Andor Season 2 (Episodes 4-6) Recap

Podcasting is not for the sane! Jason and Rosie go undercover on Ghormam to recap the second batch of episodes in Andor season two.

Jason’s Movie List: Andor Season 2 Syllabus, or How to Resist an Empire

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Worrying. Today's episode contains spoilers for episodes four, five, and
six of and Or season two. Be warned. Hello, my

(00:22):
name is Jasonconcepcion and I am Rosey Night and welcome
back to xt Revision, the podcast where we dive DVIDI
your favorite shows, movies, comics of pop culture, coming to
you from iHeart Podcast, where we're bringing you three huge
X ray vision episodes a week every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
plus news.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
In today's episode, it's that next chunk and Or season
two and boy, things that heat and up. We got
more liberal infighting, we got questions, how dedicate it is
ddre to the mission or does she just want to
catch handle? I think it is the latter. And is
Lutheran finally cracking under the pressure? Has he been taking
too many tips? Too many tips from we don't know
what they're doing?

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Maybe? And remember, guys, this show has no real connection.
Is mirroring.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
So fictional at all? And that's like really important to say.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Let's get into it. Okay. We open episode four with
a time jump. It is now one year later bby three,
three years out from the Titanic Battle of Yavin, one
year out from the massacre, the Gorman massacre, and Bix

(01:38):
is still having nightmares about her interrogation at the hands
of doctor Gorst. She's dreaming about other rebels being tortured
as she was. She's dreaming that she's helping doctor Gorst
torture them. It's a waking dream. She's walking around the
safe house with a blaster out in cassion. Luckily is
there to stop her from shooting up the safe house.
We go to Gorman. Cyril is now on the planet

(02:02):
working at the Gorman branch of the Bureau, but the
Bureau for Standards, but he's actually working for Deirdre as
an isb spy, and I got to say, he's like,
he's doing a great job at it. He's in his

(02:22):
office and he is on the phone with Edie, his mom,
and she's giving him shit from light years away.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
She's like, it's a demotion. It's you behind.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
You're getting left. You were you were by the you
were around the fire here at Coruscant where everything happens.
You're in the room where it happens, and now you've
gone to this fucking backwater where they make linen out
of spiders and spider webs and what are you even doing?

(02:56):
And by the way, the Gores are terrible. I'm watching
Imperial news all the time and the fucking Gorman's what's
their problem. They're arrogant, they're morons. They they don't have
any respect for the Emperor and the Empire. They're terrible.
And meanwhile, Cyril is no, no, no, you're watching too
much imperially. They're actually it's actually very peaceful here. It's yeah,

(03:21):
it's very nice here. Everybody's I don't know what the
what the pop up is about or why the propaganda
machine is like training against them. Everybody is. I feel
like he's leading somewhere dark because everybody here is really
nice and kind and gorman is Is is a great
place and very.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
No problems, no rebel forces here, no one trying to
that just nice.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
His phone call is being as Deirdre planned, is being
listened to by the Gorman Front and their intelligent cell
led by uh the patriarch of the Ryelands fabric House,
and they feel like this guy Cyril, who's in the

(04:05):
Imperial bureaucracy, who probably has access to a lot of
intelligence we want, seems like he is empathetic to our
cause and we think that makes him vulnerable to a
kind of emotional, like heartfelt approach. Yes, got to say, well,
let's see where this leads.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
This doesn't this tells.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
You a lot of what you need to know about
the Gorms and where that level of spy croft is at.
Because I think one phone call where somebody's like, hey,
they don't seem that bad to me.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Let's not get too excited, guys, I.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Think the they must have been clearly they've been at this,
and I guess they've just like everybody's just a piece
of shit, like on comms from the Imperial offices. And
this is the one guy who seems like maybe he's okay,
maybe he's a nice guy. They bump Cereal Cyril like
out in the square, were by the monument to a

(05:01):
previous massacre carried out by mof Tarkin who just like
landed his spacecraft on people. A guy like bumps into
Cyril and offers him one of the you know, souvenir
spiders and is like, oh, this is you know, you
should take this home and open it and there's information
inside of it. We go back to the safe house.

(05:22):
Cassian is cooking while Bix is cleaning the weapons. They're
arguing about a previous mission, apparently that it happened in
the year Jump where Cassian ended up murdering an Imperial soldier,
and Bix is like, should we recruit it? Should we
report that to Lousen, And Cassian's like, why is part
of the mission? Who cast what happens? Like, this is

(05:43):
what we do, and they kind of you can tell
that the constant twenty four hour heightened state of alert,
the anxiety, the danger all around them, it's really starting
to they're coming apart a little bit at a time,
especially Bits, who feels terrible about killing this kid in

(06:07):
a way that Cassian doesn't. And Cassian clearly for him,
the mission has changed. I think we'll see over these
episodes it's less about overthrowing the Empire, bringing down the Empire,
and it's more about like protecting Bicks. Cyril returns home,
He opens up the spider, he finds the message, which

(06:28):
he then eats. Bix and Cassian continue their argument about
the soldier, and you know, she just and she basically
says like, I just want to make sure that my sacrifice,
like everything I've sacrificed, is going to be worth it.
I want to win Cyril at Night returns to the
Bureau office saying he forgot some files. The security is

(06:52):
really not going to let him in, but he talks
them into letting him in, and it really shows like
how tight this operation is, Like even imperial security on
the planet don't know that Deirdre is running this. Yeah,
and they have to do that from this, They have
to do that. So the Gorman's fall for it, so
it looks legit like that he's actually spying for them,

(07:16):
and he's very excited because he's now on the verge
of infiltrating the Gora rebels. He steals some files from
his office and when he talks to Deerser about it,
he's like, I can't this is so cool, this is
so exciting. Where are you going to tell Party Gass? Like,
we're not telling part of guys until we have something. Period.
Deirdre goes to an intelligence meeting at the ISB offices

(07:37):
overseen by Party Gas. There's this issue of increasing rebel
raids and stolen weapons and stolen imperial gear and captured
rebels with Imperial gear, and they're trying to like trace
where all this imperial gear is coming from. But the
problem is, as one of Party Gaz's lieutenants brings up,

(07:57):
is that they're resting too many people. They have too
much stuff, and they can't like go through it all.
They don't have time to like comb through it all
in the way that they need to. So party As
is like with a little flex is.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Like, well, I'm meeting with the Emperor, Well talk to
him about to talk to him about increasing resources, which I.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Also think something that this show is doing so brilliantly
is kind of showing that there's absolutely no way that
the Emperor could have any handle on. The bureaucracy is
too big, The bucs big, it's too sprawling, and there
are too many agendas within it. And this is really

