They're building the connecting joints for a large spherical structure. Andor is 100% building parts of the Death Star that will eventually kill him. And it makes sense. The raid on Aldhani caused them to step up production. It's why suddenly the Empire is arresting people for no reason and doubling the sentences.

That prison might honestly be one of the most nightmarish prisons ever in fiction. The fact the very floor can shock you means that you are safe basically *nowhere*. You can die at any moment just because a prison guard you can't even see pushes a button. Such a hopeless place.

This show alone has contributed more to Star Wars world building than all other Disney feature films and shows put together.

It’s sad people are saying they don’t like this, cause it scares me they then won’t make more of the brilliant Andor.

I never understand how people can call this slow. It's world building, drama, and intrigue. We don't need action scenes all the time.

I really liked how Andor didn't say much of anything in this episode. The multiple scenes with him nervously looking around while all the sound cuts out makes it feel like he's teetering on the edge of snapping. To put it into perspective he's been rolling with the punches this whole series so far. Starting with him being separated from his tribe and sister as a kid, leaving behind his hometown with Luthan, the kid he promised to save in the heist died in a brutal way that was very preventable, the only person he can call a parent refused to run away with him in favor of fighting to the death for what he percieves as a hopeless cause, and finally he has now been falsely arrested and put into a concentration camp for six years on some bogus charge right after pulling off the most high stakes heist in the galaxy. It's gotta suck being Andor.

I kind of wish to see the rest of Star Wars in this world building style. It feels so believable and keeps the 70's feel. We can actually feel the oppression. The empire actually feels scary and the set pieces are beautiful. I do wish I could watch it all though. Waiting a week kind of grinds the momentum.

This episode was good. I actually felt the despair in this prison system. They're showing us something new here, something we havent seen before. 2nd place gets taste, 1st place gets flavor, fuuuuck.

I can’t believe people say this show is boring as a Star Wars nerd I am loving everything about this show.

I’m really enjoying this show. It shows what life is like living in the empire. This is a good story vs. the rushed spectacles we’ve seen throughout the Disney era.

That scene between Luthen and Saw is the kind of story I wanted for the sequel films. The Rebels think the Empire had truly been defeated, so the different factions that united for the war start pursuing their own separate agendas, old enmities resurface, everyone becomes distracted while the First Order secretly rebuilds.

Andor gives me hope for the future of streaming services. It is the best-written thing and directed show on now. This episode is actually brilliant.

Star Wars theory gave this episode a 1/10. A true crime against filmmaking and good story telling.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the previous episodes, but doesn't Luthen want to find Cassien because he wants to kill him? To tie up any loose ends pertaining to the robbery. I could have sworn that's why he sent the (2) girls to find Cassien. he isn't looking to help him.

6:30 She's literally there to assassinate Andor.

I'm just so impressed by what Andor is doing with Star Wars. There is so much universe building happening here that hasn't really happened in ages. Lovin' it.

This episode is my favorite so far. He oppressive feeling speaks for me on a spiritual level. Andy Serkis is great, and the other prisoners feel like real people, especially the older ones. Very convincing performances.

I love how they're making the Empire actually scary. Making them brutal and efficient. Rogue One did this for the Death Star and Vader. A lot of historical cues taken from British imperialism. This has done more than any other Disney SW media to build out the lore/universe. Hope they let the season finish up neatly and allow the same quality to occur in the next season.

This is actually my favorite episode. The world building can be negative for some but it’s what really brings a series to life for me. It’s like a completely different world than the last three movies.

I hate that this show isn't getting the attention it should because it's really good with good writing. I look forward to it every week

This show is incredible, i look forward every week to the world building this show has done that I feel we just haven’t gotten in shows like obi wan or boba fett, seeing the true weight of the empire on the galaxy is portrayed so well and I love that we get three arc episodes in this show

*I always felt like The Mandolorian* was directionless in terms of story.. that Luke appearance - while great - came out of nowhere and had no place in the story.. cos Grogu goes back to Mando in a spin-off series.. so Andor is to me the best SW series - because it actually cares enough to tell a cohesive plot

The water is getting hotter… every episode has me more and more on edge. Andor represents a new kind of Star Wars, and it’s building a dedicated audience that’s only going to grow and want more.

It's not just the best Star Wars content at the moment, it's the best sci-fi show and one of the best shows around right now period.

Loved this episode and I didn't even realise Andor hardly says a word in it. I just wish they were releasing multi episodes at a time because its clearly built in three part arcs. It's a real shame how underrated this series is.

