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The Hindu
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
‘Andor' Season 2 finale review: The Force is with Cassian and company in thrilling, tragic climax
What a smashing segue into Rogue One the finale of Andor Season 2 is! The bitter-sweet ending brings some character arcs to a close and leaves others open-ended, much like life itself, which very rarely ties up all loose ends in a pretty bow. Dropping three episodes weekly is immensely satisfying as it makes Season 2 like watching four mini-movies. A year after the wedding at Chandrila, the Imperial designs on Ghorman, and the escape from Mina-Rau, Cassian (Diego Luna) and Bix (Adria Arjona) are working for Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård). Still troubled by the torture she suffered, Bix has become a shadow of herself, drugging herself to a stupor. Andor Season 2 (English) Creator: Tony Gilroy Cast: Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O'Reilly, Denise Gough, Faye Marsay, Varada Sethu, Elizabeth Dulau Episodes: 12 Runtime: 38 – 60 minutes Storyline: As the terrible truth of the Ghorman massacre and other Imperial actions come out, both sides pay a grave price The Ghorman massacre, which the Imperial forces spin as an insurrection is the final straw, for senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) and she makes a speech denouncing Emperor Palpatine. In a nail-bitingly tense sequence, Cassian helps her escape to Yavin IV, laconically commenting, 'Welcome to the rebellion.' The final three episodes that lead directly to Rogue One, sees the different narrative strands being pulled tighter together. The ambitious Imperial Security Bureau officer, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), who was assigned to Ghorman by the director of advanced weapons research, Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), returns to hunt for her bête noir, the rebel agent, code named Axis, who is actually Luthen. Ghorman took a lot out of Dedra, personally as well, when her partner, the equally driven Syril Karn, (Kyle Soller) paid the ultimate price. As Dedra gets within a hair's breadth of uncovering Axis, Luthen sets up exit protocols. Though Cassian helps Bix get closure on her torturer, Dr Ghorst, she leaves Cassian urging him to continue working for the revolution, promising him she will find him after 'it is all over,' which we, as the audience know will not happen. As things fall apart, the Rebel Alliance grows stronger as does the Death Star, which Krennic says is a just a week away from being ready. Andor continues to thrill, with many Easter eggs, including, 'May the Force be with you', while still being solidly on the side of strong story telling. All character arcs are given their time, including Mothma's husband, Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie) who is shown drinking his troubles away in the back of a transport. Vel (Faye Marsay) Mothma's cousin puts her lover, Cinta's (Varada Sethu) loss behind her to further the cause. We learn of Luthen's and his efficient assistant, Kleya's (Elizabeth Dulau) past. There is no return to Cassian's home planet of Kenari even though he dreams of the green hillsides before it was destroyed by Imperial forces. The dialogues are full of quotable quotes from extremist leader Saw Gerrera's (Forest Whitaker), 'revolution is not for the sane' to Nemik's (Alex Lawther) 'tyranny requires constant effort.' The return of the reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), ensures some C3PO-type humour. The worlds are beautifully realised, with the gigantic, sterile buildings contrasting starkly with the spectacular wilds. The level of detailing, from costumes (Cassian makes for a natty designer on his undercover visit to Ghorman) to Ghor, the language spoken on Ghorman, is nothing short of marvellous. The visual as well as implied signatures are mind boggling from the tall impersonally beautiful buildings to the sterile prisons and anonymous apartments. The spiders of Ghorman, the Ghorlectipods, whose silk is used to create the fabulous Ghorman twill, are unable to stand against the might of Imperial misinformation and might. The spiders are also emblematic of the tangled webs, characters weave in the pursuit of perceived needful things, only to be trapped by them. Luna has created a very human rebel leader in Cassian and Skarsgård manages to keep the audience as well as the Imperials and rebels off kilter about his true intentions. All the cast, in their roles big or small, have us invested in their stories. Tony Gilroy, who wrote Rogue One with Chris Weitz, has created a spectacular show that tells of a rebel and a revolution and the role of a fascist government in birthing them. Andor is currently streaming on JioHotstar
Sydney Morning Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Andor was one of the great TV triumphs of the decade. Here's why.
