Awesome / Andor

Season One

Episode 1: Kassa

• After getting shaken down by two cops, Cassian kills one and reduces the other to a crying, begging mess.
• Chief Inspector Hyne quickly figured out what happens to Kravis and his friend.

Episode 3: Reckoning

• The people of Ferrix band together against the Pre-Mor security team by continuously banging on metal implements, both as a warning that corporate security are in town and as a form of psychological warfare that visibly unnerves the already overwhelmed guards. Brasso even chains Pre-Mor's transport ship to a huge piece of rubble, causing it to crash when the guard who killed Timm tries to take off with it.
• When Cassian and Luthen are surrounded by Pre-Mor guards, Luthen reveals that he set up explosives to give himself an exit ahead of time, leading to them fighting off the guards as the building collapses around them.

Episode 4: Aldhani

• Blevin dressing down the Pre-Mor employees for Karn's disastroud raid on Ferrix is a villainous one. While one can probably feel the most sympathy for Hyne given he knew they never should've gone to so much trouble, he's still middle-management in a corporation that happily oppresses the galaxy and is now receiving some comeuppance with his worst fears being realized and then some. Mosk gets humiliated for trying to ask a question like a student in school, and Karn has completely shut down, and is forced to move back in with his abusive mother.
• The appearance of the TIE Fighter on Aldhani is both this and Nightmare Fuel - never has the iconic fighter of the Empire felt this threatening.

Episode 6: The Eye

• The Eye of Aldhani is one of the most visually-striking moments in all of Star Wars yet, showing both the perspective on the ground and what it's like within the Eye.
• Colonel Petigar risking his own life to try to save Beehaz's family, not caring if he himself and Beehaz were to be taken prisoner, as long as his wife and son were kept out of danger.
• Gorn using his authority to manipulate the base into being as poorly manned as possible while maintaining his cover as a seemingly Benevolent Boss to the Imperials there. He's quite intimidating when he viciously orders Kimzi to leave and doesn't miss a single beat until he's surprised by Beehaz's death.
• On that note, it's Gorn's betrayal that nearly makes Beehaz snap and is strongly implied to play a role in his death. Already exhausted and humiliated by being slapped around and being forced into hard labor without a break, Beehaz hears Gorn talking to the other rebels and turns around in complete shock. His temper begins rising as he confronts Gorn and snarls that he'll hang for his betrayal.
  Gorn: (coldly laughs) Seven years serving you? I deserve worse.
  • Beehaz's death deserves special mention since he dies of heart failure from too much hard, rapid labor in a short amount of time. He's literally worked to death just like he was earlier gloating he had planned to do to the Aldhani.
• Many expected Nemik, who was introduced falling asleep on watch and spent most of his screentime preaching about oppression and handling the intellectual side of the op, to chicken out once the shooting started or complain about threatening civilians, but he gladly holds the Commandant's wife and son at blasterpoint and later proves himself an able marksman when he pulls off a killshot on an Imperial that had Cassian in a chokehold. And he finishes it by powering through the pain of his broken chest and guiding Andor through the Eye.
• Cassian shooting Skeen dead when the latter proposes they share the credits stolen and split. He had all the reason to accept the deal and disappear, but instead he made quick work of Skeen and demanded what was owed to him as part of the deal he made - a hint that his tough exterior is not what he makes it out to be.

