Recap / Andor S1E6 "The Eye"

"Climb!"

"You're like me. We were born in the hole, all we know is climbing over somebody else to get out."

— Skeen

The heist begins. The men infiltrate the garrison as a squad escorting Commandant Jayhold Beehaz while Cinta and Vel sneak in through other means. The group takes Jayhold's family hostage and force him to help them enter the vault and begin loading the credits on to the ship. When reinforcements arrive, Taramyn and Gorn are killed in the firefight while Beehaz dies of a heart attack from the labor. Vel, Nemik, and Skeen escape on the ship under cover of the Eye, leaving Cinta on Aldhani. Nemik is killed in an onship accident; before dying, he passes his manifesto on to Cassian. Skeen offers to split the money with Cassian and run, deserting the Rebellion; Cassian kills him and takes his cut, escaping.

News of the successful heist spreads, to the joy of Luthen. The ISB begins planning retaliation.

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Tropes:

• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Cinta is left behind on Aldhani with Commandant Beehaz's family, who the team had taken as hostages earlier. As the rest of the team escapes through the Eye, we see Cinta walk out and join the other Imperials with tears on her face to watch the Eye. Did she kill the wife and kid, after Vel promised they'd live if they cooperated? What's more, Skeen says earlier that Cinta is the most stone-cold of them all, and also that Stormtroopers slaughtered her whole family, but given the later reveal that Skeen made up his sob story about having a brother with a farm, it's unknown if any of the backstories on the other members that Skeen fed Cassian are to be trusted.
  • Taramyn is killed when Skeen fails to provide him cover fire during the big shootout. We can't be sure if this was deliberate or was it just a natural mistake made by someone in the middle of a firefight who lacks military training. We are never told if Skeen always planned to take the money for himself or if he is just jumping at an opportunity that has presented itself when most of the other participants of the heist are dead or otherwise unable to stop him.
  • Skeen's sob story and lack of scruples also makes his promise to split the 80 million credits with Cassian distinctly untrustworthy, making Cassian's subsequent shooting him dead a potential case of Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us.
• As You Know: The current garrison commander explains the set up to the man replacing him in the post.
• Asshole Victim: Beehaz is a racist, imperial jerkass the entire time, a Fat Bastard who is unsympathetic toward the possibility that his son is sick. He ends up dying of a heart attack due to being forced to do heavy labor. The asshole part is downplayed as he insists on his men following the rebels' orders because they have his wife and child. To quote another Disney property, he's an asshole but not, 100%, a dick.
• Bittersweet Ending: Heavy emphasis on the bitter part. Everyone save for Cassian, Vel, and Cinta are dead, with the latter being stuck on Aldhani for the time being. Worse still is the revelation that Skeen made up his previous story about his brother and the orchard, and was looking for the right moment to run away with the credits stolen. Cassian then asks Vel at gunpoint for his payment and a ship, intending to flee to parts unknown. Finally, we're shown Mon Mothma advocating for the Ghormans in the half-empty Senate, only for her to be ignored by the few who bothered to show up, further showing the decay of the Empire. The only upside is that the heist is successful, which Luthen Rael celebrates by himself.
• Black Dude Dies First: Lieutenant Gorn and Taramyn are played by black actors and are the first two members of the group to die, both of them gunned down during the firefight in the vault.
• Broken Pedestal: Nemik looked up to Cassian, and learning the man was a mercenary was upsetting. He added a chapter to his manifesto about mercenaries and their role, calling them tools to be used. The exchange between him and Cassian is bitter.
• Burn Baby Burn: After trading rolled furs, the Aldhani dispose of the one given to them by the Imperials by tossing it into a fire on a dais.
• Call-Back: Cassian's speech from the third episode comes into play during the raid. The Imperials are completely dumbfounded that they are being held up, in too much shock to resist even when they significantly outnumber the hostage party—Beehaz in particular is both smug and overweight, "fat and satisfied."
• Call-Forward:
  • Nemik's last words are to tell Cassian to "climb"— the same command K-2SO would tell him years later.
  • Beehaz threatening to hit his son is what a certain fat Imperial Commandant would do to his son years later during the decline of Empire and the rise of the New Republic.
• Caper Crew:
  • The Mastermind: Vel
  • The Partner in Crime: Tamaryn
  • The Backer: Luthen
  • The Gadget Guy/The Searcher: Nemik
  • The Burglar/The Driver: Cassian
  • The Muscle: Skeen and Cinta
  • The Inside Man: Gorn
