Back when he first joined the Star Wars saga in Rogue One, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) was less a character than he was a cipher, a catalyst of the rebellion that would ultimately destroy the Biggest Bad in the Star Wars galaxy. He was just one of the many revolutionaries that history forgot, and though we get a general impression of who he is, he was still sharing the spotlight with Rogue One’s ensemble. Andor was meant to change that, placing its focus squarely on Cassian and exploring the Rebellion through his eyes. There is some of that in the series, especially since Season 2 is speedrunning through the four years leading up to Rogue One and its immediate follow-up, A New Hope. But Andor is arguably more of an ensemble piece than a sole character study: the closer it gets to its conclusion, the less interested it is in Cassian.
Spoilers ahead for Andor Season 2.
Ironically, we feel Cassian’s absence the least in the final arc of Season 2. Episodes 10, 11, and 12 are largely focused on the rebels who first discover the existence of the Death Star, and their attempts to pass this intel on to the leaders of the Rebellion. It starts with Lonni Jung (Robert Emms), an ISB mole working for Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård). Once Luthen takes Lonni off the board, he and his assistant Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) attempt to escape from Coruscant. Their plans, unfortunately, are quickly thwarted by the ISB’s most determined agent, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), who corners Luthen as he’s destroying evidence of his rebel ties.
When a wounded, unconscious Luthen is captured by the ISB, Kleya leaps into action to keep his secrets out of the Empire’s clutches. She infiltrates the hospital where Luthen is being held and, disguised as a nurse, disconnects him from his life support machine. Luthen is essentially her father figure — a fact that Andor reaffirms with a series of flashbacks woven through Kleya’s mission. We see her first meeting with Luthen as a child on an unnamed planet, and watch as he molds her into the fearless rebel we meet in present day. When she finally says goodbye to her mentor, just moments before executing him, it’s absolutely heartbreaking. Their self-contained story is easily one of Andor’s best episodes... and it’s telling that Cassian isn’t part of this story at all.
Again, Andor is an ensemble story — and a damn great one, at that — so Cassian doesn’t have to be involved in every episode. But given his uneven role throughout the season, it’s hard not to wonder why it’s his name on the marquee at all. From the very beginning of Season 2, Cassian has been stuck on the sidelines, saddled with the least interesting bits of the action. Andor wastes its first three episodes on the defunct Maya Pei brigade, squandering Cassian’s momentum from the end of Season 1. In later episodes, which turned our focus to the plight of Ghorman, Cassian still pushes against the natural flow of the story. He refuses to get involved with the rebel cell growing on Ghorman — and sure, he has his reasons for avoiding the fight, but there are better ways to make use of the character, especially since he’s meant to be growing into a selfless soldier who’s “done terrible things” for, and given his all to, the Rebellion.
Thanks to some exposition, we know that Cassian is active off-screen, but we rarely get to see him really contribute to the cause. Season 2 jumps forward a year every time it regains some momentum, largely ignoring the big moments of Cassian’s life. Instead, it’s other characters who pick up the slack. Luthen and Kleya are two of Andor’s most active protagonists. Even Cassian’s girlfriend Bix (Adria Arjona) gets ample opportunities to push this story forward. Cassian, meanwhile, is mostly dragged along by the narrative. Whenever he is in the driver’s seat, the pace of the series grinds to a halt. It’s only when other characters are involved that Andor is able to reclaim its sense of urgency.
By the time Andor brings its focus back to Cassian, it feels like too little, too late. Episode 10 is incredible storytelling, but it’s almost immediately curtailed by two episodes that spin their wheels with Kleya’s rescue from Coruscant. It feels like the series doesn’t know what to do with Cassian leading up to his mission on the Ring of Kafrene, the very mission that kickstarts the events of Rogue One. Rather than use his “plot armor” to its advantage and make him more active, Andor has offered up the bare minimum. Not only does the series fail to answer the questions we’ve had for years; it doesn’t really do its leading man justice, either.
