Spoiler Alert: This text comprises potential spoilers for Andor season two.
Andor’s second and ultimate season concludes with a montage that gives us temporary glimpses of its characters’ final fates. Sequence namesake Cassian Andor totally embraces his position as a insurgent chief as he strides by means of the Yavin IV compound and leaves for Kafrene, heading instantly into the occasions of 2016’s Rogue One. (Not surprisingly, one intelligent YouTuber has already spliced the Andor and Rogue One scenes collectively.)
Season two standout Kleya Marki, as soon as afraid of touring to Yavin IV due to her covert (and controversial) work with Luthen Rael, appears to lastly settle for her new dwelling. Dedra Meero has misplaced every thing; as soon as a rising star within the Imperial Safety Bureau, she’s now simply one other prisoner in an imperial gulag, and within the montage’s grimmest second, breaks down weeping at midnight. Lastly, Bix is again on the agricultural world of Mina-Rau. As she stands in the midst of a golden area, we be taught why she left Cassian as she comforts their younger baby and appears wistfully off into the gap.
Accompanied by Brandon Roberts’s evocative rating, this type of montage is maybe the one method the collection may’ve ended, giving us some measure of decision whereas nonetheless acknowledging that the revolt, and the battle, is way from over.
. . . Andor additional muddies the waters by making Perrin—to all exterior appearances, anyway—an honest and respectable man.
All the varied characters’ scenes are placing, however one second is especially haunting. After we see former imperial senator Mon Mothma now sitting amongst the rebels on Yavin IV, presumably considering her life decisions, we lower to a shot of her husband Perrin, who’s hovering by means of the Coruscant skies in an aerial limo, a distant look on his face as properly. One other lady is asleep beside him, although, her head on his shoulder and a bottle of alcohol in her lap. As he passes by means of the scene, Perrin takes an extended drink, his complete demeanor radiating disappointment and remorse.
It’s a far cry from how Perrin is depicted within the previous episodes. Whereas his spouse is a pushed and idealistic senator from the planet of Chandrila (who additionally occurs to be secretly funding the burgeoning Rebel), Perrin is vacuous, flamboyant, and decadent. He totally enjoys the consolation and privilege afforded by his spouse’s wealth and political place and does his finest to keep away from something remotely disagreeable.
When Mon expresses political issues, Perrin responds with a pained and pissed off “Should every thing be boring and unhappy?” When he will get chummy along with her political opponents, he dismisses her objections, saying “You’re on the boring finish of the desk. These individuals are enjoyable.” Perrin more and more turns into the epitome of an empty-headed fairly boy, and nowhere is that seen extra clearly then the toast he offers at their daughter’s extravagant marriage ceremony:
My hope is that you simply be taught to achieve previous this fixed cloud of disappointment. Pleasure. Gaiety. Amusement. These are the hidden issues. The music buried beneath all that noise… Pleasure… However pleasure has no wind at its again. Pleasure is not going to announce its arrival. That you must pay attention for it and be aware of how fleeting and delicate it may be. However get hold of these treasures. A second of pleasing sensation, the reminiscence of laughter and good firm, the consolation of a tremendous meal. And for me… For me, proper now, it’s the smile that I can’t disguise as I see these two younger individuals sharing our biggest custom.
There’s some fact in Perrin’s speech. Laughter, good firm, a tremendous meal—these are all definitely value celebrating. And true pleasure can, certainly, be fleeting and hidden and should typically be sought out. However for all of its fact, Perrin’s speech in the end reveals his shallowness. It reveals that for him, consolation and pleasure are all that basically matter; they’re the one issues value chasing and pursuing in life. Such a pursuit essentially precludes discomfort, battle, and hardship, all of that are tough to keep away from if one’s attempting to stay a life that almost all would contemplate good and ethical. And if one’s attempting to overthrow a galactic tyrant and his fascist forces, then such issues will likely be an absolute necessity.
Satirically, Perrin wasn’t at all times like this. Earlier within the collection, we be taught that he was the “academy firebrand” in his youth, one thing of a rabble rouser. However someplace alongside the way in which, that fireplace, that spirit, that revolt leeched its method out of Perrin’s spirit, and he surrendered himself to hedonism.
Perrin isn’t depicted as an outright villain. He’s no “house Nazi” like Dedra Meero, Orson Krennic, Lio Partagaz, or Dr. Gorst, neither is he obsessive about chilly bureaucratic element just like the tragically single-minded Syril Karn. Certainly, it’s not so onerous to think about how Perrin may need relinquished his firebrand standing. As he grew older, maybe he noticed which method the galactic winds have been blowing and, reasoning that there’s nothing he can personally do to forestall Imperial oppression, determined to make the perfect of a nasty scenario. He merely opted to “attain previous this fixed cloud of disappointment,” because it have been, and eat, drink, and be merry as finest he may. Or maybe he simply acquired too used to the snug lifetime of a senator’s consort, full of stunning individuals, lavish events, and an in depth proximity to energy—and who can blame him?
However Andor’s ethical imaginative and prescient is kind of clear: Perrin’s complacency is damning in its personal method. He may not be plotting unrest and slaughter on Ghorman, undermining the democracy of the Imperial senate, instituting terror and totalitarianism, or constructing an planet-destroying superweapon, however neither is he the kind to care about such “boring and unhappy” issues or converse out in opposition to them. Not as long as they don’t intrude together with his snug life, that’s.
(Apparently, a scene was deliberate by which Perrin confronts Mon and divulges that he did, in truth, learn about her rebellious actions and stored silent, anyway—proving his worth and trustworthiness if she would have given him an opportunity. Though the scene was in the end lower from the script, it definitely would have added some attention-grabbing depths to each Perrin’s character and his relationship with Mon.)
It’s simple to have a look at Perrin and Mon and say that we’d unquestionably be just like the courageous senator. We’d clearly converse out in opposition to tyranny and readily sacrifice every thing for a simply trigger. However Andor’s forceful storytelling and ethical readability implore us to actually contemplate the reality of that. For starters, it’s fairly clear that Mon’s sacrifices, like these of Luthen, Kleya, Cassian, and Vel, have been each expensive and really removed from simple. (Luthen gave his life, Kleya misplaced her father, and each Cassian and Vel misplaced their lovers.)
However Andor additional muddies the waters by making Perrin—to all exterior appearances, anyway—an honest and respectable man. He’s affable and charming, beneficiant and gregarious. He’s the kind who pays his taxes, donates to good causes, votes the precise method, and clearly is aware of tips on how to throw an important get together. In brief, he’s the precise type of person who any society would need extra of. And if we additionally loved his standing and privilege, would we actually be so fast to throw that each one away for a lifetime of hardship, battle, and near-certain dying?
Andor’s closing montage means that Perrin nonetheless has his wealth and respectability. He’s nonetheless sporting fancy garments, consuming costly liquor, and using in a flowery automobile—possibly on his method to a celebration or profit gala for the fallen Imperial “heroes” of Ghorman. He’s even acquired one other glamorous lady by his facet. In comparison with Mon, who’s now on the run from the Empire in a shabby, rain-soaked Insurgent base on a distant, insignificant moon, Perrin has misplaced nothing. Besides his soul, that’s. And by the unhappy, weary look on his face, he is aware of it, too.
