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Fridge Brilliance

Episode 1 - Kassa

This series is notable for having the first usage of the BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin, or the destruction of the first Death Star at the end of A New Hope) dating system in an official audiovisual Star Wars work. However, since Cassian dies in 0 BBY, mere days before the Death Star's destruction, the dating system is also inherently a countdown to his death.
Karn's superior notes that the brothel is too expensive for the guards Cassian killed, and uses this as more evidence to dismiss the case. Why? Because that means they were accepting serious bribes from someone. If there's one thing companies hate, it's someone getting money besides them. This would have come up in an investigation, making it yet another good reason to shut it down.
When Cassian asks B2EMO to lie for him, Bee specifies that he has adequate power reserves to do so. This sounds a bit like a standard case of "writers don't understand computers" at first, but it actually makes a bit of sense. Computer programs are ultimately just sets of instructions, and lying would require Bee to not only add an additional instruction to know when to say the lie instead of the truth, but would also require him to hold both the lie and the truth in memory. Both actions have an energy and power cost, which might be infinitesimal to a modern 2020s computer that can carry out millions of instructions per minute, but for a droid whose computing capabilities keep with the show's 1970s-esque Retro Future, that's a big deal, especially since it's shown that Bee's battery has trouble holding a charge.
The Bartender at the Brothel says to him "You'll pay at the end". Once this series and Rogue One are over. Cassian will pay with his life.
Cassian, eager to get off planet for a while is eager to sell a valuable piece of equipment he stole and mentions that Bix's contact, the fence, has been wanting to meet Cassian. Why would he? A fence doesn't really need to meet the people who get his equipment. However, a revolutionary who wants to know how Cassian is getting valuable Imperial equipment so easily would definitely want to meet him.

Episode 2 - That Would Be Me

The fact that the soldiers are the only corpos who take their job seriously makes sense when you consider that they're the ones with the most obvious benefits—taking out their aggression on the locals. Everyone else employed by the company is just bored.

Episode 3 - Reckoning

Tying the shuttle to a piece of salvage actually makes sense. Sabotaging the engines or any other part of the shuttle could possibly be detected by the computers. Just attaching it to something heavy, on the other hand, isn't detected until it's too late. It's also plausibly deniable. . . "We didn't touch your damn shuttle, your idiot pilot must have landed wrong and got stuck on something."

Episode 4 - Aldhani

This episode reveals that Luthen has a civilian cover as an antiquities dealer on Coruscant. Antiquities and artwork dealing is a fantastic disguise for money laundering, which the Rebellion would need to do a lot of in order to hide where its money is coming from. The prices of antiquities are often highly subjective, giving wealthy anti-Imperial supporters a plausible excuse to greatly overpay for a given piece and the dealer wiggle room to record a different number in their books than however much money actually changed hands, and making it hard for an auditor to tell if a price is suspiciously high or low. Antiquities dealing also works as a convenient excuse for someone to be off globe-trotting (or planet-hopping) for months at a time and receiving cash from odd places. It also, as the series shows in detail, provides excellent cover for repeated visits and long, at least semi-private discussions. . . a discerning collector seeking a specific and rare piece, the difficulties (and expenses) in obtaining it, buying a piece only to return it because it isn't quite what they wanted, all provide cover for discussing Rebellion business.
- On top of the above, the Imperial attitudes towards the Aldhani Eye festival and pilgrimage shows their preference for suppressing local cultural identities, which would likely mean the Empire also easily overlooks smuggling of cultural artifacts.
Being an undercover Imperial Security Bureau agent, there is a small chance Kloris could afford something at the Gallery.
- He had to have known Mon was onto him, so he most likely took Kleya's tour offer to lessen her suspicions of him being a spy.
- While he likely didn't overhear all of Mon and Luthen's argument, he had to have overheard at least some of it. Being ISB, one can imagine he's been trained to pick up details in conversations. It wouldn't be surprising if he was an intelligence agent for the Republic before the Empire.
- There's also a small chance he used Kleya's tour to discreetly inspect the artifacts for any possible contraband.
- Almost ties into Fridge Horror. It's a good thing the ISB never decided to take an interest in Luthen. After all, any associate of Mon's has a very high chance of being a Rebel contact. Had the ISB taken Luthen in for questioning, they would've found Axis before he was even codenamed.

