And we are off at warp speed
Andor season 2 (English)
Episodes: 3
Runtime: 44 - 53 minutes
Creator: Tony Gilroy
Starring: Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O'Reilly, Denise Gough, Faye Marsay, Varada Sethu, Elizabeth Dulau
Storyline: A theft, a kidnapping, a betrayal, an unlikely relationship, a secret assignment and a wedding
A prequel to 2016's Rogue One, which Gilroy wrote with Chris Weitz, the series follows Cassian's transformation from selfish hustler to selfless martyr. Andor stood out among all the Star Wars shows for its accessibility. By focusing on robust storytelling rather than hoping for the Skywalkers, Jedi or the Force to bail them out, Andor zoomed to the stratosphere quite like one of those tie fighters in our favourite galaxy far, far away.
Andor is set five years before the events of Rogue One, which in turn is set a week before Star Wars: A New Hope, and tells of the efforts of the Rebel Alliance to steal the plans of the Death Star. Season 1 followed a year in Cassian's life, which he begins by skulking around Ferrix and ends up working for the mysterious recruiter, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård).
Season 1 ended with the droids assembling the Death Star from the work of the prisoners on Narkina 5, and also with Ferrix rising up against the Empire. Season 2 opens a year later with Cassian following the Star Wars tradition of stealing an imperial craft after telling a technician who is helping him, 'you have become more than your fear, let that protect you', revealing the blossoming of his leadership qualities.
We learn what has happened to the others in Andor's orbit. Bix (Adria Arjona), who was tortured (one cannot imagine what the dying children on Dizon Fray sounded like), still has terrible dreams even when she is far away from Ferrix and with friends including Brasso (Joplin Sibtain).
The fiercely ambitious Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) of the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) has to put her plans to find Axis on hold as Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) has her on a black op. Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), who saved Dedra from the riot on Ferrix, is now in Bureau of Standards and in a relationship with Dedra.
There is a wedding in Chandrila between imperial senator, Mon Mothma's (Genevieve O'Reilly) daughter Leida, and the son of a shady businessman, Davo Sculdun. The first three episodes zip by at warp speed, elegantly cutting between the glittering wedding preparations, Cassian's desperate escape from rebel fighters who do not recognise him, the ISB's black op, the arbitrary census undertaken by the Empire and a visit from Syril's mother, Eedy (Kathryn Hunter).
The clothes are lovely. Leida's wedding dress is a vision in white, Dedra's loungewear reveals a softer side to a woman who has to fight every inch of her way, Luthen's asymmetrical coats say a lot about the man while Mon's impeccably cut outfits are an extra layer of armour in the double life she is leading. The worlds — from golden farms to snowy holdfasts, gracious Chandrilan buildings to riotous forests are splendid islands of wonder.
There are parallels to the real world, with illegal workers being hunted even though they are needed for the harvest, gouge mining rendering a planet's core unstable, and the Ferrixian gong, which underlines how insignificant individuals are in the faceless might of the Empire.
There are some creatures, including that almost cow at the farm and some at the wedding, but not so many that they overwhelm the very human story.
With each batch of three episodes covering a year, and the final three covering the three days before Rogue One, which means in another part of the galaxy, Princess Leia has been kidnapped by the respiratorily-challenged Lord Vader, Gilroy has us well and truly hooked.
Andor season 2 is currently streaming on JioHotstar.
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