Main cast: Diego Luna (Cassian Andor), Stellan Skarsgård (Luthen Rael), Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma), Denise Gough (Dedra Meero), Adria Arjona (Bix Caleen), Faye Marsay (Vel Sartha), Elizabeth Dulau (Kleya Marki), Alastair Mackenzie (Perrin Fertha), Joplin Sibtain (Brasso), Muhannad Bhaier (Wilmon), Anton Lesser (Major Lio Partagaz), Ben Miles (Tay Kolma), Richard Dillane (Davo Sculdun), Sam Gilroy (Gerdis), Benjamin Norris (Bardi), and Ben Mendelsohn (Director Orson Krennic)
Director: Ariel Kleiman

Well folks, here we are again. The second season of Andor has crash-landed onto Disney+, and much like an ex showing up at the wedding, it’s a mix of mild curiosity, deep discomfort, and the nagging thought: “Didn’t we deal with this already?”

Before we begin, full disclosure: Mrs Giggles who reviewed the last season broke her leg, a tragic accident that, conveniently, means she no longer has to sit through this intergalactic TED Talk about fascism, daddy issues, and really boring space politics. But worry not, dear reader — I, a person with two functioning legs and zero emotional investment in Star Wars, have valiantly stepped up to the plate.

Well, what is this episode about, this time?

As the title One Year Later subtly hints, it’s been a year since the events of season 1’s finale, or as I like to call it, That Thing Where Nothing Really Happened but It Took Twelve Episodes to Not Happen.

The episode divides its attention between three plot threads so frantically it feels like watching a particularly anxious TikTok compilation:

• Cassian Andor, Human Wallpaper, has stolen an experimental TIE Avenger, giving us those obligatory pew-pew-chasey-spacey scenes we’ve been contractually obligated to endure since 1977. At this point, it’s less edge of your seat and more where’s the fast forward button. I swear, with all the changes Lucasfilm’s made to Star Wars in the past decade, you’d think updating the damn action scenes might’ve made the list.
• Bix Caleen and Friends: Photogenic Exiles Edition. Disney couldn’t resist squeezing in a clunky political allegory—illegal immigrants hiding out on some rustic farm planet while looking like they just stepped out of a Space Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. Subtle as a brick to the face, and about as nuanced. Honestly, you could swap them out for Care Bears, and it’d still play the same.
• Mon Mothma’s family drama, because apparently, we asked for this. Our favorite galactic senator with the personality of wet bread is planning a wedding for her daughter on Chandrila, and if you care about this plotline, you are either a completionist or a masochist. Either way, bless you.

Enter Ben Mandehlson as Director Orson Fennic. He scowls. He plots. He does that thing where he looks like he’s smelling something unpleasant but it’s actually just his own evil intentions. Good for him. He’s here to deliver sinister lines with the sort of overacted glee that makes you wonder if he got lost on the way to a pantomime audition.

Meanwhile, the episode’s editing is so haphazard it feels like someone loaded the footage into iMovie and just hit shuffle. Scenes whiplash from one to the next with no room to breathe, no context, and barely a clue who half these people are anymore. It’s like attending a family reunion for a family you barely remember from one awkward holiday dinner in 2022.

And the dialogue? Less conversation, more exposition monologues delivered with all the warmth of a tax audit. It’s like the writers bought a book called Screenwriting for Dummies and ignored chapters 3 through 14.

For what it’s worth, if you adored the first season’s glacial pace, overlong broody stares, and enough beige costuming to trigger PTSD in 1970s office workers, this one’s for you. It’s exactly the same. Same characters, same set pieces, same brooding, same everything.

For the rest of us, best stock up on alcohol and sardonic Twitter X commentary, because it could be another long, slow, soul-draining season.