TV Recap / Review - The Celebration On Chandrila Continues in "Andor: A Star Wars Story" Season 2, Episode 3 - "Harvest"

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

Andor season 2, episode 3– entitled “Harvest"-- begins in space, where the title character Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is floating in his twice-stolen TIE Avenger starfighter. Cassian fiddles with a communication device, opening up a panel in the ship’s cockpit and connecting some wires, which causes one of the engines to flare, sending the TIE spinning. On Mina-Rau, a pleasant afternoon meal among the farmers is interrupted by the arrival of Kellen (Ryan Pope), who reports that this farm is next on the Imperial inspection schedule, and they’ll be showing up the next day. He gives Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) a forged visa to use if he gets stopped. Kellen also tells Brasso that Cassian needs to tell his “big boss" what’s going on here, but Brasso responds, “It’s going on everywhere. Keep your head down." On Chandrila, Leida (Bronte Carmichael) has donned her wedding gown, and her mother Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) says she was awake all night worrying about her.

She also tells Leida that her own mother was drunk when she got married in the same room. “I was so angry I don’t think I ever forgave her." Mon insists to Leida that she doesn’t have to go through with the wedding: “None of it matters. We can walk out there right now and tell them it’s not yet time for a marriage. We can put it off, and it will be remembered as an act of great bravery, I promise you. You do not have to go through with this." Leida responds with the most devastating line in the episode: “I wish you were drunk," which clearly deeply hurts Mon’s feelings, though she manages to pull herself together to lead Leida out into the area where the ceremony is to be held. We see some interesting Chandrilan wedding traditions play out, and then the two young fiancees step into a large circle, followed by their four parents, walking around them rhythmically. The groom is given a ceremonial knife by Perrin Fetha (Alastair Mackenzie), which he uses to cut off Leida’s braid, much like a Jedi Padawan would have their own braid severed when they were promoted to Jedi Knight.

At home on Coruscant, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) prepare for a meal, and it becomes clear they’re expecting a guest and they want things to be perfect. By now we can guess who exactly that guest will be, and soon she arrives at the door: Eedy Karn (Kathryn Hunter), Syril’s overbearing mother. The first thing Eedy says to Dedra is that she looks nothing like what she expected. Eedy asks for spiced tea, which they don’t have, and Syril offers to run down to a shop to get some, but Eedy refuses passive-aggressively. “Show me your wonderful home," she says, as Syril grimaces. In the antique store, Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) answers a call coming in from Cassian, who has now successfully hooked up the communication device to the TIE’s systems. “This is not the ship I was trained to fly– did you know that? Did anyone know that?" Cassian tells Kleya he needs to call “home," but Kleya warns him not to because of the frequency blockade.

This causes Cassian to immediately end the call and engage the TIE’s hyperdrive toward Mina-Rau, while on Coruscant Eedy Karn begins to serve herself some fondue-like food at Dedra and Syril’s dinner table. Eedy tells the tale of how Syril’s father disappeared and they got by due to the charity of Uncle Harlo. “Can I say how pleased I am that he’s found someone with whom he can actually communicate?" Eedy back-handedly compliments Dedra, who follows that up by informing her that her own parents were criminals who were arrested when she was three, and that she was raised in an Imperial kinderblock. “We had everything we needed. We didn't know what we were missing," Dedra says. On Mina-Rau, Brasso, Wilmon, and Bix prepare for the Imps’ arrival, and then we cut back to Coruscant, where Eedy tells more embarrassing stories about her son. “The main thing is we’re all here together now," she says, as Syril excuses himself.

This is where Dedra gives Eedy a hilariously stern talking to, making it clear that the elderly woman has clearly met her match in the ISB agent– who also reveals that she knows about Uncle Harlo’s criminal record. When Syril returns, he finds that the two ladies have come to an uneasy understanding of each other. Then back on Chandrila, Davo Sculden (Richard Dillane) unveils the statue, which was apparently stolen from the planet by Rakatan invaders centuries earlier: “Leida, Steken, I gift you this piece of our history. May it bind you to the land and to each other." Luthen Rael (Stellan Skargsgard) speaks with Mon’s assistant Erskin (Pierro Niel-Mee) until they’re interrupted by a stumbling Tay Kolma (Ben Miles), who admits to Mon Mothma that he admires Sculden’s aggressive personality. “We’ll discuss all this on Coruscant next week," he says, also telling her that he has to leave the celebration early. This is where the two young newlyweds have their first dance, and Luthen approaches Mon about the best way to deal with the Kolma situation.

