Andor's Backstory Begins: Grade The First 3 Episodes Of Star Wars Series

The origin of Cassian Andor, who was introduced in Rogue One as a Rebel Alliance intelligence officer, is the story unspooling now in Disney+'s latest live-action Star Wars series. Are you locked in for the two-season, 24-episode ride? 

Andor, save for some flashbacks to a formative incident from the title character's childhood, takes place five years prior to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Season 1, which premiered on Sept. 21 with the first three episodes (of 12), will span one year, while Season 2 will cover the remaining four.

In addition to Rogue One vet Diego Luna reprising Cassian, the cast includes Stellan Skarsgård (Chernobyl), Adria Arjona (Emerald City), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve), Kyle Soller (Poldark) and Denise Gough (Under the Banner of Heaven), while Genevieve O'Reilly and Forest Whitaker will reprise their respective Rogue One roles as Mon Mothma, the former Republic senator who eventually helped found the Rebel Alliance, and Saw Gerrera.

Read our episode-by-episode recaps below, then grade the first three installments in the poll found here.

Andor opens with Cassian navigating the shadowy, neon-illuminated corridors of the red-light district on Morlana-One. Slipping into a strip club of sorts, he chats up the hostess — irking a nearby pair of fellow customers/sentry guards in the process — to inquire about a "girl from Kenari," a small mid-rim system. Cassian discloses that the woman he seeks is in fact his sister, but the hostess has no information to offer on the woman's whereabouts or the name she now goes by. After being urged to leave the establishment, Cassian is approached by the two sentries from the bar, Verlo and Kravas, who demand to see his ID, given it's post-curfew in "a company town."

Cass offers the bullies the 300 credits in his coat pocket, but when Verlo goes for them, he gets a head butt instead. Cass then grabs Kravas' gun, at which point they both realize that Verlo fatally cracked his head when falling backward. A distraught, panicking Kravas stares down the barrel of the gun Cass is holding and begs for mercy/offers to cover up his partner's death — but Andor instead shoots him in the head, in cold blood.

After returning home to Ferrix in the dead of night, Cassian is mum with the family droid, B2EMO, about where he was, as he learns from "Bee" that his pal Brasso was looking for him. Cass beseeches Bee to to lie for him and say he doesn't know where he's been/where he is. Cass then heads to the town mine and reads in Brasso on his cover story, that they were drinking together at home the night before and passed out. Brasso plays along, adding in a detail that accounts for Cassian's visible bruises.

Back on Morlana-One, Deputy Inspector Karn's boss reads the report on their two guards' deaths, and how the only lead is a "human with dark features asking about a Kenari girl." Karn offers to launch a full investigation, but his boss prefers to draw no attention to their territory/their guards cavorting in a bad part of town, and instead chalk it up as "a regrettable misadventure to employees caught in a rare calamity." He suggests that Verlo and Kravas died "rushing to the aid of someone in distress."

On Ferrix, Cassian seeks out Bix Caleen, a salvage yard mechanic who is also clearly an ex of some sort. In private, he implores her to arrange a meeting between him and her "secret friend who buys" stuff, because he has something to sell — an untraceable NS9 Starpath unit, its Imperial seal still intact. Admittedly impressed by what Cass possesses, Bix offers to buy it herself, but he asserts he doesn't want a partner — he wants to cash in and get out of town. Bix agrees to put the word out to her "secret friend."

In a flashback to Cassian (fka Kassa)'s childhood on Kenari, we see a community of youths witness a Republic vessel explode overhead and then crash on the horizon. Young Kassa insists on joining the older kids' expedition, despite meeting some opposition — and even if it means leaving his kid sister behind.

With his boss away, DI Karn forges ahead with an inquiry into the murder suspect and how his craft was able to slip in and out of their airspace without incident. His minions later report back that the vessel traveled to Ferrix, an obscure mining planet. Karn has them issue a bulletin saying that a Kenari man is wanted for questioning.

Back on Ferrix, a man named Nurchi and a Urodel named Vetch approach Cass about some money that is owed. Cassian insists that said money is "in play," and that he is going to pretend that this mild shake-down didn't happen. Bix meanwhile sneaks away from work, ducking into a shop where she uses a pass phrase to be directed to the back. There, she ascends a ladder to transmit a message to her buyer....

As the Kenari kids in flashback approach and get eyes on the crash site...

Bix receives a clearly alarming message on her work monitor; clocking her reaction, colleague Timm logs on after she walks away and sees that it is the Imperial bulletin about a Kenari man on Ferrix being wanted for questioning. Cass' adoptive mother, Maarva, also has seen said bulletin, which she has Bee read  out to Cassian. Since the story all along has been that Cass fka Kassa hails from Fest, Maarva asks who else knows that he in fact was born on Kenari. Cass admits that he messed up, but volunteers no further details on the incident.

Cassian goes to meet up with Bix at a bar, where he explains how the two guards tried to jump him and things got out of hand. She assures him that her buyer is on the way, as Timm observes their interaction from afar. Timm then makes a beeline for a public terminal, to snitch on the Kenari man the Imperials seek.

In receipt of that tip, DI Karn calls up the rap sheet for Cassian Andor "from Fest," whose past infractions include destruction of government property and attacking an Imperial soldier. Karn then is approached by Sergeant Linus Mosk, whom the DI woke in the middle of the night but who also shares the zeal for nabbing the guards' killer. Mosk suggests they deploy three units of four men to Ferrix, including Karn himself ("for morale").

