Andor Season 2 Turning Point Breakdown: Fear, Fascism & Fallout (Episodes 7–9 Recap & Review)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Apologies. I know you're the waiting.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
There's reports coming in from the countryside and saying we've
landed mining riggs. Rumors spread quickly these days.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Show Captain Tido has his position.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
That's why I've thought it out. Did we speak? He's
given orders to barricade the building. A sure, here's a
wise idea.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
The mining equipment already on site. Is that a story?
Director Cronic wants.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
To be done with local rules. The only story that
matters is Gorman.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
A grish, the threats, the inexplicable resistance to imperial law.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
We need to us in the graph. The empire has been.

Speaker 5 (00:40):
Hello, there are Star Wars fans, and welcome to episode
number three of Road to Rebellion, the official Around the
Galaxy and or After show.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
I am Pete Flitzer.

Speaker 6 (00:50):
And while I am sitting here waiting on my finely
woven toil Gorman jacket, I am Nick Milky. Thank you
so much for hanging out with us on Around the
Galaxy part of the SSW.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
I guess some bad news. I don't think that jacket's
coming anytime in springtime.

Speaker 6 (01:04):
It's the perfect time for a nice, finely woven sport jacket,
and I think you're right, we're that a shipment's never
gonna show up.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
That shipment's not coming.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
Because today we're going to talk about episode seven, eight
and nine of and Or there's only one week left
in the season. And wow, did a lot of things
happen in these three episodes, A.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Whole bunch of things.

Speaker 6 (01:24):
And speaking of all those things, which we are going
to do right now, I'm going to give you a
quick warning. That's one of my roles here on this
finally crafted podcast. This is a full spoiler show. We're
going to talk about everything that happened this week, and
as Pete said, there was a bunch, so we'll probably speculate,
we'll probably dig into the lore. If you haven't fully
watched episode seven, eight and nine, hip pause, go do that,

(01:47):
come back.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
It won't hurt our feelings.

Speaker 6 (01:48):
In fact, I think it will enrich your listening experience
to see it play out in real time and not
spoiled by the two of them.

Speaker 5 (01:54):
And each week on Road to Rebellion, we are unpacking
the story, the characters, the big moments, the little details,
and really kind of everything in between.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (02:04):
We're going to do first impressions. We're going to dive
into the themes of what's happened, and as we have
done over the last couple episodes, we're going to pick
each of our MVP for this little arc and talk
about why we chose. So let's not wait any longer.
It is time to kick this one off. Let's jump
in with our first impressions. And Nick, I'm actually going

(02:25):
to start with a hot take. I know when you
and I watched this, we were texting back and forth
and I said, you know, I have a couple of
hot takes on these episodes, and that hot take is
not only is this the most brutal we have.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Ever seen Star Wars.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
Okay, I'm going to go out on a limit say
it might have been overboard, and I am not one
to shy away from the most violent movies and video games,
But my goodness, that Gorman massacre was it was. It
was a lot. It was and I'm not even saying
just for myself. I actually enjoyed the episodes a lot.

(03:03):
They were what I expected, They were what I wanted
them to be, I guess, but man, the death in
the streets, the violent deaths, the dragging of bodies across
the square, it was almost too much.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
Am I out of line?

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Here?

Speaker 4 (03:17):
Do you think? I don't think you're out of line?

Speaker 6 (03:19):
And I think that it's you know, we kind of
speculated on this a little bit before when we heard
talk of the Tarkan massacre and what that meant, because
we knew that, based on what we had read and
been in books and comic books, that Tarkin lens a
shuttle on top of a bunch of protesters, and of
course we were certain we weren't going to see that
on screen. They did such a good job of handling

(03:39):
that with the hotel guy, you know, kind of recapping
being president and his father and that experience, so you
get the horror of it without having to get the
visuals of it. So that did lead to how is
this going to play out for the actual Gorman massacre?
And I think you hit it right on the head,
And honestly, I think as shocking as anything was the
kind of the full scale iplementation that we saw of

(04:01):
the KX series droids, which we knew K two. We
knew he was a big deal. He was powerful, that
kind of stuff. But those droids, and we'll get into
it a little bit, you know, throwing, you know, people
with hulk like strength, and just it was a lot.
It was a whole lot, And I agree with you.
I think impressions wise, this episode was very heavy. It

(04:23):
drove home the point. It drove home exactly what's going on.
And I also think for me, my other first impression
was just how balanced these three episodes were.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
We didn't do.

Speaker 6 (04:34):
You know, it's not tons and tons of jumping around.
In fact, I think it's an episode eight. They stay
on Gorman that entire time, not a bottle episode. But
we've had episodes of things like Game of Thrones in
the past, where there's a show that typically jumps around
every now and then they have an episode that stays
in one place, and that episode on Gorman, they were
there the entire time, which also I think lends to
the weight of what that event was and what it

(04:57):
means for mon Mathema going forward, for her position in
the rebellion. Yeah, it was very It was very balanced
to me as far as covering those couple of areas Gorman,
the Senate, and then you know the role where that
puts Cassian of course for sure.

Speaker 5 (05:13):
For sure, Well, Nick, let's get into the story itself.
I'll let you kick it off this week.

Speaker 6 (05:17):
Absolutely this week our episode is directed by Jennis Metz,
written by Dan Gilroy, and then this is set into
Bby or Bby two. We've gotten these, you know, every
grouping of episodes, delivering on the promise that each of
these three episode arcs are going to walk us right
up to the Battle of Yavon, and this was no exception.
Speaking of the Battle of Yavon, we open on the

(05:38):
rebel base at Yavin, which I know we have been
excited to see. Just continues to feed those very nostalgic
original trilogy Star Wars feels. A transport ship arrives, it's
bringing in new new recruits, the bases buzzing. Willman Pack
is back, He's coming back from his other missions, the
places he's been. Cassie and Bix are living together in

(05:59):
a tree house on Yavin. Let me tell you right now,
I want to live in that treehouse. I want to
close off the rest of the world and spend the
rest of my days in that very idyllic, you know,
yerk pod treehouse situation.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Felt very Ewok village to me.

Speaker 6 (06:14):
It definitely had an Ewok village vibe without being eaten
by Teddy Bears. So Cassian's nursing his shoulder injury. Will
comes in. He and Bick's, you know, or clearly, as
we've said before, they're together. Willman shows up kind of
interrupts an intimate moment between them. Cassian wants to know
where he's been, but he's holding that very close to
the vest. He's staying vague, and then he delivers the

(06:37):
message that we realize he was sent there deliver.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Luthen wants you it's time to go.

Speaker 6 (06:41):
You know, the bat signal has gone off when they're
on Corruson. It's that flashing light on the top of
the building. Willman is that flashing light this episode. He
says he's trying to reach him, and he wants to
know Kenny count on him, and so Cathian's Cassian says
going alone doesn't going it alone doesn't cut it anymore.
He learns that woman has been working on Gorman for Luthen,

(07:04):
and now Luthen wants Cassian to take out Dedra. You know,
they've progressed far enough in the timeline. Her presence is
very full, she's there all the time, she's you know,
very clearly leading all of this Dedro destroyed. Ferrix has
been targeting Luthen killed woman's father, and he says, it's
not about revenge.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
She just has to be stopped.

