Andor Season 1 Ep. 6 Review: Heist Goes Wrong In Episode Done Right

Andor episode six is the first time, in nearly the whole season, where the entire episode focuses on Cassian and Cassian alone. If there is one thing that this show has done a lot of, it’s making sure that we know what the other supporting players are up to. While that is a good thing, there are some interesting characters exploring fascinating dynamics; this is a show called Andor, so let’s focus on the title character. This time, it’s all about the heist that the little ragtag team of rebels has been planning for the last two episodes. The only times we jump back to Mon, Luthen, or anyone else is at the very end when they are reacting to the heist.

The heist itself is an exercise in meticulous planning and ineptitude, which is the rebellion at the end of the day. These people aren’t professional thieves, so they weren’t going to have a perfect Ocean’s Eleven moment because they couldn’t execute something like that. They had practiced marching in formation so no one would second guess whether they were soldiers, but they were chronically behind schedule, mostly due to Vel hesitating at the last minute. They knew exactly how to bypass the safe and get to the money, but the sheer amount of the money slowed them down even more. They knew how they would get all that money on the ship, but they didn’t tie any of it down, which inevitably cost them Nemik’s life. Skeen was the closest they had to a proper thief, and when the moment was there for him to truly cover Taramyn and save his life, Skeen stayed in cover and protected himself, allowing Tamaryn to die. One could argue Skeen betrayed the group long before he convinced Vel to divert the ship to try and save Nemik’s life, which was only a ploy so he could try and take the money for himself.

It was a complete disaster from start to finish, and it was fascinating to watch this thing that everyone had spent so much time planning just fall apart in the heist version of “death by a thousand cuts.” The previous episode hinted that something like this was going to happen when Cassian discovered that their exit strategy was completely flawed and they would have been screwed without him. There is something to be said about Skeen and his betrayal at the end of the episode. Money does things to people, it was one of the reasons the heist nearly failed, and it’s clear that he was taking advantage of Nemik getting fatally injured for his own gains. Cassian shooting him without remorse or hesitation before Skeen could compromise things further is more of that operating in shades of grey. Our main character has killed two people in cold blood in this series alone. The first one was self-defense [sort of], but you could see throughout Diego Luna’s performance how conflicted he was both before and after he pulled the trigger.

The reveal that Skeen’s brother either didn’t exist or died under different circumstances is the kind of gut punch Andor has been balancing really well. One could argue that scene was an incredible way of demonstrating how the Empire kills people without even pulling the trigger, a family tragedy told as a form of an apology, and it was all a lie. That seemed to be the thing that really tipped Cassian over the edge and made him pull the trigger. It looked like he might be starting to believe for a little while. Skeen’s story touched him as another person who lost family to the Empire through indirect means. That not being real was like the ice broke under his feet and just dropped Cassian into a frozen lake. It was the reminder that people aren’t in this for the right reasons and idealists like Nemik aren’t the future. Would Cassian have pulled that trigger if Skeen hadn’t revealed that his brother was a lie? Maybe, maybe not.

This episode is also a perfect example of how the Empire deals with people without genocide. We hear about them manipulating locals and using their own customs against them until they have been broken down, little by little, that fighting back isn’t an option. One thing that this show has done that is fascinating is showing how banal evil can be. In this case, they set up taverns to discourage pilgrims from coming to the sacred area to witness The Eye. Belief is powerful and fewer pilgrims means that fewer people out there believe. It’s pretending to respect local culture while insulting it and saying that their stubbornness is something that has been exploited. It’s the red tape of the ISB and the little ways they are breaking the galaxy down. It’s not as blatant as executing people, but Andor isn’t being subtle when it is trying to draw your attention to this. The show is trying to tell us that the descent into fascism will not be what you think it will be, and these are the red flags you must watch out for. “Here are the tactics that the Empire used to nearly win,” Andor tells the viewers, “take note of them and keep an eye out for someone using them in the real world.”

We had another callback [or would it be foreshadowing?] to Rogue One in this episode as Nemik yelled “climb” as he lay dying trying to do something impossible. It’s the same way K-2SO will die at Scarif, and it’s always interesting to see how Andor has decided it wants to mirror the movie that will follow it. The final scenes of this episode show everyone reacting to the heist and how the crew got away with a massive sum of money. Perhaps the consequences of this heist will be the story that we’ll be following for the latter half of the season. Again with the pacing things, we’ll have to see what next week brings to the table.

Andor Season 1 Episode 6 “The Eye”

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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9/10

Disney+ & Lucasfilm’s Andor Season 1 Episode 6 shows off the heist that has been in the works and how something so meticulously planned can still fall apart through human error.