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Another week, another incredible episode of Andor. What else is there to say? There’s a level of adult, genuinely adult, sophistication on this show unmatched by any other iteration of Star Wars. It would be foolish to remake Star Wars in its entirety in Andor’s image, of course; this is primarily a franchise for children, always has been, and thus it should remain. But why not cast a wider net from time to time? Why not create a Star Wars show with things to say about human relationships, the nature of fascist cruelty, the routine dehumanization of prisoners, the whole ball of wax? For god’s sake, a character suspects another of having an extramarital affair! Another gets euthanized! On screen! In a Star Wars show! I watch this thing and at times I literally can’t believe my eyes and ears. It’s that consistently surprising, that consistently thoughtful, and that consistently good.

This episode tracks our heroes through some very dark times. On Coruscant, Senator Mon Mothma watches as her pleas to reign in the Emperor’s excesses fall on deaf ears in the Senate, where some members cheer, more members heckle, and others simply turn off their floating podiums in an ostentatious display of “la la la la I’m not listening.” Major last-days-of-the-Reichstag vibes.

Behind the scenes, things are tough as well. Her banker friend Tay — whom we learn was a childhood sweetheart, explaining some of their obvious romantic chemistry — tells Mon that she’s moved money she can’t account for and he can’t paper over. She’ll need a loan to fill the gap, which means reaching out to a Chandrilan gangster. 

Earlier, Mon receives a visit from her cousin…Vel! Yes, the leader of the Rebel cell that pulled off the raid on Aldhani with Andor is indeed from a family of rich aristocrats; as with Mon, this serves as cover for her real activities. It’s Vel who inquires if there’s more going on between Mon and Tay than just business. For her part, Mon just asks Vel to act like a spoiled rich girl for a while instead of continuing to go on dangerous missions for Luthen. “Who?” Vel deadpans. 

Back on Ferrix, Bix Caleen falls into the hands of ISB officer Dedra Meero, who really lets her fascist flag fly in an interrogation scene. She’s mostly there to act intimidating and reveal to Bix just how much they already know about Ferrix’s rudimentary Separatist/Rebel operation. The interrogation itself is the field of one Dr. Gorst (Joshua James), a smiling young man who’s helped develop a torture technique utilizing the psychoactive screams of dying alien children slaughtered by the Empire. I mean, for Christ’s sweet sake, people, this is brutal.

(Please also note the visual shoutout to Darth Vader’s interrogation of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars: The door slams shut and the camera whips to the ground as the boots of a guard tread past.)

Bix gives up all she knows, and Meero reports back to the ISB. Together they suss out that Andor was involved in the attack on Aldhani, which makes him crucial for more reasons than just his connection to Luthen, the unknown figure the Empire has dubbed Axis. Later, a Rebel pilot — part of a faction run by Anto Kreegyr, the man Luthen tried and failed to persuade Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera to meet with last week — falls into their hands. The ISB plans to stage his death so that his ship will be recovered and brought back to the Rebel base. All of this is done with relentless, even cheery efficiency. All these people are very good at their jobs; watching people perform tasks skillfully is one of the consummate pleasures of visual narrative fiction, which is what make this storyline all the more perverse.

One person particularly drawn to Meero’s competence is Syril Karn. Still browbeaten non-stop by his mother at home, he’s received a promotion thanks to the ISB wiping his record clean in exchange for his cooperation and intel. Karn literally stalks Meero in order to thank her — and to express the inspiration and hope she’s provided him, in painfully flowery and sincere language. “Just being in your presence, I…I realized that life was worth living. I realized that if nothing else, there was justice and beauty in the galaxy.” Do I understand looking at Dedra Meero and feeling this way? Yes I do, which is alarming in its own right.

But the main action is on Narkina 5, where Andor continues to suffer in prison. For one thing, his table-mate Ulaf (Christopher Fairbank), despite only having a little over a month left in his sentence, is starting to slip, beset by obvious physical and mental problems. Andor himself is gaming out an escape attempt — noting that the elevator that leads to their room isn’t wired for electricity, secretly sabotaging some kind of wire in the restroom, conspiring with other inmates — but can’t really get anywhere unless and until his supervisor, fellow prisoner Kino Loy, divulges how many guards are on each level. Loy wants nothing to do with any of this.

That changes once word gets out that two entire rooms on another level have been executed. Why? They got restless when a prisoner from another level, ostensibly “released” at the end of his sentence, was simply shipped to their room instead. No one’s getting out, in other words. Except for Ulaf, who has a massive stroke, and whom an inmate doctor euthanizes right there on screen. After that, Kino tells Cassian there are only 12 guards per level. The wheels are turning, that’s for sure.

I focus so much on the writing of this show, the shocking and rewarding ways that it deviates from the Disney Star Wars norm, that I feel I neglect the performances. Frankly, they’re uniformly excellent. Genevieve O’Reilly, conveying Mon Mothma’s imprisonment in a gilded cage. Denise Gough, making Dedra Meero one of the most magnetic and frightening villains in the Star Wars legendarium. (She’s serving Peter Cushing, baby.) Diego Luna, a rat in a trap, always searching for a way out, never letting himself let up. Andy Serkis, showing layers of weariness and fear under Kino Loy’s bluster, emotions that finally give way to anger when he realizes he’s been had. Kyle Soller barely keeping it together as Syril Karn, all desperation to prove himself to someone, anyone, to be respected, perhaps to be loved. Kathryn Hunter as his mother, a passive-aggressive martinet, making his life worse even as she purports to be making it better. It’s such a wide range of performances for such a wide range of characters, all of them handled with care, all of them, even the bad guys, treated as three-dimensional human beings.

Unless things go badly wrong, Andor has already cemented itself as one of the best science-fiction shows of the century, up there with Battlestar Galactica, Dark, and Raised by Wolves. I simply cannot wait to see how far it goes.

Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Times, and anyplace that will have him, really. He and his family live on Long Island.

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