).
Andor’s second season, which recently began filming and is poised to wrap up the series and connect this story toRogue One, has a few interesting setups to pay off from the season 1 finale: Meero owes her life toher not-so-secret admirer Syril Karn, a full-blown uprising is underway on Ferrix, Caleen has escaped Imperial custody with the promise that Cassian will find her, and Cassian himself has begrudgingly teamed up with Rael after figuring out that he came to Ferrix to kill him. And on top of all that, the chilling post-credits scene reveals that the weird star-shaped mechanisms thatCassian, Kino, and their fellow Imperial prisonersspent every day manufacturing are tiny parts of the Death Star’s superlaser, now being installed on the station as it nears completion.
All in all, the riveting “Rix Road” cementsAndor’s first season as one of the greatest pieces ofStar Warsmedia ever made. Every week,Andorhas done more with each individual episode thanThe Book of Boba FettandObi-Wan Kenobidid with their entire run. Instead of providing spectacle in spades with no substance to back it up,Andorhas put substance first and only used spectacle to enhance the plot and character development. A series that was thought to be unnecessary has quickly become a much-needed beacon of hope for the franchise.
