Andor: How Do I Get to Kafrene?

"Make it Stop", "Who Else Knows?", "Jedha, Kyber, Erso"

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers for Episodes 10-12 of season two of Andor ahead! There are no more episodes of Andor ahead, but there may be spoilers of other Star Wars movies and TV shows, so consider yourself warned about any Prequel or Original Trilogy spoilers!

BBY 1

“I’m Luthen now, you’re Kleya. Everything else is up for grabs.” - Luthen Rael, “Make it Stop”

Through it all, Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) was there. At the head of a clandestine network of Rebels, he got them all to accomplish the impossible. He persuaded, cajoled, and begged, all in the name of the cause of freedom. And he lied, a lot. He put the mission above feelings and above trust. He did his part to set Ghorman ablaze along with the Empire. He built the Rebellion. And then it grew beyond him and flew away to Yavin. And he was left on Coruscant, an antique amongst his antiquities. Without him none of it happens. No Yavin, no Endor, no Jakku. He never received any medals, any commendations from Rebel leaders like Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), no banners. He died alone, in a silent, sterile hospital room.

Of course, that isn’t quite true. He wasn’t alone, through all of that. At his side as he did the work he did was Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau). She was there through it all. Aldhani, Ferrix, and Ghorman, she ran comms, coordinated missions, and did what must be done. In the end, she was there with him as he died. Because she killed him. Not out of malice or anger, but because the mission demanded it. He was a prisoner of Imperial Security Bureau Supervisor Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), and thus was now a loose thread. She did what she must do.

Luthen and Kleya were not father and daughter, though they played the roles when it was useful for the cause. They weren’t even Luthen and Kleya, not really. Those were characters they played. Not just in their cover story as antiquities dealers, but to their comrades in the Rebellion as well. They made themselves into Luthen and Kleya, because the cause demanded it. 

Kleya was an orphan, a victim of one of the countless atrocities committed in the name of the Empire. She survived because she was a young child, small enough to find a hiding place on one of the Imperial ships that had dispatched Imperial troops to commit said atrocities. One of those troops in that unit was the man who would become Luthen. He had taken part in the actions, perhaps had even killed Kleya’s parents. But it was too much. He cried out to the universe to anyone who’d hear to make it stop. Hearing no reply, he answered the call himself. And he found Kleya. He saved her, and damned her.

For Luthen, the cause was because enough was enough. The galaxy was unbalanced, and he could not stand by, doing his part to tip it back into balance. No matter the cost, no matter the small odds of success, he would do what he must. He would burn his life to warm the galaxy.For Kleya, her motivation was revenge. High ideals like freedom, democracy, the natural balance of the uniform meant nothing to her. She was a child who watched her life burn in front of her, and she wanted to make those who did it pay for it. She would persist and pay whatever the cost to see it through.

This life they chose to live was not the easy path. It wasn’t comfortable, even if it may have looked some from the outside. It didn’t abide by the generally understood rules of decency, or morality. It took so much discipline, and an almost complete obliteration of an internal self to devote themselves to whatever must be done. And all of this with no guarantee of success.

The work began in earnest on a glorious day in Theed, the capital city of Naboo. Here Luthen and Kleya’s nascent rebellion would go from building their cover as antiquarians, to active action. Which, in this case, meant blowing up an Imperial patrol. This was the point of no return, there would be nothing else but victory or death. Here, in a lovely little restaurant on one of the most beautiful planets in the galaxy, they would decide whether or not to damn themselves.

Luthen was a middle-aged adult when he weighed this decision. He was also a deserter from Imperial service. He could weigh the costs of damning himself, even if the true magnitude would only make itself known as it happened. But Kleya was a child. Though she may have insisted she didn’t care what she would have to give up, she also didn’t understand exactly what that cause was. He tried to make her understand, but this is wisdom only gained by living the years that imparts it. Luthen didn’t stop her from making her choice to damn herself. But he did stop her from pressing the button to kill those troops. She’d put enough red in her ledger in the fight to come. But not today. And that was the glimmer of a hope he held out that she might someday have a real tomorrow to wake up to.

