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Long but definitely worth the read.

Perrin through the looking glass - why Mon's husbands might be more than he seems

Before I begin: SPOILERS!

For both Season 1 and more importantly SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 OF ANDOR! Are we all adequately warned? Neat, let's proceed.

It seems to be the popular consensus that Perrin is a wastrel and a tool. That he's some looser that Mon got saddled with then she was 15 and now she's stuck with this vacuous man-child.

And, maybe? I can't dismiss it. Sometimes, a thing is what it looks like at first blush.

But I have a sneaking suspicion he isn't that simple.

Let me roll this back to when we first actually meet Perrin, in the fourth episode of Season 1 - Aldhani. Dinner Plans

Aldhani introduces Mon. Mon is visiting Luthen to inform him that she is under increased security scrutiny. Her cover is buying a birthday gift for Perrin. She then returns home, and is surprised by Perrin preparing a dinner table for guests.

During the conversation that follows, Mon acts blindsided by Perrin, but it is vital to note several things:

Perrin booked this dinner into Mon's calendar. It was added a month in advance, and after discussing it with Mon. Mon accuses Perrin of wearing her down, Perrin replies he didn't think anyone could do that.

Perrin is hosting the governor of Hanna, a former regimental pal of his. He is also hosting Sly Moore and other senior officials in the Imperial Administration. When Mon protests this on account of their political enmity, Perrin suggest the dinner may lead to them thinking twice in future about opposing her.

When Mon protests that Perrin didn't inform her of his guests, he says it's late to cancel, but ultimately will if she demands it. Mon replies "well played Perrin" as though he has won a duel with her, but doesn't make him cancel.

Mon demands not to be sat with her opponents. Perrin says this has already been taken care of - she is at the opposite end of the table. He jokingly says she is at the boring end of the table, while these guests will be with him at the fun end.

Mon, who is under direct personal stress about her rebel activities, goes off at him. He suggests she rests.

Perrin pivots to the rumor of a present. Mon says it is going back, and Perrin doesn't question this, but does ask whether everything must be boring and sad.

Okay, so that's a lot to unpack, but I feel like this interaction is where everybody gets their opinion of Perrin cemented. Because we're introduced to Mon first, and know her more from other Star Wars, we sympathize with her. But let's look at what we learned here:

Perrin talked to Mon in advance. He scheduled, managed, and arranged this entire dinner. Mon is busy - very busy - and so he has done all the work. Mon implies Perrin wore her down, but does that really sound like Mon? In the same conversation, she says "Don't make me pay attention or I will" - basically, don't get political or I will voice my stance and make a scene. That is not 'gets worn down' behaviour.

Perrin was in the military, and he was friends with the kind of people that are subsequently governors, and people like Sly Moore - Palpatine's chief of staff! Perrin is, on his own, well connected and could be engaged in a private career in the military or civil administration. But he isn't.

When challenged about his guests, Perrin's first reply is political. Perrin is saying that, by wining and dining these people, Mon may be able to butter them up and make them less hostile on policy. This is an astute observation given by how much of galactic politics isn't actually about policy, but instead about lining the various player's own pockets.

Perrin offers, if somewhat tongue in cheek, to cancel. Mon sees this as a barb, but he is actually making this offer. It's clear he'll be upset, but he says he will do it, but it is her decision.

Perrin has anticipated and accommodated Mon's protest regarding seating. He is keeping her as separated as possible from her opponents.

Mon isn't actually reacting rationally. She has a lot dropped on her, but she forgot the dinner. She is also the busy senator, while Perrin has arranged all this. While this is at one level dismissive of her, it is also the correct call to ensure she is fit to deal with the politically fraught dinner.

While his present comment feels petty, Mon has just stormed in, trashed his efforts, treated him as hostile from the first, and is now continuing to be petty. And Perrin's question - "Why must everything be boring and sad?" - implies that he lives a sad existence without levity, one somewhat imposed by Mon.

Mon is not a bad person. But, if we remove our pro-Mon bias, this was not a good interaction by her. We know why. But Perrin literally can't. She has closed that off from him.

