How the ‘Andor’ Season 2 Finale Sets Up ‘Rogue One’

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Andor” Season 2, Episode 12.

Everyone knew “Rogue One” was the finish line for Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in “Andor,” but the question was how close Season 2 of the Disney+ show would put him to the beginning of his end. Now we know.

The final arc of Season 2 had the rebels finally learn the reason for Ghorman mining over the last few years. Luthen learns of the existence of the Death Star and the final plans to mine the resources to complete Palpatine’s planet killer and after sacrificing himself to make sure those details get to the Yavin IV rebel base Cassian is stirred into action.

Here is how “Andor” Season 2 wraps up and how close it ends to where “Rogue One” begins.

How does Cassian’s story in “Andor” Season 2 end?

The final arc of “Andor” Season 2 has our disparate rebels putting the pieces together about the Empire’s plans to build the Death Star. Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) gave his life so Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) could take the information he learned about the space station’s existence to Yavin IV.

Cassian, Melshi (Duncan Pow), and K2 (Alan Tudyk) manage to get Kleya off Coruscant and back to the rebel base but the remaining leaders remain unconvinced of the legitimacy. The plans detail designs for the Empire to mine Jedha for kyber crystal, much like they were mining kalkite on Ghorman.

General Draven (Alistair Petrie) tells Cassian that an informant named Tivik is on the Rings of Kafrene until tomorrow and only wants to talk with him. Bail Organa shows up to talk with Cassian shortly after. He tells him that “if I die fighting the Empire, I want to go down swinging.”

As Cassian heads toward the ship that’ll take him to Kafrene for his ill-fated meeting with Tivik, he walks through the base seeing all the other rebels that worked to help get the plans. We also briefly see Melshi running with a number of rebel soldiers who will also volunteer to go with Jyn (Felicity Jones) and the rest of the Rogue One crew to Scarif in “Rogue One.”

Where is Cassian heading?

Cassian is heading to the Rings of Kafrene. It’s the planet were viewers first meet him in “Rogue One.” He’s there to meet an informant Tivik who confirms to him the existence of the Death Star. The two are approached by stormtroopers and try to flee. Tivik is wounded and thus a liability if he’s captured so Cassian – hardened by five years in the rebellion and learning from Luthen – kills the informant so he won’t reveal that he leaked the planet killer’s existence.

While Cassian is headed to Kafrene, Melshi and K2 were on a mission of their own in the same window of time. They were sent to the labor camp on Wobani to break out Jyn Erso and ask her where to find her father Galen (Mads Mikkelson) – the architect of the Death Star.

How close are the ending of “Andor” and beginning of “Rogue One?”

As it turns out, the end of “Andor” Season 2 and beginning of “Rogue One” is mere days. Showrunner Tony Gilroy previously revealed that each three-episode arc of Season 2 spanned three days in that year of the rebellion. In the last minutes of the finale, Draven tells Cassian Tivik is only going to wait on Kafrene for another day so the show ends only 24-48 hours before “Rogue One” picks up.

That also means that Luthen had only been dead for four days at the start of the movie, making his death especially fresh for Cassian.

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