Like the show’s Alhani arc, the Narkina 5 prison arc of “Andor” Season 1 also has two setup episodes. Thankfully, the show makes use of both episodes this time (Aldani’s should have been one episode).
See my initial thoughts on the episode below. This written review will go more in depth.
Picking up where we left off, Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) has been captured by Imperial Security Bureau Officer Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), after which she is tortured and interrogated in hopes of getting any information they can about Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård), whom they have named “Axis.” Meero gets some leads, but I’m not sure if it will be enough to go anywhere given how decentralized the rebellion is.
We also learn that Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) is related to Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), as she visits her this episodes. Money and how to fund the rebellion is still an issue, and Mothma is booed by her fellow Imperial Senators for opposing the Emperor’s resentencing act that will have a real impact on Cassian and the inmates of Narkina 5, which is the best part of the episode.
Cassian wants to escape, and has been conspiring with his fellow inmates on how to do it. However, his floor leader, Kino Loy (Andy Serkis), is against it. That all changes, though, when an older inmate has a stroke and is killed rather than being helped. They also learn that a whole floor of the prison was “fried” when they realized that an inmate whose sentence had been expired wasn’t released like he was supposed to; nobody is going home under the Empire’s watch.
This episode really does a good job of going into detail how sick and cruel the Empire is and how much it doesn’t care about its citizens. Cassian and the rest of the inmates on Narkina 5 are treated like trash, as they are cheap labor more cost effective than droids and easier to replace. Seeing how the Empire so casually ruins peoples’ lives over bullshit charges makes you really hate them, and gives Cassian a reason to get back into the fight as a rebel, which will eventually see him take on a key role in setting the stage for their destruction in “Rogue One.”
“Star Wars: Andor” Season 1: Episode 9 “Nobody’s Listening!” gets an 8/10
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