It’s prison break time, as Cassian and Kino Loy get to work liberating Narkina 5 in Andor episode 10, “One Way Out”!
Armaan Babu: Rogue One told us that rebellions are built on hope. Sometimes, though, rebellions are built on the lack of it. Empires dangle hope like a carrot in front of you, keeping you in line, all in the hope that one day you will get what was promised to you. Take that hope away, when you have nothing left, and all the sticks in the world aren’t going to be able to keep you in line.
Last episode, we saw Kino Loy lose all hope. This episode, we see what I believe may be the most inspiring story of rebellion that Star Wars has ever put out.
One Way Out.
Austin Gorton: Spoiler alert: this episode is great.
Power Panicked
Armaan: Of course, rebellions aren’t just built on hope, or the lack of it. You need a good foundation, too. Andor’s been planning this for a while. Slowly carving through the pipe in the bathroom. Building allies, building a plan. Despite that, and despite this show being named after him, this still isn’t Andor’s story.
This is Kino Loy’s.
After learning that, essentially, that the Empire’s not allowing for any way out of the prisons, Kino Loy is ready to start fighting back. Unfortunately, he’s not given all that much time to adjust to the idea — the death of a floor worker is the opportunity that’s needed for an escape. The time to act is now.
As Andor convinces Kino to act, I regret more than ever that, by episode 10, we’ve still barely gotten to know who Andor is. Andor makes some great points here (“power doesn’t panic” is a powerful line in an episode that’s filled with them) — he has a shrewd take on the Empire and of human nature. He’s clever enough to put a plan in action, he’s patient enough to wait, and he’s strong-willed enough to be ready to act, his fire undimmed, when the right moment finally comes along. It’s a hell of a character written here.
I feel nothing for him.
If I had to describe Andor, I’d describe him as a rogue who really doesn’t want to be here. He comes with all the skillsets required to put impossible plans into action. He’s an invaluable asset to have on a team. His effectiveness, and willingness to break the rules, make him a great catalyst for other people’s stores. But as a character in his own right? I don’t see anything there worth centering a show around. Austin, am I missing something?
Austin: If you are, I’m missing it, too. Cassian himself remains the weak center around which a lot of really strong stuff is swirling. The best thing I can say about it is that it seems to be intentional, for some reason? Clearly, Cassian spent some time building relationships, sharing information, planning the escape, but all that happened offscreen. What we see onscreen is Cassian taking a subordinate role to someone else, once again.
This episode is all about the price of leadership: Kino, Mon Mothma and Luthen all find themselves paying or about to pay a price for their role in their respective rebellions, and maybe Cassian’s passiveness is meant to underscore that he’s not there, yet, that his arc in this season is becoming more of an active player and leader, rather than simply reacting out of necessity. But in the meantime, it the series’ central character is continually getting overshadowed.
Armaan: Andy Serkis’ Kino Loy, on the other hand, steals the show in such a powerful way I finally managed to learn the character’s name. I like to think that it’s not just Andor who convinced Kino to finally change his mind — it’s his men. Andy Serkis has said that he’s got his own headcanon for Kino’s backstory, Kino was arrested for championing worker’s rights. This is a man who may be a strict taskmaster, but every action we’ve seen from him has been about him protecting every person he can. He’s a man who’s proven to not just be afraid for himself, but for the people he’s taken responsibility for. He’s put a lot on his back — and as we see this episode, he is unbroken, still.
The escape itself is great action, a satisfying mix of smart planning and an adrenaline-packed, death-defying struggle. The moment on which the episode turns though, is in Kino Loy’s speech to the station’s inmates. Andor shows his shrewdness again in this moment: it might have been Andor’s plan that opened the door, but it’s going to be Kino who convinces the men to walk through it.
Austin: The action is legitimately tense — I found myself almost out of breath at various points. Director Toby Haynes and writers Beau Willimon and Tony Gilroy strike a nice balance between making the uprising tense and still believable. The prisoners don’t get away consequence-free, but their ability to gradually overwhelm the outnumbered guards builds in a way that makes sense. The way the prisoners use the water in conjunction with the electrified floors is a great payoff, and the fact that once a couple prisoners get off the floor and get a couple blasters in hand they’re able to so easily overwhelm the guards speaks to the arrogance of the Empire that Cassian consistently pegs.
And then it all culminates in the absolutely heartbreaking ending for Kino, as the prisoners pour out of the prison and dive into the water surrounding the prison, and he fearfully tells Cassian he can’t swim moments before Cassian is knocked off the prison by the crush of escapees.