Episode 7 - Announcement

The episode begins with Yularen briefing the ISB on the new authoritarian measures introduced to cull rebel activity in all systems under the Empire's jurisdiction. Later on, Luthen Rael mentions that this tightening of security was the intended outcome, as he wanted to provoke the Empire into disproportionately punishing anyone for the slightest sign of dissent. While the episode makes the effect of this clear by ending with Cassian being thrown into prison for six years for merely loitering, it's also important to remember that Andor is set in the same timeframe as the first season of Star Wars Rebels - and that the Empire cracking down on Lothal in that series results in the Spectres carrying out operations against the Empire, meaning that the Aldhani heist kickstarted the events of Rebels.
A call forward to A New Hope. Yularen states that the only question the Empire has is "How tight to close our fist". Which of course is the wrong response as Leia states later. " The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
Crossing with Fridge Horror, but the courtroom looks badly made, especially compared to every other background. It's almost like a basement. It reflects how the trials in the Empire are a formality, a sham with next to no effort.

Episode 8 - Narkina 5

During the ISB briefing, Meero gives Luthel Rael (who they've yet to identify) the codename Axis. "Axis" can also be another word for "Fulcrum," which was the codename used by Rebel intelligence operatives, starting with Ahsoka Tano.
When Cassian is ordered to get "on program" in prison, meaning hands on head, he never fully puts his hands on his head and keeps them more near his ears, curled and as free as possible and ready to grab or hit something if the moment presents itself, in yet another show of how he's always calculating and paying attention to his situation. It stands in contrast to most of the other prisoners, who place their hands flat on the backs of their heads or even fully lace their fingers.

Episode 9 - Nobody's Listening!

Kino Loy demonstrates in this episode that he's not motivated by fear of the Empire, but by hope that doing good work and not causing trouble will be enough for him, and the people under his watch, to go home when their time is up. At the end of the episode, when his hope of freedom is destroyed, fear will no longer keep him in line. His only hope now lies in rebellion - and Cassian will eventually pass that lesson on to Jyn Erso. "Rebellions are built on hope."

Episode 10 - One Way Out

Kino not being able to swim pairs perfectly with Luthen's speech about working for a future he won't be able to see. Kino chooses certain death to give others a chance at freedom he can't have himself.
In Episode 6, Nemik mentions that, as someone devoted to the cause of fighting the Empire, he found it hard to sleep before the Aldhani heist, while Cassian slept soundly not believing in anything. This episode shows Cassian awake during the night, suggesting he was finding it hard to sleep, in turn suggesting that he was finally starting to believe in the cause of fighting the Empire.
In his speech Luthen declares “I’ve made my mind a sunless space.” What’s one of the most famous shots of the Star Wars series? Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, watching the twin sunset. Luke can see the suns and dream of a better future, because of people like Luthen who did the dirty work first.

Episode 12 - Rix Road

Once more, Rebellions are built on hope. While Luthen made his speech about the depths he's willing to sink to and the sacrifices he's willing to make, all of that gets thrown back into his face when he sees the spark that ignites Ferrix into a riot - It wasn't just a call to arms, it was a call to Hope, to want for a better tomorrow. Maarva's post-mortem speech, the riots and Luthen's Heel Realization towards the path he was walking ties the series together with the major theme of the franchise as whole; the Light that Marva shined on Ferrix (Hope, Respect, Idealism and Love) proved to be magnitudes more powerful and effective than the Dark (Hate, Viciousness and Fear) that Luthen said he'd be willing to lose himself to.
With the post-credit scene's revelation that the prisoners on Narkina 5 were constructing parts for the Death Star all along, it colors the prison's refusal to release inmates in a new way. Even if the prisoners never knew precisely what they were helping to build, the Empire would never risk laborers cottoning on to even a fraction of such top-secret plans as their planet killer involved.
- This also explains why Cassian was handed down such a ridiculously long sentence in "Announcement" — considering the scale of the Death Star, it makes perfect sense that the Empire would be determined to round up as many sla-*ahem* dissidents as possible for unpaid labour.
- In hindsight this might explain why the ISB never realized that Cassian was imprisoned on Narkina 5 despite their extensive efforts to locate him. Information relating to the Death Star Program was highly classified with few in the ISB likely even being aware of its existence. So for all intents and purposes Cassian ceased to exist in Imperial records when he got sent to Narkina 5, since the Empire likely didn't want even their own people wondering about the purpose of these massive labor camps.
- The desire to keep info on the Death Star as tightly controlled as possible likely explains the lack of guards on Narkina 5 and the over reliance on technology to keep the prisoners in line. Fewer guards means fewer people who can possibly leak information to the rest of the galaxy. After all, those electric floors are probably far more expensive than the cost of extra security personnel which suggests that minimizing personnel wasn't a cost cutting measure on the Empire's part.
  - This adds a little bit of Irony/Hypocrisy to Yularen's claim that the PORD would grant the ISB further Army and Navy access. With the two examples mentioned above, it's quite clear that the Death Star was the only exception.
- The long shifts, hard quota, and "incentives" to do well also make a lot more sense. The Death Star was behind schedule, and work was increased across the board to get it finally ready.
During the series, Cassian comes to Ferrix three times. The first time, he comes to take- he begs favors off his friends so he can get offworld and escape the consequences of his actions. The second time, he comes to make himself even- he checks on his family and friends, and pays back his debts. The third and final time, he comes to give back- he rescues his friends and surviving family and gives them what they need to convey them to safety, and then commits to the Rebellion, the thing that he knows he will give his life for, one way or another.
It's been noted that Maarva's post-mortem speech was a Spanner in the Works for everyone but Cassian. Everyone had plans to capture him, but he got away clean and even rescued Bix—something that wouldn't have been possible without the riot. Maarva managed to help her son from beyond the grave.
Cassian's question to Luthen is exactly the same question Luthen first put to Cassian. Cassian Andor has accepted he's going to die fighting the Empire. But now it's him challenging Luthen to decide whether his death will matter, not vice versa.
Wilmon Paak throws a homemade pipe bomb at the Imperials, which triggers a small explosion at first. The explosion then knocks over a box full of grenades, triggering all of them and causing a massive explosion that takes a lot of Imperials with it. This visually represents the 'spark of the Rebellion' that's a running theme of the series: it starts from little acts of rebelling against the tyrannical regime before spiralling into a full-scale revolution.

