I’d say something smart like “Vive la resistance!” but… yikes.
“Messenger”
It’s two years before the Battle of Yavin. Cassian is on the Rebel base on Yavin 4 nursing a blaster burn that isn’t healing, and Wilmon returns from his latest mission to see him and Bix. Cassian wants to know where he’s been, but Wilmon is vague. He tells Cassian that Luthen wants to know if he’s ready to work, as he knows Cassian’s been injured. Wil isn’t trusting of all the new people who keep showing up to this base, but Cassian insists that they can’t go it alone if they want to win. Luthen wants them to hit Ghorman again; he knows that Dedra Meero is on Ghorman now and in charge. He wants them to kill her, and Wilmon thinks it’s the right thing to do. Cassian tells him to check in. Dedra is told that the original plan for Ghorman will go forward—there’s no substitute for the material they want from the planet. The mining project will begin in 48 hours. Captain Kaido (Jonjo O’Neill) is her crisis specialist, bringing troops in. Dedra is concerned, but Partagaz assures her she’s done admirably. Syril comes in to asks what’s going on; Dedra still hasn’t told him the truth about Ghorman, but she does tell him to pack and be ready to leave.
Mon Mothma’s driver Kloris (Lee Ross) is an ISB agent, but she can’t get rid of him as he’s thankfully incompetent. Senator Oran tells Mon that he wants to thank her for aiding everyone in the face of what the Empire is doing: He knows Ghorman doesn’t have long and urges her to protect herself. On Ghorman, the Front is arguing about what kind of resistance they should display. Rylanz wants them to continue peaceful protest while the rest are urging more violent displays. Lezine (Theirry Godard), now a member of the movement, tells them to stop fighting and remember what they’re trying to preserve. On Yavin 4, Bix brings Cassian to a “Force healer” (Josie Walker), which he thinks is nonsense. The woman notices them and approaches on her own, touching Cassian’s wound and thanking him for giving her clarity, for his strength of spirit. Cassian flees and the woman tells Bix that Cassian is a messenger, that he gathers what he needs as he goes—that he has a great purpose in all of this and there’s a place he needs to be. Bix confronts Cassian about it, insisting that she’s had similar dreams to what this woman told her, that he needs to let it in.
On Ghorman, Syril speaks with Enza, wanting more information on whether the Front is working with outside agitators, but she slaps him and continues on her way. General Draven (Alistair Petrie) asks Cassian where he and Wilmon are heading off to, but they won’t tell him—he lets Cassian know that’s no longer acceptable, and he will have to fold into their ranks sooner rather than later. Kaido arrives on Ghorman with troops who are clearly brand new and untested; Cassian and Wilmon land in the hills. Vel comes to talk to Bix on Yavin 4. She’s doing intake there because she needed a break; she was getting reckless. She was asked to talk to Bix by the generals because they need Cassian to stick around now. He’s a leader here and they need to be able to depend on him. On Ghorman, curfew is in effect. Cassian and Wilmon split up, and Cassian checks back into the same hotel on the plaza. The former bellhop Thela (Stefan Crepon) is working the desk, and also a member of the Front now. He remembers Cassian and warns him of how he’ll be reported on by the staff. Cassian and Wil check comms to make sure they work. Cassian checks his sightlines for the assassination tomorrow, noticing that there are more troops than expected.
“Who Are You?”
Cassian assembles his rifle in the morning. In the square, Sargeant Bloy (Tomi May) is deploying the troops to put up barricades around the plaza. Cassian contacts Wilmon on the comms, asking what’s going on. Everyone on Ghorman is hearing that they’re opening the plaza, and Cassian urges him to recognize that it’s not an opening, it’s a trap. Dedra contacts Partagaz about how bad it looks that the mining equipment keeps being spotted, but he insists that they don’t have to worry about that anymore; their misinformation campaign has done its work. Syril is told to report to the Imperial building as an employee and check in. The Ghor take to the streets, and Rylanz warns his daughter that this is what the Empire wants, and that everyone is going to die. The group assembles on the plaza, chanting and carrying flags. Rylanz sees Syril and accuses him of duplicity. Syril insists that he means no harm, and admits to his mission of trapping outside agitators. Rylanz tells him about the mining equipment, and Syril doesn’t want to believe him, throwing that man to the ground and heading to the square.
