Worrying. Today's episode contains spoilers for episodes four, five, and six of and Or season two. Be warned. Hello, my name is Jasonconcepcion and I am Rosey Night and welcome back to xt Revision, the podcast where we dive DVIDI your favorite shows, movies, comics of pop culture, coming to you from iHeart Podcast, where we're bringing you three huge X ray vision episodes a week every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, plus news.
In today's episode, it's that next chunk and Or season two and boy, things that heat and up. We got more liberal infighting, we got questions, how dedicate it is ddre to the mission or does she just want to catch handle? I think it is the latter. And is Lutheran finally cracking under the pressure? Has he been taking too many tips? Too many tips from we don't know what they're doing?
Maybe? And remember, guys, this show has no real connection. Is mirroring.
So fictional at all? And that's like really important to say.
Let's get into it. Okay. We open episode four with a time jump. It is now one year later bby three, three years out from the Titanic Battle of Yavin, one year out from the massacre, the Gorman massacre, and Bix is still having nightmares about her interrogation at the hands of doctor Gorst. She's dreaming about other rebels being tortured as she was. She's dreaming that she's helping doctor Gorst torture them. It's a waking dream. She's walking around the
safe house with a blaster out in cassion. Luckily is there to stop her from shooting up the safe house. We go to Gorman. Cyril is now on the planet working at the Gorman branch of the Bureau, but the Bureau for Standards, but he's actually working for Deirdre as an isb spy, and I got to say, he's like, he's doing a great job at it. He's in his office and he is on the phone with Edie, his mom, and she's giving him shit from light years away.
She's like, it's a demotion. It's you behind.
You're getting left. You were you were by the you were around the fire here at Coruscant where everything happens. You're in the room where it happens, and now you've gone to this fucking backwater where they make linen out of spiders and spider webs and what are you even doing? And by the way, the Gores are terrible. I'm watching Imperial news all the time and the fucking Gorman's what's their problem. They're arrogant, they're morons. They they don't have
any respect for the Emperor and the Empire. They're terrible. And meanwhile, Cyril is no, no, no, you're watching too much imperially. They're actually it's actually very peaceful here. It's yeah, it's very nice here. Everybody's I don't know what the what the pop up is about or why the propaganda machine is like training against them. Everybody is. I feel like he's leading somewhere dark because everybody here is really nice and kind and gorman is Is is a great place and very.
No problems, no rebel forces here, no one trying to that just nice.
His phone call is being as Deirdre planned, is being listened to by the Gorman Front and their intelligent cell led by uh the patriarch of the Ryelands fabric House, and they feel like this guy Cyril, who's in the Imperial bureaucracy, who probably has access to a lot of intelligence we want, seems like he is empathetic to our cause and we think that makes him vulnerable to a kind of emotional, like heartfelt approach. Yes, got to say, well, let's see where this leads.
This doesn't this tells.
You a lot of what you need to know about the Gorms and where that level of spy croft is at. Because I think one phone call where somebody's like, hey, they don't seem that bad to me.
Let's not get too excited, guys, I.
Think the they must have been clearly they've been at this, and I guess they've just like everybody's just a piece of shit, like on comms from the Imperial offices. And this is the one guy who seems like maybe he's okay, maybe he's a nice guy. They bump Cereal Cyril like out in the square, were by the monument to a previous massacre carried out by mof Tarkin who just like
landed his spacecraft on people. A guy like bumps into Cyril and offers him one of the you know, souvenir spiders and is like, oh, this is you know, you should take this home and open it and there's information inside of it. We go back to the safe house. Cassian is cooking while Bix is cleaning the weapons. They're arguing about a previous mission, apparently that it happened in the year Jump where Cassian ended up murdering an Imperial soldier,
and Bix is like, should we recruit it? Should we report that to Lousen, And Cassian's like, why is part of the mission? Who cast what happens? Like, this is what we do, and they kind of you can tell that the constant twenty four hour heightened state of alert, the anxiety, the danger all around them, it's really starting to they're coming apart a little bit at a time, especially Bits, who feels terrible about killing this kid in a way that Cassian doesn't. And Cassian clearly for him,
the mission has changed. I think we'll see over these episodes it's less about overthrowing the Empire, bringing down the Empire, and it's more about like protecting Bicks. Cyril returns home, He opens up the spider, he finds the message, which he then eats. Bix and Cassian continue their argument about the soldier, and you know, she just and she basically says like, I just want to make sure that my sacrifice, like everything I've sacrificed, is going to be worth it.
I want to win Cyril at Night returns to the Bureau office saying he forgot some files. The security is really not going to let him in, but he talks them into letting him in, and it really shows like how tight this operation is, Like even imperial security on the planet don't know that Deirdre is running this. Yeah, and they have to do that from this, They have
to do that. So the Gorman's fall for it, so it looks legit like that he's actually spying for them, and he's very excited because he's now on the verge of infiltrating the Gora rebels. He steals some files from his office and when he talks to Deerser about it, he's like, I can't this is so cool, this is so exciting. Where are you going to tell Party Gass? Like, we're not telling part of guys until we have something. Period. Deirdre goes to an intelligence meeting at the ISB offices
overseen by Party Gas. There's this issue of increasing rebel raids and stolen weapons and stolen imperial gear and captured rebels with Imperial gear, and they're trying to like trace where all this imperial gear is coming from. But the problem is, as one of Party Gaz's lieutenants brings up, is that they're resting too many people. They have too much stuff, and they can't like go through it all. They don't have time to like comb through it all
in the way that they need to. So party As is like with a little flex is.
Like, well, I'm meeting with the Emperor, Well talk to him about to talk to him about increasing resources, which I.
Also think something that this show is doing so brilliantly is kind of showing that there's absolutely no way that the Emperor could have any handle on. The bureaucracy is too big, The bucs big, it's too sprawling, and there are too many agendas within it. And this is really a very interesting expansion of the world of Star Wars in a way that I think is very akin to what George Lucas did with the prequels and exploring the space tariffs and everything, which of course again no relation
to real life. There they didn't end up being prescient at all, but.