The other part of this is that we're looking at this from the perspective of Mon The Rebel and not Mon The Politician. If we look at it from the political perspective, Perrin has used his birthday to leverage his personal connections to give Mon potential access to political rivals who she may be able to soften up using a personal connection to counter their notional "policy" differences. He has invited senior individuals and at least one Imperial governor. These are tools that The Politician could use. But Mon is reacting as The Rebel instead.

Other interactions need less direct and in-depth analysis, fortunately. But it feels important to dive in to that first scene and pick it apart a bit. Family Breakfast 1

The next meeting is the breakfast scene. In this scene, we see Leida and Mon argue. But first, Leida tries to fob Mon off, and pivots to ask Perrin to cover for her. Perrin tells her to talk to Mon. It culminates in Leida saying that Mon doesn't have to pretend to be a good mother.

Mon is hurt by this, but she is actually not a great parent. Between her political and rebel activities, we know that she is spread incredibly thin. Leida is Mon's daughter and feels unloved because of a lack of attention for her. Perrin cannot address that.

As the arguement progresses, Mon asks Perrin if he is enjoying the argument. He clearly isn't. Mon will then complain about Perrin's lack of support. The problem is, Mon is laying into Perrin here and blaming him. But Perrin cannot address the issue of Leida feeling unloved by her own mother. Perrin already forced Leida to confront Mon, but he cannot fix this for the two of them.

In fact, Perrin's reactions are a seeming gladness that Leida's feeling are finally getting an airing. He brought what is clearly a serious underlying upset for Leida to Mon's attention directly, and given Leida agency to address Mon without de-legitimizing Leida's feelings by taking Mon's side on a basis of parental authority. Mon is hurt by Leida's words. But Leida is being hurt by Mon's inability to be a mother.

That isn't a crime. Again, Mon isn't evil. But this is something she is failing at. If we look at this from Perrin's perspective: Leida is embracing conservative traditions he does not like, but he has to be her available parent because Mon isn't present. This is causing Leida emotional distress and anger, and Perrin encourages Leida to confront her mother about this. While we can argue parenting, this is not a bad way to Parent a 14/15 year old girl. He is providing Leida agency and autonomy to deal with a personal grievance. He can't discipline her, because she is already slipping away from him and Mon with her turn to ultra-conservatism. He can't take this to Mon because she doesn't engage in her home life - like, we literally just saw her forget her own Husband's birthday dinner!

A lot of people see it as Perrin and Leida ganging up on Mon, but this is again a very biased read if we remember that Perrin is the stay-at-home dad and Mon is always too busy for her family life. Car Ride 1

Perrin and Mon are in their car, returning from some occasion. Perrin mentions that Mon saw him talking to someone. He also mentions that person knew more about Mon's work than he did.

Mon says that must be embarrassing. Again, she is making this personally about Perrin. But this misses the reverse implication: Mon isn't sharing herself with Perrin. And now, when he asks why Mon thinks he wouldn't care about her foundations, she insults him by saying "It's charitable". Perrin engages with Mon's political profession. He is an ambassador for her policies. But he can't do that if he is getting blindsided.

I know this risks sounding like Mon bashing - it really isn't. The problem is that Perrin exists entirely within the context of Mon, and so we have to remove ourself from our enhanced knowledge of Mon and the bias that introduces when we assess Perrin. Mon clearly upsets him, as he asks Kloris - their driver - to take a faster route home. But, he also asks Mon for Kloris's name before addressing him. This calls back to Mon chiding him for not knowing Kloris's name earlier - it is a sign that he is being deferential to her - and doesn't argue with her or get confrontational - because he has read her as not being in a space to engage with that. Cocktails 1

Leida approaches Perrin asking to be excused. Perrin tells her to check with Mon. Again, Perrin is not cutting Mon out. We know he is acutely aware of the political. Leida dipping out on Mon is a bad look politically. Perrin knows that. And so he is letting Mon manage that, which instead bolsters her image by making her the engaged mother.

