May 6, 2025 • 69 mins
Join Tom, Stephen, and William as they review the third three-episode arc of Andor Season 2.
The conflict on Ghorman escalates to a crescendo with far-reaching impacts.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All wings reported Red 10 standing by.
Red 9 standing by. Red 3 standing by.
Red 6 standing by. Goodnight standing by.
You're listening to the Ion Cannon podcast.
Laugh it up, fuzzball. Your source for entertainment
reviews from a Galaxy far, far away?
This is it. Hey, laser clickers.
(00:23):
Welcome to the Iron Cannon podcast.
I am one of your hosts, Steven, and I'm joined by my friends and
Coast, Tom and William and Oh myGod, they're all dead.
William, Tom, they're all dead. Oh.
No. This is a brutal, brutal arc.
Brutal arc. But hey, it's also probably my
favorite arc of the season, so Iam.
(00:46):
I would agree old man what what a trilogy of episodes.
It's it's this, it's this. And it's the next trilogy of
episodes that really you sit there and just like your mouth
drops because it just gets so dark.
And I can't wait to talk about this one.
Well, let's dive in then. Tom, give us a quick rundown.
(01:08):
Well, all three of these episodes are directed by Jason
Metz or Janice Metz, I'm sorry. And they're written by Dan
Gilroy. So in these in this arc, the
conflict on Gorman escalates to a crescendo with far reaching
impacts. Yeah.
It's really hard to talk about this episode because it's so
(01:29):
good. And where do you really begin?
It is so good. So yeah, I guess should we,
should we talk what we want to start with?
We want to start with the rebellion on on Yavin Ford.
You want to start with Gorman. I think we go Gorman first.
OK, let's do it. Let's.
Do it, Steven. What do you think?
What do you think, Steven? You got Gorman first, Tom.
(01:51):
Yeah, I said. Gorman first.
I mean, I, I do think these episodes especially are
everything that's not Gorman is kind of happening around and
outside of it. So yeah, let's, let's do it,
Yeah. Yeah, well, so let's do this.
So it's it's been a year since, as you know, since the the last
arc, we are now at 2 years before the battle of the Haven 2
(02:15):
BBY and things have heated up. There's been more uprising in
cities across the planet. There's reporters everywhere
covering all the local events. It's become a Galaxy wide news
story and it's among this turmoil that the empire decides
(02:37):
we've we've we've had enough it's time to take over Gorman.
They they tried to come up with a alternative synthetic material
for the the Cal kite and it didn't work.
And they need it for the Death Star.
And I love this little call callout right about the despite the
best efforts of the scientists on Edo, of course, referring to
(02:59):
Jin Urso's father right at Galenor so.
And so the empire decides to declare Marshall Domain and take
over the planet and put Dedra's plan into action.
And so you really see in this arc, right, especially in the
first episode, things are heating up.
Like the empire starts, you know, they start sending in
specialists to that can handle the takeover.
(03:23):
They start to, you know, begin to like set up the headquarters.
Of course, Cassian and Wilman come back to Gorman and start
sticking things out because now there's a belief and we actually
there's a we find out about this, the the opener on the
Haven four that there's an opportunity to kill Deja Ramiro
(03:44):
and get back at her for all thatshe did to Cassian in the first
season. And he's he's reluctant at
first. Actually, he's very reluctant to
to go after her, but it it's it's not until really Bicks kind
(04:04):
of convinces him to go that he decides to go to to to Gorman
and and help out. It's interesting, like he's
like, so at the end of the previous hour, casting has this
kind of, I was going to say a big, big out with Lutheran to
some degree where, you know, I'ma soldier, you know, we're
fighting a war, not necessarily this like subterfuge.
(04:27):
And it's interesting to see him.You know, I guess maybe we do
need to talk about Yabin. Maybe we do.
We do need to talk about Yabin, but like, it is really, really
cool to see the rebellion actually in this kind of like
military and armor war war levelstate.
You know, they're training, they're putting together a base.
(04:49):
We saw hints of this in Rogue One.
Like after we finished the series, I went and watched Rogue
One again. You do see a lot of the what do
you call it? Like the encampment, what is it
called? There's like a fancy word, a
fancy military word for it. I'm trying.
Well, the barracks, the oh geez,I'm trying to say I know what
(05:11):
you're talking. About bivouac is that I feel
like it's bivouac or something like that.
Anyway, not important, but the point is they really made I feel
like Yavin for feel like this large military encampment.
It is actually really cool to see the rebellion at at this
point. Like it makes sense cause Rogue
One, we've got the fleet. It always felt a little
(05:32):
incongruous that like we see the, the fleet in Rogue One, but
the the, the rest of the base doesn't feel quite as
full-featured. We know like when you see it in
episode 4, it's, it's very small, but I think we now know
it's 'cause it's been largely evacuated and so on.
But it just. And they really expand upon the
base too, right, 'cause like we,I think I just always assumed
(05:52):
that the rebels are hanging out in the Masasi temples and that's
it. But we find.
Out No, they they are, they're they have camp set up around the
entire surrounding area. They actually don't live in the
temple. They they set up homes in the
jungle, almost like cross between Andorra and Kashik,
Right. And it's pretty cool to see just
how the rebels live, not just where they work and where they
(06:15):
fight, but where they actually live day-to-day.
The other thing I thought, whichwas fascinating, and I know this
is a small minor detail, but when you look at the uniforms of
everybody at that point in time,they really didn't have any kind
of rankings that they have when you see them in Rogue One
because you saw that detail. That's a good catch, Tom.
It's, it's it you literally see that this base is being
(06:37):
established as a military facility because you're also
looking at it as you've got all these factions that are coming
together and they're really, andI think it was general, General
Draven. When you see him for the first
time, his ranking is smaller. And, and you can see when you
look around like the other, you look inside the hangar and you
see like different ways, like because of different factions
(07:01):
are in different uniforms. You see those little details
when you're watching the whole thing and then you see it.
I think when it gets into the next arc, it's a little bit more
militaristic because I think even his ranking is more
prominent in in the we'll get tothat next.
Start hold on time. No, no spoilers, no spoilers.
You're just saying the rebels are still on yavel but.
(07:22):
There's no, no, no, there's there's no spoilers.
There's no spoilers there because he he doesn't
necessarily mean he's on right? But but still, it's like when
you look at the facility, you can see it basically progress is
what I'm saying, out of at leastthese three episodes.
Yeah, well, I mean, I mean in the first arc, right, we saw the
(07:45):
this like Yavin was abandoned, it was just the Maya pay breed
that was there in fighting and everything.
And then, you know, we don't seeanything in the second arc and
the third arc, though here we see they're completely set up
and or maybe not completely, butvery, very far along and
continuing to become more of a, of a real, you know, rebellion,
right? And it's they're still not quite
(08:07):
there, as you mentioned, right? They're still kind of like a one
of the many rebel cells. But it is really cool to start
seeing people like General Draven showing up and and many
others. We'll we'll talk about as we get
further into the episode, a lot of folks we know from the other
(08:28):
arcs start another, you know, like Rogue One New Hope start
showing up. And it is, it's really cool.
It's starting to feel a lot morelike what we would.
Expect yeah, the the moment thatreally did it for me is Bix and
kind of bricks casting into going into the rebel encampment
(08:49):
basically because they he's got like a nice little like jungle
pad set up, by the way. Nice house.
With not the point of this, but anyway, I so Bix encourages
Cassian or tricks him into kind of going into, I don't know,
barracks area and there is a sheseems to be a force healer.
(09:09):
Like it's kind of unclear how you know, accurate or not that
is. But that's, that is what she's
called, right? She is a yeah.
Exactly. You know, Cassian is skeptical
for understandably, but he's, you know, he's got a blast wound
on his shoulder. That's not healing.
But I just, she has this, you know, where she, she recognizes
them across the way. She feels the, the, I'm going to
(09:32):
say the weight of his destiny. And that's the one where you're
just like, oh God, that's right.That's where we're going.
I know where we're going. Yes, Cassian does have a destiny
and I wish it was different. Yeah, you can, you can feel it
throughout this whole episode. And it it, I was surprised that
they went 'cause you know, for Andor it's a very much, there's
no lightsabers, there's no it, it's very much on the ground.
(09:54):
The Force is hardly even ever mentioned in the show.
Rogue 1-2 in many respects, right?
Although you have like Jetta a little bit.
And so it's really cool to see them start to bring back in more
elements of the force and the force healers and how Cassian
doesn't believe into believe in the in the force healers and
(10:16):
thinks they're, you know, just they're, they're, they're,
they're not legitimate, right. But BIC seems, I don't know, I
don't know if I'd say she believes in the force healers,
but at least she, she believes enough that it's worth trying,
even if it doesn't have any impact.
And that's why they go take him to go see the, the force healer.
(10:37):
And yeah, like the fact that sheis the the force healer is can
detect something of importance with Cassian just reinforces, as
you were saying, Steven, how important Cassian's destiny is.
And I think maybe it's a necessary step.
Feels like, oh, why, why do you have to show this?
(10:58):
Right. Oh, you're showing the destiny.
Whatever. Do you really need this?
I think it's probably critical, though, so that people know that
Rogue One is really the finale of Andor.
It's not like, yes, next, you know, next week is the the
finale of the series, but the finale of the story is rogue
one, at least for Cassian. And I think that's probably why
(11:20):
they, they had to remind people,no, no, no, no, his, his, his
big moment is, is you know, you've already seen it and it's,
it's still to come. Right.
Yeah, And, you know, they say call him a messenger and then he
has a purpose and there's somewhere he needs to be and all
that stuff. But it works like Cassian.
(11:40):
He's healed. He's better.
And, you know, that's when he decides, OK, I'm, I'm going to
go after Deidre Miro because, you know.
Well. The thing I find really
interesting though, like 'cause,you know, in the previous hour,
Cassian was very against gettinginvolved on Gorman.
(12:04):
Like he didn't think that they were ready.
He was proven right. I mean, that's why I sent a, you
know, ate the blaster bolt effectively.
And I, I find it super interesting here.
He's not going like we know, obviously Gorman, the Gorman
massacre we're about to see doesnot go there for that reason.
He is there purely to like almost rogue to, I mean, I guess
(12:25):
he is rogue 'cause he certainly leaves without permission, but
he leaves. That will become a pattern for
him, I mean. It already is right 'cause
Generals Draven as Donna, who wedon't actually see to Donna, but
he's name dropped here. You know, when Val later tells
or Bix tells Val later that they're on the verge of
promoting him, but his the fact that he keeps going rogue isn't
(12:47):
helping things. And Draven tells him that, you
know, those who enjoy the security of Haven must proclaim
their loyalties. So it's like a you can be here,
but you got to work for us. And Cassian is so far not
showing a very good. He's not really being consistent
and and completely loyal. He's like, I'm here and I want
(13:08):
to help the rebellion, but I'm also still doing my own thing.
But but he did bring up a very valid point.
If it wasn't for Lutheran, the rebellion really wouldn't be
there because he did drop that when he was talking to, you
know, that the heads of the rebellion, it's like, look,
sadly, I'm going to sit here, drop everything and go help
Lutheran. But realize he's the one that
(13:28):
got us all together. He's the one that's been
supplying us with information. He's done this, he's done that.
Though in a way he's kind of like I am going to give him my
support because if it weren't for him, number one, I wouldn't
be here because I told him at one point I wanted in, OK, it's
like kill me or let me in. And then two, you wouldn't be
(13:51):
here if it wasn't for him. Yeah, exactly.
And so while he's he's, he's notfully happy with Luthan.
He's. Also was happy with Luthan, the
way he's been, the way he's beendoing everything has been under
the table but and and we. Know he's the best bet
sometimes. That's right, and he's probably
sometimes the only bet for it. Yeah, So that takes us into
(14:15):
Gorman, back to where we wanted to, where we were going to start
Gorman. And you know, on Gorman, we
we've got Cyril and Deidre, who Cyril's starting to suspect
something's going up, going on, right?
The the Empire is starting to make moves clearly.
And Deidre is like not telling him what's going on.
And he is not particularly happy, but he's kind of trying
(14:36):
to still do what she says, even though.
It is fascinating because like he obviously he, he knew, he
went to Gorman working with the ISP.
I I find it so fascinating that he at this point, he's starting
to see a little bit through like, you know, yeah, like, you
(14:58):
know, there the people of Gormanaren't, aren't bad.
Like clearly, like he's convinced there's an outside
agitator that is causing everything that he's seeing
here, completely oblivious to the fact that like, well, yes,
that's technically true because we know like, Cinta was involved
and Lutheran. The Gormans would have done this
regardless, they just wanted. To help exactly.
They just need that little bit of a push, and that's where
(15:20):
Lutheran came in. Yeah, it's, it's all those
classic examples of, you know, you just, you are not
understanding why this is occurring.
Yeah. And and that's, that's really
reinforced by some of the littlesmaller moments, right?
Of course we see the Gorman front fighting over how to
proceed and they, they, they want to do stuff.
But even characters like, you know, the like the Dylan at the
(15:45):
hotel, right? And on Gorman, where Cassian
he'd previously come under the guise of a fashion designer, he
comes back to the same hotel. Probably not the smartest thing,
but I guess there's only one hotel nearby and checks in.
I guess it's been a year, so would you really remember him?
He checks in as guja reporter with the Rim mid room news.
(16:08):
And in the last year, the Empirestarted cracking down and you,
you all journalists need approval from the Imperial
office before they can check into the hotel and stay on
Gorman and starting to show how the Empire is cracking down and
trying to control the narrative and the story.
And I just love how Dylan is, herecognizes Cassian and he's
(16:31):
like, I'm going to help you out.And he, he checked, let's
Cassian check into the hotel without actually entering him
into the system and forcing him to come back the next morning.
And, and it's those, those little things like just the, you
know, the, the, the guy at the front desk of the hotel
knowingly letting Cassian, who he knows is lying, check in
(16:51):
secretly. Like it.
It just shows how all the peopleon Gorman, all the gore are,
they're willing to do small, small acts of rebellion to help.
Eve doesn't know he's a rebel per SE.
He he he probably suspects. Well, don't forget, don't don't
forget. Hang on, go ahead, He also told
(17:12):
Cassian. You can take your own bags this
time. Right, because he's not going to
help him. He can't.
