Be ready to give up all chance at inner peace and make your mind a sunless space if you haven't watched episode 8 of "Andor" season 2, because there are major spoilers ahead. One of the biggest magic tricks "Andor" pulls is make you forget it's a prequel. The problem with prequels is that, by knowing what's coming, the tension disappears.
How can you surprise the audience when they know where things are headed? Where the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy focused almost entirely on just showing the origin of characters we knew and how they ended up where the audience first met them, "Andor" (and "Rogue One" before it) have a similar approach to the balancing act of the masterpiece that is "Better Call Saul." Advertisement Though we know where Cassian (Diego Luna), Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) and Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) end up, the surprises and tension rest on those characters whose fates we don't already know.
Characters like Bix (Adria Arjona), Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) or Vel (Faye Marsay), who don't show up in any other "Star Wars" media, are who the audience desperately want to see make it to the end (well, maybe not Syril). Then, it's the way "Andor" adds context to certain character choices — like Saw Gerrera's breathing device — or presents different versions of familiar characters that adds to that tension and intrigue, like how a stern senator becomes the leader of a rebellion. Advertisement Case in point, what happens on Ghorman in season 2, episode 8.
It's not only "Star Wars Rebels" fans who have known this was coming, because the very first episode of the season spelled out quite succinctly that the Empire was planning a planet-wide genocide on Ghorman and we've seen Dedra (Denise Gough) and Syril work toward that goal for five episodes. The best compliment one can give season 2 of "Andor" is that no matter how much it telegraphs that something will happen, it is still impactful and surprising to see it executed. When it comes to the Ghorman massacre, no amount of forewarning or prior knowledge prepares you for what is without a doubt the most spectacularly harrowing thing in the history of the "Star Wars" franchise.
