Star Wars’ ‘Andor’ Season 2 Depicts the Banality of American Fascism

In the first three episodes of Andor Season 2, which started streaming on Disney+ on April 22, one of the show’s many interlocking plotlines takes us to Mina-Rau, an agricultural planet on the outer rim of the Star Wars galaxy, where a group of rebel soldiers are posing as freelance mechanics. The group includes Bix (Adria Arjona), a wanted fugitive hiding out on Mina-Rau without the necessary paperwork. So when a cadre of Imperial soldiers arrives to carry out an unannounced “supply census,” Bix is worried.“If they’re checking visas, it’s a problem,” she says.“Look, they need the grain,” a local farmer replies. “They know we need help, and they know everyone isn’t legal. How hard they look, what they do—it’s been 10 years since the last audit, nobody’s happy.”In the very next episode, he’ll betray the rebels to the Empire, a reminder of just how difficult it can be to do the right thing in the face of authoritarian power.For Kempshall, Andor’s greatest innovation is the way it exposes...