Star Wars Andor S2E2: "Sagrona Teema" (continued more)
As night falls on the second day of traditional Chandrilan wedding shenanigans, Mon is approached by her old banker friend again. Tae, his name is Tae. Anyway, Tae has sobered up and come back from his newly-bachelorized house, and this time he manages to grab Mon for long enough to actually say what he wanted to say. It ends up not being anything that wasn't already at least implied in his earlier attempts, but he's able to provide more details now. Tae's investment empire is falling apart. His wife left him because of the investment decisions that he made, and those decisions were made specifically to prop up Mon Mothma's nonprofit front for Luthen's rebellion.
I'm a little vague on what, exactly, Tae is supposed to have invested and how it went wrong. Last that we knew, he was just giving Mon financial advice on how to hide her own activities, not fronting anything of his own (and even then, he ended up having her go to Gul'Dan for the actually committed parts). Maybe I missed something, I don't know. Or else, I guess he's just been playing other financial support roles for the rebellion over the last year that had nothing to do with Mon's earlier dilemma? Well, either way, Tae's very unhappy and feels like Mon hasn't been appreciating his sacrifices for the cause.
She tells him that he should have told her sooner if things were getting that bad. But, it's also clear that she realizes she hasn't been making herself approachable these last few months. She left several messages from him unanswered. She's been spending all of her time either at the senate, or dealing with Gul'Dan, or being depressed and burned out. It's hard to blame Tae for not wanting to be more of a bother, considering the stakes of what they're trying to do here. But it also allowed serious problems to go unsolved until they got too big to ignore.
Granted, I'm not sure how much my heart should break for a super rich guy who stops being super rich. I mean, it's sad that his wife left him, but still, put things in perspective.
She assures Tae that she'll do something to help him out of the troubles she may have partially gotten him into, just wait until the end of the wedding weekend and she'll figure something out. His reluctance to give her an actual number for how deep his debts are is definitely ominous, though. Even more ominous is the way that Luthen pounces on Mon the instant that Tae has wandered off, demanding to know what that was about.
However reluctantly compliant Tae might have been with Mon's request to wait another day and a half, Luthen doesn't think it can wait that long. Tae sits at a confluence of three very dangerous qualities: knowing too much, being disgruntled, and being alive. One of those things needs to change ASAP, no delays.
He doesn't actually tell Mon that he's going to murder her old school friend if they can't make him happy with them in the next day or so. He doesn't even imply it actively. But, that's because he doesn't need to. The look of barely-muted terror on Mon's face as he asks her about the situation tells both us and Luthen that she knows damned well what the options for them are.
Granted, Tae might have a dead hand thing set up. But, the likelihood of that depends on how much he actually knows about what Mon is funding, and I'm not sure he realizes that she's sponsoring full-on armed rebellions. If he knows that that's what he's gotten himself into, then yeah, he might have contingencies.
Luthen also asks Mon if she thinks it likely that Tae will go to Gul'Dan for an out. Not sure what he means, exactly. Afraid that Tae is going to try and get more information out of him about Mon's activities, for leverage? Or something else?
We also still don't know what Luthen himself has been conspiring with Gul'Dan about. Or how he even got in touch with him himself. There's something really whacky going on with Chandrila's bankers.
Unfortunately for everyone involved (especially Tae, potentially), this conversation is interrupted by Man Mothma calling everyone back to the banquet table for the sagrona teema. A traditional toast/speech/blessing type thing that the father of the bride gives on the second night of the wedding.
It's...simultaneously very heartfelt and touching, but also really depressing and telling. A speech that reflects on what this man knows and on what he DOESN'T know in almost equal measures.
He tells the bride and groom that misery will find them. He phrases it ambiguously enough to make it seem like he could be talking about trouble from any source, but if you've been watching the show until now then you know damned well what he's actually thinking of. There's an incredibly bittersweet way about him as he looks at his daughter and her fiance, as strange to each other as he and Mon were when they got married in this same house, at around the same age. As strange to each other as he and Mon still are, even though it's twenty years later and they have a child together. He knows this is wrong. Even without his personal misgivings about the Burning Legion's accomplices, just the parallels with his own life and where his marriage went (or, really, didn't go) are enough.
He tells them that, in light of the carefully unspecified misery that will surely find them, they should be sure to find the moments in between that make life worth living. Even just the simple pleasures of food, music, good company. Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces during occasions like this one. In his words, that they will find these moments, and allow them to be "the music beneath the noise" that helps them make it through.
...
It's...god. On one hand, he really is doing his best. He's opening up about how unhappy and unfulfilled he actually is, and - despite his inability to imagine anything better for his offspring - he really is trying to help them make the best of the hand life has dealt to all of them. At the same time though, his misery is just so...what's the best word? I have one in mind, but I don't think it's really appropriate. Is it? Okay, fine...dumb. His misery is dumb.
