‘Andor’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Attack of the Kleya

Alright, folks, just three weeks after the Andor Season 2 premiere we are already at the finish line. Once again, I’m sitting here trying to gather my thoughts after taking three hours of high quality, richly dense Star Wars TV to the head. Much like last week, this latest and final drop of episodes is absolutely begging a question. Unlike last week, this one is actually powering search results and won’t make everyone mad. People really did not like my whole, “Wait, is Cassian Force-sensitive tangent?” but I guarantee this mystery is one that a lot of viewers are actually having when the credits rolled.

Is Kleya Cassian’s sister?

Heading into the finale, some Star Wars fans began floating a wild-ass theory that Kleya is Cassian’s missing sister from Season 1. Most people, including myself, didn’t think Andor would fall into the tired franchise trap of making everyone related. So, imagine my surprise when this last drop really seemed to be sending that message. In Episode 10, we got flashbacks of Kleya that were extremely reminiscent of when Maarva found Cassian on Kenari. In the closing moments of Episode 12, we also got a brief flashback of Cassian’s childhood that felt like one last nudge towards Kleya being his sister.

What began as a crackpot theory now looked very likely and exactly Luthen’s brand. Hiding the one thing Cassian wants the most to keep him in the fold? Total Luthen move. However, Tony Gilroy did not waste time shutting that theory down in an interview with Deadline. I thought the ambiguity was purposeful, but nope, he’s already making it very clear that everyone is barking up the wrong tree.

DEADLINE: What happened to Cassian’s sister, the one he was looking for in Season 1, Episode 1? There wasn’t any closure on that by the end of the series?

GILROY: No, there wasn’t. I did it in the beginning because I’m always leaving things for myself to try to pick up on. There are all kinds of things that I do to pick up on later, or things that I lay down so writers will pick up on them in the room. But what I found was, with the sister, when I put it in there, I didn’t know how I was going to resolve it, and at one point, I had some melodramatic version of how that would play out in a Season 2. But as I went along, I realized, as I got to know Cassian, a very important absence in his life; the fact that he left her behind is a hole that will never be filled. When you watch the show, how many times does he go back for people? In fact, Bix even says, when they take off and escape from Ferrix, “Cassian will find us.” He goes back for Maarva. He goes back for Kleya. The savior component of him is much more interesting to me than some resolution. How many things in your life are unresolved?

Welp, that settles that.

Did Mike have an aneurysm when he saw Cassian give the Force healer a nod in the finale?

I swear to God I’ll make this quick. Last week, I bristled at Andor introducing the Force after the series had built up a solid reputation for eschewing all things Jedi and sticking to the nitty gritty, ground-level details of both the Empire and the burgeoning Rebellion. The Force healer scene, along with Cassian’s skill as a pilot and notable mention of his luck, seemed to imply that he was some level of Force-sensitive. There was a jarring “Chosen One” motif to the proceedings, and it turns out that was intentional.

Here’s what Gilroy told The A.V. Club about bringing the Force into Andor:

We would’ve been undernourished to not deal with one of the essential pieces of framework of the thing. It’s also really valuable to us—what the Force means, in this case, is an unwanted destiny. That’s a really cool thing to put on Diego Luna’s shoulders as we go along.

That right there fully explains Luthen’s line about how Cassian doesn’t appear to be making his own choices. He always shows up. But more importantly, I want to explain why the Chosen One theme is jarring, and it’s a testament to this show’s strength. Cassian is the least interesting character. More than anything, he’s been a blank canvas to bring the audience into this world: Luthen, Mon Mothma, Dedra, Syril, and after this week, Kleya have been far more significant story drivers, and that dynamic worked beautifully. Take the Narkina prison episodes. What’s more fascinating: Cassian or the setting? You see what I mean? And that’s not a criticism. It’s brilliant storytelling.

The Chosen One swerve goes against that grain, but I’m less mad at it because the dude’s name is on the show. As for the Force healer moment in the final episode, I get it. Cassian is more locked into his destiny than ever, and we know that’s coming up real quick.

