REVIEW: ‘Andor’ Season 2 Chapter 4 (Episodes 10-12)

Peak Star Wars writing ends here with Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12 (serving as Chapter 4 for the season). The story of hope comes to a climactic ending, setting up events leading right up to Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) story in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. 

Alonso Ruizpalacios directs Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12, with Tom Bissell penning this chapter. This batch of episodes is set in BBY 1 (one year before the Battle of Yavin), explicitly focusing on the main characters left on Coruscant. The major characters consist of Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau), ISB supervisor Lonni Jung (Robert Emms), Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), Major Lio Patragaz (Anton Lesser), ISB supervisor Lagret (Michael Jenn), and ISB supervisor Heert (Jacob James Beswick). 

Episode 10 sets itself apart as being one of the only episodes where the titular character, Cassian, doesn’t appear throughout the entire episode. This allows the remaining rebels, Luthen and Kleya’s story, to be in the spotlight. Episode 10 is pivotal, tying up story threads for Luthen and Lonni. Luthen and Lonni meet for the last time, with Lonni spilling everything about what we know from Rogue One. This includes the use of Ghorman’s kalkite to build a superweapon we know is the Death Star, the kyber crystals on Jedha, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), and Director Orson Krennic’s (Ben Mendelsohn) Death Star plans being stored on Scarif.

What’s great about Episode 10 in Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12 is how it finally shows some backstory for Luthen and Kleya. Kleya has to do some espionage, and characters like Dedra and Luthen get to interact for the first time. Almost every line of dialogue Skarsgård delivers in this episode is also symbolic and impactful.

Andor Episode 10 stands as one of the season’s best.

When Dedra meets Luthen alone in his shop, Luthen tells her, “You’re too late. The rebellion isn’t here anymore. It’s flown far away; they’re everywhere now.” This is a beautiful, powerful way to describe the sentiment of the rebellion spreading across the galaxy. Luthen’s words hit harder, knowing that Dedra is also too late, as her ambitions lead to her downfall.

Episode 10 stands out as one of Andor Season 2’s greatest episodes, right under Episode 8. In it, Kleya infiltrates the Coruscant hospital to ensure Luthen is dead. While Kleya does what Agent 47 does best in the Hitman games with disguises and stealth, we get snippets of her childhood memories when she first met Luthen.

One of Luthen’s standout lines in the flashbacks is when he tells Kleya, “We are who we have to be.” This sums up how Luthen’s current spy network works, especially with how he utilizes Cassian’s skills. Even though Luthen and Kleya don’t get a full backstory throughout Andor, these memories show enough to understand Luthen and Kleya’s unorthodox father-daughter relationship.

Luthen and Kleya’s flashback moments show how Luthen taught her to be a rebel leader similarly to how he teaches Cassian. The only difference is that Luthen has been with Kleya since she was a little girl, pretty much raising her as his daughter. The most human part of Episode 10 is when Luthen reveals his true feelings to young Kleya. Episode 10 fully captures why Luthen and Kleya are cold and calculated up to the end of their stories. To both of them, supporting the rebel cause is always the primary objective.

The end of Episode 10 makes a purposeful, somber ending, letting the viewer sit with Luthen’s passing. What’s most significant at the start of Chapter 4 is that this is one of the chapters of Andor Season 2. In part, because it begins with a sacrifice, rather than ending a batch of episodes on one. But this makes sense since Episode 12 had to end on a hopeful note for Cassian and the Rebellion, as it ultimately sets Cassian on his destined path towards Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and their ultimate sacrifice in Rogue One.

Andor Episodes 10-12 lead perfectly into Rogue One.

By the end of Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12, every character’s story is wrapped up on a fairly good track to where they need to be for the film Rogue One. The only question is where the characters who are exclusively in Andor were during the events of Rogue One. 

Gilroy always prioritized crafting an impactful story with Andor, above making it a merely Star Wars story. Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12 keep Kleya, Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Ben Amor), Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay), Dreena (Ella Pellegrini), and Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) alive. Even Dedra is kept alive, albeit in a prison cell that Cassian broke out of in Season 1. Regardless of how this invites more questions to their fates, Gilroy and the exemplary writers doubled down to leave their stories open-ended. Cassian, Ruescott Melshi (Duncan Pow), K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), and Saw Gerrera’s (Forest Whitaker) fates are sealed, but not this bunch.

Ironically, Gilroy and his writing team are rebels to Star Wars canon, too. Although Gilroy and his Andor writers still pay a certain level of respect to the Star Wars lore. What a Star Wars show like Andor sets apart in redefining the canon and the typical Star Wars thread is how it maintains its core themes. Those themes consist of rebellion, resilience, and hope. All three essential concepts are contained within the original trilogy, which sometimes gets muddled across Star Wars properties.

Andor flows within the Star Wars canon rather than completely breaking it, and leaving well-written stories for some of its characters open for future exploration. While Kleya, Wil, Vel, Dreena, Bix, and Dedra technically cannot directly be involved with the main events taking place in the original trilogy Star Wars movies, there’s room to tell more of their stories that wouldn’t break the canon. For example, Kleya, Wil, Vel, and Dreena could be doing other missions to support the Rebel Alliance while the Luke and Leia Skywalker stories happen.

Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12’s only critical point is how Episode 12 drags a bit too long on its conflict, then resolves it strangely fast. With Episode 12’s main conflict being Cassian trying to convince the Rebel Alliance council, it felt like a petty argument. When Senator Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt) is skeptical about Cassian and Kleya’s intel, the episode stretches out for characters to discuss whether Luthen’s information is reliable.

Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12 cap off the full story of Cassian Andor, adding strength and integrity to his actions in Rogue One. The series never strays from focusing on its themes of hope and sacrifice, using these themes for both the rebels and the Imperial characters. Andor is the pinnacle of Star Wars writing, something the franchise has been missing since Gilroy, Chris Weitz, John Knoll, and Gary Whitta first introduced the slick rebel scoundrel in Rogue One. Andor will forever be immortalized as more than a Star Wars story. It’s a bold, courageous tale of fighting oppression against the odds.

Andor Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.

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