During Mon's conversation with Tay, Perrin is socializing and watching her. We are invited to read Perrin's regard as a suspicion of Mon and Tay sharing in infidelity. The second episode of season 2 might suggest otherwise - but we'll get there.

And, what we do see is Mon acting furtively in public. Watch her face. She isn't as subtle as she thinks. And Perrin clocks this. But, notably, so does one of the women he is talking with at the bar. She looks directly at Tay and Mon, only to be drawn back to Perrin by conversation. When Perrin finished with the women he intercedes with Mon - he knows Mon is up to something, and that people are noticing it. He also intervenes with the justification that there are guests requiring special handling. Again, a political justification. And he does so loudly enough for people to see that he, Tay, and Mon are all talking together. Cocktails 2

The scene starts with Perrin asking what Mon's objective is for the night. When Tay arrives - very jovially and with a very personal attitude - Perrin stresses that Mon is working. He says Tay is not on the menu - again implying he sees infidelity (Again, back to this later). But he also says she is pitching politics and not charity. Combined with a few later moment, I think Perrin has a strong suspicion about the fact that Mon isn't actually engaging in conventional charity.

Perrin is sarcastic about how Mon is "saving the empire from the Emperor." In response, Mon asks Tay if he remembers Perrin at 15. Perrin says "let's not" and Mon goes on, calling him "The academy firebrand".

The implication is that Perrin used to be every bit as political as Mon herself.

When Tay says that the PORD is having an effect, Perrin says the Rebels should have thought about that before blowing up Aldhani. This is, again, a political observation. The Aldhani attack is a direct threat to Mon's stated policies. And Perrin has already established he is helping Mon with that when he asks for the agenda.

The other interesting thing is that Leida comments about Tay always being around - and seems to be uncomfortable about how close Tay and Mon are. This needs revisiting in a moment.

Finally Perrin has sent a seemingly friendly Senator to find Mon, who is trying to capture votes. He is supporting her politics here. Later He is shown to be being a gracious host to her guests, to be encouraging people to talk to Mon about inconsequential questions - a way to get conversations started. He also seem to be unhappy when he describes his marriage to Mon as "traditional". Family Breakfast 2

Auntie Vel is here! We open on Perrin asking if Vel is going to find a husband. While we as viewers enjoy the joke that Vel is in fact a lesbian, it is worth noting that Perrin is acutely aware of the rising conservatism in the empire (via his own daughter, but also his pointed comments about the repercussions of Aldhani) and is image conscious. Vel is conspicuous in her lack of a marriage and embrace of her station in life. And Mon herself will say much the same when she says people have been asking about Vel, and that Vel needs to go play the spoiled rich girl. On the surface, Perrin's comment seems shallow and patriarchal, but we know he rejects Chandrillan marriage customs, and we've seen him viewing things with a political lens - so I think there is a possibility that he thinks Vel is putting her self at risk in the current political climate.

Perrin also informs Vel that Tay is present - he is keeping her in the loop, and letting her know a prominent Chandrillan is spending a lot of time with Mon. What happens if Vel is ambushed with that information on Chandrilla and doesn't have prior knowledge with which to respond? I think Perrin is managing image here, too.

Leida also describes Tay as "mum's old boyfriend". Mon asks if Perrin told her that, and Perrin stresses that he said "old". Leida is uncomfortable about Tay's presence. We don't know when Perrin told her, but it is fair for Leida to ask about a man who is very friendly with her mother, and who her mother has been talking to secretively during at least two major social functions - Watch Mon and Tay's body language in scenes without sound or subtitles; they could be flirting. So Perrin has answered Leida's question about her mother. That Mon feels uncomfortable seems odd. But our bias in this scene will lead us to assume that Mon's reaction is normal, when what is normal is her Daughter asking about her close friend, and her husband assuring said daughter. TradWife School

Perrin isn't in this scene. But Vel and Mon talk about Leida's turn. Vel asks if it's Perrin's influence. Mon says it isn't and that he is "strangely open-minded on this topic". It's also notable that Perrin was sad about him and Mon sharing a "traditional" - i.e. arranged - marriage. This is important for later. Car Ride 2

Mon throws Perrin under the bus. She accuses him of gambling (which we know he hasn't been) to cover her financial misadventures. This is the first time Mon says something that Perrin directly confronts or denies. It is also notable that Mon says Perrin promised not to gamble. This implies that Perrin has kept that promise, and that the accusation that he has betrayed his promise to her is something he cannot stand. In fact, the only time he ever raises his voice to Mon is when she accuses him of breaking his promise.