A bureaucracy being too big for one person to deal with the again and leading to the subordinates carrying out their own little ambition. Its personal like terrible plans in his name like that also has absolutely.
No feels like it could never happen.
Deirdre meanwhile, is upset because she's working on this Gorman false flag operation and she wants back in on the stolen weapons thing and Axis because she still wants to catch and Or she's ubsessed and she is obsessed with him. She's really pissed about this. Meanwhile, also on course, not mom Matha is going around trying to lobby her fellow politicians for some kind of legislation that's going to protect Gorman in some way, and it's tough going. Nobody wants
to stick their head out. Everybody's afraid. The misinformation is working.
Clear that the propaganda has taken hold in this year.
Yeah, and even the people who haven't fallen for the propaganda are like, I don't know, it's not the right time. This, the fear and the disinformation working together is a powerful force that is effectively isolating Gorman more and more every day. And mon Mathma, then you know, quotes the founding fathers of the American Revolution who once said, you know, either we hang together or we hang separately. And she says, if we do not stand together, we will be crushed.
She's right. Luthen then meets with Lannie. His isb mole all these party gas meetings, and Lonnie tells him that Listen, Deirdre is on something right now. She's on some project. I don't know what it is, but she is all over Gorman. She's the point person on whatever we're doing on Gorman. It's a very tight circle. I can't tell you what they are doing, but it's something and it's very tightly held. And Luthan is like, Luthen doesn't understand it. He's like, I don't get it. Like Deetre is not
a propagandist, she's a hunter. Why is she working on Gorman? What's the endgame? What is the end Pier want? Lonnie has no idea. Lonnie can't answer these questions, and Lusen's like, well I need answers. And here's another thing to notice. Throughout these episodes, Luthan is like on a deadline. He
is like, I don't have time and I don't. I wonder what that's about, because he says it multiple times throughout these this tranch of episodes, like need it now, we're on a timeline, like I don't have time to wait, like and I wonder what he thinks is coming and what he knows that nobody else knows, because it's clearly something and I don't know that it is directly related to Gorman. We go to the Gorman where the Gorman
Front is having their secret meeting. Various members of the Front get up and speak to everyone, and it's clear that Gore Gorman is, you know, heavily modeled on occupied France and the Low Countries of World War two. Cyril arrives at the meeting, which is growing more and more contentious about what to do about the new trade obstacles that the Empire is putting in place, the heavy footprint
that the Empire is showing on their planet. This new building that is growing in the right next to the square where the monument to the moth Tarket massacre is, what are they building in there? They won't say. The Empire says, it's just like an office building, but it's clear that it looks heavily fortified or it will be heavily fortified, and so everybody is really really anxious about it. So the pedlar from the square and Enza, who is the daughter of the patriarch of house, Ryelands come up,
they speak with Cyril. There's kind of like some light joking about oh he's an imperial spy. Wow. Yeah. And later on Enza introduces Cyril to her father and he asks, well, what are you going to tell your superiors? You know, what are you going to write a report? What are you going to say? And he's like, well, I'm here on my own.
I'm just Cyril.
Yeah, I'm just Cyril. I'm just here. And then he asks, well, what's your opinion of how we should proceed, because you know, we're we understand like the Emperor probably doesn't know what's going on in his name, but we're very concerned about it, Like, so how could we successfully lobby the emperor to get
more information? And Cyril's like, I don't know. And Ryland's then tell Cyril, you know about the moth talk and massacre which killed hundreds of Gorman's and that this you know, building throwing a shadow on that memorial is like was supposed to be against the law and the charter, Like now they're doing it and this is a big problem, Like will you help us?
So I just I just want to say this scene is so effective that as we were saying pre Mike, I came on and I was like, maybe Cyril's into this, Like Cyril is such a good spy that he had me questioning it, and Joel and Jason, well like no, but but this is a huge This is such a brilliant moment because I think what's really interesting about the Goram stuff, the Gorham stuff and this version of it.
Is this is a public meeting, like they are not. It's it's there's hundreds of people there.
This is the opposite of what Deirdre and Cyril are doing. This is the opposite of what Andor is doing. This is almost feels like it's like a city council meeting or something. There's so many people there, and it's the opposite of what we know of the shadowy nature of rebellion. And I think there's so much interesting complexity to this particular sequence, and also just the shock of Cyril ending up being a good spy.
Because I'm a trick me.
I'm like, Okay, maybe he would be pissed off about that, and then I'm like, no, no, no, Deirdre knows. But I just think that at that point I was like, Okay, this Gorham stuff is really gonna play like a key part in where we're going to rogue one because it just hit in a way that's some of the other big like Monmoth My wedding scenes are fun to watch and have been good, but this was a.
Scene where I was like, oh, this is changing.
What we even know about how the rebel forces a bill. Again, different bureaucracies, different nations, different cultures, very very hard to wrangle and keep secret and safe, as we will see, very hard.
Uncorussant Luthen turns on the little light on the top of his building that is a message that he wants to meet with Cassian. Cassian goes and basically Lutheran wants to send Cassian to Gorman to meet Rylance and to sound them out, to sound the Front out. He doesn't know a lot about the Front, but they're anxious to get things going, and they've been in contact because of a previous rescue mission that they accomplished for the Network, in which they basically saved a down rebel pilot and
delivered him to safety. And it's a clean operation, meaning no kills. Just go in and see what they're about and report back, see if you can help them, and or doesn't want to leave bicks, But Luthen presses, and he says, like, imagine like Gorman, with its wealth, with its influence, with their political cloud, imagine them coming to the side of the rebellion. It's worth you going. So Cassian walks away without saying yes. But it's clear that
again that Luthen needs it fast. He's again is like insisting, like I need you to go, and it's got to happen soon. We go to Dakar to catch up with our good friend who's been right about this for a long time.