(08:40):
a very interesting expansion of the world of Star Wars
in a way that I think is very akin to
what George Lucas did with the prequels and exploring the
space tariffs and everything, which of course again no relation
to real life. There they didn't end up being prescient
at all, but.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
A bureaucracy being too big for one person to deal
with the again and leading to the subordinates carrying out
their own little ambition. Its personal like terrible plans in
his name like that also has absolutely.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
No feels like it could never happen.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Deirdre meanwhile, is upset because she's working on this Gorman
false flag operation and she wants back in on the
stolen weapons thing and Axis because she still wants to
catch and Or she's ubsessed and she is obsessed with him.
She's really pissed about this. Meanwhile, also on course, not
mom Matha is going around trying to lobby her fellow
politicians for some kind of legislation that's going to protect

(09:41):
Gorman in some way, and it's tough going. Nobody wants
to stick their head out. Everybody's afraid. The misinformation is working.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Clear that the propaganda has taken hold in this year.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, and even the people who haven't fallen for the
propaganda are like, I don't know, it's not the right time. This,
the fear and the disinformation working together is a powerful
force that is effectively isolating Gorman more and more every day.
And mon Mathma, then you know, quotes the founding fathers
of the American Revolution who once said, you know, either

(10:16):
we hang together or we hang separately. And she says,
if we do not stand together, we will be crushed.
She's right. Luthen then meets with Lannie. His isb mole
all these party gas meetings, and Lonnie tells him that Listen,
Deirdre is on something right now. She's on some project.
I don't know what it is, but she is all

(10:37):
over Gorman. She's the point person on whatever we're doing
on Gorman. It's a very tight circle. I can't tell
you what they are doing, but it's something and it's
very tightly held. And Luthan is like, Luthen doesn't understand it.
He's like, I don't get it. Like Deetre is not
a propagandist, she's a hunter. Why is she working on Gorman?

(10:58):
What's the endgame? What is the end Pier want? Lonnie
has no idea. Lonnie can't answer these questions, and Lusen's like,
well I need answers. And here's another thing to notice.
Throughout these episodes, Luthan is like on a deadline. He
is like, I don't have time and I don't. I
wonder what that's about, because he says it multiple times

(11:20):
throughout these this tranch of episodes, like need it now,
we're on a timeline, like I don't have time to wait,
like and I wonder what he thinks is coming and
what he knows that nobody else knows, because it's clearly
something and I don't know that it is directly related
to Gorman. We go to the Gorman where the Gorman
Front is having their secret meeting. Various members of the

(11:46):
Front get up and speak to everyone, and it's clear
that Gore Gorman is, you know, heavily modeled on occupied
France and the Low Countries of World War two. Cyril
arrives at the meeting, which is growing more and more
contentious about what to do about the new trade obstacles

(12:09):
that the Empire is putting in place, the heavy footprint
that the Empire is showing on their planet. This new
building that is growing in the right next to the
square where the monument to the moth Tarket massacre is,
what are they building in there? They won't say. The
Empire says, it's just like an office building, but it's
clear that it looks heavily fortified or it will be

(12:30):
heavily fortified, and so everybody is really really anxious about it.
So the pedlar from the square and Enza, who is
the daughter of the patriarch of house, Ryelands come up,
they speak with Cyril. There's kind of like some light
joking about oh he's an imperial spy. Wow. Yeah. And

(12:55):
later on Enza introduces Cyril to her father and he asks, well,
what are you going to tell your superiors? You know,
what are you going to write a report? What are
you going to say? And he's like, well, I'm here
on my own.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
I'm just Cyril.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, I'm just Cyril. I'm just here. And then he asks, well,
what's your opinion of how we should proceed, because you know,
we're we understand like the Emperor probably doesn't know what's
going on in his name, but we're very concerned about it, Like,
so how could we successfully lobby the emperor to get
more information? And Cyril's like, I don't know. And Ryland's
then tell Cyril, you know about the moth talk and

(13:31):
massacre which killed hundreds of Gorman's and that this you know,
building throwing a shadow on that memorial is like was
supposed to be against the law and the charter, Like
now they're doing it and this is a big problem,
Like will you help us?

Speaker 2 (13:46):
So I just I just want to say this scene
is so effective that as we were saying pre Mike,
I came on and I was like, maybe Cyril's into this,
Like Cyril is such a good spy that he had
me questioning it, and Joel and Jason, well like no,
but but this is a huge This is such a
brilliant moment because I think what's really interesting about the

(14:06):
Goram stuff, the Gorham stuff and this version of it.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Is this is a public meeting, like they are not.
It's it's there's hundreds of people there.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
This is the opposite of what Deirdre and Cyril are doing.
This is the opposite of what Andor is doing. This
is almost feels like it's like a city council meeting
or something. There's so many people there, and it's the
opposite of what we know of the shadowy nature of rebellion.
And I think there's so much interesting complexity to this

(14:34):
particular sequence, and also just the shock of Cyril ending
up being a good spy.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Because I'm a trick me.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
I'm like, Okay, maybe he would be pissed off about that,
and then I'm like, no, no, no, Deirdre knows. But
I just think that at that point I was like, Okay,
this Gorham stuff is really gonna play like a key
part in where we're going to rogue one because it
just hit in a way that's some of the other
big like Monmoth My wedding scenes are fun to watch
and have been good, but this was a.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Scene where I was like, oh, this is changing.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
What we even know about how the rebel forces a bill. Again,
different bureaucracies, different nations, different cultures, very very hard to
wrangle and keep secret and safe, as we will see,
very hard.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Uncorussant Luthen turns on the little light on the top
of his building that is a message that he wants
to meet with Cassian. Cassian goes and basically Lutheran wants
to send Cassian to Gorman to meet Rylance and to
sound them out, to sound the Front out. He doesn't

(15:39):
know a lot about the Front, but they're anxious to
get things going, and they've been in contact because of
a previous rescue mission that they accomplished for the Network,
in which they basically saved a down rebel pilot and
delivered him to safety. And it's a clean operation, meaning
no kills. Just go in and see what they're about

(16:02):
and report back, see if you can help them, and
or doesn't want to leave bicks, But Luthen presses, and
he says, like, imagine like Gorman, with its wealth, with
its influence, with their political cloud, imagine them coming to
the side of the rebellion. It's worth you going. So

