I agree with the score mostly, except my own score this episode is a straight 8 of 10. The reason is the beginning, which continues straight on from the end of the final as young Cassian gets trapped in the ship by already elder adopt mum.
The scene is acted well as you can feel the young Cas being totally bewildered by the alien machine, the invaders. The irony with the yellow skinned crash landers is that they were somewhat associated with the Imperium, maybe even being part of the original rebel elements. However, it is delightful that you don't see any imperial war elements in this story.
You expect them to be there, and they are referred in the story, but instead of getting them we got the lesser, but far more interesting corpo's acting the Imperial Code and Practices.
The Buyer at Ferrix Terminal. Although most of these people in the shot are human, the Ferrix capitol has an interesting bunch of aliens, in equally low positions, even though you can see the corporate influence in the mega-structures. They are no scientists, and no corpo security officers. No real hirarchy but everyone knows what the blue armour means when they come in the sight.
As a real intriguing aspect they ring the bells, all things in the tune of the drummer in the tower, to signal the danger inside otherwise fairly pacific society. It is also notifed that when they stop ringing, that the corpos should worry...
In itself, that is such a rebellious element that you can't but root for Mr Andor, the Buyer and the rest of the citizens. And the most intriguing thing in this pacifist, scavenger society is that even though they on daily basis deal with the wrecked war machines, they don't salvaged weaponry.
It is almost as if they have a code on that subject. So unlike in the other SW products, the warfare and fighting isn't really part of them, even though all of them rebel against the blue coats. And therefore, the Imperium.
The buyer or the real spy. To me, the whole beginning with his introduction spoke a high praise to LeCarr and his novels that many opens similar way, very slowly before the hook set in. You can sense that he's not first time doing the business as even in this picture, he's carrying multiple disguises and his gaze is always darting around like a hawk.
But it's the gadgets, the connections and how he handle the business as he approaches the offsite warehouse at the back of the city that speaks about his professionalism, before he opens his mouth to Cassian and reveals that he's the real player. A mystery man.
In the episode, he's named as Luthen, but is that he's real name? I suspect not.
The Raider and 4 assault craft, that looks like they're advanced version of the Clone War era style craft. They showed swift execution in the drop and splitting their parties to cover the whole Ferrex capital, which from the PoV feels so tiny, even though the scenes depict it as a very large urban settlement.
Why they didn't follow the hoverbike at the end with their assault craft? I don't know.
I hated that they straight marched to Marva's place and trashed it, as if it meant really nothing and the old lady was not worth of their time and manners. It was such intimation that it winded up the whole town to ring the warning bells, after B2 cocked up hiding the comm-kit.
The setup and the trap. The whole scene in the engine warehouse is the best material. The Buyer meets Andor, but he really isn't interested in the gear, but rather the man who got the item. The Imperial Nav Kit is a secondary item as Cassius is the item number 1 in the list. For the corpos as well. They had no idea about the deal. All they wanted was the murderer.
Thing that surprised me was the accuracy in the shootout. The corpo guards were much better at shooting than your average stormie and that put up the tension. Ten-fold, because you see those bolts cutting the chains and causing all the havoc with the engines literally smashing the room, while the town got upset with the bluecoats and their barbaric methods.
I thought that they were over oppressive towards the local population. Almost as if that the local lives meant nothing and there was nothing to it when they wasted the informer, the fixers jealous boyfriend and left her to stare at the corpse. It felt like an apartheid scene, but at the same time all the happens in this and in the following chase through the capital speaks about the matured darkness, and showing the audience the grittiness without sprinkling the Disney magic dust over it.
Overall, this is mature SF. And it is a spy story that might not end so well for Mr Andor. More over it is a well thought spy story, and it shows the craftwork and how the business runs in fiction, on a suppressed timescale.