Still frames capture things we might otherwise miss. Here's Bix at table on Mina-Rau. Hard to take your eyes off her during the scene, right? But this still lets us stop and look at the marionette her little seatmate is enjoying. Of an AT-ST.
Yesterday TCM celebrated Star Wars Day by running A New Hope in primetime. I almost tuned in. It occurred to me that it might be nice to support an outfit other than Disney running its content ad-free.
On the other hand, I've had the accursed subscription since late '24 and coulda watched ANH anytime I wanted, but only did so once, to see how the Andor/Rogue One/ANH trilogy concept felt. And since I'd never felt the need to celebrate 5/4 pre-Andor, I decided to dance with the one that brought me to this fandom.
Not having much time left in the day, and having been through the series in order, ehh, let's say a few times already, so I decided to cue up the two season finales back-to-back. Watching them like that, I've found some new stuff. Or think I have, anyway. See what y'all think about the following:
Scarif was not Cassian's first (attempted) suicide mission.
Here are Brasso and Cassian in the "Rix Road" tunnel scene, debating the latter's intention to rescue Bix:
>Cassian: We can’t just leave her there.
Brasso: You gonna take on a full garrison?
Cassian …
Brasso: I’ll take care of Maarva. You take care of yourself.
Cassian: It’s too late for that.
Cass's final S1 line, "kill me or take me in" gets all the notice, but before he gets to that moment he survives a battle he probably shouldn't have--In that tunnel, he has no idea his mom's funerary speech is about to kick off a riot that will cover their escape, and he's given himself the mission of saving Bix without fully reckoning the cost.
The scene gives Brasso's "full garrison" line a moment to land, in which Cass is silent. I may be asking that pause to carry more weight than it should, but I'm thinking it's here he realizes how completely the cards are stacked against him and his personal mission statement shifts from "rescue Bix" to "rescue Bix or die trying." Yep. Too late to worry about taking care of myself.
Cassian's "it's too late for that" in 1.2 echoes verbatim in 2.12.
In the scene where Vel is nudging him to reconnect with Bix, he asks if she's safe, Vel replies that she's heard as much, and then he says,
>She wouldn't be safe with me. It's too late for that.
Hmm. "Too late." Wonder what he means by that.
Neither Cassian rescuee, Bix nor Kleya, seems surprised to see him in the doorway.
>Bix: I dreamt you came back … you climbed over a wall.
>Kleya: It would be you, wouldn't it?
(Yeah, I know, Kleya says that in 2.11, but it's in the 2.12 recap so it counts)
Granted, neither rescuee is in command of her normal affect--Bix only marginally compos mentis from the torture, Kleya in shock from the sudden loss of her entire world. But the temptation is great to construe it in both cases as "everything in my life and mind and world is in chaos, nothing is even real anymore, but Cassian showing up? That makes sense."
A couple more things about the series finale...
When 2.12 focuses on operations at Yavin base, we see Andor really starting to look less like its unique self and more like traditional Star Wars, in an obvious attempt to match up to Rogue One as a good prequel should. Then we get this whole big "where are they now" montage of surviving characters, a common wrap-up device, as our hero strides to his destiny. No sign of Bix.
Then the music swells as the U-Wing disappears into the sky, and zoom! There's the handoff! See, Andor really was SW all along!
We go to black and the the track cuts off. on a high note. Normally credits would roll here, but instead we cut to dear old Mina-Rau and the little droids racing each other. Aha, we think, they've put the post-credits scene showing us where B2 (still) is now in front of the credits so we'll be sure to see it. Okay, good, we were worried about the little guy being abandoned and alone, but he seems fine--and look, Talia's there too, so he has at least one member of his surviving family for comfort. What a relief!
The music builds in gently as we track past, remaining light--soft--ethereal--the absolute polar opposite of the preceding sequence's Williams-esque bombast. First Bix is revealed (we'd know that glorious mane of hair anywhere), then the child. And the last thing we'll hear from Gilroy and his team isn't "zoom-zoom let's get on with the action" music. It's Bix, whispering to her baby, "It's okay...it's okay."
The final frame with Bix gazing off into the sky has become iconic, but I want to shout-out everything Adria Arjona puts onscreen on the way to that frame. The range of emotions, including the one pictured here.
I understand the iconography isn't to everyone's taste, but I'm sorry, I just don't care. It's fucking gorgeous. I have spoken.