Episode 7: Announcement

• A young Cassian attacking stormtroopers with nothing but a stick after they hang his father.
• Tay Kolma all but bluntly stating, in barely plausibly deniable dialogue, that he's a Rebel sympathizer to Mon Mothma. Mon has asked him for some help, and when she clarifies it's "political" in nature, he advises her not to come to him, because "I'm afraid you'd find my politics a bit strong for your taste," since Mon Mothma is on Coruscant in the Imperial Senate and surrounded by Imperials. Mon just smiles, and lets Tay in on some of what she needs done. . . but not all of it, and not why.
  Mon Mothma: You're better off not knowing. Or perhaps you'd find my politics a bit strong for your taste.
  • If Mon Mothma really was the Imperial Loyalist Tay is afraid she is, she could have him arrested for just that admission alone. Instead, Mon finally knows she has an ally she can trust, and lets him know just enough to know they're on the same side while keeping him compartmentalized should everything go south. We didn't get to see much of her before, but there's a reason Mon Mothma is the Rebel Leader.
• Dedra Meero manages to get one up on Lieutenant Blevin, the Smug Snake ISB officer who has a beef with her, by calmly and competently explaining her actions to Major Partagaz and providing counterarguments to Blevin's accusations. It was enough to win Partagaz over, who compliments her for her exemplary conduct and reassigns one of Blevin's sectors to Meero so she could perform her tasks as needed. Blevin can do nothing but sit in silence as the smugness quickly disappeared from his face after he realizes that his attempt to discredit Meero to the entire ISB board backfired spectacularly.
  Blevin: Imagine if everyone in this room played as loose with the rules as you.
  Partagaz: Excellent suggestion, Blevin.
  Blevin: (Self-satisfied smirk)
  Partagaz: I'm wondering where we'd be right now if everyone here showed the same endeavor as Supervisor Meero.
• Maarva explaining why, even with stormtroopers marching around, she chooses to stay on Ferrix and resist the Empire however she can.

Episode 8: Narkina 5

• It's unknown exactly how, but Cinta managed to get off Aldhani without getting caught.
• Credit where it's due, Karn manages to spin an ISB inquiry into his repeated alerts on Cassian into an opportunity to correct Blevin's official record of what happened on Ferrix, and even has the balls to demand a role in Meero's investigation of rebel activity. Granted, had he gotten anyone other than Meero he probably would have been disappeared on the spot, and even she barely takes him seriously. Still, points for effort.

Episode 9: Nobody's Listening!

• Even though he starts out terrified and sporting a Thousand-Yard Stare in a highly stressful environment where anyone would be forgiven for having a breakdown, Cassian still constantly searches for a way out. He pays attention to everything at his disposal from layouts to locations of potential advantages, notes everything he can about the guards, and carefully builds trust with potential allies. Despite being relatively untrained, these are all ideal qualities of any covert operative, and foreshadow his eventual role as a spy within the Rebellion.
• While it comes after the depressing death of Ulaf, hearing Kino finally giving Cassian the information he needs on how many Imperials are on each floor is immensely satisfying - especially with the amount of Tranquil Fury as he tells Cassian that there's "never more than twelve".

Episode 10: One Way Out

• After a two episode build-up, Cassian leads a large-scale prison break on Narkina 5, assisted by Kino, Melshi and several other prisoners. Biding their time and waiting for the right moment, the prisoners use water from a broken pipe to deactivate the electrified floor. From there, they proceed to massacre the understaffed guards and take control of the building, shutting down the power and freeing the thousands of men imprisoned at the facility.
• After climbing up to the balcony to escape, Cassian trips a guard, punches him out, and uses the blaster still in his hand to shoot the ankles out from another guard. While still hanging from the platform.
• In a delicious bit of schadenfreude, Cassian holds the guards in the control room at blasterpoint and shouts at them to get on program, after weeks of them ordering him and his fellow inmates to do the same day in and day out. Cassian almost adds the order as an afterthought, showing that it wasn't part of his plan and was just something little for the angry, profoundly human part of him.
• The control room staff does try to fight back by activating all the electric floors at once. But the rebels are so unstoppable they catch up and stop the ultimate trap, and not in the last second either. The rebellion is that one-sided in their favor.
• Kino's Rousing Speech to the inmates over the PA system is nothing short of pure awesomeness. He starts out slightly nervous, but with a little help from Cassian, he regains his confidence and angrily denounces the guards for their mistreatment of the inmates, the death of Ulaf likely still fresh in his mind. He then reveals to the prisoners that they're never actually being released, and encourages them to take up arms and fight for their own freedom, or die trying. He succeeds in inspiring all five thousand men into escaping the facility, while the guards can do nothing but cower in a locked room as the furious prisoners make a break for it.

