Warning: SPOILERS for the last three episodes of Andor are ahead!
Andor has finished its run on the 2025 TV schedule, with the Star Wars show’s final minutes leading directly into Rogue One, where Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor will die. But, of course, there were other characters to check in on before Andor wrapped up. In the case of Denise Gough’s Dedra Meero, she was last seen imprisoned inside a facility quite similar to the one where we met Andy Serkis’ Kino Loy in Season 1. Gough opened up about why she feels what happened to her character was “really satisfying,” and I was also here for the amusing spinoff idea for Dedra she pitched.
Why Denise Gough Approved Of Dedra Meero’s Andor Ending
The last shot of Dedra in Andor showed her crying in her prison cell. This was the second time we saw her shed tears on the show, the first being when she broke down over Syril Karn’s death. Dedra officially hit rock bottom, but Gough took some enjoyment out of seeing her character in this state, telling EW:
It's really satisfying because of the setup of Narkina 5 in season one. Then we see a tiny moment of this woman holding herself together; this deeply controlled, held together woman in a place where she is out of control. There is nothing she can do. You know what fate awaits her.
Dedra Meero’s downfall came from her overconfidence and obsession to capture Axis, a.k.a. Luthen Rael. First, the operation to apprehend him wasn’t sanctioned by her superiors, as she was no longer in charge of finding Axis. Then upon corner Luthen in his antiques shop, she failed to stop him from slashing his wrist in an attempt to prevent himself from being tortured into revealing Rebellion secrets. He ultimately succeeded, as Kleya later broke into the hospital where he was being kept and removed him from life support.
But as if all that wasn’t bad enough, before he died, Luthen Rael passed along the Death Star intel he’d learned from Kleya, and she was able to make it off Coruscant and share the intel with the Rebels on Yavin IV. Adding insult to injury, Luthen learned this information from Lonni Jung, Dedra Meero’s colleagues at the ISB who logged into her account. Luthen killed Lonni, leaving Orson Krennic to take out his anger on her. Denise Gough continued:
It's important that a character like her has consequences. You want to play sides of her that elicit empathy from the audience, but not to the point where you completely forgive. Yes, she had a terrible childhood. She grew up in essentially a cult. She's brainwashed, but she shows no remorse. She doesn't ever say, 'I can't believe I did that.' To the very end, she's still Empire. So there has to be consequences.
With Lonni dead, Dedra was left to take the fall for the Death Star information leaking. She’s imprisoned in the same kind of facility where she sent so many enemies of the Empire before her. And as Gough sees it, while it’s ok to feel some sympathy for Dedra’s new status quo, it’s not enough to ignore all the horrible things she did in her life.
How Denise Gough Hopes Dedra Meero Will Return
After watching the Andor series finale, I shared my hope that we see Dedra Meero again in the Star Wars universe too. Denise Gough would like that too, although her idea for how that could happen is a bit cheekier than what I had in mind. She said:
I'm hoping that they'll wheel her out when she's 80, and she'll come out and she'll have set up a cult in the prison. And maybe there's a whole female Star Wars offshoot that can happen. But it would have to be written by Tony Gilroy.
I’m not sold on seeing an 80-year-old Dedra being wheeled out, but it is funny to think about. However, as I previously said, it would be interesting to see her being freed from prison after the Empire’s collapse and aiding the New Republic as a way to further atone for her crimes. But with Gough envisioning Dedra having no remorse for her actions even as she’s crying in that prison, maybe my idea doesn’t hold much stock after all.
In any case, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Lucasfilm finds a way to bring Dedra back, even if it’s in a book. Meanwhile, Ahsoka Season 2 and the recently-announced Maul: Shadow Lord are the next two upcoming Star Wars TV shows on the docket.
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