Andor’s Season 2 Finale Fills A Weird Rogue One Plot Hole
“How do I get to Kafrene?”
It’s not presumptuous to hope for a few Rogue One cameos in Andor Season 2. As a direct prequel to the former, it’d only make sense to catch a glimpse, however brief, of the heroes that starred in the 2016 film. Its final episodes in particular take place just before Rogue One begins, so it’d only make sense to show us what certain characters — like Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), the architect of the Death Star, or his daughter Jyn (Felicity Jones) — were up to. Diego Luna, who portrays Cassian Andor in Andor and Rogue One, claimed that the series would make Rogue One look like a “different film,” especially where returning characters like K-2SO were concerned.
Diehard Rogue One fans rightfully assumed that the series would give other members of the film the same treatment. Unfortunately, Andor’s references are pretty limited. Despite overlapping with the events of the film, the series is doggedly committed to keeping its story as insular as possible. Its final arc doesn’t give us the rousing cameos many might have been hoping for... but it does pave the way for Jyn Erso by filling in an intriguing plot hole.
Spoilers ahead for Andor Episode 12.
Cassian is headed for Kafrene.
The final episode of Andor is focused on setting the board for Rogue One. While rebel leadership grapples with the demise of Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and the intelligence he sacrificed himself to deliver, other rebel cells seem to be moving towards the same discovery. Luthen warns the rebels on Yavin about the Death Star, naming Galen Erso as the one person who could potentially help them destroy it. And though Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt) has a hard time trusting this information, one of Cassian’s informants, Tivik, will corroborate it soon enough.
Cassian’s handler, Draven (Alistair Petrie), reveals that Tivik has been calling the Rebel Base on Yavin for days. While he’s usually embedded with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and his Partisans on Jedha, he’s discovered something huge and is adamant about sharing it with Cassian. Those who remember the beginning of Rogue One know that Tivik’s intel is nearly identical to Luthen’s, but it comes from a different source: Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), an Imperial defector who was sent to Jedha by Galen himself.
This will eventually be enough to stir the Rebels into action, but they need an objective third party to convince Saw to share what he knows about Galen and the Death Star. (As we see in Episode 12, he’s loath to collaborate with the rebel council on Yavin even when there’s little at stake.) That’s where Jyn eventually comes in. She was just a child when Galen was abducted to finish his work on the Death Star, and after his disappearance, Saw rescued her and raised her as his own. Though no one mentions her at all in Andor — or seems to know that she even exists — it’s safe to assume that the rebels will start digging for information about Galen while Cassian heads to Kafrene.
Andor doesn’t grant fans that coveted Jyn Erso cameo, but it does pave the way for the character’s entrance in Rogue One.
Just as showrunner Tony Gilroy promised, the final moments of Andor lead directly into Cassian’s introduction in Rogue One. We see Cassian suiting up and heading to Kafrene with K2, and the rest of their adventures continue in the film. While our unlikely duo gathers information, Draven will likely be searching for a connection to Galen and Saw that he can exploit. By the time Cassian returns to Yavin, the rebels may be gearing up to rescue Jyn from her imprisonment on Wobani, setting the true mission in motion.
Andor may resist the urge for traditional fan service, but it does iron out the timeline in its own way. The first act of Rogue One moves at breakneck speed, and the sequence of events can be hard to follow. By taking its time to parse out rumors about Galen, Andor inadvertently explains how Cassian already knew about Galen, and how the rebels found Jyn so quickly. Though we don’t see the Ersos or Bodhi Rook in the series, Andor finds clever ways to make their presence felt, making their roles in Rogue One even more crucial to the Rebellion’s success.
