Andor – Welcome to the Rebellion review S2 E9

Welcome to the Rebellion was a very strong follow up to one of the series’ strongest episodes.

The fallout to the Ghorman massacre has been sudden with the Empire fully shifting the narrative to pin the conflict on the Ghormans. To further that effort, Senator Dasi Oran of Ghorman was arrested. As he’s being forcibly led out the senate chambers, he cautions his fellow senators that this will be them soon enough.

Naturally that sight rattles Bail and Mon as they contemplate their next move. The Emperor is too unpredictable as indicated by a listening device in a senator’s chamber. When Mon tells the truth she has to be ready to leave immediately.

Bail can’t go as Yavin isn’t ready yet, but it needs its leadership. For now, he’ll stay behind to keep the Empire stalled in the senate with various bureaucratic policies.

Everything for Welcome to the Rebellion rests on Mon calling out The Emperor’s diabolical actions in the Senate and getting her safely to Yavin.

One surefire way to guarantee that is by having Cassian on the case. Kleya has a new cover for him as a reporter covering the senate hearing.

Cassian really, really means it this time — when the job is done he’s not coming back. He tells Kleya he has to start making his own decisions. Her response is pointedly confused as if she is puzzled that Cassian didn’t get it — “I thought that’s what we were fighting for?”

One of the greatest strengths of Rogue One and Andor has been showing the gritty, grimy dirty work of forming a rebellion capable of defeating a tyrannical monster. Maybe we should be taking notes?

Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and Lando get the glory for destroying The Death Star(s), but it’s the years-long sacrifices of Cassian, Luthen, Bix, Mon, Vel and Saw that made it even remotely possible.

Mon and her aide, Erskin Semaj, were right to be cautious as a listening device was in her senate chambers. Luthen, Kleya or Cassian would have advised against her smashing it. That would prevent the ISB from getting suspicious and she could have fed them bogus information.

While Mon practices her speech outside the chambers, Luthen arrives. It’s clear he’s not as worried about subterfuge as he’s not rocking his goofy wig or getting in character as the flighty art dealer. Luthen knows all about her speech and evacuation plan as Erskin is one of his agents. Mon says she’s starting to be more afraid of Luthen. That’s only because she wasn’t paying attention, but Luthen has always had her best interest at heart.

Welcome to the Rebellion reinforces the notion that two of the neo-Rebellion’s strongest pillars — Luthen and Saw — know their time is nearing an end. Their methods are too extremist to play along nicely with a unified and capably organized Rebel Alliance.

In a way it’s a sad reality that they found the wood, lit the kindling and set in motion so many things to give the Rebellion the spark it needed to defeat the Empire and neither will actually see its downfall.

Luthen isn’t sure about Bail but is convinced that one of the escorts he arranged to get her safely from the Senate chambers cannot be trusted. Feeling incredibly betrayed, Mon fires Erskin, one of the few people she actually should trust at this point.

Cassian and Luthen meet up in what seems like it could likely be their final encounter. Despite everything that’s happened between them, Cassian suggests it’s time for Luthen to come to Yavin as he hasn’t burnt all his bridges yet. Luthen says there will be no Yavin for him.

Saw is outright unhinged, but Luthen’s paranoia has also made him a shaky ally — one who keeps even his closest allies at a 10-foot-pole distance. He’s not worried about Yavin. If Mon gets arrested, it all comes down. Bail has a three-member escort team waiting for Mon once she finishes her speech. It’s clear that one is a traitor, but they’re all being extremely cautious so as not to tip off anything to the Welcome to the Rebellion viewers.

Bail promises to see her next year in Yavin, which we know is a promise he will keep though he too won’t be able to see the fruit of his labors fully played out. Benjamin Bratt gets more to do in Welcome to the Rebellion than his first cameo appearance as Bail and he does a fine job. Still, it was a bit of a bummer that Jimmy Smits, who’s played Bail in movies and in TV shows, couldn’t deliver these crucial moments in the Rebellion.

Cassian takes his spot in the press row and meets up with Erskin. As they head to their destination, more propaganda is spewing against Ghorman in the Senate chambers. Two members of Bail’s escort team go to check on their blasters and the traitor kills the other one.