Officially, he can't. Leave the desk, it's not going
to hinder right But. I well, actually I think it's
further than that. I think he can't leave the desk,
right? Because then he can't leave the
the employee. The other employee will know if
he leaves the. Desk, right, But I think also
that to me that was a sign that's like he recognized
Cassian as soon as he as soon ashe came in from the last time.
(17:35):
That's why he sat there and saidyou're going to have to take
your own bags this time. And I think he also said it's in
the room and you know the way. I mean, here's the room, you
know the way, right? But sorry Steven, you had
something too, alright? Steven, I didn't want to cut you
off, No. I was just saying one of the
things I really appreciated about like what we've seen out
of Andorra this season is like this scene, we, we've got the
establishing stuff with the, the, the hopper, the Beltman in
(17:59):
the front desk, whatever you want to call it.
The other thing I really appreciated is, you know, the
previous arc, there was a whole bunch of discussion about the
Empire building this citadel, the barracks, I forget what the
specific name they call it and how they're worried it will, you
know, over shadow the Plaza which has this monument.
And I love that, you know, throughout this entire sequence
in the background is this massive citadel that is doing
(18:19):
exactly what all of the the rebels and the the citizens were
worried about. Just.
So clearly showcasing exactly, you know, that fear that is
driving all of this like it. This scene in particular I
thought just did such a phenomenal job of go casing
exactly that. It's suddenly it, it, it, it
(18:40):
shows and doesn't tell, right? And it does a really good job.
And it's just where the writing and the whole production value
just shine through. Just just so much subtext in
these in these scenes. And it's just cool to see,
right? Cassian being more of like a
spy, right? Checking into his room,
assembling a hidden sniper riflefrom a suitcase and, you know,
try and take a shot at or at least, you know, monitor Dedra
(19:03):
through the, the sniper rifle scope.
It's, it's really cool. You know, I'm finding that
there's two stormtroopers in theroom above him and he has to be
careful. It's just, I loved it, right?
It's a little James Bond. Almost.
Yeah. Very much so.
Yeah. And, and so that takes us into
the second episode in the arc where and we'll come back to
(19:25):
some of the course on stuff fromthe first episode when we get
into that moment, 'cause that's an exciting piece too.
The Gorman, we're like the, the conflict on Gorman really comes
to a crescendo, right? The, we've got the, the Imperial
Sergeant Blois and Captain Kaido, you know, moving the
barriers around in front of the Imperial headquarters to fortify
the building and all of the soldiers are very green.
(19:47):
But that certainly, it seems to me like that's part of the plan,
right? We, we want people who are
inexperienced so that they can make mistakes and we can blame
it on them when things go South and you know, the, the Gorman
front starts riling up the crowdand everyone starts leading into
(20:08):
the Plaza and you can see like the tension is, is mounting it.
I I will say this sequence felt.Somewhat similar to Ferrex in
almost felt repetitive, but it was different enough that I I
think it was OK. It was, I think it was different
(20:29):
enough because you had those green troopers that were being
pushed into something that they were not prepared for.
Even their Sergeant sat there and told them that they were
completely green. But you knew that that platoon,
I'm going to call it, was there as a complete setup and cannon
fodder because Captain, Captain Kaido didn't care.
All he wanted was to execute hisplan of we're going to start a
(20:52):
rebellion, we're going to start a massacre.
And in a way, blame it on the Gorman.
And the best way to do it is putsome green troops in a situation
to where they don't know how to handle.
They're going to get completely agitated and somebody is going
to. Take a lot of hidden snipers on
the roof. It's even more than that, yeah.
Like. It's more difference.
For me, like barracks was very much a like being this rebellion
(21:16):
grow organically, seeing a resistance to the Empire.
There is a little bit of that here.
The I'm blanking on the name thethe director and the writer.
So Janis and Dan did honestly just like such a phenomenal job
of building the tension through this entire sequence.
(21:37):
The difference especially like knowing that, you know, the
Gorman massacre is a thing. You know how this is going to
go. Like there's only one way it can
go. And you're just you're, you
spend the entire episode knowingthis is a trap and watching it
March inexorably boards it's conclusion.
(21:57):
Akbar's worst sniper to be honest.
Yeah, I mean it it's, it's clearit, it continues to build the
empire. You know, unlike ferrets, this
is planned. They they like you said, Tom,
they've got the green troops that they can trust to
overreact. They've got a sniper on the roof
to trigger the hostilities. They have troops set up to box
(22:19):
everyone in like it is. It is all calculated, yeah.
And so and also to watch the rebellion sit there and they
start passing out the Molotov cocktails.
They're sitting there and they're breaking up concrete so
they can throw rocks. Now at this point they're armed
and they have it under their jackets.
(22:40):
Though watching all that be built up along with the Empire
doing their their aspect really created some great tension in
this. And and also like the fact that,
you know, Cara Rylands, you know, he, he's the ostensibly
the leader of the Gorman front and he knows this is a trap.
(23:01):
He can clearly see it, right? And he's, he's he's running
through the streets trying to stop people and they refuse to
listen to him. And it's kind of gotten out of
control at this point. And you know, even when he runs
the Cyril, right, the, you know,Cyril is he, he admits what he's
(23:21):
doing, but he he also can't see the full, he doesn't understand
the full scope of what the Empire is planning and what
Deidre is planning. And so even he kind of tries to
defend the Empire a little bit, not not knowing exactly what
what is planned. I think he was kind of oblivious
anyway because even Deirdre at one point said go get yourself
(23:43):
packed, we're going to be leaving soon.
And you could tell the question,you look on his face like, in a
way, what what are you talking about?
Because I don't think he even knew, yeah, that this part of
the plan was going to actually be executed.
Yeah, and I love the moment where he Cyril enters the Plaza
as Cassian is, you know, he he Cassian checks out of the Plaza.
He tries to, you know, out of the hotel, starts to leave.
(24:04):
We hear the the Dylan the at thehotel front desk says rebellions
are built on to hope, which is Ithink the first time canonically
we've heard the phrase. So maybe that's where they they
start to get it or just become aphrase that's kind of spread
like wildfire through the through the through through, you
know, the different rebel groups.
But the moment when Cyril entersthe Plaza as Cassian leaves,
(24:28):
passing just like a scant few feet from each other, and Cyril
does, and they don't see each other, and Cyril doesn't see
Cassian. Cassian doesn't see Cyril.
And it's like he's been hunting him for how long, right?
Like all of season 1, he was hunting Cassian and they just
like so close. Yeah.
(24:48):
So far it's just. It's just.
Can we talk about that conclusion now?
Yeah, let's, let's, let's. So before we get into the rest
of the rest of the massacre, obviously stuff stuff starts
happening. And then Cyril does see Cassian.
Well, I guess first, right, he before we talk about the Cassian
moment, we let's talk about the fact that Cassian or Cyril
(25:09):
eventually he he confronts Didra.
He goes back to the to the to the base where he sees a bunch
of K extroids. We'll come back to the K
extroids soon. He can front stage about what's
going on after he heard had thatdiscussion with Rylands and he's
so furious, he starts choking her, which is I could not, I did
(25:31):
not believe that. And he basically stops.
But he's so horrified by what she's done and lying to her and,
and kind of intentionally framing the Gormans that he
breaks up with her on the spot and leaves.
And that's the end of their relationship.
And then in the middle of the fight, then Steven, please,
(25:55):
please continue because. I do want to say I also
appreciate Dedra doesn't seem toaccept it either like she said.
So Cyril goes back into the fight and then Dedra is still
trying to convince and figure out how to like get him, get him
back for lack of a better word, how to protect him through this.
But yes. So they go into the fight, Cyril
(26:17):
sees Cassian, they begin a brawlcause Cyril now feels
vindicated. Like clearly the outside
agitators. I know Cassian.
I've been hunting forever. Yeah, and I just the the they
get into a fight and and Cyril, I I don't even.
(26:38):
Is this what movie is this from though?
Like you've taken everything from me and like I don't even
know who you are. Avenger, the Sith, you want to
take her from me? No, no, no, no, no.
There's there's some movie. I mean, not Star Wars.
Movie. It's not Star Wars, no.
No, but just like the fact that everything that has occurred,
(27:00):
every Cyril's been hunting Cassian to the to the end and
Cassian's just like I literally don't know who you are.
It's. Beautiful.
Yeah, that was just. That was just.
Amazing. And then Cyril's killed and
that's that. That's it.
He's done. Well, he was killed.
He was killed by the leader of the Gorman, the the Gorman's.
And it's like you almost felt like he he did it because it was
(27:22):
revenge, because at a certain point it's like we trusted you
and and look at look at what your empire is doing to my
planet. And if there's anybody can take
my revenge out on, and if I can't do it to like Deardor or
anybody else, Daryl, boom, you're gone.
That's it. And I mean, it is revenge for
him. Like we didn't mention it, but
he he kind of beats up a little bit and pushes Ryan Rylands to
(27:44):
the ground. Cyril has earlier when they when
he when when Rylands confronts him.
But it I think it's also so poetic.
That's like, it's not Cassian, it's not Cyril, it's not
something else. It's just yeah, the leader of
the rebels there. Just the rebellion on on Gorman
just takes out serial. It's almost like pointless,
right? It's a brutal fight.
(28:07):
It is a absolutely brutal fight When they get hit by a thermal
detonator and and days they you know, they're like, it's bloody.
It's it's probably one of the maybe one of the most brutal
fight scenes we've seen in Star Wars.
Just knock down, drag out like hand to hand combat.
It is crazy. But then he just boom.
(28:29):
He's well, I'm surprised Cyril had all built up.
Well, you can put it this way. I was going to say I'm surprised
Cyril had all that anger built up in him.
But if you had a mom that he hadthat really put him down every
time they got together and then you just had your girlfriend
burn you big time. Of course you're going to be
upset when you see somebody you've been Oh, and the the
person that you're beating up isthe person who cost you your
(28:50):
original job. So of course you're going to
start taking it out on him and be brutal in in all respects.
It's also somewhat poetic that like he he had just broken up
with Dedra. He just choked her.
And yet it Cassian was about ready to take a shot at Dedra
when he spots him, when he when,when Cyril spots Cassian and
attacks him. And in a way, Cyril saves her
(29:13):
life. And you know, he he ends up
dying and you know, Dedra is like looking out the windows for
him, never sees him, never findsout what happens.
We think, I'm sure she probably finds out in some report later.
But yeah, it's it, it I really, I always liked Cyril's character
quite a bit. And, and so it's it's sad to
(29:35):
see. It's sad to see him die, You
know, it really is. And.
It is, but I I honestly think this was the perfect heart for
him. Yes.
Without. A doubt.
A realization that the Empire isbehind it, followed by the same
lack of critical thinking that causes him to reject what he
(29:57):
actually sees in front of him. Like he should know this is the
Empire's doing, not not the result of like, Cassian.
And then to have him die chasingthe person he's been chasing for
years at this point? Just perfect.
And then, of course, when, when Didra finally hears that he's
(30:18):
dead and you can just see how heartbroken she is in the, in
the final moments of the episode.
And with like we see Ed Carr andCyril's mom and her friends
watching the news from Gorman and just teary eyed as the
empire frames the conflict as the price you pay for safety.
And you know, it's even even earlier in the episode, right?
They, they had framed the whole thing as an inexplicable Gorman
(30:41):
resistance to imperial norms. It's not a big deal, right?
Why are you fighting back? And it it's just it, it's a
great way to end the episode with, with Ed just being, you
know, focusing on her as her son, who she was so hard on ends
up, you know, dying in this, in this conflict that she thinks in
(31:01):
her mind, right, he went to he went to Gorman for no reason.
He got a demotion and lost his his girlfriend and and for what?
To die, right. And she never knows that what he
was really involved in. Yeah, she'll never know the
truth, but then again that that's it.
His, his, his storyline is over.Yeah.
(31:24):
Let's. Let's rewind a little.
The other. Thing like so the first season
gave us the the speech by Marva and you know the the riot on
Ferrick's the equivalent in in this season is in my mind the
the Gorman singing, you know, this traditional song in the
(31:49):
whatever you wanna call it and and the we.
Are the gore and it almost lookslike the natural book the maybe
or something I don't know. Yeah, it is.
They did. Just beautiful.
Like I loved this sequence so much.
They did such a good job with it.
And I think the best part about it is you could tell when it
(32:10):
started, it was just peaceful. They were doing nothing.
They were just sitting there standing up for their planet and
themselves. Yep.
So they didn't do anything to really start this.
Yeah, and you know, even like you, you have a little bit of
rioting that's starting to occurfor good reason.
(32:31):
And it's, as you said, Tom, it is the green troops being sent
out. And even that is not enough.
You'll see like the troops are creeps are handling it.
OK, the gore are angry. But like, you know, the violence
doesn't start until the Empire takes the shot.
Takes the shot and takes out oneof their own troopers, which
(32:52):
it's brutal, but if you're goingto have a riot start, that was
probably the bad as it's going to sound.
The smartest way to start it is if one of your own troopers
takes the first hit, because that way it gives the commander
the full the full blown, you know orders.
It will fire, it will just. It erupts.
(33:13):
You know, Stormtroopers close off keeping everyone there.
They open fire on the crowd regardless of whether snipe in
and then they send in the KX droids and it you.
Know it's. Fascinating.
We saw the KX droids obviously in Rogue One.
(33:34):
They are so brutal. Terrifying.
Oh. God.
Episodes. I mean, I guess it's just this
one episode really. But like like we again going
back and watching Rogue One after like we see K2 do some of
that stuff too, you know, the basically like using his
strength to throw people around.But it is so much more brutal
(33:57):
here. Like just watching the droids
pick up throw, like they don't even need blasters.
They're just brutal. No, I mean just sit there with a
swipe of your hand and somebody goes flying and then you pick
them up and throw. I mean, it's it's it was
fascinating just to watch K2 in and of himself.
But to watch four or five of them in action, you really need
(34:22):
to have all, yeah, all those stormtroopers and and all those
Imperials around. Just put five of those out there
and you've got a wrecking crew in and of itself.
They they literally were throwing the gore around like
rag dolls. It was I was like, Oh my gosh,
my jaw was on the floor as I waswatching these gay extroids.
And you know, we know right thatwe're that Cassian is going to
(34:42):
make meet K2. SO in this in this episode and
yet or not this episode, this this season, and yet you don't
really know like is that K2? Is that K2 right there?
