One Year Later / Sagrona Teema / Harvest (Andor - S02E01, E02, E03) - Live Action Series

Discuss the latest Chapter! (Discussion)

"He can't teach her if he's dead! Everything with you is negative!" SPOILERS.

The face an iPhone users makes when he has to use an Android phone

The long, long wait is over. Andor is back with its second and final season, one final batch of twelve episodes will be released in batches of three over the next three weeks. After a very rough year where basically every single little thing called "Star Wars" failed the question is if Andor can somehow turn the ship around. I'll make it short. It won't. It's the most un-starwarsy piece of Star Wars ever. Which is probably why the people who do love it love it to bits, but a majority of fans never even bothered to watch season 1, even if ratings actually improved over time.

Poor Bix is still haunted by nightmares

Andor season 2 will be four movies each, each movie will advance time by about one year and cover a few short days and it's a very wise decision by Lucasfilm/Disney to release all the episodes that form one arc or movie at once, because they absolutely do not work in isolation. Andor is the most "movielike" series of them all. But of course it also means that each week one massively long film will be released, the first movie is almost a whopping 2 1/2 hours long!

Old friends reunite

Andor season 2 is still very, very, very different from anything most people usually associate with Star Wars, at least the first movie is. If you like long scenes about wedding ceremonies and dinner parties, awkward dinners with your mom and girlfriend, friendly neighborhood Nazis casually discussing mass murder over hors d'oevres and some good measure of comedy then you will absolutely like or even love the first three episodes "One Year Later", "Sagrona Teema" and "Harvest". Everyone else should not be even reading this, but if you do, just hit that return key on your browser, Andor will not be for you, especially the first three episodes of season 2.

Krennic!

Every major and minor character from season 1 returns in season 2. There are no long explanations, the series just jumps right into action. And when I say "action" then the first arc has not all that much of it, you mostly get it early on, towards the very end and a little bit around the halfpoint. But just like season 1 Andor is mostly a character study. If you care about the characters and can admire stellar performances then Andor is a treat, if you want things to "happen" then Andor will bore you massively.

Meet a bunch of morons

The first season 2 movie has various mostly separate arcs, each follows one major character. First there is Cassian, who is tasked with stealing a super secret TIE Avenger prototype from Sienar shipyards. The second arc is about Mon Mothma's wedding party for her daughter from hell where literally everything falls apart while she has to pretend to be happy. Then we have Bix and the others who are all hiding on a farm planet, waiting for Cassian to return from his mission and as luck would have it there is an Imperial audit of the planet, what could ever go wrong? And lastly we also follow the Imperials, Krennic is a new addition to season 2 and he wants Dedra to work on a project for him. And, surprise surprise, Dedra and Syril are now a couple! And Syril's mom wants to meet his new girlfriend over dinner! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

One day this can all be yours, Office Minion No. 1138!

So we have four (well, four and a half really, because Luthen and his assistant Kleya do their own thing as well) separate plots and the episodes switch between all of them regularly. One might now assume that with these many plots a lot of things must happen. But in actuality not all that much happens really. Well, things do happen of course, but they are almost exclusively limited to the character level, but if you expect lots of explosions or major plot advancements then you will be out of luck.

Meet Mr Nice Guy!

Cassian's plot is easily the least eventful even if things happen. Cassian's plot is also pure comedy for two out of the three episodes. Which may feel odd since Andor is otherwise often a serious affair, but his story in the first three episodes only gets serious in the last part, before that it is a comedy of errors almost. You see, Cassian is supposed to steal a super secret super advanced TIE prototype. And the Rebellion failed to inform him how advanced the ship is and Cassian is entirely out of his depth when the training he received proves to be entirely useless. As he tries to escape the facility it feels almost like slapstick at times, including a mandatory scene of Cassian putting the TIE in reverse. But it works. It's fun but not over the top silly.

The most perfect couple in the entire galaxy!

Cassian's arc is off to a good start, we also get some action. But things screech to a halt when he meets the idiot rebels from hell. As Cassian arrives at the rendezvouz point with his contact it turns out his contact is dead and his buddies not only know nothing really about the mission, but believe Cassian is an actual Imperial test pilot. So of course they put him in shackles. And since they are all morons they eventually have a falling out, split up into two camps and fight each other. And this goes on entirely too long. I did not care for the idiot rebels from hell one bit.

I hope you love long speeches!

Mon Mothma's story may be divisive, If you enjoyed her dinner parties from hell in season 1 then her wedding ceremony for her silly daughter Leida will be a delight. If not... why are you even reading this then or watching Andor season 2? What should be a happy and joyous event turns out to be more and more of a nightmare for Mon Mothma. All the while we get prolongued speeches, observations of Chandrilan culture and I have to say these bits felt a lot more like Star Trek than anything else. Star Trek is famous for dedicating time to exploring other cultures and their traditions. And you will learn quite a bit about Chandrila here! Also, you must like long ceremonial dancing scenes because the episodes dedicate a lot of time to the bride and groom dancing until everything evolves into a kind of mass rave where everyone lets their hair down and has a good time. Well, all but Mon Mothma.

