Spoilers for Andor season 2

The second arc of Andor season 2 is out, and it’s another home run. It’s an improvement on the excellent previous arc as well.

Prior Criticisms Addressed

As great as the first arc was, I did have some nitpicking criticisms.

Chiefly, the previous arc didn’t have quite enough story to my mind (hence the slightly comedic B-plot on Yavin 4). It worked primarily as a ‘one-year-later-tour’ of the characters. Ordinarily, as I said last week, that would be a fine, but this arc also had a one year time jump (as will the next arc), which negates the tour.

There’s little point establishing a new status quo if it will be redundant in a week. Sure enough, there was a bit of ‘status-quo-establishing’ in this arc as well, with extended scenes of Cassian and Bix on Coruscant.

Again though, that was just nitpicking.

The new arc has fully addressed this criticisms. There was far more going on.

Ghorman

The arc focuses on the increasing militancy of the Ghorman Front as they resist the Imperial oppression that, we previously learnt, is intended to facilitate a destabilising level of strip mining (to build the Death Star). Dedra Meero and Syril are actively stoking this militancy to justify crackdowns.

They could have shown some active examples of Ghorman’s worsening oppression, like show trials, mass arrest of protesters, needlessly stringent controls. As it presently stands, we’re only being told that the Empire is stepping on the Ghorman. But I digress.

I suspect the escalating Ghorman rebellion will be the primary focus of the season’s first half (the second half will focus on the early Rebel Alliance). Many of the trailer’s Ghorman scenes haven’t been seen yet.

There’s a good reason for this.

As a spoiler for the broader Star Wars lore, the ‘Ghorman Massacre’ is an initiating event in the formation of the Rebel Alliance/Mon Mothma’s open condemnation of the Empire. This is true in current Star Wars canon and in the old pre-Disney ‘Legends’ continuity.

Dave Filoni canonised the Gorman massacre during the animated show Star Wars Rebels. Following the massacre, Mon Mothma denounces the Emperor and proclaims the formation of the Rebel Alliance. In Filoni’s show, the characters of Star Wars Rebels (the Ghost crew) then help her flee from Coruscant to the rebel base on Dantooine, with the Empire in pursuit.

Mothma’s public denouncement of the Empire, or her initial escape from Coruscant, hasn’t previously been depicted, however. I suspect we’ll see those event next week. In the trailer, there was a brief scene of Mon Mothma declaring to the Senate that “The Monster will come for us all.” This is likely a segment from her post-Ghorman massacre denouncement of the Empire.

Interestingly, the nature of the Ghorman massacre is being retconned. In Star Wars Legends, it was caused by an impatient Grand Moff Tarkin landing his ship on a crowd of protestors and crushing them. In the new arc, Tarkin is stated to have already done this. The new Imperial facility casting a shadow on the memorial is a major grievance of the Ghormans.

It seems like Andor is going to make the Ghorman massacre even more severe (it will probably involve the mining operation). This is definitely the right choice.

Before, the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War was the personal fault of Tarkin himself. Conceivably, the Empire could have scapegoated him Tarkin and avoided an uprising. Andor, by making it a significantly larger event, will make the entire Empire culpable.

Mon Mothma

The arc also showcased Mon Mothma’s increasingly futile attempts to end the oppression peacefully. The episodes depict the Senate growing unwillingness to challenge the Empire’s overreach (and its simultaneous decent into luxurious denial, with the number of parties dramatically increasing).

Mothma’s attempt to gain votes opposing the Emperor’s public order directive (a result of the season 1 attack on Aldhani) falls on deaf ears. In large part due to fear. Even the Ghorman Senator is fearful of what the Empire will do to his people if he supports Mothma.

This is a crucial element in Mothma’s character progression. Her failed attempts to prevent imperial oppression through diplomacy – and the fear the Senate apparently feels – will ultimately push her into forming the Rebel Alliance. It also explains why, in Rogue One and A New Hope, the Empire and Rebellion are obsessed with Senate opinion.

I suspect that Mon Mothma, hoping for a peaceful resolution, will initially form the Alliance to offer security assurances to fearful senators and planets so that they can more easily pursue political reform. It’s only as a result of the Death Star and the Senate’s dissolution that the Alliance and Empire will enter into an open conflict.