Bail uses an Imperial senate loophole to give Mon the chance to speak and here it is — the big moment of Welcome to the Rebellion. Last episode was Cassian’s big moment in the lion’s den. This week was Mon’s. Director Janus Metz frames this sequence beautifully as Mon’s pod slowly rises to face the Senate speaker and her peers.

I won’t repeat the entire speech, but here are some of the killer lines: “The loss of an objective reality is dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. 

This chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman plaza. What happened yesterday on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide.
And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we’ve helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine!”

This was a Heck of a Speech. Genevieve O’Reilly has been a quiet MVP of Andor. Mon Mothma has been on the frontlines of a different battleground apart from Cassian, Vel, Luthen and Kleya. It was the battlefield of public opinion, which was steadily influenced and controlled by The Emperor. In Welcome to the Rebellion, Mon Mothma officially declared war on the galaxy’s biggest monster.

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It was fitting that the ISB was finally unable to sway the narrative thanks to some Rebel spies in the chambers who made things difficult for the ISB head to shut down the broadcast. One thing that I’ve not been a fan of with the Disney version of the Empire is how they’re suddenly so diverse. Perhaps it was a nod to old school Star Wars that the Rebel agents were a black woman and a female cyborg.

Once Mon finishes her speech, Cassian is there to tell her he was in the Ghorman plaza and gives her the “I have friends everywhere” code. The ISB agent pulls her gun out intending to arrest Mon, but Cassian kills her thanks to an assist from Erskin.

It’s a subtle thing, but Mon doffing her senatorial robe officially ends her tenure on the Senate. Mon expresses her doubts to Cassian, who responds “Welcome to the rebellion.” That has an interesting double meaning for all the paranoia and doubt that comes with facing off against a seemingly unbeatable giant and the other for Mon no longer being a Rebellion ally, but a major component.

While Mon is rattled, Cassian is steady — he’s done this kind of things a few times. They spot Mon’s Imperial spy driver, Klovis, and Cassian disarms him by saying they found Mon and blasts him to Mon’s shock and horror. Now they’ve got the perfect escape vehicle as Cassian flies off.

Cassian takes Mon to his hideout that he stayed with Bix. Mon isn’t sure how to thank him, and he simply responds with ” make it worth it.” He’s got one more big mission for you yet, Mon.

Kleya mentions that the Rebellion leaders want Mon to come in with a Yavin escort. They want to rewrite the story and give her a more triumphant arrival. Or to line up a little closer with the events in Star Wars Rebels.

With the rescue mission done, Cassian returns to Bix repeating that he’s done. “I’ve done enough. I want to be with you. The only thing special about me is luck and I’ve overplayed my hand.” A self-aware hero is so refreshing. Cassian is doing the smart thing by walking away. He’s seen too many dreams die in the battle against the Empire.

If all he can manage in this world is a happy life with Bix it would be more than enough. Based on Bix’s somber face, this is the one time where Cassian is completely failing to read the room especially as she keeps insisting he drink this special concoction she whipped up for him.

He wakes up and finds a Dear Cass video. “I can’t be the reason you leave here. We have to win. We have to beat them. I’m choosing for the both of us. I’m choosing for the rebellion.”

This might be the toughest moment in Welcome to the Rebellion or the second season or all of Andor. We knew Cassian wasn’t going to ride off into the sunset with Bix, but this is the roughest way for them to end — with her making yet another big sacrifice for the greater good of the galaxy.

Later on, Cassian gets the word that they’ve fixed the KX Imperial security droid unit and managed to reprogram it to lose its aggressive nature. Cassian is ready with blaster in hand aimed at the droid’s head. “I apologize if I’ve offended you. If not, I appreciate you pointing that elsewhere.” And a hearty welcome to the rebellion to you too, K2-S0.

Welcome to the Rebellion made for a powerful one-two punch with Who Are You? showing the full demands that being a rebel means for all of these people ready to stand united to stop the evil Palpatine wants to further spread across the galaxy. This is another to add on the short-list of best Star Wars TV episodes regardless of the format.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

Enjoyed Welcome to the Rebellion? Check out the Andor: The Complete First Season on 4k now on Amazon.

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