Cassian piloting tie fighter - BBY 4

Directed by: Ariel Kleiman

Episode 1: One Year Later – 50 min
Episode 2: Sagrona Teema – 44 min
Episode 3: Harvest – 53 min

Since we are getting episodes of Andor three at a time, these posts will cover all three and be titled based on their BBY dates. If you are unfamiliar with how dating works in Star Wars, everything is based on “Before Battle of Yavin” (i.e. before A New Hope). The first three episodes of Season 2 occur one year after Season 1 and four years before A New Hope/Rogue One.

I should warn you now that every post will contain spoilers, so I advise watching all three episodes before you continue reading.

A Massacre Is Coming

This is a really solid start to the season. I don’t know how those who saw the first episode at the Celebration in Japan made it to Tuesday night. Watching Cassian struggle to fly the TIE Avenger out of the hangar felt really authentic. I wonder if this TIE fighter prototype alludes to the TIE Defender project mentioned in the Thrawn Alliance book. The TIE Defenders are also manufactured on Sienar.

If I’m going to get into Easter Eggs I should mention the biggest one of all. The one that will become a pivotal moment in Star Wars history, and one I’ve alluded to before. The very first episode mentions Ghorman. In canon, the Ghorman massacre is the event that kickstarts the Rebellion. It also forces Mon Mothma to resign from the Senate and publically stand against the Empire. We will probably see this in about two weeks.

Massassi Temple on Yavin 4
The Great Temple (aka Massassi Temple) on Yavin 4

If you hadn’t noticed, the planet Cassian was supposed to rendezvous with Porko was Yavin 4. During his escape, he flies by the Massassi Temple. This is the site of the Rebel base during the fight against the first Death Star.

The Rakatan Invasion is mentioned a second time in this series. The Rakatan are a species from Knights of the Old Republic. In these episodes, they say the Rakatan Invasion occurred 25,000 years ago which lines up with James Mangold’s movie. Does this mean we will see the Rakatan in his movie?

What did you think of the first three episodes?

“What do I sacrifice? Everything.” – Luthen Rael