This is the best quality show they’ve done by far and Disney is going to learn the exact opposite of the right lesson from it, guarantee they’ll see it slightly underperforming, cancel it, and go all in on cameo baiting

This one probably was my favorite. It felt like we now have a clear vision of Cassian Andor, so I could fully empathize with him. Every prison scene was tense, I pumped for where they are going with the 2nd arc. And besides the prison thing, we got to see different characters finally interact with eachother. It feels like the set up for the final arc is actually started in this episode.

Probably my favourite episode yet. The only thing that was a bit weird to me was that all of the prisoners in the Narkina 5 prison were humans. But maybe they segregate based on species to keep productivity in a competitive state as a different species might just straight up be better at some tasks and therefore give too much of an advantage to a certain table 🤷‍♂️. Otherwise an absolutely excellent episode.

I find myself not wanting these episodes to end. Andor is so entertaining. Love it

The amount of creativity involved with coming up with that jail concept is incredible. They got some serious talent on this show.

I love the world building in Andor. Showing us things we have never seen in Star Wars before. the music is different and awesome. I know this is a prequel to rogue one and the original trilogy but I want more of this. I want more exploration on different planets and such. I am loving it.

The prison scenes were really making me anxious. Great directing and acting.

I wish I had just stumbled across Andor and got to binge these first 8 episodes in a day or two

As someone that just binged watched all eight episodes thus far I had no problem with this week's episode.

This episode was incredible! The acting, the world building the plot buildup is all stellar

Regarding Syril, here is what I think will happen. Deedra will discover Andor was part of a prison breakout that was partially completed by Luthen (the man the ISB is searching for). This will trigger Deedra to get desperate and use any resources at her disposal, including Syril as ISB upper leadership puts additional pressure on her to root out early signs of the rebellion. Syril will become an imperial officer, and the show will continue. But I think that’s what we are building towards.

One of my favorite episodes, it didn’t need to have constant action to be enjoyable

This episode basically showed how scary and competent the empire can be..

Another great episode ! Love the world building in this series and the fantastic sets that immerse me in this story

Irritates me how people call it slow because they’re minds are damaged by big CGI fights and cameos. This shows done brilliant character building and this episode did and amazing job for the side characters and plots and linked them all up really well. So now Andors going to be placed into a very thick story when he’s escaped from prison

You know what I noticed with this episode? There's like barely any aliens at all in this show. There's a few in random scenes, but none of the important characters are aliens. In the empire it makes sense, but the heist crew had none and there's none in the prison crew. I don't think it hurts the show, but with how prominent they are in all other Star Wars media, I'm surprised they didn't throw in a Zabrak or something like that with relatively low prosthetic work.

I’d give all the prison scenes a 10/10 I wish the whole episode was focused on that so interesting!

What I really liked that really showed how horrible it was as a prisoner is the head prisoner says “200+ days” like it’s five days. Nice touch to how long he has been in it and how horrible the prison system is

As someone who worked at an Amazon Warehouse, this episode gave me anxiety!

Loving the show. The slow story telling has been brilliant.

I love this episode, all the characters are so interesting male, female, in power, powerless... all these characters are so amazingly written. In the last episode I was thinking may seemed kinda forced to have a minority incarcerated, but, it just ties all his dues coming to collect "karma" hitting Andor putting him on the right place to see what his actions have caused, Mon & the banker, pure genius!! Loving every second.

I love the fact they are going on about what a weird unlikely name Syril is when it has a real world variation that's only slightly different in spelling. My grandad was called Cyril.

I think some shows work better with the binge model and others work better week to week. Andor is definitely much more binge-friendly. Something like House of the Dragon is a lot of fun doing week to week b/c you get everyone's commentary on it. But if it's not a "big" show then going week to week is just a huge waste of everyone's time.

This show is very good. Has better continuity and writing in some cases than HOTD

I cant believe Snoke started as a prison factory foreman

To be honest I like the one episode a week format, keeps me on edge waiting to see what happens next episode.

Best Star Wars show about the most uninteresting character, just imagine if we had these writers for Boba Fett and Kenobi.....

I really like OJ and Alex's fashion this episode. Nice to see them changing up their clothes colors, something different

This was a fantastic episode 9/10 for me. I don't need non stop action in every episode.

Remember, "Arcane" released on Netflix in batches of 3 episodes too, which was perfect.

It was great to see Forest Whitaker back as Saw, didn't expect that. Also Andy Serkis is unexpectedly yoked lol.

I've been watching this with my 12 and 9 year old kids, and they are both far more invested in this than even Mandalorian. I think the trick is I told them to pay attention to the details. I absolutely think the problem is the release schedule requires slightly longer attention spans, and we have spent decades reducing our attention span. I hope the season finale pay off proves that deeper investment into characters, story, etc results in a series that will hold up for future generations like the first films did.

