Disney Plus’s Original Series Andor Season 1 Episode 6 “The Eye” kicks off with a look at how a normal imperial family live their lives. From what the viewer can see a family has to maintain perfection if the officer wants to get ahead. A demonstration of this is when Stanley Townsend’s Commandant Jayhold Beehaz does a wardrobe check with his wife and son. From what the viewer can see, he hates it when one small thing is out of place, be it with his uniform, his wife’s attire, or his son’s shirt. He even talks about how everything must be perfect when they meet another officer due to his want to be transferred to another planet. A comparison can be made between how an imperial family lives their everyday lifestyle and how a real military family lives their everyday lifestyle as well. They both generally have to have their attire in proper order, or the soldier looks as if they are unable to keep order in the field. The same could be said for Commandant Beehaz regarding his own family and position. Perhaps this aspect was based off a genuine military family for the viewer to make a connection.
Additionally, the viewer sees that the heist is set to happen during the natives of the planet’s yearly ritual. The interesting part about this is how the natives are being treated by the empire in the sense that they are being described as subjects in a social experiment. Commandant Jayhlod Beehaz goes into a description how the empire plays mind with the natives giving some the illusion that they can chose not to trade with them. However, the truth is that they do not have a choice in any manner when it comes to trading due to them being the only people they can trade with on the planet.
Later into the episode, Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor is enacting the heist with everyone in Faye Marsay’s Vel Sartha’s group to the point where everything goes wrong due to an unforeseen event happening that leads to one of their own dying. From here all chaos breaks loose with an intense gun fight as everyone tries to get on board the escape ship. Unfortunately, this also leads to another one of their own getting seriously hurt as he helps Andor pilots the ship away from danger. Just as everything seems to be working out for the better with what is left of the group Andor is forced to make a choice between getting their severely injured member medical attention or continuing to the meeting point that was agreed on. In Andor’s mind, all he wants to do is make it out in one piece with the money he made from helping with the heist. However, he knows that their member risked everything to pull off the heist and make sure everyone that is left makes it out safe despite how he should conserve his energy as he is severely hurt. Deep down he knows that he is a good man and will not let him die without doing everything he can to help him.
At the end of the episode, the viewer sees that Andor is given another choice to either leave with Ebon Bachrach’s Arvel Skeen and spilt the money between just them or stay with Vel honoring the deal that was made. The interesting part about this is that by the look the viewer can see on Andor’s face for a small moment he thought about leaving with Arvel. It can be inferred that due to Arvel lying about his past Andor decided to get rid of him as he would sell him out should they leave. For better or worse the viewer can make their own assumptions as to his decision on coming clean and honoring the deal with Vel, be it for honor or to prove he is not like Arvel who said they were alike.
Rating: 8.5/10