The only thing keeping him caged is his own lack of imagination. He's determined to be idly rich, and - as far as the show has revealed - to be only idly rich. Does he have a life's work? Does he even have a life at all, really, outside of the parties and vacations and (presumably) business ventures that he manages from light years away without ever feeling the benefits of their success? He's being left out in the cold by his wife because, basically, she has things that she cares about and he doesn't. He isn't even, like, a self-absorbed artist or anything, as best I can tell. His whole personality is "being idly rich."
All he needs to do is anything. But he won't. And he can't see beyond his own indolent, overly-comfortable habits. Ironically, he's actually doing an exemplary job of living his principles; the way he goes about his personal life is basically identical to his politics.
The sad thing is that his daughter might be the one thing that he actually does care about. He's just completely unequipped to do anything to help her. He doesn't even have the nerve to object to the match, even though he clearly isn't thrilled about Gul'Dan joining their family. The most he'll do is just passive-aggressively bitch about it once in a while.
Still, flawed though both the messenger and the message itself are, there is something that rings true buried within it ("music beneath the noise," to use his own words). Taking the little moments of joy and pleasure when they come your way through an otherwise dark time. We can see that illustrated throughout the series, with Luthen, Cassa, Bix, etc all savouring their few moments of calm, comfort, and company, and using them as fuel to keep on fighting through.
Just, they also are actually fighting the rest of the time.
In a strange way, this insight into Man's character makes Mon easier to appreciate. She had all the same environmental pressures that he did, and he has enough human in him that you can tell he didn't need to turn out this way. The fact that she was able to tear herself free of this aristocratic ennui - even if she still has some minor foot-dragging tendencies - displays her strength of character.
...
Finally, we return to the jungle planet. Night has fallen, and the two gangs of morons are having a final confrontation in advance of the TIE getting spun around into shelter-destroying position. Both gangs march out in full force, torches burning, guns drawn.
It's...simultaneously very heartfelt and touching, but also really depressing and telling. A speech that reflects on what this man knows and on what he DOESN'T know in almost equal measures.
He tells the bride and groom that misery will find them. He phrases it ambiguously enough to make it seem like he could be talking about trouble from any source, but if you've been watching the show until now then you know damned well what he's actually thinking of. There's an incredibly bittersweet way about him as he looks at his daughter and her fiance, as strange to each other as he and Mon were when they got married in this same house, at around the same age. As strange to each other as he and Mon still are, even though it's twenty years later and they have a child together. He knows this is wrong. Even without his personal misgivings about the Burning Legion's accomplices, just the parallels with his own life and where his marriage went (or, really, didn't go) are enough.
He tells them that, in light of the carefully unspecified misery that will surely find them, they should be sure to find the moments in between that make life worth living. Even just the simple pleasures of food, music, good company. Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces during occasions like this one. In his words, that they will find these moments, and allow them to be "the music beneath the noise" that helps them make it through.
...
It's...god. On one hand, he really is doing his best. He's opening up about how unhappy and unfulfilled he actually is, and - despite his inability to imagine anything better for his offspring - he really is trying to help them make the best of the hand life has dealt to all of them. At the same time though, his misery is just so...what's the best word? I have one in mind, but I don't think it's really appropriate. Is it? Okay, fine...dumb. His misery is dumb.
The only thing keeping him caged is his own lack of imagination. He's determined to be idly rich, and - as far as the show has revealed - to be only idly rich. Does he have a life's work? Does he even have a life at all, really, outside of the parties and vacations and (presumably) business ventures that he manages from light years away without ever feeling the benefits of their success? He's being left out in the cold by his wife because, basically, she has things that she cares about and he doesn't. He isn't even, like, a self-absorbed artist or anything, as best I can tell. His whole personality is "being idly rich."
All he needs to do is anything. But he won't. And he can't see beyond his own indolent, overly-comfortable habits. Ironically, he's actually doing an exemplary job of living his principles; the way he goes about his personal life is basically identical to his politics.
The sad thing is that his daughter might be the one thing that he actually does care about. He's just completely unequipped to do anything to help her. He doesn't even have the nerve to object to the match, even though he clearly isn't thrilled about Gul'Dan joining their family. The most he'll do is just passive-aggressively bitch about it once in a while.
Still, flawed though both the messenger and the message itself are, there is something that rings true buried within it ("music beneath the noise," to use his own words). Taking the little moments of joy and pleasure when they come your way through an otherwise dark time. We can see that illustrated throughout the series, with Luthen, Cassa, Bix, etc all savouring their few moments of calm, comfort, and company, and using them as fuel to keep on fighting through.
Just, they also are actually fighting the rest of the time.
In a strange way, this insight into Man's character makes Mon easier to appreciate. She had all the same environmental pressures that he did, and he has enough human in him that you can tell he didn't need to turn out this way. The fact that she was able to tear herself free of this aristocratic ennui - even if she still has some minor foot-dragging tendencies - displays her strength of character.
