Rebellions are built on hope, and we’re all hoping that the final three-episode arc of Andor can live up to what’s come before it.
Andor season 2 is being dropped in three-episode arcs over the next several weeks, with each arc making a year time jump, leading right up to Rogue One.
Mark your calendars.
Andor returns for its final season. Don’t miss the three-episode premiere streaming April 22, only on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/dilaKJkrvk
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 8, 2025
Last week’s three-episode arc saw several major events happen that brought us ever closer to the events of Rogue One and put a potential bow on the stories of several characters when it comes to Andor.
Timing notes
After being fairly consistent at the start of the season, the penultimate arc of Andor season 2 shook up the timing formula a little bit. Two of the three episodes — Messenger and Who Are You? — came in under 50 minutes, slightly under what we’ve been seeing. Meanwhile, the final episode of the arc, the monumental Welcome to the Rebellion, came in at over an hour, not only the longest of the season but of the entire series. But it was a spritely hour, packing enough action and story to make it so I barely noticed that the episode was significantly longer than the other two episodes of the arc. Episode 9 left me wanting more, which is always a sign of a good, impactful episode. I would imagine that finale will be in that range to tie everything up nicely, but only time will tell.
Notes
(Warning: Spoilers for the third and penultimate three-episode arc of Andor season 2 ahead.)
- Tensions on Ghorman came to a boil and reverberated across all our characters’ stories in this three-episode arc. Wilmon goads Andor into a revenge mission on Ghorman to kill Dedra, who is now on planet regularly as the Empire nears its endgame of fomenting enough insurrection to justify tightening its grip on the planet. Of course, poor Syril has no clue about any of that, which is a point of contention that leads to his ultimate fate. And the fallout of the Ghorman massacre will change the galaxy forever as Mon Mothma embraces her destiny.
- It’s evident that the final stages of the Empire’s plan for Ghorman are upon us even before it’s spelled out specifically. The news reports are parroting the Imperial propaganda, painting the Ghor at fault. Beyond that, the Empire seals the deal by springing a trap for the Ghor by making the people think the plaza has been reopened and is ripe for a protest. That’s exactly what the Empire wants, of course, and they’re banking on things taking a violent turn. When we see the green recruits the Empire has sent to Ghorman for security, it’s clear they’re really just leading the sheep to slaughter. Thus, it was unsurprising that the Imperial sniper fired upon said green recruits rather than the protestors, setting off a chain reaction which turned a peaceful protest violent. The Empire is willing to take on collateral damage to a point until their play their ace — their K-2 units. These dominant, unforgiving droids turn the tide and wreak havoc on the Ghor. In the end, only Carro Rylanz could see the impending doom, but his efforts to open his people’s eyes to the danger of the open plaza failed and what he feared indeed came to pass — an Imperial slaughter.
- Even before the fighting began, the Empire had been tightening its reins on the Ghor since the end of the second arc of this season, and the people of Ghorman were getting restless. So, for that matter, was Syril. Prior to violent confrontation in the plaza, Syril confronted Dedra about what was really going on, but she will only tell him they’ll be heading back to Coruscant soon … together. And they’ll be rewarded. When Syril is less than enthused by her answer, she attempts to kiss him into submission. Unfortunately, our power couple never gets their happy ending as Syril, seemingly sympathetic to the Ghor and frustrated by the obvious lies of the Empire as to the mining they’re preparing to do, violently confronts Dedra just before the chaos begins, choking her and demanding to know what they’ve really been doing on Ghorman all this time. He is feeling betrayed by her keeping him out of the loop when it comes to the Empire’s true intentions on Ghorman, but she says everything would have proceeded with or without them and reiterated that they were going home and going to be together, before reminding him he didn’t mind the promotions. Ultimately, he looks defeated and wishes her luck, walking out of the office and out of her life as he leaves the safety of the Imperial HQ and finds himself among the Ghor in a mental fog. At least until he sees the man who put him on this cursed path … Cassian Andor.
- Andor had split up from Wilmon upon arriving on Ghorman, checking back into the same hotel he stayed in before. He sees a friendly face in the bellhop he had met the year before, who not only doesn’t turn Andor in for not having the proper paperwork but reveals himself to being on the side of the Rebellion, using the line “Rebellions are built on hope” that we’ll hear in Rogue One. Cassian has several attempts to eliminate Dedra fall by the wayside before getting caught in the chaos of the violent confrontation in the plaza. In the chaos, Cassian ends up in the path of Syril, who attacks and engages in a vicious fight with his mortal enemy. Syril seems to have the upper hand, but is undone when he is dealt the cruelest blow of all. For as much as he’s been consumed by bringing Andor to justice, Cassian bursts his bubble completely when he doesn’t even know who Syril is. It’s an unintentional version of Don Draper telling Ginsberg that he doesn’t think about him at all. This distracts Syril long enough for Rylanz to get a shot and take him out, saving Andor’s life. Despite their less-than-friendly final conversation, Dedra appears to be strongly affected by the death of her boyfriend, but in the end is able to pull herself together to do her job. But, she does seem more affected than I thought she would based on Denise Gough’s comments before the season that Dedra’s only real boyfriend is the Empire.
