TV Recap / Review - A Distress Call Is Sent and Responded To in "Andor: A Star Wars Story" Season 2, Episode 11 - "Who Else Knows?"

Today saw the release of the final arc’s worth of episodes in Lucasfilm’s live-action Disney+ series Andor: A Star Wars Story, and below are my recap and thoughts on the penultimate installment.

Andor season 2, episode 11– entitled “Who Else Knows?"-- begins in the hospital on Coruscant, where Supervisor Heert (Jacob James Beswick) inspects the body of a dead stormtrooper, investigating the incident in which Luthen Rael was killed by his assistant Kleya Marki. Dr. Recklaw (Timothy Bentinck), the medical director of the hospital, confronts Heert about the Empire’s intrusion into the building, but after threatening him with interrogation Heert demands the hospital’s security logs. Speaking of interrogation, we then cut to Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) in the same ISB holding cell where she kept Syril Karn in the previous season. Suddenly Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) enters and starts barking questions at Dedra. “What single thing would drag me to this forsaken basement? Say it. Say the word." “Death Star," responds Dedra. “Who else knows? I want the names I don’t know," demands Krennic. “You should talk to Heert about Jung," says Dedra, and Krennic tells her that Lonni had access to her computer files. “Who told you about Galen Erso?" Krennic asks. Dedra explains that intel was accidentally forwarded to her desk, which feels more accidentally timely than should be possible.

Krennic implies that Lonni told Luthen about the Death Star, while Dedra attempts to defend herself and explains how she tracked down Luthen and identified him as Axis, the organizer of the Rebel Alliance. But Krennic isn’t having it, and he berates Dedra for confronting Luthen Rael on her own. “Whatever Jung told Rael, she knows too," Dedra tells Krennic about Kleya, and he physically manhandles her before storming off. “We’ll do our best to carry on without you." Then we’re back in the hospital as Heert visits the security tech (Alexander Own) who guides them through some of the footage he captured from the incident. Then we cut to the safe house, where Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) is chiseling into a wall, and from the opening there she retrieves a device wrapped in cloth, which she plugs in and activates. Meanwhile Heert continues to pore through the security footage, eventually deducing that Kleya acted alone in infiltrating the hospital. At the safe house, Kleya manages to send a message out in code, requesting assistance.

We dissolve to the fourth moon of Yavin at nighttime, where rebel forces make themselves busy repairing ships and so forth. In the woods, Wilmon’s (Muhannad Bhaier) girlfriend Dreena (Ella Pellegrini) tells him that a radio under his bed started going off, and he begins to panic. In another hut nearby, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) plays a dominoes-like game with Melshi (Duncan Pow) and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk). Melshi places a large bid and K-2SO tries to decipher the strategy. “This is your last chance to recall your wager," says K, when Wilmon enters carrying the radio device. At ISB headquarters on Coruscant, Heert presents Major Partagaz (Anton Lesser) and Director Krennic with a hologram image of Kleya Marki. Krennic orders Heert to find Kleya using any means necessary. Heert asks what the charge is, and Partagaz comes up with a cover story that Marki is diseased and spreading a deadly virus. When Heert leaves, Krennic reads Partagaz the riot act. “We were moments away. Days!" “Save it for Palpatine," Partagaz replies. “Best of luck to us both."

At the safe house, Kleya waits to receive a signal back from her distress call, while on Yavin IV K-2SO explains the restriction on unauthorized off-planet communication. Cassian explains that they have to keep this message secret from everyone, and asks if the U-wing is powered up. Wilmon asks what will happen if it’s a trap, but Cassian heads out anyway in pursuit of the signal. Inside the base, General Draven (Alistair Petrie) demands to know where the U-wing is headed, but it’s already out in orbit over the moon, and Cassian sends the ship into hyperdrive with K-2SO and Melshi aboard. On Coruscant, Heert visits Dedra in her new cell, and she figures out that Luthen Rael is dead. With Kleya on the run, Dedra says, “It’s all on you now. I’m sure there’s an open cell down here for you." Heert asks Dedra for advice. “She’s too smart to go where they’re looking," he says. “Where would she go?" “She’ll need to reach out," Dedra responds. “Pull the old Axis files." She tells Heert about an old radio system they found when they busted Anto Kreegyr’s rebel cell.

On Yavin IV, Draven digs into Wilmon about Cassian breaking protocol once again. “None of this would be here without Luthen," Wilmon responds, but Draven confines him to quarters until further notice. At Luthen’s gallery, Heert talks to a technician attending to the communication device, who explains that it actually used Imperial broadcast power to send its signal. On the U-wing, Cassian and K-2SO set the coordinates to the safe house. “I’ve been to Coruscant," says K. “I was in a parade there once. The emperor was there." “Sorry I missed that," comments Cassian. In the safe house, Kleya awaits her rescue and then finally gets a signal in response, but at the antique shop the ISB agents just happen to be monitoring at the exact right time to hear the code being sent back and forth. The U-wing enters the atmosphere and Heert reports to Partagaz that they’ve found “a promising location" to track down Kleya. We see the U-wing land outside the safe house, and Cassian points out to Melshi where the apartment is in the complex. At the same time, Imperial troops are flying to the same location on a drop ship. Heert is given armor and briefed on the mission while Partagaz listens in from HQ.

Cassian and Melshi enter the building while K-2SO declares “I don’t like it here" from the U-wing cockpit. The Imperial drop ship swoops in, and K notices a change in the signal he’s tuned into. He’s lost contact with Cassian as he and Melshi board the elevator, and the Imperial shuttle lands outside. Cassian and Melshi cautiously walk down the hallway toward the safe house apartment, and Cassian notes that “it’s been a while," observing that the building has fallen into disrepair. We see Kleya’s reaction as they knock on the door, and outside the Imperial troops begin to storm the building. Cassian uses a secret knock and calls for Luthen inside, but is surprised when Kleya opens the door by herself. “It would be you, wouldn’t it?" she asks. Kleya tells Cassian about the Death Star and the Imperial disinformation campaign. “And you’re sure Luthen’s dead?" Cassian asks. Kleya makes Cassian repeat the name Galen Erso and other details of the intel. “Luthen died for this," she declares. Cassian tells Kleya to come back with them to Yavin, but she doesn’t want to because of “what they think of Luthen." “I’m not leaving you here," Cassian responds.

The Imperial troops make their way down the hallway to the safe house, and we see the ISB monitoring as a trooper outside asks if they requested an enforcement droid. Then K-2SO busts his way into the Imperial shuttle, and we cut back into the safe house, where Cassian is trying to convince Kleya to go to Yavin. One story below, Heert detects Kleya’s radio signal and orders his troops upstairs. “He stayed for what I just told you– to figure this out. And you need to tell these people on Yavin what they’re up against. You owe him that," Kleya tells Cassian, and we cut to credits as the troops approach the door to the safe house. That’s our cliffhanger ending for this penultimate episode of Andor, and it’s another really solid one, though a lot of it is just getting all the pieces where they need to be for the finale. It’s great to see K-2SO in action again, but also bittersweet because I know we only have one episode left to spend with him and Cassian on adventures together. The very small amount of screentime for K is absolutely my biggest critique about season 2 and probably Andor as a whole, but my guess is that showrunner Tony Gilroy believes a little of the character goes a long way, considering he provides more comic relief than we’ve gotten used to in this show. Hopefully he (and Alan Tudyk, as his talented performer) gets some time to really shine in the finale.

The complete second season of Andor: A Star Wars Story is now available to stream, exclusively on Disney+.