Episode 9 of Andor Season 2 was all about the rebels rescuing Mon after she decided to deliver an anti-Emperor speech at the Senate in order to protest the Ghorman massacre that had been brazenly sanctioned by Palpatine. One of Mon’s oldest friends, Bail, wanted to help her get out of Coruscant and reach Yavin, but his team had been compromised thanks to Imperial spies. So, the responsibility fell on Cassian to not only convince Mon that she could trust him, but also to get her out of the Senate building and to the safehouse while being chased by Imperial soldiers and Stormtroopers. Once that job was done, Cassian left Mon in the capable hands of Kleya and Erskin, while he took Wilmon and Dreena to Yavin, where Cassian reunited with Bix. It was a short-lived reunion because, the following day, Bix decided to part ways with Cassian, because she believed that as long as they were together, he’d keep thinking about retiring even though he knew that the Rebel Alliance needed his services. In addition to all that, K-2SO was born. This week’s episodes of Andor Season 2 feature the last time jump of the show, putting us in BBY 1. So, let’s talk about it.
Spoiler Alert
Luthen Gets Melancholic
Episode 10 of Andor Season 2 opens with a really bittersweet moment between Kleya and Luthen, as the latter is preparing to meet Jung for something important, where Kleya says that if he notices that the situation isn’t “perfect,” he should leave immediately. And Luthen says that they’re past the point of deciding whether or not a situation is “perfect”; they just have to make do with what they have now. I think this small exchange works both in terms of the story and the storytelling. This whole show was supposed to go on for 5 seasons, but somewhere along the line the showrunners realized that aging is a major issue, and even the best de-aging CGI and VFX won’t be able to mask the fact that the actors in the show look nothing like how they looked in Rogue One. On top of that, there are budgetary issues, managerial overhauls, and the dicey nature of audience expectations. So, the makers don’t have the luxury of sticking to their original plan without caring about these external factors; they have to make do with what they have. When it comes to the story, in Season 1, these characters were just starting to figure out how to take down the Empire. But after the incident on Ferrix, of course the Empire ramped up their fascist shenanigans, thereby forcing them to scramble for solutions and alternatives. That causes time to fly by like it’s nothing. You don’t have the luxury to process death, achievements, happiness, sadness—nothing; you just have to make do with what you have. Therefore, yes, Andor Season 2’s release schedule may not be perfect, but it is fitting.
Jung Is Dead
Luthen meets Jung out in the open where the latter informs Luthen that Dedra is coming for him. Jung also relays the Empire’s plans for the Kalkite they are mining from Ghorman to Luthen. While he gives away the first piece of information for free, he is unwilling to give that second piece of info in its entirety to Luthen until and unless he ensures his safety and that of his family as well. But Luthen emphasizes the urgency of the situation and compels him to spit out the truth. Even before Jung says a thing, it’s obvious to every Star Wars fan out there that the Kalkite is going to be used to power the Death Star. What I didn’t expect is for Luthen to bloody kill Jung!? Almost every death in Andor is sad, but this one is brutal. Jung dedicated decades of his life working inside the ISB to try and destroy the Empire. He has risked his life multiple times to do Luthen’s bidding. And all he has ever asked for is safe passage for him and his family. This is what he gets at the end? That’s just heartbreaking. I don’t exactly know why Luthen chooses to kill Jung. Did he want to ensure that the information doesn’t spread? But wouldn’t it have been beneficial for the Rebel Alliance and their cause if everyone knew that the Emperor was building a Death Star? Was Luthen protecting his identity? At this stage? Did Luthen know that there was no easy way out for Jung after everything he had done, so he gave him one? Or was Luthen angry that, even in this moment of crisis, Jung tried to bargain with him? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
Luthen Is Arrested
Luthen gives Kleya the following keywords: fuel from Ghorman, superweapon based on Scarif, kyber crystals from Jedha, ISB Krennic, and Engineer Galen Erso. That’s basically the plot of Rogue One right there. Jyn Erso and Cassian had to go to Jedha to look into the kyber mining that was going on there, but Krennic destroyed the planet, killing Saw and many other people there. Then Jyn led a ragtag group of rebels, which included Cassian, to steal the schematics of the Death Star from Scarif so that Luke Skywalker could eventually blow up the superweapon by utilizing a defect that Galen had purposefully put in its structure. Luthen tells Kleya to find their covert communication device and send this info to Cassian, while Luthen goes to the gallery and destroys every piece of evidence that proves that they were working against the Empire. Before Luthen can complete his task, though, Dedra shows up at his doorstep, essentially salivating at the fact that she has managed to finally get her hands on the guy who she has been tracking for years. If you are surprised that Dedra is back in her original evil form after almost puking her guts out at the sight of a genocide, don’t be. This is what fascists are like. They cross a line, and after a year, they are ready to cross some more lines. So, if you see a Nazi crying, don’t make the mistake of sympathizing with them. Anyway, when Luthen realizes he is out of moves because his gallery has been surrounded, he decides to die by suicide so that Dedra can’t coax any information out of him. However, medics arrive to stabilize him while Kleya looks on helplessly. Partagaz is unhappy with Dedra’s unsanctioned raid on Luthen’s gallery, but he expresses shock upon learning that Jung is dead.
