Episode seven of Andor – ‘The Announcement’ – marks a moment of reflection for our key characters. Having lost the majority of the rebel crew that undertook the heist on Aldhani, Cassian returns to his adoptive mother Maarva (Fiona Shaw) on Ferrix to find his local community broken and oppressed by the freshly entrenched Imperial presence that his actions brought about. Whilst left devastated by the loss of crewmates like Nemik, Cassian is clearly still operating upon a take-the-money-and-run logic, to the dismay of Maarva’s increasing political defiance – openly walking the streets in confidence despite Imperial rule.
Elsewhere, Luthen quietly basks in the success of his plan, having dealt a sizable blow to Imperial infrastructure and resources. Viewed by some as nothing more than a terrorist attack (we see the Empire’s propagandist take on the events through the filter of Coruscant’s equivalent of Fox News), ISB officer Meero (Denise Gough) sees the attack for what it really is, an ‘announcement’ that rebel forces are here to stay, and they aren’t going to go down quietly. Core to this episode is an extended dinner party sequence that sees Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma attempt to secure funding through an old friend and now banker, Kolma – a cat-and-mouse exchange which sees the pair tread carefully toward the shared realisation that their ideological stance against the Emporer is one and the same.
Whilst ‘The Announcement’ takes a step back from the action set-pieces of last week’s ‘The Eye’, none of the tension has dissipated, with screenwriter Stephen Schiff’s storytelling capturing the societal and political unease brought about Luthen’s victory, prompting a reactionary ISB to enact harsh and disproportionate new punishments to be dealt out to anyone that dares put a step out of line, something that Cassian himself is unable to escape. In the episode’s conclusion, our titular hero finds himself the victim of these Orwellian policies, sentenced to six years imprisonment for minor offenses (unrelated to his involvement in the heist) after finding himself caught in the midst of a minor altercation whilst laying low on the planet Niamos. ‘Take it up with the Emperor’ an indifferent judge remarks as she condemns Cassian for the crimes of ‘looking around’ suspiciously. Its depiction of police brutality and an indifferent if not entirely corrupt justice system once again proudly asserts the show’s driving critique of totalitarian control.
As in previous weeks, Andor continues to brilliantly showcase a side of Star Wars that forefronts, not the explicit conflicts and experience of war, but the ideological and political maneuvering that underpins such hostilities, emblematic of that old adage that ‘the first casualty of war, is truth’.
Notes from the Multiplex 