(16:22):
Cassian walks away without saying yes. But it's clear that
again that Luthen needs it fast. He's again is like insisting,
like I need you to go, and it's got to
happen soon. We go to Dakar to catch up with
our good friend who's been right about this for a
long time.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
It's a guy, he's still right.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
The Apologists, the back baby Sagerera is there. His rebel
cell has taken possession of a device that can be
used to unlock and to decrypt the protected pipes that
transfer ridonium, which is starship fuel, which is gonna be
necessary if the rebellion wants to power at ships and

(17:04):
fight the Empire. And the guy who delivered this device
and has the knowledge about how to use it as
this guy named Wilman, so Willman, remember is the part
of the rebel cell on the big wheat planet who
had the girlfriend who was part of, you know, a

(17:27):
different farm collective and who had to they all had
to flee because the Empire was doing the audit of
the planet.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, and Will was such a sweet baby then who
had to say goodbye to his girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Now he's like a hardened guy.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Now he's a hardened, terrorized young man.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
And you know, Saw, I was like, where do you
get this? How'd you know how to do it? Like?
Can you teach my guy? Saw threatens the guy and
then saw It basically says Willman, like you're not leaving.
I know that your job was just to deliver this
and leaving you're not going back to work. I need
you to teach my guys how to do this, how

(18:06):
to use that thing to steal the ridonium. And until
I get that, you're staying here and that's it.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
We'll talk about this in the in the roundtable.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
But rhydonium has such like a storied history in Star Wars,
and this is such an exciting moment. And yeah, I
also love this because again Wilman, baby young guy, thinks
he's helping the rebellion by dropping this off and is
suddenly sucked into Sare's vortex. And this whole kind of
front line direct action movement that he did not sign

(18:37):
up for.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
And then of course Cassian is going. He says goodbye
to Bix, and when he leaves, Bix starts taking drugs.
It's clear that Bis has fallen into this kind of
pharmaceutically enhanced stupor in order to stop the terrible dream
she's having, and that leads us Episode five. Let's take
a quick break, We'll be right back. Episode five Corossont

(19:13):
Luthens Shop. Claya is again on the communications console, listening
to all the comms wiretaps, the bugs, the different radio
signals that are coming through this Corossant network, one of
which certainly appears to be a bug in Davos Scolden's gallery, Yes,

(19:33):
because you can hear his voice on it. Cassian goes
to a traveling and should see where he books travel
to Gorman using what's clear what we will learn throughout
the episodes is like a specific password phrase like oh
do you travel a lot? Yeah, I've got friends all
around the galaxy. He picks up recording that tells him

(19:56):
what his cover is going to be. His cover is
going to be very in Sky, a fashion designer from
team who has a who is you know, just like
loves fashion and where do you go if you're a
person who wants to enter the fashion istry, you have
to go to Gorman. Cyril calls mom from Gorman, telling

(20:18):
her like, I'll be coming home. Courseants soon coming to visit.
The front are listening, and this is of course another
call for their benefit. But while he's on the phone,
an ISB team shows up at the Gorman office. One
of the in the office is a Gorman Front spy,
another Gorman Front spy that Cyril is not aware of,

(20:40):
and the spy like signals to the to the Gorman
Front like cut the bug, cut the bugs so it
can't be traced. The ISB announces that, hey, we're looking
for bugs around here, and Cyril again plays this part
wonderfully of the outrage is coming. Yeah, he's so outraged

(21:00):
the is is B. What the fuck you guys, you
jack booted thugs. I'm just trying to do my work,
and yeah, with a friend fashist again for the benefit
of the Gorman Front and certainly their spy. The Gorman
Front spy who has eyes on Cyril, will be like, yeah,
it certainly seems like he doesn't know what's he's on

(21:22):
our side. Claya continues to listen to the to the Bugs,
particularly the one in Davos Golden's gallery, and and she's
listening with increasing alarm because Davo apparently has recently purchased
a fake piece of galactic history art and he's so
he's like, I fucking irate because there's an event coming up.

(21:46):
Lots of new senators are going to be taking the oath,
and there's gonna be a big parties all around town,
including at Davos. A lot of Imperial big wigs are
going to be there. And here he is with like
forged art in his gallery. He's like, come on, mad,
but still you get it?

Speaker 2 (22:02):
No, No, he's also he's kind of dodgy guy, So you.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Gotta be kind of dodgy guy.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
You don't want someone with a good eye to spot
that and stop questioning you.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
But is It really reminds me of like in Animal Crossing,
when you buy the art from your cousin who's the
dodgy fox and you gotta walk out there's a forgery.
That's all I was thinking about this scene. But yeah,
now Cleia is fucked.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
So Clia is like, shit, they're gonna he's because Dallo's like,
I want everything in this room in my gallery inspected
and re certified as real, and Claiya is rightfully worried
that the bug will be found. Meanwhile, on Gorman, Cyril
announces to his Bureau of Standards coworkers that like they did,

(22:45):
the ISB did find a listening device, but like, who
knows if it's really a listening device, or if the
ISB said there was a listening device so that they
can actually put in a listening device, or if they
put in the listening device previously, who knows? And again
he acts this mac He's outraged at all of this.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
He's coming through.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
I used to think Cyril was such an annoying, boring
character to watch.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
It just didn't grab me.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
He was very much like that boot Liquor, but in
a very traditional way we've seen him before. This is
letting him explore. He's almost becoming a kind of reflection
of and Or. He's so good in the moment knowing
how to lie, knowing what to say that it becomes believable.
And we get to see Cassie and do that similar stuff.
And yes, Cyril's evolution is really kind of really hooking

(23:31):
me this season.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
So the Front is discussing Cyril and how much they
want to bet on him as a potential double agent
for them inside the Empire. They get a hold of
his personnel file, which clearly planted by Deirdre, says that
he was fired in scandal by the ISB dishonorable discharge,

(23:53):
so maybe he has a grudge against the ISB. They're
thinking this is perfect for us going so they meet
him in front of the apartment, his apartment. They tell him,
you know that they're concerned about him. They're concerned about
his well being, Like, are you okay? We saw the
ice be going to your office, You're okay? And he
tells them about the listening device and they do something

(24:14):
really smart, which is they even though they're being taken
in right now, they say, this is so good show. Yeah,
surely the Emperor, if he knew about this, would be outraged.
He would never this is the the is beak must
be out of control again, thinking that they're playing on
Cyril's previous grudge against the ISB. The ISB is out

(24:35):
of control. We think they're running like a shadow government
here on Gorman right under the Emperor's nose and help
us find the evidence that they're doing that so that
we can take it to the Emperor and have the
is b like reined in. And Cyril's like, you don't
know the half of it, and Ryland's is like, well,
tell us the half of it. He'p yeah, and he's like, well,

(24:57):
you know those transports, like there's a lot there's just
a lot of stuff on the transports coming in with
the construction materials to build that building that I just
don't know what's on them. And you know, some of
them are unmarked. And Rylance is like, that's what we're
interested in, the unmarked transports. We go back to Corroussant Bix.
There's the doors doorbell is ringing at the safe house.

