{"id":94639,"date":"2025-05-15T02:50:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T02:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/we-say-goodbye-to-andor-one-of-the-best-tv-shows-of-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T02:50:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T02:50:55","slug":"we-say-goodbye-to-andor-one-of-the-best-tv-shows-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/we-say-goodbye-to-andor-one-of-the-best-tv-shows-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"We Say Goodbye To Andor, One Of The Best TV Shows Of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Well, we\u2019ve reached the end of the road. Andor<\/em>\u2019s second and final season brought us 12 episodes of (mostly) exceptional Star Wars<\/em> drama released in three-episode chunks, a format which served the structure of the show brilliantly, with each chunk representing one year in the four years leading up to Rogue One<\/em>, but also meant that we didn\u2019t get to savor the show for nearly as long.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Fallout Season 2 Teaser Confirms Lucy and Ghoul are Heading to New Vegas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Each week, we\u2019ve gathered to discuss our reactions to the show\u2019s latest episodes (you can find last week\u2019s conversation here<\/a><\/span>), and now, we do so for the last time. Join us as we say goodbye to this extraordinary series. <\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\"Image<\/picture><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/figure>\n

Ethan Gach:<\/strong> I\u2019m in camp Kleya, who called her arrival on Yavin in the final stretch of Andor <\/em>\u201ca bitter ending,\u201d but perhaps somewhat more consoled than she was by Cassian reassurance that \u201cnothing\u2019s ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final three episodes of season 2 were always going to be somewhat disappointing and bittersweet since we knew the show was ending and in some cases we knew where it would need to funnel people to set up Rogue One,<\/em> but the final chapter still managed a surprising amount of high-stakes tension and unexpected backstory. <\/p>\n

How would you both rate the final episodes and what are you feeling now that the journey\u2019s over?<\/p>\n

Carolyn Petit: <\/strong>I thought episode 10, with its look at how Luthen and Kleya formed their bond and her undertaking the terrible task of doing what needed to be done, was outstanding. (It also gave us an alien who instantly became one of my favorite Star Wars <\/em>creatures ever!) <\/p>\n

Episodes 11 and 12 weren\u2019t peak Andor<\/em>, but I have to admit that the final slow-motion montage sequence really worked for me, and they had a political dimension I found somewhat surprising that I\u2019ll discuss a bit more later.<\/p>\n

Zack Zwiezen:<\/strong> I was worried that the final episode would run out of steam as Tony Gilroy and co literally ran out of space for storytelling and had to slam the brakes to set up Rogue One. <\/em>And while I enjoyed the montage slow-walk, I wonder if that works if you haven\u2019t seen Rogue One<\/em>. <\/p>\n

But overall, the final three episodes are really good. And I think the Kleya-Luthen focused episode is one of my favorite Andor <\/em>episodes ever. I\u2019m so happy she got a big spotlight before the end.<\/p>\n

CP: <\/strong>Me, too. That episode also helped cement, I think, that the show recognizes how necessary all of Luthen\u2019s efforts were, even if those fussy ineffectual bureaucrats on Yavin don\u2019t. <\/p>\n

This is an issue I\u2019ve long had with how Star Wars<\/em> has at times sanded away its own political dimensions in my view, something that Andor <\/em>not only seeks to undo but takes farther than ever before. In truth, the act of blowing up the Death Star in the first film, that act which people cheered for in theaters in 1977 and that Star Wars<\/em> fans for decades since have loved and admired, would, in universe, be considered an act of terrorism. That\u2019s what the Empire would call it. That\u2019s what governments do: they present their own violence as \u201clegitimate\u201d or \u201cnecessary\u201d and the violence of those rebelling against them as \u201cterrorism.\u201d <\/p>\n

But there were times in Star Wars<\/em> history where I felt like the people at the reins of the franchise wanted to send a message that you shouldn\u2019t be \u201ctoo extreme\u201d in your resistance, don\u2019t be a Saw Gerrera, do it through \u201cproper channels.\u201d And so I loved that Andor <\/em>gave us that scene with Bail and some other politicians all kind of hemming and hawing over Luthen while the show, I think, was emphatically telling all of us, \u201cLuthen was right. Maybe not every single little decision he made was right, but his ethos was fundamentally right and without someone like him, none of this would have been here.\u201d And I loved it for that.<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> I think, and they talk about this in the behind the scenes, it\u2019s very important that Luthen\u2019s fight against the empire was really because Kleya wanted revenge.<\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> Right. She\u2019s the humanity that he\u2019s fighting for. She\u2019s what radicalizes him.<\/p>\n

ZZ: <\/strong>If he hadn\u2019t found her and saved her, Luthen likely doesn\u2019t become the rebel we know in Andor<\/em>. And it also adds a new layer of complexity to their relationship. He was part of the army that brutalized her people. So she still has some lingering hatred for him. And yet she does care about him. And in that moment when she sneaks into the hospital to finish the job, you can feel that.<\/p>\n

EG:<\/strong> I think that scene with the Rebel Alliance leaders also helps show the Senate mentality creeping back in as the insurgency professionalizes itself.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why even after defeating the Empire in key battles it might struggle to rebuild or retain power, issues explored in Ahsoka <\/em>and The Mandalorian<\/em>. These last few episodes help situate Cassian between the uncompromising logic of Luthen\u2019s spycraft and the \u201cno one left behind\u201d mentality of the Rebellion. Luthen\u2019s final sacrifice is to die, and Cassian\u2019s is to go back and risk everything just to save someone.<\/p>\n

