Andor is back, and the second season kicked off with a bang. The first three episodes set up the rest of the season, but they also complement the opening of Season 1 as well with many similarities between them.
In Season 1 of Andor, episode 1 sees Cassian on a mission, much like the one he went on in the first episode of the second season. The difference is that when we first see Kassa, he is searching for his sister and stealing from the Empire for selfish reasons. By the time we meet up with him in 4 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), he is stealing an advanced prototype TIE Fighter to serve the Rebel Alliance.
Cassian inadvertently kills two officers on Morlana One and has to cook up an alibi with his friend Brasso when he returns to Ferrix. Whereas in Season 2’s debut episode, "One Year Later," Cassian is working with an Imperial defector and acting as the test pilot for the new model TIE.
In Season 2, episode 1, Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), Luthen Rael, and Vel Sartha are on Chandrila, while Cassian is stuck with some rugged rebels from the Maya Pei Brigade on a strange planet. Director Krennic has assembled a top-secret team of officers, including Dedra Meero, to help determine how to bend the Ghorman people to their will. He tells Dedra, “Some people might not have recovered from an incident like Ferrix," like she bounced back.
Season 1, episode 2 of Andor follows Kassa as he discovers his homeworld has been excavated for resources by invaders. Bix Caleen's (Adria Arjona) boyfriend, Timm, informs the Preox-Morlana corporation that Cassian is the man fitting their description of a suspect on Ferrix. Cassian's mother, Maarva, is disappointed as Andor admits he messed up. Syril Karn gears up with colleague Linus Mosk and a platoon of security troopers.
Episode 2 of the second season, "Sagrona Teema," features a second monologue from Karn as he explains how important shilling for the Empire at a desk job can be, exclaiming, “There’s a future here for those who dare.” He plans on having dinner with Dedra and his mother the following day, while Meero’s superior officer tells her that Krennic’s Ghorman assignment is a gift and that she should take it.
While Tay Kolma is in attendance for Mothma’s daughter’s wedding, he certainly makes it clear he feels he is undervalued, adding that rebel activity has soured his investments. Just as he was in Season 1, Luthen does not take kindly to loose threads within the Rebel Alliance.
While a civil war among the Maya Pei brigade is seemingly going to be settled with a form of ‘rock, paper, scissors’ named Roski Rules, a vicious beast attacks. Cassian uses the distraction to escape in his stolen TIE fighter from the planet that is simultaneously revealed to be none other than Yavin IV, specifically the location of the famed rebel base.
Both episodes 3 of Seasons 1 and 2 culminate in the conclusion of the opening arc. In the first, the mysterious Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) is met by Cassian for the first time. By the end of the third episode in Season 2, his motivations are a lot clearer, and he poses a dangerous threat to anyone they decide is not down with the Rebellion.
Cassian goes from fighting for his life alongside Luthen against the Pre-Mor troops that are hunting him in Season 1 into being a leader in Season 2. He learns of an Imperial audit on his current home planet of Mina-Rau and races in his stolen TIE (despite contrary orders from Luthen’s lieutenant Kleya) to protect those he cares about most. Bix loses her boyfriend Timm in Season 1 when she feels defenseless in the fight against Pre-Mor. In Season 2, she fights back against a grotesque Imperial officer, which results in her having to kill the officer in self-defense.
Season 1 episode 3 has a more hopeful finish, which sees young Kassa getting saved (although against his will) by Maarva, and the adult Cassian manages to escape capture with Luthen to take up the fight for the Rebellion.
In Season 2 episode 3, there are darker undertones, with Vel discovering her partner Cinta Kaz is going to kill Tay Kolma (played by Ben Miles) at the behest of Luthen. Mon Mothma loses herself in a cathartic, chaotic dance as she faces the ugly reality of the sacrifices being made for her Rebel Alliance to be made possible.
Cassian’s rescue attempt is not without casualties as his crew loses Brasso (played by Joplin Sibtain) in the fight against the Imperial Stormtroopers. As the crew flies away in the advanced stolen TIE prototype, they mourn the loss of yet another close friend in a mirror of Cassian looking back at what's left of the Ferrix crew, just as his mother looked back at him in Season 1.
It was critical to have an opening release of three episodes in Season 1 that sold the premise of Andor. They got the audience reinvested in Cassian Andor and the key players in the rising Rebellion. It is even more integral that the four arcs of Season 2 take us from 4 BBY all the way to 1 BBY and the events of Rogue One that lead seamlessly into the original Star Wars trilogy.
Witnessing what rebels Mon Mothma, Luthen Rael, and Cassian Andor have had to endure and how the stakes are continually raised as this series goes on has been a real feast for the eyes. There is so much story and character development to chew on in Andor, and it’s going to be exhilarating to see how it winds up.