‘Andor’ Episode 8 Review: ‘Narkina 5’ and the New Galactic Order
Toby Haynes returns to direct the latest episode of Andor, scripted by Beau Willimon, where the Empire continues to exercise its full power over the galaxy. It is the beginning of yet another three-episode arc after the deviation from that structure that episode 7 gave us last week, and once again, it feels as mostly set-up for what’s to come.
The seventh episode followed the traditional three-act structure, with a beginning, middle, and end, while Narkina 5 is very much the beginning. And yet, the overall cohesiveness of the episode was beautifully achieved, with Willimon still managing to include some set-ups that were later paid off in most of the subplots in the episode, and through masterful editing happening all around. And those cameos too!
Spoilers ahead for Andor episode 8…
There is one overall theme that links together all the storylines in this episode: order. The Empire is seeking it without thinking twice about the consequences, while the soon-to-be Rebellion is questioning what that means. We see how this ambition from one side brings up the worst in some people, such as the prison guards, and the best in others, as we witness with Mon Mothma, Luthen, and the people from Ferrix.
The beginning of this episode was quite interesting, with three storylines running parallel to each other. On the one hand, we have Cassian learning to navigate Narkina 5 after having an unpleasant welcome by the guards and a fascinating character played by none other than Andy Serkis! His character is very unique among the people there; he clearly has no love for the Empire nor the people representing it inside the prison, but he is no Rebel either. He wants to finish his sentence and part ways with everyone in that facility. Meanwhile, Andor’s companions are questioning whether he’ll ever be able to do that — according to them, nobody leaves Narkina 5 until the Empire says so. For this reason, it will be interesting to see, once Cassian and his new friends plot their inevitable escape, who Serkis will side with. Will it be with the Empire, seeking a commutation of his 219 days left, or with the Rebels, seeking a quicker escape than what the Empire will ever provide him? If this were any other show, I would be arguing for the latter, but with the complex characters that Andor is dealing with, I’m actually going with the former.
In the first 30 minutes of the episode, we follow Cassian through the facility as he gets used to his new life and meets new people. But the editors deliberately cut away to two other storylines in key points. We first go with Dedra Meero, who after seven episodes, finally meets her soulmate in Syril Karn, though it’s not exactly love at first sight. Dedra is mostly annoyed by him, though this is definitely the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The other storyline is Mon Mothma’s — trying to survive another dinner party while looking to fund the Rebel Alliance. Things are about to get really messy for her, as her husband clearly had something to do with Tay’s quick disappearance.
The overall point here is to establish how the Empire, through officials scared out of their minds given what happened in Aldhani, is moving even faster than initially expected to establish order. The Public Order Resentencing Directive was recently passed to make sure that Imperial criminals stay incarcerated for longer than their initial sentences, as a means to further make sure public order is in place.
The most interesting thing about this show is how it presents layers upon layers of complicated threads. Palpatine overreacted to what happened in Aldhani by keeping the galaxy’s most dangerous people out of the streets for a longer period of time. After years of public disarray, the galaxy was finally reaching levels of safety again. It’s fascinating how it’s not hard to side with the Imperials in this episode. Was the new legislation an overreaction to a singular incident? Maybe. But the Empire, and Dedra Meero in particular, is right to think that it will not be the only one to come, and they are also preventing the spread of the disease. In fact, while Cassian’s sentence was unfair to say the least, the Empire also got their hands on one of the most dangerous criminals in the entire galaxy by overreaching.
“Do you feel under threat?”, asks Mon Mothma in this episode to a fellow politician. Of course, the answer is not. They are, quite literally, above everyone else on Coruscant. They are among some of the richest people in the entire galaxy, and have enough resources to guarantee a good life even if they left their job today. But none of them were in Aldhani fighting off terrorists, or had their income cut off like the Imperial officials there. If the episode were to make an open case for galactic fascism, it obviously wouldn’t work. But through a lot of subtlety, Gilroy and Willimon were able to show us both sides here. A lot of innocent people suffered from the P.O.R.D. and the unfair, newly installed justice system of the Empire. And yet, a lot of people also were killed in Aldhani, Ferrix, and soon in many other places, due to Rebel activity. It’s interesting how the most righteous character in the show could end up being Dedra Meero.
At the same time, the episode also shows us what happens when a political regime puts the wrong people in charge of public order. Unsupervised prison officials are essentially doing whatever they want in Narkina 5, effectively enslaving their prisoners and torturing them at will. Nobody would blink an eye if they decided to kill any of them, and that’s essentially what they do at the end of the episode. The man that stepped outside of his cell may have killed himself, but the Empire gave him the weapon and was ultimately responsible for him making that decision.
The second half of the show presents two additional subplots running parallel to Narkina 5. First, we have Bix desperately looking for Cassian after she sees Maarva is too far gone. It’s a desperate move that goes nowhere as Luthen cuts off all communications with Ferrix, leaving her alone. And if that wasn’t enough, Dedra’s new alliance with Syril Karn is paid off here when he is able to identify Bix and her two partners in crime. We assume this is what happened, at least — Syril did run into the three of them in Ferrix, and we know that the Empire is for now deaf to the communications between Ferrix and Luthen. Fortunately, Cinta and Vel are on the ground there and might come to the rescue soon. We are still in for one tortuous interrogation of Bix though. Will Dedra find out whether she’s a fish or a thief?
And finally, we have Luthen, who visits his old friend Saw Gerrera. Before we get into the meat of this scene, I just have to say that one of the best parts of the episode was Luthen and Saw playing cat and mouse over who did the Aldhani attack. Marvelous writing. However, his visit to Saw is also key to the overall theme of order, because Forest Whitaker’s character may have an alternative answer to the paradox presented earlier in the episode with the political fight between Rebels and Imperials. What about anarchy? Would that be such a bad answer? I’ll let the reader make the argument in the comments!
This back-and-forth between the two characters was probably my favorite part of the episode. Not because of the already-announced cameo by Saw Gerrera, but because of how deep the dialogue was between the two of them. I’ve been saying for a while that this show should not only focus on the early days of the fight between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, but also on how divided the Rebels were at the beginning, not just physically but philosophically as well. We saw a glimpse of that in Rogue One, but we truly have a golden opportunity here to explore it. Luthen and Mon Mothma’s encounters earlier this season already teased this, and this was the perfect continuation of that. I would eat up an entire episode of the show that was just different people from different sides inside the Alliance, putting all of their different views on the table. A 45-minute episode of pure dialogue, almost like a play. Give it to me now.
With all of that said, I still lament the fact that, despite the show’s title, the Cassian Andor storyline is arguably the least interesting. This already happened last week, and while this episode was a bit stronger on that end, I was still hoping for less Cassian and more Luthen, Bix, or Mon Mothma. I am more excited about what this arc is setting up than I was with episodes 1 and 4, so I am very much looking forward to seeing how next week’s episode plays out, even if I think the weaker episodes of the series so far have been the middle ones inside each arc. Let’s hope they change my mind this time.
If you are looking for a different take on the episode than mine, make sure to check out James Baney’s immediate reaction to episode 8 of Andor, and look forward to TRB Live! tonight, where John, James, and Lacey will be discussing Narkina 5 in all detail.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