ZZ: <\/strong>We should rewind a bit and talk about that moment between Luthen and Dedra. Or even further actually, and pour one out for Lonni, who I knew was dead the moment he sat down at that bench.<\/p>\n

CP: <\/strong>Yeah. When he mentioned his wife and kid, for a moment I thought mayyyyyyyybe Luthen would be like \u201cYou know what? I owe this guy.\u201d But alas, no.<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> I also loved that line Luthen gave Klaya before the meeting: \u201cI think we used up all the perfect.\u201d <\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> So good.<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> And then we get Dedra Meero walking into Luthen\u2019s shop as he\u2019s destroying evidence. My wife literally gasped \u201cOH SHIT!\u201d at seeing Dedra at the door.<\/p>\n

EG: <\/strong>Only two artifacts may not be what they seem!<\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> In a show that so often demands that characters put on a performance to blend into their surroundings, it was great seeing those two feel each other out and Luthen pretend for a bit that she was maybe not there to arrest him. <\/p>\n

But then, of course, he tries to kill himself, and you see that he was thinking a few steps ahead when he picked up the knife, though he made it seem like it was just part of their friendly dealings.<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> When he picked up the knife I was so distracted by him mentioning it being a Nautolan artifact (Kit Fisto\u2019s species) that I didn\u2019t realize why he picked a knife.<\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> Hahaha, the perils of having a database of Star Wars<\/em> knowledge in your brain!<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> And then after he\u2019s taken to the hospital, we get that wonderful sequence with Klaya sneaking in and taking him off life support. Anybody else want a Hitman<\/em>-like Star Wars<\/em> game now?<\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> If that alien Kleya pushes around as she\u2019s pretending to be hospital personnel is in it, absolutely! But yes, that was a great infiltration sequence, both thrilling and kind of excruciating because we knew what she was going there to do.<\/p>\n

EG:<\/strong> It included some of the best Coruscant backdrops we\u2019ve ever gotten, I think.<\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> One other moment from that episode that I can\u2019t stop thinking about was the flashback scene in which we see Imperial officers drag some civilians through town, put them up against a wall, and kill them. <\/p>\n

It was another gut-wrenching reminder of the Empire\u2019s evil and another moment that felt weirdly resonant as more and more people are being arrested by agents who often won\u2019t even show warrants or identification in the streets of our towns.<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> On the flipside of that horrible moment that made me feel a pit in my stomach, we have Dedra getting arrested for being reckless and not following orders by chasing after Luthen long after she was supposed to be off the Axis investigation. I have to admit I smiled when I realized it was all over for her.<\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> Man, I don\u2019t know. I mean I absolutely hate her, don\u2019t get me wrong, and yet that final shot of her, where we see that she\u2019s in a prison very much like the one Cassian was in last season (if not the same one) was complicated for me. Like, I think that kind of incarceration is just wrong in and of itself and so it elicited this weird moment of something like sympathy for her, which in no way means I forgive her for what she\u2019s done. It\u2019s just one of those reminders that it\u2019s ultimately a systemic evil that will sometimes grind up the people operating inside of it and supporting it as much as those being actively persecuted.<\/p>\n

The leopards ate her face, in other words.<\/p>\n

ZZ: <\/strong>Space leopards.<\/p>\n

But I agree, yes, that the Empire is evil and the way it operates (like many real-world countries) is to crush people up to fuel the fires of growth and war. And I think it was very arrogant of her to believe she would be spared. Or maybe she truly bought into the lies that the Empire was good and doing the right thing? Surely, she won\u2019t end up in some horrible place and left to rot forever.<\/p>\n

CP: <\/strong>Yep.<\/p>\n

ZZ: <\/strong>Meanwhile, her boss, after all of these failures and letting the info on the Death Star slip out, realizes what\u2019s coming for him and knows he doesn\u2019t want to be ripped apart by the machine he helped create. And takes an easier way out. <\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> That was the first and only indication we ever got that Nemik\u2019s manifesto is actually spreading around, right, that people are listening to it? That was a cool moment, I thought, where at first we think it\u2019s non-diegetic, just the writers and filmmakers reminding us one last time of Nemik\u2019s stirring words, but then we see, oh, no, Partagaz was actually listening to it, the fire is spreading. It\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n

EG: <\/strong>I loved the scene right outside when the gun shot goes off.<\/p>\n

CP: <\/strong>Yeah, so clear that the guy knew Partagaz wasn\u2019t just taking a moment to \u201ccollect his thoughts,\u201d he knew exactly what was coming.<\/p>\n

ZZ: <\/strong>The slight \u201cstand down\u201d gesture to the troopers.<\/p>\n

EG: <\/strong>I appreciate the minor moments of humanity Andor <\/em>evokes even between the worst people.<\/p>\n

CP: <\/strong>Yeah, they\u2019re essential IMO.<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> It makes them more evil. They are human beings. People with feelings and thoughts. And yet they still do this shit.<\/p>\n

EG:<\/strong> Something also given to Krennic when he and Partagaz wish each other luck at facing Palpatine\u2019s wrath. Unlike the more buffoonish bad guy energy he gives off in Rogue One<\/em>.<\/p>\n

ZZ:<\/strong> Also, very fun to see a character call out the Death Star name. Partagaz thinks its dumb.<\/p>\n