Warning! This review contains spoilers for episode 10 of Andor.
The nature of prequels means that the storytellers can’t deal in questions of “if.” Since the audience already knows where the story is going, prequels have to get creative in the ways they build suspense. When a Star Wars streaming series centered around Cassian Andor was first announced, fans wondered if it was really necessary, given that Rogue One already revealed that Cassian will eventually join the Rebellion, help to steal the Death Star plans, and die horrifically on Scarif. But Tony Gilroy and his team of writers have more than justified the need for a Cassian Andor series by rounding him out as a three-dimensional antihero and using his origin story to explore the origins of the Rebellion at large.
In place of “if” questions, Andor has begged questions of “how,” “when,” and “why.” A few weeks back, when Cassian was locked in an Imperial prison in the middle of the ocean with no hope of release, audiences knew that he would eventually make it out of there. He’s destined to join the Rebel Alliance and lead them to their first major victory, so he wasn’t going to spend the rest of the series in jail. The compelling part was figuring out how he was going to escape, when he would do it, and why the other prisoners would get behind him.
Over the last couple of weeks, Cassian has been quietly biding his time behind bars, working away on the factory line while making friends with the other inmates and identifying the flaws in the Empire’s security systems. As the first season of Andor heads into its endgame with the third-to-last episode, “One Way Out,” Cassian finally galvanizes his fellow jailbirds, puts his escape plan into action, and leads a revolution against the Imperial officers.
The episode gets off to kind of a slow start. Instead of jumping right into the thrills and focusing solely on the big external conflict at hand like Andor’s other action-centric episode “The Eye” (the one with the Aldhani heist), “One Way Out” takes its time to catch up with supporting players like Dedra Meero and Mon Mothma before Cassian pulls the trigger on the jailbreak. But once the episode gets going, it really gets going. Cassian isn’t just interested in breaking himself out. He’s starting to sympathize with others and believe in causes bigger than himself. Rather than just sneaking out on his own, Cassian plans to free every single prisoner in the facility and stages an uprising against the Imperial guards.
Andy Serkis has gotten a stronger arc as the prison floor manager in just the last couple of episodes of Andor than he had in two whole movies as the evil overlord of the First Order in the sequel trilogy. The actor began to humanize the gruff Kino Loy in last week’s episode (“Never more than 12...”), but he gets a full-blown redemption arc this week as he teams up with Cassian to break out his men. The prison break is a resounding success, but when all the other prisoners are diving into the ocean and heading to the sweet freedom of the shore, Kino holds back. Cassian asks what’s wrong and he tragically says, “I can’t swim.” Serkis’ defeated, melancholic delivery of this line is heartbreaking. The whole time, Kino knew he wouldn’t make it out, but he made the ultimate sacrifice so that everybody else would have a chance.
After penning the last couple of dialogue-heavy episodes, House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon proves himself to be just as adept at writing action-driven narratives with the jailbreak storyline of “One Way Out.” The episode has plenty of large-scale spectacle with frenzied riots, gripping shootouts, and shocking deaths on both sides of the conflict. But in spite of all this action and excitement, Willimon never loses sight of the characters. “One Way Out” becomes a non-stop thrill-ride when the escape kicks off, but the most captivating moments in the episode show the characters’ vulnerabilities. After Cassian and Kino shoot their way to the top and infiltrate the command center, the most difficult part is addressing the entire prison with a call to action. Kino has made countless prison-wide announcements before, but he gets choked up when he tries to announce the escape.
While Serkis is undoubtedly the M.V.P. of the episode, Stellan Skarsgård also delivers a powerful climactic monologue about the sacrifices that Luthen Rael has made for the Rebellion: “I burned my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see.” It’s hard to believe that a series with scenes this moving and characters this layered and themes this poignant came from the same studio and franchise as The Book of Boba Fett. Andor is more than just a great Star Wars series; it’s rubbing shoulders with the very best of “Peak TV.”