This week brought us three more new episodes of Andor, and one step closer to next week’s series finale. This trio was probably the most impressive and devastating yet, bringing the events on Ghorman to an incendiary head and bringing some character arcs to a sudden and permanent end.
If you missed our conversation about last week’s outstanding episodes, you can find it here. Now, let’s talk about three of the most compelling episodes of television in recent memory.
Zack Zwiezen: So I think these last three episodes are my favorite Andor episodes of season 2 so far and maybe the entire series. From what happens on Ghorman, the stuff with Mothma, and the heartbreaking ending seen in Episode nine... it was all so good!
Carolyn Petit: It was. In the past I’ve taken notes as I watched, just so I had a few things to refer back to when we do these chats, but with this week’s trio of episodes I was just so captivated and horrified by the slow, inexorable buildup to the events of episode nine that I totally forgot. I almost couldn’t believe how good these episodes were. But let’s start at the beginning.
First of all, it was cool to get a glimpse of life on Yavin, to see the beautiful home that Andor and Bix share there. Now if I ever rewatch A New Hope, I’ll have a fuller picture in my mind of how important this place was for the Rebellion in establishing its foothold, and what life was like there when its members weren’t off engaging in operations to subvert the Empire’s efforts.
Ethan Gach: We obviously need to start with the weird force healing stuff, which I’m sure Zack can explain. It was an odd nod to the mystical side of Star Wars we never see in Andor.
CP: Hahaha. I did like the mention of Maarva hating Force healers, or at least hating one Force healer. You have to think that’s a field inhabited to some degree by scammers and the Star Wars universe’s equivalent of manipulative woo-woo YouTubers.
ZZ: We see some of that in the Obi-Wan show, with the guy pretending to be a Jedi. I imagine fake Force Healers are a thing and I get why Andor is wary about them. Honestly, I love that modern Star Wars is making it clear that the Force isn’t something everyone believes in or understands. For many, its this weird magical thing they scoff at.
As for Force Healing, we mainly see Jedi doing it—like Grogu and Rey—but it’s been a thing in Legends and Canon for some time before that and anyone with a deep connection to the Force could in theory do it. But there’s also debate that the person isn’t really healing them, but instead the Force wants to make sure that the injured person is healed to continue on their important journey or purpose. The Force Healer even mentions that it doesn’t always work to Andor.
And we know Andor is going to do some important stuff in Rogue One. So it makes sense that the Cosmic Force would intervene to make sure he’s healthy and able to keep moving forward on his journey. And I think that’s what the woman sensed.
Did you all like the Force being included in Andor? I’ve seen some mixed reactions online
CP: I don’t mind it as this kind of fleeting bit of worldbuilding detail that informs our understanding of the characters. I think it helps that the actor playing the Force healer was so good, she really made the most of her brief time.
I wouldn’t want it to become a larger element or to overtly influence the story in any way, but here I saw it as a plot device that illuminated the fact that Cassian is feeling uptight and closed off in larger ways, and it also gave Bix something to think about.
EG: And now Wilmon is back with “One Last Job...” and Cassian is running out of time to decide if he’s going to become a professional rebel or not. I at first thought the plan to go snipe Dedra was their own as payback for Ferrix, but it seems maybe Luthen is keen to finally bag the spy that’s been tracking him for years before she can come back and finish the job.
ZZ: Yeah, I thought it was revenge too. And it might still be, but I agree. I think Luthen is trying to tie up some loose ends.
I think the one year leaps between each three episodes has worked well. But it was used perfectly here to show us how much Ghorman has changed since we last saw it. Seeing the plaza filled with Imperial troops, blockages, and reporters spouting propaganda really showed how much progress the Empire has made in taking this place over and crushing the people.
So where do we land on Syril and Dedra? I think these episodes seem to show that she genuniely cared about him. The kiss, the way she is worried about his safety, wants him to be kept in the building away from the protestors and chaos outside, etc. I got the feeling that in some twisted sick way she really loved Syril. She had a connection with him and maybe it was simply that she needed to have something to look forward to after doing what she did on Ghorman and being with him back on Coruscant was that end goal. (edited)
EG: Yes I think it did a really good job of showing two different accomplices to fascism.
The one is obsessed with fighting “outside agitators” and the other is just chasing the next carrot from their boss. They are both unnerved by what’s going on, but more at the unpleasantness and because of how it complicates their self-mythologizing, rather than because of the actual evil and pain involved. She’s like just forget about this genocide. A dozen more people were ready to pull the trigger if I didn’t. But now we can go back to Coruscant and chill and maybe get invited to some fancier parties.