Cassian leaves his room and Thela tells him that he never checked him in; he was never here. When Cassian says he hopes it works out for them, that man tells him that “Rebellions are built on hope.” Cassian watches the group assemble and notices that they’re in a killbox situation. He tries to get in touch with Wil, but it’s hard to hear him over the comms. He spots Dedra and tries to get in position to line up his shot. Syril heads into the Imperial building and is asked to sit in a waiting area with others and a crew of KX droids. One of them keeps staring at him. On the square, troops move to box the protestors in. Kaido orders Bloy to take his green troops into the square to patrol despite their lack of readiness. Lezine begins to sing rather than chant, and the whole square is soon joining in on the traditional song. Syril forces his way into Dedra’s office, asking what she’s doing and how long she’s known that his mission was fake. He grabs her forcefully and chokes her, demanding the truth. Dedra tells him, and insists that this is what they both wanted, to go home as heroes. Syril says goodbye and exits the building before she can stop him, merging into the crowd.
Bloy’s troops push back the crowd in their riot gear, getting increased resistance. Dedra receives orders to proceed and TIEs fly overhead. An Imperial sniper on the roof kills one of their own troops to create panic in the crowd and a massacre begins. Cassian keeps an eye on the windows, still trying to get his shot, but the Ghor are revealing their own weapons and everyone is joining the fray or running for their life. The exits are blocked, and people begin running into the hotel, directed out the back by Thela. The Front continues to lose fighters, as Syril looks on in horror. The KX droids are sent out, throwing people aside, including Enza, who is killed. Cassian almost has his shot lined up when a bomb goes off in the hotel. Syril spots Cassian across the plaza and goes after him. The two of them brawl in a cafe, and Syril gets a blaster trained on Cassian, who merely asks, “Who are you?” In the ensuing pause, Rylanz shoots Syril in the head.
Wilmon is trying to find Dreena (Ella Pellegrini), his Ghor girlfriend, and he gets boxed in with Cassian by a KX droid who is rampaging. Samm hits the droid with a transport, and Wilmon tells Cassian that he can’t leave without Dreena. He implores Cassian to leave and tell everyone what happened here. Cassian asks for one last favor and loads up the destroyed KX droid. Dreena sends out word on the comms, telling the galaxy what the Empire is doing to Ghorman, asking them to pass the message along. Wil joins her, and she asks him to broadcast too. Cassian leaves Ghorman in tears. Dedra stands alone in her office, tugging at her Imperial uniform collar and shaking. The news portrays this is an insurrection by the Ghor, aided with outside rebel assistance.
“Welcome to the Rebellion”
Bail Organa arrives at the Senate right as Senator Oran is being arrested, his pleas for help going unaided. Mon Montha tells Bail that she needs to make a speech, and that she needs his help so she can take the floor. Mon has decided that she needs to do this and be done, that they both have to leave. Bail tells her that he can’t yet, but that he supports her plans, and she must be ready to go the instant she’s done giving her speech. Kleya tells Cassian that they’re keeping the journalist cover they used on Ghorman to get him into the Senate building to aid Mon Mothma tomorrow. Cassian tells Kleya that he won’t be coming back after this, that he wants out of the entire cause. She’s unimpressed given that he’s just witnessed the Ghorman Massacre, but he insists that he’s always come through and needs to start making his own choices. She tells him she thought that was what they were fighting for.
