In episodes 4 and 5 of Andor Season 2, Syril got into the good books of the Ghorman Front by pretending to be sympathetic to their cause because he hated the ISB. The reality was that Syril was working for the ISB, Dedra to be specific, to get the Ghors to do something drastic so that the Empire could swoop in and put them under their thumb. When Luthen learned about Dedra’s interest in Ghorman, he sent Cassian to the planet to look into it. And Cassian actually told Rylanz, the leader of the Ghorman Front, that the Ghors were being played by the Empire. But Rylanz decided to put his trust in Syril over Cassian, so Cassian had no option but to return to Coruscant. Meanwhile, things were getting complicated on Coruscant. Kleya had found out that Davo was about to discover the bug she had planted in Davo’s gallery, thereby forcing her and Luthen to find a way to get it out of there before their covers were blown. Mon failed to secure votes for a legislative bill that would’ve protected Ghorman from the clutches of the Empire. And, unable to deal with the torture she had faced at the hands of Doctor Gorst, the deaths she’d witnessed over the years, and Cassian’s overprotective nature, Bix took to drugs to deal with her demons. All the way over on D’Qar, Wilmon was recruited by Saw for his rhydonium-stealing missions. How were these plotlines explored further in episode 6 of Andor Season 2? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Vel Goes To Ghorman
Luthen personally comes to take Cassian back to Coruscant, but he is deeply unsatisfied with Cassian’s assessment that Ghorman is a lost cause. Cassian is even more disappointed by Luthen’s opinion that it’s okay if a few planets burn in the pursuit of galactic liberation. But Luthen’s resolve to rope in Ghorman for his cause isn’t affected by Cassian’s judgement because he has stationed Vel to work her magic on Rylanz and the Front, who have already established contact with Vel. Cassian doesn’t care to learn about what Luthen wants to do with Ghorman, but he becomes incredibly furious when he hears that Luthen approached Bix with a job when he was away on an assignment. Bix doesn’t understand the reason for Cassian’s anger because Cassian fails to explain how manipulative Luthen can be and then goes off to confront him in his gallery. And Luthen gives Cassian an earful for breaching every protocol they live by in order to avoid getting arrested by the Empire. Also, he reprimands Cassian for his hypocrisy—how he chooses to be protective about Bix but thinks an entire planet full of people (Ghorman) isn’t worth saving.
Cassian tries to get Luthen to understand that decision-making can’t depend on binaries. However, for Luthen, either you are working to defeat the Empire or you are letting the Empire win; that’s it. So, since there’s no point in arguing with Luthen, Cassian leaves to rethink his opinion on Ghorman. Meanwhile, Vel finally reunites with Cinta to help the Front with their heist, which makes sense because the romantic couple has a lot of experience in that matter. Vel and Cinta do face some pushback from the Ghorman rebels because the locals are not comfortable taking orders from 2 outsiders. But Vel makes it clear that since nobody, except her and Cinta, has any idea how to pull off a heist, they have to listen to the “outsiders” or call off the heist. Once everyone is on the same page, they all rest up—while Vel and Cinta get intimate with each other after maybe 2 years—so that they are focused enough to partake in the mission at hand.
Syril Is Being Kept In The Dark
We get a very brief scene at the ISB headquarters where Partagaz informs Heert and Jung that the Emperor wants Doctor Gorst’s skills and tech to be taught to a team of Imperial professionals so that they can use his invasive techniques to torture rebels all around the galaxy. Heert shows way too much enthusiasm to take the lead on this project. So, Jung lets him do the heavy lifting while he focuses on finding more info on what the Empire is planning to do on Ghorman. Dedra informs Partagaz that an attack on the Imperial weapons transport is imminent and that the “shipments” are going really smoothly. And this is where it’s revealed that even Syril doesn’t know what the Empire is planning to do on Ghorman.
Yes, yes, in that first meeting with Krennic, he did say that nobody other than the people in that room will know about the plan to essentially destroy Ghorman after extracting all the Kalkite in its soil. But I thought that since Syril and Dedra are a couple, and Syril is manipulating the Front to do something stupid, at some point Dedra would have given him a peek at the bigger picture. Now it seems like Syril is doing what he is doing, thinking that he is pushing the Front to steal some weaponry so that the Empire can claim that the Ghors have become violent and take over the planet. He has no clue that the aforementioned “shipments” are drilling equipment that is being stored in the “armory” near Palmo. How is he going to react once he learns that he is about to be instrumental in an all-out genocide? Does he care enough to be sympathetic to the Ghors? I guess we’ll eventually find out.