So on through the years they worked together, becoming the trusted antiquarians to so many of the galaxy’s elites. From the heart of the Empire, they built a communications network. They gathered intelligence and bought, borrowed, or stole materials and money to equip the scattered factions of Rebels. They weren’t the only ones out there, but they were among the best disciplined and certainly the most connected. Which made them incredibly effective. And vulnerable. From the time Luthen met Cassian on Ferrix, the ISB was just a few steps behind. But yet they persisted. They stayed ahead of Dedra and Supervisor Heert (Jacob James Beswick) due to the effectiveness of themselves and their operatives, luck, and the work of their ISB mole Lonni Jung (Robert Emms).

And then the Ghorman crisis reached its tragic climax, and Senator Mon Mothma became Mon Mothma, leader of the Rebel Alliance. There was a fleet, and generals, and an honest to god command and leadership apparatus. And every one of these leaders of the new Rebel Alliance either never dealt with Luthen, didn’t like him, or (in the case of Mon Mothma) felt personally betrayed by him. Even Luthen and Kleya’s most trusted operatives, Cassian and Vel, joined up with the forces on Yavin.

Luthen and Kleya’s operation was no longer the center of the Rebellion, but yet the work continued. They were beginning to question the effectiveness of their position, but yet the work continued. And then Lonni sent up the signal that he needed to meet immediately. And the final act of Luthen Rael’s career began. Lonni burnt his future in the ISB to break into Dedra’s secret files using the credentials Heert gave him. And there he found something big. Like, giant gray space station big. Lonni had uncovered the Death Star, the absolute biggest secret the Empire had.

This was invaluable intelligence that was crucial to the Rebellion to know. But it was also information bought by Lonni burning his cover. He gave Luthen the information with the understanding Luthen was going to get him and his family to Yavin. Luthen lied as Lonni died on the bench he sat on as he did his final part to save the galaxy.

Afterwards, Luthen and Kleya met for the next to last time. He gave the Death Star information to her and sent her off to the safe house. He went back to destroy the comms panel that was once the center of the Rebellion. He only partly succeeded. As the comms panel smoked, the shop’s doorbell rang. Luthen Rael, meet Dedra Meero. She has something to show you.

“Freedom…You don’t want freedom. You want Chaos. Chaos for everyone but you.” - Dedra Meero (to Luthen), “Make It Stop” 

It was Dedra Meero’s great day of triumph. Through her sacrifices and hard work, she had found “Axis”. And he was in his shop to boot. Not only would she get the victory, she’d get to personally see to his interrogation, and the glory that came of it. This was why she did it, right?

Well, her ambitions sure, but Dedra was a true believer in the Empire all the same. Like Kleya, she was left an orphan after the Empire killed her family. Unlike Kleya, she bought the Imperial line, considering them criminals who got what they deserved. As Kleya worked with Luthen to found their Rebel organization, Dedra was just trying to survive in her Imperial group home. Her work was her salvation. It got her through the hell of childhood, and the viper pit that was the Academy. And it would get her out of the even nastier snake pit of the ISB middle ranks. And then she could make the Rebels pay.

To someone like Dedra, order isn’t just a nicety of society, it’s the foundation of it. When Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser) said, back in BBY 5, that the ISB was there to stop the virus of Rebellion from killing its host, she took it to heart. Why can’t the Rebels just die, or give up? Then we could all go to our lives of..well…whatever Dedra would do if the Rebels didn’t exist. Attack the next “enemy”, maybe?

In short, she hates the Rebels, and Luthen most of all. Of all of the shit that she had to endure, they are the ones she can strike back against, can point her fury towards. So when she finally dropped the old Imperial Starpath unit from Luthen and Cassian’s first meeting down in front of him, she’s not happy. She feels righteously angry. And his protestations about how much she hates freedom just makes it all the worse. She can relish his defeat later. Right now is letting him know the Empire’s furious might. 

But in her haste to show Luthen his failure, she didn’t realize the game he was playing with her. Or rather, she realized it too late, as she noticed the smoke coming from the comms panel in the back. And worse, her being distracted gave Luthen just enough time to stab himself. The door to victory wasn’t quite shut yet. But it was no longer a time to gloat for Dedra Meero.

And it never got any better for her than that moment when she had “Axis” in her sights. Her greatest catch was clinging to life in a Coruscant hospital. And him…Heert…showed up to…arrest her? Who the hell does he think he is?

Only when her interrogator turned out to be Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) does she even have an inkling of the shit she’s in. Not for botching the arrest of Luthen. But because she had cracked into deep Imperial state secrets about the Death Star. The same files that the now deceased Lonni Jung had looked at. Dedra Meero was done as anything but a prisoner in a prison not unlike Narkina 5. 

