The Andor Season 2 Premiere is nothing short of perfect.
The three episode release reminded us why the series was one of the best to grace the television and streaming world back in 2022, and why the best is yet to come.
Writer Tony Gilroy and Director Ariel Kleiman teamed up to create a triumvirate of episodes that find our lead characters, particularly Cassian Andor (Diego Luna, Rogue One) and Mon Motha (Genevieve O’Reilly, Ahsoka), trying to live with one foot in the past, and one foot in their lives as members of the Rebellion.
For Cassian, his foot in the past is his Rix Road found family, while with Mon it’s her daughter and her confidant Tay. Both characters desperately hold onto the hope that they can run rebel missions while being able to comfortably return back to the people they love. This episode emphasizes more than ever that to rebel our heroes need to be more like Luthen (Stellan Skarsgard, Thor: The Dark World) — someone who has not just left his old life, but his morals and emotions in a galaxy far, far away.
Cass and Mon’s stories parallel by placing both of them in heightened situations that begin with seering tension, are eased a bit with levity and absurdity, then ramped up to a dizzying, visceral and gutting level of tragedy.
While the series is called Andor, Mon Motha’s story often steals the premiere. Not enough can be said about Genevieve O’Reilly and just how much her performance drives her storyline. O’Reilly’s face is so evocative of the anxiety she goes through in her attempt to live in two worlds. Throughout the preparation of her daughter’s wedding we find Mon having to perform near acrobatic feats in order to balance the formality and politics of the ancient nuptial ceremony, keeping an eye on the ever-looming Luthen and trying to unpack whatever is happening with her friend Tay Kolma (Ben Wise, V for Vendetta). O’Reilly is able to change her entire physical and emotional performance at the drop of a dime — and this creates such a white knuckle tension throughout the lavish and ostentatious wedding (complete with an EDM Droid) we’re watching play out.
Meanwhile, we see Cassian caught amidst a Lord of the Flies-esque plot with a bunch of bumbling fighters who have hijacked the Rebellion’s plot to steal a prototype tie fighter. This detour leads to his absence amongst his Rix Road family and that ultimately leads to a death, a near rape, and betrayals galore. While Cass’ story is more of a classic Star Wars story (stealing a ship, escaping hapless adversaries), however when he returns to find his friends, the deathly serious, tear-filled glare etched on Diego Luna’s face emphasize not only how incredibly guilty he is for all the burden he is placed on upon his friends; but we can see the hardening of his character, evolving into the character we find in the beginning of Rogue One.
The three episode premiere also does a spectacular job of reminding us that The Empire is not just a bunch of Stormtroopers who can’t hit the broad side of a bantha with their blasters. These are evil people. From Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn, Secret Invasion)Â and Dedra’s (Denise Gough, The Stolen Girl) plotting the overthrown and eventual destruction of Gorman to the assault of Bix (Adria Arjona Torres, Good Omens) — this premiere shows the pure insidiousness of fascism. There’s no dark side of the force, droids or intergalactic gangsters — it’s soldiers, it’s politicians, it’s tacticians, it’s people convinced the unrelenting iron fist of The Empire is the way for everyone to live in harmony. Death, destruction and degradation matter not to them.
The Andor Season 2 Premiere is an uncompromising look at the battle between good and evil in the Star Wars universe. It’s an unabashed take of how good people have to make horrible decisions in order to save the galaxy. However, these stories never take you out of the galaxies we’ve loved in stories that are far more geared towards younger viewers or heroic tales of sci-fi daddies and their green stepsons. This is just the visceral other side of the coin, and it is nearly perfect in its execution.
