Recap / Andor S1E1 "Kassa"

"Are you from Kenari?"

"This is the murder of two Pre-Mor employees! Put out a bulletin. Kenari human men wanted for questioning. Slam their channels. Flood it."

— Syril Karn

Five years before the Battle of Yavin, daring rogue Cassian Andor, formerly Kassa from the jungle planet Kenari, lives on the desert planet Ferrix with his adoptive mother Maarva and their droid B2EMO. Cassian has an encounter with two guards employed by the Empire that leaves both of them dead. Syril Karn, a deputy of Ferrix's management polity Preox-Morlana, begins investigating the subject, whom they know to be from Kenari. Cassian reaches out to his ex-girlfriend Bix, whom he knows to have a contact who buys illicit equipment, aiming to sell an intact and untraceable Starpath Unit for money to get offworld.

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Tropes:

• Accidental Murder: While trying to get away from two Pre-Mor guards who were harassing him for a shakedown, Cassian knocks his head back into one of their faces, and when the guard falls and hits his head on the concrete it kills him. He then has to kill the other to Leave No Witnesses.
• Asshole Victim: Both cops that Cassian murders. Hyne, the department head, even calls one of them "one of the most unpleasant people I've ever met", says it's surprising he wasn't killed years ago, and obviously thinks they both had it coming.
  Hyne: They were in a brothel, which we're not supposed to have. The expensive one, which they shouldn't be able to afford. Drinking Revnog, which we're not supposed to allow. Both of them supposedly on the job, which is a dismissable offense. They clearly harassed a human with dark features and chose the wrong person to annoy.
• Boom, Headshot!: Andor kills Kravas by shooting him in the face with his own blaster.
• By-the-Book Cop: Karn is fanatically loyal to the job and goes against his superior's orders to cover up the deaths of the guards.
• Call-Forward: Timm asks Bix if they're going to take a job travelling to Wobani. The planet will eventually be the location of the prison camp Cassian rescues Jyn Erso from in Rogue One.
• Continuity Nod: The episode opens with a subtitle noting it's taking place 5 BBY — five years before the Battle of Yavin.
• Custom Uniform: Syril Karn's uniform is noticeably better-fitting than the baggy outfits of his colleagues, and has some extra decoration. Lampshaded when his commanding officer asks if he's had it tailored on his own dime, and he admits he has; so in addition to marking him out as a significant character, it illustrates the fact that he takes his identity as an officer of law enforcement a bit too seriously.
• Cyberpunk: The immediate antagonists are not the Empire, but the security goons of a Mega Corporation that ultimately answers to the Empire, and the protagonists are doing criminal deals involving stolen technology. There's no mention of the Force or the Jedi or even the Rebellion, though at least one person is implied to be working for it.
• Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: The series sets up the cyberpunk feel right away by introducing Cassian walking across a bridge in the rain into the Red Light District of a Company Town. Fortunately the rain means there are no witnesses in a normally busy area when he kills the two corporate cops.
• Death by Falling Over: Verlo Skiff dies when Cassian snaps his head back into his face and Skiff falls and hits his head on the concrete ground. Cassian and Kravas don't realize Skiff has died at first with Cassian ordering Kravas to "get him up."
• Dirty Cop: Two of Pre-Mor's security officers try to shake down Cassian after harassing him for their enrichment. After learning about this, the Chief Inspector decides to cover up their deaths because it would make him look bad. The Chief spells it out clearly to Karn, his subordinate, that they were 1) in a brothel that shouldn't exist 2) drinking alcohol that isn't allowed 3) with money they shouldn't have 4) while they were supposed to be on duty 5) in a part of town that shouldn't exist 6) and then picked a fight they shouldn't have. He then clarifies that he's on his way to a meeting with Imperial officials where his job isn't to protect or avenge random jerks, but to make the company look good to the Empire. Karn goes against the Chief Inspector's wishes and investigates anyway.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Cassian's stopped on his way out by the Pre-Mor security officers, one of them asks him if he swam over, all but calling him a "wetback", a once-common slur levied at early Hispanic and Latino immigrants who may have gone to extreme lengths to reach the US, such as swimming across the Rio Grande river that forms part of the US-Mexico border. The remark's significance is highlighted, as Cassian looks mostly bored and annoyed at their remarks and only looks visibly offended at the swimming comment.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: While the Chief Inspector makes logical points about why they need to cover up the deaths of the guards, it's easy to see from Karn's tightly wound perspective that he doesn't really care about the lives of the men under his command. Karn doesn't realize that if this is how the company reacts to deaths of its workers, then he shouldn't be so unflinchingly loyal to it either.
• Drinking on Duty: The two Corpos Cassian runs into at the bar who afterward accost him are later revealed to have been on duty drinking an alcoholic drink they're not allowed to while working for Pre-Mor.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Two police officers start harassing Andor and he attacks them with the intention of simply subduing them and getting away, but finds one was killed through the unfortunate way he hit the ground. Andor didn't mean to kill him, but the other officer is reduced to an emotional wreck over his death.
• Failed a Spot Check: In his eagerness to investigate the deaths of his colleagues, Syril Karn obviously overlooked why they were in the red-light district in the first place and how it would look to their superiors in the ISB if it got out that they had officers drinking on-duty in the illegal Red Light District. As his supervisor says, "They were in a brothel, which we're not supposed to have. The expensive one, which they shouldn't be able to afford. Drinking Revnog, which we're not supposed to allow. Both of them supposedly on the job, which is a dismissable offense."
