Andor – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5 of Andor starts with Syril back home with his mum. She nags him constantly, pointing out how he’s a disappointment and that he has no prospects for the future.

Meanwhile, Cassian Andor wakes up and prepares for the assault. One of the men, Skeen, is there for revenge, with tattoos on his body that speak volumes about his past. Cinta is apparently the toughest one among them, while this plan rests squarely on Lieutenant Gorn following through as their informant. Can they trust him though? As we mull this over, the downtime allows us to meet a number of the different players and where their values lie – and why they’re doing this.

Unfortunately, there’s a big problem with the plan. The group have no idea how to get the ship off the rail and had every intention of just winging it before Cassian himself arrived apparently; figuring it out as they go along. As Andor knows these ships, he decides to take control and fly the ship out of there himself.

In order to put this plan into action, they intend to sneak Cassian in as an Imperial Private, along with several other of the men. Andor offers some words of wisdom, pointing out that the formation should be switched around to favour their preferred shooting hands. There are Imperial walks, schematic studying and an ever-vigilant watchful eye on the incoming TIE fighters.

However, things come undone when Skeen figures out that Andor is not who he says he is. He takes the necklace from him and shows off to the group that it’s Sky Kyber, which is apparently a valuable mineral worth 30,000 credits. He demands to know who Andor is and what he actually believes in.

Eventually he points out that he’s being paid to be there and he’s only there for the money. And on the eve of them about to make this big play against the Empire, it’s not a good look. They do eventually head up to the hills, overlooking the Imperial settlement. They signal to Gorn and head back to camp.

The Episode Review

So another episode of Andor comes and goes, with some good characterization for the group… and not much else. The story is moving at a glacial pace and as I’ve said before, Andor is screaming out for more than one episode at a time. The opening three episodes worked well in tandem and now that we’re onto the meat of the story, this is the sort of show that needs several episodes dropping at a time to keep the momentum going.

The Mon scenes aren’t in this recap because, honestly, they don’t really add very much to the story right now. I’m sure it will in the future but this week the focus is on Cassian and his group.

It’s great to finally find a competent Star Wars TV show and the gritty feel of this one is certainly welcome. While I’m not calling for big battles and action every week, an extra episode or two would do this one wonders to beef up the pace a bit. It’ll be interesting to see how many people stick with this one though – and how much patience Andor expects its audience to have.