Be ready to give up all chance at inner peace and make your mind a sunless space if you haven’t watched episode 8 of “Andor” season 2, because there are major spoilers ahead.

One of the biggest magic tricks “Andor” pulls is make you forget it’s a prequel. The problem with prequels is that, by knowing what’s coming, the tension disappears. How can you surprise the audience when they know where things are headed? Where the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy focused almost entirely on just showing the origin of characters we knew and how they ended up where the audience first met them, “Andor” (and “Rogue One” before it) have a similar approach to the balancing act of the masterpiece that is “Better Call Saul.”

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Though we know where Cassian (Diego Luna), Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) end up, the surprises and tension rest on those characters whose fates we don’t already know. Characters like Bix (Adria Arjona), Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) or Vel (Faye Marsay), who don’t show up in any other “Star Wars” media, are who the audience desperately want to see make it to the end (well, maybe not Syril). Then, it’s the way “Andor” adds context to certain character choices — like Saw Gerrera’s breathing device — or presents different versions of familiar characters that adds to that tension and intrigue, like how a stern senator becomes the leader of a rebellion.

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Case in point, what happens on Ghorman in season 2, episode 8. It’s not only “Star Wars Rebels” fans who have known this was coming, because the very first episode of the season spelled out quite succinctly that the Empire was planning a planet-wide genocide on Ghorman and we’ve seen Dedra (Denise Gough) and Syril work toward that goal for five episodes. The best compliment one can give season 2 of “Andor” is that no matter how much it telegraphs that something will happen, it is still impactful and surprising to see it executed. When it comes to the Ghorman massacre, no amount of forewarning or prior knowledge prepares you for what is without a doubt the most spectacularly harrowing thing in the history of the “Star Wars” franchise.

As written by Dan Gilroy, the episode takes its sweet time getting to the horror, slowly but surely building the tension by playing right into the inevitability of the incoming tragedy. If somehow you were fooled into forgetting that we knew the Empire was planning this massacre for years and that we’ve known for several episodes that they were going to build up the Ghorman Front as an excuse to kill everyone on the planet, then it’s easy to just get lost in the moment as we see the people start heading toward Palmo Plaza for a peaceful protest. Except, when Syril is confronted by Carro Rylanz (Richard Sammel) about the Imperial mining operations happening on Ghorman, even this Imperial bootlicking weasel starts questioning what is really going on in the planet, and reality sinks in.

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Every minute, every scene is meticulously made to ensure the audience is aware of where this is all going. From the concerns of Carro, the various Ghorman rebels arming up, Cassian preparing to assassinate Dedra, and then Dedra openly discussing her plans to commit mass genocide. It’s a masterclass in executing Alfred Hitchcock’s bomb analogy (telling the audience something huge is about to happen doesn’t ruin the surprise, but creates suspense), as we know what is going to happen and can’t do anything but sit and watch these characters walk into a horrifying and tragic death.

It’s not like the episode doesn’t give the audience some slight hope that things will work out fine for the Ghormans. There’s the heartbreaking moment where the protestors go from chanting about their plight, to singing what seems to be the Ghorman National Anthem, joining together in love of their planet right in front of the Imperial authorities and on the site of the previous Ghorman massacre. (There’s so much poetry here, George Lucas would be proud.)

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But just like that, Dedra gives the order and, with stormtroopers in the right position to rile up the protesters, an Imperial sniper shoots a stormtrooper, allowing them to start shooting at the unarmed crowd. With a single shot, the fate of the Ghormans was sealed. And it only gets worse from there.

The rest of the episode is essentially the second half of “Les Misérables,” when everything goes to hell and bodies start dropping like flies. Director Janus Metz treats the episode like a war documentary, keeping the camera frenetic and uncomfortably close to the action. The massacre happens in stages, first with a focus on chaos as the stormtroopers at the plaza shooting at the crowds. It’s heartbreaking, riveting, and incredibly tragic to see a demonstration of unity and resistance turn into a bloodbath.

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Then, as people start trying to flee the plaza, or shoot back, the Empire unleashes its second wave: KX-series droids. “Star Wars” has a rather rocky and complicated history with droids, but this is one of the few times when droids have been outright terrifying in a “Star Wars” show or movie. The cold, detached nature of the KX droids and their seemingly invincible physicality makes them resemble the T-800 Terminator series in how they mow down the Ghorman citizens like they were made of paper. The tonal shift from suspense to emotional drama to straight up horror makes this not just the best episode of the season yet, but possibly the single greatest hour in all of “Star Wars.”

And what makes the Ghorman massacre even more tragic is how it also showcases Imperial propaganda at work, with the news broadcast teams at the plaza spewing lies about what is really happening right in front of their eyes. The galaxy may believe the lie that the Ghormans attacked the Empire. The Empire may have won the ore they were desperate to mine. But this moment, this tragedy, is what changed everything for not just the Empire, but the Rebel Alliance, as well. In terms of galactic impact, it makes the destruction of Alderaan look like child’s play.

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