How a Pivotal ANDOR Storyline Just Lined Up with STAR WARS REBELS

Mon Mothma continues on, saying “When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to whatever monster screams the loudest. This chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman plaza. What happened on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide. And that truth has been exiled from this chamber. And the monster screaming the loudest? The monster we helped create? The monster coming for us all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine.”

After publicly declaring the Emperor a genocidal monster, she narrowly escapes the Senate building with her life. She does this with the help of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), whom she meets for the first time in this episode. After she barely gets away unharmed, Mon learns while hiding in Luthen’s safehouse that rebel agents will smuggle her off Coruscant. Once off world, she’ll meet up with “a Yavin escort.” We don’t actually see Mon leave the planet in this episode, but Cassian leaves and goes to Yavin 4 ahead of her.

Arriving on Yavin 4, Cassian’s superiors inform him that Gold Squadron is escorting Mon Mothma off Coruscant to the hidden base. She also has to make a speech meant for broadcast across the galaxy. And this is where Andor actually connects with Rebels. In the season three Rebels episode “Secret Cargo,” we get to see Gold Squadron bring the fugitive Mon Mothma to the Ghost so they can refuel their ships. Mon Mothma’s ally in the senate, Bail Organa, arranges this meeting.

Right before Mon Mothma arrives, the crew of the Ghost hears the speech they talk about her needing to give in Andor via the HoloNet. In this speech, she denounces the Ghorman Massacre publicly. She cites it as proof that the self-appointed Emperor is “Nothing more than a lying executioner who has imposed tyranny on the galaxy under the pretense of security.” Ghost crew member Zeb can’t believe she’s still breathing after making such an accusation against Emperor Palpatine. And viewers of Andor now know how close she was to arrest and probable execution.

In the Rebels episode, the Imperials learn of Mothma’s whereabouts. She then becomes the titular secret cargo for the Ghost crew. After evading Imperial forces, Mon Mothma has the task of going to Dantooine, site of an older rebel base. This is the planet Princess Leia gave Tarkin as the location of the Rebel Base in A New Hope. Leia did this knowing it was no longer the Rebellion’s primary HQ. This is also the fateful moment when Tarkin destroys Alderaan instead. Once arriving in orbit of Dantooine, Mon Mothma makes another broadcast. This time, uniting the various rebel cells into what we know in the original trilogy as the Rebel Alliance.

Andor never shows Mon Mothma connecting with the Rebels crew of Hera, Zeb, Chopper, and Ezra Bridger on the Ghost. However, Andor does pave the way very clearly for those events to happen. Of course, it would have been nice to have a cameo of the Ghost crew, or even just a mention. The connection we did get was only a very subtle one. But between episode nine of Andor’s second season, and the Rebels episode “Secret Cargo,” together they form a full picture of Mon Mothma’s brave decision to leave her comfortable life behind and become the figurehead of freedom in the galaxy. Genevieve O’Reilly portrays Mon Mothma in both Andor and Rebels, and these episodes both show how she’s perhaps the galaxy’s true greatest hero.

Star Wars: Andor season two and Star Wars Rebels are currently streaming on Disney+.