Back on Ferrix, Bix shows up at an inebriated, mildly surprised Timm's for what is clearly a recurring hook-up. Cassian meanwhile accesses an abandoned craft to pop open a secret comportment and retrieve the valuable NS9 Starpath unit. We then lay our eyes for the first time on Luthen Real aka Bix's buyer, who lands his private craft inside a planet's crater, before hoofing it to a commuter shuttle.

In another Kenari flashback, we see the kids inching upon the crash site, where there are dead bodies strewn, all wearing gas masks. One of the "dead" comes to and shoots his blaster at the older girl leader, after which the others positioned at the tree line pelt him with poisonous blow darts. The man keels over, and the kids rush to their wounded leader's side and carry her away. Kassa, though, stays behind....

On Ferrix, Cassian goes to a ticket booth to secure expedient passage to Tassar, but the keen agent holds firm on asking for at least 700 credits. Cass begrudgingly agrees, but insists that his ride be ready in a hour. Sergeant Mosk meanwhile is aboard one of the troop carriers approaching Ferrix, giving his men a pep talk and noting that Andor should be considered armed and dangerous. Karn is invited to say a few words, but... he's frankly uninspiring, despite suck-up Mosk's subsequent affirmation.

We then catch up with Luthen at the end of his shuttle ride to Ferrix, while we also see Cassian marching off to his meeting with Bix's buyer....

While flashback Kassa sneaks around the crashed ship, adult Cassian flags down Brasso outside the mine to say he may be bolting town soon, but he will leave money with Marava. Bix meets Luthen outside the shuttle, and they compare notes on Cass/the bulletin about the Kenari man, as Mosk's troop carriers descend on the planet.

We flashback to Kenari, where a younger Maarva, a friend and a shinier/newer B2EMO board the crashed ship. As Maarva's eyes light up at the prospect of pinching multiple fully charged fuel cells, they hear and find Kassa trashing the place, clearing expressing some personal anger toward the Empire. Maarva's cohort wants to leave this kid behind, seeing as Republic ships will soon be arriving to survey the crash, but Maarva counters that it would be "open season" on the friend of those who just killed an officer, so she sedates Kassa and carries him off the ship.

Back on Ferrix, one batch of Mosk's guards show up at Maarva's with a warrant and promptly ransack the place. When they hear Cassian reach out to B2EMO via comms, they set out to trace the transmission and find their prey. Luthen meanwhile arrives at his meeting with Andor, inside a cavernous, abandoned factory with giant metal pieces dangling from pulley chains overhead. Cassian asks for 40,000, noting that the gizmo can track every Imperial across parsecs. Given the improbable find, Luthen wonders aloud if he is being scammed, but Cass contends, "Has Bix ever burned you before?" Over at the sal yard, Bix learns that "blues" have arrived in town and are searching for Cassian, after which she quickly surmises that Timm ratted him out. Disgusted, she storms off.

At the factory, Cass presents the Starpath unit to Luthen, who specialties that Andor is either an Imperial spy, a front man for the true seller, or a thief himself. Cass admits to the latter, boasting, "I went in and got this myself." Luthen scoffs, claiming such a thing is impossible — but he's willing to pay 10,000 more to hear the story of how Andor got it! Indicating a personal disgust for the Empire, Cass says simply, "You just walk in like you belong." As he explains, "They're so fat and satisfied, they can't imagine someone like me would ever get inside their house."

Luthen himself comments on the Empire's arrogance, but suggests that "these days will end." Luthen says that if he were to be caught with the Starpath unit, he'd be lynched in the square by the Empire — the same way they hung Cassian's father! Cass pulls a gun and demands to know how Luthen knows such things, but Luthen calmly says at gunpoint that he came to this meeting "looking for something more — and I think I found it."

Clocking Cass' rampant curiosity, Luthen says the question is not "Who are you?" but "Don't you want to fight these bastards?" Hearing the locals sound an alert via much clanging, Luthen says he has a ship near the ferry line. He then realizes Cass has a comm link that has been traced, so he takes and stomps on it. One of Mosk's units arrive at the factory, while another catches Bix racing down the street. Luthen teaches Cass a lesson about "building your exit on your way in," as he triggers blast charges he  had affixed to the factory doors. That takes out a few men, but the others creep in for a firefight, while the heavy metal pieces dangling above begin shaking loose from the blast, plummeting to the floor. Cass does his best to retrieve the valuable Starpath unit, but he is urged by Luthen to let it be, as they slip out a back tunnel.

Outside in the streets, Timm races to find/save a handcuffed, bleeding Bix, but he is ruthlessly gunned down in front of her. Learning that Cassian slipped out of the factory, Mosk sets up his men along the town's main drag, planning to pick them off as they attempt egress. Karn positions himself inside the ticket booth, only to have Cassian get the drop on him from behind and demand intel on the number of his ranks. Moments later, s speeder rigged to blow up is sent through the square, taking out more Imperials and creating a distraction as Cassian and Luthen zip past them unscathed on a speeder bike.

Later, while Maarva worries, Bee looks sad, and a bereft Biz is freed by a pal, we flashback to Kassa being taken away from Kenari, aboard Maarva's ship... while adult Cass heads to a destiny unknown, aboard Luthen's ship.

What did you think of Andor's first three episodes? Grade 'em here!