‘Andor’ Episode 10 Review: ‘One Way Out’ Is the Most Emotional Episode of the Show So Far

It’s hard to deny at this point that Andor has split the Star Wars fanbase in two. Maybe not to the point that The Last Jedi did, but the underlying question may be essentially the same — what do we understand by Star Wars? As I’ve argued before, there is no wrong answer to this question, and we shouldn’t be surprised that, when a new interpretation arises disguised as a new project, part of the fanbase will immediately reject it because it doesn’t match what we’ve been getting lately. Andor deals with some of the classic Star Wars themes of rebellion, oppression by and rejection of totalitarian regimes, and fundamental questions about life and ourselves. However, it is definitely more sci-fi dystopian future than it is the escapist space opera that George Lucas created with A New Hope, and that is definitely a valid argument for some people to reject the show as “not my Star Wars.”

 

So what does this have to do with episode 10, exactly? (Spoilers ahead for One Way Out!) Well, I’m still on the fence about whether this show feels like the Star Wars I enjoy or not, but what I wholeheartedly believe is that Andor is some of the best televised storytelling we’ve seen this year. I will not get into the argument of comparing it to previous shows from other networks or even Disney Plus, but I know I haven’t been this glued to the screen while watching an episode of TV many times in recent memory. One Way Out, once again, thrilled me to the point that I no longer know what’s my favorite episode, storyline, or character. Luthen Rael has been the most interesting character so far to me, but I can’t really argue against Andy Serkis’ Kino Loy now. Luthen’s subplot has also been the one I’ve been craving to go back to every episode, while Cassian’s has been the least appealing of them all, but that changed here. Had the prison break been 15 minutes longer, I wouldn’t have complained, because it was just so well written and executed. Cassian finally stepped up after sleeping through a few past episodes, which may seem ironic given the name of the show.

 

(L-R): Kino Loy (Andy Serkis) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

 

There are many reasons why episode 10 was the most emotional of the series so far, but the elephant in the room is definitely Kino Loy’s supposed death. It was clear to me from the moment I hit play that we wouldn’t be seeing Andy Serkis past this episode, and I was waiting for the moment it would happen. I thought he wouldn’t make it out of the control room alive, but that would have been a cheap trick that would have ultimately undermined Kino’s character arc. Beau Willimon, who wrote all three episodes in this arc, knew better than that, and after giving us a gut-wrenching speech that would have made Peter Jackson proud, he also gave us hope by getting him out of the room. In any other show, prison guards would have stormed the control room, and/or the two surviving officers inside of it (one of which looked remarkably similar to a young Orson Krennic, but the dates don’t match) would have tried to strike back as well. But this is no regular show, and the prison break was never about the fight between the prisoners and the guards, but about giving us the best character arc possible for Cassian and Kino.

 

And then, when we thought we’d just be getting a few insignificant casualties from the entire sequence and our main characters would make it out, Andy Serkis stops for a moment (causing a bottleneck effect behind him, may I add) and pronounces the most painful three words of the series so far: “I can’t swim.” I’m even getting chills now looking back. I knew he would die, but among all the painful ways Willimon could have come up with to kill him off, this was definitely the most tragic of them. He orchestrated the prison break and he was one of the few left behind, simply because he couldn’t make the last jump. If only those men around him knew, they would have definitely carried him over to the shore. But he will go down as a martyr, and we, much like Cassian, will have to remember him never knowing what happened. In fact, the moment was even more tragic because we’re seeing it through Cassian’s eyes — the last moment we see Kino is from Cassian’s perspective, and the scene was as chaotic for us as it was for him. I sincerely hope we never get another writer to pick up the baton from here and tell us what happened later. It felt perfect this way.

 

One final note about this: Andy Serkis may have just given the best performance of his career in these three episodes, and I seriously think he should be the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor at the Emmys next year, at least until Succession storms every acting category. I can’t think of a single argument why he wouldn’t be one of the best actors working today, especially when you consider his versatility — Andor and The Batman were released seven months apart, and there is nothing from Serkis’ performance in the latter that even resembles what he did in the former, and vice versa. And he was just amazing in both.

