TV Recap / Review - Davo Sculdun Hosts An Imperial Party in "Andor: A Star Wars Story" Season 2, Episode 6 - "What a Festive Evening"

This evening saw the debut of the second arc’s worth of episodes in season 2 of Lucasfilm’s live-action Disney+ series Andor: A Star Wars Story, and below are my recap and thoughts on the sixth installment.

Andor: A Star Wars Story season 2, episode 6– entitled “What a Festive Evening"-- begins at Port Steergard, where Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) boards Luthen Rael’s (Stellan Skarsgard) Fondor Haulcraft ship, and together they head back to Coruscant. Luthen inquires about Cassian’s assumed identity and the Ghorman front, to which Cassian responds not to get involved. Luthen says he heard it didn’t go very well, and Cassian says they’re rushing: “They’re not ready, Luthen." Cassian tells Luthen the Empire is building an army in the center of Palmo. “They’re finally wanting to do something, and you tell them to be careful?" Luthen accuses, but Cassian fires back with the accusation that Luthen wants unrest to erupt in flames on Ghorman. “It will burn very brightly," says Luthen in response. On Coruscant, Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) answers a call in the back room of Luthen’s antique shop, and Luthen tells her in code that Cassian’s mission was a waste of time. But here’s where we discover that they’ve also sent Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) to Ghorman as a contingency plan.

Cassian arrives back at the safe house on Coruscant, and enters to find his girlfriend Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) waiting for him. The apartment has been cleaned up and Bix has added flowers to the decor. Cassian tells Bix about his fashion-designer identity on Ghorman, and Bix jokes that he should bring that persona home with him at some point. Cassian tells Bix that Ghorman was a waste of time, and Bix tells Cassian that Luthen visited the safe house while he was away. “He knows you need a rest!" Cassian argues. “He doesn’t do anything without a reason." Cassian looks worried, and we cut to the hovercar occupied by Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and Perrin Fertha (Alastair Mackenzie), as they discuss the coming days’ events. Back at the antique shop, Luthen answers the door when Cassian shows up unannounced. “You realize what you’re putting at risk right now?" Luthen demands. “This is the second time today you’ve let me down." Luthen says both Cassian and Bix have disappointed him, and expresses his regret that Cassian didn’t take the Ghorman job. “It would just be easier if I was alone," says Cassian. “You want my blood? You help me work this out."

Cassian storms off, and we cut to the ISB office the next day, where Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser) chats with Supervisor Heert about Dr. Gorst’s success. It seems the torturer’s role has been expanded to other parts of the Galactic Empire., and assigned Heert and Lonnie Jung (Robert Emms) to watch over the program. “Fill me in after you’ve read the brief," says Lonnie to Heert as he walks away. On Ghorman, Vel meets with her on-again-off-again girlfriend Cinta Kaz (Verada Sethu) to talk about the Ghorman Front. They plan the strategy to help the revolutionaries hijack the Imperial shipment of weapons: “If we don’t like it, we walk." Vel also tells Cinta that she only wanted this assignment if Cinta was on it as well. “It’s been a long year," Cinta says. “I had to rest up for quite a while. I had time to think." “I wish I’d known," responds Vel. “I thought about you," says Cinta. At the ISB headquarters, Partagaz grills Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) about the situation on Ghorman, and tells her that Syril must never know “what this is really all about."

Vel and Cinta meet with the Ghorman Front and begin to execute the plan to hijack the transport, using a miniature model of Palmo to make the final plans. They come up with exit plans and give further orders, though the members of the Front are hesitant to follow them. They’re given a tour of the city’s underground tunnels and tell the Front members that they need to respect the chain of command: “We do not go unless everyone here agrees to do exactly what they are told." They set the date for the operation for the following night. On Coruscant, Bix continues to take the liquid drugs while Cassian sleeps, and he awakens to find her missing from their bed. When he goes out into the living area, Bix tells him that Luthen’s signal light is flashing and demands that she join him on whatever the mission is. “You’ll come with me," Cassian assures her. Next we see Vel and Cinta discussing the prospects of the Ghorman Front’s mission, and Cinta apologizes for hurting Vel: “I was confused. I don’t know who I am sometimes." They say they will have to tell Luthen that they work better together than separately, and then they embrace and kiss each other passionately.

