Denise Gough, Dedra Meero in the Disney+ Andor series, talks about the long-awaited face off between her character and Luthen Rael, “They’re both playing at the top of their Machiavellian skillset, but she falls at the last hurdle”.
Note: Beware of spoilers ahead!
It’s a moment all of us have been waiting for, including creator Tony Gilroy, who wrote this scene as one of the initial proofs of concept for the four-year span of the episode blocks in season 2. “The musket was packed for four years waiting for that scene,” he notes. “I couldn’t wait to sketch that scene. It’s so potent. You want to see it so much. It’s the heavyweight bout you would’ve been waiting for all the way through.”
However, Gilroy was nervous that his actors might imbue the scene with too much significance. “I’d seen it in my head a bunch before, but I was worried,” he says. “People get altitude sickness and they get too into what they’re doing. The significance of it is overwhelming to everybody who’s making it and they lean too hard into it, but it wasn’t that. Everybody was so in the temperature of what we were doing. It was everything that I had wanted it to be.”
Ultimately, Dedra and Luthen dropped the charade and unleashed on each other, with Luthen telling her, “The rebellion isn’t here anymore. It’s flown away; it’s everywhere now.” While Dedra looks in horror at his burning communications, he stabs himself, wanting to prevent the Empire from extracting any of his secrets.
“You see them at their most Machiavellian,” says Gough of this cat-and-mouse game. “Even though they both know what’s going on, they’re both playing at the top of their Machiavellian skillset. But she falls at the last hurdle, man. She almost has him. It’s just devastating.”
It got worse for her from there. Luthen survived, barely. But Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) snuck into the hospital and removed Luthen from life support, allowing him to complete his martyrdom.
Meanwhile. Dedra was held in an Imperial cell, confronted by Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), who was furious that she had access to files about the Death Star and allowed them to leak to other officers. Dedra’s peers were eager to lay all of the blame at her feet.
“It’s the difference between the tribe and the gang. The Rebellion is a tribe,” Gough says. “It’s full of people who have loyalty at their core. They trust each other even when they have to do things that are difficult. Everybody shows up for each other. But the gang is vicious. The gang seems like they’re the best place to be. It looks like the best party in town. Everybody’s well dressed and looks like they’re having a great time, but the gang will hurt you when you join, physically, and hurt you when you leave by discarding you.”
Read the interview in full here, and stream the finale of Andor on Disney+ now.
The post Denise Gough on the Luthen Rael-Dedra Meero Showdown in Andor Season 2 appeared first on Jedi News.
