Andor Demands That You Actually Know What Rhydonium Is

At the end of Andor season 2, episode 5, Star Wars fan-favorite rebel Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), delivers an impassioned speech about… huffing fumes?

It’s true. Saw convinces Wilmon Paak (Muhannad Bhaier) to breathe in a dangerous amount of a gas called Rhydonium as they prepare to bomb an Imperial pipeline in season 2. He tells the young rebel that his extremist faction is ā€œthe fuel for the thing when there’s too much friction in the air.ā€ Sounds like Saw is a bit too high on his own supply. But what is Rhydonium exactly, and why is Saw so obsessed with it?

Well, as my colleague Brady Langmann discovered in Esquire’s episode 4 recap, Rhydonium is basically spaceship fuel. The toxic fumes are highly flammable and extremely dangerous to breathe in, which is probably why Saw is hooked up with a tracheostomy tube and a Darth Vader-esque breathing device by the time Rogue One: A Star Wars Story rolls around. Still, that makes Rhydonium a perfect ingredient for explosives.

As Saw explains later on, he was a child when he was forced to work in a camp that harvested the gas. The radiation was so bad that their clothes melted off their bodies and irritated their skin. ā€œIt was the Rhydo,ā€ he says. ā€œThey had a leak. You could feel it before you could smell it. So they all panicked and ran away. But it was new to me.ā€

It’s clear from Saw’s obsession with Rhydonium that the fumes are addictive. Seemingly, Saw’s in deep. ā€œI understand it,ā€ he mumbles as he smells the fumes. ā€œShe is my sister, Rhydo, and she loves me…. You feel how badly she wants to explode?ā€

Then Saw convinces Wilmon to join him. ā€œRevolution is not for the sane,ā€ he continues. ā€œWe’ll all be dead before the Republic is back and yet… here we are! You’re here and you’re ready to fight!ā€ Smell the gunpowder, son, it’s the rebellion! Wilmon takes one whiff of the Rhydo and has an immediate out-of-body experience. I guess revolution is one hell of a drug.

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