'Andor' Season 2 Recap: Space Drugs the Movie

After last week’s Andor Season 2 premiere, I was determined to watch all three episodes at once this time. Surprise! That also turned out to be a mistake. While the first mini-arc was an almost breezy experience until that gut punch of an ending, Episodes 4, 5, and 6 brought to life my exact fear when the Season 2 release strategy was announced: It’s too damn much.

In all honesty, I almost kind of hate this week’s arc because I felt chained to my couch for three hours. Don’t get me wrong, it’s brilliant. Each episode is the richly detailed experience that fans of Andor have come to expect, but that’s the problem. This arc demands a weekly release schedule so each episode can breathe and give people a chance to marinate in its events. We should have had an entire glorious week of Saw Gerrara discourse based on Episode 5 alone! (Cannot recommend that link enough.) Instead, we’re literally speed-running through this season because here’s the very depressing reality: It’s already halfway over. Six episodes burnt in just eight days.

Part of what made Andor Season 1 so engaging is that it slowly bathed you in its epic story that built towards one of the best season finales in TV history. Now, it’s like being served three beautiful full-course meals that you have to shovel in your face immediately or someone will knock the plates on the floor. I’m not loving this if that’s not coming through.

Anyway, let’s get to the story parts that I can remember. This should be fun.

Luthen

If this arc is about anything, it’s that Luthen needs to stop operating in the shadows, and he knows it. While still the canny mastermind we saw in Season 1, Luthen is clearly unraveling. He’s spinning way too many plates, but to what end? He’s also getting reckless. We see him push his ISB mole, Lonni (Robert Emms), to stop being cautious, and one of the insane amount of bugs Luthen has planted all over the place is about to be uncovered by Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane). That guy already knows way too much about Mon Mothma’s finances, and Luthen doesn’t need his cover blown on top of it.

Adding insult to injury, Luthen has no clue what the hell the Empire is doing on Ghorman. It’s a year later, and he’s only just now learned that Dedra is running some sort of operation there. Even worse, Luthen plays right into her hand at a brutal cost. He is not on his game, and that’s because an unyielding reality is coming down the pipe: It’s time to fight, and his fighters need to win. Otherwise, what was this all for?

Wilmon/Saw Gerrara

When we catch up with Wilmon, he’s helping Saw Gerrara (Forest Whitaker) build a fuel extraction device that will let his team poach rhydonium from any station. Luthen sent Wil there as a favor, and despite what Wil was told, I don’t think Luthen had any expectation of bringing him back. Fortunately, Saw sees great promise in the boy, but first, he needs to get him hooked on that sweet rhydo.

In a perfectly unhinged performance, Whitaker’s freedom fighter goes full Charlie Kelly on huffing spaceship fuel while radicalizing Wil into a true revolutionary. The time for Luthen’s chess games is over, but as Star Wars fans know, Saw can take things too far. He readily admits that he’s crazy, and has the dead brain cells to prove it, but cat and mouse tactics aren’t going to end this thing. It’s time to explode.

Dedra/Syril

Speaking of John le Carré action, that’s exactly what Syril is doing on Ghorman as the Empire’s goodest little beret-wearing honeypot. Acting as bait to the Ghorman Front, the local resistance group, Syril routinely calls his mother, who’s under the impression that he left Coruscant after breaking up with Dedra. During those conversations, Syril makes pointed comments disapproving of the Empire’s actions on the planet, and it works like a charm.

The Ghorman Front has been listening to Syril’s calls and bring him in for a meeting. While cautious at first, they all too eagerly think they’ve found a golden goose who can help them prove that the Empire is secretly building an armory on the planet. In fact, they’ve so completely swallowed the bait, that they reach out to Luthen who sends Cassian to assess the situation.

Considering Syril knows what Cassian looks like, and Dedra makes it clear earlier in the arc that she still wants his ass, there’s a nice bit of tension heading into his arrival. However, Syril has already f*cked off back to a Corsucant for an honest to God booty call. I kid you not.

I’m going to be real here. I read the comments, and you folks cannot make extremely accurate observations like this one from bibliophile: “Dedra 100% pees on [Syril]. No tea, no shade - just sayin.” Why can’t you say stuff like that? Because as soon as Syril turned off the lights, I said in a very Anakin voice: “This is where the whiz begins.” I will never see their relationship in any other way because that’s obviously what’s happening here. It’s undeniable.

