‘Andor’ Season 2’s Opening Stays One among Its Greatest Moments

There are a lot of great moments throughout Andor season two—there’s motive that the present, considered one of our absolute favorites of final yr, made common appearances all through our supporting celebration of our favorite TV moments of the yr too. However in a collection full of giddy, gut-wrenching highs, it’s straightforward to neglect that it was instantly enchanting from its opening sequence—a full-circle second that turns into even higher with the hindsight of figuring out where Andor ended.

The primary scene of Andor‘s sophomore return in “One Yr Later” introduces us to Niya, a low-level technician at an Imperial take a look at facility on Sienar, the hub of ship manufacturing for the Empire’s navy. After a hurried verify on a prototype TIE Avenger, Niya checks in with the rationale for the season, Cassian himself, who has infiltrated the power along with her inside assist as a brand new take a look at pilot.

It’s a far cry from the place we left Cassian on the finish of the primary season, his eyes decided however slick with tears as he gave Luthen Rael the selection of bringing him into his circle of rebels or taking pictures him the place he stood. Not only for the cool determine Cassian cuts in his purloined pilot gear, however for a way his persona turns all through his dialog with Niya. Initially, he’s the Cassian we all know: that hand hovering proper over his pistol the second he feels somebody passing the room, taciturn, eyes on the prize, strictly going over the small print of the plan. However there’s a second the place he realizes earlier than he says it to her that Niya is petrified. She will’t bear to take a look at him, as a result of that’s what she’s been advised; she will be able to’t bear to take a look at him, as a result of that is the individual she’s trusting the full implosion of her life to.

So when she tells him a part of the duvet is that he’s an keen new take a look at candidate flirting along with her, he chuckles, his face cracking right into a smile—and in flip, Niya’s complete physique cracks. She’s so bowled over, she steals the look she’d been advised, and advised herself, to not steal. She admits that, after which all of it comes tumbling out of her as Cassian attracts nearer and nearer, not intensely however to consolation her: she’s fearful of what she’s doing, she’s scared to acknowledge this the second her complete life adjustments, and she or he’s scared that, ought to she die that evening, she gained’t ever know if she made the correct alternative in riot.

However that’s when Cassian turns into one thing totally different than we’d’ve anticipated. For a second, he’s not the charged blaster bolt able to explode at a second’s discover, and he’s definitely not Luthen: this Cassian Andor is the hero you’d someday think about the Alliance placing on a propaganda poster. It’s not about him; Cassian firmly places all this on Niya’s alternative and her bravery for making it. However he’s relishing the second too, oozing attraction as he waxes lyrical about what Niya is doing—and what he’s attending to do, too. “This makes it price it,” he whispers to her, imploring her to take a look at him once more. “This. Proper now. Being right here the second you step into the circle.”

It’s not a second Cassian was afforded in his personal recruitment, but it surely’s one he’s keen to promote to anybody he meets now that he’s been introduced in, as a result of it makes individuals like Niya able to making the small steps that push the frontiers of the riot ahead, as Nemik once told Cassian himself. It’s the second he will get to be the hope for another person that he needed to forge for himself throughout season one, and it’s as electrifying for him as it’s for Niya and us as an viewers to see. We virtually see Cassian smile extra on this scene than we did all through the complete final season: combating the Empire is all the time going to be price it to him, we all know that, however being the catalyst to another person’s second of riot is simply as exhilarating.

It’s a second of hope that’s re-reflected in that closing sequence of the present, as Bix appears out to the horizon on Mina-Rau along with her youngster, hoping in opposition to hope that Cassian will come again to her, as we all know that his coming sacrifice will give their youngster the hope of a free future. It’s simply as essential that we by no means see Niya once more after that opening scene as it’s that we by no means see Bix’s reaction to Cassian’s death, for comparable causes: what was essential about these journeys was the hope Cassian gave them to maintain going, not the endpoint of wherever they went. The season ends because it started, with a quietness after arcs of sound and fury, however extra importantly, with that message of hope.

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