Erskin Semaj finds the bug Bail warned about in Mon’s office, and she breaks the thing. ISB notices that the device has gone down. Mon needs to practice her speech, so she goes to the plaza where she doesn’t have to worry about being spied on. Luthen finds her there because it turns out that Erskin works for him, a fact that Mon feels utterly betrayed by. Luthen tells her that when she flees, she needs to use his operative instead of Bail’s people; there’s something wrong with his team and Luthen doesn’t know what. Mon admits that right now she’s more afraid of Luthen than anything, but he tells her his code phrase—I have friends everywhere—to know when it’s his operative. ISB flags Mon because she hasn’t left the Senate building tonight, and her bug isn’t working. She dismisses Erskin when she returns to her office, deeply hurt by his clandestine work.
The next day, Cassian meets with Luthen and urges him to leave with Mon, but he refuses. Luthen talks about Cassian like he’s a fated entity, always appearing to Luthen when needed. Kleya tells them that they have no idea what Mon will say, as she fired Erskin, though he’s still on site. Bail’s extraction team meets at the same time Cassian enters the Senate building on his press pass. Bail tells Mon that he’s got a group to take her to safety after her speech; she asks if he knows them, and he admits that he can’t for security reasons. Cassian meets Erskin inside, who directs him to Mon Mothma. The Senate convenes and talks about the Ghorman threat, the insurgency that brewed right under their noses. ISB has an agent on Bail’s team, but one of the other members notices her talking to them, so she kills him. Through a series of byzantine rules, the Senate floor is given to Bail, who then gives the floor to Mon. A senate worker is given the order to shut down the feed and rushes to do so; he is blocked by two technicians who “fixed” the system to bring it up to code, so that it cannot be easily interrupted.
Mon’s speech is about the fact that they have lost sight of truth, which is the ultimate victory of evil. She tells them that what happened on Ghorman was genocide, and that the monster they have fallen pray to is the Emperor himself. The feed is finally shut down, and Mon exits the Senate chamber. Cassian is waiting for her and has to convince her of his credentials, including being present on Ghorman. He tells her that he knows Luthen is difficult, but that he’s here to get her out. When they emerge, the ISB agent on Bail’s team tries to arrest Mon in public. Erskin shouts that she’s a rebel spy, giving Cassian enough confusion in the room to kill her. Cassian and Mon look for different ways out, but the building is going into lockdown and they’re running out of exits. Kloris is told to call in when he has something to report, and heads toward the building to learn more. Cassian and Mon get outside onto the walkways and find Kloris, who Cassian also kills. Mon is mortified, but Cassian implores her to look at him and takes her hand, getting her into her car and away.
Back on Yavin 4, Melshi (Duncan Pow) has shown up to the base. Cassian brings Mon to the safe house on Coruscant, and finds Wil and Dreena there; Wil has been injured and needs to go to Yavin 4 for a doctor. Mon isn’t going to Yavin with Cassian; she’s going to get there with a special escort and will give another speech, so the story of her exit will be rewritten into something more grand. Cassian tells Mon to make it all worth it. He lands back on Yavin 4 and is told by General Draven that none of this mission will be logged since it wasn’t sanctioned, and they get Wilmon medical attention. Cassian goes to Bix and tells her that he wants to be done with this, and be with her. He thinks the only thing special about him is luck, and knows it will run out. He wants them to go somewhere quiet to try and live out the rest of their lives, and they embrace. When he wakes, he’s alone, and Bix has left him a message: She tells him that he needs to be here, that she believes in his purpose. She can’t be the reason he quits, so she’s leaving, making the choice for them—he has to stay with the Rebellion. She promises to find him when it’s over. Cassian is called inside because they’re about to power up the KX unit he brought back. It’s a risk doing this kind of cortex-swap, but they train blasters on him and switch him back on.
K-2SO wakes and apologizes if he’s offended them—but asks them to point their blasters elsewhere.
Commentary
There are upside and downsides to how the arc with Bix seems to be working out. The upsides are that I was convinced they were going to kill her, as she’s not around by Rogue One, and something had to keep Cassian in the Rebellion long enough to get there. Allowing Bix to take control of this and essentially tell Cassian that they’ll be together when it’s over is great because it’s hyper-tragic (knowing that Cassian won’t make it out) without relying on the cheap move of fridging a woman for a man’s pain journey (provided that they stick to this choice, which they’d better).
