'Andor' is back, and so are Mal and Jo! These rebels break down everything in the first three episodes, from Cassian's mission, to a wedding on Chandrila to Syril and Dedra's relationship. (00:00) Intro (05:33) Opening Snapshot (17:05) Theft of the TIE Avenger (37:48) Cassian Meets the Maya Pei Brigade (46:44) The Brigade Fractures (51:30) Hiding Out with Our Ferrix Found Family (01:02:10) The Empire Arrives (01:12:10) Fleeing Mina-Rau (01:30:14) A Chandi Wedding: Day One (01:50:45) A Chandi Wedding: Day Two (02:12:02) A Chandi Wedding: Day Three (02:27:19) Krennic’s Secret Meeting at the Maltheen Divide (02:37:40) Back at the ISB and the Bureau of Standards (02:40:42) The Spinoff We Need: Eedy, Dedra, and Syril (02:49:08) Easter Eggs Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Producer: Steve Ahlman Editor: Cameron Dinwiddie Video Supervision: John Richter Social: Jomi Adeniran Addition Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and what is the focus of this podcast episode?
Greetings and welcome to House of R, a Ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin, here to remind me that there's a future here for those who dare. It's my favorite Bureau of Standards rapid riser, Joanna Robinson.
Oh my God, thank you so much for associating me with my best friend, Cyril Karn, who we are back with. Mallory, what a thrill and a delight to be on a second podcast with you this week where we are podcasting about something truly phenomenal. I know, it's... What a wonderful time to be us.
It's an absolute thrill and a joy. An embarrassment of riches. Like when they said of the Gorman spiders, there's no denying their dedicated work habits, spinning from dawn till dusk, never stopping to feed or sleep. It's like, wow, it sounds like the whole Ringerverse crew during a busy pod run.
Absolutely. Crushed it.
Joe, we have a lot to get to today. We have three episodes of Andor to get to today. So we're just going to like breeze through the usual programming reminders. We want to make sure everybody knows about the full suite of Andor offerings. We're going to be here on, depending on your time zone, Thursday nights every week. Maybe it'll be waiting for you in your feed on Friday mornings.
Hopefully it's there for you on Thursday nights. The Midnight Boys, pew, pew, pew, will have their instant reactions waiting for you on Wednesdays. And of course, Chris and Andy will be covering Andor every week on The Watch. And this week for the three-part premiere, they talked to... Andrew Showrunner, creator Tony Gilroy. It was fantastic. Great stuff.
You can watch it on video, of course, on Spotify or on the Ringer TV YouTube channel. And you can see the smile of appreciation on Tony Gilroy's face every time they, like, mention a specific thing that they love about the show. I've just... Made me really happy.
Also, if you don't already know, Tony Gilroy has some of the best hair in the entire business, and that is worth admiring. As he says, some of the most intelligent things you've ever heard in your life. And Chris, they do an incredible job in interviewing him. Wonderful stuff. Check it out, The Watch.
Over on – I just realized I'm wearing my Watch shirt. Over on TheRinger.com, what a great website. You can, of course, read Ben Lindbergh, Obi-Wan Ben Lindberghi, every week. Breaking down Andor, so that's a can't-miss. We are also covering The Last of Us. Every week, we're covering The Last of Us and Andor together right now. It's a thrill. It's a joy.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of the timeline and 'bad BBYs' in Andor Season 2?
Tom Felton was recently given a piece of fan fiction, and I got to hear Tom Felton with his own mouth say, oh, is this one of those Draminis? Delightful. Great. Okay. That's it.
Spoiler warning. Spoiler warning. Here it is. We are covering three episodes today. Episode one, One Year Later. Episode two, Sagrona Tima. Episode three, Harvest. Three-part premiere, three episodes of Andor are dropping every week for four weeks for this 12-episode second season. All three of these were written by Tony Gilroy and directed by Ariel Kleinman.
And so everything that happened in these episodes is on the table today in a podcast that we have not even deigned to guess the length of.
Tony Gilroy, not just on The Watch, but elsewhere, has been like, I feel for the poor podcasters.
He actually seemed, I thought on The Watch, really sincere about it.
Genuine.
Yeah, he's like, it's really a lot. I feel bad. Tony, it's a gift. It's a gift. If part of Kaz were here, he would say to us, like he said to Dedra, it's a gift. Take it and win it. And that's what we intend to do. God damn it. So we're talking about the first three episodes of Andor. We are going to talk about certainly things from Andor season one.
And if it's ever happened in Star Wars, it could come up today. Certainly Rogue One is always in the mix when we're talking about Andor because Andor is a prequel to Rogue One. So we are not going to pretend that you all have not seen Rogue One and that we have not seen Rogue One. That's the spoiler warning. Anything else before we dive in, Jo? Let's do it. All right.
It was a pulse cold, not a conversation, but this is going to be a conversation. It's going to be a long one. Let's get to the opening snapshot. It's always fun to be back in a given fictional universe and remember what the music is. Yeah, give an almond sweet. Yeah, for the segments of that particular universe. Okay, Jo, these episodes... Long. 54, 47, 56 minutes. Thrilling stuff.
