Andor Season 2 has received nearly unanimous acclaim and appreciation from fans and critics. Social media is full of praise for the show's final arc, which most fans found to be a perfect emotional sendoff to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
There's no doubt that Andor Season 2 has many memorable moments, and certain performances have stood out. However, even though this is an unpopular take, I don't think this show is perfect. Season 2 suffered from the time jumps and other issues evident in the show's final arc.
Here are 6 things to like and dislike about Andor's final arc.
1. Liked - Luthen, Kleya, and Lonnie Jung
Luthen and Kleya's scenes were always gripping, but this final arc gave them the level of importance and detailed writing worthy of main characters. Throughout the show, Luthen and Kleya's trust in one another was unquestionable, but there were several moments where you could see Kleya's resentment and pent-up frustration with Luthen.
Until these episodes, it was unclear what kind of relationship Kleya and Luthen had. Had they known each other for long, and were they related, or did they discover their mutual hate for the Empire and decide to team up? The final arc clarifies everything, and Kleya and Luthen's bond turned out to be one we're all familiar with in Star Wars.
Luthen and Kleya's bond is complicated, and it's familiar. The story of a conflicted man saving a helpless child who'd lost everything was seen on The Acolyte. Master Sol saved Osha Aniseya and took her to Coruscant as his Padawan. Luthen was responsible for the destruction of Kleya's people. She hid on his ship, and a tenuous bond formed between them. While their origin story is similar to many others in Star Wars, the way it's presented is brilliant, thanks to the performances by Stellan Skarsgard and Elizabeth Dulau.
Lonnie Jung was another big highlight of this arc. Lonnie struggled to maintain his loyalty to Luthen, but ultimately, he provided Luthen with crucial intel on Dedra Meero. Thanks to Lonnie, Luthen and Kleya would find out that the Emperor's energy program is just a cover-up for a weapon of mass destruction. Sadly, Luthen eliminates Lonnie before the ISB can get their hands on him. He dies, and the fate of his family remains a mystery.
These 3 characters have been the most consistently well-written of the show, with the conviction expected from a main character. In many ways, these three are bigger heroes of Andor than Cassian.
2. Liked - K-2SO and B2EMO
I'm so glad B2EMO got a happy ending. I was afraid he would never be happy again, but he's safe and has a permanent home now. Hopefully, he'll never be left behind again. Happy B2 was the best part of the show's ending for me.
It was great to see K-2SO being scrappy and resourceful and using people as his human shields. This is exactly what we expected to see from K2, and I wish there were more of him in Season 2. He arrived at the end of the show's penultimate arc and wasn't given too many lines, but it's great to see his continuous attempts to gain Cassian's trust and his unwavering loyalty.
3. Liked -Naboo in live-action
Andor's final arc marks the return of Naboo for the first time since the Star Wars prequels. It wasn't meant to be flashy, but seeing Padme and Palpatine's beautiful home world was cool. Luthen and Kleya were shown at a café on Naboo, but I wish we had seen a few more shots of the stunning planet.
4. Liked - Melshi and Cassian's teamwork
I didn't love everything about this season, especially the final arc, but I enjoyed seeing the strong bonding between Melshi and Cassian again. We saw them escape Narkina 5 prison together last season, but since then, Melshi has been absent from Season 2. Watching these two working together was perhaps the best way Tony Gilroy connected Andor to Rogue One, and their friendship will be critical to the events of the film.
5. Disliked - Cassian's issues with authority
I respect Tony Gilroy's vision, but Cassian's issues with authority and his status as a reluctant Rebel were something I had trouble accepting throughout this season. It continued to the end of the series. I liked that Cassian stood up for Luthen in front of every senior member of the Rebel Alliance, but again, there's inconsistency. Cassian left Luthen and seemed fed up with Luthen's increasingly radical ideas, so I was shocked to see him speak up for him.
Besides that, all canon books and materials that mention Cassian's work for the Rebellion point out his disciplined nature and respect for the chain of command, so his continued disrespect of orders is a strange way to walk into Rogue One. Cassian ultimately goes against the Rebel Alliance and decides to go to Scarif with Jyn, but before that, he seemed like the most committed, reliable, and disciplined Rebel the Alliance had. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem like that person at the end of the series.
6. No effort to connect the series to Rogue One
Andor is a prequel to Rogue One; as such, I thought the final arc would give us a better idea of everything that was happening at the beginning of the movie. I know Andor had several arcs to wrap up, but I thought we'd see the Rebel Alliance trying their best to dig into the Erso family, and that Cassian would do research into Jyn Erso.
The start of Rogue One features several events that seem to be taking place simultaneously, including Cassian on Kafrene, K-2SO on Wobani, and Bodhi Rook on Jedha. However, at the end of Andor, Cassian is headed to Kafrene with K2, and Bodhi isn't shown at all. This is messy, and I haven't seen anyone point it out yet. The series could've walked us into Rogue One more seamlessly than the final arc did.
7. Disliked - No mention of the aftermath of Mon Mothma's speech on her family
Writer Tom Bissell shared that there was a cut scene revealing that Perrin Fertha, Mon Mothma's husband, was on her side the whole time, but the creators scrapped the idea. What we got instead was Perrin and Leia's mother-in-law's apparent affair. There was no sign of Leida, and we don't know how Perrin feels about the Rebel Alliance. This was an unsatisfying end to an intriguing character like Perrin, leaving us hoping for more stories with him in the future. Maybe something like Ahsoka?
Andor Season 2 is streaming on Disney+.