Andor‘s second season is also the show’s last. It’s the last twelve episodes we will ever get to spend with Diego Luna’s Cassian, one of the greatest spies and soldiers in the history of the Rebellion. And he spent two of them trapped in the jungle with the most annoying people in the galaxy far, far away. Who were those idiots, and why were they on the planet? More importantly, why was Cassian there? What was the point of having him stuck in place for 1/6th of Andor‘s final season? Here’s what happened to Cassian in Andor season two’s first three episodes, what it means for the story, and why that story arc wasn’t a total success or a total failure.
How Did Cassian End Up Trapped in the Jungle in Andor Season 2?
Andor‘s second season opened with Cassian stealing a prototype TIE Avenger from an Imperial base. He infiltrated the Sienar Test Facility posing as a test pilot. A new recruit to the Rebellion was waiting to help him. His escape didn’t exactly go smoothly, as he wasn’t sure how to fly the spacecraft. Once he did escape from planet, he arrived on an unnamed world (which we’d later learn is very famous in Star Wars). He’d left his own ship there, as the plan was to hand the TIE fighter off to someone named Porko.
Porko was dead before Cassian arrived. The people who killed him then took Cassian hostage.
Who Held Cassian Prisoner in the Jungle on Andor Season 2?
Lucasfilm
An armed, ragtag group of surviving freedom fighters from the Maya Pei Brigade captured Cassian in the first episodes of Andor season two. They didn’t believe his story about being a Rebel spy. Without a ship of their own, though, they needed to keep him alive until their pilot could hopefully figure out how to fly the TIE fighter. They had no other hope of getting off the planet.
The group was desperate and hungry, having been stuck there for two days without food. A named Bardi’s brother had taken their ship to go get help after a failed fight on another planet. Or the brother abandoned them there. Opinions differed. The dire situation had led to two factions within the group, the other led by Gerdis. Anger and mistrust eventually led to bloodshed.
Did Cassian Really Know Maya Pei?
Lucasfilm
Cassian used his wiles and experience to get one of the Maya Pei Bridage’s dumber members—which is really saying something—to reveal the group’s identity. Cassian then claimed he knew about them, that they were part of the same Rebellion, and that his group (which he refused to identify) had been supplying them because Maya was a “customer.”
Was Cassian telling the truth? Probably not, but it’s not impossible. The fact that we can’t be certain is a testament to his skills as a spy and manipulator.
How Did Cassian Escape from the Maya Pei Brigade in Andor Season 2?
Lucasfilm
With an unseen jungle monster eating members of each faction and no other way out of the situation, the two sides decided to settle their fight for leadership with… a game of Space Rock-Paper-Scissors (a.k.a. Five Hands).
That involved almost all of them putting down their weapons to play. Cassian used that absurd opportunity to break free with a hidden blaster on his crashed ship. He then made a run for the TIE fighter, using it to escape. He also had some help from that terrifying creature. It attacked during Galactic Roshambo, a wonderful sequence that ensured Star Wars fans never again have to see the Maya Pei Brigade.
What Was the Point of Cassian’s Story in the First Two Episodes of Andor Season Two?
Lucasfilm
Rebellions are messy. They’re not all big, dangerous missions full of glory against equally cunning opponents. Sometimes you get held up by the dumbest goobers in the galaxy. But those encounters are just as important because you can’t fight the Empire if you can’t survive the Maya Pei Brigade, and Cassian needed to rely on all his skills as a spy and soldier to do that. That might not sound impressive, but Porko couldn’t. He won’t be around to help steal the Death Star plans the way we know Cassian will be.
Andor is about the specifics of building a Rebellion and fighting back against a seemingly unbeatable foe. It’s about the details, the nitty gritty, the years of hard work and the countless unseen people that make Luke Skywalker’s heroics possible. Sometimes that hard work includes overcoming absurd situations created by people who want to help but have no clue how to do anything, including collecting rainwater when they have nothing to drink. Sometimes the galaxy’s greatest spy gets held up by the galaxy’s most inept rebels. How he navigates that situation isn’t just important, it’s revealing, and in that way Cassian’s arc in the first two episodes of Andor‘s second season meant a lot to the show’s themes.
What Didn’t Work About Cassian’s Arc in Andor Season 2’s First Two Episodes?
Lucasfilm
Andor is still a TV show, and giving us the single most annoying possible version of space Waiting for Godot for two episodes was, well, annoying. Gerdis and Bardi….or is it Bardi and Gerdis?….were the most insufferable variation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern* ever put to screen. Most of the time Cassian spent with the bickering fools felt tedious and unimportant in the scheme of Andor season two, even if the arc made sense thematically.
This subplot might have been less irritating if it did not take up 16% of an amazing TV series’ final season. If this happened in season two of a five-season show, it would have played better. We could have laughed about the whole thing rather than being desperate for it to end.
The revelation that Cassian’s time in Andor season two’s first episodes all took place on Yavin 4 was not enough to make all the time we spent stuck there worth it. Cassian’s heroics stealing the TIE fighter at the very start of the season, and his heroics coming to his friends’ rescue in episode three, only made his absurd situation in-between even more tiresome.
Andor had good reason to place its hero in such a dumb situation. It just put Cassian there too long with people who didn’t need to be that annoying.
*Gerdis had the beard, but the important thing is that it doesn’t matter.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who came to envy Porko. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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