Andor’s latest episode showed us the inner workings of two teams on opposite sides of the Star Wars moral spectrum. While we watched Cassian Andor interact with a highly clandestine group of Rebels, we were also privy to see an Imperial officer try to find her NS-9 Starpath unit that Andor had abandoned on his escape from Ferrix. The officer’s journey to find some cooperation in her unit seemed to mirror Andor’s difficulties with the Rebels; neither character was trusted. But where the Rebels eventually took a chance on Andor and let him into the group, the Imperial officer only faced continued challenges created by other officers’ selfish ambitions.
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The episode gave us a good look at what trust meant in the Andor’s part of the Star Wars universe. Andor was thrust into a strange situation with a group of people that knew the consequences of trusting the wrong people. And Dedra Meero, the Imperial officer we were introduced to, discovered how mistrust within her own team could be a major roadblock to doing something as simple as getting some work done.
This episode of Andor showed the perfect contrast between the Empire and the Rebellion and how they were different down to the little social situations that created the gigantic organizations. Trust is why the Rebellion is good, and the Empire is evil.
How the Empire Uses Trust
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This is the first episode of Andor where we get a good picture of the Empire. In their clean white halls on Coruscant, we see a woman, Dedra Meero, who we find out has recently been promoted to her station on a security council. This council, led by Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser, Qyburn from Game of Thrones), observes and maintains the farther reaches of the Empire that, until now, were controlled by the corporate security forces we saw in the past three episodes. Later in this episode, we see the definitive action the Empire takes on Ferrix, removing the jurisdiction of the corporate forces and replacing them with Imperial troopers.
But during that initial meeting of the Imperial security council, we find out that a lost NS-9 starpath unit, the one Andor left behind, was recovered at Ferrix. Dedra Meero worries that this is the same one she lost months earlier. She’s able to connect the dots and desires jurisdiction over the situation, but at the same time has to play her cards carefully or risk this personal failure coming to light. But when she goes to Lieutenant Supervisor Blevin to ask for access to the starpath unit, she’s immediately confronted with suspicions that she is just flexing her administrative muscles in order to advance her own career. Blevin wants to continue controlling the situation because he is in charge on paper, and any bonuses or boons recovered during his control would look good on his record. Everyone in the Empire is convinced that someone is out to get them. The motivating instinct is ambition, and the team is willing to cut each other’s throats to get ahead.
Dedra Meero attempts to go over Blevin’s head by speaking directly to Major Partagaz. When Blevin and Meero have the chance to plead their cases to the major, Meero explains that she fears evidence of a coordinated rebellion, while Blevin attacks her overreaching to further her career. Major Partagaz eventually sides with Blevin, and in doing so, he explains his reasoning to Meero by using career performance as a measuring stick. When speaking to Meero privately, he notes that Blevin has more work on his table and regularly turns in his quarterly reports on time. But he rewards Meero by giving her more work. This is a team organized around personal gain and not cooperative success.
How the Rebels Use Trust
Andor gives us a look at some real grassroots rebels in this episode as well. And they seem equally paranoid, but for different reasons. When Luthen brings Andor to this team of rebels, their leader, Vel Sartha, is instantly concerned. In fact, she doesn’t want to take on a stranger this close to the operation.
Her group has been working together for a long time in pursuit of this one operation, and adding another person so late in the game could jeopardize the entire thing. She probes Luthen about the very real possibility that Andor could be a spy, reinforcing the point that no one on the team will trust him.
At this stage in the game, the Rebel alliance is characterized by being made up of very small groups of people with very risky goals. But their group dynamics are based on how important it is to overthrow the Empire. They are not quick to trust either, but their ability to do so isn’t based on personal gain. Rather, the Rebels worry about the ability of the group to prosper. If something were to threaten that, then it would be removed.
This is the fundamental difference between the Empire and the Rebellion in this episode. Each operates with its own goals and methods, but both are slow to trust their allies for a very specific reason. One cares about the success of the whole, while the other only cares about the success of the individual. As Andor shows us the more mature side of Star Wars, it’s important viewers notice these themes in order to grasp the show’s message.
