From the beginning of season 2 of Andor, I was angry on behalf of Bix Caleen. Adria Arjona’s character on the show spent a lot of the season getting what fans of reality competition shows lovingly call “the loser edit,” where every time the series checked in with her, it found her at a new low — suffering a fresh humiliation, or struggling with the PTSD from the last batch of suffering.

Her slow downward arc, and its clear effect on series protagonist Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), seemed to lead toward an exhausting, familiar story cliché — especially since this entire series is a prequel to the Star Wars movie Rogue One, and unlike many of the show’s characters, Bix is noticeably absent from Rogue One. For more than half the season, Bix felt like she on her way to getting fridged. And I just want to take a breath and personally thank series creator Tony Gilroy for pulling out of that narrative dive instead of taking the obvious crash-landing.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Bix’s season 2 storyline, including how it ends.]

Andor season 1 put Bix in the hands of Imperial interrogator (and ironic cupcake-enjoyer) Doctor Gorst (Joshua James), and season 2 arc focused on how she navigated the aftermath of torture. When we pick back up with Bix, she has screaming nightmares about Doctor Gorst, or debilitating insomnia as she avoids sleeping. She lives in terror of the Empire finding her again. She nearly gets raped by an Imperial officer. She takes dangerous drugs to repress her trauma. She haunts the Coruscant safehouse she and Cassian share like an increasingly wan ghost. Cassian sincerely wants to help, but she can’t let him in, so his worries for her keep compromising or complicating his work with the........

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