Dan Gilroy, brother of Disney+'s Andor creator and executive producer Tony Gilroy, wrote several episodes of the series. He was responsible for one of the show's most impactful sets of episodes, centering around the Ghorman Massacre. The story arc closed out with Bix Caleen, leaving her love, Cassian Andor, for the benefit of the Rebel Alliance. Gilroy shed light on Bix's true motivations for her departure, a reason that was more important than her being pregnant with Cassian's child.
In Andor Season 2, Episode 9, Cassian wakes up with Bix nowhere to be found. He spies a datapad on the kitchen table and plays its message, left by Bix while Cassian was asleep. As Dan Gilroy explained to The Playlist Podcast, the fact that Bix was pregnant didn't factor into her decision to walk away from Cassian, calling it "secondary" to her actual goal:
"I never saw the pregnancy as the prime motive. That was secondary. I never even thought of it. I thought of it as sacrifice, and all the sacrifices in the show, she's certainly not dying, but her sacrifice is fairly high. And the thing about all these characters who sacrifice? In a way, they're martyrs, and in a way, the equivalent you could find is in religion. Believing something is worth dying for is a belief in the equivalent of a religion, because you have to believe there's something greater than yourself."
Andor's core message is about the many forms the battle against tyranny takes and the sacrifices that must be made in support of that battle. With his statement, Gilroy cuts to the heart of what Andor is all about. Bix truly believed Cassian's destiny was victory, and if his love for her stood in the way of it, then the entire galaxy could suffer.
Earlier in Andor's second season, Bix drags Cassian into Yavin 4's rebel encampment to meet with a Force healer for a blaster wound that wouldn't get better. The somewhat peculiar woman (whom viewers have theorized also had a chat with Luke Skywalker) approaches Cass and drops a bombshell that he frustratedly refuses to believe at the time, but Bix understands is his fate:
"I sense the weight of things, things I can't see. Pain, fear... need. Most beings carry the things that shaped them. They carry the past. But some... very few... your pilot... They're gathering as they go. There's a purpose to it. He's a messenger."
Gilroy remarked on what went into writing that moment and how it exposes the way it illuminates Bix instead of Cassian:
"When I came to write the Force healer scene, you're certainly looking at it from Cassian's point of view. 'I don't really believe in this. Who are you? Get your hand off my shoulder.' But then I started looking at it. We looked at it in the writers' room. But then as I was writing the block, I was going, you know, 'Bix is watching this and it's really landing."
As longtime Star Wars fans will surely know, the healer's words, however cryptic, were correct. In 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, to which Andor is a prequel, Cassian Andor gives his life to transmit the Death Star plans to the Tantive IV. In turn, the original Star Wars film from 1977, A New Hope, shows the fruits of Cassian's selflessness. The Rebel Alliance uses those schematics for the Empire's most fearsome weapon to destroy it.
In the end, Cassian seems to have begun to buy into the Force healer's prophecy. One of the final shots of Andor sees the Rebel Captain striding toward his ship, but not before exchanging a knowing look with the healer. Devotees, as well as Cass himself, know that this is his death march. Bix understood every element of this and held it with her. It was how she knew that any affection she felt for Cassian and any dependency on him that she might need as she raised their child were outweighed by Cassian's profound and final purpose.
Widely regarded as flawless (apart from one socially insensitive character death), Andor wrapped up its acclaimed two-season run on Disney+ in May 2025. The show starred Diego Luna in the title role as Cassian Andor, Adria Arjona as Bix Caleen, Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael, and Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma. Rounding out the main cast are Faye Marsay, Elizabeth Dulau, Kyle Soller, and Denise Gough. Andor is streaming on Disney+, along with its direct follow-up, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. After Andor, Lucasfilm has several more Star Wars projects in its pipeline, including the franchise's first theatrical release in seven years, another season of Ahsoka, and several animated installments.
A Word on Bix & Cassian's Sacrifices
Several decades later, in another part of the galaxy, Rose Tico bucks up her new friend Finn in 2017's Star Wars: The Last Jedi by telling him, "That's how we're gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love."
This connects to the actions taken by Cassian, and especially Bix, throughout Andor and Rogue One. Bix never had much in her life, but she had Cassian. Even when he disappeared for months, running missions for Luthen Rael, she never doubted that he would come home to her.
It was that home, along with her comfort, companionship, and safety, that Bix relinquished to motivate Cassian to stay in the fight. Cassian was dead set on abandoning the Rebellion after what he had lived through during the horrific Ghorman Massacre in previous episodes. He was clear that remaining with the Alliance wasn't more important than what he had with Bix.
Bix did not share his feelings on the matter, as she stated in her video message to Cassian with crystal clarity:
"I have to go away. I'm not sure where or for how long, I just know that I can't stay here with you now. I believe what you said. It is a choice. It just can't be me. I can't be the reason you leave here.
If you ever gave this up for me, I'd... I'd never forgive myself. We have to win. We have to beat them. And I believe you have purpose in making that happen. I need to believe that.
So, I'm choosing for the both of us. I'm choosing the Rebellion."
Bix chose to leave of her own volition, putting the safety of the galaxy above her love for Cass. It's ambiguous whether Bix knew she was pregnant; the show doesn't elaborate. This is supported by Dan Gilroy's comment that he "never even thought of" the pregnancy when crafting the moment.
Disney+'s Andor repeatedly put all of its characters through a lot. The intent was to show that even if someone is good, evil, or neutral, they all have feelings and goals and form attachments to others, even through immense pain.
Bix survived extreme psychological torture, recurring nightmares, and an attempted assault. She experienced almost all of these hardships, wishing and waiting for Cassian to come and rescue her. This makes what she did in Andor Episode 9 all the more tragic. Cass was the woman's only source of stability that she had left, and she still chose the needs of the many over the needs of the few.
Ultimately, this is what a lot of Star Wars is about: the belief that giving oneself over to the side of good in any way one can is the best thing anyone can do.
This point is hammered home by the Andor's last scene. Back on Mina-Rau, Bix walks past Cassian's droid B2-EMO into a serene wheat field. The camera lingers in front of Bix, as she gazes into the sky, forlornly but tenderly holding tight to the child that Cassian will never get to know.
Jennifer McDonough has been a writer at The Direct since its 2020 launch. She is responsible for the creation of news articles and features. She also has a particular affinity for action figures and merchandise, which she revels in discussing in the articles she writes, when the situation calls for it.