The downside is that Bix hasn’t really been given enough material here to feel like a person, and her opinions are frequently baffling as a result. The belief that Cassian is “destined” for this cause seems to come out of nowhere. She claims that she’s had dreams that align with the Force healer’s narrative of his messenger role, but it would’ve been nice to see one of those dreams much earlier in the season. Otherwise it all just feels like a neat little explanation for her choices here—choices that are incredibly complex and painful for both of them.
And I’m still not sure if it’s entirely her faith in Cassian’s place that’s motivating it, or something much darker; does she think she’s somehow tainted due to Gorst’s torture? Is she leaving to tend to her apparent drug addiction under less watchful eyes? (Or did they just drop that, because uh, that’s kind of relevant.) Does she secretly feel that they’ve been growing apart and can’t bear to tell him? Perhaps none of these are factors, but the idea that she’s maybe got some slight Force-awareness that makes her adamant this is the right choice is such a weird move.
Speaking of which, I love the concept of Force healers. Mostly I love the idea that many of them are likely charlatans (like the one Maarva apparently saw) running alongside the issue that most of these people never got the required training to be any good at it? The woman we meet here seemingly has that problem; like, sometimes she can get the Force to do-thing-make-healing-go and sometimes she can’t. She doesn’t know how the abilities work in any consistent, actionable sense.
The supposed wisdom she gives to Cassian and Bix is appropriately (hilariously) vague as a result. Saying Cassian is a messenger is one thing, but the idea of gathering as he goes, needing to be somewhere, it all sounds incredibly profound while giving no useful information whatsoever. And then she even suggests that Bix is the “place” where Cassian supposed to be, a piece that Bix ignores because that doesn’t fit in with what she’s already decided about Cassian. So that part is Grade A Tragedy Material.
Which segues nicely into talking about handling of Syril’s Karn’s demise, and honestly—my only complaint is that this show needed another season between this and the first. There’s so much going on, and all of these characters have wildly complex journeys that deserved much more time to cook. Give us two seasons of the Ghorman mission, watching the Front grow, watching Syril get embedded with the group and start caring about these people he’s working with. (Two seasons of Bix rebuilding herself. Two seasons of Cassian growing increasingly exhausted. Two seasons of Dedra getting slowly crushed under the weight of an assignment she emphatically didn’t want, and having to lie to Syril. Two seasons of Mon Mothma losing her ability to perform civility while Bail Organa watches from the sidelines with worry.)
The way Syril’s story plays out is searing to my mind, but I wanted to watch him get there. We were introduced to his relationship with Dedra a handful of episodes ago, it’s a little much to go right to betrayal choking. It’s like hearing a song with an incredible build being played at double-speed. You’re missing the crescendo, but you know it’s there. You want to feel it.
Having said that, the chain of events feel so psychologically solid on his end that I’m still kind of awed. He realizes he’s been used by the one person who he felt brought him purpose. He realizes that he’s also betrayed the people he thought he was meant to befriend and connect with in the worst possible way. And when all of this comes clear to him, he suddenly finds the face of Cassian-flipping-Andor in the crowd—the figure who started him down this path in the first place—and the only thing he can think to do is kill what caused all of this.
When you see that the episode is titled “Who Are You?” your first assumption is likely that the phrase will be directed at someone who is deep in their loyalty throes for one of these rebellions. The idea that it would be directed at Syril Karn by Cassian Andor in the moments before his death, because despite being Syril’s entire reason for being, Cassian has no idea he even fucking existed—
This show just bodied me again. Not sure I’ll get back up from that.
It’s a brilliant thought to seed in a story like this: Marginalized peoples are constantly being told that they don’t matter, often as a fatigue tactic designed to make them stop fighting. No one cares; they’ve never even heard of you. But how often is it ever pointed out that the people casting you as the bogeyman are even more inconsequential and unknown? Devoting their lives to hating something they can’t identify with until their lack of belonging becomes all that they are.
