The pod returns to Andor with Slate culture editor Jenny G. Zhang and, for the first time, the historian Paul Adlerstein. This second installment covers the Aldhani arc, Coruscant as pristine imperial metropole, and metropolitan contempt for the indigenous periphery—writ large in their treatment of the Aldhani tribes.
They discuss the protagonist's mirroring of Ali’s radicalization in The Battle of Algiers, how Ali’s theme song from that film makes a near-identical appearance in Andor’s own opening music, and how the heist sequence was inspired by Simon Montefiore’s Young Stalin—too perfect given Montefiore’s latest turn as apologist for America’s most murderous outpost.
Special attention is also lent to Mon Mothma, the electoral progressive forced to test her own commitments; Dedra Meero, the rising star of the surveillance state; and Syril Karn, the corporate rent-a-cop turned humiliated bureaucrat whose debacle paves the way for direct imperial control.
Arvel Skeen, too, the treacherous militant whose final and fateful words to Cass also mark a life-changing challenge:
I knew when you first came into camp. We were both born in the hole and all we know is how to climb over others to get out.
Further Reading
Project Fulcrum: Nemik’s Weekly Manifesto
"Ali's Theme" – The Battle of Algiers Soundtrack
“The Andor Dilemma: Pop Culture’s Place in Leftist Strategy,” by Van Jackson
Teaser from the Episode
Andor Season 1 Trailer
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