Luthen was never going to go quietly, but having achieved his goal of spreading the rebellion across the galaxy, he tries to take his life by stabbing himself with a Nautolan bleeder. Although he survives his injuries, the fact that a smug Dedra thought she could take him in and claim the glory for himself by making an unsanctioned arrest attempt without backup has riled Krennic. Things only got worse when Krennic learns Lonni had accessed Meero’s files regarding the Death Star, and although she bats off his (incorrect) assumption that she’s a Rebel spy, the catalogue of errors sees her sent to one of the Narkina moons where Cassian was locked up in season 1.Â
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Gilroy expanded on how Meero served as an unwilling way for the Rebels to access the information on the Death Star, which ultimately catapults the story into Rogue One. “The whole ISB is coming to an end. If you think about it, if that was the CIA or any intelligence bureau,” mused Gilroy. “With those kinds of breaches and that kind of disaster happening simultaneously, it would be a cleaning of house. So she’s definitely going to go down.”
Speaking to TV Line, Gough described how she was “so happy” for the audience for Dedra to end up where she is. Discussing how she’s left locked up in an Imperial prison, Gough cheered: “It’s so gratifying” to see Dedra’s location because we know what goes on in Narkina 5. Saying it’s “a perfect little button at the end of this season. You can’t have a character like that just get away with [the things she did].” As for the idea that Dedra could’ve gone the way of so many other iconic Star Wars villains, she concluded, “I’m glad she wasn’t killed. I’m really glad that we get to see her in that uniform, in that Narkina 5 [cell].” Soller similarly reflected on Dedra’s indefinite incarceration, saying how it’s poignant to see “someone who’s been so about control being put into the ultimate controlled space.”
Star Wars has a habit of killing off its villains, with everyone from Emperor Palpatine (twice) to Count Dooku getting their comeuppance. Darth Maul (twice) and Jabba the Hutt all met their makers, while Grand Admiral Thrawn faced a similarly dismal fate to Dedra when he was marooned in space – although he returned in Ahsoka to presumably be killed further down the line. Just like how Syril, Partagaz, and eventually Krennic were chewed up and spat out by the system, Dedra’s fate was written in the stars as the Emperor put his plans for the Death Star into play. Even though the repeated imagery of Meero feeling choked after she was assaulted back in the season 1 finale had some believing we’d get a last-minute cameo from Darth Vader to kill her off with one of his iconic Force chokes, she gets a much better send-off.Â
Knowing that Dedra is presumably forced to help finish the Death Star or construct the second Death Star when the first is destroyed is equally ironic. It’s a tragic arc akin to Cassian helping build the weapon that will kill him in Rogue One, but more than this, Dedra will likely never know what happens to the ISB or the Empire. Taking Andor and Rogue One as a complete story, the high body count leaves a handful of characters like Dedra, Bix (Adria Arjona), Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau), and Vel (Faye Marsay) alive when Rogue One’s credits roll. Whereas the others get something of a happy ending, Dedra’s is far from it.Â
While leaving Dedra on one of the Narkina moons leaves the door open for her to return further down the line, there’s no need to. What happens to these prisons in the aftermath of the Empire’s fall is also unknown, but leaving her to rot feels like a much more harrowing end for the ISB outcast.