Speaker 6 (07:24):
And so they're driving this narrative of you know, who
is the face of this whole thing on Gorman and
Cassian's resistant, you know, he's kind of he's reaching that
point where he's over it, so he leaves and he
goes to attend a rebel briefing there on Yavin instead.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
It's interesting because Cassian has now become a captain. I
think they say it either in this episode or maybe
the ninth episode. I can't recall, but we know he's
a captain. He's part of this rebellion. We see that
the rebellion is no longer these little individual sort of
strike missions. They are planning big things and they're planning,
you know, they're sort of setting the stage for man

(07:59):
Mathma to come in and lead them. And so but
it does it strikes a very interesting chord in that
you know, the rebellion is is becoming real and the
question is what role are you going to play? And
I think, you know, we'll talk about it a little
bit later, but everybody's starting to feel like there's a
different role for them in this and and this concept

(08:20):
of you know, going in alone doesn't cut it anymore.
But you know, you still have Luthan, and you still
have a Saugerera who kind of look at rebellion a
little bit differently. But on Gorman News, reporters are covering
these terrorist attacks as they're calling them across the planet.

(08:40):
Cyril Karn is seen walking very nervously to work. We
see Dedra in the safe room speaking to part of
Gas and party. Gas is telling her they're moving forward
with the original plan.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
The Emperor has taken a great interest in the situation.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Director critics still within now, but they wanted me to
pass along the affirmative message to you immediately.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
We are moving forward with the original plan.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
There is apparently no suitable replacement or synthetic alternative for
the Gorman substrate material.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
I don't know there's science, but it's bad luck.

Speaker 5 (09:18):
Gorman, cold as ice. It's bad luck Gorman, which is
just you know this. We knew this was coming, and honestly,
I think the fact the looking for Calaki was just
sort of a time filler for them because they knew
this was going to happen, and he tells her to.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Stay on schedule. They will need to declare martial law immediately.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
They send somebody named Captain Kaido, who is basically he's
the what did he say, He's the He's the trigger
and Dedra is the finger. Yes, he is there, and
Dedra argues that they already have enough security, but party
Gas reminds her that if all goes to plan, she'll
be rewarded, sort of saying, you know, just you know,
be quiet, follow orders, keep things going. And then Degrah

(10:02):
warns him that the insurgents now have weapons, and he says,
we're counting on it.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Again.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
This is this sort of really almost grotesque approach to it,
like like, look, we know we're gonna put weapons in
their hands. We want them to agree he did this, Yeah, yep, yep.
So Cyril finally meets with Dedra. She keeps them in
the dark about what's been happening, telling them to just
go home, pack and be ready to leave when she
orders it. And she assure reassures him that good things

(10:31):
are happening, They're going, good things are waiting for us,
and he says, for what, what have we accomplished. So
Cyril really has no idea what his role has been.
So she just kisses him and says, do what I
told you.

Speaker 6 (10:42):
It's incredible because as we're seeing this whole thing go forward,
like you said, it was really just kind of a time,
you know, biding their time.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
They're going after this mineral.

Speaker 6 (10:53):
This was the end game, no matter what I think
that What is very telling is the way the Empire
doing it, because they could have come in, they could
have moved everyone out, taken what they wanted, but instead
they intentionally they seated this you know, insurrection. That way
they can say they were justified. Like they're still playing
the political game. Palpatine at this point is still driving

(11:17):
it with you know, false flag campaigns and getting them
into a place where you know.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
Trying to build tonight, have it all out. We'll look
what they did on Gorman.

Speaker 6 (11:26):
It was earned, it was deserved, and you know, they
want them to have weapons, and we're going to see
when this whole thing goes down. They you know, they started,
they like the match, but they light the match by
shooting one of their own guys. It's ye, it's a
part of just a very drawn out you know plan
that ultimately, like, yeah, this is what we're counting on,
and you're right. The line you know, I'm the trigger,

(11:48):
but you're the finger is brutal. You know, ultimately you're
going to make the call, but I'm setting everything up.
And that's just again to make sure it gets done
the way the Emperor wants, the way those higher than
dedro on it to be. So we jump back to Corossant,
mon Maufmann, Erskine arrive, they're in the lobby, they're in
the Senate area. Another night, another wave of terrorist attacks.

(12:11):
And I love how they've used kind of this vehicle of.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
The news reporters.

Speaker 6 (12:14):
It almost reminds me of that season of The Wire
that was all about the newspaper, and they're showing this,
you know, we have kind of trickle galactic news. Even
in the first season, Cyril's mom's watching you know this
week in Corausont or whatever it is that she's watching
in her kitchen. They've brought that forward and that creates
a way not only for Cassie in to go and
pretend to be a reporter to show back up on

(12:35):
Courseant later, but we have man Mafma meeting with Senator
Orrin of Gorn, He thanks for thanks her for her
continued courage, urges her to be careful watch out for herself.
On Gorman, that underground front meets in their bunker and Coorn,
who is korn Rylance, He's kind of like the city

(12:55):
councilor guide that is working and is a part of this.
He's calling for peaceful protests, he says, it's the only
way to show dignity. But everybody else is restless. They're
ready to jump, they've had enough. And then we have
our friend, fake super Mario Lusine. He times in and
he remarks that the Emperor has succeeded in turning them
against each other.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
This is exactly what they wanted.

Speaker 6 (13:17):
And they're hiding in basements, they're fighting amongst themselves, sowing
chaos because that's going to allow them to achieve their
goals that much more easy easily.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
And so then they say, we're the gore. We're the gore.

Speaker 6 (13:32):
If they take us, what's worth saving, Like, what's left
at this point, If we're tearing ourselves apart, what are
we doing?

Speaker 4 (13:38):
You know they've already won, yep. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
Then it kind of keeps them moving and giving them
a reason of protest. And it's always interesting because, you know,
you always think something like these, these like the Gorman
Front or whatever sort of organization, is all on the
same page, but they often are not. They're all they
often have the same objective but a different way to
get there.

Speaker 6 (14:00):
And we've seen that with the rebellion you mentioned it before,
We saw versus you know, Luthen and mon Mathma's rebels,
and we're going to see that play out even more,
even as we go into Star Wars Rebels and you know,
into Rogue one.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yep, that's just the nature of any of these things.
But they do such a good job of demonstrating.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
You've got the emperor, I mean, the empire, which has
its own little you know, machinations and things inside of it,
whether it's Dedra who may or may not have a
moment of hesitation, Cyril who's a part of it, but
then he you know, kind of turns a corner. Then
you have the rebellion side of it, which is the
same thing, different factions, and then you have this third
middle ground, which is insurrectionists who are being played that

(14:42):
don't know they're being played, but even within their group,
it's also not a unified front. And it's very fascinating
because it's very human. It's very much you know, we
can relate to seeing these kinds of things in unfortunately
even modern day our society.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
Right now, well.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
Back on Yavin, a force healer, this is the first
time we've the use of the force in this show,
is tending to some of the injured rebels, and Bicks
has tricked Cassian into going to visit the healer, and
Cassie is skeptical of what he callses a scam of
force heelers. He doesn't believe in it. And then from

(15:18):
across the courtyard where the healers with other rebels, she
notices she senses Cassian, senses something about him, and leaves
who she's attending to and approaches Cassian, and then she
senses that he's got this unhealed right shoulder from a
blaster burn, and she lays her hands on the wound,
closes her eyes, and then thanks him for clarity, and

(15:40):
she calls it that feeling. It's been a very long time,
so easy to lose faith all that you've been gathering
the strength of spirit, and so Bicks says to the
healer what did you see? And Cassian he's had enough.
This is all, you know, smoking mirrors to him, it
doesn't mean much, so he just leaves. He's just having
trouble with this whole concept of what the force healer is.

