Andor episode 5, “The Axe Forgets,” is primarily a big setup for one of the series’ big climaxes. Not to say that it wasn’t tense, exciting, and deeply revealing about some characters, but it looks like the Andor series will follow its original release paradigm by building a 3-act story arc over three episodes. In “The Axe Forgets,” tensions rise in Cassian’s small group of Rebel freedom fighters as they begin to question his motives before their heist on the Imperial dam. The dam itself was filmed in a beautiful location in Scotland. We get a look at Syril Karn’s demoralizing home life and see Mon Mothma’s waspy relationship with her family.
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Andor continues to be a series driven by the interpersonal relationships of the soldiers and agents, which put boots on the ground for the Rebel Alliance. The dialogue is not just natural but revealing for every character involved. Each one is thoroughly drawn and three-dimensional. In this episode, we see the traumatic situations behind why some characters made the choices they did, as well as the empathetic situations that keep each of them motivated. Histories are revealed, but never the whole picture. The freedom fighters must trust each other to get through the next day, but that might be the last day their trust is needed. And Andor always retains the upper hand.
Motivations in Andor
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Episode 5 opens with Syril Karn, the police officer on Ferrix who took control of his unit in a spark of ambition and was promptly fired for failing to apprehend Cassian. He’s returned to live with his mother, who is played by Kathryn Hunter, the same actor who played Mrs. Figg in Harry Potter. Karn is served cereal in some blue milk, as one is wont to do in Star Wars, but as he holds it up to his eye, we see the cereal looks a lot like a crunch berry from Cap’n Crunch.
The children’s cereal and ample amounts of food play up that degrading feeling of returning to live in your parent’s house due to some severe failure in your career. Karn attempts to retain some of his masculinity but is forced to admit that he has no other plans and nowhere else to go. Though his mother assures him that she will help him, Karn is deeply frustrated. Later in the episode, we see him pull up the image of Cassian’s mug shot in some vow to redeem himself, whether he’s allowed to or not.
Then, as Cassian Andor wakes up in the Rebel camp, he notices his bag is missing. Then he sees Skeen going through it across the way. Skeen explains that Val asked him to go through it. It’s clear that no one trusts Cassian in this ragtag group of Rebels, least of all Skeen. When Cassian comes over, he can identify some of Skeen’s tattoos. One is a barcode that looks like Skeen was in an Imperial prison. Cassian says, “Krayt head,” implying that Skeen’s prison gang might have had something to do with the Krayt dragons of Tatooine. Then the one on his arm is “By the Hand,” which could mean a number of things in a deep cut of Star Wars lore. But after the two share their past trauma of Imperial prisons, Skeen notes that “The axe forgets, but the tree remembers,” meaning that an injured person remembers their wounds, but the one who hurt them often forgets the damage they’ve done. He reveals that he’s out here to get revenge.
Skeen gives us a little hint at everyone’s motivations for being part of the Rebellion. The younger kid shows Andor an old Starpath unit (a painted-over Polaroid camera) and explains how it resembles a metaphor for how the Empire can’t control something so analog. He holds up a Rebel manifesto he is writing and tells Andor his philosophical justifications for being a true believer in the Rebellion. Val, the leader, tells Andor, “Everyone has their own rebellion.”
Spies of the Rebellion
Later we see Mon Mothma having breakfast with her family. Her daughter becomes angry at her because she doesn’t seem to genuinely want to take her to school, which is probably right. Mon Mothma is likely taking her child to school and appearing in these public places to reinforce her identity as an Imperial senator when she is actually a spy for the Rebellion. She has to remind her husband of their driver’s name, which she does again later in the episode. Luthen was worried the driver might have been watching her earlier in the series, and this focus on him might hint that either he or her husband is an Imperial loyalist who distrusts Mon Mothma.
As we cut back to the Rebel freedom fighters, Skeen holds a knife to Andor’s throat and steals the Kyber crystal Andor had been wearing around his neck. He questions why someone like him would participate in such a dangerous mission when he has a crystal worth 30,000 credits around his neck. No one has yet heard Andor’s true motivation for fighting the Empire, and this especially valuable object might mean he comes from a family inside the Empire. But when Andor has the chance to tell his story, he just tells everyone that he’s in it for the money and is willing to walk away right now. Andor’s continued distrust of his Rebel allies might lead to some chaotic consequences in the next episode.