Series-wide

People keep telling Cassian to "Climb!", from Nemik as they flee Aldhani to K2 as he and Jyn steal the Death Star plans. His whole story is about rising upwards, both metaphorically when he goes from the gutter to saving the galaxy, to literally, because his destiny is to climb that tower on Scarif.
Throughout the series, Mon Mothma's daughter Leida frequently clashes with her mother, due to her insistence on following Imperial tradition in contrast to Mon's more steadfast and independent thinking. This can be seen as an interesting parallel regarding Benjamin Franklin and his son William; while Benjamin was a fierce Patriot all the way to the end of his life, William was a staunch Loyalist who grew to despise his father for continually fighting against the British. Mon and Leida's relationship reflects that to some extent.
Luthen Rael's unscrupulous methods in stopping the Empire not working out in the long run makes a lot of sense given that they run antithetical to what the main morals of Star Wars as a franchise are. After all, using hatred and anger to try to achieve your goals is ultimately part of the Sith ideology, the very enemy that rules over the Empire Luthen is fighting. Hope, idealism, striving to do the right thing and standing up for yourself is much more in line with what the Jedi preach, and what Maarva's words ultimately help in inspiring on Ferrix.
Early in the series we see that Cassian doesn't seem to be in the greatest standing with other locals on Ferrix; lots of characters warn him that they won't do him any more favors or lend him any more money. Later on we learn that Cassian was sent to a youth prison as a young teen when he attacked some Clone troopers after his father Clem was killed by them, and according to Cassian, either during his time in prison or just after getting out he was conscripted to a conflict on the planet Mimban, which he later deserted from. Given his arrest for assaulting Imperial soldiers and deserting from the Army, it's likely that Andor can never work a legitimate job again, because the Empire, like many other authoritarian societies in both real life and fiction, probably isn't inclined to forgive crimes like assaulting its soldiers or deserting from its military, nor is it likely to make it easy for people who've been incarcerated to reintegrate into society. Thus Cassian probably has no choice but to work off the books or petty criminal jobs for the rest of his life, since if he ever shows up on Imperial paperwork again there's a chance the authorities will come after him and execute him for desertion. A close knit community like the one we see on Ferrix probably initially sympathized and wanted to support Cassian, but fast forward 10-15 years laters with him still stuck in the same situation, and you have a community that is sick of supporting Andor, keeping him afloat, or his promises that this time whatever scheme he's pulling will hit it big. When Cassian returns to Ferrix in Episode 7 he's shocked to learn the locals blame him for the incident with the Pre-Mor corpos, but especially considering that the other person who would blamed (Timm), is dead, it's not surprising that many locals are directing their ire at Cassian or that he'd be in danger of being turned in to the authorities for a bounty. It's only after the Empire pushes the locals too far and the death of Cassian's mother Maarva, who is beloved by the community, that they are ready to take Cassian in once again.

Fridge Horror