These Days Will End, Cassian Andor: Shifting Distrust to Trust

One conflict and conflict resolution theme clearly runs throughout Andor: trust.

·       Can Cassian Andor rely on his friends and acquaintances on Ferrix not to let slip that he was born on Kenari?

·       Can Luthen Rael, Mon Mothma and their close circle trust each other to keep their work secret?

·       Will the tiny Rebel band attempting a galactic-scale heist on Aldahni trust Cassian, the newcomer to their ranks?

·       Will they all be able to maintain this trust through a hundred small differences of opinion or more significant conflicts?

The Role of Trust in Conflict and Conflict Resolution

Prof. Roy Lewicki of The Ohio State University, a researcher of interpersonal trust, has explained the role of trust in conflict and negotiation:

“The existence of trust between individuals makes conflict resolution easier and more effective. This point is obvious to anybody who has been in a conflict. A party who trusts another is likely to believe the other’s words, assume that the other will act out of good intentions, and probably look for productive ways to resolve a conflict… The level of trust or distrust in a relationship therefore definitively shapes emergent conflict dynamics…”*

Trust: A Key Theme In Andor

To appreciate trust’s importance in Andor, look no further than the series’ first pivotal scene: the meeting between Cassian Andor and Luthen Rael on Ferrix, in Andor’s third episode.

Cassian hopes to sell Luthen a piece of equipment he should never have been unable to obtain: a brand-new Imperial Starpath unit. Luthen is willing to pay an exorbitant price for a working unit, but how can he know it is real and working? Cassian is unwilling to turn it on. The moment he does, it will not be new anymore and its value will drop. What if the unit works, but Luthen backs out of the deal, leaving him with a depreciated asset? It comes down to a question of mutual trust: Can Luthen trust Cassian that the unit is real? Can Cassian trust Luthen that this is not an Imperial sting operation aimed at arresting him, and even if he is an authentic buyer, that he really intends to go forward with the deal?

Of course, Luthen is also playing a different game, recruiting Cassian for the nascent Rebel Alliance’s Imperial payroll heist. Even regarding that longer game, of course, he needs to assess whether Cassian is someone he can trust.

Star Wars negotiations are often short; not this one. In fact, this might be the longest negotiation in Star Wars (other than the negotiations between George Lucas and Walt Disney over Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm. Perhaps).

And it’s all about trust.

Luthen puts trust on the negotiating table, bluntly: “You could be scamming me”. “I give you my word”, Cassian responds, hoping Luthen will take the leap of faith we call trust, but unable to perform a Jedi Mind Trick. Luthen refuses, asking “And if that’s not enough?” Cassian laughs, and says “You know where I live”, clearly implying that he has no doubt that if he scams Luthen, he will pay the price.

What’s going on here, trust-wise?

Three Routes To Trust: On Ferrix, And In Our Own Galaxy

Lewicki explains that trust between negotiators develops along three routes:

Deterrence-based or calculus-based trust

This route to trust is premised on the assumption that people act in accordance with their rational self-interest. We conduct a subjective cost/benefit analysis estimating our opposite’s own self-interest, and trust them to act as they committed only insofar as this promotes this self-interest. Our counterpart will keep trust only if they gain by doing so. If breaking trust would benefit them more (for example, if we can’t punish them for violating our trust), they may choose to do so.

When Cassian reminds Luthen he can always be found, he’s trying to form calculus-based trust. Essentially, he’s saying “You can trust me, because you can always find and punish me”. Luthen recognizes this, explicitly as usual, saying “So I could come back if I were dissatisfied”. Still, he rejects this route to trust: “You’re planning on sticking around, are you?”. Like Maz Kanata looking at Finn in The Force Awakens, he’s looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run.

Knowledge-based trust

This second route to trust is grounded in our predictions about the other, based on what we actually know about them. This type of trust can form if we’ve studied our negotiation opposites deeply (as Luthen has, in preparation for this meeting), but can develop from other sources of knowledge about them: their reputation, the networks they belong to, the values we know them to hold, or their behavior in previous interactions.

 “Has Bix ever burned you before?”, Cassian asks Luthen. In reminding Luthen of his past experience with Bix, he hopes Luthen’s knowledge-based trust in Bix will extend to members of her network. It doesn’t, really, but Luthen is willing to go down the path of knowledge-based trust. If Cassian can demonstrate the type of know-how and strategic thought necessary to steal the Starpath unit, perhaps he’s telling the truth about actually having done it. So, he begins grilling him about how, and where, he got the unit. He’s even willing to pay extra for Cassian to share his secret sauce for nicking Imperial goods. It’s not that he needs that tidbit of knowledge for future capers; he wants to use it as part of his trust-assessment. While Cassian’s “You just walk in like you belong” explanation didn’t fully satisfy him, his follow-on explanation resonates with Luthen’s overall assessment of the Empire. “They're so proud of themselves, they don't even care. They're so fat and satisfied, they can't imagine…. That someone like me would ever get inside their house, walk their floors, spit in their food, take their gear”.

At this point, something shifts in Luthen’s assessment of Cassian’s trustworthiness. He’s made up his mind, trusting Cassian is who he says he is and can do what he says he does. Luthen’s negotiation goal shifts from obtaining a genuine Starpath to recruiting Cassian himself. He now needs Cassian to find him trustworthy enough to follow. To this end, he draws on a third type of trust.

Identification-based trust

This third route to trust develops when one party perceives that their counterpart shares characteristics, traits, or backgrounds with them. We tend to trust counterparts in whom we (often subconsciously) identify perceived similarities with ourselves. These similarities can be significant, innocuous, or even ridiculously irrelevant - such as in eye color, hometown, college attended, or love (or hate) of the same sports team – still, they spark a sense of trust in our counterpart.

Luthen seeks to form this trust with a quick response to Cassian’s description of the Empire’s hubris. “The arrogance is remarkable, isn’t it? They don’t even think about us”. In just one sentence, he agrees with Cassian’s assessment of the Empire and gives it a name, arrogance. He shifts to a “us” frame, placing himself on Cassian’s side. And, he identifies their mutual opponent, the Empire. . Cassian doesn’t bite, at this well-crafted three-headed trust gambit, and he waves it aside. “Us? I don’t know you”. Luthen must work harder, and show more cards, to build this trust with Cassian. His next sentences reveal things he knows about Cassian, each continuing to place them on the same side against the Empire. In fact, he speaks to things that Cassian himself might never have realized were a part of his own drive and identity. Listening to Luthen’s “These days will end, Cassian Andor” speech, Cassian’s distrust of Luthen dissipates bit by bit even as his hackles rise at the realization that this encounter was not what he had thought it would be. And while his instinctive response is to draw his blaster and stick it in Luthen’s face, at some point he crosses an imperceptible line of trust, perhaps without even recognizing it himself. The telling moment comes when Cassian hands his communicator to Luthen and watches him destroy it out of fear they were being tracked.  

This formation of initial trust allows the two to work together to avoid the ambush laid for them by the Corporate Tactical Forces and leave the planet together.

With these three routes to trust in mind, move on to the next episode. Consider the conversations between Luthen and Vel, Vel and Cassian, Vel and her team, and the team and Cassian, in episode 4. Each centers on trust; in each, you’ll now be able to identify each of these three routes to trust making an appearance.  

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*Lewicki, R.J. (2006). Trust, trust development and trust repair. In M. Deutsch, E.C. Coleman & E.C. Marcus (eds.), The Handbook of Conflict Resolution. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, p. 110.