Andor emulates a key plot point from Game of Thrones with one small detail in season 2 episode 9

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Andor season 2 — (Image credit: Disney)

Andor season 2 episode 9 may already be one of the highest-rated Star Wars TV episodes of all time (and the second season is the franchise's highest-rated live-action project on Rotten Tomatoes, too), but viewers are still spotting neat little plot details that elevate the show even further.

One fan has pointed out that a particular blaster serves a similar purpose in the narrative to the catspaw dagger in Game of Thrones, passing from hand to hand in a kind of poetic arc. "Kathleen [Kennedy, Lucasfilm president] needs to pilot an AC130 filled with money to Tony Gilroy's house and beg him and his team to run Star Wars because this is insane," they wrote on Twitter, alongside a compilation of its appearances throughout both seasons of the show. "Somehow they managed to pull off the catspaw dagger from Thrones/HotD."

In season 1 episode 3, during their clash on Ferrix, Cassian takes Syril Karn's blaster, which then travels with him to Aldhani. He later gives it to Ruescott Melshi (a familiar face from Rogue One) after they escape from prison on Narkina 5. Fast forward to season 2, when Vel is doling out weapons to a group of rebels. She asks who a blaster belongs to – and it's none other than Melshi's.

Melshi, who's played by Duncan Pow, is part of the team that rescues Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) from the labour camp on Wobani at the start of Rogue One. As we mentioned before, he also made an appearance in Andor season 1, when he was one of Cassian's cellmates in prison. The pair escaped together in the first season's tenth episode, but this is the first time we've seen him since. It's ironic, then, that an Imperial weapon ultimately belongs to the person who helps kickstart the whole operation to destroy the Death Star.

As for the catspaw dagger, this is a Valyrian steel dagger that passes from hand to hand throughout A Song of Ice of Fire. Originally belonging to House Targaryen, it's passed from Viserys to his daughter Rhaenyra in prequel series House of the Dragon, before his wife Alicent gets hold of it and gives it to her son Aegon (and his brother Aemond steals it off him in season 2). In Game of Thrones, it was used in the attempted assassination of Bran Stark back in season 1 and then changes hands between Ned, Littlefinger, Bran, and Arya, before Arya uses it to kill the Night King. Talk about full circle.

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