The episode centers on the Ghorman Massacre, and marks the final appearance of nearly every Ghorman character thus introduced, including Carro Rylanz (played by Richard Sammel) and Lezine (played by Thierry Godard), as well as the planet Ghorman itself. "Who Are You?" also depicts the death and final appearance of Syril Karn (Kyle Soller).
On Ghorman, Imperial troops begin assembling a blockade in Palmo Plaza in anticipation of an upcoming protest by Ghorman citizens. Dedra asks Partagaz how they plan to spin reports of Imperial mining rigs landing on Ghorman, but Partagaz tells her to focus on furthering the Empire's narrative of stifling Ghorman aggression. As the Ghorman Front arm themselves for the protest, news reports begin to spread of a planned general strike on Ghorman in response to the firebombing of an Imperial naval terminal on the planet, which led to several Imperial casualties. Syril and other Imperial officers are summoned to the office complex in Palmo.
As the city's population makes its way to Palmo Plaza for the protest, Carro notices the Empire's barricades and realizes they are setting a trap for the protestors; he tries talking Enza out of continuing the protest, but she refuses, arguing that the Ghormans have remained silent for too long. Carro unsuccessfully attempts to warn other civilians away from the protest. When he notices Syril in the crowd, he berates him for his deception, demanding to know why the Empire is sending mining equipment to the planet; Syril insists it is just a rumor. Cassian spots Dedra[b] on the balcony of the Imperial headquarters.
The Ghorman population assembles on Palmo Plaza chanting protests against the Empire; Lezine leads the crowd in singing the Ghorman national anthem, while the rebels pass various weapons to each other. Kaido has his men close the exits and orders Stormtroopers sent into the square, trapping the crowd, and sends in a detachment of inexperienced riot police to the front lines of the protest. Syril, meanwhile, forces his way into the Imperial headquarters and confronts Dedra about the Empire's true agenda on Ghorman, choking her until she admits that the Empire is planning to mine the planet's resources for their energy program. She promises Syril that the two of them will be welcomed back as heroes for their work, but a disillusioned Syril leaves.
Outside, the standoff between the protestors and riot police continues, and Dedra allows Kaido to proceed with his plan. Kaido give the order for a sniper to shoot one of the Empire's own riot police, and a shootout ensues between the Ghormans and Imperial forces. Numerous civilians and Ghorman Front members die while Cassian and Wilmon join the fight. Cassian attempts to assassinate Dedra, but the chaos prevents him from getting a clear shot. Kaido orders KX security droids to be sent in to suppress the protest, one of which kills Enza.
Syril watches the chaos in horror, until he spots Cassian preparing to shoot Dedra. Syril attacks Cassian in a rage, and the two engage in a brutal hand-to-hand fight, culminating in Syril cornering Cassian with a blaster. Cassian asks who he is, causing Syril to hesitate and allowing him to be shot dead by Carro. Cassian and Wilmon join the crowd of civilians fleeing from the plaza as the KX droids chase after them and murder numerous people. Cassian unsuccessfully tries shooting at one of the droids as it advances upon him, but Samm rams the droid into a wall with a transport vehicle, disabling it.
Wilmon stays behind to find his girlfriend Dreena, a member of the Ghorman Front, and urges Cassian to spread word of the Empire's massacre of the civilians. Cassian arranges for the damaged KX droid to be brought back with him. Wilmon finds Dreena at the Ghorman Front's headquarters making an emergency broadcast, reporting that thousands of innocent Ghormans have been killed in the massacre. Dedra has a panic attack in her office. Imperial newscasts portray the massacre as a terrorist attack by outside agitators; a grief-stricken Eedy watches the news from Coruscant, realizing that Syril is dead.
Production
Writing
The episode was written by Dan Gilroy, in his fifth writing credit for the show, and directed by Janus Metz, after directing the previous episode of the series.[1][2][3] The episodes of Andor's second season, like those of its first, are split up into blocks, or story arcs, of three episodes; however, unlike in season one, each arc begins with a time skip of one year from the previous episode.[4] Series showrunner Tony Gilroy decided to structure the season this way after concluding that the original five-season plan for the show was unfeasible, and needing some way to bridge the four years between season 1 and Rogue One (2016) in a single season. As proof of concept, he wrote the first and last episodes of each would-be arc, and eventually decided on this structure for the season.[5] Looking back in regards to his original plans for introducing K-2SO into the show, Gilroy was glad to have scrapped his original plot for a horror film-esque episode starring film, as the need to extent set usage to save money meant more screen time and effort was given to the Ghorman Massacre.[6]
Music
The original score for "Who Are You?", as with nine other episodes of the season's twelve,[c] was composed by Brandon Roberts, replacing Nicholas Britell, the composer for the show's first season, due to scheduling conflicts.[7]
William Hughes of The A.V. Club gave a positive review, writing "One of the finest episodes this finest of Star Wars shows has ever offered up."[9] Mike Redmond of Pajiba gave a negative review, summarizing that "The flight path was already wobbly because of the rushed release schedule, and yet, that can't be blamed for what happened in this latest arc. I can't believe we're doing this".[11]
"Who Are You?" briefly attained the #8 spot among the top-ranked television episodes of all time on IMDb, and began a streak of five consecutive episodes[g] all rated 9.5 or above on that platform, becoming the first television series to do so.[12]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