Let’s get into the story.

Imagine John Wick but He Also Shoots the Dog; Welcome to Kleya

When the marketing machine for Andor Season 2 fired up, Tony Gilroy immediately got to work singing the praises of Elizabeth Dulau, and it’s been evident why. Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma was clearly the MVP of Season 1. For Season 2, that title overwhelmingly goes to Dulau’s Kleya, who made the leap from an always welcomed screen presence to a goddamn powerhouse.

Episode 10 hits the ground running as Lonni sets off the most frantic of alarms at Luthen’s shop. We’re talking the one you don’t trigger unless sh*t is really hitting the fan, and it is. Dedra knows Luthen is Axis. She’s coming for him with a tactical team, but Lonni has something even more pressing. He used Dedra’s access codes to access his files the night before, where he pieced together that the Emperor’s energy project is the Death Star.

However, Lonni doesn’t give Luthen this information just yet. He tries to use it to secure safe passage for his family. Lonni knows he’s burnt and needs to get the hell off the planet fast. Luthen assures Lonni that they’re in this together and convinces him to pass on the intel now before it’s too late. Lonni relents, and for his loyalty, he’s rewarded with a blaster bolt to the chest.

With time of the essence, Luthen passes on the Death Star intel to Kleya: “Jedha, Kyber crystals, Galen Erso.” This way, there’s a redundancy in case one of them doesn’t survive Dedra bringing the ISB down on their heads. On that front, against Kleya’s protest that she’ll be faster, Luthen insists on being the one to destroy their comms equipment back at the shop. Kleya ends up being very right.

Before he can finish the task, the doorbell rings at Luthen’s shop. Waiting outside, a smiling Dedra. What follows next is the kind of tension-filled interaction that Andor does so well. For a moment, the two act as unwitting customer and equally as unwitting antiques dealer. You actually start to think maybe Dedra is just here to have an item appraised. Denise Gough and Stellan Skarsgård are that good. And then the stolen Starpath comes out.

Dedra can barely contain her glee at finally catching her prey, and she openly admits to playing this moment over and over again in her head. What she probably didn’t envision was being distracted by Luthen’s comms equipment melting down, which gives him time to stab himself in the chest. My dude is committed to murdering loose ends without exception, so nothing personal, Lonni.

Unfortunately for Luthen, Dedra has a medical team nearby, and he’s whisked to a hospital that Kleya wastes no time infiltrating. As she slips her way through ISB security, flashbacks reveal that she’s been with Luthen since she was a child, and the two have a father/daughter bond that also involves absolute devotion to sticking it to the Empire. We see the culmination of that bond and devotion as Kleya switches gears and mows through ISB troopers before reaching Luthen’s room. But make no mistake, she’s not there to save them. She’s there to finish the job, and Dulau does so with such an incredible range of emotions that I would not be surprised if we just witnessed an Emmy-winning performance.

With the Empire deprived of a chance to interrogate Luthen, Kleya slips out of the hospital, but now, she has the same problem as Lonni. She needs to get the hell off Coruscant ASAP.

Dedra Just Became the Mother of All F*ck-Ups

Dedra has been obsessed with finding Axis for nearly half a decade, so what starts out as her crowning achievement soon becomes the domino that brings down the Death Star. Dedra was never reassigned to the Axis investigation after Ghorman, and Major Partagaz is not happy that she’s gone rogue. In fact, he literally has her arrested, and that’s only the start of her problems.

You see, when Dedra prepped the tactical team the night before her raid on Luthen, that tipped off Lonni, who took one last chance to use her access codes where he found the Death Star plans. That calamitous bit of espionage did not go unnoticed. Dedra is not just being detained for arresting Luthen, she’s in deep sh*t with Director Krennic, who personally and violently makes that fact known to her. She doesn’t even have the excuse of being a rebel spy. She plain f*cked up by not knowing Lonni had her codes for an entire year.

