‘Andor’ Recap: Season 1 Episode 5 — Vel’s Team Preps for Garrison Raid

This week on Disney+’s Andor, Vel and her ragtag team readied for their raiding of the Imperial garrison, only to get waylaid by a bit of a bombshell reveal. Oh, and Syril’s mom is a pill!

After getting a less-than-warm welcome from Vel’s band of rebels last episode, Andor woke to find Skeen rifling through his belongings (though the kyber crystal remained safely stuffed in Cass’ pocket). Skeen had all kinds of questions, including from where “Clem” got his corporate-issue blaster. Andor meanwhile clocked shirtless Skeen’s tattoos, which said/indicated “Krayt Head” and “By the Hand,” after which they bonded half a smidgen over their respective times spent caged in youth centers.

“Clem” then got a better lay of the land with regards to who’s who and believes what within Vel’s team. Nemik, for example, is chockablock with ideas about the importance of rebellion (and probably has an in-progress manifesto he will happily share with you). Cinta was hailed by Skeen as the “toughest” among them (oh, and she already “shares a blanket” with someone on the team, lest Clem get any ideas). And Lt. Gorn, Cass eventually learns, lost a promotion with the Empire because he had fallen in love with a local girl. He then lost the girl, too, after which his taste for the Empire soured, triggering his turncoat actions.

“Clem” also proved his genuine value to the op, after realizing that Vel and Taramyn have no idea how to get the box freighter out of the garrison, attached to an overhead rail as it is. He will figure it out, he says, provided that he gets to pilot the getaway vehicle — and they sheepishly agree.

After Taramyn led the men through repeated rehearsals of their march toward the garrison as uniformed soldiers (Vel and Cinta’s roles in this mission are conspicuously under wraps) — and after dodging at least one pesky TIE fighter flyby — the team donned Aldhani farmer garb and began their trek toward the garrison. Things took a turn during a pit stop, though, when Skeen pressed a knife to Clem’s throat and snatched the 30,000-credit kyber crystal hidden beneath his shirt. (“Who brings a treasure to a robbery?!” he demanded to know.) “Clem” admitted that he is being paid for his services, and that he is in this only for the money. Vel in turn revealed that recruiting Clem was in fact not her idea, but she won’t say whose it was.

Cassian smartly tempered the mood by suggesting that everyone is simply nervous, as is often the case “the day before,” and that by griping about his origin they are actually looking for a parachute away from this audacious enterprise — words that seem to ring true across the group.

That evening, after the team signaled to Gorn at the garrison that they were in place for the next day’s raid, Vel brought Skeen over to Clem, so that he could share his personal investment in this fight. We and Cass learned that Skeen’s brother saw his pepper tree farm seized and destroyed by the Empire, after which the bereft man took his life. Relaying the sad tale is not much of an apology for his actions, Skeen admitted, but Clem asserted it was enough of one.

Meanwhile at the garrison, Lt. Gorn all but pulls a Jedi mind trick by “reluctantly agreeing” to a bare-bones stationing of men inside the facility the next evening, so that they can enjoy the light show in the sky.

Elsewhere in Episode 5….

LUTHEN LAMENTS LOOSE ENDS | As Vel and her team are making camp nearby the garrison, we see that Luthen is glued to a radio, listening for any chatter/updates. His assistant (…and maybe more?) urged him to soothe his nerves, saying, “They’re either going to be OK or they’re not.” Luthen then disclosed his concern that not only Vel might tie back to him if captured, but also “the thief, Andor.”

HOME, UNSWEET HOME | One might surmise after this episode that Mon Mothma joined the rebellion just to get away from her crappy family! For on top of husband Perrin’s (barely) passive-aggressive ways, their daughter Leida is a bit of a brat, and coldly declined to let Mom take her to school (as some of performative act, the teen argued). Later, Perrin asked his wife about the new foundation he learned through a mutual that she is creating; she sniffed back that she didn’t think he’d be interested since it is “charitable.”

SAY UNCLE | As if getting dressed down and decommissioned by the ISB wasn’t enough, Syril Karn spent this episode getting taken on an epic guilt trip by his disappointed mother, Eedy, who is resolved to at long last call in a “favor” from Uncle Harlo.

TOO RANDOM TO BE RANDOM | Though officially not investigating the stolen Starpath unit that turned up on Ferrix, the ISB’s Dedra put in lotsa hours combing through files, tallying other suspicious thefts on Kessel, Jakku and elsewhere. Her dutiful attendant, Heert, agrees: Though scattered about and seemingly unrelated, the incidents are too random to in fact be random, and instead are probably part of a larger, increasingly organized rebellion effort….

What did you think of Andor Episode 5?