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Chapter 3: How does Cassian Andor's character evolve in the first three episodes?
I guess that makes sense if, like, you are going to be jumping across the years rather than trying to catch us up on an entire year. Like, give us a drenched and deep dive into, like, a notable moment in time. And then one of the things that Andor is, of course, so deft at is giving us insight into everything that's happened in between. And this opening arc was no exception, certainly.
But, yeah, I will be curious to see if that's consistent in the following three arcs as well. You mentioned the wedding. Mm-hmm. One of the many locations, events, settings, plot lines, character groupings that we're with in this robust three-episode opening. Give us your very quick, little amuse-bouche opening table setting read on the episodes.
How did it feel to be back in the Andor universe overall, and how did you find this three-part premiere?
I loved it. I'm absolutely obsessed to be back. Um... Thrilled, thrilled, honored, delighted. Loved my Ender Season 1 rewatch. Loved my Rogue One rewatch. Just really, really, really excited to be here. You did a lengthy notes doc for this episode. I did my own lengthy notes doc for this episode. There's so much to talk about. I don't want to spend too much time here.
I will say, here are a couple big picture themes that I just want to hit at the top here, and then we'll circle back to them where we may. Circles being one of them, obviously. But I think that the...
The thesis, the objective for Andor season two, covering these last four years up until everything that happens in Rogue One and then A New Hope, is what is the thing that tips us out of complacency into rebellion? What is that thing? And we circled it in season one, but it has to happen here in this season. Yeah. We see a lot of the shallow comfort of conformity.
Conformity is really comfortable. The wedding is very comfortable. And these are people who have just conformed versus like the hardship of nonconformity versus Or the nourishing depth of a truer belonging to a place. That the Empire welcomes you into their sort of, like, flattened world. But, like, as we mentioned, we talked about this a lot in Season 1.
Something that Andor is so good at is showing us the distinct cultures and customs of various planets that the Empire is looking to quash and homogenize. We talked about this a lot with, like, Aldani and Ferex in Season 1. And here we get the Shandrila customs. But even, like, Mina Rao or the...
glimpse of gorman that we get you know like uh this or even like the the rochambeau the maya pay brigade like there's there's specificity to all of these places in a way that like star wars sometimes is just sort of like it's a whole planet that's a desert and you're like okay yeah But, you know, okay. Who is hungry and who is gorging was like a big theme inside of these three episodes.
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Chapter 4: What role does the Maya Pei Brigade play in the rebellion's story arc?
I hear the critiques of it. I had a great time with the Maya Pig Brigade. I'm a fan.
I've warmed to it considerably on rewatches, and it's got a lot to offer. It's like one of those things where in Andor, it's all relative. If you're dealing with Shakespeare and certain other plot lines, it's just a lot to measure up to. But I actually I think I come down on like the side of appreciating that tonal variance.
Let's start with a theft of the tie Avenger, because before we go to Yavin, we open on the sign our test facility 73 where our guy Cassian is decked out. As an Imperial test pilot, he is there to steal a prototype. And I just want to say RIP to this sweet little droid buddy who got blasted in this sequence.
I have no RIPs to give to any of the troopers, though I did enjoy how they were in the background muttering about the way shifts are scheduled and genuinely think that something like that or Naya telling Cassie and she needs exactly 12 minutes. Those are the kinds of details that imbue Andor with this level of texture and precision that's
It just makes it feel so fully and richly like an actual real world or many real worlds.
I have a really fun fact for you about Cassidy Andor's fit in this scene. Okay, so Michael Wilkinson, who's the costume designer on Andor, did season one as well, has done a lot of Zack Snyder, David O. Russell movies, etc., Was talking about, okay, so they make this very special look for Cassian. The red shoulders are unusual, right? We're used to seeing all black on these folks.
And we've seen Cassian, right, in, you know, Imperial Blacks in Rogue One. But they're like, he's our guy. He's going to be in this for three episodes. We want to make it a little flashy. But this is my favorite fun fact about this. Quote, we also scaled down the classic TIE fighter helmet to be better proportioned to Diego's frame.
Diego Luna, a giant among men in terms of performance, but I have met him and Gael Garcia Bernal together, and they are both just real little guys. And, you know, they scaled down the TIE fighter helmet for him.
Incredible stuff, given that it was basically just like something people were holding up. I know. Not really relevant beyond that, but again, the level of care and attention to detail, unmatched.
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Chapter 5: How are the Ferrix found family portrayed and what challenges do they face?
And he says, like, you can ask what you want. And tells her being here at the moment you step into the circle. You mentioned the circle. We get this idea in many different aspects of these three episodes. Here, Krennic uses the circle language to talk about the inner circle that the Gorman crew has been invited into. The wedding. The wedding. wedding circle. The wedding circle.
Which we will obviously talk about. So this idea of like what you were outside of or what you were being invited into and what it means to take a step into that. And Cassian was on the outside of it.
Well, what it offers you. What does being inside of this circle offer you? You know what I mean? Like what is Leda getting from stepping inside of that circle? And what is Naya getting from stepping inside this circle? And what is Dedra getting from stepping inside this circle? You know? And there are good circles than they're about circles, I would say. Yeah.
