In the Flesh: Andor S1E04: Aldhani

The props on Andor are a real cut above your standard phoned-in miniseries. The datapads and personal effects its characters use carry a sense of weight and long, hard wear, like graphing calculators used in math class after math class across the decades. That same sense of wear and tear seems to follow the poised and elegant Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly), Imperial senator and secret member of the fledgling Rebel Alliance, wherever she goes. O’Reilly imbues the resolved but visibly struggling woman with a sense of desperate dignity. Her enervated clash with her husband over politics and seating arrangements is shockingly adult for a Star Wars show, digging deep into the kind of casual cruelty that can develop over time in a broken marriage between unsuited partners. Their bickering, his casual insults, it has that same lived-in feel that brings so much to the show’s sets and props. That’s maybe the most surprising part of Andor, that it’s visibly evident at every level that the crew, showrunners, and performers are both skilled and care about what they’re making.

Stellan Skarsgård continues to impress as Luthen Rael. The scene in which he undresses and remakes himself into his alter ego, a cheerfully flamboyant Coruscant antiquities dealer, is an episode highlight, and his chemistry with O’Reilly is complex and genuine. Again there’s a deep sense that this man is tired, that he’s lived this way for longer than anyone should and is starting to pay the price. Skarsgård’s body language as he sets his wig and dons his gallery clothes is as crushingly weary as his affect while leaving Cassian with a group of Rebels planning an ambitious heist is measured and reserved. The episode sketches out Vel (Faye Marsay) and her band of freedom fighters with quick, no-frills efficiency, walking us through their camp along with Cassian and catching snippets of personalities along the way. A soft-hearted but fiery youngster. A cold career soldier. A visibly traumatized second in command. Anything we don’t have time for, we don’t see. It’s gratifying to see the show so quickly shrug off the pacing problems that plagued its first three episodes.

As the Rebels fold Cassian into their seemingly impossible plan to rob the Empire of an entire system’s payroll, the pinched, officious Lieutenant Dedra Meero stumbles across possible evidence of organized rebellion against imperial authority. The office politics which unfold around Meero are surprisingly lively and fleshed out, beginning with the sniping of rival intelligence officers to score points with the mercurial and charming Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser) before branching out into jurisdictional infighting and bureaucratic tedium. In focusing so closely on the middle and underside of the vast and strange universe of Star Wars, the show is able to adopt a strikingly mature tone better suited to complex adult situations and conflicts. What a joy to see bureaucracy made exciting by strong performances and firm, careful genre writing. Four episodes in, I’m ready to say that Andor is a wholly unexpected pleasure.