(16:01):
And then the healer after he leaves, says to Bix,
who is he? I sense the weight of things things
I can't see, pain, fear, need. Most beings carry the
things that shape them, but some gather it as they go.
She says, he's a messenger. There's some place he needs
to be, and then he says to Bix, maybe you're
the place he needs to be. Now we will talk

(16:23):
about this when we get to the end of episode nine.
But this is a very unique thing because and I
picked up on it, but I didn't put too much
weight in it because Bix doesn't look too happy about that.
She doesn't look unhappy, but it's not like the reassuring
words she wanted to hear. But later on in his hut,
Cassian's shoulder is fully healed. The healer worked, and Bix

(16:46):
tells him what the healer said about about about you know,
he's a messenger, and Cassian says he's not happy to
hear that, but Bix really believes that it's important. And
I think this is the first time we've gotten sort
of a Chosen One kind of story to go along
with UH with Cassie, And I wouldn't go so far

(17:08):
as to call it the Anakin Chosen One at all,
but certainly he's got a mission and through the force,
this woman could sense it.

Speaker 6 (17:16):
Yeah, and hats off to Dan Gilroy because maybe you're
the place he needs to be. That's a killer line,
very well written, very well delivered, and just hits you
with the weight of what this whole thing is. And
we're seeing this in Cassian certainly early on in this
arc of these three episodes.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
He's conflicted.

Speaker 6 (17:36):
He's dealing with the situation of trying to figure out
what is he doing, where is he supposed to go,
what's the next step of this, because he's been in
it for multiple years.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
At this point, we're still on Yavin.

Speaker 6 (17:47):
The next day, General Draven makes his first appearance on
Yavin Base. We see him a lot in the Rogue
one movie. Cassian is packing up to leave on his
You wing and Draven tells him, you're not authorized, You're
not allowed to go.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Not a privateer.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
It's not about coming and going, And you know, Cassian
kind of basically tells him, he's like, you already know
about me, you know how I am box me in
and that's the first time I'm going to hit the road.
So he ignores the order heads out. Anyway, we end
up back on Gorman. Captain Kaido is overseeing the arrival
of new Imperial recruits in the town square, and I

(18:22):
love that they are green, They're nervous, they're eloquis just
from looking at him. They're like, what is the deal
with these guys? Like they're not ready for what's coming.
And I think we all understand that that was again
an intentional decision by the Empire. Cassian and Willman arrive
on Gorman and he checks into the hotel. This time
he's doing that thing. He's undercover. He's a reporter from
the Midrim News and the person checking him in at

(18:45):
the counter is our friend the bell hop from those
earlier episodes who helped him last time, and he recognizes
Cassian and he tells him, he's like, you can have
to carry your own bag this time, you know the way,
which even to me and I don't know if you
got this peace. I felt like this spoke to the
fact that, like, Cassian's been here more a bunch of times.
I didn't take it as like, ooh, I remember you

(19:06):
from that one other time. I took that as like
this has kind of become routine, you know, the way
you know you're in luck. I've got that same room.
It's kind of its own deal, but there's certainly a
recognition there. So back on Yavin Base, we see Vell
visiting with Bicks. Talks about Cassian, and Vell seems to

(19:27):
have broken with Luthen as a committed soldier to this
part of the rebellion, and she says Cassian's about to
be promoted, and then he pulls this kind of stunt.
You know, we're building a real army here. Cassian's a leader. Now,
we've all given so much and discipline doesn't seem too
much to ask. So there's again just this what is
the expectations that they have for Cassian within the rebellion.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
He's right there.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
It's like a person with potential, you're right there, you're
right there, and then you mess up. But Cassian is
a person who's driven by his own you know, principles
and goals and morals. Will has his girlfriend Drina in
the Gorman front and he heads off to check back
in because as we said, he's been working with them
over these last months. And Cassian in his hotel room,

(20:11):
he unpacks his bag, does that great thing in so
many movies. Oh, open your spook case. There's the clothes,
false bottom, here's your sniper rifle. Time to start going
to work, you know, very spy movie. And you know
that's a lot of what this is is. This is
the espionage and this underground nature of what the rebellion
is so set up very well visually stunning as always.

Speaker 5 (20:33):
Yeah, and you know again this is one of those
episodes that not a lot happens, but a lot of
pieces put on the table for episode eight, which is
you know, episode seven ends with Cassian kind of you know,
looking through his sniper rifle and trying to figure out
if he can get the shot at Dedra. But the
next day, in the beginning of episode eight, Cassian wakes

(20:53):
up and he sees that the Empire is building barricades
in the square. They're building a fortress, and Dedra calls
party Gaz because there are rumors coming in from the countryside,
saying that the Empire has landed mining rates already. Dedra
asks if the mining equipment on site is a story
that Credit wants to tell, and Party is another great line,

(21:14):
says we are done with local rumors. The only story
that matters is the Gorman aggression, the inexplicable resistance to
imperial norms. They need what's in the ground, and they
are through waiting. So it's, you know, it's sort of like,
Okay said, we're done. We're gonna set this little battle
thing up and we're going to do what we need
to do. But we already got the mining equipment coming down.

(21:38):
Palms are down across the city. So Cyril is told
his door is knocked on by an Imperial troop who says,
you need to go to the IOC building. Gorman. Protests
are coming. Protesters are coming into the plaza. They're shouting,
we are the Gore. The Galaxy is watching in Unison
and it's haunting. They're just shouting it with their arms
in the air. Caro who kerl Rylands, who is, as

(22:02):
we said before, sort of the leader of everything. He
pleads with people who are walking in the square. It's
telling him it's an imperial trap. He's figured it out.
He's figured it out that they're being set up for this.
It's almost like he's seen this sort of thing in
the past, and perhaps he has. He runs into Cereal
on the street.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
He asks him, you Den, walk out the streets, you
walk from.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
All this time?

Speaker 1 (22:24):
You?

Speaker 4 (22:26):
How could we be so foolish? I did you know?

Speaker 2 (22:30):
How do you say that?

Speaker 4 (22:32):
How do you speak the words?

Speaker 2 (22:35):
You've destroyed us a pscure to trap outside altitutors look
at you even now, people know what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
We've had reports all night his mining equipment being dropped.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
All over the planet, rags and drawings, rumors.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Are you mad that I'd believe that that needs work?

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Say?

Speaker 4 (23:02):
What kind of a beam are you.

Speaker 7 (23:08):
Watching?

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Ground?

Speaker 4 (23:11):
What does he do consider to sting from us?

Speaker 5 (23:15):
Serra, who's just in no mood to fool around, just
throws him to the ground. As the as the Gorman
Front and the Gorman Citizens, it's no longer just the
Gorman Front, it's all the citizens walk through toward towards
the square.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (23:31):
Well, and you see that these are the these are
those last cracks in this front that Cyril has been
built up and what he's been telling himself he's been
involved with up to this point, with Dedro, with you know,
the Empire. You know, he knew that he was kind
of becoming a little bit of a mole into this
Gorman under underground front. He thought, you know, it felt cool,

(23:53):
it felt like I'm a part of something. He's figuring out.
Maybe I'm a part of the wrong thing. And so
we're about to see the rest of that facade, you know,
fall apart. But running into Karro in the street and
having that moment of frustration, like just to me, puts
a kind of an exclamation point on where this next
little bit for Cyril is headed. Cassian's leaving the hotel,

(24:23):
he says to the bell hot desk guy, he says,
I'm not sure I'll be back, And he says, hey,
I hope things work out for you to the front
desk guy, and he responds that classic line that we
get in Roague one.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Rebellions are built on hope.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
So he's bought in even on some level and having
a history of family, you know, with some of the
previous resistance and protests and things like that. The plaza
is flooded with you know, thousands of gore.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
They're there.

