Andor – The Axe Forgets Review

Well, my new favorite Andor character might just be Syril’s meddling mother Eedy (the great Kathryn Hunter), who in just a couple of scenes has added not only a layer of humor to the tense proceedings of the series, but also enough character shading to Syril to make him more than the two-dimensional baddie the series had crafted up until this point. We certainly understand where he gets his drive and his need to succeed – while it’s a tad stereotypical, he doesn’t want to be home, with his mother, being treated like a failure. And that push will certainly be what it takes to keep him on Cassian’s trail moving forward – even if turning him into a slightly less deadly and driven Inspector Javert isn’t my favorite idea for the series.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. “The Axe Remembers,” the fifth of the twelve-episode debut season for Andor continued the show’s trajectory of building tension around the show’s exceptionally realized cast of characters, firmly cementing the series’ place as the best Star Wars property produced in years. With the story split into four subsections (Syril, Aldhani and Cassian, Rebel Coruscant, and Imperial Coruscant), the series continues to balance the arcs well – it helps that all of them are, in some way, connected to our title character, even if characters don’t know it yet – making sure to provide just enough new information to keep building the key characters while letting the plot unspool in an organic manner.

On Coruscant, Lucien is worried that the heist on Aldhani will hit a snag and fail – and even more worried that with two participants who trace back to him (that would be Vel Sartha – who seemed to have a deeper connection to him than just hired gun in last week’s episode; perhaps his daughter? – and now Cassian, whose own cover is blown within the team by episode’s end) – and Mon Mothma is dealing with a snarky teenager (nice to see that no matter when or where in the galaxy, teenagers continue to be petulant and hate their parents) along with a spoiled jerk of a husband who seems to be entertaining all the most problematic individuals currently in power on the planet. While I’m sure her coming estrangement from her husband (and daughter) will be painful, I’m betting there’s going to be a decent sized part of her that’s happy to have rid herself of her idiot of a husband.

At the Imperial Security Bureau, Dedra is still trying to track down just where that Starpath Unit was stolen from, and, in a particularly impressive feat of deduction, figures out that the various thefts of key Imperial tech over the past year or so have been “too random to be random.” It’s rare for Star Wars to present us with capable bureaucratic characters, but between Dedra and Syril (who knew exactly what to do but was just way too overzealous in his execution), it’s looking like we might have a very dangerous duo if the series were to get the pair together and let them work out just what this Rebellion is trying to do. I suspect if the Aldhani heist goes off without a hitch (or is at least successful), we might just see our Javert and Dedra finding their way to one another. On the other end of the Bureau, we get to see that Ferrix is about to get an actual Imperial outpost, which one hopes means we’ll get a bit more time on the planet moving forward.

And then there’s Aldhani. It’s here that I want to provide a special kudos to the episode’s writer, Dan Gilroy, for managing to provide key exposition and character development without making it feel clunky (something that occurs far too frequently with Star Wars properties). We learn key reasons for several of our rebel characters’ hatred for the Imperial occupation – reasons that both help flesh out the characters and provide a picture of who they were before this danger arrived on their doorstep. Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Skeen, in particular, is fleshed out nicely, helping us to understand that he’s not yet over his loss and is desperate (although he doesn’t want to show it) to inflict the same pain on the faceless enemy that hurt him. The axe forgets, but the tree remembers. It’s a nifty and deftly crafted piece of writing. And, in a true first for Star Wars, we are introduced to the first live action queer relationship – and, JJ Abrams, you can include queer characters in an organic and non-flashy way – between Vel and Cinta, who doesn’t seem particularly happy her girlfriend neglected to tell her about Cassian’s origins as a mercenary. Although, with all this key character development happening on the eve of a massive heist – we also get to see a bit more about Nemik, who is innocent and lovely, and Taramyn, who is gruff and focused – one can’t help but worry that not everyone will be making it out of the mission alive. My money is on Nemik being a casualty, largely because they’ve turned him into such a sweet, lovely character, so his loss would hurt the most.

Like last week, it’s clear this episode is meant to slot nicely into an unbroken narrative rather that exist as a single episode of television. However, unlike last week, the final beat of the episode felt like a clean ending point and was much less abrupt. My worry about losing the narrative thrust of the story by structuring episodes as slices of a whole and not crafted singular stories still stands – binging Andor will likely be a stronger experience than watching it weekly – but the episode was still a great outing in storytelling. As someone who was not all that excited for this series when it was announced, I remain amazed at how well-crafted it has been. The story is taut, the characters complex and interesting, and the performances are uniformly strong. Time will tell if it can keep this up over the remaining seven episodes of this season, but I’m excited to see it try.