<em>Andor</em> Season 2, Episode 10 Recap

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"Only two pieces of questionable providence in the gallery. Any guesses?" Luthen asks his customer, Dedra Mero, herself masquerading as a harmless Imperial officer straying from their daily commute to the office. It doesn't take mastery of the Force to know what—or who—Luthen is actually talking about here, in a confrontation weighted with two seasons worth of anticipation. Leave it to Andor to deliver on all expectations and then some.

With its cameras fixated on Luthen (Stellan Skarsgärd), Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau), and Dedra (Denise Gough), Andor spends one of its last remaining hours recounting, with perceptive detail, the origins of Luthen and Kleya's relationship, culminating in a most graceful farewell for one of them. And through it all, Andor's final season remains immaculate, with season 2, episode 10 standing as sterling exhibition of storytelling craft. It's in the small moments, really—the exchanges of pregnant glares and bits of silence before the fireworks is where Andor, and this episode especially, shines the most.

There are no friends in a rebellion. But there can be family. With Andor season 2, episode 10, there's new hope yet that Star Wars isn't just a merchandising empire fracking the last ounces of its audience's interest for subscription fees. It is still a vast universe for stories, a terrarium of imagination that instructs resistance and perseverance and sacrifice. Every great episode of Andor (and there are plenty of them) can be analyzed with the same variation of: This is nothing like usual Star Wars.

I'd like to officially counter that. This is, in fact, what Star Wars has been about all along. We just had to wander from the usual paths to see it clearly.

Lonni (Robert Emms) wants out. The ISB supervisor and Luthen's secret informant has found out what the Galactic Empire has been planning all along, from Ferrix to Ghorman. And he's running out of time.

A new year in Andor opens with Lonni demanding from Luthen his immediate leave from Coruscant, now that he's learned about the Empire's plans for the Death Star, Plus, he's been "burnt" as a source. A passing line about his wife and child hiding away makes his death— killed point blank on a park bench by a shrewd Luthen—almost heartbreaking, and a cold reminder that true rebels are rarely dashing rogues.

Intel on hand, Luthen passes the information to Kleya while he stays behind for the "burn" (destroying evidence of their role as rebel brokers) until a customer walks through the door. It's Dedra. Still in character, Luthen presents an ancient ceremonial dagger, while Dedra digs up an "antiquity" of her own: a vintage Imperial Starpath unit, more than likely the one Cassian (Diego Luna, who is absent for this episode) once owned in hopes to get himself out of Ferrix in season 1. It's a statement, of course, with its tank-like sound effect acting like a period.

Dedra is flexing that she knows who Luthen really is: "You don't want freedom. You want chaos. Chaos for everyone but you. Ruin the galaxy and run back to your ridiculous wig and workshop," she taunts. But Luthen has seen her and her spit-shined boots coming a mile away. He refuses to give his enemy what they want. Dagger in hand, attempts bloody suicide in the middle of his own store.

Barely alive, Luthen is taken into custody and taken to a secured hospital on Coruscant. Almost 30 minutes in, the real story of Andor season 2, episode 10 begins in parallel.

As Kleya sneaks her way to Luthen at the hospital, Andor gives the viewer extended glimpses at her life with him, starting from the beginning at a chance encounter. It's less indulgent backstory than it is a recollection of memories, the kind they say you experience in the throes of death. We begin through Kleya's eyes as a child, hiding as a stowaway when a young, drunk, and shell-shocked Luthen discovers her aboard his military cargo.

We do not see every step they take together—just the ones that matter. But their life together is essentially Léon: The Professional in space, where Luthen reluctantly coaches Kleya on the finer points of survival under the boot of Imperial might. From cunning negotiation over cash and goods to maintaining, but never acting upon, her deep empathy for those unjustly suffering under the Empire, we understand Kleya in a way we understand few Star Wars characters, even those with whole shows to their name. No one is clamoring for Kleya on Disney+, nor will they ever. But this is enough. If eyes are the window to the soul, the different actresses who play Kleya, at all her ages, have troubled souls indeed.

The elegance of this hour of Andor is how straightforward it is, even with its abundance of subtext. It's a simple plot at its core: Kleya needs to get to Luthen in the hospital. You assume she intends to break him out. That's just how these things go in these kinds of shows, right?

But Andor's speciality has been knowing how—and most importantly, when—to twist the knife in a way you never quite see coming. Like when Kino tells Cassian he can't swim. Now, it's Kleya killing Luthen. Just as Luthen killed Lonni at the top of the episode, his lifelong training in his ways reaches its final stage when she demonstrates just how much she's become like him. Kill the most expendable, leave no trace, and never give the enemy what they want. Killing Luthen is an act of mercy, maybe even love. Andor has done plenty to remind us that resistance comes at a price—and so far, no cost has been too great.