Theorizing The First Season Structure of 'Andor'
Image source: Disney+
Three years into the existence of Disney+, Andor has finally premiered. Three episodes were released on September 21, as the prequel to the latest-occurring prequel film in the franchise. We know quite a bit about the story by this point, but there are still plenty of unknowns. After watching these first three episodes, some thoughts came to me; I’m not normally one to guess at the plot or try to predict what obscure characters will surface from whatever novels, but with certain things about what these three episodes presented, things started falling into place…I think. I have no idea how well these theories will hold up, but if they age like milk, so be it.
Andor is going to run for 24 episodes, split evenly across two seasons. Season one spans a single year, five years before the events of Rogue One and A New Hope. Season two spans the entire remaining four years with an ending transitioning directly into Rogue One. Each year is explored in three-episode pods. So is season two more structured than season one? I’m not sure that’s the case; I believe that season one’s structure isn’t based on setting, but about characters. The series is about getting to Rogue One, but this season may be about bringing Andor to where he needs to be, and to the characters he needs to be with. Andor has been touted as Mon Mothma’s series as much as Cassian’s, and she was nowhere to be found in these first three episodes. We weren’t anywhere near Coruscant either. But hey, it’s Andor’s show; the opening pod should be his, and it was known they’d be separated to start. So what if this next pod of three is focused on Mon Mothma? I don’t think Andor’s role in this hypothetical structural section would be nonexistent, but it would definitely be reduced if they’re starting out separately with an equal amount of episodes.
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With this in mind, there are two possibilities after episode six: a streamlined convergence, or continued separate storylines? Will they meet up soon for in-person collaboration and strategy, or is the third quarter full of their early remote communications as they work on both fronts, coming together for the final quarter? Again, this isn’t predicting plot points, but simply hypothesizing structural possibilities. Anyway, even from a distance, their collaboration would be just as satisfying as it will be when they come together. The point where he becomes an intelligence officer, however, might come as a high note at the end the season, or maybe as things get even more dour and dire over the four years of season two.
Again, this could age horribly almost immediately with the release of the fourth episode, and if it does, I’m ready. Figuring out how the season was going to play out structurally seemed plausible, without getting entangled by plot speculation. After all, we already know how it ends.
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