It's a guy, he's still right.
The Apologists, the back baby Sagerera is there. His rebel cell has taken possession of a device that can be used to unlock and to decrypt the protected pipes that transfer ridonium, which is starship fuel, which is gonna be necessary if the rebellion wants to power at ships and
fight the Empire. And the guy who delivered this device and has the knowledge about how to use it as this guy named Wilman, so Willman, remember is the part of the rebel cell on the big wheat planet who had the girlfriend who was part of, you know, a different farm collective and who had to they all had to flee because the Empire was doing the audit of the planet.
Yeah, and Will was such a sweet baby then who had to say goodbye to his girlfriend.
Now he's like a hardened guy.
Now he's a hardened, terrorized young man.
And you know, Saw, I was like, where do you get this? How'd you know how to do it? Like? Can you teach my guy? Saw threatens the guy and then saw It basically says Willman, like you're not leaving. I know that your job was just to deliver this and leaving you're not going back to work. I need you to teach my guys how to do this, how to use that thing to steal the ridonium. And until I get that, you're staying here and that's it.
We'll talk about this in the in the roundtable.
But rhydonium has such like a storied history in Star Wars, and this is such an exciting moment. And yeah, I also love this because again Wilman, baby young guy, thinks he's helping the rebellion by dropping this off and is suddenly sucked into Sare's vortex. And this whole kind of front line direct action movement that he did not sign up for.
And then of course Cassian is going. He says goodbye to Bix, and when he leaves, Bix starts taking drugs. It's clear that Bis has fallen into this kind of pharmaceutically enhanced stupor in order to stop the terrible dream she's having, and that leads us Episode five. Let's take a quick break, We'll be right back. Episode five Corossont
Luthens Shop. Claya is again on the communications console, listening to all the comms wiretaps, the bugs, the different radio signals that are coming through this Corossant network, one of which certainly appears to be a bug in Davos Scolden's gallery, Yes, because you can hear his voice on it. Cassian goes to a traveling and should see where he books travel to Gorman using what's clear what we will learn throughout the episodes is like a specific password phrase like oh
do you travel a lot? Yeah, I've got friends all around the galaxy. He picks up recording that tells him what his cover is going to be. His cover is going to be very in Sky, a fashion designer from team who has a who is you know, just like loves fashion and where do you go if you're a person who wants to enter the fashion istry, you have to go to Gorman. Cyril calls mom from Gorman, telling her like, I'll be coming home. Courseants soon coming to visit.
The front are listening, and this is of course another call for their benefit. But while he's on the phone, an ISB team shows up at the Gorman office. One of the in the office is a Gorman Front spy, another Gorman Front spy that Cyril is not aware of, and the spy like signals to the to the Gorman Front like cut the bug, cut the bugs so it can't be traced. The ISB announces that, hey, we're looking for bugs around here, and Cyril again plays this part
wonderfully of the outrage is coming. Yeah, he's so outraged the is is B. What the fuck you guys, you jack booted thugs. I'm just trying to do my work, and yeah, with a friend fashist again for the benefit of the Gorman Front and certainly their spy. The Gorman Front spy who has eyes on Cyril, will be like, yeah, it certainly seems like he doesn't know what's he's on
our side. Claya continues to listen to the to the Bugs, particularly the one in Davos Golden's gallery, and and she's listening with increasing alarm because Davo apparently has recently purchased a fake piece of galactic history art and he's so he's like, I fucking irate because there's an event coming up. Lots of new senators are going to be taking the oath, and there's gonna be a big parties all around town, including at Davos. A lot of Imperial big wigs are
going to be there. And here he is with like forged art in his gallery. He's like, come on, mad, but still you get it?
No, No, he's also he's kind of dodgy guy, So you.
Gotta be kind of dodgy guy.
You don't want someone with a good eye to spot that and stop questioning you.
But is It really reminds me of like in Animal Crossing, when you buy the art from your cousin who's the dodgy fox and you gotta walk out there's a forgery. That's all I was thinking about this scene. But yeah, now Cleia is fucked.
So Clia is like, shit, they're gonna he's because Dallo's like, I want everything in this room in my gallery inspected and re certified as real, and Claiya is rightfully worried
that the bug will be found. Meanwhile, on Gorman, Cyril announces to his Bureau of Standards coworkers that like they did, the ISB did find a listening device, but like, who knows if it's really a listening device, or if the ISB said there was a listening device so that they can actually put in a listening device, or if they put in the listening device previously, who knows? And again he acts this mac He's outraged at all of this.
He's coming through.
I used to think Cyril was such an annoying, boring character to watch.
It just didn't grab me.
He was very much like that boot Liquor, but in a very traditional way we've seen him before. This is letting him explore. He's almost becoming a kind of reflection of and Or. He's so good in the moment knowing how to lie, knowing what to say that it becomes believable. And we get to see Cassie and do that similar stuff. And yes, Cyril's evolution is really kind of really hooking me this season.
So the Front is discussing Cyril and how much they want to bet on him as a potential double agent for them inside the Empire. They get a hold of his personnel file, which clearly planted by Deirdre, says that he was fired in scandal by the ISB dishonorable discharge, so maybe he has a grudge against the ISB. They're thinking this is perfect for us going so they meet him in front of the apartment, his apartment. They tell him, you know that they're concerned about him. They're concerned about
his well being, Like, are you okay? We saw the ice be going to your office, You're okay? And he tells them about the listening device and they do something really smart, which is they even though they're being taken in right now, they say, this is so good show. Yeah, surely the Emperor, if he knew about this, would be outraged. He would never this is the the is beak must be out of control again, thinking that they're playing on Cyril's previous grudge against the ISB. The ISB is out
of control. We think they're running like a shadow government here on Gorman right under the Emperor's nose and help us find the evidence that they're doing that so that we can take it to the Emperor and have the is b like reined in. And Cyril's like, you don't know the half of it, and Ryland's is like, well,
tell us the half of it. He'p yeah, and he's like, well, you know those transports, like there's a lot there's just a lot of stuff on the transports coming in with the construction materials to build that building that I just don't know what's on them. And you know, some of them are unmarked. And Rylance is like, that's what we're interested in, the unmarked transports. We go back to Corroussant Bix. There's the doors doorbell is ringing at the safe house. So Bix is like has her blaster.