(25:19):
So Bix is like has her blaster.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Out and she's just high af like what she's not
doing TV.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
She's not doing great, she's not doing great. Luthen comes
in and she immediately thinks, oh, Cassie's dead, which is
such a great character note again of the tension and
I feel that they're living under all the time. She's like,
you've come to tell me that, Andors said MM hmm.
He's like, no, no, no, no, it's just a visit because
I'm nostalgic about Oh this old safe house. I've been

(25:46):
using it for so long. I remember this old place.
But he's clearly taking her temperature and wants to see,
like are you how good are you? Can I rely
on you or not? And clearly he decides he can't
because he finds the drugs. Although he doesn't confront her
right away, but Bix still has her her senses, her

(26:08):
instincts are still very sharp, and she says, no, you
came here for a different reason. You came here to
sound me out about a mission, but then you decided
not to because you're on drugs.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Bis.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, but she knows luth And well enough that she
can tell that change.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yes, it shows that she still got it. And Luthan
is like, well, yeah, I had a mission about like
a weapon's appraisal mission, but like, forget it now. You
know why you need rest? Why don't you just rest up?
And then he says, by the way, with this stuff
the drugs, be careful because you know it never actually
helps in the long tip.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yeah, the nightmas come back and well, I love about
this set of episodes, because this is not the only
kind of reference or conversation we're going to get about
substance abuse.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
I love the way that this is.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Looking at like how do you survive and deal with
the trauma of war? And we start to learn that
something we haven't seen a lot in Star Wars, but drugs,
Like it's the same here. It's that again, no real
you know, life allegory here that veterans who have been
through a war or who are part of a war
are using substances and in this case like space substances

(27:20):
to blow it out, to blow out the nights, to
get rid of the PTSD, and.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
I find that very very interesting.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
We go back to Dakar where Willem is now teaching
one of sas guys, Pluti, how to unlock the rido
pipes using the device that he brought and the specific
method that involves harmonics and different variations on harmonics, and
it's very very complex and you have to know all

(27:51):
these variations. Pluty fails at it, and luckily this is
a training module or they would have been like an
explosion to kill everybody. Saw is really riding Pluty hard,
and Will meanwhile is under pressure because like until Pluty
gets this, he can't leave. And you know, Pluti also

(28:16):
clearly is like not entirely confident that he can like
do this so real.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
He definitely hads like not a great vibe like if
I was if I was Will, I would not be
feeling good about the situation. PLUTEI doesn't seem that interested
or really he seems like he has something else going on.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
And Will is basically stuck that.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Doing this incredibly dangerous procedure over and over and over again,
trying to teach him how to do it.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
On Gorman, Cyril is rushing through his work to get
back to Corussant to you know, he might wants to
make his flight. He pockets a disc and is always
is still talking shit about the ISB, making little comments
about the ISB. Then he asses the disc to the
same spider peddler in the square, and his career is

(29:04):
a double agent is like now off and running.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
He's and he's killing it because he's a triple agent.
This is agent on top of agent on top of agent.
But again, something I think it's so brilliant about the
writing is he also does have beef with the ISB,
Like he has, so it's I think it's easy for
him to fall into this, like critiquing them, even if
he's doing it to cover for his plans with Ddre.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Meanwhile, Cassian has arrived on Gorman dressed to the nines,
looking with the fashion.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
If everyone was wondering where that came from in the trailer,
it is for this fashion design character looking beautiful?

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Is his cover? Is variant? Sky is holding up. He
checks into his hotel and the bell hop tells him
about the Moth Target massacre, what it was about. He
lost his dad there, he was there when he was twelve,
and you know, the hotel tells people not to talk
about it with guests, but Casian, you know, this is
what Cassian is about, Like, this is what he's fighting for,

(30:04):
is people like this, And there's a real connection there.
For a moment, back on Coruscant, Cyril goes to see Deirdre.
He's like, I'm clean, I wasn't followed. He's like so
intos being mister like Junior g Man, like he loves
this shit. And Deere's like, yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
I've followed, I followed, had follow you followed you dummy,
And he's like he's like.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
What He's like, He's like, yeah, because we got to know,
like this is the big leagues now. And by the way,
when you go to eedies, we're not sure, like be
careful because it might be under surveillance. And this is
all part of Gaz's orders. By the way, Enzo makes
contact with Cassian aka Variant Sky at a cafe, not
when they were supposed to meet. She makes contact early.

(30:48):
They exchange the passwords, and when the cafe clears out,
Cassian is pissed. He's like, this is fucking sloppy, Like
why do this? Why make the approach like this early?
You got luck just now that nobody is watching us
and that I am who you think I am, or
else you would be infiltrated.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
And you fucking Imperial Office.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yes, get your get your fucking shit together. And Enzi
says something that I think is really important about the
Gorman Front. For all the criticisms that we could lay
at their feet, she says, it's hard to be patient
when your world is falling apart, Like there's at a
certain point and they are at that point where it's
better to do something unprepared than to do nothing, and

(31:34):
so they're ready to do something even if they aren't
truly prepared, and cassiing is like listen. Also, the people
you have follow me drop them because they're just drawing
attention of the ISP or whoever the imperials are around here.
And then he becomes very and again and he's just like, Okay,
I see a lair. Cyril goes to see Edie and

(31:57):
gives her the spider from the pedlar, and she is
still like, this is terrible. You're out in cowtown, out
there and fucking human, Edie.