CP: Yeah, that connection with Syril, strange as it was, was also the most genuine human thing in her life. Some part of her really was looking forward to that point where this was behind them and they were together again on Coruscant.
I think the show navigates that line well. It doesn’t ever make Syril or Dedra truly sympathetic (not yet, anyway), but it does explore how fascism strips those who carry it out of their potential humanity as well.
ZZ: Speaking of Syril, that moment when he sees Andor was perfect.
Everything in his life is falling apart. The woman he loved betrayed his trust. The Empire he worked for is truly evil in a way he’s finally understanding. His entire life is shattering and falling apart. And right at that moment he sees the motherfucker who sort of put all of this in motion for him. And he just loses it.
CP: Right, it was another example, maybe the best one yet, of something I think the show has done a remarkable job of across all three episode drops we’ve gotten: taking conflicts that exist on both a personal, intimate level, and on a larger, more political level, and weaving them together such that they really build up, complement each other, and then collide in ways that have big emotional payoffs in the climax to each little mini-trilogy. The personal is political, and boy does Andor know it.
ZZ: Yes! We this happen in later when Andor saves Mothma. They are both struggling with personal conflicts and that directly ties into the bigger political conflict engulfing the galaxy. Lovely stuff.
But back to the chaos at Ghorman. After Syril leaves Dedra, but before spotting Andor, we see the empire shove out some young soldiers into the angry crowd as bait
CP: My heart sank as that happened. What a way to depict the utter ruthlessness of the Empire, deliberately sacrificing its own greenest recruits for this false flag operation.
ZZ: The moment that bastard sent them out, you knew what was coming. And then the Imperial sniper aiming at not the protestors, but the guards, and starting the most brutal and hard to watch sequence in a Star Wars show or movie.
CP: Right. The show wants us to know, wants us to feel the inevitability of it all, as the Ghors stand there beautifully protesting. It really was gutting, not to mention just exceptional television.
EG The show has been jumping around so much this season, both in time and location, it was nice to finally see all of the tension erupt in one place for a prolonged period of time. Shame on the Ghormans for using their fellow citizens as human shields though.
ZZ: One of the best moments in all of this, going back to Carolyn’s point about the show weaving smaller and bigger conflits together, is when Syril tackles Andor and they fight for a bit.
From Syril’s perspective he’s trying to kill the asshole who ruined his life and put him in this place. He hates Andor. But from Andor’s perspective he’s like “Who is this random dude attacking me?”
CP: It’s amazing! “Who are you?”
ZZ: You can see Syril in that moment realize that Andor never cared about him. Never knew about him. Nothing. He means nothing to him. And then he gets killed. No special death. No redemption. Just an angry dude who thought he could be a good person in fascist evil empire realizing how small he was. Then death.
CP: Everything he’s poured his energy into for all these years, and for what? To be hated by those he’s seemingly learned to respect, like the Ghorman leader, and to be completely unknown to the focus of his obsession. I do wonder what the ramifications of his death will be in the final run of episodes, though. I somehow suspect that we haven’t seen the last of his mother.
Also, speaking of all the chaos on Ghorman, one little detail that I really liked was the hotel employee uttering that famous line, “Rebellions are built on hope.”
Very often I think one of the worst tendencies of contemporary Star Wars is its impulse to explain everything, to fill out every mysterious space in its mythos, but this little nod resonates for me. It feels authentic and human, a little way of recognizing that every individual’s contribution to the struggle matters. Like, I totally believe that Cassian would remember that, and remember his interactions with the man who said it.
ZZ: Yeah! I agree that Star Wars far too often wants to explain every detail and place it neatly in a timeline or a wiki. But that was a moment that worked for me because it showed that no voice is too small in a rebellion. This random hotel clerk on Ghorman ends up having a big impact on Andor and later Jyn Erso and her allies. In some ways, you could connect him to the successful mission to steal the Death Star plans as seen in Rogue One.
And then after Ghorman we get Mon Mothma’s plan to call out the Empire publicly at the senate. A moment we’ve know about in canon for years, but finally get to see. And what a speech.
CP: What. A. Speech.
EG: Followed by one of the best escort missions I’ve ever seen.
