It is perhaps arduous to recollect now, however Andor on Disney+ initially began out as a petty crime drama. Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) will get in over his head he kills two company safety officers giving him grief. Usually, his crime can be swept beneath bureaucratic pink tape, however the bold Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) sees this case as a possibility to show himself. As an alternative, all of it blows up in Syril’s face, remodeling Andor into the Valjean to Karn’s Javert.
**Spoilers for Andor Season 2 Episodes 7 and eight, now streaming on Disney+**
Andor Season 2 Episode 8 “Who Are You?” lastly options the last word showdown between Cassian Andor and Syril Karn. Syril ultimately will get the higher hand on the Insurgent spy, however Cassian says one thing that makes him hesitate in horror. After two seasons of Andor and their violent espresso store combat, our hero has no clue who the lowly Imperial agent even is.
“Who’re you?” Cassian asks. Syril is horrified and pauses. This provides native Ghor chief Carro Rylanz (Richard Sammel) the proper second to kill Syril.
“I really feel terribly sorry for Syril,” Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy informed DECIDER. “I even have nice affection for Syril. I believe Syril is a sufferer in each method. I believe he’s a romantic and a fantasist. I believe he might have simply as equally gone in many alternative instructions if he’d been proven anyplace that there was some love or some gentle.”
A part of the explanation why Gilroy feels so unhealthy for Syril is he understands that his attraction to the Empire is born out of his traumatic childhood with emotionally abusive mom Eedy (Kathryn Hunter).
“He craves order, clearly, as a result of he grew up with a kind of alpha predator chaos machine in a field,” Gilroy stated. “So I believe his want for order and construction is key.”
It’s that starvation for order that sucks him into the orbit of ISB officer Dedra Meero (Denise Gough). Syril is so dedicated to her that he’s ignored all of the indicators that she’s been taking part in him to infiltrate the Ghorman Entrance, thus setting them up for destruction. Gilroy revealed that in one other universe, Syril actually might have allied with the Ghor.
“I believe he was completely happy in Ghorman,” Gilroy stated. “I imply, Ghorman, the garments, the stricture of it, the properness of it. I believe Kyle [Soller] actually began to really feel, look comfy in Ghorman.”
“I believe the basic lies that he’s been informed from the very starting, I imply, they’re crushing. Nobody has performed him correctly. So I really feel horrible for him. After which to face there and understand that you simply’ve destroyed one thing that you simply didn’t intend to destroy.”
Syril’s final act, attacking Cassian, isn’t simply the fruits of years of hyper-fixation on the Insurgent. It’s additionally him saving Dedra from Cassian, who’s there to assassinate her. What ought to be a second of absolute triumph for Syril is quickly remodeled into the utter unraveling of his world.
“My god, there’s the factor you’ve been chasing all this time and it doesn’t even know who you might be!” Gilroy stated. “I imply, the episode is titled, ‘Who Are You?’ for a purpose. It’s his episode, so I really feel, I’ve nice empathy for Syril.“
Gilroy revealed he additionally had some empathy for Dedra on this episode. Followers will observe that she has her personal emotional meltdown throughout the bloodbath. Gilroy cheekily stated, “Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t have chaos inside them? I by no means have. I imply all people has chaos. It is perhaps in small diploma, it is perhaps overwhelming, however characters who lack confusion in some factor are actually kind of tedious.”
Nonetheless, Gilroy additionally pointed to Dedra’s “tactical” mind freaking out on this second.
“I believe she’s actually tactically questioning if it is a good thought,” he stated. “I believe she’s additionally uncomfortable with not being in cost. I believe that’s a part of it. I additionally assume that no matter emotions she does have for Syril, she realizes that it is a breaking level.”
“And positively by the tip of the episode when she realizes that he’s useless, I imply, they’ve been collectively in some bizarre method for, you realize, some time now. He saved her life. They’ve lived collectively. They’ve turned off the lights collectively,” Gilroy stated, slyly referencing couple’s unconventional model of intimacy.
And after Andor Season 2 Episode 8 “Who Are You?”, these lights are off perpetually for one poor Syril Karn.