Andor has been one of the great television triumphs of this decade. The Disney+ series, which has concluded with the release of the second season's final episodes, was pitched as a prequel to the 2016 Star Wars film Rogue One, explaining how Rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) ended up on a heroic final mission. But as it's unfolded, the show, created by screenwriter and filmmaker Tony Gilroy, has become the main event. It's deeply intricate, thrilling, and heartbreaking. To mark the finale, here are nine things Andor got right. Warning: this story contains spoilers for the season two finale. It reinvented Star Wars Loading The many Star Wars films and subsequent television shows in George Lucas' blockbuster fantasy galaxy were made for children. Andor is the first project made for adults. Gilroy has described it as 'a definitive work about revolution', tracking Cassian's progress from apolitical thief to committed operative over five years while the rebellion takes shape and the authoritarian machinery of the Empire seeks to suppress it. Whether as a heist thriller, an espionage drama, or a study of guerilla warfare, the show leant into complicated, contested spaces. The Force was not with them Traditionally Stars Wars stories are about heroic, often super-powered individuals, beginning with Tatooine teenager turned Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, pulling off extraordinary feats. The space wizards are nowhere to be seen in Andor, with but a hint of their spiritual side quietly seeping into the second season. Ordinary people mattered in Andor. The show details how oppression slowly, inexorably builds, and the different ways that individuals choose to defy the Empire's fascistic control. Not everyone had to blow up the Death Star to be heard. The infrastructure mattered Andor showed the messy, slow-turning steps required to build a rebellion. The initial wave of dissidents and saboteurs had to be put to work. Funding had to be acquired. The politicians and the partisans had to move in tandem. The show's Rebel spymaster, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard), choreographed an entire movement, and he did it while being evasive, cynical, and sometimes untrustworthy. The cost paid by various Rebels was always felt. As Luthen put it, 'I burn my decency for someone else's future.' The Empire had an org chart In parallel to the Rebels, Andor charted the workings of the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB), the secret police tasked with negating democratic institutions, cracking down on dissent, and eventually using military might to destroy opposition. The Emperor, and his enforcer Darth Vader, were never seen. But some senior ISB officers attended meetings the dictator was at and brought orders back. Andor focused on the people who carried out those orders, whether out of zealotry, misplaced duty or simple workplace expectations. Obsessive ISB supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) became one of the show's most compelling characters. The real world was always present Loading It was impossible to watch Andor and not draw connections to real-life events. For some that meant looking to the war in Gaza, while others saw historic precedents. A major storyline in the second season was the Empire cracking down on the planet of Ghorman, with a view to seizing direct control for destructive mass mining. From the clothes to the language, Ghorman drew on France's experiences under Nazi occupation in World War II. There was no one correct interpretation, all were valid. What was unquestionable, however, was how harrowing the Empire's stage-managed massacre eventually was. It was a tactile experience One of the show's true unsung heroes was production designer Luke Hull. His work permeated every scene, invoking grand spaces that conveyed power and authority, but also makeshift bases and everyday residences. So many items had a casual, scuffed utility. This was a Star Wars experience where people had a home life, and the plausible homes that went with that. The science-fiction technology was often not overwhelming and screen-based, but rather mechanical. The communications console secretly operated by Luthen's unyielding offsider, Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau), was a mass of plugs and knobs. The actors got to feast Gilroy assembled an almighty writers' room, including his brother Dan (Nightcrawler) and Beau Willimon (House of Cards). The episodes had an urgent, uneasy momentum, but at the right point they would feature a memorable monologue. Cassian's adoptive mother, Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw), delivered a posthumous anti-Empire speech that literally started a riot. My favourite? Forest Whitaker's paranoid militant Saw Gerrera huffing starship fuel and exhorting a young Rebel to embrace the madness of rebellion: 'You're right here, and you're ready to fight!' The pay-offs were sublime In season one, Cassian's first mission for Luthen is helping steal an imperial payroll. The participants include a young idealist, Karis Nemik (Alex Lawther), who is fighting the Empire by writing a manifesto that articulates its tactics. Like most of the team, Nemik doesn't make it, and his manuscript goes to Cassian. At the show's end, a senior ISB officer, sensing that their control is failing, ruefully listens to a recording that has been illegally circulating through the galaxy. It is Nemik reading his manifesto. Uncompromising to the end Loading The body count was always high in Andor. The odds were so often against the nascent rebels and the show's stormtroopers could actually shoot straight. From early on it was apparent that if a character hadn't featured in Rogue One, the odds were against them surviving the series. Luthen was clear in his belief that he wouldn't live to see his plans come to fruition, and when the time came the storytelling adhered to that. That Luthen killed his own agent inside the ISB, to preserve the top-secret material he'd just handed over, and then attempted to take his own life when Dedra came calling, was grim and fitting.
