REVIEW: ‘Andor’ Season 2 Chapter 3 (Episodes 7-9)

Even though the last two chapters portrayed some of the best Star Wars writing in a long time, Andor Season 2 Episode 7-9 (which serves as Chapter 3 for the season) displays the best lore-building relating to what a real-life wide-scale revolution looks like. The main cast’s storylines begin to cross paths in ways they’ve been running parallel but not quite directly involving each other. Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) journey sees him learn a new lesson firsthand, as he watches Ghorman politically crumble in this chapter.

Janus Metz directs Andor Season 2 Episode 7-9, with Dan Gilroy writing this chapter. The story picks up another year ahead—BBY 2 (two years Before the Battle of Yavin)—with Cassian and Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) living in a woodland home revealed to be the Yavin 4 rebel base. The two are quickly reunited with Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Ben Amor), who arrives to greet them after his last mission assigned on Ghorman. Cassian and Bix’s home resembles a peaceful house close to where Cassian grew up in his childhood on his home planet, Kenari. 

Episode 7 pushes Wil to recruit Cassian to join him in running Luthen’s next mission on Ghorman. Wil tells Cassian the mission is to assassinate Dedra Meero (Denise Gough). For Wil, he remembers Dedra for destroying Ferrix and killing his father back in Season 1. At first, Cassian’s shoulder injury feels like a side issue, but it helps flesh out Cassian and Bix’s character development.

Cassian and Bix come into full focus in Andor Season 2 Episode 7-9.

Cassian’s skepticism of the Force and Bix’s trust in the Force are shown clearly in this episode when they meet and talk to a Force healer on the Yavin rebel base. Based on Cassian’s exchange with the Force healer, this explains why he’s also skeptical about the Force in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story—even when he runs into the two Guardians of the Whills Chirrut on Jedha: Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang).

More importantly, Bix’s conversations with the Force healer throughout Andor Season 2 Chapter 3 (Episodes 7-9) help Bix reach her final decision. By Episode 9, Bix decides to leave Cassian, leaving a video recording explaining how he must focus on winning the war with the Galactic Empire—and think about seeing protecting her after the Rebels have won.

What makes Bix’s sacrifice to stay with Cassian throughout the war compelling, compared to some of the other prominent sacrifices in the whole Andor series, is how she understands that Cassian’s purpose is bigger than Cassian sees for himself. Ultimately, Bix has a feeling that Cassian has a greater calling without her. Cassian’s life and death amount to the Rebel Alliance gaining the Death Star plans even though he doesn’t know it yet—as seen in Rogue One.

The Skywalker Sound sound designers David Acord and Margit Pfeiffer, with composer Nicholas Brittel, had a tough task in creating the Ghorman national anthem that the protesters/rebels sang before the shootout at Palmo Square. In the production notes, Pfeiffer explains the difficulty of sound design in Episode 8’s build-up from a peaceful protest to the face-off between the concerned Ghorman people and Imperial oppressors.

“As the unrest intensifies, the crowd builds in energy as well as fills in the details of human sounds such as singing, callouts, and panic cries. While the chant continues throughout, weaving in and out of the battle’s brilliant sound design, it then crescendos into the Ghorman anthem being sung. All heard and felt in the Ghorman language,” Pfeiffer details.

The Empire’s oppression is pulled into a real-world focus in Andor Chapter 3.

Since this is the first time the Ghor language debuts in Star Wars media, Brittel had a big task crafting the anthem with Tony Gilroy for Episode 8. Brittel notes in the production brief, “Tony and I started work on the Ghorman National Anthem before Season Two began filming. As we were writing the anthem together, our goal was to create something that felt both timeless and authentic, but could also feel like an emotional rallying cry.”

To say whether Brittel perfectly executed the task would be an understatement. The Ghorman National Anthem sounds like a real country’s anthem, a mix of haunting with a tinge of hope. The lyrics and emotions tug on the heartstrings, much like Les Misérables’ song, “Finale”, in the epilogue. Even though this chapter depicts a fictional genocide, every dreadful moment illicitls real-world events—especially the way the news covers the Ghorman massacre.

Many characters end their storylines with Andor Season 2 Episodes 7-9, either through their death or through other means, like Bix leaving Cassian. For Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), he sadly dies from his naivety and ego in this chapter. Soller continues to bring a great performance to Syril, really emphasizing how Dedra and Major Lio Patragaz (Anton Lesser) manipulate Syril into thinking Syril can help control the Ghorman rebels through peaceful Imperial tactics.

Soller and Gough have some great dialogue together in Episode 8, when Syril confronts Dedra about her real plans to slaughter the people. Seeing Syril choke Dedra shows how betrayed he feels, thinking he could’ve helped control the Ghorman people through peaceful means.

