Andor Season 2 Episodes 4-6
"Ever Been to Ghorman?" / "I Have Friends Everywhere" / "What a Festive Evening"
Writer: Beau Willimon
Director: Ariel Kleiman
Cast: Diego Luna, Genevieve O'Reilly, Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Forest Whitaker, Muhannad Bhaier, Faye Marsay, Elizabeth Dulau, Kathryn Hunter, Anton Lesser, Benjamin Bratt, Alastair Mackenzie, Verada Sethu, Ben Mendelsohn
The year is BBY 3. The role of Senator Bail Organa, typically played by Jimmy Smits, is now played by Benjamin Bratt. Both wonderful actors. If I'm Jimmy Smits, I'm absolutely laying into my agent, wondering why I drew the Obi-Wan Kenobi mini-series and not #PeakStarWars.
It's not ideal, but they're both great actors, and we've got a rebellion to foment.
Bad Dreams
Cass and Bix play at domestic bliss in an apartment on Coruscant. This is a safehouse provided by Luthen with a panoramic view of the skyline.
They are careful to monitor one particular tower in the distance, its beacon set to blink whenever Luthen needs them to report in. They sometimes venture out to shop for groceries, though Cass is extremely wary of looming surveillance. The two are very much in love, permitting themselves to consider taking this to the next level: Venetian blinds.
Bix puts on a brave face, but her nights remain haunted by visions of Dr. Gorst as well as a nameless Imperial soldier Cassian killed on a previous mission. She feels guilty, concerned that his motivations had too much to do with protecting her. They're both beginning to wonder whether they can give themselves over fully to the cause if they're constantly worried about the other's safety.
This is the sad refrain throughout these episodes. We all remember Luthen's monologue from last season, an all-timer that Brett wrote about at length. Not everyone gets to see the sunrise. Luthen and Saw operate with the understanding — or self-fulfilling prophecy — that they will not live to see their work come to fruition. They are damned. That's sobering for Luthen, but it allows him to justify the tough choices. And Saw? If there is peace in acceptance, Saw finds a kind of … ecstasy.
Is love incongruous with such a calling?
An Idiot Abroad
This week's episodes center on the political powderkeg Ghorman, subject of Krennic's recent invite-only seminar. The space cable news networks are abuzz with happenings there. Even brightly feathered Space Hoda and Space Kathie Lee weigh in. Things are tense, and the citizens whisper of revolution in their native Ghor — a variation of French. Several of our main players operate in its shadows, including the least likely of intelligence agents.
Syril enjoys a new posting, where he indulges his every John le Carré and Patty Highsmith gentleman spy fantasy, wandering the avenues of Palmo with what is almost certainly an empty attache case, leaving strands of thread across his doorway to detect trespassers.
Dedra and Partagaz installed the little weirdo as a willing lure for the newly active Ghorman Front, an underground cabal of would-be freedom fighters anxious to snare an Imperial defector. A nagging Eedy Karn serves as an unwitting participant in the ruse, their daily calls an opportunity for Syril to express sympathy for the Ghormans he knows to have tapped his phone.
They take the bait and invite the talented Mr. Karn to a clandestine meeting of local business leaders with *checks notes* a spider-shaped candy with an encoded location on the wrapper. Syril offers a sympathetic ear to the Ghormans, who are concerned about the increasing overreach of the ISB and new Imperial construction rumored to be an armory. This is not the first time the bootlicking twerp has witnessed seditious public testimony like this, and it will be interesting to see if any of it permeates. You have six more episodes to be radicalized in the other direction, Syril! I'm not placing any bets of course.
Syril also makes brief return jaunts to Coruscant and ISB headquarters. I couldn't help but notice he wore orange in his meeting with Partagaz, the same color that made Eedy look so out of place in the austere white apartment he shares with Dedra. Syril considers this audience with the old man the greatest day of his life. Which … gross. Speaking of which, he also stops at the apartment for the single hour of free time Dedra has allotted for extracurricular activities, during such time she instructs him to turn off the lights. Whether this is because she's just informed him she's having him followed, or this is standard nookie procedure for Team Dedril, we'll hopefully never know.
The Girls You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party
The honeymoon is over and Mon Mothma is only just recovering from last year's hangover. It's a bit hair-of-the-dog, because she and Perrin have been hobnobbing with all the freshman senators at an increasing number of dinner parties. A bit uncouth crowding the calendar like this, if Perrin has anything to say about it; he does. Mon is burnt out, consistently turned away by anyone she approaches about stemming the overreach of the ISB.
The rebels and Imperials alike are overwhelmed by their own tangles of inquiry. The Empire has made just about everything illegal, meaning too many criminals to monitor. Luthen has too many radios to keep track of. And now the provenance of Davo Sculdun's artifacts are under scrutiny, necessitating appraisal.
This sets off alarm bells for Kleya, who must remove a bug they have hidden in one of the antique tables, lest their whole operation be uncovered. And they have to do it out in the open within meters of Imperial brass.
Kleya, Luthen, Mon, and anyone who's anybody in government descend on Sculdun's lavish Coruscant digs. Mon's so flustered she almost doesn't recognize true blue Bail Organa amidst the flash of the paparazzi droids' camera flash.
Even Luthen's reluctant ISB insider, Lonni, is there, and he's pulled into Kleya's life or death scheme. Ushered into Sculdun's private gallery of plundered cultural heritage items, Luthen and Mon are captive to their host's bloviations and some thinly veiled rancor from Orson Krennic in all his finery. Mon does not hold back in the exchange of barbs, and if we didn't know otherwise, I'd expect these two were destined to tumble over Reichenbach Falls together, grappling to the last.
