Tear Jerker / Andor

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Episode 2: That Would Be Me

• In an early flashback to Cassian's childhood, he and the other youths from his village on Kenari stumble on an open pit mine. This is during the Clone Wars, so either the Republic or the Separatists, where the two sides weren't particularly different, went to an inhabited backwater world and started polluting it, stripping it bare, destroying the environment. Then, during the war, a Venator class Republic cruiser crashes on the planet and causes more damage. Like Rome, the Republic didn't fall to Empire, it transitioned without much change on the ground.

Episode 6: The Eye

• It’s easy to feel bad for Beehaz's wife and child. They have a strained relationship with him and while we don’t know if his wife is any bit devoted to the Empire, it’s still saddening to see them picked up as hostages. His wife’s behavior is sobering given that whatever side the Rebels are on, they’re threatening the life of her son she very much loves. She has to beg her husband to comply with the Rebels and to swallow his pride - which, to his credit, he does, out of fear for his family. We never see the wife and child again but are left with the possibility Cinta executed them anyway. And even if they did survive, Jayhold died of a heart attack (and even if he did survive it, his failure means the Empire would’ve killed him and likely his family too) leaving them without a husband and father, respectively, as poor of an example of both roles as he was.
• The deaths of the Aldhani heist crew. The mole, Lieutenant Gorn is struck by errant blaster fire in the opening volley of the firefight, and ex-Stormtrooper Tamaryn is shot as he tries to escape a killbox after Skeen, who he asked to cover him, hides. Finally, Nemik is crushed by an unsecured rack of imperial credits as the cargo ship lifts off and later dies on an operating table.

Episode 7: Announcement

• The episode begins with an Imperial high commander making a lengthy speech in the aftermath of the Aldhani heist and describing how they will be coldly and brutally cracking down on any and all dissent towards the Empire. You might think this is coming from Tarkin, or at least someone speaking on behalf of him, right? Nope, it's Wulff Yularen, Anakin's often-seen deputy during the Clone Wars who was fighting for the good of the Republic and alongside his Jedi allies and friends, now head of the ISB. These days, he's bought into the Empire's propaganda and Palpatine's smearing of the Jedi hook, line, and sinker, and is now one of the highest ranking fascists in the regime. It's brutal for any long-time fan to see Anakin and Ahsoka's former friend now fighting so hard to cruelly put down the victims of the Empire that the Republic was transformed into.
• Cassian's efforts to take his mother off-planet are for naught, as she is determined to stay and work against the Empire in wake of the Aldhani heist (not realizing Cassian was involved in the heist). Furthermore, she also tells Cassian to stop looking for his sister, as Kenari was bombed from orbit shortly after she and Clem were forced to take Cassian with them and his sister was likely Dead All Along.
• Flashbacks show what happened to Clem Andor, the adoptive father of Cassian: When protestors on Ferrix were demonstrating against the newly-formed Empire, he tried to quell them to prevent the Empire from coming down hard on them, only to get hanged for his troubles alongside the rest of the protestors. It's heartbreaking proof that staying neutral does not keep one safe from a fascist regime like the Empire, and still ends up being a source of trauma of Cassian to this day, as he begins panicking when an Imperial droid misinterprets an order from a stormtrooper and nearly hangs him.
  • What's more, the scene implicitly takes place very shortly after the fall of the Republic. How do we know this? The Empire is still using clone troopers. It can be crushing for fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars to see men who were once each individuals in their own right, fighting to protect democracy, reduced to jackbooted thugs.

Episode 8: Narkina 5

• The meeting between Saw Gerrera and Luthen initially starts off lightly, but the end of it goes to show the fractures that are still present in the early Rebellion, as Saw stubbornly refuses to collaborate with other Rebel cells managed by Luthen. Here we get to see firsthand how difficult Luthen's hidden life is, as he's the only person who knows that the Rebel cells can only succeed if they work together - and in addition to that, Luthen also refers to himself as a "coward" due to his growing fears that the Empire is gradually becoming too large to oppose, being the first indication of Luthen's self-loathing.

Episode 9: Nobody's Listening!

• Ulaf's death. He suffers a realistic, debilitating stroke that gradually shuts the poor old man down. By the time the prison doctor checks on him, he's too far gone for medical attention to help him and he's given a lethal injection.
• The prison doctor is himself a prisoner who has a little more power and knowledge than the orange-marked inmates, but is himself barefoot. He's clearly beaten down and defeated, very aware of his own powerlessness: he tells Kino and Cassian that he doesn't want to know Ulaf's name, as he's watched so many be worked to death already. There is the implication that he euthanizes Ulaf not because that's the only option available but because this is the kindest way out for the old man.
• Mon Mothma's life is shown to be generally miserable for the most part. She's one of the few idealistic Senators left in the Empire, but her complaints and concerns are often dismissed and ignored by her peers. Beyond that, her domestic life is no source of comfort for her either, as she's trapped in a loveless Arranged Marriage with a husband who couldn't care less about her efforts, while her relationship with her daughter is strained due to work taking precedence in Mon's life. Finally, she encounters all manner of hurdles trying to get funding to the Rebellion, with Luthen of all people being the only person she can be completely honest about it with.
• Bix Caleen being tortured by way of being forced to listen to a Brown Note. At the end of it, she is left in a catatonic state, just lying down on the mattress in her cell with a Thousand-Yard Stare, barely responsive to the outside world. Beyond that, she does end up breaking and tells the Imperials everything she knows about Cassian and Luthen, reminding people that she's just an ordinary citizen of the Empire and not a Rebel trained to resist torture. She's still completely broken by this at the end of the season, though there are slight hints that she's starting to recover, it doesn't seem like she'll ever be the same.

