Tripwire Reviews Andor Season Two Episodes Seven To Nine

Rogue Activities

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows reviews the latest three episodes of Andor Season Two. Warning:a few spoilers ahead…

Andor: A Star Wars Story  Season Two
Messenger/ Who Are You?/ Welcome To The Rebellion
Director: Janus Metz
Writers: Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy
Stars: Diego Luna, Adria Arjona, Genevieve O’Reilly, Denise Gough, Stellan Skarsgard, Kyle Soller, Ben Mendelsohn

The latest set of episodes jump forward another year. In Messenger, after the bold heist carried out by the Ghorman Front on the planet, the Imperial crackdown continues apace with checkpoints, an increased security presence and the Empire’s plans getting closer to fruition. Senator Mothma (O’Reilly) continues to seek diplomatic solutions but Director Krennic (Mendelsohn) has set his sights fully on Ghorman through his supervisor there, Deedra (Gough) whose relationship wit Syril (Soller) is taking a more and more intense turn. Andor and Bix (Arjona) are settled on the rebel base at Yavin now and Andor’s encounter with a psychic who calls him a messenger, a powerful figure, leaves him discombobulated and uncomfortable. When Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier) arrives with a message from Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) — a secret mission to go to Ghorman to assassinate Meero to protect Axis’ identity — the two rebels have to decide where their allegiance truly lies. This episode feels a little low key at times but certain moments are very effective indeed, showing Luna’s range as an actor and Andor’s rebellious streak, a figure who doesn’t quite fit into the more regimented infrastructure of the Rebellion. Gough is wonderfully controlling as Dedra, a woman who thinks she has the measure of Syril but she ends up underestimating him.

Who Are You? ramps things up significantly with Syril, who has been very conflicted, finally choosing a side, one that doesn’t fit in with Dedra. This episode is epic in scale, with a full-blown battle on Ghorman between the Ghorman Front and the Empire with Andor on planet to carry out his mission. The story here is told in very broad strokes, bringing what Gilroy and co have been building up since the first episode of season two. Andor is a guerrilla fighter, a maverick man who is prepared to do whatever is necessary to further the cause and defeat the machinations of the Empire but he doesn’t play that well with others most of the time. Syril’s fate is sealed here, just when he is becoming a more interesting figure and it is arguably Dedra’s hubris which leads to his final scene. The battle here is exciting, chaotic and well-orchestrated and we have a new Easter egg here, where Andor disables and grabs the same robot who arrested him in season one.

The final episode in this latest batch of three hinges on Senator Mothma’s final speech on Coruscant to the senate and the Rebellion’s plans to rescue her and take her away before the Empire gets their clutches on her. So it falls to Andor to carry out this plan. The rescue is a taut and exciting wrap-up to this latest run of episodes, with Luthen casting doubt on just who Mothma can really trust, ramping the action up again for the last three episodes coming this week. Skarsgard is wonderfully understated as ever, as the puppetmaster at the heart of this conspiracy.

Andor and Bix’s relationship is resolved here too with a dramatic touch that feels perfectly in keeping with the show’s tone. She doesn’t get killed off but it does explain why she isn’t in Rogue One, offering a bittersweet and emotional wrap-up to a partnership that has been the core of the show.

With just three episodes left to run, Andor season two continues to be a unique experience among Star Wars TV shows with its sense of nuance and subtlety and it will be intriguing to see how the programme makers lead us directly into Rogue One.

JOEL MEADOWS

Andor Season Two is on Disney Plus each week