Meanwhile, Kleya uses Lonni as a human shield to conceal her efforts in removing the bug. Steely as ever, she even sheds a ribbon of blood for the cause as she finally wrenches the thing loose. Mission accomplished. If you've ever wondered what it'd look like had Hitchcock ever directed a Star War, here you go.
Waiting to Inhale
We should probably rewind a bit and talk about Wilmon and Saw.
One year out from the events on Mina-Rau, Wilmon finds himself on loan to Saw Gerrera's Partisans at what seems to be the height of Saw's deeply unsettling Colonel Kurtz era. The lad has the extreme misfortune to know how to operate what I can only describe as a series of high-stakes lockpicking mini-games necessary to syphon Rhydonium, a highly volatile starship fuel, from Imperial cruisers. Saw and the gang are plotting their next move on D'Qar, the planet which will eventually serve as a Resistance base during The Force Awakens. Wil is tasked with training one of Saw's men on the various methods of finessing these machines.
All the while, big fluffy Gigoran gunner Moroff saunters the perimeter like a Great Pyrenees begging for scritches. The relative under-representation of non-human aliens in the series makes the big guy all the more conspicuous, and I love it. Where Luthen and Mon trade in microexpressions, the Partisans go loud.
It's quickly apparent that Saw only wants to keep one Rhydo syphoning expert alive, so there's some tension there. He ends up executing the other guy, Pluti, instead of Wil, claiming that the man was an Imp informer. There's some chance that's true. Who really knows?
Saw leads his crew to a dockyard and orders Wil to begin the extremely dangerous task of siphoning Rhydo from a ship's fuel tank. Given that the task is like playing Operation on a moving bus even on a good day, it would behoove Saw to step back and give the lad some room. Instead, he launches into a monologue to rival Robert Shaw in Jaws, emphasizing the corrosive nature of the gas and his embrace of dying for the cause. Wilmon succeeds in making the connection. Stirred by Saw's words, consigned to his fate, he removes his protective mask and gulps in the fumes.
Ah, kiddo. This is not going to end well for you, is it?
Web of Lies
Cassian's commitment to the cause is further tested when Luthen sends him to Ghorman to engage with their would-be rebels. In the guise of jetset fashion designer Varian Skye, Cass gets to know the planet and its people, moved by a bellhop's account of the Tarkin Massacre. In 19 BBY, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin caused the death of some 500 Ghorman protesters when he ordered his shuttle to land atop their peaceful assembly in the city of Palmo.
But Cass is put off by the rebels' intent to announce themselves, dismissing them as being too late to the fight and woefully ill-prepared. I have to wonder whether he was really just fearful the well-meaning Ghorman would suffer a similar fate to the uprising on Ferrix and was allowing his affection for these revolutionaries to color his judgment. Luthen is of course frothing at the mouth for the Ghorman to go loud, and he questions Cassian's resolve. No matter; Vel is already en route to the planet to help them organize.
Vel reunites with Cinta on Ghorman, confessing she only agreed to the assignment if Luthen also recruited Cinta. Cinta explains that she's been out of action for a time, that she was injured following an accident. It's possible that this may have been connected with the assignment to terminate Tay Kolma, but something tells me this was much more than a combat injury. Cinta is vague, but I get the impression this may have involved a crisis of conscience or even self-harm. I could be entirely misreading the moment, but there's something about her choice of words. An "accident." It's left ambiguous, and unfortunately we'll likely never know, because Cinta does not walk away from this operation.
After reuniting with Vel, reaffirming their devotion to each other, Cinta dies an inglorious death as sad as Brasso's. More so. Friendly fire after a penny-ante heist, well beneath her pay grade. We don't even see the blaster bolt. Even more heartbreaking, Vel's composure and professionalism as the crew make their escape, only to buckle on the slow ride out. She reels on the boy who caused Cinta's death, coolly assailing his worth, cursing him to inhabit his shame forever.
"She was a miracle."
To compound the tragedy, the entire mission was orchestrated by the ISB with intel fed to the Front by Syril, who observes it all from a safe distance.
His Own Medicine
Largely unbeknownst to Cassian, Bix is self-medicating with small vials of an illicit drug. The substance goes unnamed, but perhaps we're looking at death sticks? Her submission to the drug mirrors Wilmon's reckless inhalation of Rhydo fumes. Both seem resigned to their doom. A visiting Luthen is wary of her pallor and all that time spent staring out the window like a Victorian ghost. He ultimately decides not to send her out on a solo mission in Cassian's absence, taking the opportunity to step back and learn how the two share (or withhold) information. This leads to another row for the couple when Cassian returns, so fearful of losing each other to this consistently perilous lifestyle. Cass breaches protocol and storms into the antique shop to confront the old man. They can't keep meeting like this.
The arc concludes with Dr. Gorst entering the Coruscant facility where he's to spearhead an expansion of his interrogation program — and even his boosters at the ISB are unhappy with that decision. Fortunately for everyone, Bix ambushes and restrains the torturer in his own office, subjecting him to the same monstrous recordings he used on her two years earlier. She doesn't stick around to relish in his convulsions though, executing a guard without breaking her stride. Cassian joins her out on the street, thumbing a remote detonator as he matches her gait. They don't look back as the building behind them erupts in multiple explosions. Bix risks a quick glance to Cass and can't help but smile.
Six episodes remain. I'll see you along the road.
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