Andor has delivered plenty of surprises so far, but the biggest came with the unexpected appearance of Andy Serkis as Kino Loy, a hardened prisoner in an Imperial factory on Narkina 5.
Despite wanting to keep his head down and serve his time, he was eventually convinced by Cassian to stage a jailbreak after learning the truth behind their captivity: no one leaves, they stay there until they die. From the start, the actor has stolen the show, but he took that to another level in this past Wednesday's episode.
In that, Cassian and Kino found their freedom, only to learn that the only way to escape was by jumping into the water below. It was then the latter broke all our hearts when he told the future Rebel, "I can't swim."
Talking to Entertainment Weekly (via SFFGazette.com), director Toby Haynes was asked what became of Kino. "Oh my God, I wish I knew," he laughs. "I'm a fan from here on, so whether he comes back in this season or not, I don't know."
"I think it's open there with what happens to his storyline. He certainly wasn't killed. So we know that much," the director said on a slightly more serious note. "And then that's the interesting thing about [creator Tony Gilroy's] writing. If you're not dead, then who knows what's gonna happen to your character. So [his return] could happen."
Haynes would go on to say that Serkis originally handled the moment much differently. "The way that Andy played it, we were doing it where he's sort of angry and it's emotional that he's saying, 'I can't swim! I can't swim!'"
"But then he just suddenly played it in this serene way where he was smiling and he goes, 'I've done all this and I can't actually get out, I can't swim. This is where we say goodbye.' I thought that was absolutely inspired and that was great working with Andy that he would just chuck ideas at it and you wouldn't know it until he was actually doing it."
We're hoping poor Kino does show up either next week or in season 2 of Andor, but it's possible his fate will forever remain a mystery to us. That would be frustrating, but it would ensure the character remains at the forefront of all our minds moving forward, with fans no doubt debating what came next for years to come.
The penultimate episode of Andor arrives on Disney+ next Wednesday.