Each successive flashback shows Kleya growing up by Luthen’s side, as he built his antiques business and started weaving together a network of connections. She often posed as his daughter — although privately, he stubbornly refused to claim her as family. The episode concludes with the young Kleya witnessing Luthen putting theory into action by setting off a bomb near imperial troops. Meanwhile, in the present day, the older Kleya gives Luthen a kiss and unplugs his life support. It’s a sweet moment.
The episode that follows is just as exciting and also laced with welcome sentimentality. (Nothing wrong with bringing a little warmth to a series as it draws to a close.) This story involves Cassian rescuing Kleya, whether or not she wants him to.
Once again, strictly as a piece of action-adventure television, this episode is top-shelf. “Rogue One” fans who have been hoping to spend some time with the deadpan, droll K-2SO get their wish here, as the droid joins Cassian while keeping count throughout of all the Rebel Alliance protocols they are defying. (In a wistful moment, K remembers its past, recalling appearing in a parade on Coruscant. “The Emperor was there,” it says, as if pining for a less scrappy life.) There is plenty of derring-do here too, as Cassian races to beat ISB to that familiar apartment Luthen kept as a safe house.
As the chase proceeds, we check in one last time with Dedra, who staked her whole career on bringing in Luthen and unraveling the Rebel Alliance. The mess at the hospital and the revelation that Lonni had access to her files has sunk her. She has a humiliating meeting with Krennic, where he pokes and squeezes her head (why must so many people manhandle Dedra?) and has her arrested for all the information she scavenged about the Death Star. “Andor” has always been about the minor players in a revolution. That included Syril and Dedra — two now-discarded gears from the imperial machine.
Extracting Kleya from the safe house leads to multiple narrow escapes and a literal deus ex machina as K arrives to save the day, casually swatting away all imperial impediments. As the tension builds, Kleya expresses skepticism about leaving with Cassian, who she feels abandoned Luthen. But Cassian stands by his choice to join the Rebel Alliance, saying, “No one can do this alone.” His team speeds an injured and embittered Kleya off Coruscant and to Yavin 4, which Cassian considers a proper place for “a hero” to rest.
The rescue mission carries over to the final episode, which, big escape aside, feels a little anticlimactic as the series’s creator Tony Gilroy replaces gunfights and chases with committee meetings. In terms of Gilroy’s filmmaking career, this finale is more “Michael Clayton” than “The Bourne Legacy.”