Speaker 6 (24:47):
They're chanting, very demonstrative, and Cassian consents that something's off.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
He's looking for Will.

Speaker 6 (24:54):
He sees dead Raut over the plaza, takes a couple
of different times, you know, with that little scope to see,
you know, does he have a shot, And, as usually
happens in a dance like this, right when he gets
her lined up, she turns around, walks back inside.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
And by the way, does anybody in any movie you've
ever seen, any show do the unhappy frown look better
than Denise?

Speaker 4 (25:18):
However, we say that, yeah, blaze her. It's just like
she is.

Speaker 5 (25:23):
Now that that's a very angry British general look.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
That nails it every time.

Speaker 6 (25:30):
So meanwhile, Cyril makes his way to the building and
he's looking for Dedro. He's put into a holding room
with some locals and as we see half a dozen
of the k X droids and they're you know, they're
trying to do like this holding We want to make
sure everybody's safe. They're placating. Just wait and hear a minute,
we're just making sure it's okay. And Kaido tells a
commander to close all of the exits and this is

(25:50):
when you know it's about to go down. Close off
the exits to the plaza. Stormtroopers pile in at the
top of the stairs. So well done, stack up, lined up,
just ready to you know, impose their will to create
that front. That just adds to the experience they are.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Kaido has the patrols.

Speaker 6 (26:13):
He says, keep a pathway to the memorial open, and
he says, send a group of those troops that we've gotten,
these inexperienced troops that we saw show up, send them
down the middle. We've created this path, send them down it.
Protesters break some rocks on the ground. Malotiv cocktails are
being quietly distributed in Luzine chimes in which is singing

(26:33):
what's probably the Gore national anthem, and all the groups
starts singing. It's kind of that, you know, the wavecrests,
you know, starts with a slow clap and starts to build,
creating this moment. We're reaching the fever pitch of this
protest and what is going on right here while the
whole time, Dedra and that resting, displeased face is standing

(26:54):
above looking down on all of it.

Speaker 5 (26:56):
Yeah, I think it was a really cool choice to
get them to go from you know, we are the gore.
The galaxy is watching to this theme song because once
the shit hits the fan, having them all singing is
much more haunting. So I think it's really well done.
So Seyril has snuck out of this holding room and

(27:17):
he's gone to find his way to Dedra. He gets
in the room, there's a commander in there. She says,
get out of the room. So it's just her and
Cyril in the room, and Cyril says, what are we
doing here? And Dedra replies with the classic just following orders, right,
and it's me, yeah, I'm just following orders. Cyril says,

(27:37):
how long? How long have you known about this? So
it's all Cyril has figured it out.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
Now.

Speaker 5 (27:41):
They have set this whole thing up so that there
will be protests. He was involved on both sides against
his better gets him even knowing it, and she says
she wants to discuss it later, but he says it's
too late already. He grabs her and demands to know
what they're doing there and why there are mining ships
and why they're already unloading, and he says, you couldn't

(28:04):
even wait like that, and that's like where Cyril becomes human.
He realizes, look, I know it's the Umpire's going to
do their thing, but they couldn't even wait to start
destroying the planet until they finished this horrible act, right
And he presses her and says, why do they need it,
grabs her literally by the throat. She says, there's a

(28:24):
stone in the dirt here. They need it for the
energy program again, not even mentioned the death start directly
from the Emperor. They need the planet and he asks
how long she's known, and she tells him they're going
home as heroes. It's been played for years and there's
nothing that they can even do about it, and she
angrily reminds him that he sure didn't mind getting those
promotions along the way, which again sort of that reminder

(28:46):
of you know, you've been human, but not really. And
it all starts to come together and he just says
good luck to Dedra and leaves her alone and heads
into the courtyard. He's out there with the Gore at
this point, are pushing through the crowd and tensions begin.
A random Gore throws a rock at the Imperials of
rock Riot gear, and the fences begin to rock and

(29:09):
the riot sticks start to crackle, and you can tell
it's about to go down.

Speaker 6 (29:13):
Yeah, it's coton party. Gas calls Dedra and says, proceed,
you gotta go. An Imperial sniper shoots one of the
new recruit Imperials, which we saw this coming. We saw it,
you know, from the beginning, and bringing in these green,
inexperienced guys to make it up here that it's coming
from the Gore, and it's one of those things when
the tensions are up, the heat's on. It doesn't matter

(29:36):
who shot or where it came from. Somebody saw something shooting,
and then everybody's shooting.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
Cast are ups.

Speaker 6 (29:41):
A sergeant on the ground yells open fire. A man
waving a flag from the monument is shot, and the
screaming continues. After several minutes of this part of the massacre,
Kaido orders the Kaek droids to be released, and they
are incredible, overpowered monsters. Picks ends up and throws her.
She lands like a rag doll on the ground, seemingly dead.
Clearly dead, dead bodies everywhere, mostly the Gorman citizens plaster

(30:05):
fire left and right. Cassian has an open shot at Dedra,
but he is spotted by Cyril who's been searching for
him since season one, which is a great culmination on
this whole thing, tackles him with a dramatic hand to
hand fight in the front lobby of what looks like
a bar or the hotel or whatever that room is,
and they're going at each other. They're fighting, and Cyril

(30:26):
gets the upper hand and he's right there. He's got
a blaster towards Cassian. Cassian says, who are you? And
right in that moment, Cyril takes a bolt to the
head and it's Cara Islands popped in showed up at
just the right moment. Wiman arrives at the same shot,
picks Cassian up, drags him out of there.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
So we say goodbye to Cyril, we say goodbye.

Speaker 6 (30:48):
To that dynamic. The kind of cat and mouse game
that the two of them have had ever since season one.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
Well, I think is most interesting, and what I love
about it is the last words that Cyril hears. He's
been going after Cassie since season one, like that was
what got him into this whole thing. Cassian just says,
who are you? So he's nobody, He's absolutely nobody, and
he has gone through all of this stuff Cyril has

(31:17):
gone through all of this and he's nobody, not.

Speaker 8 (31:20):
Even right nobody, Sorry, he's Cyrel Skywalker, but he he
just he pushes, he pushes his way through all this
and for nothing.

Speaker 5 (31:33):
And I think that that's that's sad, but it's such
a great way to tell the story. Dedra is watching
the carnage. Will and Cassian are trying to escape when
more k Extroids run through the streets, closing in on them,
and just as the k Extroid one k Extrooid is
about to get them, the speeder comes through the streets
and hits the robot at top speed, knocks him into
the wall. Will goes back. They they're all safe for

(31:55):
a moment. Will goes back to the HQ because he
needs to find Drina and Cassie and takes the speeder
back to the ship, but first Cassie and gets Will
to help him pack up the k Extroid, which they
busted and had to take back to Yavin Bass. Will's
girlfriend is heard broadcasting that the Emperor Imperial Slaughter is
on begging for help. When Will arrives, she says, we

(32:17):
need to let people know what happened, and Dedra, once
again is in the safe room. She's grabbing her collarie
and panic. Everybody thought maybe that was Vader joking her. Nope,
it was just panic choking her. Her hand is shaking.
You can see she's crying. She's attempting to straighten her uniform.
She's really trying to pull herself together. We don't know

(32:37):
what happens to her after this. But then the last
scene of the episode is Cyril's mother watching coverage of
the Gorman massacre on the Imperial Hall in net. The
story is being told as an insurrection and that the
imperial heroes about that died trying to stop it are
the focus of the story. It ends seeing Cyril's mom

(32:58):
weeping while watching the news and being comforted by her friends.
I thought that was a great way to end it.
She did all she could to get Cyril up in
the ranks, and he was never good enough. But in
a weird way, he died a hero to her because
she doesn't know what happened, right, so in a way
she's he knows, you know, She she gets her wish

(33:23):
her son died a hero, and that's but in a
really sick, twisted way.