• Continuity Nod: Skeen also says that he wants to "win and walk away", the exact words that Cassian used in the last episode when he came clean that he was just a hired mercenary.
• Dangerously Loaded Cargo: Nemik is killed when Cassian takes off with the heavy stolen load loose in the cargo area, with one of the racks slamming into Nemik and crushing his torso.
• Defector from Decadence: Skeen claims Taramyn is a former Stormtrooper, explaining why he knows so much about how to act like an Imperial soldier.
• Dwindling Party: By the end of the episode, only Cassian and Vel are confirmed alive, with all of the other team members either dead or, in Cinta's case, left with an uncertain fate.
• Due to the Dead: Cassian tries to refuse to take Nemik's manifesto, but accepts, shaking, when Vel tells him Nemik insisted.
• Dying Wish: After he dies on the operating table, Vel gives Cassian Nemik's rebel manifesto. He tries to refuse, but Vel says Nemik insisted that Cassian take it.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Commandant Beehaz is hardly a nice man, but he still cares for his wife and son, despite not treating them very well. When the Rebels hold them at gunpoint, he cooperates with their plan and uses their predicament as additional motivation when explaining the situation to the troops guarding the vault.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Colonel Petigar draws his blaster into a Mexican standoff, with his only demand being that the rebels let Beehaz's son go, putting his life at risk to save another man's child.
• Fat Bastard: Commandant Beehaz, the Aldhani Garrison commander is an overweight, arrogant Imperial officer who treats both his family and the locals with disdain and seemingly cares only about sucking up to the higher-ups for a better posting.
• Foreshadowing: At the beginning of the episode, Nemik talks to Cassian about how while mercenaries can be a great asset to the Rebellion, they can also be untrustworthy, something that Cassian interprets as Nemik's perception of him. It turns out that Nemik was talking about Skeen the entire time, who was searching for the right moment to screw over Vel's group when it benefited him the most.
• Fun with Subtitles: Gordon doesn't want to even bother trying to provide real translations between the Dhani and the Imps.
  Dhani Priest: [May the Eye stay open long enough to find some good in you.]
  Gordon: [Beat] Let them pass.
• Heist Episode: After two episodes of detailed planning in episodes 4 and 5, this is where we see the Caper Crew pull off the heist.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: A bit more realistic than most examples, but still played for dramatic timing. Commandant Beehaz, who is noted to be overweight and out of shape, is forced to perform rapid, hard labor that leaves him panting and sweating profusely, and is also shocked and enraged to see that Gorn is a traitor. Initially, he seems to be having trouble just catching his breath, but then puts a hand to his chest and collapses.
• Honor Among Thieves: When Skeen suggests that they take the money for themselves, Cassian is disgusted at the betrayal and shoots Skeen dead. He then leaves Vel with all the money less the fee Luthen promised. He even gives her the Kyber crystal to return to Luthen and pays the doctor a premium for the ship he takes out of his own cut.
• Hope Spot: The team (what remains of it) is able to get Nemik to a doctor, having had one booked precisely for such a contingency, but he's too far gone and dies on the operating table.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Having sussed out that Cassian was, like him, once in prison, Skeen assumes Cassian is as mercenary as he is and offers to walk away with the payroll, robbing the Rebellion and making millions for themselves. Cassian's answer is to shoot Skeen dead and walk away with the 200,000 he was promised, nothing more.
• Hypocritical Humor: Commandant Beehaz calls his wife away from helping their son dress for the ceremony, telling her that their son is old enough to dress himself — because he wants her to help him dress for the ceremony.
• I Have Your Wife: The rebels take Commandant Beehaz's wife and son hostage during the heist, holding them in the dam's control room with Cinta ready to kill them if he doesn't follow their instructions.
• I Lied: Skeen admits that he doesn't have a brother, so his story of joining the Rebellion was fake. This adds another layer to Cassian's violent reaction to Skeen's betrayal — Cassian's been searching desperately for the sister he was forced to leave behind, not knowing if she's even alive, and here's Skeen making up a lost sibling just for sympathy points.
• Kill the Cutie: Young, sweet, idealistic Nemik gets crushed by a couple tons of credits.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Skeen is still making his offer to split the credits and run when he's shot dead by Cassian.
• Language Barrier: The Aldhani speak their own non-Basic language, Dhani, which many Imperials have not bothered to learn. Lieutenant Gorn must serve as a translator, but it's implied the Aldhani chief actually knows Basic, and is instead choosing not to use it out of contempt for the Imperials.