There's this whole time and sometimes they'd show a close up
on AKX and I was like, Oh, is that K2 right.
And then, you know, for example,as they're they're escaping the
(35:06):
Plaza, right, AKX toroid starts like attacking Cassia and and
coming right at him, impervious to blaster fire.
And then boom, one of the gore Sam just Rams him with a
speeder, cutting him in half anddestroy him.
And you're like, Oh, OK, that's not that's not K2 right?
And you just it's there. Your constant like is this K K2?
Is this not K2? I don't know.
Although it turns out the Droid that was split in half actually
(35:28):
is. Is.
Presumably K2. SO right, Because Cassian
collects the parts and and takesthem home.
And it was funny before in the lead of the premiere, Tony
Gilroy talked about how he wanted Cassian and K2.
SO to have a quote UN quote mutecute.
I don't know if I'd call it mutecute, but it was really cool to
see, you know, this Droid who I'm assuming will be K2.
(35:49):
SO just go after Cassian like that.
It was. It was brutal.
Yeah, it's a phenomenal, A phenomenal sequence.
Like I, I guess here, let me askyou both this question.
Like Gorman Massacre, it is the event that Brigger's kind of the
(36:11):
empowerment of the rebellion. It inflames the Galaxy.
We get an entire episode. Wait, we honestly get, call it
what, 5-6 episodes leading up tothis, all dedicated to
establishing and setting up the Gorman Massacre?
How do you guys feel? They did like a 10 out of 10.
(36:34):
You know, like it delivers. It delivers.
It delivers on all fronts because I think what makes it
work is when you watch the Imperial reporters in that
square even before it started, it's their take on what's
happening it it's trying to makeit.
The Empire is the one that's here and it's the Gorman front
(36:55):
that's doing this and that. Because listen to both news
reporters how they're framing the story and making it sound
more of, you know, that the Empire's here for this, that and
the other thing. And it's the Gorman because we
lost soldiers over here and soldiers over here.
And to watch that work and then it just it, it works on so many
fronts. And then also to have them sit
(37:16):
there and put out, you know, an SOS, we're being massacred,
this, that and the other thing. So the whole Galaxy is hearing
all this. I mean the real truth, not the
Imperial truth. Yeah.
And it worked on many fronts. Yeah.
And as we'll, we'll get this in just a moment.
We'll see. This is this is the inciting
moment that will, you know, bring the rebellion together.
(37:38):
But first it requires Mon Mothma.
And so let let's let's talk about Mon Mothma 'cause I think
that really wraps up the Gorman sequence of Wilman decides to
stay on Gorman to help his girlfriend Drina, who he just
has a new girlfriend every arc it seems like.
Every port, man, every port, he's got a girlfriend.
(37:59):
But, you know, fast forwarding or rewinding a little bit back
to the first episode of the arc,we, we see Mon Mothma, right?
And she is getting fed up with her driver.
She, she's known he's an imperial spy for forever.
She is, is, you know, she, you know, Gorman said the Gorman
senator, Senator Dasi Oren believes that his planet is
(38:21):
running out of time, which he wasn't wrong.
And, you know, all Mon can do istry to assemble a petition.
And she's just really, really struggling for help.
She's just really unable to get any support to fight against the
(38:42):
Empire no matter what she tries.And so, yeah, it's, it's it's
interesting to see how if her time is running out in the
Senate, right? She's trying.
She can't make much progress. And you know, the the the
Senator Dasi Goran is ultimatelyarrested by the Imperial
(39:04):
Security Bureau in the aftermathof the Gorman massacre.
And even when she tries to speakout again, nobody, nobody is is
it wants to to support her. Even Bale Organa, who as much as
I we're not going to go back into it as much as I prefer not
to have, you know, to have JimmySmith's or other Benjamin Bratt.
I don't know. I don't get why they recast.
(39:26):
Also, shame on you, all of you who spoiled Bill Argana to to
people who hadn't seen this episode.
The last two episodes of Arcsia,I saw a lot of coverage.
I was like, hey, that's not that's not cool.
Don't mention Bill Argana, don'tmention the he goes recast until
the episodes come out. But you know, he he plays a much
bigger role, but even he's not ready to leave yet.
(39:47):
He knows it's, you know, Mon Mothma believes it's time to
speak out against the atrocities.
But Belgana is like, Nope, Yevin's not ready.
They need Mon's leadership, but Bale needs to stay behind and
buy more time and hopefully not become a hostage, which I think
we all know is necessary so thatPrincess Leia can be a senator
(40:08):
from all the run 'cause if he had escaped and there's no way
they would have let Leia be a, asenator.
But yeah, I guess thoughts on the the beginning of Mon's, you
know, her, her, her struggle, I guess.
I guess first question is. I was surprised by how much they
were throwing around. The word gave in in public, like
a lot. Is that safe?
(40:31):
It definitely it doesn't feel that way my my response.
I was also a little surprised byit.
I I don't know, it's one of those things, right?
It's kind of like hand wave. So it's like, yeah, obviously
the correct way to do this is they and actually we get this
like in the the third episode with like bugs and Mons office
(40:52):
and stuff like that. The correct way to do this is
obviously that you have like, you know, special secret spaces
that are the only places you talk about stuff like that.
But that would be really boring to watch.
So I, I kind of give them a passof like, fine, yeah.
Or, or at least a code word or something for the planet.
Because you would think that inside that Imperial Senate,
(41:13):
anywhere in there could be bugged, there could be listening
devices. Yeah.
I think it's just one of those things where the correct choice
is obviously to only talk about it in secure spaces.
It just makes for a way. Less interesting.
That's true. That's fair.
That's. No, that's true.
That's true. Well, it also puts the audience
on the edge of your seat becausewho knows who could be walking
by and overheard somebody say Yavin at any point.
(41:34):
And it's like, oh, could it be leaked out at at some point
because they're saying it in such an open space?
I mean that could be an an idea.Yeah, but but you know, I mean,
as as much as I I do like seeingBale or gone of the character,
you know, so much in this arc. And I get that's why they had to
recast him probably for some reason they couldn't get Jimmy
(41:55):
Smith's there. But, you know, it's just great
to see Bale support, even if he and Mon are not always 100%
aligned. They are still, you know,
they're still, they're still fighting for the same thing.
And I noticed there was like a call back to Season 1 with Marva
Andor's you can't stay and I can't go.
And Monmouth says you're brave enough to stay.
(42:16):
I should be brave enough to go. You know, he and Bale says he'll
see her next year on Yavin. So clearly, like the, the base
is almost ready. And you can, you can feel like
the the tension is, is mounting.And that's when they discover,
you know, Mon knows that she needs to speak out.
And as she's preparing for her her big speech, her assistant,
(42:42):
Erskine Samaj discovers a bug inher office.
And so that's when she goes to the Plaza at night to practice.
And before we get to Lutheran's,her speech with Lutheran because
Lutheran appears. I do want to say something.
So kind of a side personal side note, but the this season
(43:02):
introduces to this new area outside of the Senate, the
Senate Plaza with this water andreally cool architecture.
It's featured very heavily in this arc, especially in this
season, especially this arc, I guess almost exclusive in this
arc. Maybe it showed up briefly in
the previous arc. And fun fact, so I was when my
wife and I went to, we went on atrip to Europe two years ago.
(43:24):
We randomly stopped in the city and actually visited this exact
location and it was like, we were like, this looks familiar.
And it turns out I was like in Westworld, a bunch of other, you
know, shows as well. But then to see it pop up in
Star Wars, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so cool.
I've been to Star Wars. Exactly.
It's cool. Obviously I've been to other
Star Wars sets, you know, here or there, like, you know, in
like the Canary Wharf in in London and whatnot.
(43:47):
But it was really cool to to seeit.
And then in some of the after the first arc release, they had
some behind the scenes stuff andthey mentioned that they went,
they went to Spain where this isit's the City of Arts and
Sciences in Valencia, Spain. They went there in like late
March or early April of 2023, like weeks, like literally weeks
(44:12):
before I was there. Oh man, it wouldn't have been
cool if we just stumbled on a Star Wars set.
That would have been amazing. But I.
Can't even imagine that would have been awesome.
I would. Probably also have access to it
too. I've been locked.
Off But yeah, seeing like, I don't know, Mon Mothma in the
distance, like what? What, you know, that would have
been so cool. But I was like, that's amazing.
But anyway, back to the back to the story.
Back to the story. Luthan approaches Mon Mothma out
(44:36):
of nowhere and says she's in danger.
Steven, do you want to catch catch our listeners up on what
happens here? Yeah, So Mon is, like I said,
she's preparing to deliver this speech that will, what's the
word, excoriate the Empire for Gorman.
She knows she's going to burn every bridge she has with the
Senate, so she has to get off planet.
(44:57):
The plan is that Bale will send in a team to help extract her.
And like I said, Lutheran shows up and it's it's pretty clear
that Mon Motha and Lutheran havehad a bit of a falling out at
this point, maybe like minor things like Lutheran killed one
of her childhood friends, you know, minor, minor.
(45:17):
And it is a fascinating conversation.
Like you said, Lutheran says, hey, the team that's going to
extract you, you can't trust I'mgoing to I will send someone,
you know, to help you, but you have to trust me.
And I, I think Tommy kind of alluded to this earlier.
This this sequence in particulardid such a good job of
(45:37):
showcasing the end result of Luthen's danger.
Like not danger, but like his take no prisoners attitude where
even Mon Mothma, someone that you know has worked with him for
years at this point, can't trusthim when it counts.
But it's such a powerful. Sequence.
She says she's more afraid of him than the Empire right now,
(45:59):
which is crazy to think about, you know?
But I guess the way he treated Take Homa, I'm not surprised.
Yeah, and, and it's just he in his take, in his reality, he has
to be that brutal because he hasto make sure that what he's
setting up is going to survive. And it seems like he's going to
do anything in any way possible to make it work if that means
(46:23):
taking out somebody that doesn'tneed to be taken out.
But hey, he is a weak link. He's being taken out.
Yeah, OK. I would be scared, too.
Especially like like you mentioned he just took out
Mahmathma's childhood friend. Well, and it also turns out
Erskine, who she trusts probablymore than most people out there
(46:43):
in the Galaxy, actually works for Lutheran, and that just
shakes her to her core as well. Yeah.
And like 2 years, yeah. And fires him on the spot right
there. Fires him on the spot.
Yeah, it's understandable. Bad, but understandable.
It's understandable, but if it wasn't for him, who's to say
that she wouldn't have been thrown into jail sooner Because
(47:04):
he did sit there and say I have protected you basically for
these past two years. OK if.
Mon. And if she gets arrested, the
whole operation falls apart every.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, this episode, it is
the Mon Mothma show, this, this,this third episode of the third
arc. And it is just, it's so good.
As as delicious as Gorman is, and how as well done as it is,
(47:27):
this is like equally done with Mon Mothma because.
Execute it. So, well, because then we get
the, the sequence with in, in the Senate, right, the, the, the
fact that they destroyed the, the alarm, the, the listening
device sets off alarm bells, theISB and you know, they know
something's up. She hasn't been at the Senate
all night. Her driver and ISB spy Chlorus
(47:50):
is, is like frantically calling the ISB like she's not here,
she's not here. What's going on?
What's going on? There are rumors circulating
that senators may try to challenge the narrative about
what happened on Gorman and the they're trying to keep the
senators from speaking about Gorman.
So they call an early session toreduce the number of senators
who might show up. And the chair is trying to
prevent anyone from speaking on the topic unless they know what
(48:12):
they're going to say, right? It's, you can start to see all
of the, the, the chess pieces move into place and the tension
is, is mounting. And you know, you, you hear some
of these pre approved senators talking about how, oh, you know,
the imperial martyrs gave up everything on the brutal streets
of Gorman and how, you know, it's so savage and they should
(48:34):
have done something to stop the insurrection, all this stuff.
And in the midst of all of this,I, I just as someone who I
enjoy, like following politics as well and game theory and all
this kind of stuff. And it was just fun to see how
Bail Organa and Monmouthma scheme to get Mon Mon Mothma on
the floor. And basically through a series
(48:56):
of loopholes. One of the senators, Senator
Irving, who is a senior senator from Hodie, you know she's
talking and she was pre approvedand she yields her time
according to the Senate rules toanother senior senator, Baylor
Ghana, who in turn invokes Article 17-252, which and I love
how he justifies it. This was proposed by the
(49:17):
Emperor's Council and allows senior senators to yield the
floor to another senior senator if there's the case of an
emergency. And as you all have just said,
Gorman is an emergency. So I yield my time without
interruption because that's the rule to Mon Mothma.
And that's when the famous speech begins.
(49:38):
It is such a phenomenal speech. Like.
I don't even a A+, but I think my only complaint is they're
obviously there's a lot of reaction from the you want to
call them bootlicking senators, for lack of a better term, that
are, you know, clearly Gorman was a was the fault of the gore.
(50:00):
I wish I I kind of hope they release her speech.
Like without the background noise as well.
It is phenomenal, just phenomenal.
Pretty well too. I mean just the whole thing.
The just like how is that we canall look and see what's
(50:20):
happening and then try and pretend that we're seeing
something different The. Difference between US and what
it's said is between what it's said and what it's known to be
is become an abyss, and the lossof an objective reality is
perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the
ultimate victory of evil, and the monster who will come for us
all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine.
It's beautifully played by Jennifer Ellright.
(50:41):
Like so good. It is so, so well done like
Andor is known for it's an incredible monologues from
Luthan to Mon Mothma and it justcontinues to shine here.
I I love anytime Luthan. Luthan and Mon Mothma are
probably my two favorite characters in the series and it
they just every time they open their mouths, it's like
perfection. I just love it and.
(51:05):
Then once she gives her just to sit there and watch Bale or
Ghana just like punch over like it's done, yeah, and it's over
and then after that it's on. But at this.
Point it's so through it, right?The empire, as soon as she
starts talking, they're like, no, we have to shut down the
feeds. Like we can't stop her
procedurally, people in the Senate, we can't stop, but let's
(51:26):
at least stop the people outsideof the Senate chamber from
hearing this. And so, you know, they, they
send out Pono to to try to like take out the, the the feed, but
the doors have been locked due to a new sent policy that only
just finally following. Hang on a second.
Didn't that crack you up? It's like it.