The Age
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Andor was one of the great TV triumphs of the decade. Here's why.
Andor has been one of the great television triumphs of this decade. The Disney+ series, which has concluded with the release of the second season's final episodes, was pitched as a prequel to the 2016 Star Wars film Rogue One, explaining how Rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) ended up on a heroic final mission. But as it's unfolded, the show, created by screenwriter and filmmaker Tony Gilroy, has become the main event. It's deeply intricate, thrilling, and heartbreaking. To mark the finale, here are nine things Andor got right. Warning: this story contains spoilers for the season two finale. It reinvented Star Wars Loading The many Star Wars films and subsequent television shows in George Lucas' blockbuster fantasy galaxy were made for children. Andor is the first project made for adults. Gilroy has described it as 'a definitive work about revolution', tracking Cassian's progress from apolitical thief to committed operative over five years while the rebellion takes shape and the authoritarian machinery of the Empire seeks to suppress it. Whether as a heist thriller, an espionage drama, or a study of guerilla warfare, the show leant into complicated, contested spaces. The Force was not with them Traditionally Stars Wars stories are about heroic, often super-powered individuals, beginning with Tatooine teenager turned Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, pulling off extraordinary feats. The space wizards are nowhere to be seen in Andor, with but a hint of their spiritual side quietly seeping into the second season. Ordinary people mattered in Andor. The show details how oppression slowly, inexorably builds, and the different ways that individuals choose to defy the Empire's fascistic control. Not everyone had to blow up the Death Star to be heard. The infrastructure mattered Andor showed the messy, slow-turning steps required to build a rebellion. The initial wave of dissidents and saboteurs had to be put to work. Funding had to be acquired. The politicians and the partisans had to move in tandem. The show's Rebel spymaster, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard), choreographed an entire movement, and he did it while being evasive, cynical, and sometimes untrustworthy. The cost paid by various Rebels was always felt. As Luthen put it, 'I burn my decency for someone else's future.' The Empire had an org chart In parallel to the Rebels, Andor charted the workings of the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB), the secret police tasked with negating democratic institutions, cracking down on dissent, and eventually using military might to destroy opposition. The Emperor, and his enforcer Darth Vader, were never seen. But some senior ISB officers attended meetings the dictator was at and brought orders back. Andor focused on the people who carried out those orders, whether out of zealotry, misplaced duty or simple workplace expectations. Obsessive ISB supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) became one of the show's most compelling characters. The real world was always present Loading It was impossible to watch Andor and not draw connections to real-life events. For some that meant looking to the war in Gaza, while others saw historic precedents. A major storyline in the second season was the Empire cracking down on the planet of Ghorman, with a view to seizing direct control for destructive mass mining. From the clothes to the language, Ghorman drew on France's experiences under Nazi occupation in World War II. There was no one correct interpretation, all were valid. What was unquestionable, however, was how harrowing the Empire's stage-managed massacre eventually was. It was a tactile experience One of the show's true unsung heroes was production designer Luke Hull. His work permeated every scene, invoking grand spaces that conveyed power and authority, but also makeshift bases and everyday residences. So many items had a casual, scuffed utility. This was a Star Wars experience where people had a home life, and the plausible homes that went with that. The science-fiction technology was often not overwhelming and screen-based, but rather mechanical. The communications console secretly operated by Luthen's unyielding offsider, Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau), was a mass of plugs and knobs. The actors got to feast Gilroy assembled an almighty writers' room, including his brother Dan (Nightcrawler) and Beau Willimon (House of Cards). The episodes had an urgent, uneasy momentum, but at the right point they would feature a memorable monologue. Cassian's adoptive mother, Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw), delivered a posthumous anti-Empire speech that literally started a riot. My favourite? Forest Whitaker's paranoid militant Saw Gerrera huffing starship fuel and exhorting a young Rebel to embrace the madness of rebellion: 