Andor Season 2 came to a close last night, answering long-lingering questions about how Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the Rebel Alliance found themselves tracking down the Death Star plans in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in the first place. The final three episodes of the Disney+ show also revealed what happens to Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), and — most poignantly — Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and “assistant” Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau).
In fact, Andor Season 2 Episode 10 “Make It Stop” finally delves into what the heck has been going on with Luthen and his mysterious right hand woman from the beginning. Through flashbacks, we see how the two met and created the foundation of what would become the rebellion.
The episode is a gorgeous inversion of most lone wolf and cub narratives, placing Kleya in the “dominant” position, per Andor creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy. Maybe more pertinent to Andor fans, however, was the fact that Gilroy brushed off fan theories that Kleya was related to anyone else we know in the Star Wars universe…
**Spoilers for Andor Season 2 Episode 10 “Make It Stop,” now streaming on Disney+**
Andor Season 2 Episode 10 “Make It Stop” deals with the final hours of Luthen Rael’s life. After long-time ISB mole Lonni Jung (Robert Emms) tells Luthen about the Empire’s Death Star plans, the Rebel leader kills the loyal informant and prepares to go on the run with Kleya. Luthen takes the riskier gig going back to their antiques shop to destroy their complex comms set up, only for Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) to arrive.
Dedra triumphantly believes she has won. She has cornered “AXIS” after all these years. However, Luthen stabs himself with an antique dagger, his intention to die by suicide rather than give up intel to the Empire. Dedra moves him to a hospital to keep him on life support in the hopes she can still shake him down.
What the Empire isn’t betting on is Kleya. The loyal young woman stages a one-man mission, infiltrating the hospital and making her way to Luthen’s bed to take him off life support. While she expertly moves level by level through the hospital, we get flashbacks to how the unlikely duo met in the first place. Luthen, once known as “Sergeant Lear” was an Imperial officer shellshocked by the casual intergalactic genocide he was committing on orders. When he finds young Kleya (April V. Woods) as a stowaway on the same Imperial craft he’s sheltering in, he finds the courage to go AWOL to save her.
When DECIDER spoke over the phone with Andor creator Tony Gilroy last week, we asked why he waited this long to clarify Luthen and Kleya’s relationship. “It really wanted to be here because of what has to happen at the end of [Episode] 10, and I couldn’t push that any sooner,” he said.
“I think the big decision was, would that whole episode be standalone or would it be integrated with some other story points?” he said. “And then, you know, the other big question mark is can we find a young Kleya who can deliver what is really a very complicated, very complicated idea?”
According to Gilroy, it was important to reveal that this whole time, Luthen has not been the one in charge of the Rebellion. It’s always been Kleya.
“The young girl is actually the dominant one. She’s actually in control. Luthen’s not in control. Otherwise, it runs some risks, that you can imagine, of manipulation,” Gilroy said. “You really had to find and design those scenes really carefully and then find a girl who could really believably bring the steel that older Kleya has.”
After their escape, we see how Kleya not only is the strong, better negotiator for the duo’s fledgling antiques business, but the more ardent revolutionary. Luthen’s mentorship is less about the mechanics of murder, than the mental awareness that everything they’re doing has a cost, and Kleya always has a choice.
While Andor Season 2 Episode 10 explores the complex relationship forged between Luthen and Kleya, it doesn’t address several prominent fan theories that emerged over the past three years. When DECIDER asked Gilroy if he was relieved to finally confirm that Kleya is not an undercover Princess Leia, he chuckled and brought up another false theory.
“No, I mean, I just got off an interview with someone wondering if we’d ever thought of having her be Cassian’s sister. You know what I mean? It’s like, no, I never, no. It would’ve been inappropriate to do it,” Gilroy said.
So what did happen to Cassian’s long-lost sister? The person he was searching for on Morlana One all the way back in the cold open of Andor Season 1? Andor never confirms Kassa’s sister’s fate, but strongly hints that it’s tragic. After all, all of the other children of Kenari either perished or, if they got out, found themselves trapped in the sex trade. (Which is why Cassian was skulking around a brothel in the first place; he was hoping that the one Kenari girl spotted in the place weeks prior might have been his sister.)
As far as we know Cassian was the only kid on Kenari lucky enough to get out. He was lucky enough to be adopted by a loving mother like Maarva (Fiona Shaw) and raised to be resourceful, rebellious, even. Cassian was the one destined to be a “messenger,” which is one of the major themes of Andor as a whole.