The penultimate three-episode arc of Andor season 2 delivers a tense and powerful story, as the Empire displays its true brutality.
As the Rebellion begins to form into a more cohesive force, the Empire puts the final touches to their plan for conquering Ghorman, while Cassian begins to question whether he can keep up with the strain the constant fight against the Empire puts on him.
We finally get to the moment this season has been building up to, the Ghorman Massacre. To give them an excuse for removing the population so they can mine for a mineral that's essential for the Death Star, the Empire incites an attack in a crowded square, making it look like the Ghorman protesters started it.
While it's a big event, it isn't actually the original Gorman massacre that's familiar to fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, now known as Star Wars Legends. In that event, Grand Moff Tarkin
actually landed his ship on top of a crowd of protestors, killing and injuring hundreds. That actually still happened in the world of Star Wars: Andor, but it was a long time ago, shortly after the Empire was created, which is an odd choice, as that's as horrific an event and far harder to disguise through propaganda and false narratives, and one that happened at a time when the Senate was reasonably strong and criticism of Palpatine and his methods were still allowed. From an outside perspective, the events shown in Andor could easily be blamed on the Ghorman rebels, as the Empire went to great lengths to carefully plan their operation so they could avoid blame.
Even so, it's still an excellent story, brilliantly tense, building up to the final moments and the brutal act. In the third episode, it inspires Mon Mothma to make her infamous speech denouncing Palpatine, which ends her a career and makes her a fugitive.
I was worried that they might retcon Star Wars Rebels here, as that series shows Mon escaping after she's made her speech, being pursued by the Empire, and needing the help of the Ghost crew to get safely to Yavin. In recent years, there have been several examples where previously established events have been ridden over for the sake of a new story, so there was a chance the animated show might be disregarded. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and with some careful maneuvering, they managed to tell both stories with no big changes, having the Rebels plot happen later, so the cell on Yavin can claim credit for Mon Mothma's escape.
Star Wars: Andor reviews, Episode 207-209: "Messenger," "Who Are You?" and "Welcome to the Rebellion"
Would it be fair to say these are the best episodes this season? They are certainly the most proactive, with barely a second of screentime wasted, and always something important happening, with a feeling of ever-present tension. These episodes also fit much better with the one-year time jump, as most of the characters are in a similar place to where they were in last week's episodes, and there aren't many important events that have happened during that time.
There is a sense that things have had to be sped up, and there are times you wonder what the series would have been like if it took place over five seasons as originally planned. Characters like Luthen, for example, are barely present in these episodes. The flipside of that is that everything is much sleeker, more economical, and tight.
A notable moment in Episode 7 is the introduction of a Force healer who helps the sick and injured on the Yavin base. It would be reasonable to assume such people have always existed in a galaxy far, far away, either as genuinely skilled people who didn't join the Jedi or else as scammers, taking advantage of people who believe in the Force. The odd thing is that they should appear in Andor, a show that's conspicuously avoided the Force almost entirely. The Force healer regards Cassian as if there's something prophetic about him.
I'm not sure where the show will go from here. The main storyline about the Ghorman Massacre which has been a thread throughout this season is now wrapped up, and it's likely we'll skip past a lot of the immediate aftermath. In fact, you could really jump straight into Rogue One from here with no difficulties. Many of the big characters are either dead or out of the show, so I don't see a clear storyline, except for tidying up loose ends.
Bix is out, in a very unsatisfactory way. Maybe it's not the last we'll see of her, if she reappears in the final arc, but if not, it does feel like she was shoved out of the way because it's impossible for Cassian to have a lover by the time of Rogue One.
Maybe it will be Dedra who comes after Andor looking for revenge after Syril's death, or we find out what happens to Luthen. We're now overlapping with events shown in other shows, like Rebels, so we know some of what happens in this period. Personally, if this had been the end of the show, I think if would have been fine, so I hope whatever the final three episodes do is worth it, and somehow manages to make an even better ending than this.
Episodes grade: A
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