Speaker 3 (32:06):
I'm sick of you.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
I love the character, but like, it's just such a
brilliantly put together character because you always even when Cyril
was the worst in season one and continues to be
the worst as a Nazi bootlegger in season two, his
relationship with Edie tells us so much about him and
is so hard to watch because she is truly just

(32:28):
always on him in like the bleakest way, and right
now he's doing exactly what she wishes. He would have
been doing her whole his whole life.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
But she can't be so hard for tell her, right,
That's what I'm thinking.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
I think he probably and I wonder, I do wonder
if that will become part of his eventual downfall, because
I do think that she is so continuously emotionally abusive
and scathing, and at some point he's gonna want to
tell her like, actually, I'm fucking doing I'm doing what
you wanted. And yeah, it's a very very interesting dynamic.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
And Or goes to his meeting at the house of Ryelance,
their fabric showroom off the square, and they Rylance just
starts talking in the showroom and and Or's like, wait,
hold on it, We're sure that there's no listening devices here.
They're like, we sweep every day, and he's like, well,
won't that draw attention? You sweep every day? Is like

(33:28):
everybody does it around here because they.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Don't want that ideas to be stolen.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
It's the fact. So there's a lot of industrial espionage
that goes around here basically, so they can talk here,
and we learn about the pilot that the Ryelands group saved,
and that's how they got the radio, the encrypted radio
that they talked to Luthan on. Although they don't know
about Luthen, they don't know who he is.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
They just.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
And as a kind of make good that hey, we
can all trust each other, Cassie and gives them a
new encrypted crystal for their radio so that they can
continue communications but more securely, and talked to Luthen in
a different way. Rylans then tells Cassian that this new
building over here is an armory that's against the charter.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
And then he says, and here's how we know a
lot of stuff about this. We have a source in
the Empire in the bureau. I won't tell you who
he is, but he's good. He's legit. And Cassians like,
are you yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Please take a photograph and just show it to people, like, guys,
come on, just one little photo of you, Imperial spy,
and we could be solvent to love prop up with.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Well, you know, one thing I'm glad about is that
the Empire doesn't have facial recognition technology at all. Anyway,
Cassian is like, are you like, okay? That sounds like
the exact kind of intelligence you've been waiting for is
almost too good to be true, because you're not, like
you got to be careful because the Empire they sow
disinformation like they're really good at doing that. Are you

(34:54):
sure that this source is legit? And Rylence is like
one hundred percent legit, real source. And here's what we know.
These transports, specifically these ones from the information we got
off the disc are bringing in weapons to stock this
armory that's growing. We want to hit this transport, steal

(35:15):
the weapons, and then put on like a press conference
and show everybody, Hey, the Empire is like smuggling weapons
in but we don't have the expertise to do this,
which is why you're here. You know, we're just we've
just been protesters to this point, and we need your head.
That's why we need your help. We need your help
to run this operation. Cassian says, Okay, it's clear that

(35:36):
he's not sure about this, and he's like, well, check
the radio, and then he leaves. Cyril and deird are
a brief party gas about their connection to the Gorman Front.
They're skeptically confident that the Front is buying Cyril as
a turned imperial spy. They hope to bait the Front
into ambushing these transports so that the Empire can crack

(35:58):
the fuck down. We cracked down and look at the rebels.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, kind of encouraged false flag operation so that they can.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Bad so excited oh so excited about back onto car.
Plutie tell Saw that, like, okay, I need a lot
more practice, but like in theory, I know what to do.
Can I physically do it, I'm not sure, but like
I know what to do. So saw I was like, okay, well,

(36:29):
when you're ready, we'll just get rid of women, right,
And Plutie's like no, no, no, no, Like shouldn't we have
him as like back up, like in case, you know,
just like as an insurance policy, you know, when we
go there, if I can't do it, and you know,
we check in Willman and then he gets it done.
It's there's a lot of variations. It's really hard, and
Saw tells Plutie is like, well, Pluti then goes, you know,

(36:52):
it'd be a lot easier for me anxiety wise, if
I knew where we were going, like it would cut
down on the variations. Actually yeah, And so Saul was like,
it's this factory right here, it's this Riido factory. Does
that help? And Plu's like, yeah, that helps a lot.
Luthen returns to the shop and Claya tells him the

(37:13):
news about Scolden looking for the bug, not looking for
the bug, but like finding out that he has a
fake and searching his entire gallery, which he's going to
do after the Senate gala. And we need to get
in there. We're invited to this party. We need to
get in there. We need to get that bug out
or it's going to be found. And Luthen, here's our

(37:35):
first hint that Luthen is coming apart a little bit.
The strain is getting to him because he starts raging
about this bug. This was a bad idea. Why did
we do I told you not to do this? Bug?
Leads directly back to us. This was so stupid. She's like,
you agreed to it, and he's like, yeah, but you
talked me into it and against my better judgment. And
what you know, what, what do we do now? Like

(37:57):
we have to if we can't get it, we have
to be prepared to what kill skulden Fleet, correscond all,
all of those things. Who knows Cassie and then looks
at the ground on Gorman looks at the transports. He
comes up with a little bit of a plan. Meanwhile,
back onto car, Saw asks Wilman, now if Pluty is

(38:20):
ready to access the pipes without his help, and Saw
pulls out his blaster, points it at Willman and is like,
what do you say? Like can he do it? Did
you teach him well enough? And then when you think
he's gonna kill Willman, he turns the blaster on Pluty
fucking boom kills him. All the rebels turn, they're like
what and saws like.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
He was a trader at this.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
He goes inside, pulls an imperial bug out of it.
Please a little tunic. Yeah, And he says, but well,
the empire thinks we're going We're not going there.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
We're going to this other place.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
So is all misdirection for the for the benefit of
the empire. And so I was like, and we're pulling
out right now, get all your stuff, we're leaving. We're
not going back here. Cassian breaks the news to the
Gorman front that he doesn't think this is doable, or
it's doable, but like at what cost? Like he's basically saying,
here's your problem. We can hit the transport, but you don't.

(39:20):
But usually when you do something like that, the next
move is to get away. You're not going to you
don't even want to get away. You want to you
want to stay, you want to be here. Yes, celebrate it,
have a press conference, and then what the Empire just
kills you all, Like they've already just doesn't.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
They literally killed like five hundred gorms just to land
them off Talkin's plane. Like you think they're not going
to kill you if you try?