Armaan: It’s not just fear, though. There’s resignation there. “One way out” — he knew this was coming. The misery on his face as he realizes that, rewatching that moment with that hindsight is heartbreaking. This man fought, and gave everything he has, for a freedom he’ll never see. Wait, hold on, there’s something familiar about that…
A Sunless Space
Armaan: I’m gonna skim past the Mon Mothma stuff from this episode — it was a good scene, but pales in comparison to everything else that happens this episode. What I find most interesting about it is that we’ve seen that Mothma is forced to be alienated from her family in favor of being a Rebel — but now, she’s forced to ask herself how much she’s willing to drag her family into the oncoming war.
Still, it does feel like the most important Mothma stuff is yet to come.
Austin: Nah, it’s definitely a check-in scene. It’s obviously important from a plot/character development angle, but it feels mostly there just to remind us that plotline is still chugging along and to shore up the “cost of leadership” theme.
Armaan: What really got to me was the scene between Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen and the ISB mole, Lonni Jung. It’s a relatively short scene, but it speaks perfectly to the dark half of themes this show has been exploring.
We’ve known that Luthen is a dangerous, ruthless man. That he’s willing to risk anything for the sake of the rebellion. This is a man who knows the ugliness of war and does not look away from it. In this episode, in as polite and reasoned a way as possible, he threatens a man’s family just to ensure that he has a mole within the Empire’s ranks. Lonni Jung wants out — but Luthen isn’t going to allow that.
A naturally upset Jung asks Luthen what he’s sacrificed, which is when we get a beautiful, poetic, chilling speech from Luthen about the humanity he’s lost to make sure the Empire wins. It’s rare we see this kind of self-awareness in a character who’s going to go as far as it takes to win. We’re used to characters with a noble cause in a sort of denial, ignoring the harm they do in the face of the greater good.
Luthen knows he’s using the tools of his enemy — is becoming like them in his pursuit of freedom. He knows he’s damned, that he will not survive this battle, and even if he does, he will be a husk of a human being unable to enjoy the peace he brings about. He has consigned himself to the dark miseries of war, and he’s accepted the bargain, because he believes that there’s nothing else that will work.
The restraint in this performance is what makes it hit so hard. There’s anger, yes, towards the end, but it serves to punctuate his point — it’s not a burst of emotion, it’s a careful application of it. He’s bitter about his choice, but accepting of it. This is a man who has lived and embraced the worst of himself, for a very long time, and has no illusions about how much it’s rotting his soul.
When Nemik was alive, I wrote that no one on the show scared me more than Nemik did. Nemik was a boy who was unwavering in his beliefs, unafraid in the face of tyranny, determined that, one way or the other, no matter what it would take, the Empire would fall. I can’t help but think that Luthen is the man Nemik would have grown into, had Nemik lived that long.
Once again, I think of Rachel of the Animporphs. Nemik, Luthen, Rachel — these are the people you call in to win wars. But there’s no place for them in a world where the war is over.
It’s a tragedy, presented calmly as an inevitable practicality.
Austin: Luthen is absolutely the endgame of Nemik, the rebel who believes using the tools of the enemy is fine so long as it’s in the service of the greater good. It’s not really a surprise that Stellan Skarsgaard is good at this stuff, but this was a standout monologue. As you said, it was perfectly modulated between rage and resignation. It gave us a clear picture of who Luthen is, what he’s lost, and how far he’s willing to go in just a few minutes of screentime.
The real kicker of that scene is the way both sides engender sympathy: Luthen is trying to overthrow the Empire, and on paper, there’s nothing that can be asked that would be too much to achieve that goal. Yet at the same time, it’s hard not to feel bad for Lonni. He’s done his part, and now he has a family. Like Vel earlier in the season, he wants to step back and enjoy some of the world they’re trying to build. He wants to ensure his child doesn’t grow up without a father, which is perfectly reasonable. Yet how many other children will grow up fatherless if the Empire isn’t stopped? Neither Lonni nor Luthen are entirely right or wrong, and that’s what makes the scene crackle.
Armaan: The Empire is wrong. Fighting them is good for the galaxy, but it’s a miserable fight. Andor makes the struggle against the Empire about more than just the noble heroes who were in the right place, at the right time, with the right destiny. The Empire was defeated by ordinary people who gave up everything they had just to give heroes they will never meet a fighting chance.
Andor is as much a tragedy as it is a triumph — and the show never lets you forget that. With only two episodes left, I’m dreading the end as much as I’m excited about it.
Force Facts
- That’s Melshi, Cassian’s fellow escapee and future Rogue Squadron teammate, running across the beach with him at the end of the episode.
- The blasters being used in the prison are the same make/model as the ones used by the Alderaanian troops at the very beginning of A New Hope.
- Similarly, the microphone Kino speaks into in order to project his message to the prisoners is the same design as the one in the detention block on the Death Star when Han tries to convince everyone they’re all fine, there.
- The prisoners on Narkina 5 are in the shape of the Imperial cog symbol that adorns the Empire’s uniforms.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