It's like but. Yeah, but, but the the door
hasn't been locked for years. Oh, we fixed it yesterday.
(51:47):
Yeah, I need to go to the security office to get the
sequence key right. It's just it's.
They laughed. Oh my God.
See another like robot like character, right and and Jean
kind of they're like smiling at each other clearly in on the in
on the secret and it gives Mon enough time to finish her speech
(52:07):
and they do shut it down, but it's right after she's she's
called out the the emperor for his atrocities.
And this leads to the beautiful escape from the Senate, right.
Cassian, who's who's kind of infiltrated the Senate out of
the guise of a journalist, Ronnie Gooj from the midriff
network. He's standing by and yeah, he
(52:28):
meets with Erskine Semich in thepress room and as soon as von
Mothma exits, she he's right there to help her.
And he uses the, you know, like the code word we hear so often
in the season. I have friends everywhere and
escorts are out of the building and runs into Bail Organa's
extraction team. And of course, 1 is a Imperial
(52:52):
spy who has already killed one of the officers.
Poor, poor Charvel. Poor.
Yeah, poor poor. Charvel notices that Beska is
where she's supposed to be. And I mean, I don't know how Cat
how Bill Argana's team got infiltrated, but oh man, it is.
It is so well done, this whole escape sequence.
(53:14):
It is maybe the one thing I havea little bit of an issue with
like which, if they're able, theBill Argana's team.
Was in. OK, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I guess I see. Well, if you're, if you were
able to infiltrate the team thatis going to whisk Von Mothma to
the rebels secret base on Yavin and we know she she's literally
(53:36):
working directly for the ISP. It's a little weird to me that
like they don't know where Yavinis.
So I suspect this is one of those like, nobody knows the
full picture and it's going to go from one person to another to
another. And then we kind of see that
play out. Obviously, Cassian is, it may
have been in a slightly different way because Cassian
(53:57):
wouldn't necessarily know who towho to meet with, but I suspect
they didn't actually know where they're going.
They just knew they were going to escort her out of the Senate
to some rendezvous point and that was it.
Just to a safe house. I mean, the easy thing to do is
take her to a safe house, then you put her in the safe house
and then the next extraction team is going to take her to the
next location. Yeah, and you know, like when
(54:17):
they when they confront Mod and you know, it's kind of like a
who does she go with? Does she go with does she trust
Bail or Ghana? Who would normally I would trust
any anyone he sends, right. And so the fact that the people
he send they're not trustworthy is a great twist.
Or does she go with Luthan's people?
Cassian, who is also untrustworthy and she kind of is
afraid of, and she does decide to trust Cassian and or maybe
(54:40):
sort of, she's still kind of unsure when Besca, you know,
pulls a gun and, and kind of andErskine has the brilliant idea
to call her a rebel spy and, youknow, and she, she gets and
Cassian shoots her and Mom's like, I'm not sure I can do
this. And Cassian's like, welcome,
welcome to the rebellion. And they, they escape the
(55:01):
building. They have to run outside of the
Senate as the, the Imperial troops begin to, you know, swarm
the Senate. And as they escape, Chlorus is
there and Cassian just shoots him just dead on.
And again, Mon is just, you could see she's been leading the
rebellion, but she's never seen the cost of the rebellion.
And it's just, it is, it just hits her to the country.
(55:23):
It's a phenomenal sequence, yeah.
That the whole escape is just very well done, just loved every
minute. It does really keep you on the
edge of your seat. Oh, it's so good.
It is so good. You know, they, they take her to
the, the, the, the safe house that Cassie and used to live in.
And they decide that, you know, Cassian is going to leave
Coruscant or, and Mon Mothma is going to be taken to a different
(55:45):
ship, which will take her to Dantooine, where she will
broadcast her speech again to the entire Galaxy.
And the plan is to rewrite the story because she's coming in
with a Yavin escort instead of Cassian.
So he will never be remembered. I have to say, I think it's a
good point to talk about very briefly the the the history of
(56:06):
the Gorman massacre because and or season 2 does a great job of
aligning the various stories depicting the Gorman massacre.
Obviously a long time ago in legends there was the Gorman
massacres existed for a long time.
And in that in legends, the Gorman massacre was when Captain
Tarkin's ship landed on top of abunch of protesters on Gorman.
(56:27):
And when they refused, you know,when they refused to move, he
just landed on top his ship on top of him killing hundreds,
injuring many more. And supposedly this is the
moment that spurred the delegation of 2000 and sort of
start to format rebellion against the empire.
Later on, the there was the Gorman massacre mentioned again
in, in the new Canon where like in Rebel season 3, for example,
(56:47):
we see, we hear about the Gormanmassacre, but this time Tarkin
is involved and it takes place in two BBY and much closer to a
New Hope. And this, this event compels Mon
Mothma to publicly condemn the empire as we see in this episode
and flee the Senate. And, you know, So what they,
they did is they, they brilliantly weave these together
(57:09):
where they, we find out there was the the original Tarkin
massacre 16 years prior, which we talked about the last arc.
And that kind of may have sparked the initial desire for
rebellion with the delegation of2000.
But it's the second Gorman massacre that we see here when
Mon flees Coruscant with the help of Cassie Nandor after
making her speech where, you know, the, we see like that's
(57:33):
like the Gorman massacre that prompts her speech and sends her
to, you know, Cassian. Cassian takes her out and gives
her to Gold Squadron, who takes her to the rebels, Hera and Ezra
and Kanan and everyone who take her to Lothal, where she
broadcasts the speech in the episode Secret cargo that is
(57:56):
sent to the whole Galaxy and unites all the rebel factions
under the leadership of Mon Mothba.
And it's just beautifully done. It's they did a such a good job
of just tying all these storylines together and really
straightening out the the story of the Gorman massacre.
I love the attention to detail, it's just that they go into all
(58:19):
these stories and weave A coherent story is just
outstanding. I just, I love it.
And it's cool. Like we know that Mon Mothma
leaves and shows up in Star WarsRebels, right?
And it's just, you see that continuity and it's just so
good. It's so good.
They did a phenomenal job. Yeah, Yep, the last, last bit of
the episode. But Cassian returns to his, you
(58:41):
know, jungle Hut where Bix is and basically drugs him and then
leaves in the morning or leaves at night.
Yeah. Basically kind of connecting
back to that, you know, moment with the healer at the beginning
where Bix believes Cassian has adestiny, a mission, and she
(59:02):
doesn't want to be in get in theway because she sees and we've
seen that Cassie and spent has spent the entire season thus far
very focused on and worried about VIX.
And so she removes herself from the equation and it's, I don't
know, you feel bad. For I know I feel so bad like
VIX is doing the right thing forthe rebellion, but in the
(59:23):
process, it is sad to see their their story presumably come to
an end. Maybe we'll see them in the next
arc, but it's it's it's sad to see what happens to that they're
they're not together and like Cassian's heartbreak when he
realizes that she's gone and kind of reads that good my
message from her and tries to stop the shuttle, but it's too
(59:43):
late. It's just.
The one the one funny part aboutit though is it does.
Like essentially up until this point I had been working into
the assumption that every arc would see one of Cassian's
friends killed. The first arc had Brasso, the
second arc I guess had Cinta. It's not really close to
Cassian, but because all these characters we don't see in Rogue
(01:00:04):
One. True, but it doesn't.
Mean they have to die. They could just be off screen.
Yeah, well, it's potentially, but someone like Bix, you know,
is a lot harder if she was still, like, actively with
Cassian. And so there was a part of me
that was relieved when she left,too, because it's like, maybe
Bix will be safe now from the needs of matching up with Rogue
One. Yeah.
Right. Well, it seems like how they're
(01:00:26):
developing the story. Everybody, when, when and or
season 2 is over, everybody's going to be in their proper
place within the story of Rogue One.
If they are going to be in RogueOne, I'm pretty sure they're
going to get to that spot that when this ends, you will see
where they are in placement to Rogue One.
Those characters that are not there will have some kind of
(01:00:49):
wrap up of a storyline probably in the next arc.
Well, you you want to wrap up their stories for this series,
but they can they don't have to die, right?
I know there's an assumption we you know, a lot of time made
about things too. You don't have to kill those
characters. They could just be off screen
and and. No.
Longer there so. But at least they can give them
some kind of ending that places them within the universe but
(01:01:10):
doesn't carry them into Rogue One.
But they will get their proper ending on whatever it's going to
be. Exactly.
But whoever need leads into Rogue One is going to be propped
put in their proper spot to get into Rogue One.
Yeah, but while it's sad to see Cassian lose Bix, he does make a
new friend at the very end of the episode.
(01:01:32):
You know, he, he, I mean, he returns to Avon on his U wing.
He gives General Draven the parts to K2, SO.
And you know, sometime later we see this tech freight Drawla has
finished repairing the KX Droid.He's done a cortex swap to
ensure the droid's impulses are suppressed.
So K2 SO has all of his memories, but he just has his
(01:01:54):
his more violent urges suppressed and more about wiring
than engineering, I guess, and not really programming related.
And so, you know, Cassie and a bunch of rebels, they they stand
around K2. SO as he's turned on and you
know, it's just great, 'cause like, do you want goggles?
No, no, just give me a blaster, that's all I need.
(01:02:15):
And they turn on Cassian or K2. SO and you hear the Droid boot
up and it's like it's it's. Very Frankensteinish if you
think about it. Yes, I love how he's tied down
and the set of soldiers behind him all pointing at it, which we
just saw, you know, Hey, a bunchof K droids, rejects, plaster
(01:02:36):
fires. I don't know how effective that
will actually be. Exactly.
They had to do something becauseeven when you look at how he was
tied down. On the side.
Yeah, and he was just tied down with straps.
Like that's going to stop him. How naive, but but that's, you
know, K2. SO he wakes up and the voice of
(01:02:56):
Aled Tudic appears and it's justit's it's great.
Cassian is is, I don't want to say reunited because it's the
first time in the timeline, but it's K2 SO and Cassian best of
friends are here and I I'm excited finally with 1 arc left,
three episodes left to go in thein the series we get to see
Cassian and K2 SO and it'll be fun to see how where they take
(01:03:18):
things next week in the the the I can't believe we are already
at the finale next next week is the last three episodes of the
season. Of course it's gone by really
quick, but. It's gone.
It's it's gone by quick but realize we have Rogue One to
jump into when this is over so. We do.
We do, but. And we can, we can watch that
(01:03:38):
whenever we want. Well, we can watch these as
well, as long as they stay on Disney Plus.
But we can watch Rogue One and then boom, you know, we know how
it ends. Well, I guess should we go into
our ratings, because I think we've, we've pretty, pretty well
covered this, this arc, this phenomenal, phenomenal arc.
(01:03:58):
I'll, I'll go first. How, how would I go first?
First, You know, the man, the, the, the, this, this arc is just
outstanding on every level. I, I could be happier with this
arc. This just just the crescendo of
the season. And I, I think I have to give it
the first episode, episode 7 and9 and then episodes 8 and 10,
(01:04:21):
eight and eight and nine, 10s out of 10.
Just absolutely outstanding on every level.
I am very, very happy with all of the, the work they've done
with Gorman and how they tie everything together and Mon
Mothma and Coruscant. And it's just, it's, it delivers
on everything we've been waitingfor.
(01:04:43):
So yeah, I, I, I have to give it9 womp rats, 10 for the first
episode and 10 out of 10 for thesecond and third because it's
just, it's too good. And my 29 womp rats are they're
they're trying to stop K2 SO from and he wakes up.
But you know, we know how well that's going to work.
(01:05:05):
Tom, you want to go next? Yeah, William, I'm going to, I'm
not going to. Well, I'm not a copy.
I'm basically I'm, I'm giving itthe same ratings for I I'm
giving it a nine for episode 7 and definitely A10 and A10 for
episodes 8:00 and 9:00. I I love this arc.
I can't wait to see what happensin the last arc.
(01:05:26):
I mean, just this arc in and of itself, beautifully written,
beautifully acted. The sets still are just amazing,
amazing to to look at the care they just put into the show,
just everything about it. It's it's really hard to sit
here and and nitpick because then you get to the point where
it's like now you're just being too nitpicking on things because
(01:05:49):
it's just so good. So I just, I loved how this is
all playing out. I think we said enough during
the show. So I'm going to take my 29 womp
rats and they are actually aiding Mon and Cassian escape
from the Senate building. They are running around creating
(01:06:09):
a diversion to help them escape.So that's what my 29 womp rats
did. Even your last.
Yeah, I think I'm just going to give this ten across the board,
honestly, like this more than I think anything else we've gotten
out of the show is the I don't know, it's it's the purpose of
(01:06:32):
Andor. In some ways it is the inciting
event. It was beautifully delivered
across the board. The first episode.
I'm going a little higher because I I consider a part of
it like it's hard to separate them to begin with and it really
is about the setup and building out the entire experience.
And like that there is, there isnothing else you can like I, I
(01:06:55):
wouldn't change anything about this arc.
Basically like from Cassian's experience to Cyril's experience
to Dedra, like all of it is phenomenal.
And all 30 of my womp rats are just standing in the Senate
applausing clap, applausing, clapping in applause for Mon
(01:07:19):
Mothma speech there. And this episode like this.
I honestly think I don't know ifI've ever given like I guess we
we've I'm trying to think if there's ever been an arc where
I've given three 10s. I don't think so.
I. Don't think so.
Yeah, that's this is. This to me is peak Star Wars.
Like I, I don't, I don't know that it could ever be topped.
(01:07:40):
So I will, I'm going to give it a, A rating for that reason.
OK, well, this has been a fun episode.
This has been really, really a great time.
I, man, I I so, so good, so good.
We have the finale next week, episodes 10:11 and 12:00.
(01:08:05):
So stay tuned. And we still got lots more to
come. We've got Tales of the
Underworld, which man with we'reactually on vacation.
We're recording this early, so we'll have that as soon as we
get back from trips. But yeah, it's so good.
I can't wait to talk to you guysnext week as we review the
(01:08:26):
finale of Andor. Thank you for listening to the
Ion Cannon Podcast, your source for entertainment reviews from
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has covered every corner of the saga, from the films and
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(01:08:46):
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(01:09:07):
all of their respective trademarks or copyright holders.
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2018.
All wings reported Red 10 standing by.
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You're listening to the Ion Cannon podcast.
Laugh it up, fuzzball. Your source for entertainment
reviews from a Galaxy far, far away?