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, Like what do you think? And then Rylance is like, okay,
so what we do nothing? Like we just let the
Empire do whatever they want. And you know, Cassian is like,
I got to think about this a little more. But
Rylance is like, you know what, I'm not impressed with you,
like at all as a as a military leader and
as a supposed rebel with yeah, with revolutionary fervor not

(40:10):
in the least.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
He's like, Wow, some kind of revolutionary you are. And
I was like, oh man, that's so painful because I did.
Cassian's actually trying to save their lives.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah. Saw and Willman arrive on the Ryde Oh planet,
the ride Oh Mine planet where there's a pipeline, you know,
in this kind of isolated stretch of rocky landscape, and
while Wilman is like running through the variation with them
like a massive with a full mask on, Saw like

(40:41):
no mask, breathing in the atmosphere is just like monologuing
about his experience with ride Oh, how he was basically
an enslaved prisoner mining ride Oh, and that was his
first experience suit and.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
He would start gang high, and he gained basically like
a a tolerance for and an addiction clearly yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
And an addiction to it, which is clearly the stuff
that's in when we later meet up with Sagerera and
Rogue One in his like little breather, right, Willman, It's
funny because I wanted Wiman to be like, hey, can
you shut the fuck up. I'm trying to like do
this thing without killing us, But instead you're talking about
crazy shit. He gets talked into it.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
He gets up into sores revolutionary folk.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
Well, saw is Saws is incredibly charismatic as a revolutionary,
as a person who's willing to say this is wrong,
and I'm the guy to and I'm going to do
something about it.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Come join me, Vandor, even though Andor is trying to
save their lives.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Saw in this moment shows how.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
You get somebody riled up, how you make somebody join
a revolution.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
He says, as he's breathing in this rhydo he says Listen,
revolution is not for the scene what we were doing.
If you were a logical, rational person, you wouldn't take
on the Empire. You would just let you would just
lay down and let them get away with it. The
fact that we are bothered by this and willing to
do something about it means we're already insane. So why

(42:09):
not dive all the way off? Willman then takes off
his mask, starts breathing in the fumes, and they are
off to the races. Yeah, let's seek a quick break.
We'll be back in a minute to talk about episode six.

(42:37):
And we're back. Luthen and Cassian meet on a kind
of far out of the way planet Portsteergard also on
the rim a trade route that is involves Gorman, and
Cassian is like, Luthen, they can't do it. The Gorman
Front there, they're they're not ready. You should never have

(42:59):
got involve them. They're amateurs. They're going to get fucking killed.
And Lusen's like, yeah, I heard that it didn't go well,
so this is concerning. But listen, I agree the front
isn't ready. The Gorman Front would agree that they're not ready.
That's why I sent you to help them because they're

(43:22):
not ready. Well, casting is like, listen, it's too late.
The armory is being built. It's like seventy percent done. Everybody.
Their whole thing is steal a transport with weapons to
prove to everyone that the armory is being built. Everybody
understands that it's a lie, that that's just an office building.
Everybody understands that that's an armory. So what they're going

(43:43):
to do is get killed in order to prove to
everybody a thing that everybody already knows is true. Why
do that. It's they're going to get crushed, they're going
to die, And Luthen says, well, they're finally wanting to
do something, and you want them to be k And
I think this is like such a crucial point and

(44:05):
is kind of like why this entire series exists. It's like, hey,
this is dangerous. You think that we can get you
think we can get Gorman on our side. And nobody
gets their nose bloody at all, Nobody gets their hair
messed up, nobody gets their shirt stained. Like, yes, they're
gonna get killed. It's gonna be bad. But if that

(44:28):
is the cost to bring Gorman into the rebellion and
the people who see themselves in Gorman to our side,
then it's worth it. And then incredible Line and Or
is like, well what if? And if they burn, Luthen
says they'll burn very brightly. And it's also very clear
that Cassie this is also an issue of frontline soldier

(44:52):
versus like the back line, because Cassie has lost his
appetite for just people senselessly dying. He doesn't want to
see it anymore. And I think he goes to Gorman
and he sees all these young people with this fervor
to do something, and he just sees dead bodies and
he's just doesn't want to get involved in that. Meanwhile,

(45:13):
Luthan has a backup plan. He updates Clay Cassian is out,
but it's okay. They have another operative in play, and
it's Vell. Vella is already there and Vell is already
delivering weapons and gear to the front. Cassian returns to
the safe house, bis welcomes him. She cleaned up the

(45:33):
place doesn't look like it looked when Luvin was.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
There, and he definitely shamed her into doing a little
tidy up, which you know I've been that adhd If
my friends are coming around, I'm planning in the house.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Other way I get it.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
He updates her on the Gorman mission a little bit,
and he can kind of tell something is wrong with Bicks,
although he's if he knows that she's using, he's in
denial of it clearly, you know, cass. Cassian gets mad
because he finds out that Luthen came and visited, but

(46:09):
they were just together and Luthen didn't mention this at all.
Cassian begins to get paran begins to get paranoid, now
because why would lu Luthen. He's so calculated and everything
he does, and he must know that I would find
we would talk and you would tell me that he came,
So why didn't he tell me what is going on?
I think personally, what Luthen is doing is Luthen is saying,

(46:33):
open your eyes and really look at Bisa and see
what's going on there. Find that you know he wants
he wants Cassian to figure out that Bix is on Spice.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
So I think that it's one of those things where
it's a great example of Luthan always knowing the people
that he works with, because before this, Bix and Andal
on like a sexy train to heroic town. Like the
Azabou said in the group chat, like the sexual tension

(47:04):
is crackling.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
They are like kissing.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
He's telling her all about how Varian Sky is like
a pretty boy and she would have loved him and
blah blah, blah blah, and then it just evolves into
this kind of seed of distrust that Lutheran has planted
and between them to try and kind of get Cassian
out of that headspace that he clearly has been influenced

(47:28):
by Bixon, which is Bix is destroyed by the war.
Bix is destroyed by the people she's had to kill,
and now Cassian doesn't want to kill any more people.
He wants to, you know, try a different way. And
I think Luthan wants to be like, why do you
care what this person thinks they're on drugs basically, which
is a fucked up attitude, but also like I think
you're right, Jason, I think that's what that's what he wants.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yeah. Cassian then, in a rage, in a very dangerous decision,
goes to Luthan's shop in the middle of the night,
crazy and Luthen is like, what the fuck are you doing.
He's like, as soon as you leave, which is immediately
you're we're gonna pretend that you were delivering to me

(48:11):
a thing that I forgot, some kind of yeah yeah
metal and get them and get a hold of yourself
and leave. And she and he's like, yeah, but like,
when you you know what's going on, why did you
come to the house. Why did you check on Bicks?
He's like, look at yourself. All you what you've become

(48:33):
is someone who just cares about Bicks. I'm here for
the cause. I'm here for the rebellion. I'm here to
overthrow the empire. If and by the way, if Bicks
can't get it together, it's on you to figure out
what to do about that, because this network and what
we're doing is too important to come apart because of

(48:55):
feelings we have for each other or one He goes unsaid,
but he basically said, hey, Biggs has got to tighten
it up or we may have to.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Kill that basically what he's saying, and I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
I also thought it was great because because Cassian says
to him, why why did you come?