• Literal Metaphor: Flying within it from the inside, the Eye of Aldhani looks like an eye with a dark pupil surrounded by a rainbow iris.
• Mauve Shirt: Most of the group, it turns out. With the exceptions of Cassian, Vel, and Cinta, every other member of the Rebel cell is killed during or shortly after the operation.
• Missing Steps Plan: Downplayed. The team has trained for months on how they are going to infiltrate the Imperial base. They also put a lot of effort into working out how they are going to get away with the stolen money. However, the middle part of the plan is more vague. They know that they need to capture the soldiers in the vault and force them to load the money onto the freighter. However, this is not something they can train for, so that entire section of the heist is improvised. Naturally this is the part of the plan that goes wrong and gets people killed.
• Morton's Fork: In a thematically loaded speech, the Imperial commandant explains that a major way the Empire is spreading its autocratic regime across the galaxy is by presenting people with "alternatives", which distracts them with the illusion that they still have a choice. If they outright forbade Aldhani religious pilgrimages, they'd revolt, so instead they just make the pilgrimage very difficult and give the Aldhani comfort stations along the way, where many "choose" to stop rather than continue the difficult pilgrimage, just the way the Empire wants them to. Beehaz also claims in a racist manner that the Aldhani can be easily conned by refusing to give them what they want but instead giving them choices for other options, even if the choices don't give them what they wanted at the start. Of course, this is not some special psychological blind spot that the Aldhani have because they're an inferior culture, as Beehaz suggests, it's a fundamental facet of real human psychology. Even if the choice is between two things they don't want, most people will at least be grudgingly thankful/satisfied that they were offered a choice at all and then decide which is the better choice, or at a minimum the least bad one, and take it. This phenomenon can be seen in the other storylines: have a problem with restrictive new Imperial laws? You have the choice to complain to your Imperial Senator... who has no real power anymore and has to carefully toe the line to avoid becoming a target for the Emperor and the Police State he has built. Don't like how corporate rent-a-cops are cracking heads at your local port? You can always complain at the do-nothing sector council.
• Murder by Inaction: Implied. After the heist goes sideways, Taramyn asks Skeen to provide cover fire for him as he runs across the hangar. Skeen just fires once and hides behind the wall, and Taramyn is killed by enemy fire. Skeen's attempt to steal the heist and run later in the episode hints that he deliberately allowed Taramyn to be shot so there are fewer people to deal with when he attempts to betray the group.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Skeen turns out to be a believer in this which is why he is planning to take all the money for himself.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Skeen tries to convince Cassian to betray Vel and take the loot for themselves, he remarks that he and Andor are the same kind of person.
  Skeen: I saw it the first minute you came into camp. You're just like me. We're born in the hole, and all we know is climbing over somebody else to get out.
• Only in It for the Money: Skeen turns out to be this, and after the operation offers to split the money they stole with Cassian and leave Vel and Namik on the moon they're on. Cassian, instead, shoots him dead and then informs Vel.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Where the previous episode ended with the unflappable Luthen scared about the Aldhani operation, this episode ends with him laughing gleefuly at its success.
• Poor Communication Kills: Inverted, it is too much communication that ends up getting people killed. Once the vault group reaches its objective, there is no operational reason for them to communicate on the radio with Cinta in the command room, unless something changes and they have to tell her to kill the Commandant's family or warn her to make a run for it. Nonetheless Nemik gives her at least one report with an update, which the corporal in charge of the communication room hears while scanning frequencies and trying to resolve the garrison's sudden communications issues. This alerts him to the fact that there is something going on in the vault, and he grabs a group of soldiers and goes down to investigate. Not maintaining radio discipline gets people killed and almost foils the heist entirely.
• Preserve Your Gays: Implied lesbian couple Vel and Cinta share a subtext-heavy moment during the heist, and are the only two survivors aside from Cassian by the end of the episode. Although it's uncertain what happens to Cinta, as she has been left behind on Aldhani.