And, you know, we actually have, like, much more insight into Saw Gerrera's history from, you know, Clone Wars and various other pieces of Star Wars canon. A lot of, like, Luthan's path to this point is still a black box to us. But for us as Andor viewers, Luthan has always been the guy inside the circle, directing, leading, guiding, insisting. He is the circle. Yes. Beautiful.
Cassian recently made that step. And so for him to be the one then extending the hand over the barrier and helping somebody move with comfort and more confidence inside of it, it just positions him so distinctly from the other people who are like in some state of authority.
What I like about the Maya Pay Brigade is that like... You love the Maya Pay Brigade? I do, I do. I love this. I love this. It's like, this is so clean, right? Yes. Come step inside the circle. Okay, I'm giving you nourishing, calm, kind words, and we are radicalizing you in a really fun and exciting way. And then the Maya Pay Brigade, he's like, come inside the circle. We're on the same team.
And they're like, Rochambeau, maybe? You know, like, it's messy. Roski rules, maybe? And that's because... Luthen is the circle, but Luthen's network and leadership is so shaky at this moment.
We got a clear indication of this, and I know you have this, Mark, to talk about a little bit later as well, but when hearing Saw and Luthen talk about all the different factions that are cropping up, and there's no united force, right? So what are we headed towards? This sort of united rebellion that we get... In A New Hope and in Rogue One, we need leadership. We need Mon.
We need, like, a bunch of other people to assume that leadership role. Luthen right now has this really rickety, loose connection of spies and informants and agents. And, you know, if they can't get signal on Shandrila, like, no one has guidance, right?
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Chapter 6: What is the impact of the Empire's arrival on Mineral and its inhabitants?
It also just matters a lot to me that how unflappable Clea is, honestly. She's just sort of like, I don't know, get over it.
We're not on the, we're not at the, um, the Chandrila wedding sequence yet, but like she's already come up so much. It feels, it feels telling. Did you have a favorite? Let's just do it now. Clay, a moment, uh, quiet, like MVP of the opening episode. She's iconic always, but what was your favorite moment? Could you, can you even possibly pick?
Genuinely, it's hard for me to pick because my first thought is actually a Vel moment when Vel gives her the old elevator eyes.
Like, that's... That was great when she's like, you know, just two single people looking at prospects. And then, like, the next day when my headcanon is that she found someone to fuck, and that's her ride home, right? Because when Luthan's like, well, yeah, you can go back, but I can't leave, so you're going to have to ride. And she's like...
Oh, I got one. Clea can do anything that she wants. I love her. And I love that, like, she was such an interesting background. They're pulling a lot of the background characters into the four, which is really fun. And she was such a fun background character in season one. And it really seems like season two, you know, she's stepping into the light.
Taking her, not first, but second step. To a... Larger and or world. Joanna, let's talk about your favorite characters in the, I think you've now said not only first three episodes of season two, but history of Star Wars and maybe storytelling.
Storytelling, storytelling.
The Maya Pay Brigade. Yeah, the MPG.
MPB, I don't know why I said G. MPB, yeah.
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Chapter 7: How is the attempted sexual assault on Bix handled and what does it signify?
Chapter 8: What are the major themes of rebellion, leadership, and trauma explored in these episodes?
What are your big picture thoughts?
Yeah, I was thrilled to be back. I thought that the return was just totally immersive and sucked us back into the world so quickly and so effectively. I was not sure how this release... cadence would feel and what it would mean to just be giving us a glimpse inside of a year and move across four years in the timeline in this season when the first season covered one year.
And I have no doubt that I will leave this season feeling, like, desperate to... Yeah. I never, like, trust a trailer just as a general rule. But the trailers for Andor season two were, I think, certainly through the lens of what Andor season one felt like, like notably action forward, which makes sense. We're moving toward action. Rogue One. We're moving toward the Death Star.
We're moving toward the events of New Hope. But one of the things that, like, literally from the opening scene of this episode, I felt just, of the first episode, just utterly assured by is that there will be room not just to incorporate, but to center the philosophy, the poetry, the heart that you're identifying of these journeys. Because, like,
Part of the, I think, and I know that not everybody agrees with this, but part of the gift of a prequel to me is that because for some of those characters or plot lines, you know the outcome, you can focus so much more on motivation. Mm-hmm. the lessons learned, the people lost. And so particularly in Andor, it's fascinating to have that mix that you're identifying.
I love what you're hitting as one of the opening keynotes to keep in mind as we parse these three episodes because, like, we do know what happens to Cassian. You know, we do know what happens to Mon Mothma, but we have no fucking clue what happens to someone like Luthen, let alone all of the other people, right? So it's...
this mix of marching towards something inevitable and wanting to understand every single moment that led the character to that place. And then also this just looming specter of uncertainty. It's very different in Andor than I think in any other show, but it's in this respect, like very reminiscent of other Star Wars properties as well. You know, how many years were people talking about like
wait, where was, like, where was Ezra?
Yeah, but in this case, they don't have the luxury of, like, pocket universes or, like, you know what I mean? Right, exactly.
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