The Empire's Propaganda Machine Works Hard, but Cassian Works Harder -

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Andor Season 2 Episode 1.

Andor Season 2 opens in the year 4 BBY — starting the countdown to the devastating and inescapable events of Rogue One. While only a single year has elapsed in Cassian’s (Diego Luna) life since he chose to join the rebellion in the Season 1 finale, it has been 882 days since the episode aired (not that we’ve been counting). Rather than immediately reuniting audiences with Cassian, Episode 1 builds the anticipation by opening on a young woman doing a systems check on a TIE Fighter parked inside an Imperial hangar. It seems like a mundane task that she has done countless times, but a subtle shift in her expression betrays her nerves.

After the systems check, Niya (Rachelle Diedericks) rendezvous with Cassian in a dimly lit room where he’s patiently waiting to play the part of a fresh new test pilot who has recently arrived on Sienar. Whoever orchestrated the arrangement has instructed Niya not to look at Cassian (likely so she can’t reveal his identity if interrogated), but he isn’t interested in following those orders. He recognizes the vastness of the decision she has made to abandon the Empire and aid the Rebellion. While the events of Season 1 certainly hardened Cassian, he still isn’t the war-weary man audiences first met in Rogue One. There’s still some kindness and understanding left in the rebel who soothes Niya’s worries with smart, inspiring words. When she questions him if the Rebellion is worth dying for — if this, what they’re doing, is worth the risk — he assures her that it is because it means she took the right step forward by joining “the circle” and becoming more than her fear. Cassian may be capable of giving a motivational pep talk to a newcomer to the Rebellion, but he is far from qualified to handle a TIE Fighter.

It’s not entirely clear what Cassian’s game plan was with the TIE Fighter, but it seems as though he was tasked with retrieving the vessel for the Rebellion to research what they’re up against, because he has no idea how to operate the ship. He accidentally reverses it into a wall, and then prematurely starts blasting his way through the hangar door — which draws a lot of attention to his attempted heist. He wipes out a handful of stormtroopers and narrowly escapes Sienar with his life. Cassian may be the titular character, but his plotline runs concurrently with the rest of the ensemble throughout the first trio of episodes, and in Episode 1, it makes up only a handful of scenes.

Following his escape from Sienar, Cassian heads to a remote forested planet where he was meant to meet with a rebel named Porko. Unfortunately, in the three days since he had last met with his ally there, Porko was killed by a ragtag band of misfits who were stranded on the planet. He is ambushed by at least fifteen people who believe that he is an Imperial test pilot and their only way off the planet. They rough him up, knock him around, and leave him to spend most of the episode covered in mud. Through their infighting, Cassian discovers that the group was part of the Maya Pei Brigade, whom he and the Rebellion were providing shipments to, but this revelation isn’t enough to sway them to believe that he isn’t an Imperial pilot. Rika (Eva-Jane Willis) and the rest of the brigade (including Gilroy’s son, Sam Gilroy as Gerdis) demand that Cassian teach her how to pilot the ship so they can get off the planet, but — as previously shown — he barely has any idea how to fly the TIE Fighter himself.

Cassian spends the remainder of the episode trying to figure out the dynamics of the brigade. They are a quarrelsome lot who are all vying for the right to call themselves the leader of the group after whatever events led up to them being stranded on the planet. They’re hungry, tired, and riddled with opportunities for Cassian to find a weakness he can exploit to escape captivity. The brigade’s infighting eventually reaches a crescendo at the end of the episode, as the two factions start firing on each other. Cassian attempts to make a break for it, but is swept up in the fighting and hauled off by one group to use as leverage, as they believe he’s still their ticket off the planet.

