One of the strengths of the show has been the strong theming and coherency of each episode, like the end of the third episode when Cassian (Diego Luna) leaving his home in the present is beautifully intercut with young Cassian being transported from his childhood planet in the past. This is something that The Book of Boba Fett struggled with sometimes, where an unrelated solid 20-minute flashback would break up the main story and trainwreck any focus. Episode 5, “The Axe Forgets,” is about just that- people or Empires routinely inflict physical or emotional damage on others so often that they don’t even remember specific victims. However, as Skeen adds, “the tree remembers,” and there are a lot of victims remembering throughout this 40-minute entry, and it all provides some of the best interpersonal drama yet.
Let’s start with Skeen, who I definitely thought was being set up as a traitor last episode. Now? I’m not so sure. If he is a double agent, he’s got one of the most convincing cover stories ever, between his dehumanizing barcode Imperial prisoner tattoo to him finally sharing the story of how his brother killed himself after an Imperial prefect casually took his generational tree farm. Imperials don’t remember him, but he’s forever scarred by the Empire’s actions, much like his brother’s centuries-old trees. Each member of the Rebels has their own reasons for fighting, but ultimately each can be traced back to the Empire carelessly running over those not in power.
Likewise, Cassian has (unintentionally) been a bit of an axe to Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), since he’s ultimately the reason Syril got fired and is now at home with own axe of a mother (Syril has a lot of axes in his life). We learn that Cassian doesn’t even know the name of the former deputy inspector from whom he took the blaster, but Syril’s got a lot of time to think about Cassian, staring at his hologram more intently than me at a Starbucks pumpkin spice advertisement. We also get some perspective into why Syril acted the way he did in the opening episodes- he’s been surrounded by relentlessly critical family since birth, and finding Cassian may be the way he finally proves himself. His mom won’t even let him enjoy his blue Trix cereal without getting 5 personal criticisms in, poor guy.
Syril’s mother may be thoroughly toxic for her son, but it’s unfortunately done in a realistic way, much like all the drama and friction between characters this episode. Heck, Syril and his mother aren’t even the worst family breakfast we see, with Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) definitely in trouble if this was an episode of Survivor. Her useless husband and spiteful daughter are not in her corner, supposedly because they feel left out of her business or used for her career, respectively. I haven’t seen this many uncomfortable family breakfasts since Breaking Bad. I’ve only seen Mr. Mothma for about 10 minutes over this show, but I’m going to say not letting him in on her Rebellion side was a good call. He’s got less of a spine than Jabba the Hutt. Also, I’m pretty sure Mon Mothma’s driver is a spy- they keep bringing him up so we don’t forget about him.
Besides the theming, the goal of this episode was familiarizing us with all these characters and plans before everything (presumably) starts hitting the fan. That way, when a character like Skeen dies, we feel a lot more emotion than we typically do when a random Rebel gets shot in the background. This is a Rogue One spinoff, after all. Cassian plays a balancing act between his new band’s members, showing both his value while admitting he’s only there for the money and not a spy. They eventually (mostly) accept him and each other besides their personal differences, so it’s kind of like Remember the Titans if they all went on a suicide mission after winning the football game.A TIE fighter shooting past may have been the lone action sequence (and I’m using that very loosely), but the soundtrack, writing, and effective performances gave us plenty of drama to chew on before everything starts blowing up next week.
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