Out and she's just high af like what she's not doing TV.
She's not doing great, she's not doing great. Luthen comes in and she immediately thinks, oh, Cassie's dead, which is such a great character note again of the tension and I feel that they're living under all the time. She's like, you've come to tell me that, Andors said MM hmm. He's like, no, no, no, no, it's just a visit because I'm nostalgic about Oh this old safe house. I've been using it for so long. I remember this old place. But he's clearly taking her temperature and wants to see,
like are you how good are you? Can I rely on you or not? And clearly he decides he can't because he finds the drugs. Although he doesn't confront her right away, but Bix still has her her senses, her instincts are still very sharp, and she says, no, you came here for a different reason. You came here to sound me out about a mission, but then you decided not to because you're on drugs.
Bis.
Yeah, but she knows luth And well enough that she can tell that change.
Yes, it shows that she still got it. And Luthan is like, well, yeah, I had a mission about like a weapon's appraisal mission, but like, forget it now. You know why you need rest? Why don't you just rest up? And then he says, by the way, with this stuff the drugs, be careful because you know it never actually helps in the long tip.
Yeah, the nightmas come back and well, I love about this set of episodes, because this is not the only kind of reference or conversation we're going to get about substance abuse.
I love the way that this is.
Looking at like how do you survive and deal with the trauma of war? And we start to learn that something we haven't seen a lot in Star Wars, but drugs, Like it's the same here. It's that again, no real you know, life allegory here that veterans who have been through a war or who are part of a war are using substances and in this case like space substances to blow it out, to blow out the nights, to get rid of the PTSD, and.
I find that very very interesting.
We go back to Dakar where Willem is now teaching one of sas guys, Pluti, how to unlock the rido pipes using the device that he brought and the specific method that involves harmonics and different variations on harmonics, and it's very very complex and you have to know all these variations. Pluty fails at it, and luckily this is a training module or they would have been like an
explosion to kill everybody. Saw is really riding Pluty hard, and Will meanwhile is under pressure because like until Pluty gets this, he can't leave. And you know, Pluti also clearly is like not entirely confident that he can like do this so real.
He definitely hads like not a great vibe like if I was if I was Will, I would not be feeling good about the situation. PLUTEI doesn't seem that interested or really he seems like he has something else going on.
And Will is basically stuck that.
Doing this incredibly dangerous procedure over and over and over again, trying to teach him how to do it.
On Gorman, Cyril is rushing through his work to get back to Corussant to you know, he might wants to make his flight. He pockets a disc and is always is still talking shit about the ISB, making little comments about the ISB. Then he asses the disc to the same spider peddler in the square, and his career is a double agent is like now off and running.
He's and he's killing it because he's a triple agent. This is agent on top of agent on top of agent. But again, something I think it's so brilliant about the writing is he also does have beef with the ISB, Like he has, so it's I think it's easy for him to fall into this, like critiquing them, even if he's doing it to cover for his plans with Ddre.
Meanwhile, Cassian has arrived on Gorman dressed to the nines, looking with the fashion.
If everyone was wondering where that came from in the trailer, it is for this fashion design character looking beautiful?
Is his cover? Is variant? Sky is holding up. He checks into his hotel and the bell hop tells him about the Moth Target massacre, what it was about. He lost his dad there, he was there when he was twelve, and you know, the hotel tells people not to talk about it with guests, but Casian, you know, this is what Cassian is about, Like, this is what he's fighting for, is people like this, And there's a real connection there. For a moment, back on Coruscant, Cyril goes to see Deirdre.
He's like, I'm clean, I wasn't followed. He's like so intos being mister like Junior g Man, like he loves this shit. And Deere's like, yeah, I know.
I've followed, I followed, had follow you followed you dummy, And he's like he's like.
What He's like, He's like, yeah, because we got to know, like this is the big leagues now. And by the way, when you go to eedies, we're not sure, like be careful because it might be under surveillance. And this is all part of Gaz's orders. By the way, Enzo makes contact with Cassian aka Variant Sky at a cafe, not when they were supposed to meet. She makes contact early. They exchange the passwords, and when the cafe clears out, Cassian is pissed. He's like, this is fucking sloppy, Like
why do this? Why make the approach like this early? You got luck just now that nobody is watching us and that I am who you think I am, or else you would be infiltrated.
And you fucking Imperial Office.
Yes, get your get your fucking shit together. And Enzi says something that I think is really important about the Gorman Front. For all the criticisms that we could lay at their feet, she says, it's hard to be patient when your world is falling apart, Like there's at a certain point and they are at that point where it's better to do something unprepared than to do nothing, and so they're ready to do something even if they aren't
truly prepared, and cassiing is like listen. Also, the people you have follow me drop them because they're just drawing attention of the ISP or whoever the imperials are around here. And then he becomes very and again and he's just like, Okay, I see a lair. Cyril goes to see Edie and gives her the spider from the pedlar, and she is still like, this is terrible. You're out in cowtown, out there and fucking human, Edie.
I'm sick of you.
I love the character, but like, it's just such a brilliantly put together character because you always even when Cyril was the worst in season one and continues to be the worst as a Nazi bootlegger in season two, his relationship with Edie tells us so much about him and is so hard to watch because she is truly just always on him in like the bleakest way, and right now he's doing exactly what she wishes. He would have been doing her whole his whole life.
But she can't be so hard for tell her, right, That's what I'm thinking.
