Warning! Spoilers ahead for Andor Season 2 Episodes 10-12.
In Andor Season 2 Episode 10, the noose finally tightens around undercover rebel spymaster Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård). Just as he acquires intel about the Empire’s latest super-weapon, his cover is blown by Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), the Imperial operative who’s been hunting him from the very beginning. Though she’s secured one victory, however, Luthen is quick to tell her that she’s too late to thwart the Rebellion itself — at least, the rebel cell once hidden on Coruscant.
“It’s flown away,” he says. “It’s everywhere now. There’s a whole galaxy out there waiting to disgust you.”
We learn just how right Luthen is in the episodes that follow. He’s already passed everything he knows about the Death Star to his assistant Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) — and when she reluctantly executes Luthen before the Empire can torture any information out of him, the entire ISB is ready to implode. Dedra is named a rebel spy, and her direct superior, Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser), will soon have to answer directly to the Emperor. Unsurprisingly, Partagaz would rather take his own life than face Palpatine. But just before he does, he’s seen listening to a young man speak about the “mask of fear,” the Empire’s desperation, and the omnipresent “frontier of the Rebellion.”
Those statements have never been more accurate for the Empire and the Rebellion at this point, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard these words spoken. Partagaz is listening to the Rebel Manifesto, penned and recorded by Karis Nemik (Alex Lawther). How the Empire got its hands on his life’s work is something of a mystery — but by reading between the lines of Partagaz’s conversation with Captain Lagret (Michael Jenn) and revisiting a key moment in Andor’s first season, it’s clear the Rebellion owes a major debt to Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).
Nemik is first introduced in the “Aldhani arc” in Andor Season 1. He’s one part of the rebel strike team organized by Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) to rob an Imperial vault. When Cassian joins the operation, Nemik eagerly brings him up to speed about the Rebellion. You could argue that he’s one of the first to truly radicalize Cassian against the Empire: though he presents as a skeptic, he’s somehow Nemik’s “ideal reader.” He intends to sway Cassian to the rebels’ side, but unfortunately, he doesn’t really get the chance while he’s alive.
The Aldhani heist is, ultimately, a success, but it’s not completed without a few major casualties. Half the team perishes during the job, including Nemik, who sustains a devastating injury in the escape from Aldhani. His last wish is for Cassian to take his manifesto, and as Andor Season 1 comes to an end, we watch as he familiarizes himself with the text. We also have to assume that Cassian finds ways to share the manifesto with the galaxy, either by leaking it on the holonet or making copies to send to other rebels. By the time we see Partagaz listening to it in Andor Season 2, four years have passed, and Nemik’s words are borderline impossible to contain.
This is both a great callback to the first season of Andor and a subtle reminder of Cassian’s importance to the Rebellion. He’s a messenger, one always destined to stoke the fires that others start. Rogue One only scratched the surface of his importance to the cause, following his efforts to secure the Rebellion’s first victory against the Empire. But he was instrumental to the revolution long before stealing the plans to the Death Star and passing the torch to the next group of rebels. Andor shows us the other ways that he spread the rebel cause, galvanizing would-be rebels and stupefying Imperial leaders throughout the galaxy.