On Mina-Rau, B2-EMO is distraught to find out that Brasso is going away temporarily, though he’s being left with Talia (Claire Brown). In Bix’s hut, she fiddles with a communicator hoping to receive a message from Cassian, but Brasso enters and tells her it’s time to move. Unfortunately neither of them know where Wilmon (Muhanned Bhaier) has gotten off to– hint: he’s saying goodbye to his girlfriend Beela (Laura Marcus), who is surprised to find that he’s armed with a blaster– so Brasso takes off after him on a speeder. The Imperials arrive and demand that Talia serve them meals, as the officer notices Beela and her mother demands that she get inside and stay there. We see Wilmon and Brasso racing toward each other, and then we cut back to Chandrila, where the conversation between Luthen and Mon ends with him implying that Tay Kolma will have to be killed. “I’m not sure what you’re saying," says Mon. “How nice for you," replies Luthen.

Suddenly we hear the “Niamos" dance music from season 1 blaring out of a DJ droid as all the young people at the wedding take to the floor, and back at Mina-Rau Cassian arrives in his TIE Avenger. Bix answers his call coming in on the communicator, though there’s some interference due to the blockade. The Imperial officer shows up at Bix’s front door and asks if her husband is around, also inquiring why it looks like the hut is being packed up for a departure. There’s some cutting back and forth here between the Mothma wedding reception– where Mon has a few adult beverages and attempts to dance away her worries– and a particularly violent scene in Bix’s hut where the Imperial officer accuses her of being “illegal" and attempts to rape her, though she manages to fight him off and brain him repeatedly with some hefty tools that are lying around. Meanwhile, Brasso is arrested by stormtroopers and skillfully casts suspicion away from Kellen.

The officer stumbles out of Bix’s hut, trips and further aggravates his own skull injury when he hits his head on a crate. This causes his underling to call for reinforcements, but before then can get there Wilmon arrives and begins blasting away, though it’s Bix who gets the kill shot. While Mon continues to dance the evening away on Chandrila, we see Tay Kolma leaving the party and meeting his new driver, who happens to be Cinta Kaz (Verada Sethu), and she exchanges glances with her estranged girlfriend Vel Sartha (Verada Sethu) before taking off in a speeder. On Mina-Rau, Cassian’s TIE roars toward the surface, blasting away at Imperial transports and troops with its advanced weaponry. At one point he even blows the bottom out of one of the grain silos, burning stormtroopers in its contents. Bix and Wilmon realize it’s Cassian in the TIE, which has now landed. Cassian runs desperately out toward Brasso’s crashed speeder bike and finds that his friend has been killed.

Here’s where Bix and Wilmon are reunited with Cassian, and he lets them know with a glance that Brasso didn’t make it. They flee the scene, and we cut back to Chandrila, where Perrin tries and fails to get Mon’s attention on the dance floor and we see Vel sulking in a corner while Cinta drives Tay Kolma away to his doom. On Mina-Rau, the TIE Avenger takes off with Cassian, Bix, and Wilom aboard, leaving Brasso’s body and the other devastation behind. In the final shots, Cassian looks determined as he flies toward the future… and Mon continues her frenetic dance.

I thought this was a rather intense conclusion to the first arc of Andor season 2, and it gave us another first for the Star Wars franchise: I’m pretty sure that was the first attempted rape depicted in A Galaxy Far, Far Away. That just exemplifies how showrunner Tony Gilroy is willing to push the boundaries of what we think of as appropriate for Star Wars, and emphasizes how this is definitely a show intended for a more mature audience than, say, Skeleton Crew. I continue to be impressed by Genevieve O’Reilly’s performance as Mon Mothma continues her descent into regret-driven anguish. At this point the character has made the decision that the rebellion is more important than her closest family and friends, and you can understand how that choice might eat away at someone. On top of all that, Dedra’s dressing-down of Eedy was fantastic and the action sequence on Mina-Rau was super exciting, making this first act a really solid start to Andor’s conclusion.

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