Episode 11: Daughter of Ferrix

• When Luthen warns Saw that he shouldn't go with Anto Kreegyr's cell on an attack because he's learned that the ISB knows and is setting a trap, Saw's paranoia causes him to accuse Luthen of having spies in his own cell or being an Imperial spy himself. Luthen gets out of it by casually telling Saw that Two-Tubes is his mole, causing him to run toward them in a panic....allowing Luthen to steal his blaster from his holster and hold Saw at gunpoint to negotiate.
• Luthen demonstrates that he's a badass Ace Pilot, escaping from an Imperial arrestor cruiser's tractor beam and then handily taking out its air wing. Bonus points for taking out the last two TIE fighters with what could only be described as starship lightsabers.
  • The Fondor basically shows what ships like the Millennium Falcon or the Ghost could be like with the right amount of money. The advanced AI, cockpit mounted gunner station, incredibly powerful hidden weapons, and extremely precise control over the ship (like the ability to fake an overheating engine without compromising the actual function) combine to make it one of the most formidable spaceships of its size in all of Star Wars.
  • It's also worth noting that when Luthen baits the Imperial cruiser into upping its tractor beam force (so his Flechette Storm countermeasures will have the intended effect) by attempting to pull away at full power, the cruiser, dozens of times larger than the Fondor, shudders. Exactly how powerful are those engines?

Episode 12: Rix Road

• We finally get to hear a full passage from Nemik's manifesto that he left behind for Cassian, in which he points out how people are rising up throughout the galaxy against the Empire that only uses oppression as a desperate measure to keep order, and eventually it will break against the will of the Rebellion. It's implied that it also plays a part in driving Cassian to join the Rebel Alliance for real as well.
• The Imperials restrict Maarva's funeral to 40 people and delay its start by 2 hours. The Time Grappler rings the bell to start at the original time, and the marching band plays the main title theme in full while revealing that the entire town is coming.
• As the procession is marching, the Imperials are taking up positions on the street as a show of force. The funeral march converges in front of the anvil tower, with Brasso and B2 slowly stepping forward to take the lead of the procession, Brasso holding Maarva's funerary stone. As they come to the front, the music slowly tapers off on a somber note, and the funeral procession are staring down the Empire in its might. A parade of musicians and community members staring straight at an Imperial garrison with no fear. Then B2 gives the signal, and the procession marches forward as the music takes on a more resolute tone, right toward the Imperials as if daring them to attack first. They will not be cowed into quiet submission.
• Maarva's pre-recorded message is an epic rallying speech motivating the people of Ferrix to finally rise up against the Empire after years of apathy. The resulting city-wide riot completely ruins Meero's carefully planned trap to capture Cassian, Luthen's plan to kill him, and Syril Karn and Mosk's plan to bring him to justice. The only person who comes out on top of all this is Cassian himself, who uses the chaos to sneak Bix and his friends off-world safely and corners Luthen in his ship, out-gambitting The Spymaster himself and earning Luthen's respect enough to recruit him into the Rebellion instead of killing him off as originally planned. All of this cannot happen without Maarva's post-mortem rallying cry.
  • During the ensuing riot Brasso uses the brick made with Maarva's ashes as an Improvised Weapon against the ISB forces. With how much she wanted to fight them personally she'd probably approve of her remains being used this way.
  • Salman Paak's son builds an improvised bomb and throws it during the riot. He perfectly hurls it over the entire crowd right at the Imperial speeder, flipping it over and detonating the box of grenades inside in a massive cascading explosion.
  • In the midst of the chaos, Syril Karn of all people is the only Empire-aligned person who shows a knack for handling the situation. Where Dedra Meero falls apart when forced into the action and gets caught up in the riot and the other Imperials scramble to create a defense, Karn tries to minimize casualties when he sees a bomb, maneuvers through the riot while keeping his calm, and even saves Dedra from the rioters when she's caught up. He may be a sniveling underling of the Empire, but Karn is the only one keeping his cool and doing good work.
  • Props to the rebels for nearly beating down Dedra Meero herself, after she was all but untouchable earlier.
  • A stormtrooper is sent up to take out the anvil ringer when he starts playing during the riot. The man just kicks him right off the edge and keeps going.
• Mon Mothma takes advantage of her husband's gambling habits to fool her driver/Imperial mole into thinking that it's the reason why so much money is missing from her account, and the ISB fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
• Cinta easily stalks the Imperial plainclothes officer throughout the city and draws him into a confrontation, where she kills him by stabbing him in the belly with a concealed knife. The guy doesn't get to make a sound, and she closes the door before leaving his body in a house; with everything else going on, it'll be hours before anyone even knows he's dead.