The following story contains some spoilers for the Andor season 2 finale, “Jedha, Kyber, Erso.”
IT’S VERY INTERESTING—and, really, very fun—that a show as brilliant as Andor is actually the prequel to another prequel. And we already learned, back when Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released in 2016, how directly that film would tie in with the film it was setting up, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. So the question lingered over the entirety of the two seasons of Andor: How would this show tie into Rogue One? We’ve got a little bit of a Star Wars Russian Nesting Doll on our hands.
By the end of Andor season 2, the question was answered pretty clearly and distinctly—and it ties our hero, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) directly into his first scene in Rogue One. Near the end of Andor‘s series finale, titled “Jedha, Kyber, Erso,” Senator Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt) is doubting the information that Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) has gotten to Cassian about the construction of the Death Star. But Draven (Alistair Petrie) reveals that there’s an informant named Tivik on the Rings of Kafrene for a short period of time, who’s been calling and calling and has information to share. Tivik has been with Saw Gerrera’s (Forest Whitaker) group on the planet Jedha, and has information he really wants to share with Cassian.
While Bail tells Cassian “If I die fighting the Empire, I want to go down swinging,” aligning the two men and essentially telling Cassian to go confirm his intel—aligning these two longtime Star Wars heroes.
By the end of the episode, we see Cassian aboard his ship, alongside K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), getting ready to head to the Rings of Kafrene—where we first meet him in Rogue One.
Andor leaves us there; If you watch Rogue One, you’ll see just how much everything really ties together even from the very start.
Stream Andor Here
Who is Tivik, and how does he connect Cassian to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story?
The side of the story we see in Andor actually perfectly sets up Cassian Andor’s very first scene in Rogue One, where we see him meeting with a frantic, paranoid informant named Tivik (Daniel Mays). Tivik has an injured arm, and has clearly both been through a lot and has been made to feel paranoid and nervous about everything by Saw Gerrera, himself a famously paranoid extremist.
But Tivik gives Cassian the information he’d been wanting to hear: A source who works for Galen Erso (a name Luthen had already mentioned, played by Mads Mikkelsen in Rogue One) defected from the Empire, revealing plans for a “planet killer” weapon. This source is actually Bodhi (Riz Ahmed), making this an entirely different source of information than Luthen. Cassian has confirmed the existence of the Death Star.
After this exchange of information. some Stormtroopers show up, and using his spy skills, Cassian easily dispenses them. But with Tivik both injured and paranoid, Cassian is faced with a choice—and he chooses to calm him down before giving him a quick, easy death. After learning from Luthen for five years, Cassian has picked up his “no loose ends” mindset, and doesn’t hesitate to take someone out if they may be a risk, and may jeopardize their ultimate mission. Now, Cassian becomes the only person with the information.
It’s interesting seeing that after Andor season 2, where we see Luthen use a similar strategy with Lonni (Robert Emms). Lonni—a spy for years for Luthen inside the ISB—told Luthen about the Death Star plans, and that both of their covers had been blown. Despite reassuring Lonni of his and his family’s safety, Luthen quickly kills him and leaves him on a bench to tie up loose ends.
It’s a pretty striking parallel among several parallels with Luthen in the final block of episodes. We see how he taught Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau), his surrogate daughter, his ways in the final block of episodes, and we deceptively see the way Cassian (in some ways, his surrogate son) picked up on his methodology all the way back in Rogue One.
Stream Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Here
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