Anyone else noticed the change in music. I dont think previous episodes were doing it but the music is like synthwave and its freaking sick. The change in music is really adding to the atmosphere.

The scottish guy (Melschi) who tells Cassian that he's never getting out is one of the Rebels who fights alongside the Rogue One team on Skerrif. He's apparently in the novelisation a lot more and the water is getting hotter… every episode has me more and more on edge. Andor represents a new kind of Star Wars, and it’s building a dedicated audience that’s only going to grow and want more.

The slower stuff with Mon Mothma has significance because she goes from being an affluent politician in the upper caste of Coruscant high society to huddling in a cave with a bunch of dudes about to pull a moon shot to blow up the Death Star. Takes a lot to go from one to the other.

This was actually one of my favourite episodes, I enjoy seeing the inner workings of how the machine of the empire is really working

Joe you guys should check out Disney's tales of the Jedi. It dropped recently and was pretty cool just 6 short 19 mins episodes expanding lore on ashoka, jedi master Doku and yaddle

It just boggles my mind how Andy Serkis is better utilized in a Star Wars TV production than how he was in the actual sequels lmao

9:49 I thought that he was overacted in Rogue One too, but changed my mind after learning more about the character. It's worth to remember that Saw Gererra started initially as the good guy and ended up being freaking lunatic with a legacy measured by amount of skeletons in his closet and his really bad reputation amongst rebels. He slowly became this guerilla revolutionist blood thirsty mass murderer with god complex (inspired by Che Guevara huh?) who spend his life convincing himself that all the awful things he's done were justified and for greater good. When we met him on Rogue One he's this broken old man, and looks like the damages to his body are quite severe, some of his internal organs may be even replaced. He's weak, relying on life support, but most damaged is his mind, with all of his daemons finally caught up to him and his paranoia taking control over him entirely. He's batshit crazy and ridiculous when you compare him from his early days, but for me it makes sense, it depicts this tragic fall of a man.

thanks Joe. been waiting for this review!!! keep up the great reviews. I love the news segments also!!!

I'd honestly give this episode an 8. I really enjoy the much slower pace.. Admittedly it isn't for everyone but the intentionally drawn out world building really does hit me in just the right way. My only real issue was Mon Mothma as her scenes were mostly to set up the political and economic effect following the heist, which is fine but ultimately doesn't really add anything outside of what we already know. As for the two girls on Ferrix, they are absolutely setting something up for next episode, and I personally think it will end with the accidental death of Cassian's mother, which they will more than likely twist to incite a rebellion there as the trailer does show a full on riot on Ferrix. Also, Serkis was amazing in this episode, his voice is perfect for making him sound like the roughest, most badass criminal in the galaxy.

Overpower some guards for the insulation boots and storm the shuttle when it lands. Easy. I loved this episode and how much effort they put into depicting the prison.

This is the best Star Wars since Mandalorian and Rogue One funny enough. I love the soundtrack in the more recent episodes, it's got a blade runner vibe to it

I'd love to see a review on 'Tales of the Jedi' from you guys at AJS, because I just got done watching it in a dual cinematic film cut (Dooku's story arc and Ahsoka's story arc) and holy fuck it was a masterpiece of Star Wars animation and story telling! emotional roller-coaster for some one like me who is a hardcore Star Wars nerd; Tales of the Jedi is some of the BEST Star Wars content we have had for a LOOONG time!

I like weekly releases, I like the speculation for next week, I like talking about it at work. Stranger things if a flash in the pan for like 2 weeks, while house of dragons and andor ect give use 2+ months of entertainment.

This show is nothing short of SPECTACULAR!!

Star Wars Tales Of The Jedi actually has characters people care about in it only 10-15min episodes check it out

This is a great episode the has great world building and setting up what's to come. Love seeing Live Action Andy Serkis And The Scene Between Saw And Luthen is one of the best of the series and hope to get more scenes of them. Hyped for the rest and please check out Tales Of The Jedi because it's great also.

I absolutely love the world building of this series, and appreciate the pacing giving me time to breathe and really feel IN the universe - with the downtime giving weight to things that happen in the series. So refreshing for SW, hoping Mando 3 takes a lot of cues.

The only star wars with decent writing . Andor gives some hope for the genre

Eyyy very nice! Since I saw episode 8 I was really looking forward to hear your thoughts on it. With depth of writing like this, Tony Gilroy may truly be the way forward for star wars! One slight problem: It's gonna be difficult to get used to regular star wars with its cheesy one liners after this xD

I would like to recommend The Peripheral series too. It looks like after 3 episodes as a great sci-fi adaption.