I think he probably and I wonder, I do wonder if that will become part of his eventual downfall, because I do think that she is so continuously emotionally abusive and scathing, and at some point he's gonna want to tell her like, actually, I'm fucking doing I'm doing what you wanted. And yeah, it's a very very interesting dynamic.
And Or goes to his meeting at the house of Ryelance, their fabric showroom off the square, and they Rylance just starts talking in the showroom and and Or's like, wait, hold on it, We're sure that there's no listening devices here. They're like, we sweep every day, and he's like, well, won't that draw attention? You sweep every day? Is like everybody does it around here because they.
Don't want that ideas to be stolen.
It's the fact. So there's a lot of industrial espionage that goes around here basically, so they can talk here, and we learn about the pilot that the Ryelands group saved, and that's how they got the radio, the encrypted radio that they talked to Luthan on. Although they don't know about Luthen, they don't know who he is.
They just.
And as a kind of make good that hey, we can all trust each other, Cassie and gives them a new encrypted crystal for their radio so that they can continue communications but more securely, and talked to Luthen in a different way. Rylans then tells Cassian that this new building over here is an armory that's against the charter.
Uh.
And then he says, and here's how we know a lot of stuff about this. We have a source in the Empire in the bureau. I won't tell you who he is, but he's good. He's legit. And Cassians like, are you yeah.
Please take a photograph and just show it to people, like, guys, come on, just one little photo of you, Imperial spy, and we could be solvent to love prop up with.
Well, you know, one thing I'm glad about is that the Empire doesn't have facial recognition technology at all. Anyway, Cassian is like, are you like, okay? That sounds like the exact kind of intelligence you've been waiting for is almost too good to be true, because you're not, like you got to be careful because the Empire they sow disinformation like they're really good at doing that. Are you sure that this source is legit? And Rylence is like
one hundred percent legit, real source. And here's what we know. These transports, specifically these ones from the information we got off the disc are bringing in weapons to stock this armory that's growing. We want to hit this transport, steal the weapons, and then put on like a press conference and show everybody, Hey, the Empire is like smuggling weapons in but we don't have the expertise to do this,
which is why you're here. You know, we're just we've just been protesters to this point, and we need your head. That's why we need your help. We need your help to run this operation. Cassian says, Okay, it's clear that he's not sure about this, and he's like, well, check the radio, and then he leaves. Cyril and deird are a brief party gas about their connection to the Gorman Front. They're skeptically confident that the Front is buying Cyril as
a turned imperial spy. They hope to bait the Front into ambushing these transports so that the Empire can crack the fuck down. We cracked down and look at the rebels.
Yeah, kind of encouraged false flag operation so that they can.
Bad so excited oh so excited about back onto car. Plutie tell Saw that, like, okay, I need a lot more practice, but like in theory, I know what to do. Can I physically do it, I'm not sure, but like
I know what to do. So saw I was like, okay, well, when you're ready, we'll just get rid of women, right, And Plutie's like no, no, no, no, Like shouldn't we have him as like back up, like in case, you know, just like as an insurance policy, you know, when we go there, if I can't do it, and you know, we check in Willman and then he gets it done.
It's there's a lot of variations. It's really hard, and Saw tells Plutie is like, well, Pluti then goes, you know, it'd be a lot easier for me anxiety wise, if I knew where we were going, like it would cut down on the variations. Actually yeah, And so Saul was like, it's this factory right here, it's this Riido factory. Does that help? And Plu's like, yeah, that helps a lot.
Luthen returns to the shop and Claya tells him the news about Scolden looking for the bug, not looking for the bug, but like finding out that he has a fake and searching his entire gallery, which he's going to do after the Senate gala. And we need to get in there. We're invited to this party. We need to get in there. We need to get that bug out or it's going to be found. And Luthen, here's our first hint that Luthen is coming apart a little bit.
The strain is getting to him because he starts raging about this bug. This was a bad idea. Why did we do I told you not to do this? Bug? Leads directly back to us. This was so stupid. She's like, you agreed to it, and he's like, yeah, but you talked me into it and against my better judgment. And what you know, what, what do we do now? Like we have to if we can't get it, we have to be prepared to what kill skulden Fleet, correscond all, all of those things. Who knows Cassie and then looks
at the ground on Gorman looks at the transports. He comes up with a little bit of a plan. Meanwhile, back onto car, Saw asks Wilman, now if Pluty is ready to access the pipes without his help, and Saw pulls out his blaster, points it at Willman and is like, what do you say? Like can he do it? Did you teach him well enough? And then when you think he's gonna kill Willman, he turns the blaster on Pluty fucking boom kills him. All the rebels turn, they're like what and saws like.
He was a trader at this.
He goes inside, pulls an imperial bug out of it. Please a little tunic. Yeah, And he says, but well, the empire thinks we're going We're not going there.
We're going to this other place.
So is all misdirection for the for the benefit of the empire. And so I was like, and we're pulling out right now, get all your stuff, we're leaving. We're not going back here. Cassian breaks the news to the Gorman front that he doesn't think this is doable, or it's doable, but like at what cost? Like he's basically saying, here's your problem. We can hit the transport, but you don't. But usually when you do something like that, the next move is to get away. You're not going to you
don't even want to get away. You want to you want to stay, you want to be here. Yes, celebrate it, have a press conference, and then what the Empire just kills you all, Like they've already just doesn't.
They literally killed like five hundred gorms just to land them off Talkin's plane. Like you think they're not going to kill you if you try?
Yeah, Like what do you think? And then Rylance is like, okay, so what we do nothing? Like we just let the Empire do whatever they want. And you know, Cassian is like, I got to think about this a little more. But Rylance is like, you know what, I'm not impressed with you, like at all as a as a military leader and as a supposed rebel with yeah, with revolutionary fervor not in the least.
He's like, Wow, some kind of revolutionary you are. And I was like, oh man, that's so painful because I did. Cassian's actually trying to save their lives.