Nowhere Is Safe, Not Even Mina-Rau

Adria Arjona in Andor Season 2 — Image via Disney+

When George Lucas created Star Wars, he made it clear that the Empire was inherently evil, and that they would go to great lengths to achieve their goals — even if it meant blowing up planets. Since its inception, the franchise has continued to showcase the morally bankrupt ways in which the Empire exploits, slaughters, and tortures those who resist or are merely in the way. In Season 1, Andor leaned into this brutality by forcing audiences to witness Bix’s (Adria Arjona) torture at the hands of the Empire, which was something that hadn’t been shown on-screen with such clarity. While it wasn’t some grotesque physical torture, the psychological impact left an indelible mark on Bix. While she is no longer catatonic when we’re introduced to her in Episode 1, it is clear that a year has done very little to heal the scars left by the Empire. This trauma manifests itself in a haunting nightmare about Doctor Gorst (Joshua James) climbing into her bed, which Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) wakes her from.

Following the events on Ferrix in the Season 1 finale, Cassian, Bix, Brasso, Wilmon (Muhannad Ben Amor), and B2EMO have settled on the remote farming planet of Mina-Rau. Bix works as a “toolie,” repairing farming equipment, while the rest of the group work harvesting grain. Brasso has settled down with a local woman named Talia (Claire Brown), while Wil has fallen for a girl named Beela (Laura Marcus), whose parents don’t want them together. Their home is a quaint, shared space which features a drawing of Maarva (Fiona Shaw) pinned up on the wall. Mina-Rau serves as a home base of sorts for them, with Cassian coming and going as the Rebellion demands (which stresses out Bix and B2EMO). Brasso maintains a contact named Kellen, who keeps them apprised of what’s happening on the planet, and seems to be loosely connected with the Rebellion. He warns them that the Imperial Supply Census has arrived on Mina-Rau, which will pose a challenge for them as they’re undocumented citizens.

The Weight of the Rebellion Hits Close to Home for Mon Mothma

Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma in Andor Season 2 — Image via Disney+

No character escaped Andor Season 1 unscathed, least of all Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) who essentially had to barter off her 13-year-old daughter Leida (Bronte Carmichael) in order to broker a deal with Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane) to secure the funds that she and Tay Kolma (Ben Miles) needed to establish the Foundation, which secretly funded the Rebellion. A year later, Mon finds herself welcoming family, colleagues, and unexpected guests to the Mothma Estate on Chandrilla, as she and Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie) prepare to marry their daughter to Sculdun’s son. Mon and Vel (Faye Marsay) are both surprised to see Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) among the wedding guests, and when Mon confronts him about his presence, he explains that Sculdun has employed him to deliver a secret wedding gift.

Luthen isn’t the only member of the Rebellion there attendance — Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau), his assistant at the gallery, is there with him too. She speaks with him about Cassian’s mission to Sienar and notes that there’s nowhere safe for her to hide a signal to get word about the mission while they’re at the Mothma Estates. This becomes a running theme for their encounters throughout the episode, as Cassian’s whereabouts remain unknown. Later on, Vel and Kleya share a tense conversation about Kleya’s presence at the wedding, which she explains with the same excuse as Luthen: she’s there as a Sculdun’s client. Vel questions her about whether they “know” each other (a valid question, given their undercover work), but Kleya points out that Vel has been a client of the gallery, so of course they know each other. As Kleya remarks, they’re just two single women surveying their prospects, which seems to be a pointed dig at Cinta’s (Varada Sethu) obvious absence in Vel’s life now.

As the wedding guests mill about the estate during the First Night’s festivities, a lot of little pieces of information are surreptitiously dropped. Luthen learns that Sculdun’s son is in the Navy, and was recently stationed on Steergard, and Mon learns that Tay and his wife, Marni, have recently separated, and his business is not doing well — the latter of which prompts concern, as it directly impacts their arrangement, and he wants to discuss the Foundation with her. The conversation does not happen, however, as they are interrupted by one of Mon’s staff informing her that Leida has run off crying. Mon and Tay agree to talk more later, and she leaves to find her daughter. She finds Leida sitting on the floor of a beautiful, huge, and empty room, crying over the fact that her soon-to-be husband, Stekan (Finley Glasgow), is acting like a child who won’t hold her hand. (Which makes sense, considering they are, in fact, both children.) Mon does her best to try to console her daughter, and her words of wisdom come from a place of understanding, as she was once a child bride, too. The way the scene is framed by the episode’s director, Ariel Kleiman, really drives home how isolating this Chandrillan custom is for women.