• Reality Has No Subtitles: The Aldhani pilgrims sing, speak, and chant in mostly untranslated Dhani. The only times there are subtitles is when Lieutenant Gorn, who does speak the language, is around.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Cassian shoots Skeen when he starts talking about abandoning Vel and Nemik and stealing the transport full of credits.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Being propositioned to steal the entire haul and leave the others behind, Cassian instead kills Skeen and tells Vel what just happened. Despite holding her at gunpoint, Cassian insists on only taking the cut of the money that he was promised — he only points a gun at her to make sure she doesn't try to follow him. He even returns Luthen's Kyber necklace to her.
• Sickening "Crunch!": When the getaway ship takes off, an unsecured sled loaded with Imperial credits goes flying into Nemik, crushing his torso with a horrific sound that leaves zero doubt as to the severity of his injury.
• Spanner in the Works: Kimzi notices something's suspicious with the comms and identifies a frequency that the rebels are using, and he brings his team into the garrison, upending the heist.
• Stealth Insult: The leader of the Aldhani pilgrims greets Gorn with, "May The Eye stay open long enough to find some good within you." Later, when he gives a more straightforward insult to Beehaz, Gorn "translates" it as the earlier line, which Beehaz doesn't catch onto.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • The group forcing the out-of-shape and overweight Commandant into rapid hard labor to help load the Imperial credits onto their escape ship eventually causes him to keel over from heart failure.
  • The group has been running behind on time throughout the entire episode, and eventually have to frantically abandon part of the payroll and just dump everything they can into the cargo ship and run for it. Unsecured heavy objects in a ship that is going to be subject to high G-forces is a disaster waiting to happen, and sure enough, the unsecured cart crushes Nemik.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Lieutenant Gorn is killed almost immediately when the firefight breaks out without a chance to take part. It happens very quickly and with no warning.
• Tactful Translation: Lieutenant Gorn serves as this to the Imperial Commandant as he speaks to the Aldhani natives, turning an insult into a well-wish much to the indignation of the clearly understanding Aldhani chief.
• That's an Order!: Gorn attempts to pull rank on Kimzi and get him out of the vault with this method, claiming they're carrying out a special operation that Kimzi isn't cleared for. Kimzi hesitates briefly but pretty clearly isn't really going for it, and the sight of the Commandant taking part in hard physical labor probably just adds onto his sense that something is very wrong.
• Threat Backfire: Beehaz tells Gorn that he'll be hanged for betraying the Empire. Gorn isn't shaken by it.
  Gorn: Seven years serving you? I deserve worse than that.
• Tragic Keepsake: Nemik's manifesto becomes this to Cassian upon the former's death.
• Villainous Valor: When the rebels spring their trap inside the dam, Colonel Petigar draws a blaster on Nemik and orders the thieves to let the Beehaz family go, though Cinta shows up and shoots him before he can do anything.
• What You Are in the Dark: When presented with the opportunity to split the robbery money two ways, Cassian instead shoots Skeen dead and simply goes in, asks for his payment from Vel, and leaves.
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • Skeen mentions that their haul is "80 million" and offers "Clem" half to just take off with him and steal it. Even taking into account that they didn't make off with all of the credits, they still managed to grab a good chunk of them, and that 80 million figure is still much too low to be even a noticeable fraction of the quarterly pay for a whole sector.
  • A bit of approximate math: Wookieepedia states here that a typical sector includes 125 worlds. Let's assume that the sector they're robbing is at least average in size and that there are 1000 Imperial employees on each system. Assume that an Imperial credit is roughly equivalent to 1 U.S. dollar, and that a typical Imperial salary is 50,000 credits/year. Finally, it is clearly shown that the crew didn't steal the entire payroll; they had to leave a fair amount, so assume our heroes took only 1/2 of the payroll. 125 worlds × 1000 employees × 50,000 credits × 1/4 (since it's the quarterly payroll) × 1/2 (they didn't get everything) is just over 750 million credits (781,250,000 to be precise). So the figure of 80 million is off by a factor of at least 10. This is a low estimate — if there are 10,000 Imperial employees/world, then the amount is off by a factor of 100.
  • On the other hand, there is evidence that one Imperial credit is worth drastically more than one US dollar: in A New Hope, Luke says that you can buy a decent small transport ship for 10,000 credits. It's a bit hard to extrapolate specifics, but an Imperial credit has to have a value at least ten times that of the US dollar.