TV Recap / Review - "Andor: A Star Wars Story" Season 2 Kicks Off with a Check-In On All Our Major Characters in Episode 1 - "One Year Later"

This evening saw the debut of the first three episodes of the second season of Lucasfilm’s acclaimed live-action series Andor: A Star Wars Story (formerly titled Star Wars: Andor) on Disney+, and below are my recap and thoughts on the first installment.

Andor season 2, episode 1– entitled “One Year Later"-- begins with a title card informing the audience that this arc takes place 4 years before the Battle of Yavin, and then we find ourselves at the Imperial testing compound on Sienar, where a small droid and a female technician attend to the new TIE Avenger model. The technician boards the starfighter and runs some tests, then steps out and places her screen device into the droid. We then cut to a mess hall area, where Cassian Andor (played, as always, by Diego Luna) waits by himself. The technician enters and then goes over the plan with Cassian, admitting she is nervous. “Nervous is good; it keeps us awake," responds Cassian. The technician says she is scared for everything to change, and then has to cover for Cassian– posing in disguise as a new pilot– with another technician, who whispers to the first one that she thinks Cassian is cute. The tech asks Cassian a couple more questions, like how long he’s been doing “this," and if she dies tonight if it will have been worth it. “The Empire cannot win. You will never feel right unless you do whatever it is you can to stop them," says Andor. The tech asks for a 12-minute head start and heads, while Cassian begins putting on his gloves and walks through the hallway toward the hangar where the TIE is being kept.

He inserts a data key into a console, which opens the hangar bay doors, then blasts the droid, causing it to stop its movement and emit smoke. Cassian climbs into the TIE’s cockpit and immediately tries to figure out how to fly it, though it’s not as easy as it sounds. He primes the ship’s weapons and engines, but when he activates its controls he accidentally backs the TIE into the rear wall of the hangar, causing an alarm to begin blaring. He struggles more with the controls, firing the weapons all over the place and finding himself unable to gain control enough to leave the hangar. A number of stormtroopers respond to the alarm and Cassian is able to wipe them out with the experimental TIE’s lasers and an even more powerful weapon that disintegrates a range trooper. He then blasts his way out through the now-closed hangar bay door and the TIE emerges, sliding down an icy hill overlooking a deep chasm. As more TIE fighters approach from a distance, firing their own torpedoes at Cassian’s ship, he finally gets the hang of the controls and flies out through the canyon and off into space, eventually losing the pursuing TIE fighters by collapsing a cave system behind him.

On a different planet at nighttime, we find Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier) sleeping in a hammock outside a small but electronically advanced hut. From a point-of-view perspective, we see in a mirror that the person entering the hut is Dr. Gorst (Joshua James), who creeps into the bedroom occupied by Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), who suddenly awakens from the dream. She is greeted by Brasso (Joplin Sibtain), his girlfriend Talia (Claire Brown), and the droid B2-EMO (voiced by Dave Chapman), who says that Cassian will be home tomorrow. Next we cut to Chandrila, where Leida (Bronte Carmichael) and her similarly teenaged friends get a first look at her wedding dress. Then outside we meet Perrin Fertha’s (Alastair Mackenzie) uncle Sordo (Jonathan Coy) and Mon Mothma’s (Genevieve O’Reilly) new assistant Erskin Semaj (Pierro Niel-Mee). From a distance, Mon spots someone arriving at the event who she wasn’t expecting. She begins to walk toward the entrance of their expansive estate, encountering her cousin Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) along the way and asking, “Have you seen who’s here?" Passing more senators and other guests, she meets with Tay Kolma (Ben Miles), who asks for a chance to speak with her. Mon brushes him off and then approaches the landing area, where Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) has arrived and is greeted by Davo Sculden (Richard Dillane), both of them acting cagey as to why Rael is there.

We see Luthen meet with Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau), who regrets not being able to send out a signal from Chandrila and check on the status of Cassian and his mission. Then back on Bix’s grain-covered planet Mina-Rau, she and Wilmon work on a large vaporator-like machine when a woman named Beela (Laura Marcus) approaches and Bix teases Wilmon about his relationship with her. As the three of them begin to chat, they hear an Imperial ship approaching and Bix looks worried. Then we’re back with Cassian in the TIE cockpit flying over the surface of a jungle planet. He lands the ship in a clearing and spots another derelict ship nearby. He gets out and begins shouting for someone named “Porko!" But instead of Porko, Cassian soon finds himself surrounded by a group of freedom fighters who believe he is an Imperial pilot, as his stolen uniform would indicate. They make him drop his blaster and get on the ground, holding him at gunpoint. At the Maltheen Divide, a secret meeting is held between Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), who emphasizes that no one outside the meeting should even know this project is happening. “Any security violation will be brought to the Emperor’s personal attention."