Speaker 6 (33:28):
Variously pissed away well and I want to come back
to the the K Extroid for just a second, which DESTROYD,
of course, we know, is going to it's easy to
safe to assume that DESTROYD is going to end up
being K two S. Yeah, with this k Extroid as
we see in this whole scene, I mean, like you said, overpowered,
flinging bodies, throwing people left and right, taking multiple shots,

(33:52):
shot after shot after shot, to the point where the
only thing that stopped it was basically a you know,
front end loader cut it in half and pinned against
so all I think that and maybe we'll come to
a nitpick in a few minutes. But my interesting thing
about that is, I hope we get, even if it's
just one or two lines somewhere in the next little
bit about what was it about that that Cassiean went,

(34:15):
you know what, throw that in the back of the truck.
I'm taking it with me, Like you know, obviously it's
easy to seem like, oh crap, that thing's really powerful.
Maybe that would come in handy, But I don't know
if that's it, because we don't know.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
That whole backstory.

Speaker 6 (34:27):
This is the first parts of that that we're ever getting.
So I'm very intrigued to see like does he already
envision like, Oh, if I could have something like that
with me, it would make me feel more safe, Like
I just I'm curious about his motivation I guess which
is yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:41):
I mean maybe it's almost that sort of mindset of
you know, sort of looting when you can taking what
you can, but man to take a risk on the
streets at that moment seemed a little bit.

Speaker 6 (34:51):
So a lot going on to be like, let's pack
this up and take take an extra minute, and let's
grab this right.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
It's the closest thing to a you know, this is
on Solo's last name kind of situation. Well, i'll tell
you while we're on the topic of those droids, if
you have never seen any of the if you know
nothing about Star Wars and the story, and you watch
this and then you go into Rogue one, when jin
is step picked up by a k T droids, you're like, oh,

(35:19):
she's dead, she's gonna do And then he's got that
witty little line.

Speaker 6 (35:22):
Congratulations you're being rescued after she gets full bodies lammed
onto the floor by one on. So that does take
us into episode nine, which is the last of this
third arc of this amazing show we've been watching. It's
a rainy evening on Coroiscant and we're at the halls

(35:43):
of the Imperial Senate, some nighttime Senate action going on,
and we see Senator orn Of Gore or Gorman being
arrested and it's a big scene and like it's kind
of that, you know, people are milling around in the lobby.
He's being arrested and as he says, he says his
quote was with no cause or warrant, you know what's
going on. Obviously they've decided to connect him to this massacre.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Did he incite the rebels? Is he a part of it?

Speaker 6 (36:06):
We don't get the full justification for why they did that,
but they arrested him because his planet is in rebellion
to the Empire.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
At this point, my Matha wants to speak up.

Speaker 6 (36:15):
She is with Bail Organa again and Bail encourages her
and says, you can, but I can't join you. And
in the moment, initially we're kind of led to feel like, well, dude,
what's the deal, Like why aren't you doing this? And
he wants her to be the voice and he wants
her to get to Yavin, but he's going to keep
his head down and he says to buy more time,

(36:36):
and so he's going to kind of stay, you know,
if he can play a little bit more undercover. Obviously
we know the things that he's going to be to
do and what's going to lead to lay In some
of that kind of stuff, but he is still a
part of this. But he's saying, this is your moment.
I need to stay here and see what I can
do from this position. Luthen needs Cassie in to go
to Coroucant and bring Man Mathma to Yavin. So he

(37:00):
does the same thing, send him under cover as a reporter.
You're going to go cover the Senate. And right as
he's getting ready to go, he's talking to Claya and
he says, I'm done after this, and she presses him
a little bit and she's like, what do you mean
and he says he'll know what it means because Cassie
and Luthen have had this back and forth for a while. Now,
you know how much is too much? What do you

(37:21):
want from me? What am I supposed to give? And
then Man Mathema is also warned by Bail that there
could be a listening device in her office because another
one was found I think they said, in you know,
Orn's office, and so he's just saying, you're not safe
right now.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
And then that is proven to.

Speaker 6 (37:40):
Be true because we see Samijh finds one while they're
there talking and I love she takes like that plate
or whatever it is and kind of chops the device
in half, and we see in the listening room it
goes dead, and it's just like, okay, picking up speed again,
which is what we do. We get a little tiny
crest and then we go right back into it.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
Ye yep, yep, and then Luthen and he so actually,
before I continue, there's a weird sort of feeling I
get about Bail And I know that we know he's
a good guy, and I know that we saw in
Rogue one that he did what he could to make
sure that Leah could deliver the plans and blah blah blah,
but it just feels kind of weird, especially because it's
his his ship. And we'll get to that in a second.

(38:22):
Because Luthen and Mine meet up and Luthen tells Mine
that his team's been compromised. There's untrust untrustworthy elements within it.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
I'm with you watching these moments, it felt a little
bit like, not that I thought it was dirty or shady,
but I almost thought like, you should be standing up
a little bit more. You should be a little more bold,
and you know, don't let her take all the heat.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
You know, find a way.

Speaker 6 (38:50):
You're right, it was played in a way that just
made you go, is he a good guy? Like you
just have that half moment where you're like, I mean,
we know where it's going because we've seen parts of
this story farther down the road, But in that moment
it felt a little bit like could it have been
done in a bolder way?

Speaker 5 (39:07):
I guess, well, yeah, And again, much like we were
just saying about, you know, you don't know about K
two droids when you start out with Rogue one, if
you don't know the story of Star Wars that it's
kind of an interesting thing, maybe you question this guy,
so which, you know, again, great writing. It's allowed to
be looked at different ways by different people. So anyway,
Mon speaks to Luthen and talks about take Holma and

(39:31):
asks Luthen if it's possible she will be as expendable
as Tay was, which I guess kind of sort of
backdoor answers for us what happened At the end of
episode three. Luthan says she's needed and tells her Cassie
will be coming to get her with a pass code,
which is I have friends everywhere.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Man.

