Mon Mothma must consider an unthinkable proposition. A nefarious businessman wants to introduce his son to her daughter in exchange for “creative” solutions around the Imperial banking regulations. Will she swallow her pride or find a different escape to her problem?
A mole has been revealed. Lonni Jung is operating as a double agent for the rebels. He apparently is paying back a large debt owed to Luthen Rael. The recent birth of his child has caused him to re-think his position. He attempts to convince Luthen he is leaving. Luthen’s response is perhaps the greatest monologue in Star Wars lore. Jung asks Luthen, “What do you sacrifice?”
“Calm, kindness, kinship, love. I’ve given up all chance at inner-peace, I made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up everyday to an equation I wrote 15 years ago for which there is only one conclusion: I’m damned for what I do, my anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight. It’s set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearn to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost. And by the time I look down, there’s no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is my sacrifice?”
“I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future. I burn my life to make a sunrise I know I’ll never see. The ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? EVERYTHING!”
The cost of the rebellion is born out in these words. Luthen understands he is laying the seeds to a future he will likely never see. He acknowledges that his deeds are evil but are in service to a greater good. He sacrifices all the normal things that a sentient wish to have in service to a better life for the galaxy. One could say he has died to self so that the galaxy might live. Lastly, his words show how long the rebellion has been building. The announcement of the Empire was the birth of the rebellion. It is important to note that his words underly how he ruthlessly allows causalities to occur as he considers the bigger picture. The mission always come first. Lives will be sacrificed for the greater good, as he sacrifices his being for the greater good. There is no escape, there is only the mission.
Andor escapes. Kino Loy apparently does not. He can’t swim. What is Kino’s fate?
As the film pans out from the confinement facility you realize that the facility is shaped in the form of the Imperial symbol. Two episodes to go. Will Luthen reunite with Andor?
