Andor’s second season has been a wild journey. Mike’s recaps have lined the excessive highs and the low lows. Each viewer possible has their very own preferences; some are right here for Mon Mothma’s energy underneath hearth, some for Cassian’s insurgent agent exploits, and others for the tense lead-up to the occasions of Rogue One. Whether or not the season is as a lot a triumph as the first or is a way more flawed creation is a matter of style, however one thing we certainly can all agree upon is that Dedra Meero and Syril Karn had been meant for one another.
Sure, they’re rotten fascist ghouls who appear to get an nearly fetishistic cost out of serving the Empire. Dedra (Denise Gough) is a dead-eyed Imperial Safety Bureau operator making an attempt to crush any trace of dissent that might impede her imperial overlords. Syril (Kyle Soller) is a bootlicking creep who is just too completely satisfied to infiltrate insurgent cells when he’s not being an workplace drone. They’re each terrible, however fascinatingly intense individuals whose love appears real, even when they’re repugnant. In the first season, Syril was a stalker-ish admirer of Dedra; he appeared as interested in her place of imperial energy as to the girl herself. Dedra appeared, if not interested in Syril, then not less than glad about being desired. He was the keen crony to her imperious mistress. When season two started, Andor confirmed how the dynamic had deepened. Dedra and Syril dwell collectively and luxuriate in a quiet, if chilly, domesticity. There are implications of a sexual life between them, however the stiff, temporary pecks they share make for meager proof. Their relationship looks like a grand joke: two gaunt, tightly-wound weirdos sharing a parody of romance. That in itself is compelling in an askance manner, however there gave the impression to be real care between them. When Syril’s croaking, overbearing mom Eedy (the nice Kathryn Hunter) visits the couple of their condominium, Dedra truly does one thing good for Syril. She lays down floor guidelines with Eedy, providing common contact and visits from Syril in alternate for Eedy dialing again her parental terrorism. This can be as near a purely good deed as Dedra is more likely to do. Sure, it’s mired in toxicity, nevertheless it’s an indication of an precise connection.
On Syril’s finish, he serves his girl by performing some soiled work on Ghorman for her. Sadly, that is additionally the place the seeds of their relationship’s destruction are planted. Syril believes he’s being despatched to maintain tabs on so-called “outdoors agitators” who threaten imperial plans and actually throws himself into the triple-agent position. It’s all for his girl Dedra, and by extension, the Empire, nevertheless it’s a false mission. Dedra and the ISB need to strip-mine the planet and are hoping Syril can lure the rebels into direct motion, which might give the Empire a pretense for clamping down. When the violence comes, Dedra’s ISB lies are laid naked. Syril is genuinely harm when he confronts Dedra, and he or she tries in useless to restore their relationship. They’re space-Nazis that wouldn’t deserve a drop of water in the event that they had been on hearth, however that makes the presence of a real emotional connection all the extra compelling. Syril wouldn’t be harm, and Dedra wouldn’t be remotely contrite if there was nothing there between them. It’s a gnarled, comedically twisted factor, nevertheless it’s there nonetheless.
Dedra and Syril be part of the ranks of nice TV supervillain {couples} like Mariah and Shades of Luke Cage and George and Bertha Russell of The Gilded Age. They’re horrible individuals who make their fictional worlds worse locations to dwell, however the love and keenness between them is plenty of enjoyable to look at. It might be tempting to attract a line from loving two fictional monsters collectively to having some form of sympathy for real-world monsters, however their love just isn’t redemptive. It doesn’t make them higher individuals, nevertheless it does make them a lot better characters. Fiction is finally fantasy, in any case. I’d completely detest them in actual life, however on Andor, Dedra and Syril had been a villain romance for the ages.