Speaker 5 (39:49):
Mathma also finds out that Homage has been working for Luthen.
I don't know why he told her that, and that
her driver, Chlorus, is also an Imperial spy, which I
think she kind of knew. So Mon confronts Homage about
working for Luthen, she fires him. We see Luthen at
Cassian and Claya meeting, and there will be being uncertain
about whether Mon Mathma will go through with this speech

(40:12):
or not. Cassian finds out that Luthen isn't going to Oven,
and he's angry because he thinks Luthen should be leading
from there. Well, clearly he has other plans and we
may or may not learn about them in the final arc.
So the Senate begins together. We see the Imperial Security
and the Empire have seemingly arranged things to suppressed talk
of Gorman and only let certain approved speakers share the

(40:35):
agenda that sunds horribly familiar to today's times.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
It does, and I hate to even laugh at it,
but sometimes that's all you can do.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (40:44):
I loved this little segment because man, Mathma is a
smart woman. She hasn't made it this far to being
this part of something as big as the rebellion and
not be smart. But it also felt like this was
done in just a certain way that like her vision
became twenty twenty at this point, like all the last
little pieces fell into place. Honestly, love what they said

(41:07):
where she talks about Tay because we had, you know,
speculated on that way back and that scene of him
being driven away in the car and that whole deal.
We're like, that's it, Like this is done, and I
like that they can do something like that offscreen and
it comes back five episodes later and you're like, mm hmmm,
they did. They took him out, and she's carried that
because that was her childhood friend, possibly a lover. Like

(41:30):
there's these other connected elements to it, but then everything else,
the listening device, maybe bail and lu like all of
these things are crystallizing the fact that she's like, oh,
we're in it now. It's really here, it's really happening,
And there's also that uncertain is she going to speak
like she watched or and get arrested and she found

(41:51):
out like finding the listening device and learning about Samidge
going to be enough to warn her off, which is
of course what the Empire wants, but we know that
she's got the stones to do it. But it's set
up in such a way that even then you're just like,
are we going to get there? Are we going to
make it before the meeting, before the big meeting where
she's going to give the speech bail in my Mathma

(42:12):
meet one more time, and you know, just kind of
that going through, all Right, you got this, It's going
to be fine, And then we get I think this
is the third time in this series. Yeah, we get
the use of the word shit. He tells her quote
tear the shit out of this place. So for those
of you keeping square at home, shit is canon in
Star Wars. During the meeting, because like we said, this

(42:34):
was a very pre arranged meeting, and we hear it said,
you know it's an early meeting or whatever. It's not
going to be pop well attended, kind of all arranged
to not draw a lot of attention. And it was
supposed to be a pre arranged you know rundown of
who's going to speak and who's going to have the floor.
But during the meeting, Bail chimes in. And I love

(42:55):
that They even say he uses an old Imperial Senate
rule that came from the Emperor himself that allows him,
as a senior citizen, senior senator, to yield uninterrupted time
to anyone he wants.

Speaker 7 (43:08):
There's a strict agenda this morning. But as for the
latest imperial ruling on Senate protocols, I'd like to invoke
Articles seventeen.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
Two fifty two. A seventeen two five.

Speaker 7 (43:19):
Two was you may recall, proposed directly by the Emperor's
Council and specifically states that a senior senator in the
case of emergency.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
May yield the floor freely.

Speaker 7 (43:35):
Without an interruption to another senior senator. I am invoking
Article seventeen two fifty two and yielding the floor to
the senior senator from Chandrilla.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
Shut down the Senate feed.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Imperial authority shut it.

Speaker 6 (43:53):
Down, and immediately there's this panic in the you know,
monitoring room, like cut the feed, cut feed, something's coming.
We get the scene where you know, the guy is
trying to get into the room to cut the feet.
Oh the door's like, we fixed it. You've been asking
us for months to fix it. In these two little texts.
I loved that little scene with those two little texts.
And he's literally like, the store's been basically it was
the store has been broken for months?

Speaker 4 (44:14):
Why is it fixed now? When I need to get
in there? And like, oh, sorry, the key's back in
the other room.

Speaker 6 (44:18):
So he runs away and the one person with like
little eye you know, droid add ons or whatever, just
kind of look at each other like mm hm, we
did it, bought a little.

Speaker 4 (44:26):
Bit more time. I thought that was a fun, little
you know moment.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
Yeah, and again it's we've talked about it before, just
that sort of little bit of comedy in the middle
of a Star Wars.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
In the middle of something heavy. Yeah, yeah, very tense.

Speaker 6 (44:37):
So she gives the speech and she's working her way
through it, and right she gets right up to that
point she mentions the emperor by name, and then for
the imperials finally can cut the feed you know, goes dark.
Right after that, of course, you know, an uproar starts.
She exits the center chamber, she begins to make her
way out. As she's making her way out, she runs

(44:58):
into Cassie and getting on the elevator, he gives her
that pass code and she's like, you know again, that
light bulb goes off, It's time to go. They run
into Bail's crew in the lobby and we see the
scene at one point when they're in the little stock room.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
You know, where are the guns?

Speaker 6 (45:12):
They're back here, I'll go get them, and the one
Bail you know, bad guy, takes out one of the
other guys. So they encountered the insider in the lobby
of the building. After a very very short standoff, Cassie
and shoots her in the head. Samies picks up her blaster,
kind of holds off the others and says, y'all need
to go get out of here. Sends them on their
way on their way to the car. Of course, they

(45:34):
encounter the last holdout, Chlorus, standing there and you know,
what's your driver's name, what's you try? You know, just
that again building the tension, hey, and then he's just
like boom, gone, gotta go because they knew that that
wasn't happening, and what.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
I took out of those two little things you just
were mentioning is man Mathma has never seen the killing
up front. She's never seen what's invot and Cassian is
just callous and we see that and we'll see it
in Rogue.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
One.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
Got to do what you gotta do. Hey, Chloris might
be a good guy, but he's also working for the
Empire and he's there to cause troublesoon he's got to die.
That's what she's just like, like, her response is perfect.
It's the and it kind of reminds me and the
audience that she she knows what's like the idealism behind it.
But people will die. They're not just on television or whatever.

(46:30):
They're not just on the Hall of net And it's
not just numbers. People will die in front of her.
It's real life.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
They get in her car, they get away, which I
haven't said it. I don't think in any of these
episodes so far. I love her car, her speeder. I
keep on the car. Her Speeder is such a great
you know, And at some point I'm going to go
on a big tangent about just the art deco, you know,
nature of the show and so much of the set design,
so they escape. They end up in the safe house

(46:56):
of the course, not safe house where we saw Vix
and Cassian before. And while they're there, we see Wilman
and Drina are there. He's injured, been shot, I think
in the leg she's taking Drina's taking care of him.
Clay is there, and they learned that Luthen is alive,
but he's not there, and this is again kind of

(47:17):
feeding into this narrative. What's Luthen's deal? Where is he?
He's still a wild card to a lot to most
of them. And so then in the middle of this,
Cassine is told, you're not taking her to Yavin. You
got her out of there, but we're in a different
mode now, we're in a different level. They need her
to give another speech, you know, kind of the official,
hey I've left. It's a rebellion speech. And they said

(47:40):
they want her to have a yab and escort into
the planet. Like you have to put a face on this,
it has to be very presentational. So they're standing there
in that kitchen. He goes to the cabinet and gets
a glass and takes a drink, and that's when it
kind of clicks for her, she's like, you've been here before,
and I love this little it was a very small
little exchange. But also again she's realizing there's a lot

(48:00):
of people who have a lot of stake in this,
more than just what she's been doing. And that's not
to minimize what she's been doing, but like you said,
she's getting to have the more personal connections to the
actual things that are going on, not you know, orchestrating
from above. So she's running into this guy who's been
boots on the ground and she's like, oh, you've been
here before and he's like, yeah, I've lived here, you know,

(48:21):
at times or whatever. So then when she it kind
of dawns her. She says, I'm not sure how to
thank you, and I love his response. He said, make
it worth it, And you know, that kind of feels
like the end of the part in saving Private Ryan.
I think that's what you know, he says to him,
something along those lines. But that's a great, you know,
kind of cap on all the high energy of the escape,

(48:44):
getting away from the Senate, ending up in this safe house,
and now all of her world is coming the rest
of the way into focus.