• Fake Alibi: Cassian arranges this with his friend Brasso as to what he was doing last night, and Brasso smoothly fleshes out the details, seemingly indicating this isn't the first time he's had to cover for Cassian.
• A Friend in Need: Brasso's Establishing Character Moment is Cassian going up to him right before the shift starts, and asking Brasso to make up an alibi. Brasso doesn't even ask why, just goes along with it and improvises a plausible story that would place Cassian with him the previous night.
• From Bad to Worse: Cassian's situation at the beginning of the episode. He goes from failing to find his sister to antagonizing two drunk guards to accidentally killing one guard and being forced to execute the second one to get away.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Kravas gets shot in the head with his own blaster.
• I Surrender, Suckers: When the corrupt Corpos catch up to Cassian, he puts his hands up and says he doesn't want any trouble or to make any sudden moves when two guys have guns on him. When they approach to try to steal all of his credits from his pocket, he uses their proximity to attack them.
• Inciting Incident: Cassian gets shaken down by some dirty cops and kills them in self defense (one by accident). This is what sets the Empire after him, kicking off the A-Plot. This will become entangled with the B-Plot as Andor slowly gets won over to the Rebellion and impresses Luthen enough to be recruited as an outside agent.
• Law Enforcement, Inc.: Pre-Mor's security force serves as the local police.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Nurchi tries to shake down Cassian for some money Cassian owes him, and enlists their mutual friend Vetch to be his muscle. Cassian is not intimidated by them at all. He insists that he'll have Nurchi's money, eventually, and graciously offers to forget this little shakedown attempt ever happened.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: The episode has a variation. When Cassian kills two MegaCorp security officers, it's their superior officer who wants it made to look like an accident, as he's about to depart to his superiors in the Empire for a review of his efficiency in keeping crime in check, and the last thing he wants is awkward questions about two of his men killed in a Red Light District where they weren't supposed to be and shouldn't have been able to afford. Unfortunately for Cassian, the inspector assigned to the matter would rather investigate than cover up.
• MegaCorp: Pre-Mor is a huge corporation that controls the planet and star system as a whole.
• Mugging the Monster: The two guards end up quickly getting overcome and killed by Cassian after trying to rob and bully him. The Chief Inspector even calls them out for this, stating they clearly picked a fight with the wrong guy this time.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Cassian's murder of the two Pre-Mor cops and Syril Karn's subsequent pursuit of him is what kicks off the series' plot.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The Chief Inspector says it's not worth it to launch a full investigation into the deaths of the two guards Cassian killed because they were drinking at an expensive illegal brothel while on duty, two broken rules in one go, and that's the last thing he needs to report to his superiors in the Empire. He recommends Karn make up an incident about them dying in the line of duty in a heroic but unremarkable fashion, partly so nobody takes an interest and partly for the good PR.
• Red Light District: The window sex workers are actually more alien than the usual Rubber-Forehead Alien types, though it's played straight once Cassian enters a more expensive brothel, presumably with a humanoid clientele.
• Reverse Whodunit: Setting up the premise of the show, the narrative is split between Andor looking for something important and a police detective investigating two officers Andor killed in the opening scene.
• Searching for the Lost Relative: Cassian enters the brothel because he heard that a girl from Kenari (i.e. his little sister) might be working there.
• Serial Homewrecker: Cassian seems to be one. When he meets goes to see Bix with an injury on his face, she asks if he was punched by "another husband".
• Shout-Out:
  • Many of the opening scenes pay homage to Blade Runner.
  • The bar/brothel (and the music played within) wouldn't look (or sound) out of place in TRON: Legacy.
• Suspect Is Hatless: The witness's description of the culprit (Cassian) is "a dark-featured human". On Earth, that would definitely be this trope. Even in the Star Wars galaxy, it doesn't narrow it down all that greatly.
• Tap on the Head: A subversion; Andor subdues two police officers with a quick but restrained attack by Andor, but the way one falls appears to break his neck. Andor himself is surprised and not happy with it, especially since this forces him to shoot the other one dead to have a chance to escape.
• Title Drop: A series of Flashbacks to Cassian's childhood on Kenari reveals that his birth name was Kassa.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Andor kills Kravas with his own blaster.
• Use Your Head: When the cops are shaking Cassian down, Cassian gets one of them to walk right behind him, and he bashes the cop in the nose with the back of his head. Played somewhat realistically, since Cassian sways a little after the hit.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Chief Inspector Hyne orders Syril to write up a fake report about the deaths of the two dirty cops, saying they died protecting someone from harm during an "unfortunate calamity", rather than admit they tried to shake down the wrong person at the wrong time.
  Hyne: I suspect they died rushing to aid someone in distress. Nothing too heroic, we don't need a parade. They died being helpful. Something sad but inspiring, in a mundane sort of way.
• We Have Become Complacent: Hyne isn't bothered by the deaths of the guards, dismissing it as something they had coming. Karn, meanwhile, takes offense to this and launches his own investigation.

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