On Coruscant, a session is held in the Imperial Senate building, but Mon Mothma has trouble reciting the pledge, and then we cut to Luthen as he and Kleya are picked up to attend Davo Sculdun’s party. Mon and Perrin arrive there as well, and on their way in they encounter Senator Bail Organa (Benjamin Bratt, in a surprise recasting of the role previously played by actor Jimmy Smits), who expresses relief that he is able to leave the party early. At the ISB office, Partagaz evacuates the control center except for Dedra and himself, and then we cut back to the party, where Mon and Perrin begin to mingle. On Ghorman, the Front operatives kick into action, while on Coruscant their activities are monitored by the ISB. Cinta hands Vel a blaster and tells her to be careful, while at the party Luthen talks antiquities with other guests and Kleya learns more about the reappraisals of Sculdun’s collection from Mishko (Mia Soteriou). Nearby Supervisors Heert and Lonnie make a toast, and then we’re back on Ghorman as the Imperial transport rumbles past the Front members and our heroes. They set explosives on the road while Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) watches from a distance. At the party, Mon Mothma and Luthen Rael reconnect, and Mon expresses concern about her cousin Vel.

Perrin interrupts to bring Mon and Luthen into Sculdun’s gallery, and Kleya does the same with Lonnie, pretending to flirt with him as she drags him into the gathering. Inside the gallery, Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane) gives a tour of his collection and introduces Luthen to Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). Mon Mothma trades barbs with Krennic, while in the background Kleya brings Lonnie over to the piece that contains the listening device. On Ghorman, the Front springs their attack on the transport, which crashes into a wall after the explosives go off. Then an ion charge is used to deactivate the vessel’s containment barriers. On Coruscant, Kleya tells Lonnie to block the view of what she’s doing while she attempts to retrieve the device from the base of the art piece, while on Ghorman the Front steals the Imperial weaponry, sending crates down into the sewer system. The tension builds as both plans progress, but Vel tells the Front members not to rush while Kleya hits a snag when her key gets stuck.

Krennic decries “lawless ineptitude" on the other side of the room while Mon grimaces, and on Ghorman the heist is briefly interrupted by a woman carrying groceries home late at night. “My rebel is your terrorist," Krennic remarks to Mon Mothma when she defends civilizations who have resisted Imperial rule. As the final crates are unloaded from the Imperial transport on Ghorman, Kleya’s hand begins to bleed from turning the key too hard at the party on Coruscant. The Ghorman Front members executing the heist are then confronted by a member who did not participate, and the struggle erupts in a stray blaster shot that kills Cinta in the street. Syril hears the blaster shot and reports it to Partagaz, who tells him to call in the Imperial response teal. The Front members have to drag Vel away from the scene of the killing, but they do take Cinta’s body with them as they flee the scene. At the party, Sculdun’s group finally reaches the codex, and Lonnie is forced to repeat the information that Kleya gave him about the piece as a cover story.

An alarm blares on Ghorman as the Front members load Cinta’s lifeless body into their own truck, and Syril breathes heavily, having watched the incident unfold from a nearby rooftop. Samm (Abraham Wapler) cries on the journey away from the scene, and Vel calls him out on it: “This is on you now. This is like skin. You’re taking her with you wherever you go for the rest of your useless life. She was a warrior. She was everything that you have daydreamed about. Her loss will be mourned in ways that you will never understand. She was a miracle. Don’t you dare cry. You’ll make up for this forever." On Coruscant, Luthen and Kleya leave the party, pleased that Kleya was able to successfully retrieve the listening device, and Luthen jokes that they should have killed Krennic while they were up there. Elsewhere on Coruscant, the real Dr. Gorst (Joshua James)-- not Bix’s nightmare hallucinations– returns to his office and is immediately held at blaster point by Bix. “It will only feel like forever," Bix says as she straps him into his own equipment and turns on the torture device that has haunted her since last season.

Then we cut to the exterior of this Imperial complex, where Bix shoots another officer as she exits. She then meets up with Cassian outside and they both walk away calmly as Cassian presses the trigger on a detonator, blowing up the building where Dr. Gorst worked. And that marks the end of this episode and this week’s arc, with the final of the three installments being the strongest, in my opinion, though the Luthen / Kleya subplot still feels flimsy to me. I suppose that Bix and Cassian took it upon themselves to kill Dr. Gorst, as I can’t imagine that Luthen would order such a thing, and in a weird way that makes Bix’s arc in these episodes the acceptance that in war, some people just have to die. (EDIT: Having watched this arc again, I now understand that it was indeed Luthen who gave Gorst’s location to Bix and Cassian as a sort of personal favor. In fact I want to add that these three episodes all played much better for me upon multiple viewings, as there were a lot of little things that just didn’t add up in my brain the first time through. That’s on me and having crammed too many episodes in a row when the screeners first came in.) I think that makes sense in the context of what we’ve seen so far and how Bix needed to put her own demons to rest before she could move on. It’s also interesting that Vel’s willingness to follow Luthen’s orders is ultimately what got Cinta killed, so I wonder if that repercussion will come into play as the season goes on.

The first six episodes of Andor: A Star Wars Story season 2 are now available to stream, exclusively via Disney+.