Speaker 5 (48:50):
Yeah, now she realized she has to get her hands dirty,
and that's just and not that she didn't want to,
she just didn't know what was involved. And she just
said never was real. I mean, and if we look
at her Chandra life versus what she's about to go into,
it doesn't get as much different.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:05):
So, as we come to the end of the episode, Cassian, Wilman,
and Drina arrive on Yavin and they take him out
to tendis wounds. Cassian speaks with Draven and tells him
that Will is young and that he'll be just fine,
and then heads back home to Bix, who makes him
a tea and tells him he needs to sleep. Cassian
says he's done and he's not doing this anymore. He
wants to leave. He wants to have a life with her. Interestingly,

(49:28):
he just came from the safe house where she wanted
that and he said we couldn't do it, and now
he's kind of come around to, yeah, you know what,
We've done enough, we can't do anymore. And unfortunately, the
next morning he wakes up and Bix is gone, and
she has left him a video message telling him that
the rebellion needs him and he won't do it if

(49:49):
she's there, so when it's all over, they'll be able
to do the things they talked about. I think it
goes back to that force healer who said that, you know,
maybe you're he needs to come home to and he
doesn't feel like she doesn't feel right about being the
reason that maybe he screws up, or maybe he doesn't

(50:11):
give with the commitment that he needs to do. He's
done this much. To give up at this point wouldn't
be wouldn't be fair to everything that's been done so far.
I don't know that I love it. I don't know
that it feels completely fixed to me, although I think
you can kind of make an argument that she has
kind of softened in a way, maybe not softened, but

(50:35):
become more of a realist over I'm.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
Yeah, I'll take another side of that.

Speaker 6 (50:41):
I'm going to say she's as bought into the rebellion
as anybody is, and I think her buy in to
this rebellion is the realization because we kind of get
it with Velle and Santa, and we kind of get
it with you know a couple of different times throughout
this like, it's not about our lives, it's not about

(51:02):
what we want it's about the bigger thing. And I've
took this for Bix, going, yeah, would it be great
to live in this you know, ewok hut on Yavin
and just you know, hang out with four seilers and
get you know, acupuncture whatever it else is we're going
to do.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
But in order to get there, I took it as
a noble thing.

Speaker 6 (51:23):
I took it as her being so bought into the
rebellion that she knew Cassian's needed and she had to
sacrifice her happiness and her wants because he wasn't going
to do it in order for him to get to
what he's needed. And so for me, yeah, so for me,
it was very much like this was her hurt, she

(51:44):
so brought into the rebellion that she put her own
happiness behind.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
That That's how I took this.

Speaker 5 (51:50):
Yeah, and maybe it gives him a little bit of
extra drive right to to kind of get there. So
so he runs through the platform and it's too late
to catch the shuttles. She's already left. I guess the question,
you know, maybe we'll see here running other missions for
Luthen or something. Then the soldier calls him and tells
him that the droid that he brought back is ready,
and he joined a couple of texts and some others

(52:12):
who are very tentative about awakening this k ex droid.
And then we get a classic K two s so awakening,
very Frankenstein, very sort of Darth Vader, and he says.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Hello, if I've offended you, I apologize. If not, I'd
appreciate you pointing that elsewhere.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
It was very K two and it was a great
way to introduce him. And I can't wait to see
what they have lined up for him in the next
three episodes.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
That's one hundred percent. It just it was very K two.

Speaker 6 (52:52):
It falls into you know, it will end poorly or
you know, just all those little bits like.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
You know that wasn't me.

Speaker 6 (52:59):
If yeah, if I bothered you, I'm sorry, but get
that gun out of my face. Like the personality is
there right from the beginning, which we love.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
And I do love that, you know.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
They even said like just these little, these little sort
of quote unquote fixes and and I did not read
the comic book one off where K two and Cassie
get together, but obviously they've thrown that out the window,
although I do want to do some research on that
before next week because I want to see if they
make any reference to it, much like where Cassiane was

(53:28):
originally from according to one of the books, but they
made it so that it was that was a ruse
and whatever.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
But yeah, so I'm very excited to see that.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Well, Nick, we're at the point of our show where
we take a little bit of time to deep dive
into some of the themes and the storytelling. I have
a thought on the theme. I don't know if you
have the same or similar thought, but to me, the
theme of this week was fascism's tools to shut down opposition.
I think you saw the Gorman massacre was always going

(54:03):
to happen. The Empire knew it. Krenick knew it, The
Emperor knew it. It was really just amount of playing
the appropriate long game to set it up so the
way that it appeared to the galaxy, so it wasn't
so violent and vicious, but or appeared to be that.
The other tool of fasht fascism is shutting down, is
shutting down dissenting voices, the Gorman senator being arrested, Man

(54:26):
Mathma being shut down, and then the attempt to kidnap
her to keep her silent. So to me, that was
sort of the theme of this episode is sort of
illustrating this is what the empire does, this is what
fascist governments do. Here it is with some of your
favorite characters, and how it impacts people on a personal level.

Speaker 6 (54:43):
Yeah, I think you're exactly right, and I love that.
While this was not the excoriation of you know, the
American press and what's going on with the current presidential
you know, administration and some of those kinds of themes,
we do see the use of the press. We see
the use of these reporters, whether it's on Gorman, whether
it's you know, Cassian as a vehicle to you know,

(55:05):
get into the Senate, cutting off the feeds and things.
But what we also get is misdirection propaganda. They talked
about propaganda in that meeting with critic, you know, way
back when they're kind of planning this whole thing out,
because there are multiple different levels of what's an insurrection,
but it's an insurrection.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
We started what does it appear like? Tell me what
it looks like, not what it is.

Speaker 6 (55:28):
Yep, you know, it becomes that kind of thing, and
so we see that and we see things now, you know,
the most easily accessible example is something popped up on Twitter.
You know, every now and then the President will drop
a thing about, yeah, I might run for a third term.
Generally speaking, that's not possible and that's not a real thing.
But if everybody spends all of their time, energy and

(55:49):
attention focusing on the fact that he said he might
run a third time, that's taking your attention away from
what are we really doing? What funding are we cutting,
what department are we like the empire is doing that?
And I do believe because this is Tony Gilroy, because
this is Dan Gilroy, because this is the people that
are putting this show together and who have a background

(56:13):
in political shows and a lot of these other things.
This is very George Lucasey in that it is reflecting
on the world we're in right now, and it just
direct one to one comparisons to what does rebellion look like?
What does fascism look like? So you hit the nail
on the head with the themes of these and right
on the edge of like, I feel uncomfortable enjoying this

(56:34):
as a show because I also feel like I saw
this on CNN last night.

Speaker 5 (56:38):
Right exactly exactly, Yeah, no, and I think it's And
it's interesting too that this show was shot a couple
of years ago, right because it was it was put
off by the writers strike and the and the actors
Guild strike. So the sad thing is this is kind
of all an ever present theme.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
So yeah, it is what it is. I guess.

Speaker 5 (57:00):
Well, every week Nick and I pick an MVP, and
it's not always the primary character of the episodes, but
so this week, for me, my MVP is a little
bit different. I'm picking Caro Rylands for a couple of reasons.
Number one is I just loved his presence and almost

(57:25):
seeing like obviously he sort of started this Gorman front.
He's been around, he went through the tark And massacre.
He tries to talk sense into people but it's too
late for that. His his interaction with Cyril, and then
of course he's MVP because he gets the final shot
at Cyril. Car takes him out and then just sits

(57:48):
there like he's who I would I were not going
to get it, and that's okay, but I would love
to kind of see what happens to the survivors on Gorman.
Maybe we'll hear about it, because Caro is not going
to do well. He is, he will be taken in
by the Empire. They will make a an example of him,

(58:10):
is leading the Gorman front.

