Andor Season 2, Episodes 4-6 titled “Ever Been to Ghorman?”, “I Have Friends Everywhere” and “What a Festive Evening” respectively, dial everything up a notch as we find our characters in the middle of a war; it’s just that, as Cassian tells Bix at one point, not everyone has realized war is already here. That, of course, puts the characters we’re following in the difficult position of living in a reality the rest of the galaxy is not privy to yet. And that is a very complicated position to be in. We’d know. Sometimes it feels like that’s the world we’re living in today.
But this block of Andor episodes also ends up being way more emotional than the previous ones, and romantic in a way that the first three weren’t. We feel Cassian’s connection with Bix in a way we didn’t before. We heard about them being married, and even if that was just a lie, now we see their relationship, and we understand whatever happened between BBY4 and BBY3; we’re now experiencing two people who love each other.
That’s not all, because this is not something the show is throwing at us in the abstract. Andor has always been very good at the show, don’t tell, and these episodes especially excel at it. We feel Diego Luna and Adria Arjona’s chemistry, and as invested as we might have been in any other possibility, we have suddenly forgotten any other ship for Cassian. It doesn’t matter how doomed this is; we are all in.
We’re also very much in with a Mon Mothma that feels like she’s walking closer and closer to danger, but not because she’s being careless, but because she’s reaching the point of no return. There’s only so much you can push and push from the inside. There’s only so much you can play the spy. At some point, we all have to show our hand. And it feels like the breaking point is coming. For Ghorman, and for everyone.
MORE: Our review of the first three episodes of Andor is here.
IF I’M GIVING UP EVERYTHING, I WANT TO WIN
A few philosophical conversations are happening in these episodes, first between Bix and Cassian—because Cassian wants to protect Bix, how could he not—but Bix cannot live in a cage. That’s not living. “If it’s a war, it’s not up to us what we save, what we lose,” she tells him, and she is sadly right. If it’s a war, and it is… then they have to live like it is a war. But she even takes it a step further. “If I’m giving up everything, I want to win. We have to.” Otherwise, what’s the point of the sacrifices they’ve made up til now? What’s the point of Maarva and Brasso and everything else?
Ironically, she’s saying the same thing Luthen is saying, as he tells Cassian not to think like a soldier, but like a leader, when Cassian advises Luthen not to get involved in Ghorman. The problem with Luthen, however, is that he doesn’t care about the soldiers at all. There’s gotta be a middle ground between Luthen and Cassian. Because yes, what Luthen is saying makes sense. Sometimes you gotta look at the big picture. But Ghorman was a bad plan, and Cassian understood that. Luthen didn’t care. So, he burned Vel and Cinta, and lost Cinta because of it.
And in the end, for Luthen, that was probably worth it. But it isn’t, not really. For Cassian, one day, the Death Star mission might be worth it. But that’s a different thing. That’s about winning. Ghorman… that isn’t. There’s a difference there. A Rebellion needs both men like Luthen and men like Cassian—people who can look at the big picture and people who can focus on the day-to-day the Rebellion is fighting for. But there’s also gotta be someone who can decide what situation is which, and right now it doesn’t seem like Luthen or Cassian are level-headed enough to make those choices.
MORE: Want to know what’s coming for Ghorman? We broke down the Ghorman massacre here.
REVOLUTION IS NOT FOR THE SANE
This batch of episodes also gives us Saw Gerrera being, well… Saw Gerrera. When he says “revolution is not for the sane,” in a way, he’s making way more sense than Luthen is. Luthen is trying to make too much sense of it while he plays God with people’s lives, which in a way is the same thing the Empire is doing in Ghorman. The same game that Syril and Dedra are playing as well. It’s a twisted game everyone is playing, and it’s not going to end well for anyone involved.
Saw isn’t playing games, not really. His one game is chaos. And perhaps, chaos isn’t a bad game. Cassian and Bix get a little bit chaotic at the end there, with the doctor, and honestly, I don’t feel too bad about him. Just like I don’t feel too bad about Imperial soldiers in general, the Nazi equivalents. This is a war, as Cassian argues early in this batch of episodes. Perhaps not everyone outside of the Empire knows it yet, but the bad guys always understand that first. So there’s no reason to worry about them when they wouldn’t worry about us. Punch the Nazis. Punch them repeatedly. Because you know what? They’d punch you, and they wouldn’t think twice about it.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Andor Season 2, Episode 4-6? Share with us in the comments below!
The first 6 episodes of Andor Season 2 are now available to stream on Disney+.