The Empire Sets Its Sights on Ghorman

Ben Mendelsohn in Andor Season 2, Episode 1 — Image via Disney+

Andor reunites audiences with Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) on the Maltheen Divide, where he is holding a super-secretive meeting with a select group of Imperial officers who have proven their fealty to the Empire — including Dedra Meero (Denise Gough). Krennic makes a point of referring to the gathering as the “tightest of closed circles,” adding to the litany of circular references throughout the first trio of episodes. After making it clear that security breaches will not be tolerated, Krennic rolls down a screen and shows a tourism video for the Ghorman Valley, which boasts the wonders of the planet’s capital city Palmo, with a concentrated focus on the Ghorman spider, and the Ghorlectipods housed in the webberies that produced their primary export, Ghorman twill. As the video goes on and on about the splendor of the elegant metropolis, Krennic shuts off the video and informs the group that Ghorman is of great interest to the Empire.

In Rogue One, it was established that Krennic had a special interest in Galen Erso’s (Mads Mikkelsen) pursuit of sustainable energy, because of the Death Star, and here, Andor expands that notion to include the Energy Independence initiative, which Krennic claims is at the center of the Emperor’s agenda for the galaxy. Krennic reveals that the spiders aren’t the only resource hiding on the planet; there is a rare mineral underground called kalkite, which could be the answer for said independence, or so he claims. In order to retrieve the mineral, Krennic explains that they will have to control Ghorman with a firm hand and silence any resistance they are met by. There are approximately 800,000 Ghormans living on the planet, and Krennic isn’t interested in establishing a relocation program, even though their mining operations will cause extreme stress to the planet’s core, potentially leading to a total collapse.

New April TV Releases — ‘The Last of Us,’ ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ ‘Andor,’ and More

“If I Ever Were To Lose You, I’d Surely Lose Myself.”

Krennic invites two men from the Ministry of Enlightenment to discuss the matter, and they make the case for why an impending Ghorman massacre wouldn’t be a tragedy. They describe the Ghor as a selfish, haughty, and self-important people who are deserving of whatever travesty might befall them — in fact they were asking for it, clearly, since they’ve been so reluctant to play by the Empire’s rules. While none of this is surprising, it is very eerie to hear, as it is a perfect reflection of the past and present situations playing out in the real world. These are all the tactics of totalitarian regimes trying to prepare the population for a genocide. After their blistering condemnation of the Ghor, the room breaks for snacks, entirely unmoved by the horror of it all.

Some members of the small group suggest staging a natural disaster or introducing a plague to handle their Ghor problem, but strategies like that prove to be too unpredictable for a clean in and out. While the mining effort may take time, the Empire has already made moves to erect a new armory in Palmo to begin staging its occupation. While the rest of the room enjoys their small bites and noshes, Krennic finds Dedra by the window, looking out across the divide. She claims that she hasn’t come up with a plan yet, but Krennic sees through her carefully constructed neutral expression, and he knows she has an idea. Dedra states that what they need is a radical insurgency on Ghorman so that rebels can do the wrong thing and the Empire can sweep in to handle the matter. After all, propaganda can only get the Empire so far. As Tony Gilroy, who penned the first trio of episodes, told Collider, the Ghorman massacre is a “very significant part” of Andor, and with its premiere, the series begins to lay the groundwork for what could be one of the most devastating massacres in a Star Wars series.

The first three episodes of Andor Season 2 are streaming now on Disney+.