Did Syril Karn have the ability to become anything other than this? Well… he’ll never find out now.
It becomes clearer than ever during this episode why Dedra tried to shirk this assignment. Tracking Axis, that’s cool sexy espionage work. Trying to find the guy who’s throwing a wrench in all your plans and making everyone’s lives harder, it’s going to feel important and exciting. You’ve got an opponent who you get to battle like equals. But exacting the plans themselves against largely helpless populaces? That’s too much reality. And after learning about Dedra’s background in an Imperial orphanage, we now know that she didn’t have too many options in avoiding this path. Where it goes from here—doubling down or changing allegiances—is going to be a fascinating transition of its own.
The end of the Ghorman Front is a tragedy writ large in part because of its real-life historical parallels. The French Resistance overcame the Nazis, but these people, their planet, and their culture will die. Importantly, the Empire had to convince the galaxy of their evil and build them up as monsters—something that they did not have to do on planets that had less contact with the outside galaxy (Kenari) or with non-human inhabitants (Geonosis and Lasan).
But it’s also important that Ghorman is the major step toward the open declaration of Rebellion that’s coming. Mon Mothma’s defection is effectively the opening salvo of the united Rebel Alliance, and it only happens here because of the Ghorman Massacre. Watching them put the pieces into play and create a more complete tapestry has been riveting. And Mon Mothma’s speech is on the nose, but truer than ever:
“Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil.”
We’re already here. Time to decide where we’re headed, too.
Cassian has lost Bix in this, but in true Star Wars fashion: When you lose people, you gain droids. That sounds flippant, but I meant it in the exact opposite way, because as ever, I am a droid simp. And of course, we can tell K-2SO is already in there before they ever do the cortex-swap—you know he’s the one who keeps staring at Syril when the rest of the KX units look away. He’s curious and blunt like that.
Bix is fine and all… but this is the partner Cassian needs. He’s finally made it to the party.
Bits and Asides
- I have waited forever to get a better look at the base facilities on Yavin 4, you have no idea how satisfying this was to my brain. So many fanfic writers just got prime material. Scaffolding! Vouchers! Tent houses in the jungle! Infrastructure!!
- A very sharp choice to have the Ghorman protestors change their chants from their own language to Galactic Basic; it’s a clear sign that they’re trying to reach the wider galaxy and get them to care.
- Is it very cheesy that Thela says the words “Rebellions are built on hope” to Cassian as a setup to Jynn Erso saying the same in Rogue One? Yes, but I actually appreciate the choice because it alleviates my cringey feelings about how moved people seem to be by that line in the movie: It’s a very simplistic idea, and it makes more sense that Cassian would be affected by the thought when it’s the echo of a dead man who he once connected with.
- Denise Gough. Just… Denise Gough. She is a masterclass unto herself. Every pinched, stunted expression, I am mesmerized by her.
- Don’t ever break bugs or listening devices! You keep them there and act normal! This is Covert Operations 101, Mon.
- The perfect little meta touch of Cassian having to help people pronounce his cover name, and both times it’s a white person, and one of them is even a member of the Ghorman Front because that lack of awareness is not a partisan problem…
- The technicians who make the broadcast machinery run correctly, thereby making it harder for the Empire to shut down, are working a classic tactic in resistance books: Use red tape and system mechanics against your oppressors. Make the bureaucracy work in your favor to slow them down.
- The reference to Gold Squadron bringing in Mon Mothma and the new speech she’s going to give to enter the Rebellion is covered in Rebels season three—the episode “Secret Cargo” shows Mon Mothma on the run after speaking out against the Empire publicly for the first time. Of course, the Ghost crew get all the classy missions at this point, and are the ones to bring her in, but I wondered how they were going to tetris that exit so that all the events lined up. I’m super pleased with the results here.
- Melshi finally made it! Hey my guy, what have you been up to?
Next week, it ends. See you then.