Anna Pigeon 1.1 “Track of the Cat”

Police procedurals are always something I have mixed feelings about. I grew up taught there were four kinds of cops – brutally militarized, incompetent, corrupt, and…fictional.

Anna Pigeon is not your standard police procedural though. The titular character, played by Tracy Spiridakos, is a National Park Service Law Enforcement Ranger in Glacier National Park (U.S. side). She’s running away from something horrible in her past, she’s competent, and…do park rangers count as ACAB? I’m leaning vaguely no, as long as they focus on what they’re supposed to focus on: Keeping people from doing foolish stuff that gets them killed.

And, of course, it’s filmed in the park, with good horse action (I am amused that they didn’t show one of the actors dismounting…he clearly wasn’t a very good rider. Unlike Spiridakos, who knows what she’s doing.

(Spiridakos is Greek-Canadian and this is a joint Canadian-US production, which is good to see, especially right now).

There are two cats in this episode; a cougar who is framed for the death of a ranger, and said dead ranger’s cat, whom the Cat Distribution System drops neatly on Anna. There’s a bit of a body count, but a lot of the focus here is on who Anna is.

Andor 2.10 “Make It Stop”

Another one year time jump, and the words “death star” are mentioned for the first time. Dedra is now wanted as a rebel spy (she’s actually just not been careful enough with her files).

Very little of Andor in this episode. The focus,  is much more on Dedra (who is admittedly a very interesting character, I kind of feel sorry for Dedra. She seems to be a little uncertain about what the Empire is doing at this point. But I doubt she’s going to heel turn, doesn’t seem her style. I kind of wish she would, but….yeah.

Andor 2.11 “Who Else Knows?”

Yes, definitely feeling sorry for Dedra. I’d have read those files too. Of course, I probably wouldn’t be working for the ISB in the first place. She’s the perfect Imperial and, being a woman, has to be twice as good to go half as far…and it definitely shows.

Probably.

Lots of fun with K-250 this episode. I’m generally a fan of droid characters, although I always feel very sorry for them. Even the good guys don’t think they should have any rights whatsoever.

But hey, he can play cards.

This is the penultimate episode and is definitely bringing some loose ends together and setting up for Rogue One. Kleya is wanted, but still trying to get the information out.

Andor 2.12 “Jedha, Kyber, Erso”

Honestly, a prequel is always going to have a bit of a funky ending. You’re really supposed to watch Rogue One again now. There’s no ending, because the ending is in the movie.

Which leaves a bunch of things rather hanging, especially Dedra. (She’ in jail, but…) K-250, of course, is in the movie.

So, it kind of hangs loose. This isn’t because it’s bad, it’s because of what it is. Kyber mining for the Death Star’s main weapon. This was always the intent, and it also contradicts a couple of secondary canon pieces…but primary canon trumps.

I’m left, thus, a bit uncertain. I don’t know that I want to watch Rogue One again, but I also don’t know if I can avoid it…

Anna Pigeon 1.2 “Hide + Seek”

The opener had me thinking we might be traumatizing children…kids playing hide and seek in the park. However, they don’t find a body.

Instead, they appear to be living in the park with their dad. And their entire family vanished, and there’s no sign of their mother.

We’re clearly meant to believe that the father killed the mother, but I personaly didn’t buy it from the start.

This episode is about grief, about dignity, and about loss. And those poor kids didn’t need any more trauma…yes, we did traumatize kids, just not in the way I expected after several episodes of Midsomer Murders.

The critters of the week are a pair of bald eagles.