Andor got a lot of praise when it debuted in September 2022 because it was one of the few Star Wars series that had characters that displayed moral ambiguity, with Diego Luna’s title character being the most mysterious one of them all. Season 2, which will lead up to the events of the Rogue One movie, shows that Cassian Andor is more focused on helping the rebellion, but even then, he and the other characters still have to work on both sides of the moral fence.
ANDOR SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “ONE YEAR LATER. BBY 4.” The lights to a landing bay flip on, and an engineer goes to an Imperial fighter to check it out.
The Gist: “SIENAR. TEST FACILITY 73.” Niya (Rachelle Diedricks), the engineer, goes to a conference room to tell Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) that the fighter is ready for a test run, which is a perfect time for him to steal it. He actually manages to get it out of the station and off the planet, but given he has no idea how to fly the fighter, he dinged it up a lot along the way, as well as killing a number of stormtroopers and causing an avalanche to crush pursuing tie fighters.
“CHANDRILLA. MOTHMA ESTATE.” Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) is getting ready to throw a lavish wedding for her daughter, and is surprised to see Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) arrive as a guest of Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane). Luthen needs to know the status of Cassian as he escapes Sienar.
Cassian lands on Mina-Rau, hoping to rendezvous with the rebel pilot who will take the fighter to its next destination. Instead, he’s held at gunpoint by a group of rebels who think he’s an Imperial pilot. He soon learns that the group’s leader was Maya Pei, and offers to fly the fighter for them, but the hungry and fractured leadership of the brigade — namely Gerdis (Sam Gilroy) and Bardi (Benjamin Norris) — are too busy fighting to have a cohesive plan.
“THE MALTHEEN DIVIDE.” A secret Imperial meeting led by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) is convened to discuss a mission on the planet Ghorman, known for spiders that spin silk used in the planet’s famous clothing. But they also have deep Kalkite reserves that the Emperor wants in order to achieve energy independents. Never mind that the mining the Kalkite might destroy the planet.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Andor is a prequel to Rogue One, and the story of Season 2 will move forward one year every three episodes; by the time the 12-episode season is over, the show’s timeline should be right before the events of the film.
Our Take: Andor‘s second season continues the multiple stories that are all designed to transform its characters into ones that — in most cases — position them to make significant contributions to the rebellion. Creator Tony Gilroy ably juggles the storylines, which include threats to Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) in Cassian’s home village and the continued Imperial romance between Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller).
Cassian’s continued transformation from an out-for-himself mercenary to one of the rebellion’s greatest heroes is of course going to be the big focus of the season, and Luna is up to the task. We see him trying to ingratiate himself to Maya Pei’s Brigade, and it’ll be interesting to see how he negotiates the internal strife and convince whoever’s left to help him, given that they’re fighting the same enemy.
Mon is still a senator and acting that way, but she’s got a few irons in the fire with the rebellion, and the conversation she has with Tay Kolma (Ben Miles) about “The Foundation” was intriguing. Is it a Rebel organization? What is going to be Mon’s path to being a Rebel leader?
What we continue to appreciate about the part of the Star Wars universe that Gilroy has created is that, while it’s not quite as dark and morally ambiguous as the first season was, there are still enough grey areas and people playing both sides to make the show much more engaging than other slow-moving franchise series have been. Even in scenes where two people are talking, there’s enough ambiguity behind those conversations to give them some oomph, which isn’t something we could say about other Star Wars series.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Cassian is caught trying to make a break for the fighter while the members of Maya Pei’s Brigade shoot blasters at each other.
Sleeper Star: We’re fans of Ben Miles, so we’re definitely interested to see how his character, Tay Kolma, fits into this story.
Most Pilot-y Line: In the Imperial meeting about Ghorman, an old-fashioned-sounding tourist film about the planet is presented, and while it’s fun to hear something like that on a Star Wars series, the scene runs way too long.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The ambitious storytelling that will be part of Andor‘s final season makes the events of the first season all the more important, as we see the main characters’ first steps to becoming critical to the rebellion’s efforts against the Empire.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Andor’ Season 2 On Disney+, Where Cassian Transforms Into The ‘Rogue One’ Rebel Hero appeared first on Decider.