This is it. Hey, laser clickers.
(00:23):
Welcome to the Iron Cannon podcast.
I am one of your hosts, Steven, and I'm joined by my friends and
Coast, Tom and William and Oh myGod, they're all dead.
William, Tom, they're all dead. Oh.
No. This is a brutal, brutal arc.
Brutal arc. But hey, it's also probably my
favorite arc of the season, so Iam.
(00:46):
I would agree old man what what a trilogy of episodes.
It's it's this, it's this. And it's the next trilogy of
episodes that really you sit there and just like your mouth
drops because it just gets so dark.
And I can't wait to talk about this one.
Well, let's dive in then. Tom, give us a quick rundown.
(01:08):
Well, all three of these episodes are directed by Jason
Metz or Janice Metz, I'm sorry. And they're written by Dan
Gilroy. So in these in this arc, the
conflict on Gorman escalates to a crescendo with far reaching
impacts. Yeah.
It's really hard to talk about this episode because it's so
(01:29):
good. And where do you really begin?
It is so good. So yeah, I guess should we,
should we talk what we want to start with?
We want to start with the rebellion on on Yavin Ford.
You want to start with Gorman. I think we go Gorman first.
OK, let's do it. Let's.
Do it, Steven. What do you think?
What do you think, Steven? You got Gorman first, Tom.
(01:51):
Yeah, I said. Gorman first.
I mean, I, I do think these episodes especially are
everything that's not Gorman is kind of happening around and
outside of it. So yeah, let's, let's do it,
Yeah. Yeah, well, so let's do this.
So it's it's been a year since, as you know, since the the last
arc, we are now at 2 years before the battle of the Haven 2
(02:15):
BBY and things have heated up. There's been more uprising in
cities across the planet. There's reporters everywhere
covering all the local events. It's become a Galaxy wide news
story and it's among this turmoil that the empire decides
(02:37):
we've we've we've had enough it's time to take over Gorman.
They they tried to come up with a alternative synthetic material
for the the Cal kite and it didn't work.
And they need it for the Death Star.
And I love this little call callout right about the despite the
best efforts of the scientists on Edo, of course, referring to
(02:59):
Jin Urso's father right at Galenor so.
And so the empire decides to declare Marshall Domain and take
over the planet and put Dedra's plan into action.
And so you really see in this arc, right, especially in the
first episode, things are heating up.
Like the empire starts, you know, they start sending in
specialists to that can handle the takeover.
(03:23):
They start to, you know, begin to like set up the headquarters.
Of course, Cassian and Wilman come back to Gorman and start
sticking things out because now there's a belief and we actually
there's a we find out about this, the the opener on the
Haven four that there's an opportunity to kill Deja Ramiro
(03:44):
and get back at her for all thatshe did to Cassian in the first
season. And he's he's reluctant at
first. Actually, he's very reluctant to
to go after her, but it it's it's not until really Bicks kind
(04:04):
of convinces him to go that he decides to go to to to Gorman
and and help out. It's interesting, like he's
like, so at the end of the previous hour, casting has this
kind of, I was going to say a big, big out with Lutheran to
some degree where, you know, I'ma soldier, you know, we're
fighting a war, not necessarily this like subterfuge.
(04:27):
And it's interesting to see him.You know, I guess maybe we do
need to talk about Yabin. Maybe we do.
We do need to talk about Yabin, but like, it is really, really
cool to see the rebellion actually in this kind of like
military and armor war war levelstate.
You know, they're training, they're putting together a base.
(04:49):
We saw hints of this in Rogue One.
Like after we finished the series, I went and watched Rogue
One again. You do see a lot of the what do
you call it? Like the encampment, what is it
called? There's like a fancy word, a
fancy military word for it. I'm trying.
Well, the barracks, the oh geez,I'm trying to say I know what
(05:11):
you're talking. About bivouac is that I feel
like it's bivouac or something like that.
Anyway, not important, but the point is they really made I feel
like Yavin for feel like this large military encampment.
It is actually really cool to see the rebellion at at this
point. Like it makes sense cause Rogue
One, we've got the fleet. It always felt a little
(05:32):
incongruous that like we see the, the fleet in Rogue One, but
the the, the rest of the base doesn't feel quite as
full-featured. We know like when you see it in
episode 4, it's, it's very small, but I think we now know
it's 'cause it's been largely evacuated and so on.
But it just. And they really expand upon the
base too, right, 'cause like we,I think I just always assumed
(05:52):
that the rebels are hanging out in the Masasi temples and that's
it. But we find.
Out No, they they are, they're they have camp set up around the
entire surrounding area. They actually don't live in the
temple. They they set up homes in the
jungle, almost like cross between Andorra and Kashik,
Right. And it's pretty cool to see just
how the rebels live, not just where they work and where they
(06:15):
fight, but where they actually live day-to-day.
The other thing I thought, whichwas fascinating, and I know this
is a small minor detail, but when you look at the uniforms of
everybody at that point in time,they really didn't have any kind
of rankings that they have when you see them in Rogue One
because you saw that detail. That's a good catch, Tom.
It's, it's it you literally see that this base is being
(06:37):
established as a military facility because you're also
looking at it as you've got all these factions that are coming
together and they're really, andI think it was general, General
Draven. When you see him for the first
time, his ranking is smaller. And, and you can see when you
look around like the other, you look inside the hangar and you
see like different ways, like because of different factions
(07:01):
are in different uniforms. You see those little details
when you're watching the whole thing and then you see it.
I think when it gets into the next arc, it's a little bit more
militaristic because I think even his ranking is more
prominent in in the we'll get tothat next.
Start hold on time. No, no spoilers, no spoilers.
You're just saying the rebels are still on yavel but.
(07:22):
There's no, no, no, there's there's no spoilers.
There's no spoilers there because he he doesn't
necessarily mean he's on right? But but still, it's like when
you look at the facility, you can see it basically progress is
what I'm saying, out of at leastthese three episodes.
Yeah, well, I mean, I mean in the first arc, right, we saw the
(07:45):
this like Yavin was abandoned, it was just the Maya pay breed
that was there in fighting and everything.
And then, you know, we don't seeanything in the second arc and
the third arc, though here we see they're completely set up
and or maybe not completely, butvery, very far along and
continuing to become more of a, of a real, you know, rebellion,
right? And it's they're still not quite
(08:07):
there, as you mentioned, right? They're still kind of like a one
of the many rebel cells. But it is really cool to start
seeing people like General Draven showing up and and many
others. We'll we'll talk about as we get
further into the episode, a lot of folks we know from the other
(08:28):
arcs start another, you know, like Rogue One New Hope start
showing up. And it is, it's really cool.
It's starting to feel a lot morelike what we would.
Expect yeah, the the moment thatreally did it for me is Bix and
kind of bricks casting into going into the rebel encampment
(08:49):
basically because they he's got like a nice little like jungle
pad set up, by the way. Nice house.
With not the point of this, but anyway, I so Bix encourages
Cassian or tricks him into kind of going into, I don't know,
barracks area and there is a sheseems to be a force healer.
(09:09):
Like it's kind of unclear how you know, accurate or not that
is. But that's, that is what she's
called, right? She is a yeah.
Exactly. You know, Cassian is skeptical
for understandably, but he's, you know, he's got a blast wound
on his shoulder. That's not healing.
But I just, she has this, you know, where she, she recognizes
them across the way. She feels the, the, I'm going to
(09:32):
say the weight of his destiny. And that's the one where you're
just like, oh God, that's right.That's where we're going.
I know where we're going. Yes, Cassian does have a destiny
and I wish it was different. Yeah, you can, you can feel it
throughout this whole episode. And it it, I was surprised that
they went 'cause you know, for Andor it's a very much, there's
no lightsabers, there's no it, it's very much on the ground.
(09:54):
The Force is hardly even ever mentioned in the show.
Rogue 1-2 in many respects, right?
Although you have like Jetta a little bit.
And so it's really cool to see them start to bring back in more
elements of the force and the force healers and how Cassian
doesn't believe into believe in the in the force healers and
(10:16):
thinks they're, you know, just they're, they're, they're,
they're not legitimate, right. But BIC seems, I don't know, I
don't know if I'd say she believes in the force healers,
but at least she, she believes enough that it's worth trying,
even if it doesn't have any impact.
And that's why they go take him to go see the, the force healer.
(10:37):
And yeah, like the fact that sheis the the force healer is can
detect something of importance with Cassian just reinforces, as
you were saying, Steven, how important Cassian's destiny is.
And I think maybe it's a necessary step.
Feels like, oh, why, why do you have to show this?
(10:58):
Right. Oh, you're showing the destiny.
Whatever. Do you really need this?
I think it's probably critical, though, so that people know that
Rogue One is really the finale of Andor.
It's not like, yes, next, you know, next week is the the
finale of the series, but the finale of the story is rogue
one, at least for Cassian. And I think that's probably why
(11:20):
they, they had to remind people,no, no, no, no, his, his, his
big moment is, is you know, you've already seen it and it's,
it's still to come. Right.
Yeah, And, you know, they say call him a messenger and then he
has a purpose and there's somewhere he needs to be and all
that stuff. But it works like Cassian.
(11:40):
He's healed. He's better.
And, you know, that's when he decides, OK, I'm, I'm going to
go after Deidre Miro because, you know.
Well. The thing I find really
interesting though, like 'cause,you know, in the previous hour,
Cassian was very against gettinginvolved on Gorman.
(12:04):
Like he didn't think that they were ready.
He was proven right. I mean, that's why I sent a, you
know, ate the blaster bolt effectively.
And I, I find it super interesting here.
He's not going like we know, obviously Gorman, the Gorman
massacre we're about to see doesnot go there for that reason.
He is there purely to like almost rogue to, I mean, I guess
(12:25):
he is rogue 'cause he certainly leaves without permission, but
he leaves. That will become a pattern for
him, I mean. It already is right 'cause
Generals Draven as Donna, who wedon't actually see to Donna, but
he's name dropped here. You know, when Val later tells
or Bix tells Val later that they're on the verge of
promoting him, but his the fact that he keeps going rogue isn't
(12:47):
helping things. And Draven tells him that, you
know, those who enjoy the security of Haven must proclaim
their loyalties. So it's like a you can be here,
but you got to work for us. And Cassian is so far not
showing a very good. He's not really being consistent
and and completely loyal. He's like, I'm here and I want
(13:08):
to help the rebellion, but I'm also still doing my own thing.
But but he did bring up a very valid point.
If it wasn't for Lutheran, the rebellion really wouldn't be
there because he did drop that when he was talking to, you
know, that the heads of the rebellion, it's like, look,
sadly, I'm going to sit here, drop everything and go help
Lutheran. But realize he's the one that
(13:28):
got us all together. He's the one that's been
supplying us with information. He's done this, he's done that.
Though in a way he's kind of like I am going to give him my
support because if it weren't for him, number one, I wouldn't
be here because I told him at one point I wanted in, OK, it's
like kill me or let me in. And then two, you wouldn't be
(13:51):
here if it wasn't for him. Yeah, exactly.
And so while he's he's, he's notfully happy with Luthan.
He's. Also was happy with Luthan, the
way he's been, the way he's beendoing everything has been under
the table but and and we. Know he's the best bet
sometimes. That's right, and he's probably
sometimes the only bet for it. Yeah, So that takes us into
(14:15):
Gorman, back to where we wanted to, where we were going to start
Gorman. And you know, on Gorman, we
we've got Cyril and Deidre, who Cyril's starting to suspect
something's going up, going on, right?
The the Empire is starting to make moves clearly.
And Deidre is like not telling him what's going on.
And he is not particularly happy, but he's kind of trying
(14:36):
to still do what she says, even though.
It is fascinating because like he obviously he, he knew, he
went to Gorman working with the ISP.
I I find it so fascinating that he at this point, he's starting
to see a little bit through like, you know, yeah, like, you
(14:58):
know, there the people of Gormanaren't, aren't bad.
Like clearly, like he's convinced there's an outside
agitator that is causing everything that he's seeing
here, completely oblivious to the fact that like, well, yes,
that's technically true because we know like, Cinta was involved
and Lutheran. The Gormans would have done this
regardless, they just wanted. To help exactly.
They just need that little bit of a push, and that's where
(15:20):
Lutheran came in. Yeah, it's, it's all those
classic examples of, you know, you just, you are not
understanding why this is occurring.
Yeah. And and that's, that's really
reinforced by some of the littlesmaller moments, right?
Of course we see the Gorman front fighting over how to
proceed and they, they, they want to do stuff.
But even characters like, you know, the like the Dylan at the
(15:45):
hotel, right? And on Gorman, where Cassian
he'd previously come under the guise of a fashion designer, he
comes back to the same hotel. Probably not the smartest thing,
but I guess there's only one hotel nearby and checks in.
I guess it's been a year, so would you really remember him?
He checks in as guja reporter with the Rim mid room news.
(16:08):
And in the last year, the Empirestarted cracking down and you,
you all journalists need approval from the Imperial
office before they can check into the hotel and stay on
Gorman and starting to show how the Empire is cracking down and
trying to control the narrative and the story.
And I just love how Dylan is, herecognizes Cassian and he's
(16:31):
like, I'm going to help you out.And he, he checked, let's
Cassian check into the hotel without actually entering him
into the system and forcing him to come back the next morning.
And, and it's those, those little things like just the, you
know, the, the, the guy at the front desk of the hotel
knowingly letting Cassian, who he knows is lying, check in
(16:51):
secretly. Like it.
It just shows how all the peopleon Gorman, all the gore are,
they're willing to do small, small acts of rebellion to help.
Eve doesn't know he's a rebel per SE.
He he he probably suspects. Well, don't forget, don't don't
forget. Hang on, go ahead, He also told
(17:12):
Cassian. You can take your own bags this
time. Right, because he's not going to
help him. He can't.
Officially, he can't. Leave the desk, it's not going
to hinder right But. I well, actually I think it's
further than that. I think he can't leave the desk,
right? Because then he can't leave the
the employee. The other employee will know if
he leaves the. Desk, right, But I think also
that to me that was a sign that's like he recognized
Cassian as soon as he as soon ashe came in from the last time.