...
Finally, we return to the jungle planet. Night has fallen, and the two gangs of morons are having a final confrontation in advance of the TIE getting spun around into shelter-destroying position. Both gangs march out in full force, torches burning, guns drawn.
Leaving Cassa totally unguarded. His hands are tied to the wall and each other, but he's a savvy guy, and they left a lot of unsecured objects within leg's reach.
As Cassa gets his foot on a blaster pistol, drags it up to his hand, and shoots through his restraints, the leaders of the two gangs make a final attempt to talk each other down. Demanding each other submit. Yield the captive, or yield the gunship. Accept that the one guy's brother betrayed them, or accept that he didn't. But no one is backing down.
So, as a last resort before everything decays back into deadly violence, they try one last method of resolving this.
Paper, scissor, rock.
-____-
You know, if they had done this before the shooting started in the first place, I could call this something like an endearing quirk. It coming after multiple fire fights, but before a final all-out fire fight, just makes them seem even more unhinged than they already did. Like, imagine the mindset you'd need to have for paper-scissor-rock to be an intermediate escalation between two levels of internecine violence.
...
I'm starting to wonder if this entire bunch are just part of a stress hallucination Cassa is having as he languishes alone in the jungle.
...
One of the muppets looks up from their paper-scissor-rock tournament long enough to notice their invaluable prisoner escaping. Fortunately for Cassa, this is also right around the same moment that the corpse-eating jungle monsters get frustrated by the lack of corpses being generated and decide that if they want something done right they've got to do it themselves.
Careful there, jungle monsters. Eating these guys will make you stupid.
Cassian escapes, shedding no tears for whoever the fuck these people were supposed to be. Their leader might be a client of Luthen's, but frankly, if she's still alive, I think she might have some HR issues she needs to sort out before doing any more operations.
Also, man does the TIE gunship look sexy in flight.
Just got to say.
As Cassian flies off into space and presumably gets Luthen that wedding present in time for him to paint over the blaster-marks and present it to the Mothmas, we see an element of the planet's skyline that I think we're meant to recognize.
Those pyramids look a lot like the ones on Yavin IV, the planet that will have become the ARR's primary base of operations by the time of RO/ANH. Guess that's where we've been this whole time.
I wonder what it is about Yavin IV that made it such a perfect place for rebels to lurk there? Seemingly not just the presence of the ruins that they'll later renovate, if Cassa and his contact AND these other assholes were both making jungle landings long before then. Hmm. Maybe it'll explain it later this season.
Also, if it turns out that the jackhats Cassa left for the jungle monsters end up surviving, gaining 40 IQ points apiece, and somehow managing to build that base for the Alliance, I will laugh so fucking hard. Please be canon.
Another jampacked episode. I didn't have to rewatch it quite as much as its predecessor, due to the introduction work being already done, but I did have to rewatch it in order to get everything important. At least, I think I got everything important.
I'm curious about where the Yavin Yahoos plot is supposed to be going. If they all get eaten by jungle monsters and we never hear about them again, it would render this entire subplot kinda pointless (except I guess as a lesson to Cassa about the importance of "organization" in one's "organized resistance," but I'm not sure that that's a lesson he needed to learn). I'm not sure when we'll get the payoff for it. Possibly next episode, possibly not until a later arc of this season's when it comes time to actually build the Yavin base or whatever.
I have a feeling Tae isn't going to be alive for many more episodes. What's going on with Gul'Dan and his dealings with Luthen, well, that's the biggest mystery at this point. I'm still interested to learn more about the former's son and exactly how he's going to hilariously bounce off of Lita, but that's less pressing.
I'm guessing that after the TIE gunship heist is over and done with, Cassa's next mission is going to be going undercover on Gorman. Maybe that's what the payoff to Yavin Yahoos will be; it'll have equipped him to recognize the warning signs when he meets Dierdre's psyop-rebels. Of course, the death star IS going to be completed in the next four years, so it's probably safe to assume that the Galactic Empire wins this round, but perhaps the Cassa, Luthen, and Co will at least be able to turn it into a costly victory.
The centrality of Man Mothma's toast to this episode is...kind of obtuse, but I can still see why it earns the naming rights. Seeing the Rix Road cell enjoying a little bit of their time on the farm before Space ICE comes down on them (among other details, Twink seems to have a thing with a local girl, and Bix is making slow but significant progress toward recovering from her vogon poetry ordeal) in particular. Mon managing to find a tender moment or two with her otherwise estranged daughter, too. Meanwhile, the moments that seem like they should be smell-the-roses opportunities for Dierdre and Cyril are so painfully artificial and alienated that, despite their positions of material success and security, it's hard to say that they have as much to live for as the struggling rebels.
Strong episode, keeps all the plates from the one before it spinning excitingly without being quite as overwhelming.