Wilmon Paak and Saw Gerrera

There several scenes that had Wilmon Paak assisting Saw Gerrera’ rebel cell. Luthen has sent him, as an engineer, to instruct them on the dangerous processing technique of a dangerous fuel source. The scenes depict Saw Gerrera’s growing madness (I appreciated the Clone Wars reference to Onderon) and showcase Wilmon growing radicalism.

Wilmon Paak was a fairly minor character in season one, but played a major role in the season finale. His ongoing radicalisation will also play a major role at the end of season 2, otherwise I don’t know what the purpose of these scenes were.

As a minor criticism, the sudden bait and switch in which Saw threatens Wilmon and then kills one of his followers, proclaiming him a traitor, was a little out of nowhere. There was some attempt to set it up, but it was glossed over too quickly.

It also felt a little strange that Saw and Wilmon’s arc was suddenly abandoned during e part 3/episode 6. It seemed, to my mind, like something else needed to happen after Saw’s speech about madness. Hence why I suspect Wilmon’s radicalisation will be important later on.

A few minor criticisms

The apparent abandonment of Wilmon’s story felt like a problem with the arc more generally.

 The first two episodes were spent building tension. Cassian was sent to Ghorman and had some great scenes in which he acted more as a rebel leader and spy instead of a thief. But at the end of part 2/episode 5, he leaves and gets replaced by Vel and Cinta. This was intended to create conflict between Cassian and Luthen. But then Cassian barely appears in the last episode which seems to kill the built up tension a little.

There is a brief scene where Bix gets revenge on Doctor Gorst and, together with Cassian, destroys the building. This does partially make up for Cassian’s broader absence from part 3 and serves as a conclusion to the trauma that their story was focused on this arc.

Though at the same time, the implication that Luthen set up Bix’s revenge (signalling that he had a mission for them) does undermine the Cassian-Luthen conflict they were setting up.

Like last week, however. This is just nitpicking. I did think it was a good arc. For the rest, it was kind of funny how they staged everything to ensure Cassian and Syril, who would recognise him, were never on Ghorman at the same time.

Character Deaths

It seems likely that there will be major character deaths in every arc. It’ll keep raising the stakes, make Luke Skywalker’s achievements more impressive, and, most importantly, will remove any character that doesn’t appear in Rogue One. Last week it was Brasso, this week it was Cinta.

Her death during the heist on Ghorman was quite loudly telegraphed during her preceding heart-to-heart with Vel. It seemed fairly obvious, in that moment, that one or both of them would die (now Cinta’s off to have adventures with Doctor Who).

It’s interesting that they had Cinta die in a random accident: the friendly fire of incompetent rebels. It’s a good move as well and it adds to the show’s realism. This is an element of conflict and resistance that has been perpetually overlooked by Star Wars.

Moreover, it’ll prevent the season’s constant character deaths from getting stale. Normally, when featured Star Wars characters get killed, it’s in a blaze of glory. A weekly blaze of glory would get boring pretty quickly.

It’s likely that Luthen will be killed at some point as well. He doesn’t appear in Rogue One and Kleya’s scenes in the trailers may suggest she’s grieving.

Luthen’s death will presumably serve two proposes. On a character level, it will force Cassian to assume a greater role in the Alliance, taking over intelligence operations (“think like a leader,” Luthen tells him). More generally, his death could be factor in the emerging Rebel Alliance.

The new arc made it clear that Luthen is becoming overwhelmed by the speed of events. His small and quiet puppet master approach to resistance, whilst essential to the early formation of the Alliance, is not suited to the loud and rapidly shifting events of an open rebellion. Luthen deals in subtlety and patience, the Galactic Civil War is neither, and Luthen is finding it difficult to adjust. His death, and Andor’s ascent, could symbolise the move from covert resistance to open resistance.

Final Thoughts

In summary, this was a pretty great arc. It aptly depicted the intensifying resistance and had some great character moments. I do still have some minor criticism: it felt like the story dropped off a bit in part 3/episode 6. But like last week, that’s just nitpicking.

In fact, my nitpicking critiques from last week (that they didn’t have quite enough story) have been largely resolved. There was way more happening in this arc and, as galactic events continue to escalate, I have no doubt that future arc will be packed with more-and-more story and become better and better

 The next arc can’t come soon enough.

As a final note, I massively enjoyed Bail Organa’s brief cameo. He also played an essential role in the early rebellion (and is more actively engaged with the Jedi resistance). His absence did feel a little conspicuous to me. I’m hoping he’ll play a much larger role going forward.

-Dexter