TL;DR – We see the beginning of the end through a beginning and an end.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.  

Andor Review –

Well, after many years of production, through many highs and lows, today we start our final look at Andor. When I sat down to watch Kassa back in 2022, I didn’t think much of what felt like a useless prequel series for a prequel movie. Little did I know that I was sitting down to watch the start of some of, if not the best, work Star Wars had ever produced. Today, we begin our look through the final episodes of what has been a remarkable series up to this point.

So, to set the scene, it has been a year since The Empire eviscerated Ghorman, and things are still tense across the galaxy, especially on the capital planet Coruscant. They look for rebels near and far, but little do they know there might be some right under their noses. But when a beeping emergency transmission wakes up Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau), soon everything changes. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Going into these final episodes, I wondered how they would structure them given we already have a set ending that we were working too, and if the first episode of this final batch is anything to go by, it looks like we will be spending time tying up all the interesting characters we have some to find throughout the series. While also linking us to the events of Rogue One as much as possible. While a lot of Andor’s episodes have been dancing around that fateful mission, this week, they lean in hard.

In many ways, Make It Stop is a swan song for Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), an ending that he knew had been coming for a while, as he only stayed on the planet because he might get some last titbits of helpful information. This turned out to be fortuitous because Supervisor Jung (Robert Emms) handed over the link that they had been looking for. I did like how the show understood the weight of that information, and I think we all knew the moment Luthen mentioned Yarvin that poor Jung was not going to get out of there alive. But what this meeting does is start a ticking countdown, both within the episode and for the larger Star Wars mythos.   

The first part of this episode is very much Luthen’s time to shine, the way he manages the information, knowing that his time is up. We see that clearly when Dedra (Denise Gough) arrives at the shop. There is this delightful banter that they have, which is almost like a dance where both sides know who they are and know what the outcome will be. However, you still have those final moments to make one last play, or in this case, try to silence the person that might give away important information, you. We do get to dive into his past as we go through the rest of the episode, and while I know some people will be upset that he is not a secret Jedi, something that people have been pondering since the end of Season One. But I liked what we explored here, and not just because we got a Naboo cameo or because the location scouts found some fantastic locations in Spain. It is because he was a man very similar to Syril (Kyle Soller), but one day, when faced with the reality of what he had become and what he was doing, he woke up and started to make amends. He had a choice, and he made it.       

While the first act was all about Luthen, as we progress, the focus shifts away to Kleya. It is through her eyes that we see Luthen’s past as she for met him as a child (April V Woods). Which makes every moment that she is in the hospital feel that much more emotionally daunting because you know what she is there to do. She must sneak/exploit/fight her way through the enemy so she can kill her father before he reveals something under duress. Every second, you are wondering if she will be caught as well, but can she also do what needs to be done in the end? You felt that emotional core throughout the episode, and it was so much better for it. You need to have so much trust in your actors to be able to pull off something so emotionally raw, and Elizabeth Dulau knocks it out of the park.  

In the end, do we recommend Andor: Make It Stop? Absolutely. I don’t know if the rest of the episode will work as well as this. But this was such a strong ending for the final batch of episodes that I hope this is a signal that they will make this experiment mean something. Have you seen Andor yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Andor
Directed by – Alonso Ruizpalacios
Written by – Tom Bissell
Created by – Tony Gilroy
Based On – Star Wars by George Lucas
Production/Distribution Companies – LucasFilm & Disney+
Starring – Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Gough, Elizabeth Dulau, Anton Lesser, Robert Emms, Jacob James Beswick & April V Woods and Finney Cassidy, Jonathan Oldfield, Michael Jenn, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Jacob Avery, Bailey Patrick, Pandora Colin, Juliet Cowan & Jem Wall