In the latest block of Andor episodes directed by Ariel Kleiman (Top of the Lake) and written by Beau Willimon (who also penned Season 1’s Narkina 5 arc), the narrative primarily revolves around Ghorman. These episodes take us into the formation of Ghorman’s citizen-led (but Imperial nudged) underground resistance. In the periphery, Bix (Adria Arjona) is in a safe house on Coruscant suffering from her ongoing nightmares which are taking a toll on her life with Cassian (Diego Luna) and her ability to go on missions with or without him for Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård). And what underpins all the stories is that a starker picture is becoming more clear about Luthen’s dedication to the cause. His tireless Rebellion building pursuits don’t take the needs of his most trusted collaborators, from Bix and Cassian to Vel (Faye Marsay) and Cinta (Varada Sethu), and even Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), into account, and it’s causing frayed relationships.
To get some insight into the big moves happening in “I Have Friends Everywhere” and “What a Festive Evening,” we circled up with Andor executive producer and episodic editor John Gilroyfor our latest Paste exclusive Andor Season 2 post mortem.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Paste: In “I Have Friends Everywhere,” we get to see Cassian assume an identity, Varian Sky, for an assessment mission on Ghorman to see how this planet is organizing their rebellion.
John Gilroy: With “I Have Friends Everywhere,” we’re exploring Cassian as a spy. He’s assuming another role, but doesn’t have a gun in his hand. It’s old school, Mission Impossible, like [even] in telling him his mission which was just fun to do. Also, setting up the whole device that becomes very important, the fractal radio. We really make a lot of that. It was fun to figure out how that all worked, and it becomes an important thing that we go back to several times in the show.
Paste: The episode also lets us see how Syril has grown and integrated with the resistance as an Imperial mole.
Gilroy: We get to see in four, five and six, Syril is newly away from his mom. He’s the boss, and look at him! That’s a lot of fun. Also, we really get to know our Ghormans. The [crew] just did so much world building with the architecture of the city and with the cast.
I was always impressed with, literally, the language that they invented. It really is a language. You could speak it. I can barely speak English but they all really responded, all the French speaking actors.
Paste: I knew it sounded like French but wasn’t. Many of the Ghorman resistance cast members are French so did they take to it easily?
Gilroy: It was something that they understood and can very fluidly speak as they got their lines. I remember, sometimes we add a line or whatever, and usually I write that out and then mock it into [the edit]. But I had to get these lines translated and they’ll give you the written translations. Reading French is hard for an English speaker because all the rules are out the window. But you give these lines to the actors, it’s like they’re reading the newspaper. They were like, “Oh, yeah. I get it.”
Paste: I was taken by the conversation between Cassian’s Varian and the hotel bellhop who explained his experience with the Empire in Ghorman. When you get a sequence like that, do you just let it unfold to get maximum impact?
Gilroy: You’re looking for the best performances. Good editors are good listeners, and you’re just listening. When you put something together and you’re moved by it, you’re probably going to be moving the audience. The actors knew what they were doing, and they were beautifully staged. Of course, you’re seeing the wonderful city through every window and all that the attention to detail around it. You’re planting that seed of watching other people become rebels.
Paste: Going back to Rogue One, Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) has always been an enigmatic figure behind the Partisans. In “I Have Friends Everywhere,” we finally get to hear in Saw’s own words his horrific childhood and what broke him as he works with Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier). How was it getting to piece together more of his story?
Gilroy: Saw is a wild character. You get to see him in his operation. They’re a pirate crew, but it does work. He’s got his ships and he’s a warlord. He does what he does. It’s really nice to see him interacting with Wilmon. I think their scenes are really good together. He’s the youngest rebel. Saw is basically as responsible for radicalizing him as anybody. He’s inspired by Saw. Who knew that Saw was going to be a role model?
Paste: Much like “Harvest,” you end another block of episodes with a complex episode that crosscuts between that Coruscant party where Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) is rebelling right under Krennic’s (Ben Mendelsohn) nose, while the Ghormans are trying to pull off their first Imperial theft that ends in tragedy. How did that come together?
Gilroy: It was another complicated but fun episode to put together. There’s the party and the visuals of Coruscant and coming to Davo Sculdun’s house, this crazy billionaire warlord’s house. The party was a trickier balance as you’re cutting that against the heist, which goes pretty well except for the very end. Hopefully, you don’t see that coming. We lose one of our major characters.
Paste: Losing Cinta over a rookie mistake was a gut punch.
Gilroy: The other thing about four, five and six is we explore the love story between Vel and Cinta. It’s really heartbreaking. Luthen has been keeping them apart, but they’re going to get back together, and then that happens.
Paste: At least we get Bix reclaiming her life by exacting revenge against Doctor Gorst (Joshua James) which ends with an all-timer power walk away from the ISB.
Gilroy: It’s a tidy bit of writing and it was executed very efficiently. It was important to do because the next time we see Bix, she can’t just always be waking up in a cold sweat and addicted to drugs. She’s one of our heroes. The only time we’ve really seen Gorst in Season 2 is in these nightmares. Ari [Kleiman] set that up the first time you see him walking toward you [in “One Year Later”], that feels like a nightmare. The idea here was, you think you’re in a dream, and then you’re not in a dream. It’s real. And what better itch to scratch than to off Dr. Gorst with his own tools? I love what Adria does at the end, because she doesn’t overdo it. But if you look at the very end, she has just the slightest little smile. It’s like, “I feel better now.”
Andor Season 2 releases three new episodes every Tuesday on Disney+ through May 13.
Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, NBC Insider, IGN and more. She’s also written official books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios, Avatar: The Way of Water and the latest, The Art of Ryan Meinerding. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett, Bluesky @tarabennett.bsky.social, or Instagram@TaraDBen,
