*Spoilers from episode 6.*
This episode is lighter on Diego Luna/Cassian, but to its credit, it’s still an excellent episode, with every plot firing on all cylinders. While the Cassian stuff is, naturally, still my favorite, everything holds my attention from start to finish.
After the Aldhani mission is pulled off successfully (but at great cost to the rebel cell,) everyone reacts. The Empire institutes a series of crackdowns across their sphere of influence, though Dedra still doesn’t think they’re attacking the right problem. Luthen is thrilled with the results while Mon Mothma reckons with the enormity of what she’s actually gotten into. And despite Cassian’s critical role in the mission’s success, he’s retreated into his initial plan to take his payment and run, but things don’t turn out quite the way he was expecting.
A good chunk of this episode is about what people think of as a rebellion vs. what it actually is. Where the Empire sees emboldened criminal activity, Dedra sees the Aldhani mission as the Rebels’ “announcement” that this is only the beginning. Vel risked her life in Aldhani for a cause she believes in, but she’s disturbed by what she’s asked to do next—“This is what revolution looks like,” another character informs her bluntly.
Meanwhile, in Mon Mothma’s mind, it’s one thing to fund the building of a “network,” quite another to realize her money has financed a guerilla operation whose consequences will be felt across the galaxy. She charges Luthen with recklessness, but to him, the backlash from the Empire is just as valuable as the money stolen in the Aldhani heist. “The Empire has been choking us so slowly, we’re starting not to notice,” he explains. “The time has come to force their hand.” The more pushback from the Empire, the more people he can draw into the cause.
Speaking of Mon Mothma, she’s our character of the day, and this is quite the episode for her. Genevieve O’Reilley’s history with the character goes back to a deleted scene from Revenge of the Sith, but this show gives her an opportunity to really dig into who Mon Mothma is, and just as importantly, who she isn’t. In this episode, despite her shocked reaction at the news of what happened in Aldhani, she’s still dedicated to the fight in her own way, and we see her lay out all the work she’s done to craft a persona that allows her to hide in plain sight in Coruscant.
And then we have Cassian. Oh, Cassian. It’s not surprising that he didn’t come away from Aldhani flush with Rebel zeal—he watched people die, he barely made it out alive himself, and after it was all over, a treacherous teammate tried to pull Cassian down into the mud with him. It’s understandable that he wants to run away from it all. As he returns home, he has this bright veneer of hopefulness, convinced that, this time, he’s scored enough money to get away from all his problems.
But that can’t happen. Some of it is down to the ever-spreading reach of the Empire, the impossibility of "[finding] a place they haven’t ruined yet.” Another part of it, though, is the way Cassian tries to shrug off his own responsibility for his actions. Just going back to Ferrix puts the people he cares about in danger, and offering to whisk them away to some imaginary safe place can’t paper over the damage that was caused when he skipped town the first time.
Even when he has less focus in an episode, Luna is excellent throughout. Cassian’s scenes with both Maarva and Bix are fantastic, and Luna’s nuanced performance allow us to see Cassian’s immaturity and willful denial in the same breath that we see the trauma and desperation that informs his behavior. So good, and the final scenes have me champing at the bit to find out what happens next!
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