Andor “What A Festive Evening”

I’ve said a couple times that rewatching this series proved a lot more worthwhile.  The first time I watched season two, I did so sporadically, and didn’t bother rewatching season one.  There aren’t any bad characters in Andor, to be sure, but it’s also a quiet show that doesn’t move quickly.  I forgot who a lot of the characters were, and while this particular episode did hit hard the first time, it hit even harder the second time.

That comes largely from remembering who Vel and Cinta were.  Cinta dies in this episode when one of the Ghorman front’s more eager members disregards Vel’s orders to come to a heist unarmed.  Basic storytelling told me that he would, and the way Cinta and Vel seemed to be talking about settling down (as much as a Rebel can while the Empire still stands) or at least stay together.  I could tell the first time that these two meant a lot to each other, but my recollection of who they were was a little fuzzy.  Really, I knew someone would bring a gun and things would go bad.  Cinta died, Vel was upset, and that was that.

This time around?  It’s a lot more tragic.  First, Cinta and Vel are only there because Luthen didn’t really trust Cassian’s assessment of the Ghorman Front as not worth the effort.  Luthen also kept the pair apart for a long time, only seeing each other briefly at Mon Mothma’s daughter’s wedding, and even then, it was Cinta doing an assassination job on Luthen’s behalf.  This episode is, as near as I can make out, the first time Vel and Cinta have been able to spend any quality time together since the season one heist of the Imperial payroll.  They wanted to be together.  There was no reason, aside from  Luthen’s fanaticism, to keep the pair apart or send them to Ghorman.

For what it is worth, I think it is good to show Luthen isn’t always right.  He spends much of this episode using blackmail and his loyal assistant Kleya to get a listening device off an antique he sold to a gangster.  It’s actually pretty tense, but this is an all-around tense episode.

That said, the other thing I needed to be reminded of is who Bix assassinates at the episode’s end.  Sure, it seems to suggest that just killing this one guy somehow fixes her ability to sleep at night, a point of narrative wishful thinking that Andor largely eschews.  But this time, oh, it’s the Imperial doctor who tortured Bix in season one, and she tortures him the same way before blowing his lab up with him in it. That…is kinda badass and satisfying, and even though Andor doesn’t often do badass, it was still pretty damn satisfying.

Rewatching this show was such a good idea.