Main cast: Diego Luna (Cassian Andor), Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma), Denise Gough (Dedra Meero), Kyle Soller (Syril Karn), Adria Arjona (Bix Caleen), Faye Marsay (Vel Sartha), Andy Serkis (Kino Loy), Kathryn Hunter (Eedy Karn), Alastair Mackenzie (Perrin Fertha), Anton Lesser (Major Lio Partagaz), Ben Miles (Tay Kolma), and Duncan Pow (Melshi)
Director: Toby Haynes
The monologues continue in Nobody’s Listening!, an episode in which the plot moves forth half an inch, if I were to be generous in my definition of “inch”.
Let’s see, Dedra Meero interrogates Bix Caleen to put together the pieces of the previous episodes, and these scenes are all about the other actors playing the Imperial Security Bureau bad guys standing and looming around Caleen while talking menacingly. Naturally, Caleen sasses them back because as a strong, proud woman in a Disney show, she knows she has a plot armor so long as she doesn’t undergo a hysterectomy.
Caleen gets to wear the earphones of doom as part of the interrogation torture, though, because this show has no budget to show more elaborate set pieces, and I hope the pain is worth protecting Andor for, because that guy is having a pretty comfy time in prison.
That’s right, Andor is basically a factory worker and he wants everyone to band together to escape, but for some reason, the others are not too keen on charging ahead without planning. Maybe these people know that they lack his plot armor and are in these few episodes as fodder so that their deaths can let Andor move on to his merry ways, none the wiser or more circumspect.
He shrieks that nobody is listening, giving this episode its title, and man, Diego Luna really can’t pull off the angry alpha man thing at all. I’m moving him to the category of actor that is okay to be seen, but not to be heard.
Oh shocker, the guy that gets an official out from the prison due to ill health decides to stick with Andor and friends, and dies. Never mind that this trope has been used so many times before, the poor guy clearly exists just so that something happens in prison for this episode.
Meanwhile, Mon Mothma’s “I disagree!” arc moves forth a fraction of an inch. Basically, Val Sertha is her naughty niece, thus driving home the stereotype that most activists are pampered well-connected white kids role-playing as terrorists and these brats would run home to use their privilege to protect them when they have to face the music. Anyway, Mothma tells Sertha to behave and then she and her banker friend worry about Mothma’s donations to the rebels coming under the scrutiny of the bad guys.
Oh my god, this is riveting stuff, people! It’s especially amazing when nothing is resolved, as always when it comes to this character, just scenes that move her story an inch every episode to god knows where. Is Genevieve O’Reilly paid by the hour and has her clever agent shoved her into every Disney Star Wars shows to maximize her earning? I can’t think of any other reason as to why there are so many filler scenes and episodes in this show… well, other than these people needing to extend the show as long as possible because heaven knows, it’s not like they have anything else to pad the present day Star Wars catalog.
Meanwhile, Syril Karn is making creepy overtures to Meero and she calls him a stalker. Is this going to go anywhere?
While Andor remains the most worthless and least interesting aspect of this episode, at least Meero is kicking two plot arcs into motion for the remaining episodes on this snooze fest of a show, so… yay? Still, I’d have to watch the rest of the season to see if these arcs would go anywhere or would be painfully dragged out into the next season.