This is the funniest dinner scene ever

I will briefly summarise what happens: Mon Mothma was basically strongarmed into agreeing to give her daughter away like a piece of cattle in season 1. But to Mon Mothma's dismay her daughter is into this and wants to marry some idiot boy she doesn't know because it's "the tradition". Mon Mothma wants to spare her daughter her own fate, as you may remember Mon Mothma is in an arranged marriage herself and was given away when she was a teen, like her daughter. So Mon Mothma gives very sweet and very encouraging words to her daughter Leida, telling her she can call it all off and she'll always have her back, but Leida utterly despises her mom and coldly replies "I wish you WERE drunk!", referring to what Mon Mothma had told her before, who had wished her mother had shown her support instead of being drunk on her wedding day. To make matters worse Mon Mothma has to learn that her old friend Tay, the one who helped cover up her financial irregularities did the job, so Mon Mothma is safe... but meanwhile the rebellion has seriously hurt his investments and Tay is apparently having some money problems... and his wife left him... and Luthen, who is at the party under his antiquity dealer disguise (he procured a rare wedding gift for the father of the groom) informs Mon that Tay is cozying up to the father of the groom and that means Tay is a true liability now and they fear he could compromise the rebellion. And so Luthen will have to get rid of him, not he personally, but Cinta will do it who poses as a chauffeur. Much to the chagrin of Vel who has not heard from her (ex?) girlfriend in ages and sees her briefly without exchanging a single word.

Luthen has quite the gift!

Then we have Bix, Brasso and their friends on a farm planet. They are undercover and wait for Cassian to return. Easy? No! Because as luck would have it the Empire arrives, blacks out all external communication, because they want to audit the planet. And of course this is a major problem, because Bix, Brasso and the others are rebels and on the planet illegally. And of course the Empire arrives at their farm to audit the people there. Lieutenant "Nice Guy" is all affability and charm... until he wants to rape Bix because she's easily the most attractive woman on this planet. So things turn really dark. Bix kills the officer in self defense with a wrench, but the Empire now knows that something is very, very amiss. But before the Empire can arrest or kill them all Cassian arrives in his TIE prototype. He finally managed to outwit the morons and escaped with his TIE from Yavin of all places. He manages to shoot all the Imperials to Kingdom Come but there are victims. Brasso, one of Cassian's closest and, well, only friends is killed by a blaster shot. But at least Bix and the other few surviving members manage to escape.

I hope you like long scenes of people dancing!

Then there are the Imperials. Andor once more excels at showing us the banality of evil. Krennic and the other Imperials have their own little "Wannseekonferenz" (a Nazi gathering in WW2 where Nazi bigwigs debated the extermination of all Jews in Europe) and casually discuss plans to get access to a rare mineral that is needed for a super secret project (pshhhh, it's for the Death Star but Krennic does not tell anyone). And they are trying to think of ways to justify the eventual destruction of the planet, potentially killing all its inhabitants over hors d'oevres. You see, mining the minerals will destabilise the planet's core. Which is usually not good. And Krennic wants Dedra to help him find the right PR spin for this. She coldly suggests that they need useful rebel insurgents on the planet that would justify all this. Ah, good old Dedra! Cold, analytical and very smart. And she's in love!

Luthen does not make Mon Mothma happy

Off camera Syril (who is now something of a floor manager in the office from hell) and Dedra became an item! And Syril's mommy wants to meet his new girlfriend and wants to come over to Dedra's super luxurious apartment for dinner! So yes, anyone who enjoyed Syril eating fruit loops in season 1 while his mom treats him like a little kid will get more of that! So Syril's mom arrives at Dedra's super posh and really quite beautiful apartment and does what she loves doing... embarrassing her son. But she has met her match in Dedra who makes it very, very clear that she won't have any of that and that Syril is hers now to boss around! The dinner scene is another of the very funny bits in this arc. That is, if you enjoy dinner scenes and people talking.

Not so Mr Nice Guy shows his true colours!

So, as you can tell by the screenshots and what I have written so far Andor season 2 is exactly what you would have expected after season 1. Intimate character studies and a lot of serious and tragic things. People you may have cared about in season 1 die, then there is a scene with an attempted rape in Star Wars (a first, I believe) and that is all very heavy stuff. But then you also get the funny bits. Now season 1 also had absurd, almost kafkaesque comedy, so it should not come entirely as a surprise.