Speaker 4 (58:13):
But he did it. He's he did it for all
the right reasons, sort of like myn mouth.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
Mouth in a way. So so that's my MVP, Nick,
Do you have an MVP.

Speaker 6 (58:21):
I do have an MVP, and it I struggled with
picking this person as my MVP, simply because they're kind
of the central focus of the show, given that their
name is the title of the show. But I feel
like my MVP for this arc is actually Cassie and Or,
and I think that a lot of that I draw from.
This is the point where we see him most conflicted.

(58:45):
This is the point where he's ready to be done.
He says it to Clia. He's on you know, he's
with bicks. He's like, let's go, let's get away, Let's
you know, go run away, Let's go do something. Because
when we meet Cassian for the first time ever in
Rogue one, he is battle hall card and mission focus,
shooting his own guys, doing the things for the rebellion,

(59:06):
you know, no empathy, know anything. But and we're learning
how he got there. And Diego Luned does such a
good job of conveying someone who can flip the switch
and be in business mode and get my mathma out
and can go to you know, Gorman and do this
and that. But then when he gets into, like the

(59:29):
Healer said, you know, the place he's supposed to be,
when he's with Vicks, that switch comes off. His humanity,
his humanity comes through and he's a person going asking
the questions, why am I doing this, what's going on?

Speaker 4 (59:42):
What is this worth? You know it?

Speaker 6 (59:44):
Just so I really loved how well Diego Lunna as
Cassian you know, portrayed all of that in these three episodes.
It really gave it a lot of weight to again,
what we see in Rogue one because the first thing
we see him do is shoot one of his own
guys because he can't climb out.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
Well, and I like what you said there because I
didn't really think of it that way either until you
just said it. But if the healer who Bix believes
in right, she believes all that that stuff, if she's
where he's supposed to be, now it makes a little
more sense as to why she needs to leave, because
she may be where he's supposed to be, but not yet.

(01:00:22):
And if she stays there, he's where he needs to
be and he's not focused, he's not fighting, he's not
still going. He's so yeah, no, I like that. Yeah,
I think I think it's certainly fair to give Cassie
and the MVP for this particular arc. For sure, awesome,
But I'm calling it already next week k twos.

Speaker 6 (01:00:39):
So I'm just I mean, I think we'll just we'll
just go ahead and see all that one in Congress.

Speaker 5 (01:00:45):
Yeah, we'll we'll just put that. We'll just reopen it
next week. But so in this part of the show,
we talk about lower connections. We talk about places where
it's you know, where other Star Wars stories have made
direct connection here, and the first place is again going
back to that secret Cargo episode of Rebels. It's definitely
worth watching, especially now that you've watched these episodes. You know,

(01:01:08):
I think we expected the speech to be sort of
lined up directly with what she said, but it wasn't
exactly the same. But again, it's a little bit of
creative freedom. But she does have to give another speech,
and they do set that up by saying, you know,
we need to get her she needs to get a
speech out to everybody. And what's really cool is it

(01:01:31):
turns out she gives that speech from the Bridge of
the Ghost, which is really cool. And again there was
that connection where Draven says, do you want to come
watch mon Mathma speak and Cassie and says, no, I've
already seen her speak, but we do see in Rebels
we see various people around the galaxy watching her give
that speech, which really is sort of the declaration of

(01:01:54):
the Rebellion, which is really cool. They also mentioned Gold
Squadron escorting mon Mathma off Coroussant and we met them
in that same Rebels episode. She was being escorted by them,
and uh, and I think it was bell Organa's ship,
So really cool kind of connection. There a couple other
really kind of small ish things. The first Force Healer

(01:02:18):
actually appeared in West End Games, which was the old
RPG game from the late nineties, and it was a
Miryllan woman named Blondie Fear.

Speaker 4 (01:02:28):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:02:29):
And you've seen Mariylon people before. Jedi Master I Luminara
was a Marillan as well, so I thought that was
kind of interesting. Uh, And I looked, there's really no
other Force healers in anything cannon which well.

Speaker 6 (01:02:42):
Ray is the force hailor she field that snake, she
brought her back, you know, so grogu that's right. Gregor's
got it. We've got We've got some force sailors going on.
There a couple other things that you had on our list,
pat that are important. Yeah, David's driven. I think driven
is a general. I hope I don't get is rank wrong.
He makes his appearance. Of course, we see him in

(01:03:04):
Rogue one. He's the one kind of giving out the orders,
handing some things out, and we see this earlier version
of his relationship with Cassie and as we said before,
hey you can't do that, and Cassiane's like, I don't
report to you. But also connected to that, and we
see you know, cassian is Cassian is referred to as
captain andor, which is the rank that he holds in
Rogue one. You know, Claire or vel or whoever it is, says,

(01:03:28):
you know when she's talking to Vis. You know, he's
right on the edge of being promoted, and then he
goes and pulls a stunt like this. You know, so
was that promotion going to be to captain or was
that promotion going to be the next one, I don't know,
but it brings a little more into focus, kind of
like you know, holding the blaster up. Whose blaster is this?

(01:03:48):
And it's you know, Melchie. We're getting those faces that
are going to show up that we're going to see
in Rogue one here after three more short episodes that
remain for this show. So all the things for us
are coming into focus, much like they have for Man
Mathma over these three episodes.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know we we do only
have three episodes up. I can't believe it. You know again,
I think we were all kind of expecting this to
be a three month sort of opportunity to watch Star Wars,
but you know, I really kind of enjoyed watching these
as movies. And as I said before, I really think
that after we watch the next three episodes, we're gonna

(01:04:27):
watch Rogue one as sort of no longer Rogue one,
but you know, a final season, a final arc episode
fourteen of and or Yeah, yeah for sure. So I'm
very curious to do that. I can't wait to do that.
But Nick, I think that's going to wrap it up
for this week's episode of Rebellion the official Around the

(01:04:48):
Galaxy and Or after show, thank you so much for
joining us as we break down more and more of
this fantastic season of and Or.

Speaker 6 (01:04:55):
Absolutely, I echoed those thanks, and if you have been
with us all along the way, we think you as well.
We will be back next week. We're going to cover
these final three episodes. I'm dying to see them, numbers ten, eleven,
and twelve, and we're going to see and what they
told us They're going to walk us right up to
rogue one, so I can't wait to see what that
looks like.

Speaker 5 (01:05:14):
Absolutely, and if you're enjoying the show, make sure that
you're subscribed to the Around the Galaxy podcast wherever you
get your podcasts, and don't forget this is just one
of the shows on the SSW network.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
That is correct.

Speaker 6 (01:05:27):
Every Thursday night, you can join us live on YouTube.
We usually stream to some other social media platform, but
YouTube's the best place to be because you can interact
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(01:05:49):
So you can call in and join us on screen
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Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
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Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
That's right, and if you like today's show, you could
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Speaker 6 (01:06:13):
Leave us a five star review on iTunes, share it
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Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
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Speaker 6 (01:06:33):
We can get back to you in some way because
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Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
For talking to Star Wars. Yes we are. Well, that's
it for this week.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
Thanks again for hanging out with us, and until next time,
may the Force be with you.

Speaker 6 (01:06:46):
And this has been the Road to Rebellion and we
will see you next week.

Speaker 5 (01:06:50):
Road to Rebellion is copyright twenty twenty five pm the
Seed Studios. For more information on this show and other
shows than the SSW network, please head over to the ss.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
Wtwork dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:07:01):
Audio clips our copyright twenty twenty five for Lucasfilm

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