- Amidst Andor’s escape with Wilmon, the K-2 droids are wreaking havoc. Cassian valiantly fires upon one to no avail and appears to have exhausted all his luck … until Samm from the Ghorman Front, the sad boy killer of Cinta, rams an Imperial transport into the K-2 unit, killing it. Wilmon has to stay behind to find his Ghor girlfriend Dreena (seriously, this guy apparently has a charisma that travels across the galaxy), but he and Samm do Andor one last favor and help him load up the destroyed K-2 unit to take back with him to the Rebellion.
- Speaking of the Rebellion, the Ghor Massacre and how the Empire is massaging it as a tragedy ON THEIR SIDE is the final straw for Mon Mothma. She can no longer work to bring the Empire down from the inside, she believes she can no longer turn a blind eye to their actions. Bail Organa feels as though he has to remain for their Rebellion to work, almost like a hostage himself, but agrees the time has come for Mon to leave the Senate and head to Yavin. It is decided that she will deliver a scathing rebuke of the Empire and their operation on Ghorman and will then immediately be whisked off planet to Yavin. But, Luthen appears for the first time in the arc to let Mon know that Bail’s team is compromised and she has to trust him and his extraction team, which turns out to be Andor. There are trust issues, to say the least, between Mon and Luthen, which are not helped by the revelation that Mon’s closest aide has been working for Luthen to protect her since Leida’s wedding. Mon summarily dismisses the aide before heading to the Senate to make her speech. Despite all the uncertainty and questions of who she can trust, Mon delivers her speech and it’s as incendiary as the ISB had feared. She tears into the lies the public has been fed and how the Senate has lost its grip on the truth. There’s a monster coming from them all, and that monster is Emperor Palpatine (truer words never spoken). Of course, she is to be immediately arrested, but luckily for her, Cassian is on the scene and reminds her that he has friends everywhere (the code phrase Luthen had given) and promises to get her to safety. After a couple of close calls — including with the mole in Bail’s extraction team, stormtroopers and Mothma’s ISB plant driver — Cassian gets Mon to the safehouse where he had been living during the prior arc. Kleya is there, and so is an injured Wilmon with his girlfriend. Cassian takes Wilmon back to Yavin, while Mon has a date with Gold Squadron and eventually the crew of the Ghost, the ship on which she will make her declaration of rebellion as seen on the animated Rebels series.
- Before going their separate ways, Mothma notes that Cassian knew his way around the now-empty safehouse. That empty safehouse where Cassian and Bix had shared their love is an apt metaphor for what is to come for Cassian back on Yavin. Upon his return, Cassian tells Bix he’s ready to leave everything behind and just focus on her and their love. He’s tired and he’s done. Unfortunately for him, Bix is in it to win it, and she takes the choice out of his hands. Before he can make his intentions official with rebel officials the following day, she leaves, leaving him the video equivalent of a Dear John letter. She loves him, but knows he is meant to do great things for the Rebellion and she can’t stand in the way of that. She promises that once they’ve won, she’ll find him and they’ll do all the things they want to do. Of course, we as the audience know that will never happen, which makes her selfless choice all the sadder. And it locks Cassian on his path with the Rebellion.
- As Cassian looks to tend to his emotional wounds (hopefully better than he did his physical shoulder wound at the start of the arc), the Force grants Cassian a blessing. As one partner vitally important to Andor exits, another enters. That K-2 unit that Cassian has brought back from Ghorman has been reprogrammed and it’s time to turn him on to see if the process worked. And we finally got our Cassian-K-2 meet cute … with plenty of sass and guns drawn.
So this it, we’ve come to the end of the road for Cassian and the Andor series. It feels like we may have seen the last of Wilmon, Bix and Mon Mothma in the penultimate arc, but never say never. Personally, I would be intrigued to see a flash forward at the end of it all to see Bix’s reaction to the news that Cassian gave it all to the Rebellion. But, if we have seen the last of those major characters, there is still plenty of juicy story to tell. Luthen and Kleya were used sparingly in this penultimate arc, but still seemingly have the walls closing in on them. We don’t see either in Rogue One, so will one or both survive the final arc? Whatever happened to Cassian’s quest to find his sister, the inciting incident for all of this? It feels like that is a loose end that needs to be tied up. Will Dedra question her devotion to the Empire be shaken by Syril’s death, or has she given up too much of her soul already? And will she ever come face to face with Axis? And what mischief will we see Cassian and K-2 get into now that they’ve finally met. I imagine you don’t introduce him into this story without having a plan on what you want to do with him, so perhaps we’ll learn how they developed the bond seen in Rogue One. And finally, what role will Krennic play in the final arc? It seems strange to bring him into this story for what little he’s done thus far, so perhaps he will come back and play a role in whatever happens to Dedra, Partagaz and the rest of the ISB.
No matter what, you gave to give it to Tony Gilroy for putting together such an outstanding story. Andor more than lived up to expectations, it far exceeded them. The series has been perhaps the most consistently excellent piece of Star Wars content of the Disney ownership era, so hopefully it goes out with a bang. May the Force be with you!
