By midway via the primary episode of Andor\u2019s second season, fledgling insurgent Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) has run throughout a complication on his newest mission: a band of insurgent troopers who see him as a risk somewhat than an ally. Actually, they appear to see nearly the whole lot as a risk: the critters within the in depth jungle round them, any outsiders they run throughout, even the opposite members of their very own group. From the primary second Cassian meets them \u2014 at gunpoint, in a mass confrontation \u2014 they\u2019re already loudly arguing with one another about the precise option to seize him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
We\u2019ve by no means seen this fractious, incompetent group earlier than \u2014 however thanks to a couple small references in Andor season 1, we all know a number of issues about who they’re, and presumably how they wound up stranded at Cassian\u2019s drop level. Right here\u2019s how these loud, flailing goobers match into Andor\u2019s continuity \u2014 and the way they match into what appears to be this season\u2019s overarching theme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[Ed. note: Minor spoilers ahead for episodes 1 and 2 of Andor season 2, and for a small subplot in season 1.]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After capturing Cassian, the insurgent group argue amongst themselves about the place they may presumably go subsequent, assuming they’ll both be taught to make use of Cassian\u2019s stolen experimental TIE Avenger or discuss him into transporting them. It\u2019s clear that along with not having any agreed-upon chief within the group, they don\u2019t have any form of headquarters or clear objective. From the arguments, we additionally know they\u2019ve been caught on the planet for 2 days, with minimal meals and provides. From one member, Cassian learns they\u2019re members of the Maya Pei Brigade, one of many insurgent teams his sponsor\/handler Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd) has been backing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Who’s Maya Pei, the insurgent chief?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nWe\u2019ve additionally by no means seen Maya Pei in Andor, however she\u2019s been talked about a number of occasions by Noticed Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), who brings her up in a rant about varied anti-Empire insurgent factions he disdains as \u201cmisplaced\u201d as a result of they lack his \u201creadability of goal.\u201d In a scene in season 1\u2019s \u201cNarkina 5,\u201d he sneers at Luthen that he wouldn\u2019t work with Maya Pei as a result of she\u2019s a \u201cneo-Republican.\u201d (Luthen for his half describes Noticed as an anarchist, although seemingly one he\u2019s nonetheless keen to work with.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nShe will get one other fast point out from Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) in an ISB assembly in season 1 \u2014 Luthen\u2019s try to purchase an Imperial Starpath Unit from Cassian in season 1 apparently occurred \u201cin a safehouse run by a insurgent cell related to Maya Pei.\u201d Whereas the ISB is conscious of her existence, although, she by no means turns into a major a part of Andor\u2019s story; she\u2019s only a background element, the top of one in all many independently working insurgent teams Luthen helps provide and typically coordinate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAnto Kreegyr\u2019s hologram in season 1 of Andor.<\/figcaption>Picture: Lucasfilm\/Disney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nCuriously sufficient, the collapse of the Maya Pei Brigade appears to reflect what occurs to a different of Luthen\u2019s splinter rise up initiatives in season 1: the one run by Anto Kreegyr, who Luthen cold-bloodedly sells out in season 1 with the intention to maintain one in all his Empire informants protected. A very difficult little bit of spycraft-versus-spycraft feinting and counterfeiting leads Luthen to sacrifice Kreegyr and his group, permitting them to hold out a guerilla assault on an Imperial energy station with out warning them that one in all their pilots has been caught and interrogated, and the Empire has laid a lure for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nMaya Pei\u2019s group says one thing related occurred to them \u2014 \u201cWe acquired ambushed! We misplaced six ships, 40 fighters!\u201d one in all them tells Cassian. Maya herself was apparently caught within the crossfire, although the group is split on whether or not she\u2019s useless, and on what precisely occurred within the thick of battle. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nHow does the Maya Pei Brigade match into Andor\u2019s story?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nWhat\u2019s extra important concerning the disintegrating remnants of the Maya Pei Brigade is how this squabbling group of survivors helps carry ahead a number of the largest concepts at play all through the present \u2014 the various, many fracture factors in a factionalized rise up, and the way tough it’s to carry one to bear in opposition to unified totalitarian rule. That theme performs out in all kinds of the way throughout Andor\u2019s two seasons, from Mon Mothma\u2019s genteel political rise up within the Senate and secretive funding efforts outdoors of it to Luthen\u2019s schemes, Cassian\u2019s adventures, and the foremost ISB venture in season 2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nRight here, although, the theme operates on a very small scale, and a very impassioned one. Maya\u2019s surviving forces don\u2019t agree about their targets or the right way to pursue them, about who ought to lead the group or what their organizer would have wished. They don\u2019t even agree about what simply occurred to them, or their chief. Their suspicions in opposition to one another and in opposition to everybody else make them a hazard to themselves and to every other a part of the rise up that touches them. And so long as they keep that suspicious, chaotic response to the collapse of their very own faction, they\u2019re incapable of seeing an ally when he seems. (It doesn\u2019t assist that Cassian is making an attempt to take care of fundamental operational safety by not explaining his mission to them, or admitting who he studies to.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n![\"Forest](\"https:\/\/platform.polygon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/chorus\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/24142596\/PGM_FF_003927.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400\"\/)