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Like why did you do this? Why did you tell it?
You must have known?

Speaker 2 (49:15):
She was going to tell me, And I think this
is really interesting because I think it plays plays to
your point and also just a great line that tells
us a lot about luth and Is. He says, well,
I thought it would be interesting if she didn't tell you,
but now you've both disappointed me, and he's like testing
these kind of bond who can keep master and spy
be stronger than a bond between two people in love?

Speaker 3 (49:38):
And in this case, no.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
Who understands what we're doing is basically what Luthan is saying.
We go to ISBHQ on on Corroussant. Partigas is asking
Lonnie to liaison with the Navy and military intelligence because
doctor Gorse, the torturer who applied his terrible trade on bicks,

(50:02):
is suddenly in a star ascendant in the Imperial Defense infrastructure,
and everybody wants to know how he does what he
does and they want him to teach his techniques to
their various torturers. So Party Gaz is like, Lonnie, I
want you to run that because I don't want ISP
to lose control of doctor gorst Our little star. That well,

(50:24):
guess what.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Lonnie, that's the lesson of talent.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Lonnie I support you, Ghostnitch, because there's a some fucked
up shit.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Sinta arrives on Gorman and she and Vell haven't seen
each other in a long time, and there's like a
lot of emotion and and a lot of things left
unsaid but that are right there at the surface, and
you know, she's brought more gear for the Gorman Front
and they talk about the operation. They say, well, like listen,

(50:52):
if we don't like the way it looks, we walk away. Yeah.
We find out that Vell specifically requested Cinta from Luthen
because it's been so long since she's seen her. And
then Sinta tells Bell that in the time since I've
saw you, I was wounded and I was out of
action for quite a while, and I was thinking about
you the whole time. And it's this really rich, heartbreaking,

(51:14):
bittersweet reunion between the two party. Gaz meets with Deirdre
on Courus, ount isb on Gorman, believed that the attack
is imminent, that they see signs that the Gorman Front
is gearing up, and they're very excited. Deirdre is very excited.
Partigas warns Deirdre that I get there's another level to this,

(51:34):
like Cyril doesn't understand what the response, like why they're
doing this. All he knows is his little part in it.
And he warns Deirdre like Cyril cannot know the rest
of it, so just keep him on task, which is
not gonna be hard because Cyril is so excited by
what he's doing. Yeah, he's like.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
So hyped up on being a little spy.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
So Vellin sent to run the Front through the plan,
and it's a great scene that basically tells you, like
what you already know, the Front isn't quite ready. They're
not ready.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
They've been to like one stredent protest, like they're giving
that energy.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
And they're talking back like well shouldn't we be armed
to like well, what if this happens and what if
I want to do this? And Vella is like.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
Stop, can you follow?

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Can you follow orders? This plan means nothing if the
people involved in the plan don't play their role to
the letter. And that means no improvising, that means no
going off on your own doing just crazy shit. That's
why we are here. If you don't like it, we
can leave, but you need to be able to follow orders.
And it's clear that the front is. They're very again,

(52:48):
they're very young, a lot of the people and they're
bristling at this being told what to do follow orders
like this is I didn't join the military. They don't.
They don't understand what they're in for. Meanwhile, on Courissant,
Lousen's signal is flashing again and Bix sees it and
tells Cassian, and something is cooking there. Meanwhile, these wonderful

(53:13):
quick cuts begin happening right where Sinta and Velle have
their They get to spend the night with each other
in their safe house. Cinta apologizes to vell for hurting her.
It's this wonderful scene that is like drawn out in
just the right way. Meanwhile, in the Senate house, man
Mathma is like becoming more and more sickened and by everything.

(53:37):
She's seeing this like growing autocracy that's happening right in
front of her, and everybody seems fine with it, and
she's finding it harder and harder to keep her composure.
And after this swearing in of all these new senators,
now the parties happen, and Luthen and Clea and man
Mathma and Paren are all heading to Davos Skulden's gallery

(53:59):
for this big, you know, huge party that's going to
feed all these like new senators and also there's gonna
be a lot of imperials there. Meanwhile, while this is
going on, the hijacking on Gorman Is is happening. So
at the party, Claya and Luthen are working the room.
Lannie and some is b are there. Luthen and mon

(54:22):
Mathma Steele a moment together and she's like, listen, I
want you to check on Vell. What's going on with Vell?
Get me an update on Vell and Luthen. It just
shows you again. It's like a wonderful small moment about
like why you're worried about Vell, Like you're worried about
like operational securities. No Vell's in my my, like my relation,
Like yes, I want to know if she's okay. I

(54:44):
just want to know if she's okay. There's nothing to
do with a mission. Yeah. Meanwhile, Claia improvising approaches Lannie
and it's like, oh, remember we met, and like he'said,
why the fuck are you talking to me right now?
And he's like She's like they'll think we're flirting. Just
go with it. They go to Skulden's private gallery where

(55:07):
Mathma and Paren, Luthen and Scolden are all there, along
with shockingly, Don Dundun. Krenick is there and various members
of the Imperial Elite, and they're all laughing and drinking
and having a grand old time like as Golden shows
them various art pieces from around the galaxy. Claia uses

(55:31):
Lannie as a meat shield. Unbelievable. It's an incredible moment
to be like, stand right here so they can't see
what I'm doing. I will pretend I'm telling you about
this piece of art. Meanwhile, I'm underneath with my hand
like unscrewing the bug, and I'm unscrewing it's so lodged
in that like I'm cutting. My hand is bleeding as

(55:52):
I'm trying to pull this thing out.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Claia, I don't think luth At she gives he enough credit.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
I gotta be honest, like, I think she is doing
the fucking thing that needs to be done.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
She's she's ready to do it, and she does. They
both are so good.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
So meanwhile Velen Sinta hit the transport. The front swings
into action, Cyril watching from a nearby rooftop is relaying
all of this to the ISB party gas in Deirdre,
and the plan goes awry. All across the galaxy, plans
are going around play you can't get the bug out again.
She blood is dripping down her arm and she's trying

(56:30):
to pull it out. Krenick and the Imperial group as
they are going around the room looking at all the
different pieces of art are growing closer and closer. Lannie
is like on the edge of flipping out all the time. Meanwhile,
back on Gorman, one of the young guns who was
arguing about control and following orders and this and that,
pulls out a blaster because some other member of the

(56:54):
front but who's not involved in the mission sees what's
going on and starts coming up, and so he pulls
out this blaster try and ward them off. They wrestle
over it, shot goes off and Sinta is killed. Everything
is falling apart. Meanwhile, Partigas is telling Cyril call the
Imperial response team on Gorman, tell them to come now.