Yeah. Saw and Willman arrive on the Ryde Oh planet, the ride Oh Mine planet where there's a pipeline, you know, in this kind of isolated stretch of rocky landscape, and while Wilman is like running through the variation with them like a massive with a full mask on, Saw like no mask, breathing in the atmosphere is just like monologuing about his experience with ride Oh, how he was basically an enslaved prisoner mining ride Oh, and that was his first experience suit and.
He would start gang high, and he gained basically like a a tolerance for and an addiction clearly yeah.
And an addiction to it, which is clearly the stuff that's in when we later meet up with Sagerera and Rogue One in his like little breather, right, Willman, It's funny because I wanted Wiman to be like, hey, can you shut the fuck up. I'm trying to like do this thing without killing us, But instead you're talking about crazy shit. He gets talked into it.
He gets up into sores revolutionary folk.
Well, saw is Saws is incredibly charismatic as a revolutionary, as a person who's willing to say this is wrong, and I'm the guy to and I'm going to do something about it.
Come join me, Vandor, even though Andor is trying to save their lives.
Saw in this moment shows how.
You get somebody riled up, how you make somebody join a revolution.
He says, as he's breathing in this rhydo he says Listen, revolution is not for the scene what we were doing. If you were a logical, rational person, you wouldn't take on the Empire. You would just let you would just lay down and let them get away with it. The fact that we are bothered by this and willing to do something about it means we're already insane. So why not dive all the way off? Willman then takes off his mask, starts breathing in the fumes, and they are
off to the races. Yeah, let's seek a quick break. We'll be back in a minute to talk about episode six. And we're back. Luthen and Cassian meet on a kind of far out of the way planet Portsteergard also on the rim a trade route that is involves Gorman, and Cassian is like, Luthen, they can't do it. The Gorman Front there, they're they're not ready. You should never have got involve them. They're amateurs. They're going to get fucking killed. And Lusen's like, yeah, I heard that it didn't go well,
so this is concerning. But listen, I agree the front isn't ready. The Gorman Front would agree that they're not ready. That's why I sent you to help them because they're not ready. Well, casting is like, listen, it's too late. The armory is being built. It's like seventy percent done. Everybody. Their whole thing is steal a transport with weapons to prove to everyone that the armory is being built. Everybody understands that it's a lie, that that's just an office building.
Everybody understands that that's an armory. So what they're going to do is get killed in order to prove to everybody a thing that everybody already knows is true. Why do that. It's they're going to get crushed, they're going to die, And Luthen says, well, they're finally wanting to do something, and you want them to be k And I think this is like such a crucial point and is kind of like why this entire series exists. It's like, hey, this is dangerous. You think that we can get you
think we can get Gorman on our side. And nobody gets their nose bloody at all, Nobody gets their hair messed up, nobody gets their shirt stained. Like, yes, they're gonna get killed. It's gonna be bad. But if that is the cost to bring Gorman into the rebellion and the people who see themselves in Gorman to our side, then it's worth it. And then incredible Line and Or is like, well what if? And if they burn, Luthen
says they'll burn very brightly. And it's also very clear that Cassie this is also an issue of frontline soldier versus like the back line, because Cassie has lost his appetite for just people senselessly dying. He doesn't want to see it anymore. And I think he goes to Gorman and he sees all these young people with this fervor to do something, and he just sees dead bodies and he's just doesn't want to get involved in that. Meanwhile, Luthan has a backup plan. He updates Clay Cassian is out,
but it's okay. They have another operative in play, and it's Vell. Vella is already there and Vell is already delivering weapons and gear to the front. Cassian returns to the safe house, bis welcomes him. She cleaned up the place doesn't look like it looked when Luvin was.
There, and he definitely shamed her into doing a little tidy up, which you know I've been that adhd If my friends are coming around, I'm planning in the house.
Other way I get it.
He updates her on the Gorman mission a little bit, and he can kind of tell something is wrong with Bicks, although he's if he knows that she's using, he's in denial of it clearly, you know, cass. Cassian gets mad because he finds out that Luthen came and visited, but they were just together and Luthen didn't mention this at all. Cassian begins to get paran begins to get paranoid, now
because why would lu Luthen. He's so calculated and everything he does, and he must know that I would find we would talk and you would tell me that he came, So why didn't he tell me what is going on? I think personally, what Luthen is doing is Luthen is saying, open your eyes and really look at Bisa and see what's going on there. Find that you know he wants he wants Cassian to figure out that Bix is on Spice.
So I think that it's one of those things where it's a great example of Luthan always knowing the people that he works with, because before this, Bix and Andal on like a sexy train to heroic town. Like the Azabou said in the group chat, like the sexual tension is crackling.
They are like kissing.
He's telling her all about how Varian Sky is like a pretty boy and she would have loved him and blah blah, blah blah, and then it just evolves into this kind of seed of distrust that Lutheran has planted and between them to try and kind of get Cassian out of that headspace that he clearly has been influenced by Bixon, which is Bix is destroyed by the war. Bix is destroyed by the people she's had to kill, and now Cassian doesn't want to kill any more people.
He wants to, you know, try a different way. And I think Luthan wants to be like, why do you care what this person thinks they're on drugs basically, which is a fucked up attitude, but also like I think you're right, Jason, I think that's what that's what he wants.
Yeah. Cassian then, in a rage, in a very dangerous decision, goes to Luthan's shop in the middle of the night, crazy and Luthen is like, what the fuck are you doing. He's like, as soon as you leave, which is immediately you're we're gonna pretend that you were delivering to me a thing that I forgot, some kind of yeah yeah metal and get them and get a hold of yourself and leave. And she and he's like, yeah, but like, when you you know what's going on, why did you
come to the house. Why did you check on Bicks? He's like, look at yourself. All you what you've become is someone who just cares about Bicks. I'm here for the cause. I'm here for the rebellion. I'm here to
overthrow the empire. If and by the way, if Bicks can't get it together, it's on you to figure out what to do about that, because this network and what we're doing is too important to come apart because of feelings we have for each other or one He goes unsaid, but he basically said, hey, Biggs has got to tighten it up or we may have to.