(17:35):
That's why he sat there and saidyou're going to have to take
your own bags this time. And I think he also said it's in
the room and you know the way. I mean, here's the room, you
know the way, right? But sorry Steven, you had
something too, alright? Steven, I didn't want to cut you
off, No. I was just saying one of the
things I really appreciated about like what we've seen out
of Andorra this season is like this scene, we, we've got the
establishing stuff with the, the, the hopper, the Beltman in
(17:59):
the front desk, whatever you want to call it.
The other thing I really appreciated is, you know, the
previous arc, there was a whole bunch of discussion about the
Empire building this citadel, the barracks, I forget what the
specific name they call it and how they're worried it will, you
know, over shadow the Plaza which has this monument.
And I love that, you know, throughout this entire sequence
in the background is this massive citadel that is doing
(18:19):
exactly what all of the the rebels and the the citizens were
worried about. Just.
So clearly showcasing exactly, you know, that fear that is
driving all of this like it. This scene in particular I
thought just did such a phenomenal job of go casing
exactly that. It's suddenly it, it, it, it
(18:40):
shows and doesn't tell, right? And it does a really good job.
And it's just where the writing and the whole production value
just shine through. Just just so much subtext in
these in these scenes. And it's just cool to see,
right? Cassian being more of like a
spy, right? Checking into his room,
assembling a hidden sniper riflefrom a suitcase and, you know,
try and take a shot at or at least, you know, monitor Dedra
(19:03):
through the, the sniper rifle scope.
It's, it's really cool. You know, I'm finding that
there's two stormtroopers in theroom above him and he has to be
careful. It's just, I loved it, right?
It's a little James Bond. Almost.
Yeah. Very much so.
Yeah. And, and so that takes us into
the second episode in the arc where and we'll come back to
(19:25):
some of the course on stuff fromthe first episode when we get
into that moment, 'cause that's an exciting piece too.
The Gorman, we're like the, the conflict on Gorman really comes
to a crescendo, right? The, we've got the, the Imperial
Sergeant Blois and Captain Kaido, you know, moving the
barriers around in front of the Imperial headquarters to fortify
the building and all of the soldiers are very green.
(19:47):
But that certainly, it seems to me like that's part of the plan,
right? We, we want people who are
inexperienced so that they can make mistakes and we can blame
it on them when things go South and you know, the, the Gorman
front starts riling up the crowdand everyone starts leading into
(20:08):
the Plaza and you can see like the tension is, is mounting it.
I I will say this sequence felt.Somewhat similar to Ferrex in
almost felt repetitive, but it was different enough that I I
think it was OK. It was, I think it was different
(20:29):
enough because you had those green troopers that were being
pushed into something that they were not prepared for.
Even their Sergeant sat there and told them that they were
completely green. But you knew that that platoon,
I'm going to call it, was there as a complete setup and cannon
fodder because Captain, Captain Kaido didn't care.
All he wanted was to execute hisplan of we're going to start a
(20:52):
rebellion, we're going to start a massacre.
And in a way, blame it on the Gorman.
And the best way to do it is putsome green troops in a situation
to where they don't know how to handle.
They're going to get completely agitated and somebody is going
to. Take a lot of hidden snipers on
the roof. It's even more than that, yeah.
Like. It's more difference.
For me, like barracks was very much a like being this rebellion
(21:16):
grow organically, seeing a resistance to the Empire.
There is a little bit of that here.
The I'm blanking on the name thethe director and the writer.
So Janis and Dan did honestly just like such a phenomenal job
of building the tension through this entire sequence.
(21:37):
The difference especially like knowing that, you know, the
Gorman massacre is a thing. You know how this is going to
go. Like there's only one way it can
go. And you're just you're, you
spend the entire episode knowingthis is a trap and watching it
March inexorably boards it's conclusion.
(21:57):
Akbar's worst sniper to be honest.
Yeah, I mean it it's, it's clearit, it continues to build the
empire. You know, unlike ferrets, this
is planned. They they like you said, Tom,
they've got the green troops that they can trust to
overreact. They've got a sniper on the roof
to trigger the hostilities. They have troops set up to box
(22:19):
everyone in like it is. It is all calculated, yeah.
And so and also to watch the rebellion sit there and they
start passing out the Molotov cocktails.
They're sitting there and they're breaking up concrete so
they can throw rocks. Now at this point they're armed
and they have it under their jackets.
(22:40):
Though watching all that be built up along with the Empire
doing their their aspect really created some great tension in
this. And and also like the fact that,
you know, Cara Rylands, you know, he, he's the ostensibly
the leader of the Gorman front and he knows this is a trap.
(23:01):
He can clearly see it, right? And he's, he's he's running
through the streets trying to stop people and they refuse to
listen to him. And it's kind of gotten out of
control at this point. And you know, even when he runs
the Cyril, right, the, you know,Cyril is he, he admits what he's
(23:21):
doing, but he he also can't see the full, he doesn't understand
the full scope of what the Empire is planning and what
Deidre is planning. And so even he kind of tries to
defend the Empire a little bit, not not knowing exactly what
what is planned. I think he was kind of oblivious
anyway because even Deirdre at one point said go get yourself
(23:43):
packed, we're going to be leaving soon.
And you could tell the question,you look on his face like, in a
way, what what are you talking about?
Because I don't think he even knew, yeah, that this part of
the plan was going to actually be executed.
Yeah, and I love the moment where he Cyril enters the Plaza
as Cassian is, you know, he he Cassian checks out of the Plaza.
He tries to, you know, out of the hotel, starts to leave.
(24:04):
We hear the the Dylan the at thehotel front desk says rebellions
are built on to hope, which is Ithink the first time canonically
we've heard the phrase. So maybe that's where they they
start to get it or just become aphrase that's kind of spread
like wildfire through the through the through through, you
know, the different rebel groups.
But the moment when Cyril entersthe Plaza as Cassian leaves,
(24:28):
passing just like a scant few feet from each other, and Cyril
does, and they don't see each other, and Cyril doesn't see
Cassian. Cassian doesn't see Cyril.
And it's like he's been hunting him for how long, right?
Like all of season 1, he was hunting Cassian and they just
like so close. Yeah.
(24:48):
So far it's just. It's just.
Can we talk about that conclusion now?
Yeah, let's, let's, let's. So before we get into the rest
of the rest of the massacre, obviously stuff stuff starts
happening. And then Cyril does see Cassian.
Well, I guess first, right, he before we talk about the Cassian
moment, we let's talk about the fact that Cassian or Cyril
(25:09):
eventually he he confronts Didra.
He goes back to the to the to the base where he sees a bunch
of K extroids. We'll come back to the K
extroids soon. He can front stage about what's
going on after he heard had thatdiscussion with Rylands and he's
so furious, he starts choking her, which is I could not, I did
(25:31):
not believe that. And he basically stops.
But he's so horrified by what she's done and lying to her and,
and kind of intentionally framing the Gormans that he
breaks up with her on the spot and leaves.
And that's the end of their relationship.
And then in the middle of the fight, then Steven, please,
(25:55):
please continue because. I do want to say I also
appreciate Dedra doesn't seem toaccept it either like she said.
So Cyril goes back into the fight and then Dedra is still
trying to convince and figure out how to like get him, get him
back for lack of a better word, how to protect him through this.
But yes. So they go into the fight, Cyril
(26:17):
sees Cassian, they begin a brawlcause Cyril now feels
vindicated. Like clearly the outside
agitators. I know Cassian.
I've been hunting forever. Yeah, and I just the the they
get into a fight and and Cyril, I I don't even.
(26:38):
Is this what movie is this from though?
Like you've taken everything from me and like I don't even
know who you are. Avenger, the Sith, you want to
take her from me? No, no, no, no, no.
There's there's some movie. I mean, not Star Wars.
Movie. It's not Star Wars, no.
No, but just like the fact that everything that has occurred,
(27:00):
every Cyril's been hunting Cassian to the to the end and
Cassian's just like I literally don't know who you are.
It's. Beautiful.
Yeah, that was just. That was just.
Amazing. And then Cyril's killed and
that's that. That's it.
He's done. Well, he was killed.
He was killed by the leader of the Gorman, the the Gorman's.
And it's like you almost felt like he he did it because it was
(27:22):
revenge, because at a certain point it's like we trusted you
and and look at look at what your empire is doing to my
planet. And if there's anybody can take
my revenge out on, and if I can't do it to like Deardor or
anybody else, Daryl, boom, you're gone.
That's it. And I mean, it is revenge for
him. Like we didn't mention it, but
he he kind of beats up a little bit and pushes Ryan Rylands to
(27:44):
the ground. Cyril has earlier when they when
he when when Rylands confronts him.
But it I think it's also so poetic.
That's like, it's not Cassian, it's not Cyril, it's not
something else. It's just yeah, the leader of
the rebels there. Just the rebellion on on Gorman
just takes out serial. It's almost like pointless,
right? It's a brutal fight.
(28:07):
It is a absolutely brutal fight When they get hit by a thermal
detonator and and days they you know, they're like, it's bloody.
It's it's probably one of the maybe one of the most brutal
fight scenes we've seen in Star Wars.
Just knock down, drag out like hand to hand combat.
It is crazy. But then he just boom.
(28:29):
He's well, I'm surprised Cyril had all built up.
Well, you can put it this way. I was going to say I'm surprised
Cyril had all that anger built up in him.
But if you had a mom that he hadthat really put him down every
time they got together and then you just had your girlfriend
burn you big time. Of course you're going to be
upset when you see somebody you've been Oh, and the the
person that you're beating up isthe person who cost you your
(28:50):
original job. So of course you're going to
start taking it out on him and be brutal in in all respects.
It's also somewhat poetic that like he he had just broken up
with Dedra. He just choked her.
And yet it Cassian was about ready to take a shot at Dedra
when he spots him, when he when,when Cyril spots Cassian and
attacks him. And in a way, Cyril saves her
(29:13):
life. And you know, he he ends up
dying and you know, Dedra is like looking out the windows for
him, never sees him, never findsout what happens.
We think, I'm sure she probably finds out in some report later.
But yeah, it's it, it I really, I always liked Cyril's character
quite a bit. And, and so it's it's sad to
(29:35):
see. It's sad to see him die, You
know, it really is. And.
It is, but I I honestly think this was the perfect heart for
him. Yes.
Without. A doubt.
A realization that the Empire isbehind it, followed by the same
lack of critical thinking that causes him to reject what he
(29:57):
actually sees in front of him. Like he should know this is the
Empire's doing, not not the result of like, Cassian.
And then to have him die chasingthe person he's been chasing for
years at this point? Just perfect.
And then, of course, when, when Didra finally hears that he's
(30:18):
dead and you can just see how heartbroken she is in the, in
the final moments of the episode.
And with like we see Ed Carr andCyril's mom and her friends
watching the news from Gorman and just teary eyed as the
empire frames the conflict as the price you pay for safety.
And you know, it's even even earlier in the episode, right?
They, they had framed the whole thing as an inexplicable Gorman
(30:41):
resistance to imperial norms. It's not a big deal, right?
Why are you fighting back? And it it's just it, it's a
great way to end the episode with, with Ed just being, you
know, focusing on her as her son, who she was so hard on ends
up, you know, dying in this, in this conflict that she thinks in
(31:01):
her mind, right, he went to he went to Gorman for no reason.
He got a demotion and lost his his girlfriend and and for what?
To die, right. And she never knows that what he
was really involved in. Yeah, she'll never know the
truth, but then again that that's it.
His, his, his storyline is over.Yeah.
(31:24):
Let's. Let's rewind a little.
The other. Thing like so the first season
gave us the the speech by Marva and you know the the riot on
Ferrick's the equivalent in in this season is in my mind the
the Gorman singing, you know, this traditional song in the
(31:49):
whatever you wanna call it and and the we.
Are the gore and it almost lookslike the natural book the maybe
or something I don't know. Yeah, it is.
They did. Just beautiful.
Like I loved this sequence so much.
They did such a good job with it.
And I think the best part about it is you could tell when it
(32:10):
started, it was just peaceful. They were doing nothing.
They were just sitting there standing up for their planet and
themselves. Yep.
So they didn't do anything to really start this.
Yeah, and you know, even like you, you have a little bit of
rioting that's starting to occurfor good reason.
(32:31):
And it's, as you said, Tom, it is the green troops being sent
out. And even that is not enough.
You'll see like the troops are creeps are handling it.
OK, the gore are angry. But like, you know, the violence
doesn't start until the Empire takes the shot.
Takes the shot and takes out oneof their own troopers, which
(32:52):
it's brutal, but if you're goingto have a riot start, that was
probably the bad as it's going to sound.
The smartest way to start it is if one of your own troopers
takes the first hit, because that way it gives the commander
the full the full blown, you know orders.
It will fire, it will just. It erupts.
(33:13):
You know, Stormtroopers close off keeping everyone there.
They open fire on the crowd regardless of whether snipe in
and then they send in the KX droids and it you.
Know it's. Fascinating.
We saw the KX droids obviously in Rogue One.
(33:34):
They are so brutal. Terrifying.
Oh. God.
Episodes. I mean, I guess it's just this
one episode really. But like like we again going
back and watching Rogue One after like we see K2 do some of
that stuff too, you know, the basically like using his
strength to throw people around.But it is so much more brutal
(33:57):
here. Like just watching the droids
pick up throw, like they don't even need blasters.
They're just brutal. No, I mean just sit there with a
swipe of your hand and somebody goes flying and then you pick
them up and throw. I mean, it's it's it was
fascinating just to watch K2 in and of himself.
But to watch four or five of them in action, you really need
(34:22):
to have all, yeah, all those stormtroopers and and all those
Imperials around. Just put five of those out there
and you've got a wrecking crew in and of itself.
They they literally were throwing the gore around like
rag dolls. It was I was like, Oh my gosh,
my jaw was on the floor as I waswatching these gay extroids.
And you know, we know right thatwe're that Cassian is going to
(34:42):
make meet K2. SO in this in this episode and
yet or not this episode, this this season, and yet you don't
really know like is that K2? Is that K2 right there?
There's this whole time and sometimes they'd show a close up
on AKX and I was like, Oh, is that K2 right.
And then, you know, for example,as they're they're escaping the
(35:06):
Plaza, right, AKX toroid starts like attacking Cassia and and
coming right at him, impervious to blaster fire.
And then boom, one of the gore Sam just Rams him with a
speeder, cutting him in half anddestroy him.
And you're like, Oh, OK, that's not that's not K2 right?
