Forty-nine years ago, the original Star Wars fans weren’t super worried about the origin of the Death Star. In the opening crawl to the first 1977 movie, later retitled A New Hope, we were told about the Death Star in big, bold, yellow letters. But now, the 24 episodes of Andor and the two hours and 13 minutes of Rogue One have created a complex, shadowy origin story for the creation of the Empire’s ultimate super weapon. And, with the conclusion of Andor Season 2, the moment when the Rebellion becomes aware of the Death Star has been retconned, which changes the previous retcon of Rogue One.
For all of its dramatic brilliance, Andor’s obsession with assembling complex puzzle pieces that all add up to one of the easiest-to-understand sci-fi concepts ever is the ultimate Easter egg paradox. The Death Star, in abstract, is a very comprehendible thing: a moon-sized mobile space station that blows up planets. But in the final episodes of Andor, the top-secret notion of the Death Star might seem slightly confusing, even to the most detail-oriented Star Wars fan. When it comes to who knows what about the Death Star, here’s how Episode 10 of Andor is both clarifying and confusing.