'You're right here, and you're ready to fight!' The pay-offs were sublime In season one, Cassian's first mission for Luthen is helping steal an imperial payroll. The participants include a young idealist, Karis Nemik (Alex Lawther), who is fighting the Empire by writing a manifesto that articulates its tactics. Like most of the team, Nemik doesn't make it, and his manuscript goes to Cassian. At the show's end, a senior ISB officer, sensing that their control is failing, ruefully listens to a recording that has been illegally circulating through the galaxy. It is Nemik reading his manifesto. Uncompromising to the end Loading The body count was always high in Andor. The odds were so often against the nascent rebels and the show's stormtroopers could actually shoot straight. From early on it was apparent that if a character hadn't featured in Rogue One, the odds were against them surviving the series. Luthen was clear in his belief that he wouldn't live to see his plans come to fruition, and when the time came the storytelling adhered to that. That Luthen killed his own agent inside the ISB, to preserve the top-secret material he'd just handed over, and then attempted to take his own life when Dedra came calling, was grim and fitting.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The inspiring end of "Andor" shows us how great rebellions begin
The second season of 'Andor' is a ticking clock counting down to the Galactic Civil War that launched 'Star Wars.' At 12 episodes, it leaves a person yearning for more time with Diego Luna's Cassian Andor while appreciating that the best TV series are insistently finite. Besides, since the story leads directly into the events of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,' it's really a 13-episode season with a spectacularly tragic finish. Cassian, Jyn Erso (played in the movie by Felicity Jones) and their off-the-books rebel band succeed in the mission and lose everything in the same planet-vaporizing flash. This spirit of loss prevails throughout each of these tautly rendered final episodes in which Cassian becomes the unsung hub around which the revolution spins. Luna's hero endures many along the way, as do Galactic Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) and Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), Cassian's handler now that he's a spy for the rebellion. The emotional scale of these losses varies, at first. But as the season cruises into its final hours, everyone's stakes narrow to the same conclusion of either taking moral comfort in serving the rebellion or dying under Imperial fascism. As one of the good guys grimly puts it, mounting a rebellion means resigning oneself to accepting loss after loss after loss until you finally pull out a victory. That 'Andor' mirrors our current political state is old news, although if the accuracy with which it chronicles fascism's rise in a galaxy far, far away felt closer in 2022, it now mirrors our present. Details of the title character's biography reflect prominent symptoms foretelling our full-blown case of autocracy. His early years are spent in places ravaged by the Empire's environmental degradation, first on Cassian's destroyed planet of origin, then on his adoptive home world of Ferrix, a rocky salvaging base. Later, he's disappeared to an Imperial prison work colony where he and other inmates are forced into industrial slavery while his friend Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) is captured and tortured. Season 2 picks up four years before the Battle of Yavin, or BBY 4, and we can already see that Cassian's competence as a spy is his curse. He grows to resent how much is being asked of him and can't shake the toll that risking innocent lives takes on his conscience. Where Season 1 shows how freedom fighters are made, not born, these new episodes depict how revolutions catch fire. They also depict the familiar reasons societies slide into totalitarianism, including the crucial role of weaponized disinformation. Cassian is connected to everything, mainly as a witness to developments that are beyond his control when he isn't getting his allies out of tight spots. Amid all that, he's also obligated to remain out of the Empire's crosshairs. What he doesn't know is that the woman hunting him, Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) has a more pressing assignment now: the subjugation and destruction of the verdant, prosperous planet Ghorman. With Ghorman, the writers have the full layer cake of heartbreaking possibilities. The place is enviably beautiful, and its wealth comes from naturally sourced fabric production, making it a fashion and design destination. It looks like a cross between Switzerland and Paris, the kind of place no one would expect the Empire would dare seize. Like every other place the Empire ruins, its citizens don't understand why they can't live in peace. But Palpatine needs something from Ghorman, and it isn't a few bolts of its famous cloth. Cloaking his reasons in the euphemisms of 