And you just it's there. Your constant like is this K K2?
Is this not K2? I don't know.
Although it turns out the Droid that was split in half actually
(35:28):
is. Is.
Presumably K2. SO right, Because Cassian
collects the parts and and takesthem home.
And it was funny before in the lead of the premiere, Tony
Gilroy talked about how he wanted Cassian and K2.
SO to have a quote UN quote mutecute.
I don't know if I'd call it mutecute, but it was really cool to
see, you know, this Droid who I'm assuming will be K2.
(35:49):
SO just go after Cassian like that.
It was. It was brutal.
Yeah, it's a phenomenal, A phenomenal sequence.
Like I, I guess here, let me askyou both this question.
Like Gorman Massacre, it is the event that Brigger's kind of the
(36:11):
empowerment of the rebellion. It inflames the Galaxy.
We get an entire episode. Wait, we honestly get, call it
what, 5-6 episodes leading up tothis, all dedicated to
establishing and setting up the Gorman Massacre?
How do you guys feel? They did like a 10 out of 10.
(36:34):
You know, like it delivers. It delivers.
It delivers on all fronts because I think what makes it
work is when you watch the Imperial reporters in that
square even before it started, it's their take on what's
happening it it's trying to makeit.
The Empire is the one that's here and it's the Gorman front
(36:55):
that's doing this and that. Because listen to both news
reporters how they're framing the story and making it sound
more of, you know, that the Empire's here for this, that and
the other thing. And it's the Gorman because we
lost soldiers over here and soldiers over here.
And to watch that work and then it just it, it works on so many
fronts. And then also to have them sit
(37:16):
there and put out, you know, an SOS, we're being massacred,
this, that and the other thing. So the whole Galaxy is hearing
all this. I mean the real truth, not the
Imperial truth. Yeah.
And it worked on many fronts. Yeah.
And as we'll, we'll get this in just a moment.
We'll see. This is this is the inciting
moment that will, you know, bring the rebellion together.
(37:38):
But first it requires Mon Mothma.
And so let let's let's talk about Mon Mothma 'cause I think
that really wraps up the Gorman sequence of Wilman decides to
stay on Gorman to help his girlfriend Drina, who he just
has a new girlfriend every arc it seems like.
Every port, man, every port, he's got a girlfriend.
(37:59):
But, you know, fast forwarding or rewinding a little bit back
to the first episode of the arc,we, we see Mon Mothma, right?
And she is getting fed up with her driver.
She, she's known he's an imperial spy for forever.
She is, is, you know, she, you know, Gorman said the Gorman
senator, Senator Dasi Oren believes that his planet is
(38:21):
running out of time, which he wasn't wrong.
And, you know, all Mon can do istry to assemble a petition.
And she's just really, really struggling for help.
She's just really unable to get any support to fight against the
(38:42):
Empire no matter what she tries.And so, yeah, it's, it's it's
interesting to see how if her time is running out in the
Senate, right? She's trying.
She can't make much progress. And you know, the the the
Senator Dasi Goran is ultimatelyarrested by the Imperial
(39:04):
Security Bureau in the aftermathof the Gorman massacre.
And even when she tries to speakout again, nobody, nobody is is
it wants to to support her. Even Bale Organa, who as much as
I we're not going to go back into it as much as I prefer not
to have, you know, to have JimmySmith's or other Benjamin Bratt.
I don't know. I don't get why they recast.
(39:26):
Also, shame on you, all of you who spoiled Bill Argana to to
people who hadn't seen this episode.
The last two episodes of Arcsia,I saw a lot of coverage.
I was like, hey, that's not that's not cool.
Don't mention Bill Argana, don'tmention the he goes recast until
the episodes come out. But you know, he he plays a much
bigger role, but even he's not ready to leave yet.
(39:47):
He knows it's, you know, Mon Mothma believes it's time to
speak out against the atrocities.
But Belgana is like, Nope, Yevin's not ready.
They need Mon's leadership, but Bale needs to stay behind and
buy more time and hopefully not become a hostage, which I think
we all know is necessary so thatPrincess Leia can be a senator
(40:08):
from all the run 'cause if he had escaped and there's no way
they would have let Leia be a, asenator.
But yeah, I guess thoughts on the the beginning of Mon's, you
know, her, her, her struggle, I guess.
I guess first question is. I was surprised by how much they
were throwing around. The word gave in in public, like
a lot. Is that safe?
(40:31):
It definitely it doesn't feel that way my my response.
I was also a little surprised byit.
I I don't know, it's one of those things, right?
It's kind of like hand wave. So it's like, yeah, obviously
the correct way to do this is they and actually we get this
like in the the third episode with like bugs and Mons office
(40:52):
and stuff like that. The correct way to do this is
obviously that you have like, you know, special secret spaces
that are the only places you talk about stuff like that.
But that would be really boring to watch.
So I, I kind of give them a passof like, fine, yeah.
Or, or at least a code word or something for the planet.
Because you would think that inside that Imperial Senate,
(41:13):
anywhere in there could be bugged, there could be listening
devices. Yeah.
I think it's just one of those things where the correct choice
is obviously to only talk about it in secure spaces.
It just makes for a way. Less interesting.
That's true. That's fair.
That's. No, that's true.
That's true. Well, it also puts the audience
on the edge of your seat becausewho knows who could be walking
by and overheard somebody say Yavin at any point.
(41:34):
And it's like, oh, could it be leaked out at at some point
because they're saying it in such an open space?
I mean that could be an an idea.Yeah, but but you know, I mean,
as as much as I I do like seeingBale or gone of the character,
you know, so much in this arc. And I get that's why they had to
recast him probably for some reason they couldn't get Jimmy
(41:55):
Smith's there. But, you know, it's just great
to see Bale support, even if he and Mon are not always 100%
aligned. They are still, you know,
they're still, they're still fighting for the same thing.
And I noticed there was like a call back to Season 1 with Marva
Andor's you can't stay and I can't go.
And Monmouth says you're brave enough to stay.
(42:16):
I should be brave enough to go. You know, he and Bale says he'll
see her next year on Yavin. So clearly, like the, the base
is almost ready. And you can, you can feel like
the the tension is, is mounting.And that's when they discover,
you know, Mon knows that she needs to speak out.
And as she's preparing for her her big speech, her assistant,
(42:42):
Erskine Samaj discovers a bug inher office.
And so that's when she goes to the Plaza at night to practice.
And before we get to Lutheran's,her speech with Lutheran because
Lutheran appears. I do want to say something.
So kind of a side personal side note, but the this season
(43:02):
introduces to this new area outside of the Senate, the
Senate Plaza with this water andreally cool architecture.
It's featured very heavily in this arc, especially in this
season, especially this arc, I guess almost exclusive in this
arc. Maybe it showed up briefly in
the previous arc. And fun fact, so I was when my
wife and I went to, we went on atrip to Europe two years ago.
(43:24):
We randomly stopped in the city and actually visited this exact
location and it was like, we were like, this looks familiar.
And it turns out I was like in Westworld, a bunch of other, you
know, shows as well. But then to see it pop up in
Star Wars, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so cool.
I've been to Star Wars. Exactly.
It's cool. Obviously I've been to other
Star Wars sets, you know, here or there, like, you know, in
like the Canary Wharf in in London and whatnot.
(43:47):
But it was really cool to to seeit.
And then in some of the after the first arc release, they had
some behind the scenes stuff andthey mentioned that they went,
they went to Spain where this isit's the City of Arts and
Sciences in Valencia, Spain. They went there in like late
March or early April of 2023, like weeks, like literally weeks
(44:12):
before I was there. Oh man, it wouldn't have been
cool if we just stumbled on a Star Wars set.
That would have been amazing. But I.
Can't even imagine that would have been awesome.
I would. Probably also have access to it
too. I've been locked.
Off But yeah, seeing like, I don't know, Mon Mothma in the
distance, like what? What, you know, that would have
been so cool. But I was like, that's amazing.
But anyway, back to the back to the story.
Back to the story. Luthan approaches Mon Mothma out
(44:36):
of nowhere and says she's in danger.
Steven, do you want to catch catch our listeners up on what
happens here? Yeah, So Mon is, like I said,
she's preparing to deliver this speech that will, what's the
word, excoriate the Empire for Gorman.
She knows she's going to burn every bridge she has with the
Senate, so she has to get off planet.
(44:57):
The plan is that Bale will send in a team to help extract her.
And like I said, Lutheran shows up and it's it's pretty clear
that Mon Motha and Lutheran havehad a bit of a falling out at
this point, maybe like minor things like Lutheran killed one
of her childhood friends, you know, minor, minor.
(45:17):
And it is a fascinating conversation.
Like you said, Lutheran says, hey, the team that's going to
extract you, you can't trust I'mgoing to I will send someone,
you know, to help you, but you have to trust me.
And I, I think Tommy kind of alluded to this earlier.
This this sequence in particulardid such a good job of
(45:37):
showcasing the end result of Luthen's danger.
Like not danger, but like his take no prisoners attitude where
even Mon Mothma, someone that you know has worked with him for
years at this point, can't trusthim when it counts.
But it's such a powerful. Sequence.
She says she's more afraid of him than the Empire right now,
(45:59):
which is crazy to think about, you know?
But I guess the way he treated Take Homa, I'm not surprised.
Yeah, and, and it's just he in his take, in his reality, he has
to be that brutal because he hasto make sure that what he's
setting up is going to survive. And it seems like he's going to
do anything in any way possible to make it work if that means
(46:23):
taking out somebody that doesn'tneed to be taken out.
But hey, he is a weak link. He's being taken out.
Yeah, OK. I would be scared, too.
Especially like like you mentioned he just took out
Mahmathma's childhood friend. Well, and it also turns out
Erskine, who she trusts probablymore than most people out there
(46:43):
in the Galaxy, actually works for Lutheran, and that just
shakes her to her core as well. Yeah.
And like 2 years, yeah. And fires him on the spot right
there. Fires him on the spot.
Yeah, it's understandable. Bad, but understandable.
It's understandable, but if it wasn't for him, who's to say
that she wouldn't have been thrown into jail sooner Because
(47:04):
he did sit there and say I have protected you basically for
these past two years. OK if.
Mon. And if she gets arrested, the
whole operation falls apart every.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, this episode, it is
the Mon Mothma show, this, this,this third episode of the third
arc. And it is just, it's so good.
As as delicious as Gorman is, and how as well done as it is,
(47:27):
this is like equally done with Mon Mothma because.
Execute it. So, well, because then we get
the, the sequence with in, in the Senate, right, the, the, the
fact that they destroyed the, the alarm, the, the listening
device sets off alarm bells, theISB and you know, they know
something's up. She hasn't been at the Senate
all night. Her driver and ISB spy Chlorus
(47:50):
is, is like frantically calling the ISB like she's not here,
she's not here. What's going on?
What's going on? There are rumors circulating
that senators may try to challenge the narrative about
what happened on Gorman and the they're trying to keep the
senators from speaking about Gorman.
So they call an early session toreduce the number of senators
who might show up. And the chair is trying to
prevent anyone from speaking on the topic unless they know what
(48:12):
they're going to say, right? It's, you can start to see all
of the, the, the chess pieces move into place and the tension
is, is mounting. And you know, you, you hear some
of these pre approved senators talking about how, oh, you know,
the imperial martyrs gave up everything on the brutal streets
of Gorman and how, you know, it's so savage and they should
(48:34):
have done something to stop the insurrection, all this stuff.
And in the midst of all of this,I, I just as someone who I
enjoy, like following politics as well and game theory and all
this kind of stuff. And it was just fun to see how
Bail Organa and Monmouthma scheme to get Mon Mon Mothma on
the floor. And basically through a series
(48:56):
of loopholes. One of the senators, Senator
Irving, who is a senior senator from Hodie, you know she's
talking and she was pre approvedand she yields her time
according to the Senate rules toanother senior senator, Baylor
Ghana, who in turn invokes Article 17-252, which and I love
how he justifies it. This was proposed by the
(49:17):
Emperor's Council and allows senior senators to yield the
floor to another senior senator if there's the case of an
emergency. And as you all have just said,
Gorman is an emergency. So I yield my time without
interruption because that's the rule to Mon Mothma.
And that's when the famous speech begins.
(49:38):
It is such a phenomenal speech. Like.
I don't even a A+, but I think my only complaint is they're
obviously there's a lot of reaction from the you want to
call them bootlicking senators, for lack of a better term, that
are, you know, clearly Gorman was a was the fault of the gore.
(50:00):
I wish I I kind of hope they release her speech.
Like without the background noise as well.
It is phenomenal, just phenomenal.
Pretty well too. I mean just the whole thing.
The just like how is that we canall look and see what's
(50:20):
happening and then try and pretend that we're seeing
something different The. Difference between US and what
it's said is between what it's said and what it's known to be
is become an abyss, and the lossof an objective reality is
perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the
ultimate victory of evil, and the monster who will come for us
all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine.
It's beautifully played by Jennifer Ellright.
(50:41):
Like so good. It is so, so well done like
Andor is known for it's an incredible monologues from
Luthan to Mon Mothma and it justcontinues to shine here.
I I love anytime Luthan. Luthan and Mon Mothma are
probably my two favorite characters in the series and it
they just every time they open their mouths, it's like
perfection. I just love it and.
(51:05):
Then once she gives her just to sit there and watch Bale or
Ghana just like punch over like it's done, yeah, and it's over
and then after that it's on. But at this.
Point it's so through it, right?The empire, as soon as she
starts talking, they're like, no, we have to shut down the
feeds. Like we can't stop her
procedurally, people in the Senate, we can't stop, but let's
(51:26):
at least stop the people outsideof the Senate chamber from
hearing this. And so, you know, they, they
send out Pono to to try to like take out the, the the feed, but
the doors have been locked due to a new sent policy that only
just finally following. Hang on a second.
Didn't that crack you up? It's like it.
It's like but. Yeah, but, but the the door
hasn't been locked for years. Oh, we fixed it yesterday.
(51:47):
Yeah, I need to go to the security office to get the
sequence key right. It's just it's.
They laughed. Oh my God.
See another like robot like character, right and and Jean
kind of they're like smiling at each other clearly in on the in
on the secret and it gives Mon enough time to finish her speech
(52:07):
and they do shut it down, but it's right after she's she's
called out the the emperor for his atrocities.