Syril’s evolution from a broken madman to a deranged man is riveting to see, all the way up to when he finally has his final showdown with Cassian through the whole town square shootout. Syril’s folly is a sad joke, but Tony Gilroy’s writing makes it feel natural when Cassian says, “Who are you?” when Syril has Cassian at gunpoint. And thus, Syril’s hurt ego is the last piece to his downfall, not getting his revenge on Cassian.

Andor Season Episode 7-9 marks Syril’s importance as a character this season and in Star Wars.

At the end of Syril’s story, Carro Rylanz (Richard Sammel) shooting Syril makes sense since Carro was already upset with how Syril blindsided him into thinking Syril was helping his people. Additionally, Carro saving Cassian from Syril shows how much Cassian’s fate is protected to get him to Rogue One—despite Cassian’s soured relationship with Carro and the Ghorman Front from Chapter 2.

There are two surprising moments in Episode 8: one is that Wil and Dreena (Ella Pellegrini) are now a thing, and Cassian takes one of the damaged KX droids, already known as K2SO or K2 (Alan Tudyk) in Rogue One. It is pretty obvious when the KX droids are introduced in the episode, but they’re extra ferocious in this episode. The way they fling people is almost barbaric and scary to the average human. The KX droids are featured in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and they aren’t nearly as brutal-looking against a strong jedi like Cal Kestis.

While Episode 9 quickly details the ramifications of the second Ghorman massacre, it does so with haste and a lot of tension. Cassian’s next mission is to safely extract Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) after she denounces Emperor Palpatine and the Empire for the genocide on Ghorman. Tony and Dan Gilroy are best known for creating the Bourne movies, and Episode 9 feels like a Bourne movie in the best ways.

From wire taps and double-crossing, Episode 9 leans heavily back into the espionage aspects of Andor. Mon’s personal aide, Erskin Semaj (Pierro Niel-Mee), steps up massively as he’s also revealed to be one of Luthen Rael’s (Stellan Skarsgård) secret agents. An unlikely team-up with Cassian and Erskin extracting Mon from the Senate ensues, as the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) team under Supervisor Lagret (Michael Jenn) does everything to arrest Mon.

Andor Season 2’s stunt work calls back to spy thrillers.

The choreography and stunts while Cassian extracts Mon quickly are as textbook as spy films like the Bourne movies or the Mission: Impossible films. There are some longer takes when Cassian and Mon navigate and take turns around certain corridors throughout the Senate. Episode 9 shows an amazing, extended look at the Senate area—only seen in greater detail in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 

What’s great about Tony and Dan Gilroy’s Mon extraction ending in Episode 9 is that it still canonizes what Simon Kinberg, Dave Filoni, and Carrie Beck created in Star Wars Rebels. For Star Wars Rebels fans, they know Erskin and the Gold Squadron members help escort Mon after escaping Coruscant, along with Phoenix Leader Hera Syndulla and her Spectres’ help too. Andor Season 2 Episodes 7-9 is a sad chapter for its sacrifices, but speaks volumes to Cassian’s character growth—witnessing the power of hope for a better future.

One of the best lines to cap off Andor Season 2 Episodes 7-9 is when Cassian takes Mon to the Luthen’s hideout, the same one from where Cassian and Bix stayed in Chapter 2. Mon says, “I don’t know how to thank you.” Cassian takes a second to think and responds, “Make it worth it.” ‘Make it worth it’ is a saying everyone who survived the incident on Ferrix embodies, and becomes a proponent for driving the Rogue One squad to achieve their goal on Scarif. 

Andor Season 2 Episode 7-9 are the perfect encapsulation of the series’ primary message.

Even though it’s a bit cheesy, we get to witness where Cassian learns the line: “Rebellions are built on hope.” In Episode 8, Cassian revisits the hotel he visited in Chapter 2. Again, he runs into the bellhop Thela (Stefan Crepon), who told Cassian how he lost his father in the Tarkin Massacre. This time that Cassian meets Thela, Thela recognizes Cassian as a rebel and helps Cassian by not reporting him to Imperial authorities for using a fake identity.

When Cassian tells Thela, “I hope we all make it out of here safely,” Thela responds with the iconic line, “Rebellions are built on hope.” Again, it’s kind of a corny line here, but still works to the tragic massacre that quickly follows the next day. It’s also a funny way of seeing what Cassian learns and remembers about his past. He remembers this side character Thela’s line up to the events of Rogue One, but couldn’t remember who Syril was when Cassian hadn’t seen him since the end of Season 1.

Andor Season 2 Episode 7-9 represents the major themes of Star Wars: hope, sacrifice, and resilience without a single fault—leaning heavily on sacrifice. This final chapter does a great job tying up character threads in a respectful way where the characters make sensible decisions, and the writing works for the overarching Star Wars story. Cassian finally learns and sees the full-scale efforts of what a true rebellion looks like. At the end of Episode 9, viewers will also get to see a couple of cameo characters—one is a real fan-favourite.

Andor Season 2 Chapter 3 is now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes released every Tuesday.

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