Notably, Perrin doesn't attack Mon. He doesn't accuse her of lying. He doesn't accuse her of making things up.

What does he say? "This is wrong, Mon. This is people trying to take you down by coming after me. You tell me who's saying this, and I'll tell you why."

His first reaction is to think of Mon's political situation and how he is a vulnerability to her objective. When Mon acts like he is lying, he starts the rational argument: "Where would I get the money?"

When Mon keeps acting like he has been gambling and loosing mountains of money, what does Perrin say? "Someone is lying to you." He is looking out for her. He knows he is innocent. He knows that Mon doesn't accuse him out of no-where. He "knows" someone is lying to Mon. Season 1 Coda

There are some other things that we know about Perrin:

He knows and has done business with Davo Sculdun (though it's implied to have been some time). This again shows that Perrin is prominently connected and could have a successful career of his own that he has chosen not to.

He is not shown to fight Mon when Mon is suddenly advocating for supporting Leida's TradWife ambitions. This is despite us knowing concretely that he doesn't approve of it. Instead he seems to follow Mon's lead when Mon decided to make a pact with Sculdun - someone that Perrin knows, which would include knowing Mon would never willingly make a deal with Sculden.

People focus on Mon's emotions in the Leida-Stekan scene. But look at Perrin. He looks like a thunderhead. He almost looks angry, in fact.

Season 1, in aggregate, has a lot of little threads which I think could point to Perrin being a loyal and politically intelligent husband whose biggest struggle is that Mon is freezing him out.

I also think, in light of his "academy firebrand" days as well as his comments about "saving the empire from the emperor" sparking that observation, he may have been sympathetic to the Separatists. While this seems unlikely on the surface, Mon directly says to Tay that "The Grand Vizier has infiltrated my Separatist Coalition meetings." - And she is notable for her support for separatist sympathizers. It is hard to believe that She and Perrin have fond memories of their youth if that youth wasn't somewhat aligned on issues like that.

I think there is a very real possibility that Perrin harbours Rebel sympathies, but feels unable to act on them - especially as he seems to criticize the Rebel attack on Aldhani because it had the effect of encouraging imperial overreach. And also because he seems to support Mon politically, and to try and build capital she can cash in for votes. Forced Weddings and a Funeral

I'm dealing with this as one, big event.

We open on Perrin schmoozing guests with Mon. When an issue with parking arrangements is mentioned, he correctly identifies the cause, and goes off to address it. We again are seeing Perrin act as Mon's soft-power counterpart.

We also see him talk to Davo Sculden about the Bride and Groom to be. He shows a far more caustic attitude about Leida than he is implied to have had the year prior. The implication the year prior is that Perrin dotes on Leida. But here, he is directly asking whether Stekan will be able to manage Leida's impulses. It is worth remembering that Perrin was part of an arranged marriage at the age of 15 - a year younger than Stekan. He is saying Stekan will either learn of be led. And it suggests that Perrin might have had his life kicked out from underneath him by Mon's ascent to the senate. But it also suggests that Perrin has deep wounds from it all. Again, this is deeper than him just being a spoiled upper-eschelon lay-about.

The next morning, Mon and Perrin are managing their ballroom for a dinner and a dance to come. In fact, Perrin is very closely watching Luthen and Kleya. When talking about the Chandi Merle, he says it's a bit gross - "probably worth more than the house" - as though it is a crudely extravagant display of wealth. This is also at odd with the idea that he's a party boy.

He and Mon share a cup of tea. A single cup. They seem more at ease. He says the previous night was a success. This is again a case of him being actively involved in managing major events for the family - all of which are inherently political events.

