The Avengers 3.22 “The Outside-In Man”

Oh, this one is a tangled web. Somebody who defected to the classic fictional, somewhat evil country is now returning as a diplomat to make an arms deal.

Cathy is not happy with this. Steed isn’t that stupid, right, to just accept the guy who coincidentally shows up after five years in said country’s prison for, well, trying to kill the defector.

His boss might be, though.

No, he hasn’t been brainwashed to be inserted as a spy. He’s actually after revenge, making him the perfect patsy for the real assassins.

There are shenanigans with a used car. And honestly, asking about venison is a lousy passcode…what if somebody actually does want a nice hunk of Bambi?

Mmm…Bambi.

Sorry not sorry.

One of the better episodes, IMO.

The Avengers 3.23 “The Charmers”

Giving a new meaning to the phrase “charm offensive” – a charm school is cover for an assassination school.

Steed needs neither, just saying.

This episode features some heavy cooperation between England and Russia. And Steed making use of an innocent actress. And a fight between him and Cathy.

Apparently the mug shots on the bulletin board at the charm school are production personnel.

We see less of Cathy, in favor of the actress.

And no, the bonds of the Old School Tie are not that strong…or are they? That’s probably something the American viewer won’t quite understand.

Only three episodes left of season three.

Andor 2.6 “What a Festive Evening”

So, I have an issue with this episode, and it’s a fairly solid one. Two women “share a moment” that’s almost a kiss…and one of them’s dead by the end of the episode. Really, people…let’s not do this. It’s not a particularly egregious bury the gay, but it is 100% a bury the gay and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Cinta was almost certainly doomed; she was too front line not to be, but specifically reminding us of the relationship and then…yeah.

Other than that, though, it was solid. We alternate between the bombing on Gorman and a party on Coruscant, during which they need to remove a listening device from a priceless artifact in a wonderfully tense scene. That also has some interesting (and gratuitous) worldbuilding.

Finally, Bix gets her revenge by torturing the torturer.

Without the gay burying, I would have loved this episode. With it…yeah. Bad taste in my mouth.

Andor 2.7 “Messenger”

Ah, time jumps. It’s only a year, but it’s still a time jump. Cassian is now at the rebel base on Yavin, being a Han Solo level loose cannon.

He’s now been tapped to assassinate the female imperial intelligence agent on Ghorman.

Where the locals are having the classic argument…violent resistance or nonviolence? Little do they know that the Empire has already decided to evacuate and strip mine their planet.

(Evacuate to where? Is the evacuation real? Can they really evacuate an entire planet in 48 hours?)

And those conscript troops look awfully young, don’t they.

We also see the first, yes first, on camera appearance of the Force, in the form of a mysterious healer. Cassian, of course, doesn’t believe in it, but it does appear to believe in him.

(Apparently, the time jumps are because they originally planned five seasons, one a year, but didn’t have enough material…but it kind of leaves out a lot of story about how, exactly, Yavin was set up…)

Andor 2.8 “Who Are You?”

Surprise surprise, no evacuation. Just mass slaughter.

A peaceful protest – people chanting and then singing what appears to be the Ghorman planetary anthem – is kettled and then shot up. The chaos prevents Cassian from taking out Dedra, but she may not be much of a concern now…

…because her boyfriend broke up with her, ran out into the protest, and got himself killed. She doesn’t seem to be handling this well…

How many Ghormans did they kill? Seems to be a good part of the population of the capital, including some people who weren’t at the protest. I’m thinking this evacuation is definitely fake.

(And the energy source is, of course, for the death star. Murdering entire planets is entirely on brand, is it not?)