Andor Season 2 Gives An Important Star Wars Character (and Substance) A Backstory

This article contains spoilers for Andor season 2 episodes 4-6.

We’re already halfway through the final season of Andor, and with it, there are just two in-universe years left until showrunner Tony Gilroy drags us into the tragic events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. As we fill in the gaps about what some of the Rogue One gang were up to before that fateful mission to Scarif, Andor season 2 episode 5 finally gives Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera the backstory that fans have been waiting for.

With each block of three-episode releases for Andor season 2 covering a single year in the run-up to Rogue One, we see a war-torn Gerrera coming toward the end of his days. Those who’ve watched Gareth Edwards’ 2016 film will know the Onderonian resistance fighter meets his maker on Jedha when the Empire tests out the true capabilities of the Death Star. Even though Saw can’t know what awaits him, “I Have Friends Everywhere” hammers home the feeling that he might sense his time is nearly up. 

Despite his fleeting role in Rogue One, Saw is a linchpin of Andor’s latest arc, especially when it comes to a seemingly throwaway mention of rhydonium. A convoluted plot involves Saw’s Partisans recruiting a tech expert named Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier), who reveals that rhydonium is a dangerous substance that needs to be handled carefully. Introduced in The Clone Wars as a volatile starship fuel that’s hard to transport and even harder to mine from planets like Abfar, rhydonium is mentioned as far back as the High Republic era and is actually a deep-cut Easter egg from LucasArts’ non-canonical Star Wars: The Old Republic games. Rhydonium is so deadly that even a small leak can cause your lungs to burn from the inside. Despite Paak rightly being worried about rhydonium, that’s nothing to Saw, who willfully huffs the stuff as it seemingly provides pain relief for his injuries. 

Expanding on his own tragic backstory, Saw fills Paak in on how he was enslaved in an Onderon work camp. A rhydonium leak killed off most of the prisoners, but unlike his cellmates, Saw embraced the pain and now uses rhydonium as a metaphor for the growing rebellion as he muses: “That itch, that burn, you feel how badly she wants to explode?” Remember this. Remember this moment! This perfect night. You think I’m crazy? Yes, I am. Revolution is not for the sane!” Saw needs a device to breathe by the time we get to Rogue One, and while it’s possible his rhydonium addiction is what leads to this, it’s also possible that the substance itself is keeping him alive. Wilmon is a testament to this after he immediately feels its benefits after taking a huff himself. 

Importantly, Saw then referring to rhydonium as his “sister” is a tragic throwback to his origin story from The Clone Wars. Long before Whitaker portrayed Gerrera in live action, Andrew Kishino voiced him in the fifth season “Onderon arc.” We learn there that Saw was an Onderon rebel leader who, alongside his sister, worked to save the deposed King Ramsis Dendup. Although the Onderon uprising managed to push back the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Steela Gerrera died when she fell off a cliff during a droid assault on the rebel camp, and Ahsoka Tano was unable to save her. Star Wars franchise czar Dave Filoni previously told StarWars.com that he needed to end this story with Steela’s death because “there had to be a price paid for their freedom.” This comes full circle in both Saw’s Rogue One death and the rest of Cassian’s crew in order to secure the plans to the Death Star. In Andor’s case, Saw is seemingly lost in his rhydonium addiction and is using it as a replacement for his real-life sister.

Rhydonium notably appeared in The Mandalorian in a scene featuring Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Migs Mayfield (Bill Burr) piloting a ship. Driving too fast would cause the rhydonium to explode, but driving too slowly and space pirates would inevitably catch up to them and snatch the precious cargo. It becomes more relevant thanks to Andor, not only explaining why Saw needs his mechanical lungs as we round off his story in Rogue One, but also as visual representations of the Rebels.

As Saw himself reminds Wilmon: “We’re the rhydo, kid. We’re the fuel. We’re the thing that explodes when there’s too much friction in the air.” If anything else, rhydonium’s prominence in Andor season 2 is all the more amusing because Saw’s mission isn’t to retrieve it to power the Rebels or even disrupt the Empire like season 1’s Aldahni heist. Much like the stirring speech of Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael talking about sunrises he’ll never see, this forgotten substance is just another reminder of how obsession can be deadly in Andor.

Andor season 2 episodes 1-6 are available to stream on Disney+ now. Three new episodes debut per week on Tuesday nights, culminating with the finale on May 13.

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