‘Andor’ Season 2 Episodes 1-3 review

Much like Andor Season 1, Andor Season 2 begins with a three-episode arc to establish where the characters now are a year after the rebellion on Ferrix. It’s not as strong a start as the first season, but Andor Season 2 Episodes 1-3 gets the ball rolling quickly on this high-speed train to get to the events of Star Wars: Rogue One.

Cassian’s transformation

Andor Season 2 begins in the middle of an operation for Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård). Cassian, disguised as a pilot infiltrating a TIE fighter manufacturing base, (Diego Luna) talks an asset through all the rebellion talking points to reassure her she’s doing the right thing. This is miles ahead of the Cassian we first met in Andor Season 1, a cynic only out to make a dollar. But his speech sounds like something Luthen would say, or even Nemik. This Cassian looks and sounds a lot more like the character we first meet in Rogue One; Cassian is now firmly rooted in the rebellion’s cause.

Despite the TIE fighter not quite being to the specifications he thought, he makes it off planet and to Yavin 4, where he’s to meet his contact. However, he runs into a group called the Maya Pei Brigade, a group of disorganized rebels left behind without a ship. Their distrust of Cassian means Cassian is their prisoner for the first two episodes. As things turn violent and the group breaks into two, Cassian has to weigh the price of fighting people who’s on the same side he is. But as Cassian first told us in Rogue One, they’ve all done terrible things on behalf of the rebellion.

Keeping Cassian a prisoner for two episodes is a bit frustrating. There’s also some weird back-and-forth between Cassian’s time with the Maya Pei Brigade and the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) strategy meeting to displace Ghorman citizens in order to extract kalkrite minerals. The awkward cuts between these two major developments in the first two episodes doesn’t take away from the insidious ways in which the Empire operates.

There’s no exploding planets in Andor, but watching the way the Imperial officers discuss how they’re going to force Ghorman out is just as haunting. This secret meeting brings back Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser), Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), and Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn).

On the run on Mina-Rau

As Cassian tries to escape Yavin 4, B2, Bix (Adria Arjona), Brasso (Joplin Sibtain), and Wilmon (Muhannad Ben Amor) are awaiting his return on Mina-Rau. Since their escape from Ferrix at the end of Andor Season 1, the group has made a life working as mechanics on an agricultural planet where many people live without visas. They’ve made friends with the locals. Brasso is in a relationship, as is Wilmon. Bix refers to Cassian as her husband a couple of times, but it’s not clear if that’s a cover or not. But the fallout from Bix’s torture is still haunting her through nightmares. But the community they’ve seemed to integrate into means when the Imperial force arrives to start checking visas, their friends keep them abreast of when to run.

More of the Empire’s horror plays out on Mina-Rau, but it also is a window into real-life. ISB’s random visa checks are reminiscent of ICE’s attacks on undocumented workers. As ISB officers come around to harass hardworking people, their casual threats and menacing nature under the guise of “doing their jobs” turns these scenes into a pressure-cooker of tension. And in this, Andor doesn’t shy away from the monstrous shape these threats can take.

An ISB officer harasses Bix on a few occasions, until he blackmails her into sex in order to keep their non-visa status a secret. The scene is as uncomfortable as it should be, the violence that erupts gruesome and shocking. Bix fights back, and ends up killing the officer. When another officer appears to arrest her for killing the man, she tells him “he tried to rape me.”

Sexual violence in Star Wars may be few and far between, but it’s common when it comes to an occupying force. Calling this scene for what it is just reinforces that reality of the Empire’s control, and how they plan to take it.

Mon Mothma’s liberation

The more engaging parts of Andor Season 2 Episodes 1-3 take place on Chandrila, the home planet of Senator Mon Mothma. The three episodes take place over the course of her daughter’s wedding ceremony, a multi-day event steeped in the Chandrila traditions Mon Mothma abhorres, but must adhere to in order to keep her cover as an agent of the rebellion. A lot of the great moments from Andor Season 1 took place at the elegant parties Mon Mothma drifted through with a tight but reassuring smile, all while whispering rebellion plans to those she believed to be friends.

Leida’s multi-day wedding traps Mon Mothma in an unraveling prison. On one side, her daughter slips further away into a tradition Mon Mothma disagrees with. On another, Mon Mothma’s oldest friend, Tay, comes to her wanting to talk about the “foundation,” the code they used in Andor Season 1 to refer to Mon Mothma’s money troubles. His own issues in his personal life have made him realize he holds a lot of cards against Mon Mothma. He was a confidant in the first season, but now he’s asking for more, weighing the risks he’s taken and counting the cost. And leering around corners from another side is Luthen, invited by Davo Sculdun, there to remind Mon Mothma what rebellion costs.

As Mon Mothma maneuvers through these three episodes she slowly lets go of the tradition tying her to her life as Senator. In Rogue One, Mon Mothma is a full-on rebellion leader. In Andor Season 2 Episodes 1-3, she’s finally realizing the cost Luthen keeps talking about — her daughter, her husband, and her friend. This all culminates in a large dance sequence in Andor Season 2 Episode 3, an apt metaphor for letting go. As she dances through the crowd that represents her old life, she dances alone.

Andor Season 2 Episodes 1-3 are frustratingly restrained but also showcase just how far both the Empire and Cassian have come in a year, emphasizing the individual toll it takes on our main characters.

Andor Season 2 drops three new episodes every Tuesday on Disney+

Katey Stoetzel

Katey is co-founder and tv editor for InBetweenDrafts. She hosts the “House of the Dragon After Show” and “Between TV” podcasts and can be read in various other places like Inverse and Screen Speck. She wishes desperately the binge model of tv watching would die, but still gets mad when she runs out of episodes of tv to watch.