I like that even as the Rebellion is gearing up and there’s more and more outright insurgencies brewing, we still get a big dose of Star Wars spy craft. What might be just another blaster light show takes a much sharper focus with the double-agents in Senator Organa’s circle and Cassian’s willingness to exploit the people around him to flip the odds.
CP: And it did something Andor has repeatedly done which is use action both as action but also as something that informs character. It’s the second big moment this season when Mon Mothma is confronted with the reality of “Holy shit, what have I gotten into? What does this really demand of me?” and now I think, she very quickly has to learn to make her peace with it and move on.
ZZ: “Welcome to the Rebellion!”
CP: And I don’t want to gloss over the speech itself too quickly. I mean, my mouth was hanging open as I listened to it, as I felt the truth of it in my body.
I know the show was in production some time ago and it’s not like the writers intended to directly comment on the present moment in some ultra-specific way, but I really urge folks who are enjoying the show to read Roxana Hadidi’s piece for Vulture, “Andor Dared To Say ‘Genocide’.” I think she illuminates a big part of what makes these episodes extraordinary not just for Star Wars, but for television as a whole right now.
EG: I was kind of shocked Disney (which is currently facing a BDS boycott) let them do it.
ZZ: Same.
Thankfully, we don’t live in a timeline where a ruthless evil old guy has control over a large legislative body and can use fear to make them worship him and avoid directly criticizing him or pushing back on his plans.
And now for the moment that truly broke my heart. Andor telling Bix he’s done. That he wants a life with her. He chooses her over everything else. And her realizing, quietly as he says this, that she has to leave. It mirrors Dedra and Syril’s moment. Syril walks away from the person he loves because he no longer believes in the cause. Bix walks away from her love to save the cause she knows is more important.
EG: She fired him over Zoom just like any great media executive would.
CP: Absolutely crushing, and in a way I do have mixed feelings about.
We knew Bix had to be out of the picture by the time the series ended one way or another, of course, given that she’s not in Rogue One, and I do understand why she would make this choice. I think the story and our understanding of who she is support it well. But I did see someone on Bluesky remark that it’s almost as if Andor, as a show, thinks that to be really committed to a rebellion or a resistance movement, you can’t have other close attachments, when in truth of course you can.
Ultimately I’m cool with Bix making this choice, sad as it is, but it did make me feel that maybe somewhere in the midst of all of this, there could have been one lasting, healthy, happy relationship instead of a whole rebellion of Luthens who have made of their minds a sunless space. Well, I take it back. K-2SO did just show up so we know there’s some light in Cassian’s life!
ZZ: I totally get that criticism. And I think there are smaller examples of relationships lasting in this rebellion. Mothma and Erskin (not romantic, but still) and Wilmon and that woman in the Ghorman resistance. So I’m not sold on the idea that the show is trying to say that, but I get the criticisms.
And yes, Cassian has met K-2SO! It was nice to hear Alan Tudyk’s voice at the end. Tony Gilroy mentioned in the behind the scenes video about this episode that having Bix leave Andor right as K-2SO enters his life felt like the right move. And I agree. I really really really hope we get to see them be friends and rebel buddies. We deserve that!
EG: For now it feels like they haven’t really resolved Bix’s struggles. Her leaving felt as much about her running away as it did forcing him to commit.
CP: I agree. I wonder if we’ll see any more of her in the final episodes, or maybe learn about what she does in some spin-off comic or other story. I’d be curious to find out!
ZZ: I hope so! I feel like taking Bix out of the series like this lets them race to Rogue One, which the final three episodes will do, without having to figure out reasons she wasn’t around. And now they have this awesome character people like from a popular show that they can use in future stories set during the Original Trilogy. I’d love to see Bix in more stuff. I also know the moment she learns about Cassian will be heartbreaking.
And so, here we are. The next three episodes will be set in the days before Rogue One. It’s coming to an end and I’m both excited to see it wrap up and sad its ending. Are you all ready to say goodbye to Andor?
EG: No. I keep wishing there was an Andor immersive sim or Cyberpunk 2077-style RPG.
CP: Not really! That’s the one drawback of the three-episode drop format: it all comes to an end so much faster.
But I’m also glad the show has burned so brightly, that Tony Gilroy and co. made it so dense with drama and character and relevance and didn’t try to spread it out or water it down. At this point, I’m just hoping for a strong ending, one that cements Andor’s position even further as one of the greatest works of storytelling ever set in the Star Wars universe.
ZZ: I’ll see you all next week for the end. I’m not ready either.