The last few days, I've been doing probably what a lot of Star Wars fans have been doing since Andor ended its run: Rewatching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Truly, the show recontextualizes the film, adding so much more nuance and background for the story and characters. However, one throwaway scene in the movie made me wish we had so much more of the early friendship between Cassian Andor and K-2SO.
In Rogue One, when Cassian, Jyn Erso, and K2 come to Jedha City, they get caught in the middle of a battle between Saw Gerrera's Partisans and the Empire. They manage to slip away only to run into more Imperial units. K2 tries to play off that his allies are prisoners and slaps Cassian in the face for emphasis. Fun fact: This scene was improvised, and you can actually see Diego Luna break character on camera, smiling behind his hand.
While this was improvised, it then leads to another moment that hits way harder after Andor than the slap: K-2SO's apology to Cassian.
Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus step in to rescue the heroes. As Jyn is about to speak to the Guardians of the Whills, in the background K2 frees Cassian from a pair of binders. Very quietly, he says, "Cassian, I'm sorry about the slap."
This moment made me wish we had way more of their friendship in Andor, especially in the early days. Between the Ghorman Massacre and the final arc with K2 taking out ISB Supervisor Heert's crew, we know what a destructive being K2 could be. Even in Season 1, when Cassian runs into a different KX-series security droid, the bot manhandles Cassian like he's a rag doll.
Going back to the improvised slap, we know from Andor that K2 could have easily smacked Cassian's head clear off his body. It made me wonder what their early friendship was like. Were there scenes like those from The Mandalorian when Kuiil had to teach a reprogrammed IG-11 how to gently hold things without destroying them? Did K2 have many accidents where he didn't mean to hurt people? I bet that little apology from K2 wasn't the first time he said that to Cassian. The first time the droid showed remorse in accidentally hurting his new friend, was Cassian shocked at the compassion? Cassian probably had to learn that trust right back, reminding me of the line from Jyn of "Trust goes both ways."
It's such a throwaway line, but it made me wish we got so much more of their early friendship in Andor. K2 was probably an incredibly scary being on Yavin base at first, but he got to a point in Rogue One where he clearly cares for Cassian. I just wish we got to see some of that.