And this leads to the beautiful escape from the Senate, right.
Cassian, who's who's kind of infiltrated the Senate out of
the guise of a journalist, Ronnie Gooj from the midriff
network. He's standing by and yeah, he
(52:28):
meets with Erskine Semich in thepress room and as soon as von
Mothma exits, she he's right there to help her.
And he uses the, you know, like the code word we hear so often
in the season. I have friends everywhere and
escorts are out of the building and runs into Bail Organa's
extraction team. And of course, 1 is a Imperial
(52:52):
spy who has already killed one of the officers.
Poor, poor Charvel. Poor.
Yeah, poor poor. Charvel notices that Beska is
where she's supposed to be. And I mean, I don't know how Cat
how Bill Argana's team got infiltrated, but oh man, it is.
It is so well done, this whole escape sequence.
(53:14):
It is maybe the one thing I havea little bit of an issue with
like which, if they're able, theBill Argana's team.
Was in. OK, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I guess I see. Well, if you're, if you were
able to infiltrate the team thatis going to whisk Von Mothma to
the rebels secret base on Yavin and we know she she's literally
(53:36):
working directly for the ISP. It's a little weird to me that
like they don't know where Yavinis.
So I suspect this is one of those like, nobody knows the
full picture and it's going to go from one person to another to
another. And then we kind of see that
play out. Obviously, Cassian is, it may
have been in a slightly different way because Cassian
(53:57):
wouldn't necessarily know who towho to meet with, but I suspect
they didn't actually know where they're going.
They just knew they were going to escort her out of the Senate
to some rendezvous point and that was it.
Just to a safe house. I mean, the easy thing to do is
take her to a safe house, then you put her in the safe house
and then the next extraction team is going to take her to the
next location. Yeah, and you know, like when
(54:17):
they when they confront Mod and you know, it's kind of like a
who does she go with? Does she go with does she trust
Bail or Ghana? Who would normally I would trust
any anyone he sends, right. And so the fact that the people
he send they're not trustworthy is a great twist.
Or does she go with Luthan's people?
Cassian, who is also untrustworthy and she kind of is
afraid of, and she does decide to trust Cassian and or maybe
(54:40):
sort of, she's still kind of unsure when Besca, you know,
pulls a gun and, and kind of andErskine has the brilliant idea
to call her a rebel spy and, youknow, and she, she gets and
Cassian shoots her and Mom's like, I'm not sure I can do
this. And Cassian's like, welcome,
welcome to the rebellion. And they, they escape the
(55:01):
building. They have to run outside of the
Senate as the, the Imperial troops begin to, you know, swarm
the Senate. And as they escape, Chlorus is
there and Cassian just shoots him just dead on.
And again, Mon is just, you could see she's been leading the
rebellion, but she's never seen the cost of the rebellion.
And it's just, it is, it just hits her to the country.
(55:23):
It's a phenomenal sequence, yeah.
That the whole escape is just very well done, just loved every
minute. It does really keep you on the
edge of your seat. Oh, it's so good.
It is so good. You know, they, they take her to
the, the, the, the safe house that Cassie and used to live in.
And they decide that, you know, Cassian is going to leave
Coruscant or, and Mon Mothma is going to be taken to a different
(55:45):
ship, which will take her to Dantooine, where she will
broadcast her speech again to the entire Galaxy.
And the plan is to rewrite the story because she's coming in
with a Yavin escort instead of Cassian.
So he will never be remembered. I have to say, I think it's a
good point to talk about very briefly the the the history of
(56:06):
the Gorman massacre because and or season 2 does a great job of
aligning the various stories depicting the Gorman massacre.
Obviously a long time ago in legends there was the Gorman
massacres existed for a long time.
And in that in legends, the Gorman massacre was when Captain
Tarkin's ship landed on top of abunch of protesters on Gorman.
(56:27):
And when they refused, you know,when they refused to move, he
just landed on top his ship on top of him killing hundreds,
injuring many more. And supposedly this is the
moment that spurred the delegation of 2000 and sort of
start to format rebellion against the empire.
Later on, the there was the Gorman massacre mentioned again
in, in the new Canon where like in Rebel season 3, for example,
(56:47):
we see, we hear about the Gormanmassacre, but this time Tarkin
is involved and it takes place in two BBY and much closer to a
New Hope. And this, this event compels Mon
Mothma to publicly condemn the empire as we see in this episode
and flee the Senate. And, you know, So what they,
they did is they, they brilliantly weave these together
(57:09):
where they, we find out there was the the original Tarkin
massacre 16 years prior, which we talked about the last arc.
And that kind of may have sparked the initial desire for
rebellion with the delegation of2000.
But it's the second Gorman massacre that we see here when
Mon flees Coruscant with the help of Cassie Nandor after
making her speech where, you know, the, we see like that's
(57:33):
like the Gorman massacre that prompts her speech and sends her
to, you know, Cassian. Cassian takes her out and gives
her to Gold Squadron, who takes her to the rebels, Hera and Ezra
and Kanan and everyone who take her to Lothal, where she
broadcasts the speech in the episode Secret cargo that is
(57:56):
sent to the whole Galaxy and unites all the rebel factions
under the leadership of Mon Mothba.
And it's just beautifully done. It's they did a such a good job
of just tying all these storylines together and really
straightening out the the story of the Gorman massacre.
I love the attention to detail, it's just that they go into all
(58:19):
these stories and weave A coherent story is just
outstanding. I just, I love it.
And it's cool. Like we know that Mon Mothma
leaves and shows up in Star WarsRebels, right?
And it's just, you see that continuity and it's just so
good. It's so good.
They did a phenomenal job. Yeah, Yep, the last, last bit of
the episode. But Cassian returns to his, you
(58:41):
know, jungle Hut where Bix is and basically drugs him and then
leaves in the morning or leaves at night.
Yeah. Basically kind of connecting
back to that, you know, moment with the healer at the beginning
where Bix believes Cassian has adestiny, a mission, and she
(59:02):
doesn't want to be in get in theway because she sees and we've
seen that Cassie and spent has spent the entire season thus far
very focused on and worried about VIX.
And so she removes herself from the equation and it's, I don't
know, you feel bad. For I know I feel so bad like
VIX is doing the right thing forthe rebellion, but in the
(59:23):
process, it is sad to see their their story presumably come to
an end. Maybe we'll see them in the next
arc, but it's it's it's sad to see what happens to that they're
they're not together and like Cassian's heartbreak when he
realizes that she's gone and kind of reads that good my
message from her and tries to stop the shuttle, but it's too
(59:43):
late. It's just.
The one the one funny part aboutit though is it does.
Like essentially up until this point I had been working into
the assumption that every arc would see one of Cassian's
friends killed. The first arc had Brasso, the
second arc I guess had Cinta. It's not really close to
Cassian, but because all these characters we don't see in Rogue
(01:00:04):
One. True, but it doesn't.
Mean they have to die. They could just be off screen.
Yeah, well, it's potentially, but someone like Bix, you know,
is a lot harder if she was still, like, actively with
Cassian. And so there was a part of me
that was relieved when she left,too, because it's like, maybe
Bix will be safe now from the needs of matching up with Rogue
One. Yeah.
Right. Well, it seems like how they're
(01:00:26):
developing the story. Everybody, when, when and or
season 2 is over, everybody's going to be in their proper
place within the story of Rogue One.
If they are going to be in RogueOne, I'm pretty sure they're
going to get to that spot that when this ends, you will see
where they are in placement to Rogue One.
Those characters that are not there will have some kind of
(01:00:49):
wrap up of a storyline probably in the next arc.
Well, you you want to wrap up their stories for this series,
but they can they don't have to die, right?
I know there's an assumption we you know, a lot of time made
about things too. You don't have to kill those
characters. They could just be off screen
and and. No.
Longer there so. But at least they can give them
some kind of ending that places them within the universe but
(01:01:10):
doesn't carry them into Rogue One.
But they will get their proper ending on whatever it's going to
be. Exactly.
But whoever need leads into Rogue One is going to be propped
put in their proper spot to get into Rogue One.
Yeah, but while it's sad to see Cassian lose Bix, he does make a
new friend at the very end of the episode.
(01:01:32):
You know, he, he, I mean, he returns to Avon on his U wing.
He gives General Draven the parts to K2, SO.
And you know, sometime later we see this tech freight Drawla has
finished repairing the KX Droid.He's done a cortex swap to
ensure the droid's impulses are suppressed.
So K2 SO has all of his memories, but he just has his
(01:01:54):
his more violent urges suppressed and more about wiring
than engineering, I guess, and not really programming related.
And so, you know, Cassie and a bunch of rebels, they they stand
around K2. SO as he's turned on and you
know, it's just great, 'cause like, do you want goggles?
No, no, just give me a blaster, that's all I need.
(01:02:15):
And they turn on Cassian or K2. SO and you hear the Droid boot
up and it's like it's it's. Very Frankensteinish if you
think about it. Yes, I love how he's tied down
and the set of soldiers behind him all pointing at it, which we
just saw, you know, Hey, a bunchof K droids, rejects, plaster
(01:02:36):
fires. I don't know how effective that
will actually be. Exactly.
They had to do something becauseeven when you look at how he was
tied down. On the side.
Yeah, and he was just tied down with straps.
Like that's going to stop him. How naive, but but that's, you
know, K2. SO he wakes up and the voice of
(01:02:56):
Aled Tudic appears and it's justit's it's great.
Cassian is is, I don't want to say reunited because it's the
first time in the timeline, but it's K2 SO and Cassian best of
friends are here and I I'm excited finally with 1 arc left,
three episodes left to go in thein the series we get to see
Cassian and K2 SO and it'll be fun to see how where they take
(01:03:18):
things next week in the the the I can't believe we are already
at the finale next next week is the last three episodes of the
season. Of course it's gone by really
quick, but. It's gone.
It's it's gone by quick but realize we have Rogue One to
jump into when this is over so. We do.
We do, but. And we can, we can watch that
(01:03:38):
whenever we want. Well, we can watch these as
well, as long as they stay on Disney Plus.
But we can watch Rogue One and then boom, you know, we know how
it ends. Well, I guess should we go into
our ratings, because I think we've, we've pretty, pretty well
covered this, this arc, this phenomenal, phenomenal arc.
(01:03:58):
I'll, I'll go first. How, how would I go first?
First, You know, the man, the, the, the, this, this arc is just
outstanding on every level. I, I could be happier with this
arc. This just just the crescendo of
the season. And I, I think I have to give it
the first episode, episode 7 and9 and then episodes 8 and 10,
(01:04:21):
eight and eight and nine, 10s out of 10.
Just absolutely outstanding on every level.
I am very, very happy with all of the, the work they've done
with Gorman and how they tie everything together and Mon
Mothma and Coruscant. And it's just, it's, it delivers
on everything we've been waitingfor.
(01:04:43):
So yeah, I, I, I have to give it9 womp rats, 10 for the first
episode and 10 out of 10 for thesecond and third because it's
just, it's too good. And my 29 womp rats are they're
they're trying to stop K2 SO from and he wakes up.
But you know, we know how well that's going to work.
(01:05:05):
Tom, you want to go next? Yeah, William, I'm going to, I'm
not going to. Well, I'm not a copy.
I'm basically I'm, I'm giving itthe same ratings for I I'm
giving it a nine for episode 7 and definitely A10 and A10 for
episodes 8:00 and 9:00. I I love this arc.
I can't wait to see what happensin the last arc.
(01:05:26):
I mean, just this arc in and of itself, beautifully written,
beautifully acted. The sets still are just amazing,
amazing to to look at the care they just put into the show,
just everything about it. It's it's really hard to sit
here and and nitpick because then you get to the point where
it's like now you're just being too nitpicking on things because
(01:05:49):
it's just so good. So I just, I loved how this is
all playing out. I think we said enough during
the show. So I'm going to take my 29 womp
rats and they are actually aiding Mon and Cassian escape
from the Senate building. They are running around creating
(01:06:09):
a diversion to help them escape.So that's what my 29 womp rats
did. Even your last.
Yeah, I think I'm just going to give this ten across the board,
honestly, like this more than I think anything else we've gotten
out of the show is the I don't know, it's it's the purpose of
(01:06:32):
Andor. In some ways it is the inciting
event. It was beautifully delivered
across the board. The first episode.
I'm going a little higher because I I consider a part of
it like it's hard to separate them to begin with and it really
is about the setup and building out the entire experience.
And like that there is, there isnothing else you can like I, I
(01:06:55):
wouldn't change anything about this arc.
Basically like from Cassian's experience to Cyril's experience
to Dedra, like all of it is phenomenal.
And all 30 of my womp rats are just standing in the Senate
applausing clap, applausing, clapping in applause for Mon
(01:07:19):
Mothma speech there. And this episode like this.
I honestly think I don't know ifI've ever given like I guess we
we've I'm trying to think if there's ever been an arc where
I've given three 10s. I don't think so.
I. Don't think so.
Yeah, that's this is. This to me is peak Star Wars.
Like I, I don't, I don't know that it could ever be topped.
(01:07:40):
So I will, I'm going to give it a, A rating for that reason.
OK, well, this has been a fun episode.
This has been really, really a great time.
I, man, I I so, so good, so good.
We have the finale next week, episodes 10:11 and 12:00.
(01:08:05):
So stay tuned. And we still got lots more to
come. We've got Tales of the
Underworld, which man with we'reactually on vacation.
We're recording this early, so we'll have that as soon as we
get back from trips. But yeah, it's so good.
I can't wait to talk to you guysnext week as we review the
(01:08:26):
finale of Andor. Thank you for listening to the
Ion Cannon Podcast, your source for entertainment reviews from
the Galaxy far, far away. For over a decade, Ion Cannon
has covered every corner of the saga, from the films and
animated series like The Clone Wars and Rebels to books,
comics, games, and more. If you like what you hear,
(01:08:46):
please rate US in your favorite podcast client.
Your review will help this show grow within the Star Wars
community. We can be found at our website,
ioncannoncast.com, and you can follow us through Facebook and
Twitter To e-mail us. You can do so at
contact@ioncannoncast.com. The Ion Cannon Podcast is not
associated with Lucasfilm, The Walt Disney Company, or any and
(01:09:07):
all of their respective trademarks or copyright holders.
Any opinion expressed on the show are that of the hosts.
This podcast is a production by fans, for fans and its copyright
2018.
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