Krennic then shows the assembled group, which includes Dedra Meero (Dedro Meero) and Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser), a newsreel about the planet Ghorman, its capital city Palmo, and its weaving industry– fueled by spider-like creatures called Ghorlectopods. “Ghorman is of great interest to the Empire," says Krennic, before we cut back to the jungle planet where Cassian is being interrogated by the freedom fighters. “I’m here to meet a friend," asserts Cassian, but they don’t believe that he’s working for the rebellion. They tell him Porko took a shot at them and they had to kill him, and we cut back to Krennic’s meeting, who talks about Emperor Palpatine’s “energy initiative," informing the group that in addition to the spider, Ghorman is also the source of a mineral called Kalkite– which he says is used to coat the reactor lenses on his secret project. So basically the Empire wants to further occupy Ghorman and strip it of this precious mineral to help build the Death Star. On the jungle planet, the freedom fighters try to get Cassian to teach them how to fly the TIE Avenger.

Krennic’s meeting continues with the tiny detail that extracting the Kalkite might very well destroy Ghorman, and so the population must be dealt with in ways that only the Galactic Empire would be capable of. On the jungle planet, the freedom fighters bicker among themselves about the best way to deal with Cassian and the TIE. Cassian does his best to sway one of the guards to his side, but it doesn’t work. Fortunately for him, the group begins to splinter in two as Cassian identifies them as the Maya Pei Brigade. “We’re all part of the same rebellion," Cassian insists, but the fighting continues as we cut back to Krennic giving orders about the suppression of Ghorman, and two propaganda specialists speak on the arrogance of the Ghor and how they are perceived in the galaxy at large. “We get the idea," says Krennic, and we cut back to the jungle planet again, where Cassian learns there are beasts lurking in the trees around them. The crew has now split into two factions, one of which attempts to take control of the TIE, but only succeeding in firing its weapons into the jungle.

Krennic’s meeting wraps up, and Partagaz speaks with another officer about how Imperial occupation and drilling could be up and running in a matter of weeks. He learns a new armory is being built in Palmo, while Krennic approaches Dedra and tells her he heard she “learns quickly" when she says the plan is a lot to take in. He pays her further compliments, but Meero says she’s still forming an opinion of the plan. “Propaganda will only get you so far," says Dedra. “You need a radical insurgency you can count on." On Mina-Rau, B2-EMO greets Brasso as he returns to the farm, but admits he was really waiting for Cassian to return. Brasso brings news to his friends that an Imperial supply census is on its way. “No one here is about to let anything happen to you," assures Beela. On Chandrila, Luthen and Kleya worry as they still haven’t heard anything from Cassian, but Kleya says she’s going to get a drink at the party and hope for the best. Inside, Davo chats with Perrin about the wedding and their children, while Luthen fishes for information from an Imperial cadet in attendance.

Vel grills Kleya about what she and Luthen are doing at the wedding, and Kleya insists they pretend to be “two single women surveying the prospects" instead of rebels who have worked together. Tay Kolma accuses Mon Mothma of having been avoiding him: “I’ve had some business go sour," Tay says, implying that he needs money, and admitting that he’s separated from his wife. “I was hoping we could discuss the foundation," he adds, but Mon is pulled away because Leida and her betrothed have had their first fight. Mothma finds her daughter in an empty ballroom and comforts her about the state of her young relationship. On the jungle planet, night has fallen, there’s more bickering among the freedom fighters regarding who should be in charge, culminating in the two factions actually drawing blasters and firing on each other. Cassian scrambles to the wrecked transport nearby, assisted by two of the rebels as multiple blaster shots scream overhead, and that’s this episode’s cliffhanger ending.

I thought this installment was a really strong start to Andor’s second season, as the various conflicts for this first arc begin to take shape. I find myself particularly interested in Krennic’s plan to seize Ghorman (anyone invested in the Star Wars Legends (AKA Expanded Universe) timeline or one particular episode of Star Wars Rebels should recognize the name of that planet and its significance to the lore of the franchise). But the tension surrounding Leida’s pending nuptials and the guests at the wedding is also intriguing, as is the situation Cassian has found himself embroiled in on the jungle planet. It’s a tantalizing start to what will surely be a captivating 12-episode season.

The first three episodes of Star Wars: Andor season 2 are now available to stream, exclusively via Disney+.