Last time we considered whether Andor could save the world.
At the risk of eating my words in three weeks time, this felt like the odd one out in the season so far. Not, as I saw predicted, a self-contained story but a grouping of some excellent scenes that didn’t quite fit into any of the preceding episodes. It’s enough, I think, to say that the scene with Fiona Shaw was the absolute highlight, a heartbreakingly tragic farce where Andor’s actions in the previous six episodes have alienated her from him in a way he cannot explain. I had full expections that the show was going to go with the trite old ritual of “Oh, I’m secretly ill/infirm/otherwise unable to come with you by virtue of being old” and what happened instead was really good. Special mention as well to the Imperial bureaucracy scenes, a stunning mash-up of the original trilogy’s Imperial Officer scenes with a modern-day KPMG internal presentation.
With that out of the way, we can get down to the one absolutely critical question this episode raises (and a minor corollary to it). That is: when are we going to see Senator Binks?
Jar Jar Binks was so ferociously maligned on the release of the Phantom Menace that his role in the subsequent prequels was trimmed down considerably, but Lucas did retain for him a critical role. Binks is the Senator who — in a repeat of the events of Phantom Menace where Padme played this role — proposes that the Senate grants the Chancellor emergency powers, that he then uses to create the Grand Army and ultimately elevate himself to the position of Emperor.
Since Mon Mothma’s original intrusion into this series the Coruscant content has only been creeping up. We’ve seen the Senate, the speeders, the endless political hokum. Not noted enough is how much this content, which is of a high quality with much of the rest of Andor, draws almost exclusively from the prequels. Indeed, the spectre of the Emperor which hangs over many of the Coruscant-set scenes can only be understood as the conniving, sophisticated Chancellor Palpatine rather than the seething space wizard from Return of the Jedi.
Andor does diverge — as noticed in droll fashion by twitter commentators — from the stage-like dialogue style of the George Lucas films, instead going for a somewhat naturalistic style, though far from the hyperactive modern blockbuster sensibility the sequel films ended up with. It would be hard to imagine Anakin and Padme’s romantic exchanges intercut with scenes on Ferrix. Jar Jar however, despite having his own dialogue controversy, does not speak in particularly romantic terms. Indeed, given what would be his now long departure from his home world of Naboo for the life of the senator, a broadening of his speak would make sense — one fewer ‘meesa’ here and there.
If you’re wondering how the character of an aging politician who has done little in their political career other than inadvertently vote for terrible things might be portrayed, might I suggest the array of colourful characters in the British Parliament.
But perhaps that would be too cynical for poor Jar Jar, who retains a childlike innocence through his appearances that parallels him with Anakin, the other ‘stray’ adopted by Qui-gon Gin during the course of The Phantom Menace. Both Anakin and Jar Jar have a wide-eyed approach to politics that allows them to be manipulated by Palpatine, and while we know that Anakin is enmeshed into the Imperial apparatus long into the future, it would be very neat to see a comfortable Senator Binks do the grunt work of the new Emperor in the Senate — perhaps engaging in some light menacing of Mon Mothma. Alleline, the US-aligned up-and-comer who takes over MI6 in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy isn’t a villain — just someone too unaware to know when he’s being played. That’s how I’d fit Jar Jar in here.
Anyhow, idle thoughts.
The corollary is (of course) are we going to see Sheev himself? But I think the answer to that one is “probably, yes”.
Up next:
- Andor: Episodes 1, 2, 3
- “Can Andor save Star Wars from itself?” Andor: Episodes 4, 5, 6 (supplemental)
- Andor: Episodes 8, 9, 10
- Andor: Episodes 11, 12
Ranking, best to worst:
- The Phantom Menace
- Andor: Episodes 4, 5, 6 (supplemental)
- Andor: Episodes 1, 2, 3
- Andor: Episode 7
- Flashback recap of the prequel trilogy
- Obi-wan: Episode 5
- Obi-wan: Episode 3
- Obi-wan: Episode 1
- Obi-wan: Episode 6
- Obi-wan: Episode 4
- Obi-wan: Episode 2
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