Only ever more sorrow and grief

All in all I think season 2 is off to a good start, but some things did not work all that well for me. For one, Cassian's story was brought down by the bit on Yavin with the morons who capture him and then bicker about pointless things. This was almost certainly played for laughs, and it is mildly amusing, but also by far the weakest part of the season opener in my opinion. And even worse, throughout most of it Cassian is very passive, reacting, an observer, quite frankly, Cassian felt like a guest star in his own series.

Mon Mothma dances to forget her own woes and sorrows for five minutes

To me it felt as if Mon Mothma is the true focus of this arc. Now on the surface her wedding party for her daughter is entirely uneventful. But on a character level so many things happen here. And of course all the performances by the actors are outstanding, every single actor in this series gives his or her very best. And it's easily the very best acting in any of the Star Wars movies or shows ever. No contest. Mon Mothma tries to juggle her life as a mother and wife, a senator and secret co-leader of the rebellion and her entire world is slowly falling apart. Her husband thinks she has an affair with her old friend, said old friend needs to get killed because he is becoming a danger to the cause, her own daughter hates her with a deep passion and Mon Mothma is falling apart inside while she has to maintain a happy face. So she does what one does... she starts drinking and then just dances. Just to forget about her hell of a life for a few moments.

Vel is not really in a happy place...

Andor, once again, also does a great job with depicting the banality of evil. And it also shows us that the people working for the system, doing very evil things, are not just all psychos or crazy people. It would be much too easy to say these people are just crazy. They are not. They are just convinced what they are doing is for the greater good. Dedra is a good example. She is not a psychopath. She apparently loves Syril, she even, in her own way, defends him and puts his insufferable mother into her place. And all the other Imperials at the meeting previously treat this like yet another office meeting with cookies and snacks. And then we have people like Lieutenant Nice Guy, the banal face of evil who knows exactly that people will fear him and who enjoy their power. So he wants to abuse and rape Bix, because he feels he's entitled to that and that she can do nothing. But he's not cartoonishly evil. I suppose Mr Nice Guy would have been a regular person under different circumstances, but power corrupts people. Very easily. Andor truly excels in these moments.

You should see Bix on a bad day....

I also want to once more praise the set and costume design of Andor. Andor is exorbitantly expensive, crazy expensive, but it is also the only Disney+ Star Wars series that actually looks expensive. You can see the money! The show had a metric ton of extras at Mon Mothma's party and each and every one is wearing the most lavish costumes. About the costumes, especially the females look very fetching with their dresses, Leida's wedding dress is simply lovely, but the men with their faux Japanese outfits also look very stunning. So kudos to costume designer Michael Wilkinson, who also worked on movies like Tron Legacy or several modern DC movies. And of course the camera work is also outstanding. On a technical and set design level Andor is without a doubt the very best you get on Disney+.

Some people will never find happiness

But as mentioned I feel that this first arc/movie is stil missing something. While I enjoyed most of the movie (other than the much too long sequence on Yavin) and while the characters were explored in detail, not much really happened, not as far as the major plot is concerned. While I think that exploring the characters is very rewarding the 2 1/2 hour movie should have had also some more "oomph" when it comes to actual plot. Because what did we really see? Cassian steals a TIE prototype and after a short detour arrives in the nick of time to rescue his friends from the Imperials on a farm planet. Mon Mothma throws a wedding party for her silly daughter. And Dedra and Syril have dinner with Syril's mom. What I am saying is that the actual rebellion itself played not even second fiddle here, but no fiddle at all really. And I feel we should have seen a bit more about that here. But maybe this will be covered in future arcs.

Yavin!

As is the first three episodes were a very solid and even good introduction to season 2. But it really is not like Star Wars at all, at least when we talk about what most people associate with Star Wars. Certainly not explorations of other cultures, extended dancing scenes, wedding parties and dinner scenes. Andor feels in these moments more like a Jane Austen BBC serial where balls, dancing and dinner scenes are of utmost importance. Anyone who loves Jane Austen will certainly appreciate the slow burn here, the time dedicated to the characters, their inner turmoil. And even secondary characters like Vel are not forgotten about. The series does not ever neglect its characters. Other than Cassian maybe, at least here, which is odd. His arc was by far the least interesting, even if, for the most part, pretty funny and absurd. But Cassian as a character is not really explored in these three episodes or only on a much more superficial level (he can be nice, he is resourceful, he cares deeply for his friends), unlike all the other characters here, and this is because he was passive for much of his own story here.

Andor has outstanding costume and set design

Ultimately I feel this is not the best Andor arc yet, I feel that some may find these episodes much too slow, with too much focus on dancing, talking and weddings in general. I rate this first movie (and it really is a movie) a very solid 7/10 or 3.5 out of 5 holocrons. My favourite parts were the wedding, everything about the Empire, and the hilarious dinner with Syril's mom, but the bits on the farm planet and everything on Yavin were not as interesting and even somewhat predictable maybe. I am not saying these bits were bad. They were not. Just a bit too drawn out maybe and everyone knew what would happen anyway.