Cassian Andor and Mon Mothma have by no means met earlier than. It appears laborious to consider, till you’re feeling the crackle of electrical energy within the air after they come face to face. You are feeling it once more later, when Cassian takes the terrified senator’s hand after killing her driver proper in entrance of her. For over a season and a half, creator Tony Gilroy stored his powder dry, ready for the fitting time for these particular moments. He put these two characters below a lot strain that they virtually shine like diamonds from the within out; now, finally, he put them on display screen collectively. The outcomes, and the chemistry between Diego Luna and Genevieve O’Reilly as performers, are spectacular.
These two lynchpins of the Revolt have one final job to do collectively. They’ve to smuggle two gadgets of treasured cargo out of the Imperial Senate to security. The primary is the reality; the second is themselves.
By the beginning of the episode, phrase of the Ghorman Bloodbath has reached the Imperial capital of Coruscant. The Emperor’s propagandists are going full tilt, each on the information and within the Senate chamber, the place the alleged horrors of Ghorman conceitedness and violence are described in lurid element. However Dasi Oran, the senator from Ghorman, has already been arrested earlier than he can counter the narrative. As he’s led away, he shouts “It’s my individuals immediately and yours tomorrow! This might be you quickly sufficient!” He says this final bit to Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt, taking up for Jimmy Smits), senator from Alderaan. In a few years, we all know, there’ll be no Alderaan.
The slaughter on Ghorman is some extent of no return for the Empire, each its proponents and its critics. Mon and Bail, the 2 secret Rebels within the Senate, know they are often silent now not. Additionally they know that the second they freely criticize the Emperor, they’re pretty much as good as lifeless. Reluctantly, Mon agrees to ship the speech after which flee, leaving Bail because the Insurgent within the Senate and inserting him below much more strain and scrutiny. “Subsequent yr on Yavin,” he tells her. He’s referring to the Insurgent base however paraphrasing the Passover Seder — a chorus for a individuals with no dwelling, or who don’t really feel at dwelling within the one which’s supposedly been made for them.
Then Mon offers her speech.
“I stand this morning with a troublesome message. I consider we’re in disaster. The space between what is claimed and what’s recognized to be true has grow to be an abyss. Of all of the issues in danger, the lack of an goal actuality is probably essentially the most harmful. The demise of fact is the final word victory of evil. When fact leaves us, once we let it slip away, when it’s ripped from our palms, we grow to be weak to the urge for food of no matter monster screams the loudest.
“This chamber’s maintain on the reality was lastly misplaced on the Ghorman Plaza. What befell yesterday, what occurred yesterday on Ghorman, was unprovoked genocide! Sure, genocide! And that fact has been exiled from this chamber. And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all quickly sufficient, is — ”
Properly. I’m positive a reputation popped into your head.
When a murderous marketing campaign of wholesale destruction overseas is used to justify widespread repression at dwelling, when few members even of the nominal opposition social gathering will say the issues we all know to be true, when nobody appears keen to use the phrases we all know should be used…I’d like to say it’s heartening, even thrilling, to hear the phrase “genocide” utilized by a fictional senator on a tv program. However it’s additionally humiliating that our leaders don’t see match to discuss to us with the honesty of a Star Wars character — and scary to see how quickly talking truthfully about what is occurring each in Gaza and right here at house is being criminalized.
Mon is keen to put all of it on the road. She lays the blame for this crime on the at all times unseen Emperor Palpatine’s toes, simply because the pissed off Imperial authorities lastly handle to shut down the Senatorial broadcast feed. For them, it’s too little, too late.
Mon flees, however is sort of waylaid by the extraction crew despatched unwittingly by Bail Organa, who’ve a spy of their ranks. Warned by Luthen about this treachery, it’s nonetheless up to Mon to resolve whether or not or not to belief Cassian over the individuals despatched by her shut good friend. For all she is aware of, this stranger was despatched to silence her by Luthen himself, to preserve her from falling into Imperial palms and revealing the complete structure of the Revolt. The truth is, as she herself says, she’s extra fearful of Luthen than she is of anything. She’s seen how simply he disposed of her previous good friend Tay Kolma, and is aware of he wouldn’t hesitate to do it once more.
However she does place her belief in Cassian, whilst she loses her innocence. Cassian kills two ISB brokers in her presence, leaving her shocked. “You killed that lady!” she exclaims, however even earlier than that just about childlike assertion, actor O’Reilly conveys Mon’s shock by way of her face and physique alone. Mon’s by no means met Cassian earlier than, true, however extra to the purpose, she’s by no means seen the violent aspect of the Revolt up shut and private, till now. It’s an unimaginable second to seize.
After the escape, the entire gang meets up in Cassian and Bix’s previous crash pad on Coruscant: Cassian, Mon, Luthen, Kleya, and even Wilmon and Vreena, who escaped Ghorman too. Cassian leaves with Wilmon and Vreena to get the younger soldier some badly wanted medical assist instantly, however Mon might be getting a hero’s reception on Yavin as an alternative. The second you see her drop her blue and gold ceremonial scarf, abandoning solely white, you’ll be able to see her transformation into the logo of the Revolt happening.
The ultimate twist: Cassian’s turning into an emblem of the Revolt too. Bix thinks so, and in a robust message delivered proper into the unblinking digicam by actor Adria Arjona, she explains that she will be able to’t enable herself to be the explanation he chooses a snug life over the Revolt that wants him — the Revolt that’s his future. Luthen Rael himself appears to suppose in order properly, declaring that point and time once more, Cassian was precisely the place Luthen and the trigger wanted him to be.
However Cassian barely has time to grieve this ultimate loss earlier than he’s wanted on obligation. Insurgent technicians are about to convey that damaged Imperial safety droid Cassian swiped from the chaos on Ghorman again on-line, a extremely analog means of grinding gears and sparking circuits. Upon reawakening with a brand new Insurgent-friendly persona, the reanimated droid politely asks a cautious Cassian to level his gun someplace else. Some individuals get a pet after a breakup; Cassian’s getting an enormous killer droid.
I like that the episode ends on this comparatively low-key, nice observe, slightly than on Mon’s astonishing speech, or Bix’s. Even in disaster, life goes on, and good issues occur. You simply have to be keen to battle to make sure that they preserve occurring, and occurring, and occurring. It’s as easy and as troublesome as that.
Sean T. Collins ((*9*)) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Occasions, and anyplace that will have him, actually. He and his household dwell on Lengthy Island.
