“They killed a hundred men just to keep them quiet!” I only realized it now, but this is how we all should’ve known beyond our common guess that the Narkina 5 prisoners were building parts for the Death Star.
The guess that forced labor had to be used for such a massive project isn’t new at all: it was a common assumption that slaves made up the massive workforce that built the Pyramids of Giza until newer evidence largely debunked it.
Tony Gilroy outright confirmed that he thought the same way while writing the series, but because the parts the Narkina 5 prisoners were building didn’t resemble anything we’d seen, we had no hard proof until he said so.
What we did have was the secrecy and essentiality of the work, proven by the lengths the prison guards would go to keep inmates in line with a torture device treated like a toy in times of calm and a failsafe against unrest.
On a side note, this is also the plot of Severance, a great show about a company that hires people to accept brain implants that separate their memories of work from their memories of the rest of their lives. While on the job, they’re told that “the work is mysterious and important,” and their superiors desperately try to control them as their split personalities work to find out what their job really is and what their other halves know about. The story even has the same turning point when one guy removes his chip and escapes to tell others the horrible truth. It’s the same stuff!
“We know they fried a hundred men on Level 2…” because word got out that the guards held a man from Level 4 who was supposed to be released, and the prisoners resisted.
We’ve seen this same pattern in Star Wars too, in the first project Tony Gilroy worked on. Rogue One has this line from Tarkin to Krennic: “If the Senate gets wind of our project, countless systems will flock to the Rebellion. I suggest we solve both problems simultaneously with an immediate test of the weapon.”
The Empire tests the Death Star on Jedha for the exact same reason that the guards fried Level 2. Bodhi Rook defected, and word got out on the moon about the weapon… “and then they killed them all.” They blew up half a moon just to keep its population quiet. It’s all the same stuff.
This understanding might matter a little less for the episodes we’ve already seen—but it might matter even more for the episodes of Andor we’re still awaiting. Maybe the plot of this show will have been driven by the Death Star all along. The showrunners are retroactively treating Rogue One as a three-episode epilogue arc to Andor, and that’s what can inform us the most.
Although the pattern is thematic, there’s more evidence in the little details too.
The pendant Luthen gives Cassian is part-kyber.
It is no accident that the ISB mentions Scarif by name in the same episode.
Tony Gilroy would die on the hill that the post-credits scene wasn’t created for arbitrary fan-service. It’s more likely an intentional setup.
There’s more to see develop before the time of Rogue One comes along.
Cassian is vaguely familiar with who the Jedi were in the film, so someone might tell him about them at some point if he doesn’t already know about them.
Tivik and the other Partisans know about kyber crystals, so we might see scenes of Saw Gerrera after his mission in Rebels when he learns about the Empire’s operation on Jedha.
Mon Mothma’s story needs no deliberation. We know what’s coming there.
The showrunners here aren’t interested in hiding anything from us beyond what’ll elevate our experience to learn about later—but even then, look at how much they’re already putting in front of our faces!
What else are we missing that this show and film have already told us? Where is Andor gearing up to take us next given what details we’ve already been shown in the first season? I’d love to know what else we should be looking out for.
