The following contains major spoilers from Episodes 1-3 of Andor Season 2.
After nearly three years, the long-awaited second season of Andor has arrived on Disney+. Taking place in the lead-up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (which itself leads directly into Episode IV – A New Hope), Andor follows a cast of characters – both Rebel and Imperial – as they fight for control of the Galaxy.
The first three episodes of Season 2 were filled with action, drama, heartbreak, and some of the funniest scenes of the show so far. Talking exclusively with IGN at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, the cast spoke in depth about some of the most jaw-dropping moments from Episodes 1-3.
Cassian Andor struggles to fly a TIE Avenger.
In the opening scene of Episode 1, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) works with a nervous undercover spy to steal a TIE fighter (specifically a TIE Avenger first seen in 1994’s Star Wars: TIE fighter PC game) from an Imperial test facility on the planet Sienar. And instead of expertly maneuvering the ship out of the building and off-planet, Cassian sneaks into the cockpit and has no idea how to fly it. This leads to a comical sequence in which he awkwardly lurches the Interceptor around a flight hanger before blasting through doors and nearly flying off a cliff. Luna explains there was a deeper meaning to the comedy in the sequence.
“The fun is over after minute four!” Luna jokes. “No, I think there’s a lot of humor in this season. Not that we were looking or searching for it, but it’s just implicit. For that (scene), we were not planning to do a comedic moment, but it is this man battling his ignorance, which makes it very fun. He’s against the Empire and the big problem is himself. He doesn’t know what to do with the equipment he’s trying to fly. I think it’s a very cool action sequence and action is much better when there’s humor around.”
Bix tries to move on from Dr. Gorst.
After what can only be described as a traumatic end to Season 1 where she was brutally tortured by the nefarious Dr. Gorst, Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) is still dealing with the consequences more than a year later. Bix, who has taken refuge on Mina-Rau with Brasso, Wilmon, and droid B2EMO, sees Gorst in her dreams. Arjona says that when we first meet Bix at the beginning of Season 2, she’s doing better but still struggling.
“When we left Bix in Season 1,” Arjona says, “she was at the lowest point that someone can possibly be thanks to Dr. Gorst. So when we meet her for the first time in Season 2, we sort of see almost like a parallel version of Bix from Season 1, Episode 1. We’re (seeing) kind of a hopeful and strong woman. She’s back in workwear, but there’s evidence that Dr. Gorst is still haunting her. And it’s going to take way longer than a year for her to get over this.”
Dedra and Syril make it official.
At the end of Season 1, Imperial Security Bureau Supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and mid-level bureaucrat Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) flirted – literally and figuratively – with a relationship. Syril told Dedra she had inspired him both in his career and life. Dedra, in turn, was saved by Syril after a group of rioters nearly overwhelmed her on Ferrix. Soller says the events of Season 1 left Syril – who is now officially in a relationship with Dedra – a changed man.
“(Syril is) feeling good and I leaned into that,” says Soller. “It was a joy being able to play with Syril, showing his feathers and trying to flex that a little bit. And seeing how his (new) relationship with Dedra is affecting him and affecting his mother and affecting his relationship to the Empire and his own desires to keep climbing up that ladder. But then there’s this whole other layer (we get to see). So he’s kind of a kid in a candy shop, I think, when you find him at the beginning of Season 2.
Syril’s mother comes to dinner.
Perhaps the breakout character of Andor Season 1 was Eedy Karn (Kathryn Hunter), Syril’s overbearing and nosy mother. Season 2, Episode 3 sees Eedy visit Dedra and Syril in their apartment, leading to an incredibly humorous and awkward dinner in which Dedra puts Eedy firmly in her place. Eedy, not normally one to be trifled with, quickly understands that Dedra is not someone to be messed with either.
“I mean that really is a funny scene,” Gough says. “But for me, Kayhryn Hunter is a legend. I’ve known about her for so long and was so excited. The great thing about that scene is when you work with somebody like Kathryn, she’s a live wire, so she doesn’t make the obvious choices.
“So what looks like an intimidation on the page becomes a negotiation in the room. And so I went Dedra at her, but she did Eedy at me. I think (Dedra and Eedy) would hang out and (Syril) is lying broken on the bed. It was a couple of really fantastic days (on set).”
Mon Mothma dances her cares away.
The first batch of Andor Season 2 episodes ends with a montage in which Cassian rescues Bix and Wilmon from Mina-Rau, (but not Brasso, who was tragically killed by Stormtroopers), a disguised Cinta chauffeurs Mon Mothma’s (Genevieve O’Reilly) childhood friend Tay Koma off to an uncertain fate, and…Mon drunkenly dances at a wedding? But O’Reilly says that seemingly out of place scene has deeper meaning. Mon has just just realized that Tay is no longer trustworthy and might meet an untimely end. Add to that the fact that she’s just married off her young daughter in part to finance the nascent rebellion and Mon decides she needs to seek refuge on the dance floor.
“It was an extraordinary day filming that,” O’Reilly explains. “It was my second to last day shooting. It felt like a very beautiful crescendo, a big piece of the end of three episodes at the wedding. Tony and I have been (saying) that perhaps from the outside, it looks like this beautiful Renaissance painting, but actually it’s a woman trying to exercise the chaos that’s in her brain. She’s dancing to keep herself from screaming. So everything in there (is) layers, there is depth, there are questions.”
Check out our review of Andor Season 2, where we said that she show was “even better” than in Season 1.