Dedra does, however, prove useful by letting Krennic know about Kleya. Where Partagaz is efficient and methodical, almost nurturing even, Krennic is a blunt object running on pure authoritarian hubris. He flat-out threatens underlings with death and flings every single tactical team all over the map to find Kleya. This proves to be a massive blunder down the line when backup is needed to secure Kleya, but Partagaz gets saddled with the blame for that. He becomes so disillusioned with the state of the Empire that he’s found listening to Nemik’s manifesto before shooting himself in the head.

As for Dedra, her fate is worst: She got shipped off to Narkina where she no doubt spent her days grinding out parts for the next Death Star.

One Last Gut Punch for Cassian

Somebody needs to get Kleya off Coruscant, so naturally, that job falls in Cassian’s lap. He did it once for Mon Mothma, time to do it again. In fact, Kleya literally says, “Of course it’s you,” when he arrives with Melshi and K-2S0 to extract her. However, Kleya refuses to go. Her concern isn’t so much extraction, but passing along the Death Star intel that she entrusts to Cassian. She has no interest in going to Yavin where she knows the bickering factions of the Rebel Alliance are not huge fans of Luthen.

After a gunfight with an ISB tactical team, Kleya doesn’t get much say in the matter when a stun grenade bangs her up real good. Cassian gets her off-planet and returns to Yavin where he once again gets dressed down for going … rogue. (Tony Gilroy, you bastard.) His insubordination quickly takes a back seat when he attempts to convince the Rebel leaders that the information died to protect is some serious sh*t. It’s an uphill battle despite Cassian reminding all of them that there wouldn’t be a Rebellion without Luthen.

Obviously, they come around, and Cassian is on track to kick off the start of Rogue One. I’m going to be real, there was a real anti-climactic feel to the final episode, which is why I really didn’t love the last-minute gut punch. For God knows what reason, Bix went back to the wheat planet where she knows Imperials are diligently looking for illegals, and oh I dunno, she was almost raped. As the camera zooms in on her, she’s holding something, and here we go. One final kick in the teeth for Cassian: Bix was pregnant when she took off, and now has an infant son, who she cradles while looking to the horizon for a man who will never return.

War is sad even in space. Roll credits.

Mike Drops

— I get accused of being an Andor hater because I’ve been hard on this season, but I cannot reiterate enough that I think it’s great! It is some outstanding television. Do I think it’s better than Season 1? No, and I may expand on that in a later column. In a nutshell, Season 1 set an incredibly high standard that, at least in my opinion, is impossible to clear. Season 2 put up a strong effort, but it had a very tough act to follow. That said, Andor doesn’t have to be praised for every little thing or fascism wins. It’s just a TV show, folks. A very brilliant one, but let’s bring it down a notch.

— Anyone else disappointed in how the entire Saw Gerrara thread was completely dropped? The second arc had Wilmon getting radicalized and then… nothing. The next time we see Saw, he’s fully in batshit crazy Rogue One mode. Not a single peep about what he’s done in the time since, or why the Rebellion both distrusts and desperately needs him.

— I love how almost every single ISB officer is some anemic, impossibly British guy that look like they’d fall over with one punch. Supervisor Heert’s accent is practically adorable.

— I’ve never been a huge Rogue One fan, but after the Season 2 finale, I was extremely tempted to fire it up. I saw other people had the same urge, but they seem to regret that decision, which tracks. People forget it was movie that Tony Gilroy was brought in to salvage at the last minute. Anyway, I appreciate everyone who posted here or on social media that watching Rogue One was a mistake. You saved me two hours that I desperately need. Bless you.

— What’s next for Star Wars on Disney+? Let’s take a look here: Bryce Dallas Howard wants to bring Mace Windu back from the dead for a new series. Oh… oh goddammit.

— Have I mentioned Elizabeth Dulau rocks? Elizabeth Dulau rocks. If you leave with anything, make it that.

May the Force be with you.