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPicture: Lucasfilm\/Disney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nTheir inside group squabbling mirrors the bigger battle we noticed in season 1, as represented by Noticed Gerrera\u2019s contemptuous tackle different insurgent teams: In idea, all of the organizations he mentions in his rant are on the identical aspect, together with Luthen. All of them need an finish to the Empire, with its oppression and overreach. However they don\u2019t agree philosophically about the right way to pursue their targets, or what may change the Empire of their splendid galaxy. Noticed dismisses all of them as \u201cseparatists,\u201d not acknowledging that he, too, is a part of the issue \u2014 judging different factions of rebels as unworthy, and refusing to cooperate with them. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
We\u2019ve additionally by no means seen Maya Pei in Andor, however she\u2019s been talked about a number of occasions by Noticed Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), who brings her up in a rant about varied anti-Empire insurgent factions he disdains as \u201cmisplaced\u201d as a result of they lack his \u201creadability of goal.\u201d In a scene in season 1\u2019s \u201cNarkina 5,\u201d he sneers at Luthen that he wouldn\u2019t work with Maya Pei as a result of she\u2019s a \u201cneo-Republican.\u201d (Luthen for his half describes Noticed as an anarchist, although seemingly one he\u2019s nonetheless keen to work with.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
She will get one other fast point out from Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) in an ISB assembly in season 1 \u2014 Luthen\u2019s try to purchase an Imperial Starpath Unit from Cassian in season 1 apparently occurred \u201cin a safehouse run by a insurgent cell related to Maya Pei.\u201d Whereas the ISB is conscious of her existence, although, she by no means turns into a major a part of Andor\u2019s story; she\u2019s only a background element, the top of one in all many independently working insurgent teams Luthen helps provide and typically coordinate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Curiously sufficient, the collapse of the Maya Pei Brigade appears to reflect what occurs to a different of Luthen\u2019s splinter rise up initiatives in season 1: the one run by Anto Kreegyr, who Luthen cold-bloodedly sells out in season 1 with the intention to maintain one in all his Empire informants protected. A very difficult little bit of spycraft-versus-spycraft feinting and counterfeiting leads Luthen to sacrifice Kreegyr and his group, permitting them to hold out a guerilla assault on an Imperial energy station with out warning them that one in all their pilots has been caught and interrogated, and the Empire has laid a lure for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Maya Pei\u2019s group says one thing related occurred to them \u2014 \u201cWe acquired ambushed! We misplaced six ships, 40 fighters!\u201d one in all them tells Cassian. Maya herself was apparently caught within the crossfire, although the group is split on whether or not she\u2019s useless, and on what precisely occurred within the thick of battle. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n What\u2019s extra important concerning the disintegrating remnants of the Maya Pei Brigade is how this squabbling group of survivors helps carry ahead a number of the largest concepts at play all through the present \u2014 the various, many fracture factors in a factionalized rise up, and the way tough it’s to carry one to bear in opposition to unified totalitarian rule. That theme performs out in all kinds of the way throughout Andor\u2019s two seasons, from Mon Mothma\u2019s genteel political rise up within the Senate and secretive funding efforts outdoors of it to Luthen\u2019s schemes, Cassian\u2019s adventures, and the foremost ISB venture in season 2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Right here, although, the theme operates on a very small scale, and a very impassioned one. Maya\u2019s surviving forces don\u2019t agree about their targets or the right way to pursue them, about who ought to lead the group or what their organizer would have wished. They don\u2019t even agree about what simply occurred to them, or their chief. Their suspicions in opposition to one another and in opposition to everybody else make them a hazard to themselves and to every other a part of the rise up that touches them. And so long as they keep that suspicious, chaotic response to the collapse of their very own faction, they\u2019re incapable of seeing an ally when he seems. (It doesn\u2019t assist that Cassian is making an attempt to take care of fundamental operational safety by not explaining his mission to them, or admitting who he studies to.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Picture: Lucasfilm\/Disney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Their inside group squabbling mirrors the bigger battle we noticed in season 1, as represented by Noticed Gerrera\u2019s contemptuous tackle different insurgent teams: In idea, all of the organizations he mentions in his rant are on the identical aspect, together with Luthen. All of them need an finish to the Empire, with its oppression and overreach. However they don\u2019t agree philosophically about the right way to pursue their targets, or what may change the Empire of their splendid galaxy. Noticed dismisses all of them as \u201cseparatists,\u201d not acknowledging that he, too, is a part of the issue \u2014 judging different factions of rebels as unworthy, and refusing to cooperate with them. <\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow does the Maya Pei Brigade match into Andor\u2019s story?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n