Cinta Is Dead
Partagaz empties the control room so that he and Dedra can keep an eye on the Ghorman heist without the fear of information leaks, while their on the ground correspondent, Syril, gives them beat-by-beat updates. As for the robbery itself, it goes smoothly for the most part. Cinta manages to use her fuses to bring the automated truck that’s transporting the guns right where she wants it to. After confirming what’s in the containers on the truck, the rebels proceed to send it down the tunnel that’s right beside the road so that they can be picked up by the Ghors and loaded onto their own truck, while Cinta, Vel, Samm, and some of the other members of the Front stand guard. However, things go sideways when Lezine, a vocal protestor of the Empire’s activities in Palmo, enters the picture. Samm tries to keep Lezine from getting near the heist, which leads to a physical scuffle. Even though Vel and Cinta repeatedly said that no one should be carrying a blaster other than them, Samm reveals that he has a gun, which he points at Lezine. When the blaster goes off, it hits Cinta, and she dies on the spot. The rebels put an end to the robbery, make their way to their own truck, and exit the scene. Lezine helps in carrying Cinta to the vehicle.
Vel is heartbroken, and so are the rest, but Vel makes sure that Samm understands that he doesn’t have the right to mourn Cinta’s death. She literally says that it’s disgraceful that a warrior like Cinta died at the hands of a wimpy guy like Samm. She ensures that he understands that there’s no way to correct this mistake in this lifetime or the next; all he can do is carry the weight of Cinta’s death and hope to become something better. You know what, I would’ve categorized this as an example of the cliche where queer characters don’t get happy endings. But I don’t think that criticism applies here because it’s very rare for any kind of romantic couple to get a happy ending in Star Wars. Race, gender, or sexual orientation has nothing to do with a relationship’s fate; it’s going to end badly, period. I do wish we got to see more of Vel and Cinta romancing each other, but this is what war is like: you never get what you want. By the way, since the Front has weapons now, Partagaz and Dedra can start the next stage of their mission to cripple Ghorman by accusing them of planning a violent insurrection. Since the Empire controls the media, they have left out the ways they have instigated the Ghors from their reportage and painted them as barbarians. Now that they have arms and ammunition, it’ll be easier for them to amp up their anti-Ghor propaganda. Yes, the Empire can just invade the planet, take their Kalkite, and leave it in ruins; the only reason they’re not doing that yet is because they still care about the optics.
Gorst Is Dead
Luthen and Kleya leave for Davo’s party with the sole intention of removing the bug from his gallery. Also present at the party are Senator Mon, Perrin, Supervisor Lagret, Jung, Heert, Krennic, and Senator Bail Organa. Yes, Benjamin Bratt has replaced Jimmy Smits, who began playing Bail in Attack of the Clones and apparently made his final appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is an interesting recast because Bratt is just 8 years younger than Smits. So, I’m guessing it’s not an age thing. Maybe Smits is done playing this role, or there were some scheduling issues; whatever it is, Smits has done an excellent job of playing the character, and Bratt is talented enough to take up the mantle until Darth Vader blows up Alderaan. Anyway, after some chit-chat, Mon, Perrin, Luthen, Kleya, Davo, Runai, Jung, Heert, Lagret, and Krennic head over to the gallery, and while all of them get a tour of the historic items, Kleya forces Jung to help her get the bug out. Jung seems nervous when he has to covertly meet Luthen to give him information about what’s going on in the ISB. So, you can only imagine how jittery he is while partaking in some anti-ISB activity while his superiors are in the same room. Kleya keeps telling Jung to just do what she says and everything will be alright. However, she is forced to (momentarily) eat her words because the device she is using to extract the bug gets stuck. Thankfully, Mon gets into a heated argument with Krennic about the lies that are spread to malign those who are rebelling against the Empire. This gives Kleya the opportunity to use all her strength to remove the bug; she literally bleeds for this mission.
While exiting the gallery, Kleya and Luthen joke about killing Krennic right there and then. They wouldn’t have been joking if they had any idea of the horrors Krennic is about to inflict on the galaxy in the near future. That said, if Kleya and Luthen did kill Krennic, the Empire would have replaced him with someone as heinous as or more heinous than him, and on top of that, Kleya and Luthen’s covers would’ve been blown. Do you know who doesn’t care about getting their covers blown? Cassian and Bix. At the end of Andor Season 2, Episode 6, Bix breaks into Doctor Gorst’s new office and puts the torture device, that he used on her back in Ferrix, on his head. After exiting the building, Cassian blows up the floor Gorst is on, just to be sure that he and his tech are dead. I hope that with Gorst gone for good, Bix will be able to lay off the drugs and work on healing her body and mind. By the way, the existence of the IT-O droids, the ones that were used in A New Hope to extract information from Princess Leia, means that Gorst’s sadistic methods didn’t die with him. They were probably uploaded to some kind of a directory where they stayed until someone as psychotic as Gorst picked them up and built those IT-O droids that could inflict unimaginable levels of pain on their victims. This shows that evil never dies; it keeps coming in different forms. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the ending of Andor Season 2, episode 6. What are your opinions on the same? Please share them in the comments section below.
