Andor Season 2 Just Revealed The Fatal Flaw Of The Rebellion
The Rebels’ success is short-lived for a reason.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Andor Season 2 Episode 12.
By the time Andor Season 2 comes to an end, the Rebellion is finally standing on two feet — but the powers that be are already forgetting those who paved the way.
The final three episodes are all about the Rebels’ first brush with intel about the Death Star, the super-weapon that will go on to destroy the planet Alderaan. Andor reveals that Lonni Jung (Robert Emms) is the first to discover that the Empire has been building that kind of weapon at all. He tells Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), the accelerationist on the fringes of the Rebellion, everything he knows, and Luthen then passes the intel to his assistant Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau). She escapes from Coruscant with help from Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who brings her back to Yavin and relays everything to the Rebel Council. Unfortunately, because this intel comes from Luthen and is decidedly light on details, they’re all too quick to write it off as a “convenient,” “paranoid fantasy.” Few of the council members even seem to care that Luthen sacrificed his life to get this message delivered.
“We’re talking about someone who’s been a thorn in our side since we began building this alliance,” says Senator Palmo (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Not even Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt) is on Cassian’s side: Luthen’s “paranoia, his secrecy, and his inability to collaborate” leave the council hindered by their own doubt.
Rebellions are built on hope... and the backs of radical insurgents.
It’s incredibly frustrating to watch the council dismiss Luthen’s sacrifice, and not only because we as the audience know he and Cassian are in the right. Their bias against Luthen and radical insurgents like Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) echoes the plight of real-world revolutions. Often militant revolutionaries and people of color are the ones giving their all, pushing their respective cause forward — only for more passive bureaucrats to swoop in and take over, all but erasing their predecessors from history.
Mon Mothma and Bail Organa later become two of the most public heroes of the Rebellion — and Mon also goes on to lead the New Republic — but neither would be where they are without people like Luthen, Saw, or Cassian. Their ignorance isn’t just insulting to those characters, however: It also reinforces the Rebellion’s fatal flaw, the very thing that will later doom the galaxy to repeat its worst mistakes.
The council’s hesitance is, unfortunately, nothing new. They’re nearly undone by their infighting in Rogue One, once Cassian brings more concrete information about the Death Star with Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and the rest of his new crew. No one can agree about the best way to move forward, and few want to trust the word of any Imperial defectors — including Galen Erso, the man who created a weakness in the Death Star plans.
This scene in Andor foreshadows the council’s inaction in Rogue One and beyond.
The council’s inaction nearly costs the Rebellion its first victory in A New Hope. If Rogue One hadn’t seen fit to defy the council’s direct orders, they might have never retrieved the Death Star plans from the Imperial facility on Scarif. Their base on Yavin probably would have been wiped out by the Empire shortly after, cutting their battle tragically short. But their mistakes don’t end there.
When we fast-forward to the end of the war and the rise of the New Republic, their dismissive skepticism continues to rear its head. As we learn in The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, The Republic’s new leadership council is far too keen to rehabilitate Imperial sympathizers, all while turning a blind eye to the remnants of the Empire regaining strength in the shadows. Mon arguably has more power than ever as Chancellor — but she’s too reluctant to make any executive decisions that would waste time and cut out all the bickering, as she is during the Civil War. That ultimately paves the way for the First Order to rise again, damning our heroes to rehash the past.
No one on the council seems to learn anything from their mistakes, while the Rebels who could have truly made a difference don’t survive to leave their mark on the New Republic. It’s a dread-inducing glimpse into the future of the galaxy: even if the Rebellion does defeat the Empire, its success is so short-lived for a reason.