 

(Center, left): Kino Loy (Andy Serkis) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

 

Kino’s apparent death was not the only emotional moment of the episode though. We also got a couple of scenes with Stellan Skarsgård, and especially the second one gave us so much insight into his state of mind. We first find out in the elevator that Robert Emms’ Lonni is a double agent who is also working for Luthen. Dissecting this scene is worth an entire book chapter, so I’ll do my best to present my main takeaways in a couple of paragraphs. Starting from the top, we just learn so much about Luthen when we realize he’s got spies everywhere. He’s the one in control, and he decides what each of them needs to know. He refuses to take credit for Aldhani, possibly because he’s three chess moves ahead and thinks that could bite him in the ass later. It’s best that the Empire thinks this is not a centralized movement.

 

Lonni then reveals their next move is a trap, and if they don’t act quickly, they are going to lose a lot of men. “You are worth more than 50 men,” Luthen says to him, which I think is one of the most interesting lines of the entire episode. With that sentence alone, not only do we learn so much about what their relationship over the past six years has been, but can also foresee that Luthen has great plans for Lonni. Plans that are worth more than 50 men. That alone sets up the entire second season, and made me really intrigued about what Tony Gilroy and company have in store for us. The stakes have just been raised even higher. But this also leads directly into the heart of the scene, when Luthen tells us/Lonni what he’s had to sacrifice. It’s his entire morality. He thinks of this conflict as a war where only one side can survive, and he’s willing to sacrifice his entire personality, to lose himself in the fight, in order for everyone else to have what he gave up long ago.

 

Had Dedra Meero said the “50 men” line, we would all be here saying “the Empire is just the worst, they have no value for human life.” And to a point, there is nothing that separates Luthen’s ruthlessness from the Empire’s, which poses the question “Who should really win here? Is one side more deserving than the other?” The answer was just given by Luthen. The Empire wants to win to remain in power and keep their lack of morality as the galactic standard. Luthen is willing to match their efforts and spin that to bring morality back as the galactic standard.

 

Andor - Luthen Rael
Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

 

There was yet another emotional punch in the episode that we should discuss — Mon Mothma, in her efforts to move around enough money to contribute financially to the rising Rebel Alliance, is at a crossroads. She was right to think that Davo Sculdun’s involvement would not be good news, because he just presented her with the biggest threat to her way of life yet. Mothma has known for a while that, at some point, she will have to sacrifice everything. And she was willing to do that — her money, her Senate seat, even her hateful husband. But the critical hour came before she expected it, and she’s being asked to put on the line what she didn’t think of. Her daughter. Or her daughter’s hand, to be more specific.

 

I’ve also been guessing for a while that mother and daughter would not end the series together, but I thought she’d just be killed off at some point by the Empire, and that would force Mothma to give herself to the Rebellion. I was just discussing how much Luthen had to sacrifice for everyone else to have the life they deserve, and what a sign of great writing to, in the same episode, have Mon Mothma have a similar moment. I fully believe she will end up accepting after being swayed by some other party involved, and that’s what will finally push her away from her family. I’ve been somewhat disappointed in Mothma’s presence this season, partly because I was expecting more, but also because her struggles have not felt very real or relatable up until now. But that just changed in a single scene.

 

Andor - Davo Sculdun
(L-R): Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

 

And last but not least, we have the set up for a potential affecting moment in the next two episodes, as Maarva seems to be in health trouble. I’ve been convinced for a while that she would not make it to season 2, but it’s one thing to foresee that and another to experience it. We don’t know exactly what is going on, but we see Cinta in this quick scene, likely setting up the two subplots finally merging in the two-part finale coming up.

 

All in all, Andor is just amazing storytelling that I am enjoying more as a television show than an entry in the Star Wars franchise. I think that is also very fair to the creators, as it’s essentially what Tony Gilroy has been trying to tell us for a long time, but I am not sure yet whether it’s what I wanted to see. I’m also a bit dubious about the three-episode arcs, in part because episode 7 deviated from that and still managed to deliver an outstanding episode inside the complete premise of the show, but also because the episode in the middle has always felt a bit lackluster to me. However, that is always compensated by the third episode, which once again, was the highlight of the arc. I am very much looking forward to the next two episodes.

 

If you are looking for more opinions on Andor episode 10, check out John Hoey’s video reaction to One Way Out:

 

 

The Resistance Broadcast will be live tonight to discuss the episode in detail, at 9pm EST. You can watch here.

 

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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.

Miguel Fernandez

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.

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