The women of 'Andor' see their roles get bigger, and go deeper, in Season 2
Entertainment
The scene would play as comic if it weren’t tragic
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Mon Mothma was first introduced to “Star Wars” fans as the rebel leader who appears only long enough to move the plot forward by delivering battle plans in hushed tones.
But in the last moments of the most recent “Andor” episodes on Disney+ (spoilers for already released episodes ahead) she is a patrician senator who, soaked in high-end space booze and potent emotions, tears up the dance floor to a bass-and-drums rave-up at her daughter’s wedding. The scene would play as comic if it weren’t tragic. None of her fellow revelers know that she has just taken a major step in her rise — or descent — into radicalism by washing her hands of an old friend who may be a threat to the burgeoning Rebel Alliance.
The size of the scene — and its subtleties — shows off the new levels of depth and breadth given to actors Genevieve O’Reilly, Adria Arjona and other central women in the second season of “Andor”; three new episodes drop on Tuesday.
“It’s a techno-galactic dance moment, but it’s also this moment of internal chaos for this woman,” O’Reilly said in an interview with The Associated Press. “She’s tacitly agreed to have her friend murdered. She’s dancing to stop herself from screaming. It’s deeply painful. It is that one moment where we can actually see Mon Mothma wrestle out of this straitjacket and dance with terrified abandon.”
