In the season finale of Andor, with Maarva’s funeral rapidly approaching, an array of familiar faces all converge on Ferrix in hopeful anticipation of the potential return of the prodigal son — Cassian Andor. What begins as a somber, mournful service quickly unravels into an explosive, emotional, action-packed event.
Converging on Ferrix
Dedra, Luthen, Vel, Cinta, and Syril are all on Ferrix, each of them keeping their eyes peeled for Cassian. While Luthen, Vel, and Cinta all want him dead because he’s a liability to the Rebels, Syril seeks out revenge, and Dedra plans to take him in for questioning.
Cinta is initially concerned that they will need to get their hands on Cassian before the Imperial Security Bureau takes him in for questioning, but Luthen assures Vel that it’s fine. They can let the ISB do the hunting for them, and then they’ll know exactly where to find Cassian in order to kill him once he’s in their custody.
The missing money
Taking advantage of the fact that she knows her driver is a spy, Mon Mothma puts a plan into action when Perrin slides into the back of their transport. After asking Kloris for privacy (which she knows is a lie), she begins to accuse Perrin of gambling again. Though he denies it, she goes on, telling him that if he’s going to do so, he must go to Canto Bight to do it. He shouldn’t be gambling on Coruscant.
Later, Kloris reports this conversation to Blevin, who surmises that this could indeed explain the family’s recent odd banking moves (thus giving Mon the cover that she needs for the missing money). Blevin is then pulled from the room to hear about the successful obstruction of the raid on Spellhaus. Dedra is angry when Partagaz tells her there were no prisoners taken alive.
In the last we see of Mon in this chapter, her daughter, Leida, is introduced to Davo Sculdun’s son after all.
Cassian’s Return
To nobody’s surprise, Cassian does indeed make his fated return to Ferrix late in the night, at which point we see a touching memory of him as a child with Clem. Cassian runs into Pegla, and he’s baffled to learn that they’re selling the shop. He asks where Bix is. Later, he sits listening to Nemik’s manifesto (and perhaps now, finally, those words have begun to mean something more to this previously disillusioned man).
Cassian meets up with Brasso in secret, and though he’s upset and full of regret because he was fighting with Maarva the last time that he saw her, Brasso shares a moving message from her with him.
“Tell him none of of this is his fault. It was already burning. He’s just the first spark of the fire. Tell him he knows everything he needs to know and feels everything he needs to feel. And when the day comes, and those two pull together, he will be an unstoppable force for good. Tell him I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong.”
The funeral
The morning of the funeral, Tigo ensures Dedra that all of the measures she’s requested have been followed — they’re loosened air traffic, pulled back patrols, and relaxed their curfew. They’ve set a trap for Cassian. As they start to tell her about where they’ll have units stationed during the funeral, Dedra makes it extremely clear that she wants Cassian taken alive.
Despite the specific measures that the Empire has put in place for the funeral, which includes a restriction on the amount of attendees, the town has other plans. As the anvil begins to clang from high above, a marching band plays a poignant tune as they march through the streets, which are filled with an array on onlookers. A crowd follows behind, and Tigo is furious that so many people are in attendance. He demands that the troopers disperse the crowd and set a strict perimeter. Cassian watches this unfold from a discreet hiding spot, and he also notices that Luthen is there. Bix, who has seen far better days, listens to the music from the room that she’s imprisoned in.
Maarva’s message
The crowd watches as Brasso carries Maarva’s stone, and then B2EMO rolls over and projects a hologram that Maarva recorded for Ferrix before she passed. The message is less of a sad goodbye and more of a deeply inspiring sentiment to rally the people of Ferrix to do what they were meant to do, what the whole galaxy must do if they want to escape from the clutches of the Empire for good — rebel.
“I’ve been turning away from the truth I wanted not to face. There is a wound that won’t heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow, and now it’s here. It’s here, and it’s not visiting anymore. It wants to stay. The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness; it is never more alive than when we sleep. It’s easy for the dead to tell you to fight, and maybe it’s true, maybe fighting is useless. Perhaps it’s too late. But I’ll tell you this, if I could do it again, I’d wake up early and be fighting these bastards from the start. Fight the Empire!”
And so the riot begins
The crowd erupts into a riot following the end of Maarva’s message, a situation which quickly escalates once Wilmon throws the explosive device that he was shown building earlier in the episode toward the troopers. It sets off an entire series of explosions, shrouding the streets in smoke. Cinta kills Corv in a quiet alleyway in the midst of the chaos, and Syril narrowly manages to save a frantic, terrified Dedra from the crowd.
Meanwhile, Cassian finds Bix, but she’s not at all herself. Dazed and scared, she initially doesn’t want to leave with him, because she’s afraid the Empire will be angry if she escapes. Cassian manages to get her onto a ship with Brasso, Jezz, Wilmon, and B2EMO, but unfortunately, he’s not coming with them. He has something else he needs to do.
The beginning of the next chapter
Luthen escapes from the clamor in town and makes his way back to his ship, but once he boards, he realizes that he’s not alone — Cassian is standing there waiting for him. Cassian accuses Luthen of coming to Ferrix to kill him, which he doesn’t deny, so he says he’s standing there now to make it easy for him. He can either kill him or take him in. Luthen stares down at the blaster in his hands for a moment before looking back up at Cassian with a smile.
This episode also contains a post-credits scene, which we dove into here.
The entire first season of Andor is now streaming exclusively on Disney+. Catch up on all of our episodic recaps here. The second and final season of Andor is currently in production.