(57:19):
The front manages to escape and all the way out,
Bell is like laying into them like I'm not gonna
have to tell you to remember this, because you will
remember it. You will never forget you fucked up and
you got somebody killed. This is what it's about. You
will now have this hanging over you for the rest

(57:41):
of your life. Meanwhile, the mission that Luthan sent Bix
and Cassian on was a mission of vengeance. They find
doctor Gorst Bicks, sneaks into his office, uses his torture
machine on him, and just leaves him hooked up to it.
Who knows how long for the weekend until people come back.

(58:03):
You know, maybe she shoots a guard on the way out,
and then her and casting her in the wind.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
And then Lutan was like, this is how I sawt
these two out.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Just fucking get bigs over it, get the revenge, Go
have some good revenge sex, and then maybe you'll fucking
get back on track.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
I also love the moment here as Claya and Luthen
are leaving Scolden's. They've got the you know, they've got
the bug in their pocket, and it's that post mission
elation where they had come so close to blowing it
and getting caught and now they've gotten away with it

(58:39):
and they're joking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, can you
imagine we should have been like why didn't we just
go in there and fucking with a bomb and just
kill credit. They're laughing, and then we're on to episode seven. Man,
this show is so good.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
It's so good.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I think you know that there's been questions about whether
the investment of you know, six hundred and twenty nine million.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Dollars in these two seasons was well with it.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
And obviously there's lots of stuff, the things the money
could have been spent on, but it is on every
single moment of the screen.

Speaker 3 (59:11):
It is in the detail of the practical effects.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I think a lot I've been rewatching at the scene
with Will and Sore, just app like the detail of
the pipe pullar and the way that it works, the
level of detail in the clothing, you know, the fact
that when Lutheran is on his little rebel check ins,
he wears this kind of proto like nod to Jedi robes,

(59:40):
you know, even though it's not and he's not a Jedi.
There's just there's so much fantastic costuming and work in
the show. And Yeah, I'm so excited slash dreading where
it goes next, because this has already taken it out
of me emotionally, Like the death of Ciner after they've
just been reunited. I wonder what that does to Veil

(01:00:01):
and how it changes how she approaches the rest of
her missions. And I also wonder what it does to
the front like do they exist after this as some
of them hardened? Does some of them run away like
what happens in Gorham. I mean, we've only got you know,
We're halfway through the season, and I think this is
a show where, even though the first three episodes were

(01:00:23):
pretty slow burn, I feel like so far everything is
paid off and everything has felt worthwhile and important, and
now I want to see if they can land it
with the other half of the episodes, and I believe
they can.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
The tone Zone, I think he can do it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Oh man, We're just in it, I will say. I
think that I think that Luthen's chess move with regards
to Gorman is going to pay Listen, this is a
Star Wars prequel. We know where this goes, right, The
rebellion metastasizes, many worlds come to the side of the

(01:00:58):
rebel banner and eventually they take down the Empire. And
I think Luthen's chess move with regards to Gorman, which
is it's not about this mission. It's not about proving
the armory is real. Everybody knows that. It's about showing
what the Empire is willing to do to a planet
like Gorman that just they the fuck did they do?

(01:01:19):
They make cloth, they make like this is a threat,
and that is that chess move I think will pay
huge dividends at the cost of many thousands of gores.
It will show the galaxy what the Empire is willing
to do, and it will, uh, you know, be one

(01:01:40):
of the sparks that really allows the rebellious bonfire to
take light. And I think that's what we're going to
see is a horrible massacre at some point on Gorman,
but a rejuvenated and heavily energized rebellion. And I think
one of the things that's been so fascinating to me

(01:02:01):
to watch the show is like that balance between the cold,
calculating figures like Luthan and like Claia, who are you know,
as much as their commanders like you know, Vell and Cassian,
are trying to impose order on these like amateur rebels
who don't really who have all the passion and none

(01:02:22):
of the skills at the highest levels. They're you know,
Luthen and Claire are also making it up as they go. Yeah,
they're like they are we just you know, like, you know,
I'll pull in Lannie and he stands here and I'm just.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Gonna be digging this out with blood on my hand
while fucking Krenick.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Come on?

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
And it's this incredible contrast between you know, Luthen really
even though we get we see him coming apart the
anxiety getting at him with the spat that he has
with Clia, but there is this incredible balance that he's
striking as one of the people who kind of sees
the whole board of we need the past, of these

(01:03:01):
amateur rebels who don't know how to do it but
want to do something. We need them, and part of
what we need from them is we need them to
get killed, you know, like we need that in order
to mean we need martyrs to win this and balancing
that between the reality of it and the people who

(01:03:25):
have to deal with the reality of it like Sell
and Vel and Synta and Cassian and Cassian. I think
it wasn't a really cool character moment for casting to
be like to basically say, like I don't want to
be involved in thisss. We're going towards a senseless massacre,
and I don't want to be part of this. It's

(01:03:48):
an incredible show. I can't wait to see where it goes.
And again, you know, we've mentioned some of the films
that we feel like influence this show, and I feel
more than ever since we went to Gore to Gorman,
that Army of Shadows, a movie about the French resistance,

(01:04:09):
and some other ones, you know, Rules of the Game
and The Grand Illusion other ones.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
Yeah, definitely, I was. I was looking into it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Tony is a big French historical guy, a big French
cinema guy. So yeah, we're gonna We're gonna dig in
and give you some great Rex because there are some
unbelievable movies that clearly huge influences on both seasons of Mandal.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Incredible, incredible show. Well tomorrow and extra Vision, we are
asking who are the Thunderbolts. And then our Friday, we've
got our roundtable in which we're gonna cover the second
batch of episodes Mandor with our Star Wars fanatical production crew,
and we're going to talk about all the things we're
thinking about and watching the show and then join us
for news on Saturday with a special focus on May

(01:04:52):
the fourth. And that's it for this episode. Thanks for listening.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie
Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Our producers are Common, Laurent Dean Jonathan and Faye wag
Our theme.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by
Aaron Kaufman.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and
Heidi our discord moderator.