Kill that basically what he's saying, and I'm saying.
I also thought it was great because because Cassian says to him, why why did you come?
Like why did you do this? Why did you tell it? You must have known?
She was going to tell me, And I think this is really interesting because I think it plays plays to your point and also just a great line that tells us a lot about luth and Is. He says, well, I thought it would be interesting if she didn't tell you, but now you've both disappointed me, and he's like testing these kind of bond who can keep master and spy be stronger than a bond between two people in love?
And in this case, no.
Who understands what we're doing is basically what Luthan is saying. We go to ISBHQ on on Corroussant. Partigas is asking Lonnie to liaison with the Navy and military intelligence because doctor Gorse, the torturer who applied his terrible trade on bicks, is suddenly in a star ascendant in the Imperial Defense infrastructure, and everybody wants to know how he does what he does and they want him to teach his techniques to
their various torturers. So Party Gaz is like, Lonnie, I want you to run that because I don't want ISP to lose control of doctor gorst Our little star. That well, guess what.
Lonnie, that's the lesson of talent.
Lonnie I support you, Ghostnitch, because there's a some fucked up shit.
Sinta arrives on Gorman and she and Vell haven't seen each other in a long time, and there's like a lot of emotion and and a lot of things left unsaid but that are right there at the surface, and you know, she's brought more gear for the Gorman Front and they talk about the operation. They say, well, like listen, if we don't like the way it looks, we walk away. Yeah. We find out that Vell specifically requested Cinta from Luthen
because it's been so long since she's seen her. And then Sinta tells Bell that in the time since I've saw you, I was wounded and I was out of action for quite a while, and I was thinking about you the whole time. And it's this really rich, heartbreaking, bittersweet reunion between the two party. Gaz meets with Deirdre on Courus, ount isb on Gorman, believed that the attack is imminent, that they see signs that the Gorman Front is gearing up, and they're very excited. Deirdre is very excited.
Partigas warns Deirdre that I get there's another level to this, like Cyril doesn't understand what the response, like why they're doing this. All he knows is his little part in it. And he warns Deirdre like Cyril cannot know the rest of it, so just keep him on task, which is not gonna be hard because Cyril is so excited by what he's doing. Yeah, he's like.
So hyped up on being a little spy.
So Vellin sent to run the Front through the plan, and it's a great scene that basically tells you, like what you already know, the Front isn't quite ready. They're not ready.
They've been to like one stredent protest, like they're giving that energy.
And they're talking back like well shouldn't we be armed to like well, what if this happens and what if I want to do this? And Vella is like.
Stop, can you follow?
Can you follow orders? This plan means nothing if the people involved in the plan don't play their role to the letter. And that means no improvising, that means no going off on your own doing just crazy shit. That's why we are here. If you don't like it, we can leave, but you need to be able to follow orders. And it's clear that the front is. They're very again, they're very young, a lot of the people and they're bristling at this being told what to do follow orders
like this is I didn't join the military. They don't. They don't understand what they're in for. Meanwhile, on Courissant, Lousen's signal is flashing again and Bix sees it and tells Cassian, and something is cooking there. Meanwhile, these wonderful quick cuts begin happening right where Sinta and Velle have their They get to spend the night with each other in their safe house. Cinta apologizes to vell for hurting her. It's this wonderful scene that is like drawn out in
just the right way. Meanwhile, in the Senate house, man Mathma is like becoming more and more sickened and by everything. She's seeing this like growing autocracy that's happening right in front of her, and everybody seems fine with it, and she's finding it harder and harder to keep her composure.
And after this swearing in of all these new senators, now the parties happen, and Luthen and Clea and man Mathma and Paren are all heading to Davos Skulden's gallery for this big, you know, huge party that's going to feed all these like new senators and also there's gonna be a lot of imperials there. Meanwhile, while this is going on, the hijacking on Gorman Is is happening. So at the party, Claya and Luthen are working the room.
Lannie and some is b are there. Luthen and mon Mathma Steele a moment together and she's like, listen, I want you to check on Vell. What's going on with Vell? Get me an update on Vell and Luthen. It just shows you again. It's like a wonderful small moment about like why you're worried about Vell, Like you're worried about like operational securities. No Vell's in my my, like my relation, Like yes, I want to know if she's okay. I just want to know if she's okay. There's nothing to
do with a mission. Yeah. Meanwhile, Claia improvising approaches Lannie and it's like, oh, remember we met, and like he'said, why the fuck are you talking to me right now? And he's like She's like they'll think we're flirting. Just go with it. They go to Skulden's private gallery where Mathma and Paren, Luthen and Scolden are all there, along
with shockingly, Don Dundun. Krenick is there and various members of the Imperial Elite, and they're all laughing and drinking and having a grand old time like as Golden shows them various art pieces from around the galaxy. Claia uses Lannie as a meat shield. Unbelievable. It's an incredible moment to be like, stand right here so they can't see what I'm doing. I will pretend I'm telling you about
this piece of art. Meanwhile, I'm underneath with my hand like unscrewing the bug, and I'm unscrewing it's so lodged in that like I'm cutting. My hand is bleeding as I'm trying to pull this thing out.
Claia, I don't think luth At she gives he enough credit.
I gotta be honest, like, I think she is doing the fucking thing that needs to be done.
She's she's ready to do it, and she does. They both are so good.
