The following contains spoilers for Andor Season 1, Episode 4, now streaming on Disney+.
In its fourth episode, Andor finally reintroduced Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) following the character's appearances in Rogue One and deleted scenes from Revenge of the Sith. Fans of Star Wars have been curious about the mysterious Rebel Alliance leader for years. Andor offers the most personal look at her yet, and viewers of the Disney+ series discover a woman whose double life is about to collapse in on itself.
The character originated in one scene in Return of the Jedi. George Lucas wanted to include women in the Rebellion with Mothma as leader and a number of female X-Wing pilots. (Those women were cut from the film at the behest of the studio, but their performances were reinstated for Rogue One's climactic battle.) While Star Wars Legends fans were aware that Mothma had been a Senator in the Republic, a Revenge of the Sith deleted scene showed that she was an ally of Padmé Amidala's "Delegation of Two Thousand." From there, all fans knew was that two years before the Battle of Yavin, Mothma resigned her political seat and formed the Rebel Alliance. Andor finally shows what her life was like in those 17 years she spent in the Senate while aiding the loose cells of Rebels in secret.
In Andor, Mon Mothma meets with Luthen Rael, the mysterious businessman who recruited Cassian Andor to help steal a massive amount of credits from the Empire. The reason for the theft becomes clear a few scenes later. Mothma shows up at Luthen's shop, going through massive pretense in order to steal just a few moments where she can speak plainly. The message she sends is that scrutiny on her is increasing and she is unable to fund Rebel activities as much as she has in the past. Three years before she resigns her seat, her life is becoming massively stressful and is on the verge of falling apart.
When the crew of the Ghost met Mothma in Star Wars: Rebels she was still in the Senate, but also on the run. Depending on how precious the franchise wants to be with animated canon, Cassian can play a role in helping Mothma escape Coruscant or Chandrilla or wherever she fled from before Ezra Bridger and company showed up to rescue her. Fans saw the end of that crisis -- but they will get to see the beginnings of it over the next two seasons of Andor. Until now, Mon Mothma has been seen as the anti-Palpatine, carrying a leadership torch that should have been Padmé's. Instead, she's carrying secrets even from her husband, who scheduled a dinner party with her worst political rivals.
As much as the series is Cassian Andor's morally grey journey, the inclusion of Mon Mothma has created the most interesting story featuring an original trilogy character. Andor takes viewers so close to her personal and inner life to fill in a part of this character that's been missing from the Expanded Universe. Watching her navigate the life-and-death political waters of the Imperial Senate will be as exciting as any heist or chase Cassian gets caught up in. This is political intrigue at the highest level in a galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars has always been an inherently political story, but the mythic elements sometimes overshadow it. Andor is all about the politics of how authoritarianism and unfettered capitalism can ruin everything. Cassian's adventure reveals the impact of tyranny on average people, while Mon Mothma's arc shows how that tyranny happens. While most of the Rebels will eventually come together, the paths they take to get there are just as interesting as tales about the Force or galactic crime syndicates. The politics in Star Wars sometimes get a bad rap, but Cassian Andor and Mon Mothma are about to change that at great personal cost.
New episodes of Andor stream Wednesdays on Disney+.