Andor teaches us all a lesson about hope
- Camila Domingues
- May 14
- 5 min read
Updated: May 15
Yep. That's it. Andor has now come to an end with its last episode trilogy dropping tonight on Disney+.
I am sitting here looking at this very blurry screen while Rogue One plays in the background, trying to wrap my head around these last three episodes I just watched.
Let's talk about them. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the Andor series finale and the entirety of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story below, so read at your own risk.
Andor series finale review
Where to begin?
I think I'll begin by praising the hell out of Disney and Lucasfilm for how well they bridged the gap between seasons 1, 2, and Rogue One. Having the movie on as I write, the first few scenes now hit entirely different. There's so much continuity, this movie might as well be the series finale to Andor. What a hell of a wonderful job, Tony and Dan Gilroy! Rogue One has been my favorite Star Wars movie (and a lot of other folks') since its release in 2017, and the way Andor was written to complete this entire narrative was fantastic.
This last episode trilogy starts off with flashbacks to how Luthen found Kleya during what seemed like the last of his Separatist days (or maybe Imperial - that does look a lot like the Imperial grunt uniforms worn in Solo: A Star Wars Story) and how he not only raised her as his own, but brought her into his shenanigans. It shows us how the idea for the Rebellion was born, the sacrifices Kleya has had to make since she was a child, and how the innocence was ripped from her by fighting and death breaking out around her and by her own choosing to take part in Luthen's plans. The parallel we have with the flashbacks and Kleya becoming the scariest one-woman-team to unfortunately kill Luthen before the Empire gets him talking is both really sad and impressive. I felt for her so much in these three episodes. The rebels in Yavin are so quick to judge and scorn when they haven't had the slightest clue how much this Rebellion has cost both Kleya and Luthen. My only hope for her is that she's still alive and very much still a part of the Rebellion as Rogue One and the rest of the original trilogy plays out.
Dedra showed us a completely new and different side of herself by breaking down and sobbing in the dark at the end, and it was delicious. As she continues to completely screw up every single plan she attempts to put into place, we see her uniform collar getting tighter and tighter around her neck. Her obsession with Axis and need to be the one to crush him and his Rebellion continuously cloud her judgement and blind her to everything else that matters more than her search for Luthen. Mistake after mistake lands her in the very prison Cassian and Melshi escape from in the first season, and as she realizes how she was very much played by Lonni Jung (RIP my friend, that was unnecessary), who stole her credentials and used them to access the secret Death Star project, we slowly see the underlying despair and anxiety flood to the surface. She's going to have a really bad time in that prison as she comes to terms with how badly things ended for her, how she had a direct hand in the killing of the man she loved, and part she ultimately plays in the fall of the Empire. Good riddance, you evil bitch. And to Partagaz too, while we're at it.
I do have to admit that, while I understand why Senator Bail Organa and the rest of his quorum don't want to believe Cassian when he brings them the information Luthen learned from Lonni, it got under my skin. It felt too much like how the Jedi Council treated Anakin - used him when convenient, but they did not trust him. Luckily, unlike the Jedi, they do end up believing him and allow him to continue to fly and work for the cause, which ultimately helps them succeed in getting the plans for the Death Star in Rogue One. Maybe the Jedi Council should have taken notes. Wait, that happened way before Andor. Never mind. I understand why it's so hard to trust someone who doesn't follow orders all the time, leaves base with Rebellion ships without asking for permission, and has a bad attitude, but Cassian spoke the truth when reminding them of all the hard work Luthen put in to get the Rebellion going, that without him there would be no Rebellion. That he sacrificed more than they'll ever know. That's it's easy to do the talk, but doing the walking is the hardest part - and Luthen was never afraid of doing the walk if it meant the cause would benefit from it.
Okay.
Let's address the elephant in the room and talk about the obvious sucker-punch to the gut that we got at the very end - having to swallow the "Cassian dies to save the galaxy for the child he has no clue he has" pill is proving to be really hard to do. And not because I'm mad about it, why would anyone be mad about it? I'm utterly heartbroken to think that, at the end of Rogue One, when we see Cassian and Jyn hug tightly as Scarif is blown to smithereens by the Death Star, Cassian is probably quietly saying his goodbyes to Bix. Probably thinking about how she said she'd find him when this war was all over. How she won't find him, because he's about to die. He's probably imagining every single one of his friends' faces - alive and dead.
Speaking of the ending of Rogue One, the difference between Jyn and Cassian's actions as the Death Star seals their fates is very interesting. Jyn looks directly at the Death Star blast, her anger and hatred towards the Empire reflected in her eyes in the shape of the destructive blast in front of her. She accepts her fate head on. Cassian, on the other hand, does not look at it at all. He hides his face on Jyn's shoulder. He squeezes Jyn tightly in his arms and looks away, his last expression has him lost in his last thoughts. I truly hope he was at peace in the end. He deserves so much peace after everything he's been through in both the show and the movie.
Hope.
If there's one thing we can all take away from Andor it's that tyranny and evil will not prevail. Sure, they may take over for a bit, mess with the way things are, destroy the joy in our lives for the time being, but there's always hope. Things may take dark turns, the oppressed may be silenced, and justice may cease to exist - but it's only temporary. Hope builds rebellions, brings purpose, brings clarity. It's as it was said in the episode "Jedha, Kyber, Erso", tyranny requires effort to keep up. It requires constant attention, constant monitoring, but the cracks begin to show soon enough. It only takes a single card to fall to bring down the castle, and the Empire's collective dysfunction and constant leaks are that specific card. It's just a matter of time. It's why it's important to have hope.
Andor official Pixigonal rating - 15/10
I hope Bix knows she was his everything and that, because she did leave him, the Rebellion was able to destroy the Death Star two years later.
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