This story contains spoilers for Andor’s second season, up to the sixth episode.
Andor has certainly put Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) through it. She’s arguably the person who set the Star Wars series’ events into motion by linking her love interest, Cassian (Diego Luna), with the Rebellion’s grand architect, Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård). Since then, she has been tortured by Empire-sanctioned interrogator Dr. Gorst (Joshua James); more recently, she narrowly staved off an attempted sexual assault by an Imperial lieutenant. In season two’s episodes four through six, which premiered Tuesday on Disney+, she moves into a hideout apartment with Cassian on the planet of Coruscant—finally able to experience a period of sustained romance with her partner, if also still struggling to overcome her trauma. She can’t sleep. She’s battling addiction. She wants to help out with the Rebellion, but is fighting to make it another day.
Arjona’s visceral portrayal of Bix’s inner torment reaches a turning point at the end of episode six, which sees her get her payback. She lures Dr. Gorst into a trap before hooking him up to the same interrogation machine—that is, torture device—that he subjected her to in season one. Both emotionally and literally, Bix sees the light here—a new dawn for herself. Episode six’s final seconds reveal Cassian waiting for her outside, indicating that they pulled off this gambit together—and are now ready to move forward.
Arjona had been eagerly awaiting this cliff-hanger, which lands at the midpoint of Andor’s final season. “It makes me feel really emotional because it’s our goodbye season, but it also feels right,” she says on this week’s Little Gold Men. (Read our conversation below, and stay tuned for audio excerpts.) “We’re leaving with a fucking bang. Sorry that I cursed, but we are, because everyone just really brought it this season.”
Vanity Fair: I know you are given a sense of your character’s arc in advance, but still, what was it like first reading Bix get her revenge at the end of episode six?
Adria Arjona: [Series creator] Tony Gilroy believes that information is power; he doesn’t believe that withholding information is power. So like you said, he pretty much gave me my whole season arc right when season one ended. I had a little bit of time to digest, but that still doesn’t remove the fact of actually having to perform it. In season one, Bix is trying desperately to come back to her own, to that person that we all met in season one, episode one—so when I read that turning point for her here, it was like I finally got something for Bix to fight back. Just to press that button, to have that release, was incredible.
In this batch of three episodes, Bix is struggling while fighting to find a way forward. It ends with her doing just that, and with Cassian in lockstep with her. How did you see her getting to that point?
With everything that happens with her and Dr. Gorst, in the [season’s] first three episodes, you really understand how much she’s struggling with these nightmares. She’s sleep-deprived. By the time you get to four, five, and six, you see her coping with these nightmares in a very different way. She’s addicted to these droppers because she desperately wants to get better and wants to be a part of this rebellion and have a say—to have some importance with Cassian and Luthen.
She feels good enough to be like, This is what’s going to make me feel better. Revenge is what’s going to cure me. These droppers couldn’t, escaping couldn’t. Our love helps, but Cassian’s in and out. There’s so much happening that she wants to be a part of. To give it back to Dr. Gorst was such a big redemption, but again, it’s Tony Gilroy—it’s so much more complex than revenge.
She says at one point to Cassian in these episodes, “I can handle more than you think.” You’ve spoken really from the very beginning about how Bix is underestimated. Getting to this point with him, what was she trying to communicate—and what did she need from him?
They support each other in a very beautiful way throughout these episodes. They never judge each other. They both believe that they’re a part of something greater. They believe in the cost; they believe in the Rebellion. What she means is, “Please don’t underestimate me. Please let me be a part of it because that’s what’s going to save me. Help me help myself.” It’s what she’s begging for. But at the same time, she’s in a very dark place and almost speaking like an addict. She’s like, “I can do it, just believe in me. Let me be a part of this.”