Luthen and Kleya’s Backstory
While the Imperial officers inspect the items in Luthen’s gallery, Kleya stands in the safehouse thinking about her next steps. And this is where we get an extended look into Kleya and Luthen’s backstory. This may come as a surprise to many of you (because it did to me), but Luthen (the de-aging VFX on Stellan Skarsgard is fine, although I would’ve preferred casting one of his three uber-talented sons, maybe Gustaf Skarsgard, in this role) used to be an Imperial soldier. While partaking in a genocide of an indigenous population, Luthen called it quits and decided to sit it out in his ship. That’s where he discovered a young stowaway, i.e., Kleya. By the way, Luthen’s real name is Lear, and Kleya’s real name is unknown. The planet they were on was also not disclosed. Many have theorized that Kleya is Cassian’s long-lost sister, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Anyway, after discovering Kleya, Luthen abandoned his post in the Imperial army and went on the run with the little girl, pretending to be father and daughter. They hopped from one planet to another, earning money by selling artifacts that they had stolen or acquired from places that had been ransacked by the Empire. That’s probably how the two decided that they could pass as antique sellers. Also, it was during this period that the two arrived at the conclusion that they needed to bring down the Empire by any means necessary. They started with small attacks (and by “small” I mean blowing up an Imperial convoy on what looked like Naboo) and slowly built their network. These flashbacks helped establish the bond between Kleya and Luthen so well that we didn’t need any further explanation why, in the present day, Kleya is trying to go back for Luthen instead of leaving Coruscant.
Luthen Is Dead
Dedra stands guard in front of the hospital room that Luthen is in, hoping to interrogate him as soon as he regains consciousness. But her hopes are crushed by Heert, who arrests her for breaching protocol and the chain of command (Heert was investigating Axis) to catch Luthen. Meanwhile, Kleya takes on the disguise of a nurse (the geriatric alien who unknowingly becomes her patient is hilarious) to access the floor Luthen is on. When there are no options left, she whips out her blaster to take out the Imperial soldiers and Stormtroopers. Since there are way too many Stormtroopers on Luthen’s floor, she sets off a chain of explosives (which were hidden in Luthen’s safehouse) in the parking lot (echoing Luthen’s actions in Naboo) to distract them. As she shuts off the ventilator system that’s keeping Luthen alive, it becomes apparent that Kleya is there to rescue or save him, but not in the way we are thinking. She knows that she can’t take Luthen out of the hospital given his physical state, and she can’t let Luthen be tortured by Dedra, Heert, or some other sadistic Imperial officer. Hence, the only option is to kill him. And with that, Luthen’s arc reaches its conclusion. It’s a really well-structured and melancholic episode where you get to see the starting point and the end of Kleya and Luthen’s relationship while also learning so much about their characters.
Kleya Reaches Out To Wilmon
In episode 5 of Andor Season 2, while Heert takes care of the crime scene and confirms that Kleya is the perpetrator, Krennic gives Dedra an earful for not only allowing the information about the Death Star to be leaked but also failing to catch Luthen alive. If you were wondering why Ben Mendelsohn was playing the role of Krennic in a way that was notably different from how he appeared in Rogue One, you can literally see the reasons why he goes from being this sassy and argumentative fascist to a spine-chilling and incredibly scary fascist. Also, the manner in which the whole scene between Krennic and Dedra has been shot and edited is fantastic. Going back to the plot, Kleya is seen constructing a communication device with the help of the materials stashed away in Luthen’s safehouse and trying to get to someone, anyone who has previously worked with Luthen. The scene shifts to Yavin, and, luckily, Dreena notices that Wilmon’s radio has been going off frequently and conveys the information to him, who in turn goes to Cassian, Melshi, and K-2SO (who are busy playing the most hilarious game of cards) to give them the news. Once they are sure that it’s Kleya who is on the other end of the radio, Cassian, Melshi, and K-2SO leave for Coruscant, breaching a whole catalogue of Rebel Alliance protocols. Wilmon is reprimanded by Draven for still being loyal to Luthen and Kleya, but Wilmon tells him that if it weren’t for them, especially Luthen, Yavin would’ve been nothing but a mere pipedream.
Cassian, Melshi, and K-2SO try to rescue Kleya
On Coruscant, Partagaz orders Heert to go after Kleya. When Partagaz tries to correlate the leak of the information about the Death Star with the amount of time that Krennic is taking to get it built, Krennic essentially says that, no matter how he cuts it, the blame for everything that has happened on Coruscant is going to fall on Partagaz. Heert goes to Dedra for advice on how to look for Kleya, and she reluctantly tells him to search for old frequencies. That gives Heert and the Imperial soldiers an approximate idea of Kleya’s location. Cassian and Melshi do get to Kleya before Heert can catch her, but an issue arises when Kleya refuses to leave. She just wants to convey the information about the Death Star to Cassian and for him to let her be. It’s apparent that Kleya is suffering from some extreme form of depression and PTSD. She also fears that since the Rebel Alliance hates her and Luthen, she won’t have a place on Yavin. She trusts Cassian to do something with the information that Luthen has died for, but she doesn’t want to keep fighting anymore. A few episodes ago, Kleya was the one lecturing Cassian on how the fight isn’t over until all the fascists are dead and the good guys have won. Now, it looks like Cassian has to remind her of those sentiments so that she can live another day to fight the Empire. Unfortunately, all this to-and-fro gives Heert and the Imperial soldiers the time to reach the building that Cassian, Kleya, and Melshi are in, thereby setting the stage for a violent altercation between the heroes and the villains.
