‘Andor’ Episode 11 Review: ‘Daughter of Ferrix’ Is All About Setting up the Grand Season Finale
With Daughter of Ferrix, Andor begins its final arc of season 1 following last week’s rollercoaster of an episode. Episode 11 takes a step back and instead of trying to deliver a two-punch season finale, Tony Gilroy used this opportunity to move around all the chess pieces around the board so that everything is in place for next week’s grand finale. But even though this fell inside the “slower episodes” category, it featured one of the most authentically Star Wars scenes in the entire season. Let’s dive in!
Spoilers ahead for Andor episode 11, Daughter of Ferrix
With Kino Loy an ocean behind us now, Gilroy proved that every time Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael is on screen, the show is firing on all cylinders. And so is he, by the way — the highlight of the episode for me was probably the escape sequence from the Empire in space. It was one of the few action scenes in the first season that felt like Star Wars, and not just because of lightsaber-like blades coming out of the ship — I didn’t know how much I missed TIE fighters being deployed and starting to fire until I saw it again. Or an Imperial officer being left open-mouthed when the rebel cell he was chasing got away. And especially, Imperials underestimating a rebel ship that looks like a piece of junk. And everything I love about it was then topped by the visual of Luthen destroying the big antenna on the ship.
Luthen had just come out of a meeting with Saw Gerrera to warn him against joining Anto Kreegyr on their mission. Forest Whitaker, upon realizing who he was dealing with exactly, had an emotional meltdown in front of Skarsgård. What else is he hiding? He is the know-it-all guy that will only tell you what you need to know, and that’s potentially very dangerous. This is Andor at its best, when it’s exploring the many layers of war and the toll it can bring. It is what made Luthen’s speech last week so impactful, and what made this scene work. This is probably the last we’ve seen of Saw this season, and I really have no idea where Luthen will go next. As we’ll explore in a moment, most plotlines are inevitably going to converge on Ferrix in the next episode, and at some point, Luthen and Andor will reconcile. But will that happen now, or will we have to wait for season 2?
There is another interesting development parallel to Luthen’s subplot. According to the scene where we see Bix quickly in this episode, the Empire thinks that Axis might be Kreegyr, and it is unclear whether Bix confirms this or not. If they take it as a “no”, I wonder if they will go for Kreegyr after all, knowing that he may not be the man they are looking for. If so, Saw’s reaction to Luthen potentially having lied to him again would be something to watch.
Going back to Ferrix now, I predicted in last week’s review that Maarva would be biting the dust — or rather turning into a brick — by the end of the season, especially given that small hint. But I never thought we wouldn’t be seeing her again. I guess this is another instance of Gilroy telling us why this is Cassian’s show — we are seeing key events unfold from his point of view. In episode 10, the last we saw from Kino Loy was exactly the last thing Cassian saw as he was thrown down into the ocean. And now, much like Cassian, we didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to Maarva. Unlike Cassian, though, we did get to see her one last time in episode 8.
We see in the episode that Cassian and Melshi are having some trouble going unnoticed from Imperial ships after getting to the beach, but that quickly goes away when they encounter two of the least Star Wars-looking aliens we’ve seen so far. They hop on a ship, and we don’t see them again until the end of the episode, when Cassian makes contact with Ferrix and he’s told about Maarva’s fate. This was the final key to unlock the door that will take us to next week’s finale, as all storylines except for Mon Mothma’s were moved forward by the idea of Cassian Andor going back to Ferrix for his mother’s funeral.
Dedra Meero cameos here to tell the officers on Ferrix to set up a trap for the Daughters of Ferrix and any other rebel scum that might take the bait. Sergeant Mosk also makes a quick appearance to let Syril Karn know of Maarva’s death and how that might attract Karn’s big bounty. So by the beginning of the next episode, we are probably looking at Syril, Luthen, Cinta, Bix, and Cassian all meeting on Ferrix, with Dedra potentially involved as well. The only main character missing is Mon Mothma, who got a surprising development this week.
Mothma met up with Auntie Vel again and explained to the audience exactly what is going on with her financials and how much trouble she’s in. It’s clear that she will end up marrying her daughter off to Davo Sculdun’s son, but I thought the big dramatic arc would be for her daughter to accept her mom’s difficult decision. And here comes Tony Gilroy once again, doing with Andor exactly the opposite of what one would have expected. Mothma’s daughter still has no idea what her mother is plotting, but apparently, she’s all for the idea of getting married early and following the Chandrilan traditions. We know that, at some point, mother and daughter will be split apart, but whether or not it will be this marriage proposal that does it… is still up in the air.
While Genevieve O’Reilly’s performance is better in every episode, I still feel like her character was a bit wasted in season 1. Her entire subplot could have been handled inside a three-episode arc, and we would be much further along with her character by the end of the season. She hasn’t made much progress, and what once was going to be Cassian and Mon Mothma’s show, has now been relegated to the Kino Loy and Luthen Rael show. Let us remember that, in the poster, Cassian and Mon Mothma are the two biggest floating heads, potentially hinting they would be the two primary characters. And while they’ve been major parts of the show, they are both afterthoughts in any Andor discussion.
All in all, this episode was about setting up what will surely be an amazing season finale. It’s just unfortunate it came after the series’ best episode and didn’t really move the plot forward a lot. The common thread of Maarva’s untimely death is what holds it together, but that can only get you so far. I am beyond excited for next week’s though, as I have a feeling it will feel like a true season finale — an episode where all the storylines converge to give a satisfying conclusion to the series and set up the next season.
If you want more takes on the latest episode of Andor, here is James Baney’s quick video reaction to Daughter of Ferrix:
James, John Hoey, and Lacey Gilleran will assemble tonight during TRB Live! (at 9pm EST) to discuss the new episode. You can watch here.
What did you think of the episode? Are you looking forward to the finale? Let us know in the comments below!
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.