I really really enjoy this show a lot. I know there was an entire generation that grew up with nothing but front flips and epic lightsaber duals and force lightening and for that reason they see it as boring. But this is fantastic world building and is grounded in a way that keeps me coming back for more. It’s a nice change of pace in my opinion.

Like Alex said, the cons of the episode are probably nuance in the dialogue that will make sense in later episodes. I personally liked the pacing but I understand why others might lose focus

I think this is the middle episode of the 3rd 3-episode arc, not the first. I'm predicting a prison break next week, then the start of the final 3 episode arc the week after that. Maybe that last arc will be the mission Luthan was talking to Saw about this week.

The prison is a callback to George Lucas. Its clearly inspired by his first movie THX 1138.

As a star wars fan and a lover of world building n loves, I'm hungry for the next episode. Really enjoying this show.

They should release these episodes in 3 episodes chunks… I wont be watching until everything is out otherwise it gets too frustrating for me pacing wise… Still a great show though!

The blonde rebel is the voice of Yennifer in Witcher games

The actress who plays the empire commander searching for Andor is Yennefer from Wild Hunt 😁

This was great, really great. The bar was soooo low before mandolarien and I've basically lost interest in sw after boba/kenobi but this was predicted to be a failure because nobody cared about andor... just because nobody knew him, this says a lot about the current context and that's why I've gave it a try.

This was a fantastic episode with fantastic cameos

I would love it if the writers on this show could develop a show/movie from the old republic time period, with a lot of attention on the sith and their belief system. I'm not sure how I feel about the people behind Lost doing a star wars sequel. I would hate to see more of Rey, especially after the most recent star wars film.

Thank you. Waiting for a binge watch. Do you guys have access to Gangs of London? Best British TV show in recent years for me.

It's like they took the early political machinations and world building of early game of thrones and injected it into a serious Star Wars story. It's not like The Mandalorian which is more about self contained story arcs with some follow through. This is more of an exploration of the galaxy itself, it's political structure, its hierarchies. Andor being rather quiet and uninteresting is a boon to allow other characters to really shine. Specifically Mon Mothma, and the imperial officers chasing Andor. In many ways this is like inverse Star Wars and that's a very big compliment.

The main thing w the Mon Mothma scenes I felt like wasnt the small crumbs of plot but rather the dramatic juxtaposition of these wealthy ostensibly 'powerful' ppl who are largely unbothered by the Empire's crackdown (making themselves pretty useless before the senate is even dissolved) side by side with scenes of this slave labor prison where ppl are sent over nothing with no recourse, just totalitarianism. The prison has that sterile white institutional look to it and the scenes with Mon Mothma at political gatherings are also very white in a sort of decadent, extravagant way.

Star Wars fans are so oversaturated with all the action the recent movies gave. Completely forgot what having dialogue and a slow burn feels like. This show is great!

I'm fully invested in Andor. The writing and world building is top notch.

100% agree about the release schedule for streaming services. When Wheel of Time was announced on Amazon Prime, a KZfaqr I follow was saying how they hoped it would be released weekly so that they could dissect each episode each week and that it's like how you have time to discuss each book in a series in between their releases. My argument is that releasing 1 episode a week is like releasing 1 chapter of a book each week, not an entire book. If a publisher released one chapter of a popular book each week then people would probably say that's pretty stupid, but because of the history of TV shows, a lot of people are more inclined to give streaming platforms a pass. I also don't like the effect that weekly releases have on most shows where they make each episode it's own self-contained story to keep the audience engaged while they wait a week between episodes. I'm glad that Andor doesn't do that because it makes the overall story for the show better, but it does leave the story hanging while we wait for the next couple of episodes. This is one of the main reasons I couldn't get into the Clone Wars show, because for the first season at least (that's about as far as I got) it felt more like a collection of short stories that were completely disconnected. I've heard it gets better later, but I've never been able to get past what I don't like about that show.

Throughout this entire episode I tried not to compare it to the prison scene in movie Face Off. The setting was almost the same.

I feel the reason they had the Mon Mothma and prison scenes so intertwined is to show that both of them are suck in their own prisons.

hope y’all review Tales of the Jedi

13:21 I hope that's not the route they take. We’re not rooting for him but we still understand his quite frankly rational motivations and origins. I’m hoping these will develop into larger fixations and possible madness toward finding Andor. A bitter sweat ending with syril getting lost in trying to do good sounds far more interesting.

Just a couple quick corrections: Saw Gurerra was killed in Rogue One...he didn't make it to the sequel trilogy. The bar he was at got blown up, and he died while Jyn Erso escaped. Also, Luthen wasn't looking for Cassian to help him. As we saw in Episode 7, Vel and Centra were sent to find and eliminate him because of his knowledge of Luthen's involvement in Aldahni.

That show is too beautiful to be boring.