Episode 10: One Way Out

• The reveal that Kino can't swim, meaning that his participation in the uprising was a Heroic Sacrifice, since he was doomed either way. Cassian seems to want to move forward and help Kino, but the crowd knocks Cassian over the edge before he can do anything.
• Mon learns that for his services, Davo Sculdin wants to introduce his son to Leida, all but saying he wants them in an arranged marriage for his own political gain. Mon turns livid and demands he get out, even when Davo tries to insist he's not asking for a proposal on the spot, but they both know what he really wants. But without any other realistic options, Mon quietly cries as she realizes what she's going to have to do to get funding for the Rebellion.
• Luthen's monologue at the end of the episode could be seen at this if you can look past all the immoral actions he did and see the man for who he really is: a broken man who's forced to cast aside every joyful thing in life and basically most of his humanity so he could commit himself fully to the Rebellion's cause. He has to live with the knowledge of all the atrocities he has to commit and live with the fact that he's becoming just as evil as the Empire in order for the Rebellion to survive. He knows that history will never remember him or even care about what he sacrificed, and the almost inevitability that he will not even live long enough to see a new galaxy freed from the Empire. Deep down, Luthen Rael is just a shell of a man who has nothing left in his life except the Rebellion, and he will sacrifice everything to ensure that it will live on and ultimately triumph over the Empire.

Episode 11: Daughter of Ferrix

• At the end of the episode, Melshi wonders if he and Cassian may have been the only ones to survive the escape. By this point none of the other prisoners have been shown reaching land, leaving the audience as unsure as Melshi as to whether or not anyone made it.
• Maarva Andor is dead. Cassian, who wanted to reassure her of his safety, is clearly crushed upon finding out, and throughout the rest of the scene he looks about to tear up. He ends the episode looking up at the sky, a beautiful sunset, as if to try to look and find his mother in the heavens she's now resting in. And little does he know, this is eerily similar to how he himself will die one day - on a beach, looking at a bright sky, only that time it will be the approaching destruction of the Death Star.
• B2EMO seems unable to process the fact that Maarva is gone, and overall reacts to it like a young child who doesn't fully understand what's happened. He refuses to go stay with Brasso, protesting that she might come home. Brasso eventually relents and agrees to spend the night in Maarva's house so Bee can see that she isn't coming back.
  Brasso: We're gonna take her out in a minute, if you want to say goodbye. I'll have them clear the room if you want to be alone.
  B2EMO: I d-d-don't want to be alone. I want M-M-Maarva.
• When Mon Mothma talks with Vel about how Leida seems to have completely bought into the very Chandrillan customs that she was trying to protect her daughter from, Mon looks destroyed and like she's on the verge of tears. She's surrounded by enemies on all sides, she's trapped in a loveless marriage, her daughter hates her, her allies can't or won't help her, she can't run away without endangering her cause or arousing suspicion, and she can't even afford to break down and cry about it in her own home because the Chandrillan state residences really aren't her home.
• There's something tragic in Saw's scene in this episode. He seems finally ready to engage with the greater Rebellion, as we see him preparing his men to aid Anto Kreegyr's doomed raid on Spelhaus. And then Luthen shows up and shatters any trust he might have in others by causing his paranoia to spiral out of control via accusing his closest men of being Luthen's own agents. In that moment the last potential moment where he could be a major part of taking down the Empire by working with the larger Alliance passes, and sets him down the road to becoming the paranoid, delusional guerilla sitting in a cave by the time of Rogue One.

Episode 12: Rix Road

• Even though we never even saw Kreegyr, it's still upsetting to learn that he and his forces were successfully routed by the Empire. Apparently it was so bad that it was over before it even started. What's more revolting is that we see the ISB standing around, excitedly chattering and looking at data on screens about it, as if they were celebrating their favorite sports team winning a game by a landslide.
• Mon is forced to walk Leida to her courtship, and looks completely dead inside as she does it. Perrin also looks pretty subdued, and while he isn't the best father since he just spoils Leida and encourages her hatred towards her mother, Mon mentioned that he's not really that hot about the arranged marriage custom himself. Now both parents are having to all but give away their daughter at such a young age to what could easily be another loveless marriage. Not even Davo, who wanted this so he could get political relationships he couldn't just buy, looks that happy about it due to recognizing how much Leida's parents hate it.
  • To rub salt in the wound, Leida is so deluded and vain that she is the only one who seems happy about it. In the naïveté of youth, Leida thinks she's upholding a grand old custom that's good and right and proper... in time, she's more than likely to find out why such customs tend to fall from favor. Or perhaps even worse, despite her friction with Mon Leida trusts her mother to make her a smart match, taking her happiness into account... not to essentially sacrifice her for the good of the galaxy as a whole.
• Brasso passes some of Maarva's last words to her adoptive son Cassian, who is wracked with guilt for not being on Ferrix when she died: "Tell him I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong."
• In the closing moments of the show, Brasso, Bix, and B2EMO are frantically trying to escape the chaos on Ferrix when Cassian enters their ship to say goodbye:
  Cassian: You take care of Bix until I get there. I'm counting on you.
  B2EMO: You always say that.
  Cassian: And you always come through.