In Andor, Cassian Andor continues the path toward his heroic rebel destiny. With new episodes now streaming on Disney+, join us as StarWars.com digs into the making of a leader and a burgeoning rebellion poised to take down the Empire.
Spoiler warning: This article discusses story details and plot points from key Season 2 episodes of Andor, “Messenger”, “Who Are You?”, and “Welcome to the Rebellion” as well as previous episodes of the series.
“Rebellions are built on hope.”
In the future, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) will utter this same phrase to a skeptical Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But today, it’s a young man named Thela who imparts the wisdom on Andor before a massacre turns all eyes in the galaxy to Ghorman.
In the latest three-episode arc of Andor Season 2, Cassian takes on a new alias and a deeply personal mission — to assassinate Imperial Security Bureau Supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough). But the Empire has been patiently plotting for years, and before Cassian can pull the trigger, Meero will give the order that will incite the Ghorman Massacre and force Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) to take a stand on the Senate floor with a speech that unequivocally makes her an enemy of the Empire.
Return to Palmo
Much has changed in the year since we last saw the Ghorman rebels. The entire city of Palmo is on edge, as the Imperial crackdown enforces curfews and ignites infighting among the would-be rebels. In contrast, the seeds of the rebellion are starting to take root on Yavin 4, as Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier) reunites with his old friends Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) and Cassian, a largely joyous occasion marked by some tension as Wil relays a message from Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and Cassian grapples with his reservations about a Force healer claiming to help mend a blaster wound.
Posing as Ronni Googe, a journalist with the Mid-Rim Network, Cassian ultimately agrees to Luthen’s mission: assassinating Dedra Meero on Ghorman. It’s not just that Luthen needs Cassian to protect his identity as Axis, and thus the larger rebel cause. It’s that Dedra was responsible for the atrocities on Ferrix that put Bix in the clutches of Dr. Gorst and left Wilmon without a father.
But the mission to Ghorman comes too late. Young Imperial cadets are being deployed in the streets, the barricades around the Empire’s monstrous building are pulled in tight, and it becomes achingly clear that they’ve been building a fortress all along, prepared to spring a trap that will lure the Ghor onto the same ground where so many were killed by Grand Moff Tarkin, only to be annihilated again.
This time, the Empire’s machinations are even more heartless than an elite Imperial refusing to delay a landing. And everything unravels swiftly.
Who are you?
Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) has been working as a pawn for the Empire, but only now does he realize he’s traded an overbearing mother for a controlling partner in Dedra. As reality sets in, Karn becomes frazzled and unhinged, attacking Meero and breaking free from the relative safety of the Empire to join the Ghor on the streets. The combination of losing Syril and witnessing the brutality is enough to make Meero crack under the pressure. Ironically, Karn and the rebels are both outside agitators on the Ghorman homefront, with two very different briefs.
Wilmon and Cassian, like Vel and Cinta before them, are ostensibly here to help the Ghor. But Carro Rylanz has been clinging to his ideal that a peaceful resistance is possible, a crusade that crumbles around him as his own daughter and their countrymen gather, marching toward their eventual slaughter with the haunting echo of their national anthem ringing in the streets. Imperial stormtroopers, in stark white armor that stands out amid air thick with smoke, and the KX droids help herd the crowd, but it's a single blaster shot — not Cassian’s, but an Imperial sacrificing one of their own — that truly brings the fight to Ghorman.
And inside the bombed-out cafe, Cassian and Syril Karn meet at last.
Syril has been chasing Cassian since the moment we met him, and he recognizes his target on sight, venting all his frustrations by pummeling the rebel with his fists. The brawl is personal. No weapons are drawn, as each man lands blow after blow like they’re going 12 rounds in a boxing ring. Could there be a greater indignity than Cassian’s question once they finally pause: “Who are you?” Syril and Dedra have spent years obsessing over Andor. And he doesn’t have the faintest idea who Karn is.
But back on Coruscant, Eedy Karn knows in her heart that she’s lost her son. The pro-Imperial news reports show that the Empire’s manufactured crisis has done its job, crafting a sympathetic stream of propaganda through the media to excuse the Emperor’s pillaging. And while Eedy does not yet know her son’s fate, it was a shot from the peaceful resistor Carro Rylanz that ultimately saved Cassian Andor’s life.
Mon takes a stand
Like the Aldhani heist in Season 1, the Ghorman massacre has a ripple effect that extends far beyond a single planet. It’s the final Imperial atrocity that sends Mon Mothma to the brink.
Inside a Senate rife with corruption, double agents, and bugged offices, Cassian’s Ronni Googe takes one last assignment: disrupt Bail Organa’s (Benjamin Bratt) extraction plans and ferry Mon to safety.
In a series filled with incredible monologues, Mothma’s speech stands out, delivered with precision and poise, a powerful condemnation of the tyrannical Empire unlike anything we’ve seen so far. “I believe we are in crisis…The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil,” she intones. Her voice cracks with emotion, but her resolve never wavers. “What happened yesterday in Ghorman was unprovoked genocide…and the monster screaming the loudest? The monster we’ve helped create? The monster that will come for us all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine!”
The accusation levied, there’s no going back for Mon Mothma. And with her words reverberating through the Senate and beyond, Cassian and Erskin Semaj work together to help Mon escape. “I’m not sure I can do this,” Mon confesses, doubt seeping in to disrupt her usually poised and purposeful resolve.
But this time Cassian knows just what to say: “Welcome to the Rebellion.”
On this day, the Rebellion is officially born. No more operating in the shadows, no more secret cells working alone and in clusters.
And yet, it only pushes Cassian to want to quit once and for all. He’s done his part. All he wants is a simple, quiet life with Bix Caleen. Cassian’s final night with Bix is a turning point, a fixed moment that will forever shift his destiny toward the future the Force healer predicted, the one we’ve seen play out in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Cassian must fulfill his duty as an important messenger.
Before he can, there’s one more important monologue for viewers and Cassian to hear. It’s not a fiery damnation of the Empire. It’s a quiet and somber declaration of love from Bix Caleen. Bix makes the sacrifice and a choice for both of them, leaving under cover of night to prevent Cassian from giving up on the cause. And that shift alone will put Cassian directly on the path to Scarif.