'energy independence' and an 'energy initiative,' the emperor's toady Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn, reprising his 'Rogue One' role) informs those he's recruited that Palpatine wants its mineral resources. The Empire's objective, he claims, is to 'transform the galactic economy and solidify imperial authority' by creating a source of stable, unlimited power. We know that power is only meant for the Death Star. Unspoken but shown is the fact that Ghorman's population is overwhelmingly white and cosmopolitan, not at all like the dusky working-class folk on shabby Ferrix. Therefore, to sell their culture's destruction to the ignorant masses, the Empire mounts a disinformation campaign designed to transform Ghorman and its people into terrorists. Season 2 feels like much more of an ensemble affair as showrunner Tony Gilroy expands the show's focus beyond one character's moral development to more thoroughly embroider others that are just as worthwhile. Luna remains an expert in conveying grit and melancholy without saying a word, and that stoicism carries every moment he's onscreen. Since Cassian's job is to change history without leaving fingerprints on the text, there's a kind of grim romance to him. Much of that has to do with the way he holds hope in one hand and fatalism in the other, but Cassian borrows plenty of sorrow from the people surrounding him. Bix and her Ferrix compatriots are now refugees — yes, more topical relevance — and the Empire has a passion for hunting undocumented workers. Skarsgård makes Luthen more rumpled and prone to rage about the grave he's dug for himself even as he preaches that fighting fascism requires radical sacrifice. As Imperial forces cross more lines, he realizes how little time he and his assistant Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) have before their spy network is discovered. Mon Mothma's journey is synonymous with Luthen's, although her tenuous position in a Senate dominated by Palpatine lickspittles would make her downfall much louder. Although this second season has its share of "Rogue One" cameos, including the return of Forest Whitaker's Saw Gerrera, it mostly brushes off the franchise's tendency to sentimentalize. This includes the further expansion of Mon Mothma, who has been part of the 'Star Wars' story from the beginning, mainly seen and barely heard from. O'Reilly nails how much of a headache it is to hide the stress of funding an insurgency behind endless smiles. She and Luthen also share a ruthless devotion to pragmatism, although he applies that to the worthiness of strangers' lives, whereas the good senator can't help but sell out her loved ones. Right now, the not-so-distant similarities between Imperial fascism and authoritarianism, American-style — disquieting as they are — might not be as bone-chilling as the domestic scenes between Dedra and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), who have somehow formed a relationship of professional and personal convenience. Mendelsohn and Anton Lesser, who plays Dedra's boss, Major Partagaz, have the luxury of playing to type here, with the former channeling his version of Imperial unctuousness and the latter lending a professorial chill to his acceptance of unconscionable orders. Gough and Soller's dynamic, however, strikes a different note. It's as if their duo doesn't entirely know how to perform affection, and this makes them oddly believable as a couple. Their shared scenes also emphasize the few degrees of humanity remaining in Syril that Dedra never had, leading us to wonder what each of them wants from the other. That question is part of what makes them apt faces for this totalitarian support structure — a white-collar power couple eager to secure promotions at a company that's really going places. They and others like them – primarily Syril's overbearing mother Eedy (Kathryn Hunter) – illustrate why people living in supposedly decent societies go along with fascism until it's unsustainable. Oppression pays well to those in its employ and can be tolerable to those who aren't, as long as it's not making their lives hell. Gilroy sets a nimble course in these episodes, covering four years to the first season's one. Given all the signposts the story's obligated to hit, the plot's cohesiveness is a minor miracle. You may not agree with that at times, such as the choice to resume Mon Mothma's subplot by miring her and her cousin Vel (Faye Marsay) in the humdrum task of overseeing her daughter's wedding. Court intrigue within this floral-laden setting sets up a later payoff when the senator becomes who she's meant to be. It's a pale substitute for the delicious tension inherent to deadly cloak-and-dagger exploits. But the writers are correct to skip past skirmishes that don't mean much to grant a close-up to the small moments that do. The Ghorman plot builds to that action, of course, although the inevitable culmination of the Empire forcing its hand is horrifying, especially in light of what's going on in our world now. Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course. I'm guessing Gilroy (or his brother Dan, who wrote other relevant episodes in this arc) didn't intend to draw direct parallels between this fiction and the destruction of Gaza — at least that's what their Disney bosses would claim. Colonizing forces have always viewed the people standing between them and the land they want like the Empire sees cultures standing in its way. But even daring to fictionalize some version of that atrocity raises 'Andor' above other spinoffs. It reminds us that "Star Wars" is the story of an insurgency, like many versions that have arisen throughout Earth's history. On the other side of those epics is the machinery rewriting those accounts to make the aggressors into heroes and the rebels into criminals. Like the Third Reich had its propaganda machine, 'Star Wars' has Imperial News, which operates a lot like Fox's infotainment beast by shamelessly broadcasting its lies across the star system. Maybe this would all be too depressing to bear if we didn't know that the good guys eventually triumph. Gripping as these closing chapters of 'Andor' are, they're also overwhelmingly heavy until an old friend from 'Rogue One,' K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) enters the fight and brings his snark and sarcasm along for the ride. His arrival also marks the beginning of this show's definitive ending, and we're right to mourn that we won't see more 'Andor.' Along with that, however, we can appreciate Gilroy's concise vision and willingness to do the most in fewer hours, ensuring 'Andor' concludes atop the very short list of the sharpest, smartest 'Star Wars' stories ever told. Season 2 of "Andor" premieres with three episodes on Tuesday, April 22, with three new episodes debuting weekly on Disney+.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The path to the Death Star is paved with lies: On "Andor," as on Earth, disinformation defeats truth
Two years is not very long, especially when you suspect your time is running out. This is how much time the people of Ghorman have to wake up to the inevitability of their destruction — two years, which translates to eight episodes in "Andor" terms. This is also how long it takes for the Empire to persuade enough of the galaxy to believe that 800,000 Ghorman citizens deserve to be displaced or eradicated. As Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) head Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser) mentions in 'One Year Later," the second season premiere, this is no easy task. Ghorman, Partagaz warns, is not without political power. As for why that is, he doesn't say. Instead, series creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy shows us, in what appears to be a tourism film, that Ghorman is a cosmopolitan fashion mecca reminiscent of Paris. People dream of visiting, and if not that, owning clothing made of its famous fabric, woven from fiber spun by spiders. But the Empire needs a mineral in the planet's soil that not even its people, the Ghor, know about. Hence, on faraway Coruscant, it dedicates a secret task force devoted to ensuring that when the time comes, the planet's people won't be able to get in its way, and that few will desire to help them. This is where the Ministry of Enlightenment's propaganda weavers enter the picture. 'Hasn't there always been something slightly arrogant about the Ghor? Oh, we all feel it – what is that?' one purrs during the group's first pitch meeting. He and his partner continue, you know, just ask a few questions. What gives them the right to put themselves first? And, did a 'dedicated Imperial naval inspector' really have to die to protect Ghorman pride? 'We did that,' a second Enlightenment specialist proudly states. 'We made the story. We shaped it, we blew it up. We decided when it was over. With the right ideas, planted in the right markets, in the right sequence, we can now weaponize this galactic opinion.' There is a Ghorman resistance, but it is small and manipulated by ISB supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), who relocates to the planet with her lover Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) and plants him within the insurgents' ranks. Syril believes he's simply keeping tabs on them, while his overbearing mother Eedy (Kathryn Hunter) swallows every lie about the Ghor that the Imperial News pours into her ears. 'They won't get another credit of mine! I'm not buying Ghorman again. I'm sick of it,' she harrumphs. 'They were always too good for the rest of us!' A few episodes later, we see reporters on the ground in Ghorman speaking as if they're in a war zone instead of a place trying to go about its business during an Imperial occupation that grows more visible every day. One speaks of 'the continued and inexplicable Ghorman resistance to Imperial norms.' Another talks about the unknown number of Imperial casualties in a series of fire bombings at terminals. By the time the mining equipment and black-clad shock troops drop on the planet without warning, it's too late for anyone to turn back – including Syril, who realizes at the 11th hour that Dedra used him to facilitate mass murder. Partagaz blithely describes it another way in his one-on-one meeting with Dedra, his star employee: 'It's bad luck, Ghorman.' The thought makes her a little sick, but her boss has the cure for that bout of conscience, too. 