So meanwhile Velen Sinta hit the transport. The front swings into action, Cyril watching from a nearby rooftop is relaying all of this to the ISB party gas in Deirdre, and the plan goes awry. All across the galaxy, plans are going around play you can't get the bug out again. She blood is dripping down her arm and she's trying to pull it out. Krenick and the Imperial group as they are going around the room looking at all the different pieces of art are growing closer and closer. Lannie
is like on the edge of flipping out all the time. Meanwhile, back on Gorman, one of the young guns who was arguing about control and following orders and this and that, pulls out a blaster because some other member of the front but who's not involved in the mission sees what's going on and starts coming up, and so he pulls out this blaster try and ward them off. They wrestle over it, shot goes off and Sinta is killed. Everything
is falling apart. Meanwhile, Partigas is telling Cyril call the Imperial response team on Gorman, tell them to come now. The front manages to escape and all the way out, Bell is like laying into them like I'm not gonna have to tell you to remember this, because you will remember it. You will never forget you fucked up and you got somebody killed. This is what it's about. You will now have this hanging over you for the rest of your life. Meanwhile, the mission that Luthan sent Bix
and Cassian on was a mission of vengeance. They find doctor Gorst Bicks, sneaks into his office, uses his torture machine on him, and just leaves him hooked up to it. Who knows how long for the weekend until people come back. You know, maybe she shoots a guard on the way out, and then her and casting her in the wind.
And then Lutan was like, this is how I sawt these two out.
Just fucking get bigs over it, get the revenge, Go have some good revenge sex, and then maybe you'll fucking get back on track.
I also love the moment here as Claya and Luthen are leaving Scolden's. They've got the you know, they've got the bug in their pocket, and it's that post mission elation where they had come so close to blowing it and getting caught and now they've gotten away with it and they're joking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, can you imagine we should have been like why didn't we just go in there and fucking with a bomb and just
kill credit. They're laughing, and then we're on to episode seven. Man, this show is so good.
It's so good.
I think you know that there's been questions about whether the investment of you know, six hundred and twenty nine million.
Dollars in these two seasons was well with it.
And obviously there's lots of stuff, the things the money could have been spent on, but it is on every single moment of the screen.
It is in the detail of the practical effects.
I think a lot I've been rewatching at the scene with Will and Sore, just app like the detail of the pipe pullar and the way that it works, the level of detail in the clothing, you know, the fact that when Lutheran is on his little rebel check ins, he wears this kind of proto like nod to Jedi robes, you know, even though it's not and he's not a Jedi. There's just there's so much fantastic costuming and work in
the show. And Yeah, I'm so excited slash dreading where it goes next, because this has already taken it out of me emotionally, Like the death of Ciner after they've just been reunited. I wonder what that does to Veil and how it changes how she approaches the rest of her missions. And I also wonder what it does to the front like do they exist after this as some of them hardened? Does some of them run away like
what happens in Gorham. I mean, we've only got you know, We're halfway through the season, and I think this is a show where, even though the first three episodes were pretty slow burn, I feel like so far everything is paid off and everything has felt worthwhile and important, and now I want to see if they can land it with the other half of the episodes, and I believe they can.
The tone Zone, I think he can do it.
Oh man, We're just in it, I will say. I think that I think that Luthen's chess move with regards to Gorman is going to pay Listen, this is a Star Wars prequel. We know where this goes, right, The rebellion metastasizes, many worlds come to the side of the rebel banner and eventually they take down the Empire. And I think Luthen's chess move with regards to Gorman, which is it's not about this mission. It's not about proving
the armory is real. Everybody knows that. It's about showing what the Empire is willing to do to a planet like Gorman that just they the fuck did they do? They make cloth, they make like this is a threat, and that is that chess move I think will pay huge dividends at the cost of many thousands of gores. It will show the galaxy what the Empire is willing to do, and it will, uh, you know, be one of the sparks that really allows the rebellious bonfire to
take light. And I think that's what we're going to see is a horrible massacre at some point on Gorman,
but a rejuvenated and heavily energized rebellion. And I think one of the things that's been so fascinating to me to watch the show is like that balance between the cold, calculating figures like Luthan and like Claia, who are you know, as much as their commanders like you know, Vell and Cassian, are trying to impose order on these like amateur rebels who don't really who have all the passion and none of the skills at the highest levels. They're you know,
Luthen and Claire are also making it up as they go. Yeah, they're like they are we just you know, like, you know, I'll pull in Lannie and he stands here and I'm just.
Gonna be digging this out with blood on my hand while fucking Krenick.
Is that?
Like?
Come on?
And it's this incredible contrast between you know, Luthen really even though we get we see him coming apart the anxiety getting at him with the spat that he has with Clia, but there is this incredible balance that he's striking as one of the people who kind of sees the whole board of we need the past, of these amateur rebels who don't know how to do it but
want to do something. We need them, and part of what we need from them is we need them to get killed, you know, like we need that in order to mean we need martyrs to win this and balancing that between the reality of it and the people who have to deal with the reality of it like Sell and Vel and Synta and Cassian and Cassian. I think it wasn't a really cool character moment for casting to be like to basically say, like I don't want to
be involved in thisss. We're going towards a senseless massacre, and I don't want to be part of this. It's an incredible show. I can't wait to see where it goes. And again, you know, we've mentioned some of the films that we feel like influence this show, and I feel more than ever since we went to Gore to Gorman, that Army of Shadows, a movie about the French resistance, and some other ones, you know, Rules of the Game and The Grand Illusion other ones.
Yeah, definitely, I was. I was looking into it.
Tony is a big French historical guy, a big French cinema guy. So yeah, we're gonna We're gonna dig in and give you some great Rex because there are some unbelievable movies that clearly huge influences on both seasons of Mandal.
Incredible, incredible show. Well tomorrow and extra Vision, we are asking who are the Thunderbolts. And then our Friday, we've got our roundtable in which we're gonna cover the second batch of episodes Mandor with our Star Wars fanatical production crew, and we're going to talk about all the things we're thinking about and watching the show and then join us for news on Saturday with a special focus on May the fourth. And that's it for this episode. Thanks for listening.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
Our producers are Common, Laurent Dean Jonathan and Faye wag Our theme.
Song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi our discord moderator.