Dedra never quite got the bigger picture, and it doomed her in the end. She got so focused on finding “Axis” and getting her big victory that she didn’t stop to see two big things. First, that the Rebellion had long since passed Luthen’s operation. And second, that the Empire’s machinations were much bigger than mere apprehension of spies. Her mistakes wouldn’t just end her career and life out of prison. It would radiate out, as the information she let out made its way to Yavin 4.

But first, it had to get to Yavin 4. After the death of Lonni Jung, only two other Rebels knew of that intelligence. One, Luthen, died on his hospital bed, courtesy of the other. Kleya was alone now. But she had a job to do, no matter how impossible it seemed. Without her comms table, and with the full force of the ISB look for her. But with the vital information she carried, she’d have to try.

Ghorman. Scarif. Kyber. Krennic. Galen Erso.” - Kleya Marki, “Make it Stop”

By BBY 1, the Rebel Alliance had moved beyond the squabbling of the Maya Pei Brigade, the isolated paranoia of Saw Gererra, and the compact size of Luthen Rael. But that doesn’t mean they were a finely tuned system. The leaders came with their own constituencies and priorities, and their own feelings and relationships towards the other members of the Alliance. And it was safe to say that Luthen was not beloved by the Alliance he helped create. Even if Kleya had full control of comms it’s possible the Rebel leadership council would have vetoed a rescue mission.

But the usual comms were down, now in the hands of the Empire. Instead, she had to rely upon a cruder system that may not have even had someone listening on the other end. Kleya had to take it on faith that someone would answer.

Wilmon (Muhannad Ben Amor) answered, and brought Cassian in to see what was up. And the message was the simple message he knew which meant getting his ass to Coruscant was of the highest priority. Without waiting for a committee vote or official orders, Cassian took Melshi (Duncan Pow) and K2 (voice and motion capture by Alan Tudyk) straight to Coruscant. There would be consequences, if they even came back alive. It didn’t matter, he wasn’t going to ignore the call.

It was a mission of the highest importance. Initiated by a woman who might be in Imperial custody when they got there, undertaken by those who didn’t know what they’d find when they got to Coruscant. Other than Kleya getting knocked out and hurt by a stun grenade, it went surprisingly well. It helped that K2 came along and did a lot of the tough work, along with his trusty Heert-shield.

The intelligence made it off Coruscant, which meant that Dedra’s Big Screwup cost another casualty besides her career and the life of Heert. Letting the Death Star go would be game over for Lio Partagaz. He self-administered his permanent resignation, right after he finished listening to Nemik’s manifesto. Looks like the Rebellion was about to overflow the dam.

Of course, it didn’t look quite as inevitable on the other side of things. Cassian got Kleya to Yavin, and tried to give the vital information to the leaders. But it was a lot to take in, and their lack of trust in Luthen didn’t help. Even if Mon Mothma was inclined to at least listen to Cassian, the rest didn’t have the same trust in the situation. That didn’t make them incompetent or weak. They could only speak to their experiences, and few people could take in news like the Death Star existing without some time to process.

But eventually the evidence started to mount up. Saw and his band was on Jedha, and an operative on Kafrene would only speak to Cassian. And Vel (Faye Marsay) was convinced that Cassian and Kleya were both right, and she let Mon Mothma know. Cassian would go to Kafrene.

And it is here, on the cusp of the events that would lead to the Battle of Scarif, and then Yavin, the series leaves us. We see a bunch of Rebels training to fight, eating meals together, and Saw looking out toward Jedha City, as if he sees what’s coming. 

And Kleya gets a moment to look over what was happening at Yavin. She realizes she’s not alone, and all of this was because of the monumental sacrifices she and Luthen had made  in their long, lonely fight. We also see Dedra, alone in her prison cell, crying. The contrast couldn’t be starker. 

As we reach the end of this journey, Cassian and K2 head out to start a new one. But there’s one final scene that caps the series. We check in with Bix, living on Mina-Rau* and her and Cassian’s young son. All at once, this scene underlines the sacrifice both Cassian and Bix made for the Rebellion, as well as what the whole damn thing was about. For even as the sun sets on Scarif, it rises on Mina-Rau.

* With B2EMO and his new friend!

Next Week: I wrap up the Andor series with a wrap-up post talking about the whole rather than the specifics.

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