'Let the image of professional ascendance settle your nerves,' he coos. Arguments are the 'Star Wars' universe's conversation stimulant, but they tend to concern trivial matters. With 'Andor,' debates revolve around what it's trying to say or do, which is more a matter of timing and societal circumstance than anything else. Gilroy maintains in every interview that his show does not specifically take aim at Trumpism and its policies. 'The sad truth is, I did not write this with a newspaper,' he told Rolling Stone before the new season premiered, adding that he and the writers started sketching out its two-season arc four or five years ago. 'History has its own relevancy, and the repetition and the rinse and repeat of history is something that a lot of people don't really seem to be aware of.' Sure. Many speculative fiction writers say some version of this whenever people point out disturbing similarities in their shows and movies to current events. In the same way that 2016's 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' arrived in theaters just as the nation officially embraced the Dark Side, the first season of "Andor" debuted just in time to confirm that America was well on its way to becoming an autocracy. Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course. Even back then, its writers didn't have to consult dead tree pulp to recognize the ways the right-wing media has warped so many people's views to a degree that the morally indefensible is acceptable. For instance, recently, far-right YouTube influencer Nick Shirley shared a video from inside a Salvadoran prison titled 'The El Salvador Prison the Media Doesn't Want You to See.' It shows a bright white room full of prisoners hunched over sewing machines as Shirley sings the praises of its 'pretty amazing' system. The prisoners' free labor, he says, provides clothing for law-abiding Salvadoreans, versus having to import it from the United States or China, 'helping create a more self-sufficient El Salvador." In March, when Fox News enthusiastically interviewed Shirley about his visit, the interviewer didn't question his opinion that the prison, which stuffs around 80 people into one cell, is housing 'some of the worst people roaming the Earth right now.' That conversation took place around the same time that the major news outlets picked up the story that 238 Venezuelan migrants were deported to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center —'a place so harsh that El Salvador's justice minister once said the only way out is in a coffin,' CBS News describes. The network obtained a list of those migrants' identities by examining internal government documents and found that an overwhelming majority have no apparent criminal convictions or even criminal charges. Among those listed are a makeup artist, a soccer player and a food delivery driver, CBS reported. 'Andor' viewers can believe it, having seen this plot play out in its hero's unjust imprisonment in Narkina 5's manufacturing facility in its first season. Hence, Shirley's Central American vacation video generated many versions of a meme superimposing his image on stills from the show's prison arc. Likewise, Season 2's disinformation storyline isn't predictive but reflective. These actions join a saga long in progress, culminating in an America riven by fundamentally disparate versions of the truth. A hapless, pliable corporate media abetted that outcome, as 'Daily Show' correspondent Desi Lydic satirizes on the series' April 30 episode via a montage of conflicting descriptions of the opening 100 days of Donald Trump's second term as president. 'As we all know, the American media is just as divided as the country itself,' she says, 'So depending on which cable news network you watch, Trump's first 100 days were either . . . sick,' she says, emphasizing that descriptor with sharp indignance before switching to a dumb bro drawl to finish, 'or … siiiiiiiiick.' The net effect is an alarming percentage of Americans who fear their fellow citizens and foreigners, and a congressional body split between Republican enablers parroting the administration's propaganda and hapless Democrats rubberstamping Trump's agenda. We've watched ICE agents grab international students with legal status off the street and throw them into vans, and FBI agents arrest a Milwaukee judge, accusing her of allegedly obstructing immigration officers trying to arrest a man who was scheduled to appear in her courtroom. We've been heading in this direction since Fox News' cable conquest after 9/11 and the resultant ascent of far-right news outlets like Breitbart and