Looking back, Saw Gerrera was always waiting for “Andor” to arrive. One of the last new Star Wars characters created by George Lucas himself, Saw debuted in season 5 of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and returned much older and more paranoid in “Rogue One,” played by Forest Whitaker. Saw has always been a favorite among a certain subset of fans, bringing an intensity and radical revolutionary sensibility that’s often missing in Star Wars. But the writing of “Andor,” which embraces that same sensibility throughout, is where the character has really been able to shine.
Advertisement
Saw’s appearances in “Andor” season 1 primarily showcased his ideology as a revolutionary leader, and that’s mostly true so far in season 2 as well. But in addition to fantastic monologues about the cause, “Andor” season 2 also finally gives us an explanation for the complicated breathing apparatus Saw uses in “Rogue One.”
By the time we meet him in that film, Saw is in bad shape. He has various cybernetic augmentations, revealing the major injuries he’s sustained over the course of decades fighting oppressive powers. He also breathes through a mask connected to his suit, giving him something of a Darth Vader vibe that’s definitely intentional. Star Wars’ less-than-stellar record of conflating disability with evil notwithstanding (that’s a topic for another day), it’s a curious addition to the character. Now, in “Andor” season 2, we see that some of that damage may be self-inflicted.
Advertisement
Saw Gerrera, rhydonium, and the cost of war
The second arc of “Andor” season 2 includes a few major plotlines: the beginnings of a major armed resistance movement on Ghorman; Cassian (Diego Luna) and Bix (Adria Arjona) living a spy’s life on Coruscant; and a major threat to Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) and Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau). We also get a series of scenes following Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier) on a mission with Saw Gerrera’s Partisans, all with the aim of siphoning a potent fuel called rhydonium from an Imperial pipeline in episode 5.
Advertisement
Rhydonium is nothing new in the Star Wars universe, and “Andor” reiterates that it’s incredibly dangerous — highly flammable, and with toxic fumes that can burn you from the inside out. Despite that, Saw has a fixation on the substance that seems to border on chemical addiction. Where others reel from a single whiff, he stands unfazed in the midst of rhydonium fumes, and he delivers one of the most fascinating monologues of the entire show to Wil while convincing him to breathe in the rhydonium himself.
“I was younger than you are now,” Saw begins, describing his time in a prison labor camp in the jungles of his native Onderon. “One day, everyone started to itch. Everyone, all at once. Even the guards. You could feel your skin coming alive. It was the rhydo. They had a leak. You could feel it, before you could smell it. And they all panicked and ran away, but it was new to me.”
Advertisement
From then on, it seems that Saw developed a taste for rhydonium fumes, and it’s likely that his persistent inhalation of them over the years led to the internal damage requiring him to use an oxygen mask during the final days of his life. But this storyline also isn’t strictly literal. There’s more to it, and it ties back to his first-ever Star Wars appearance.
Saw Gerrera’s rhydonium monologue includes a tragic Clone Wars reference
Because we don’t know exactly when Saw or Wilmon were born, it’s hard to say when in Saw’s life his prison camp experience took place. Due to the timeline, it seems likely that this was a camp run by the Separatist-aligned government of Onderon that Saw fought against during the Clone Wars, and not an Imperial camp. Those who’ve seen the Onderon “Clone Wars” episodes will know that Saw’s older sister Steela was killed in that war, which Saw seems to nod to during his big “Andor” season 2 monologue.
Advertisement
When Saw begins inhaling the fumes after Wilmon opens up the rhydonium valve, Wil frantically asks how he can do that without being overwhelmed. “Because I understand it,” Saw replies. “Because she’s my sister, rhydo, and she loves me. That itch, that burn … You feel how badly she wants to explode?” While the words might seem mad, Saw is at least self-aware. “You think I’m crazy?” he asks Wil. “Yes. I am. Revolution is not for the sane.” In the end, he draws a connection between the revolutionary act and the rhydonium itself. “We’re the rhydo, kid,” he tells Wil. “We’re the fuel. We’re the thing that explodes when there’s too much friction in the air.”
Saw even says to the rhydonium itself, “I have always loved you.” Between that, the reference to it being his sister, and the fact that he was first exposed to the substance on Onderon in his youth, it’s clear that he’s attached something of Steela’s essence to the fuel. Her revolutionary spirit, which inspired him to fight, lives on in the physical materials of war, and so he breathes those in with reckless abandon, channeling his sister in the fight she couldn’t see through herself. “That’s freedom calling,” he says as Wil removes his mask to inhale the fumes. “Let it in. Let it run. Let it run wild.”
Advertisement
So, best scene ever in Star Wars? Very possibly.