Extreme sex positiveness aside, what Syril doesn’t know is that he’s not helping the Empire catch Rebels. He literally thinks this is the greatest moment of his life, but what Dedra isn’t telling him is that he’s a pawn in a false flag operation. The Empire doesn’t give a sh*t about catching Rebels, they just need a pretense to have a military presence on Ghorman. Sometimes, the real pee is coming from your girlfriend’s boss? Wait, let me start over…

Vel/Cinta

Much to Luthen and the Ghorman Front’s frustration, Cassian has no interest in helping them hijack an Imperial supply truck. He correctly clocked the intel from Syril as an ISB plant, but that’s not why he’s walking. No one even knows that he’s right! He’s still operating in clandestine mode where the mission is not getting caught, and he’s not about to get these people killed. In fact, the head of the Front reads him for filth by noting that Cassian is no revolutionary. So, Luthen sends in a backup: Vel and Cinta.

Here’s the thing: While Vel and Cinta are willing to do the job Cassian wanted, this is still a stealth mission with a strict chain of command. They know the Ghorman Front are untested, and it’s evident from the jump that some of them are idiots who will do something stupid. Overwhelming the vibe is someone’s going to die here. Christ, Vel and Cinta have a lovers reunited scene where the words “Say goodbye to at least one of these two!” might as well have been written across the screen.

If you’ve read this far, you know that Cinta accidentally gets shot thanks to one of the Ghorman Front jackasses not listening to orders and bringing a blaster. While the mission is a success, Vel’s barely contained fury is Andor firing on all cylinders as her words burn the life he took into his very soul. That kid will live with his f*ck-up eating him alive until the day he dies.

Bix/Cassian

When this arc opens up, Cassian and Bix have an apartment in Coruscant that’s not so much a home as a resting area before Luthen sends them on another mission. Bix is still not doing great and is haunted by memories of Dr. Gorst (Joshua James) torturing her. Although, there’s a different element to her nightmare. At some point in the past year, Cassian shot an Imperial soldier. While he claims he did it because it was a life or death situation, Bix knows why he really did it: The soldier saw her face.

You see, Cassian has grown increasingly protective of Bix thanks to the Dr. Gorst incident and her almost getting raped. However, his protection is suffocating her, and she makes a poignant remark about how she wants to “win” so all of this sacrifice was for something. But because “Andor is Star Wars for adults,” Bix is also hooked on some weird space drugs. It’s to the point where Luthen comes to offer her a mission while Cassian is on Ghorman and quickly realizes that would be a bad idea.

Bix is clearly falling apart, but you know what fixes that? Blowing sh*t up. In an abrupt vibe change, this arc ends with Bix waiting for Dr. Gorst in his office courtesy of Luthen. Not only does she strap him to the torture device that ravaged her mind, Bix and Cassian send a loud message to the Empire by detonating the whole building. If this is what brings her back from the edge, Cassian is all-in. The powder keg has been lit, baby.

Mike Drops

— I probably missed 100 different little details thanks to this release schedule, but I absolutely loved how Lonni isn’t even trying to be subtle anymore. Major Partagaz mentions Dr. Gorst and Lonni doesn’t even hesitate before telling his ISB buddy “brb lol.” Zero chill. Dude bolts right out of the room, and that’s how we got that ending.

— Why did the Ghorman Front have to be French? It feels like there were other revolutionaries out there, but this franchise loves it some French-coding.

— Mon Mothma didn’t get a lot to do in this arc, but in fairness, the last one was a banger for her. However, she did get some fiery moments with Krennic that were very reminiscent of Leia’s defiance with Tarkin and Vader in A New Hope.

— Speaking of, Benjamin Bratt is Bail Organa now instead of Jimmy Smits, which raises the question of whether this show can sidestep what feels like an inevitable cameo. Rogue One did Uncanny Valley Leia, and my God, if I have to see that again…

— Did I mention the golden shower stuff in the Dedra/Syril section? OK, good. That’s mainly what I wanted to get across this week. I’m gonna go lay down now.