Newsmax. But what 'Andor' does particularly well is remind its audience that fascism can only succeed if everyday people make it acceptable. The current trio of episodes, directed by Janus Metz and written by Dan Gilroy, hits us in time for the Ministry of Enlightenment's masterstroke to coincide with our president's clamp-down on a free press, including an executive order to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The war Russia instigated in Ukraine in 2022 is still hot, and more than half of Americans have been hypnotized into believing that the United States doesn't have a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself, according to Pew Research. Influencers like Shirley assisted in shaping that opinion, too. The slaughter in Gaza, where the Israeli government has created a humanitarian crisis by cutting off all food imports and medical aid, is ongoing. Meanwhile, Americans are ticked off that groceries are still expensive. Many contentedly swallow Trump's excuse that former President Joe Biden is to blame for our tanking economy, not his senseless import tariffs. Disney+ is rolling out this season of "Andor" in weekly three-episode drops, with each covering a year before Luke Skywalker enters the picture in the Battle of Yavin. This has proven dissatisfying to those who would rather see the show's eponymous hero, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), returned to the spotlight instead of using him as a guide through a rebellion struggling to find itself. But making Cassian the main focus would obscure the show's larger point about free societies being hustled off a cliff by mass complacency, facilitated by falsehoods. In the Ghorman arc, Luna's spy primarily serves as a witness. He's at the scene of the massacre that occurs not as part of the cause, but to satisfy a vendetta that the violence's outbreak delays. Not long after Cassian escapes, he's rushed to Coruscant to chaperone Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) to her destiny as the Rebel Alliance's leader on Yavin. The Galactic Senate has obeyed in advance, and its politicians make a show of supporting Palpatine's lies about Ghorman. So Mon knows that she must summon the nerve to speak out against the Ghorman genocide, and doing so will mark the end of the life she knows. This legislative last stand also realizes the woeful hopes of American constituents who wish their legislators would effectively rise against this administration instead of writing strongly worded letters. If only our congressional officials and senators had Mon's courage or the long-term vision of Alderaan's Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt, an acceptable recast of a role previously played by Jimmy Smits), who helps make her speech and hasty exit possible. 'Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous,' Mon says as her fellow legislators boo her. 'The death of truth is the ultimate victory. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.' Then she calls the monster, Emperor Palpatine, by name as the Empire cuts off the Senate's version of a C-SPAN feed, and Cassian swoops in to help her run for her life. Elsewhere, Dedra has a panic attack once the gravity of her role in the Empire's sanctions mass murder sets in, but that's not enough to jumpstart her conscience. Syril nearly strangles Dedra for deceiving him, but backs off when she reminds him he didn't seem to mind all the promotions. His final reward for risking everything for a raise is a shot to the dome right after Cassian, his white whale, looks him in the eye and doesn't recognize him. "Who are you?" Cassian asks. Syril is dead before he can answer. Prior to Mon Mothma's flight from her apathetic political class, she watches as Ghorman's senator is dragged off by Imperial officers despite not having committed any crime. 'It's my people today and yours tomorrow!' he warns, and the events of "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" tell us he's right. Once totalitarianism gains momentum, it doesn't wait for the opposition to catch up. Yet none of the Ghorman politicians' colleagues intervene. How many of us would? How many of us are? Oddly, some people still stop short of characterizing 'Andor' as commentary on fascism, although parallels between the Empire and Adolf Hitler's Third Reich abound. They always have. (Those white armored guys who can't shoot straight aren't called stormtroopers coincidentally.) Maybe this was a matter of discomfort with how similar America's corporatized society looks to that of the Galactic Republic. 'Fascist isn't quite the right category for the Empire,' opined a commenter on a 2022 think piece posted on the Online Library of Liberty. 'Fascism emphasizes the unity of the people under the Leader. It has heavy propaganda campaigns to promote loyalty. All economic activity is closely controlled,' they said, clearly not suspecting what the second season of 'Andor' or 2025 would have in store. New episodes of "Andor" premiere Tuesdays on Disney+.