And then he says to Mon "You should tell your boyfriend to back off the nog." - notably, he isn't actually accusing Mon of infidelity. He isn't being angry at her. He was, in fact, very cordial a moment before. What he is doing is telling Mon what people are saying about her. He's being a little mean about it, but he's telling her that people think she is cheating with Tay. He is telling her that Tay is acting erratically - in fact that Tay is not just getting drunk but that he should know the customs well enough to not to be getting drunk from experience. That Tay's home life has fallen apart, and he seems to be spiraling. And interestingly, has one serious dig at Tay. Tied in to the moments in Season 1, this makes me think he has never suspected Mon to be cheating, but has haboured suspicions about Tay's reliability and his motivations, which Season 2 appear to justify. Perrin might actually be a good judge of character.

Perrin, with a much more serious and personal tone, say of Tay: "He was always weak". We will immediately see this proven true, as Tay folds under his life pressures and extorts Mon, leading to his assassination by Luthen (well, by Cinta on Luthen's orders).

Again, it is Perrin informing Mon of something that could sideswipe her. It's him managing her image and directly spelling out the implications of the circulating rumor. It's him identifying a serious potential problem and flagging it for her.

Next is the wedding hike, and we get a suggestion of how Sculdun and Perrin may know each other. Perrin says that the estate used to be closed as a private hunting reserve. That there used to be signs to keep the poachers out. Sculdun says he remembers the signs. Perrin says they didn't keep Sculdun out, and that his willingness to ignore such signs has suited his business well. It sounds like a criticism. Like Perrin dislikes Sculdun - again notable in light of his willingness (as far as we see) to let Mon push this wedding.

Next is Perrin's speech. He says that anxieties and sad tidings are an inevitability of life, but that we must look to find and cultivate the joy in life in the face of that - joys big or small. Interestingly, this parallels with Cinta's comments that she and Vel share "what's left" after the fight. It parallels the positive parts of the life we see Brasso, Bix, and Wilmon enjoying on the run, and particularly that Brasso and Wilmon are finding happiness in Mina Rau. He speaks of "hope" and of "trying". His speech, perhaps in the context of a child wedding, is giving voice to to themes that are important to the Rebellion, and which this series in particular embraces. It suggests that Perrin sees what is happening in the galaxy, and may feel helpless to do anything, including because his wife is one of the few voices trying to do good, and is always defeated.

His speech also addresses directly Leida and Stekan - Sculdun's is about how he acquired the Chandi Merle and had an adventure and is now giving this gift to the couple; it's an interesting contrast.

Finally, when Mon is having her absolute implosion and trying to dance through it as she spirals, Perrin correctly clocks what is happening and stops dancing when he notices her. He is clearly worried about her. Bringing It All Home

So, what am I saying? I think, when we look at Perrin, it is very easy to fall into a surface level assumption. And I think it is very possible that is who he is.

But I also think that his seemingly constant political awareness, support for Mon's political efforts even in the face of his own apparent sense of hopelessness, his desire for finding happiness and joy amidst the growing darkness, his apparent history of political activity, the fact he is well enough connected to have pursued a very illustrious personal career that he has forgone, his apparently keen observation, and his distaste for people like Sculdun and Tay who he seems to identify as self-serving could point to something much deeper which has been buried as a result of his marriage to Mon, and which she is not seeing because of her own flaws when it comes to her private life.

Perrin has been taken away from his homeworld, and lives a life in which he has very little autonomy. Despite that, he seems to be loyal to Mon, though not a total push over. He seems to have a degree of personal honour and ethics as the only things we see him speak about with meaningful emotion are Mon's accusation he broke his promise to her, Sculden's acquisition of the Chandi Merle, and Tay's apparent lack of personal moral fibre.

Maybe I'm being wishful. But especially now we see Tay - who was very likable in Season 1 - extorting Mon, it would feel thematically appropriate, and be the kind of twist I could see Gilroy & Co. pursuing, for Perrin to reveal himself as supporting the Rebellion or being unfavourable of the Empire.

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