After watching the two seasons of Andor, we now know that the Rebellion wouldn't have existed without the labor and sacrifices of Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) and his network of spies and rebels. They left such a dent on the Empire that dedicated ISB agent Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) chased them to the bitter end.
She named the leader of the rebel cell "Axis" after the incident on Ferrix in Season 1 and made it her life's sole purpose to capture the individual.
In Season 2, episode 10, "Make It Stop," she finally gets her moment when she surprises Luthen at his antique art gallery on Coruscant. This happens shortly after he learns about the existence of the Death Star from Rebel mole Lonni Jung (Robert Emms). But before Dedra can celebrate her win, Luthen stabs himself with a Nautolan bleeder.
He is kept alive on life support, but in no state to talk, let alone reveal any Rebellion secrets under torture. This paves the way for one of the best-told character origins in Star Wars, that too throughout one episode. Over the next half hour, we learn how Luthen, a former Sergeant Lear of the Imperial forces, saved a young Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) and defected from the Empire.
In a way, he brought Kleya up and eventually taught her the means of rebellion. But it was Kleya who sparked Luthen's "unwillingness to yield" and "eagerness to fight." He was at the precipice of breaking in the flashback scene, muttering "make it stop" to himself repeatedly as his comrades shot down innocent civilians outside the ship. Kleya's friends and family were most certainly among those who died.
But saving Kleya was possibly Luthen's first defiance against the Empire, his first random act of insurrection. Raising her put a mirror in front of his face, forcing him to come to terms with his past actions and the only path left ahead—dedicating his life to righting the wrongs.
Kleya may have shared a father-daughter relationship with Luthen growing up, but when it came to the Rebellion, they were on equal footing. In fact, in more ways than one, the Rebellion was hers. Not only was she the reason Luthen started fighting back, but she recruited people, maintained galaxy-wide communications between the networks, planted bugs (and took them out, if needed), planned, organized, and strategized rebel movements for years.
Kleya was the real 'Axis,' hiding in plain sight this whole time.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, showrunner Tony Gilroy confirmed that Kleya was the real leader of Luthen's rebel network, the main brain at play, pulling the right strings at the right time from behind the scenes.
"We really find out by the end that she’s been in charge the whole time, since she was six years old," Gilroy said. "Since the moment he opened that cage, she’s really been the boss. She’s constant, stoic, forward-moving, unyielding, and a passionate zealot."
When Luthen falls, she breaks into the hospital, takes out multiple guards, and lets Luthen breathe his last in front of her—all to protect the Rebellion. The havoc she wreaks makes the Imperial officers think that at least three people had attacked the hospital. But it was just her.
Kleya Marki was the 'Axis' Dedra should've been looking for this whole time, instead of remembering her as Luthen's assistant in an afterthought. But she could never do the two-plus-two. At the end, Dedra could not catch Kleya, and neither could she make Luthen talk. Her misstep landed her in an Imperial prison, and Kleya ended up on Yavin, courtesy of Cassian (Diego Luna), Melshi (Duncan Pow), and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk).
Kleya Marki's 'Mona Lisa moment'
When Cassian and Melshi come to rescue Kleya, responding to her radio SOS, Kleya refuses to go back with them to Yavin. The Rebel leaders of the outpost did not accept Luthen. Kleya assumes that by association, she would be shunned and cast out. However, when she gets there and recovers from her injuries, a look at the Rebel base tells her how much of her and Luthen's blood and sweat went into making this establishment a possibility.
It's a dream they started weaving 15 years ago and it finally has a physical, tangible existence.
"She gives us that Mona Lisa moment at the end where Kleya, who’s been so just adamant that the Rebel outpost of Yavin to her is an abomination," Gilroy said. "It’s everything that they hated, because Luthen was not accepted there," he said.
"She’s disgusted to go there. And when she wakes up that next morning to look at Yavin, she realizes how much of a contributor, how much of an investor, she and Luthen are in Yavin. She’s watching the people there, and just a little moment of pride comes on her face. She just warms up a just little bit and begins to take ownership of the Rebellion. That’s everything to me."
Dulau did a brilliant job of bringing alive Kleya's pain, trauma, wit, and resilience to the screen. It was Dulau's first professional on-screen acting role, which she bagged right out of drama school. Kleya has easily cemented herself as one of the most important characters in Star Wars created recently. She was an instant fan favorite, and we're eager to see more stories with her in the future.