‘Andor’ Season 2 Finally Answers ‘Star Wars’ Fans’ Biggest Question

Note: This article contains spoilers from “Andor” Season 2, Episodes 10-12.

Ever since he was introduced in “Andor” Season 1 as one of the rebellion’s key founders, “Star Wars” fans have wondered what the ultimate fate of Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) would be. There was no way, surely, that he could have lived through the events of the Original Trilogy, in which the Rebel Alliance mounts its war against the Galactic Empire, without ever being mentioned or shown.

To “Star Wars” fans, that seeming impossibility meant all along that it was unlikely Luthen would make it to the end of “Andor” alive. Those fans are proven correct in “Andor” Season 2, Episode 10, which says the goodbye to Luthen that both he and viewers long ago accepted was inevitable. The good news? Even when he finds himself completely cornered, Luthen still manages to go out on his own terms in “Andor.”

How does Luthen die in “Andor” Season 2?

At the start of “Andor” Season 2, Episode 10, Luthen receives an urgent message from his ISB mole, Lonni Jung (Robert Emms), who informs him on the promise of protection for him and his family that he has discovered by looking through Dedra Meero’s (Denise Gough) personal work files that the Empire’s oft-touted energy program is a lie designed to cover-up the construction of the Death Star. When Luthen learns this, he kills Lonni and makes a plan with his assistant Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) to destroy all evidence of their rebel operation, escape Coruscant and inform the Rebel Alliance what they’ve learned.

Before Luthen can fully go through with his plan, he is surprised at his antiquities shop by Dedra herself, who interrupts him while he is in the midst of destroying his store’s secret rebel communications console. Dedra reveals that she knows Luthen is Axis, the shadowy rebel figure she has spent so long hunting, and tells him an entire squad of Imperial soldiers are posted outside his shop. She smugly announces her excitement to arrest and interrogate him, but Luthen is not shaken by any of Dedra’s words or threats. While she is still celebrating her victory, he stabs himself with an antique dagger.

Dedra calls in her Imperial backup and has the quickly dying Luthen taken to a Coruscant hospital to be revived and later interrogated. These events, which feel monumental and urgent in the moment, comprise only the first third of “Andor” Season 2, Episode 10. The rest of the episode follows Kleya as she sneaks, Jason Bourne-style into the hospital where Luthen is being held, distracts his Imperial guards with a well-planted explosion and then disconnects his unconscious body from the medical devices keeping him alive.

As Kleya mounts her hospital break-in, “Andor” intermittently travels back to the past to show viewers how she met Luthen for the first time as a young, orphaned girl who snuck onto his ship in the middle of a battle. Disillusioned by the Empire’s war-mongering ways and the role he was forced to play in them as one of its soldiers, Luthen deserted and took Kleya in as his adopted daughter. The two slowly accumulated more power, wealth and influence together, working toward a point where they could begin actually fighting the Empire.

While she was forced to adhere to Luthen’s wishes and facilitate his death, Kleya herself survives the events of “Andor.” With Cassian’s help, she is able to make it off Coruscant and join him and Vel (Faye Marsay) on Yavin. Luthen dies, in a way, victorious — having helped light the spark of revolution and given the rebellion the momentum and strength it needed to be able to take flight on its own. It’s just like he tells Dedra in their final confrontation. “You’re too late. The rebellion isn’t here anymore. It’s flown away.”

“Andor” Seasons 1-2 are streaming now on Disney+.

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