The second season of Andor has arrived amid near universal acclaim, as the celebrated series completes the link between the events of the first season and the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The premiere episode picks up one year after the explosive conclusion to Season 1, which saw protagonist Cassian Andor formally join the rebellion after a bloody uprising on the planet Ferrix. It picks up the action in media res which naturally brings with it a number of unanswered questions.

Many of them can be picked up by inference, however, which includes the mysterious identity of one of Andor’s contacts. “Porko” is the name he gives midway through the episode as he arrives at a rendezvous with a stolen Imperial ship. Events of the episode hold that Porko was killed, meaning he’ll likely never appear onscreen and may not be mentioned again. He provides vital context for the events of Andor, however, as well as delivering a subtle Easter egg for fans of anime director Hayao Miyazaki.

Porko Is a Pilot Like Cassian Andor

He Belongs to the Axis Network, Which Will Become the Rebel Alliance.

“One Year Later” opens with Andor stealing an experimental TIE Avenger, which serves as the precursor of the classic TIE fighters from the original Star Wars trilogy. He takes the ship to a rendezvous point on a jungle planet that turns out to be Yavin 4, the site of the secret Rebel base in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Instead, he walks into an ambush from ostensible fellow Rebels in the Maya Pei Brigade, who have lost their leader and are in desperate straits. They claim that Porko “was not very friendly,” and suggest that they killed him when he tried to make a run for it.

It’s likely that the Maya Pei gang did exactly as they claim, and that Porko won’t be seen or mentioned again in the series. That’s very much in keeping with Andor’s stated goals of exploring the anonymous figures who helped create the Rebellion, and who often died without anyone realizing the magnitude of their sacrifice. It also aptly demonstrates the chaos and ineptitude that reigned in the early days of the Rebellion, with Cassian on the verge of being killed by people who are ostensibly on the same side. Details about Porko himself are almost nonexistent besides his name and his position as Andor’s contact in the Rebellion.

Porko was a pilot, and would presumably take control of the TIE Avenger while Andor took his ship, which crashed on Yavin 4 and was inoperable when Andor arrived. It also strongly implies that Andor trusts Porko, which means a great deal considering his past and his extremely dangerous assignment. Beyond that, it’s been left to future installments to flesh out his past, and considering that Andor already has a full roster of characters to explore, adding a new one who has already served his purpose doesn’t feel likely.

Porko Demonstrates the Precarious State of the Rebellion

Andor’s Showrunners Also Slip in a Clever Easter Egg

The episode’s big reveal comes not with Porko, but with the forest moon he’s chosen as a meeting place. Four years before the Battle of Yavin, there’s no sign of a Rebel base, and presumably Andor’s encounter there sets the stage for the Alliance to arrive in force before too much longer. Porko becomes an unfortunate casualty in that process, which will presumably continue to play out as Season 2 continues.

With the remnants of the Maya Pei Brigade presumably still on-planet, the Rebellion may need to overlook their killing Porko in the name of gaining the base from which they are destined to launch the successful attack on the Death Star. In addition, the character’s name serves as a quiet nod to an anime masterpiece. Hayao Miyazaki’s 1992 film Porco Rosso focuses on an Italian fighter pilot who hunts air pirates in an alternate version of 1929. Thanks to a curse, he possesses the head and features of a pig, hence his name. Since Andor’s Porko is himself a pilot, and since the meeting involves the exchange of an experimental TIE fighter, the reference is hard to miss.

For all intents and purposes, Porko is a part of the scenery rather than a proper character. He constitutes one of those little details that helps a massive creative universe like Star Wars feel more organic. In this case, he helps paint a picture of the Rebellion at a crossroads, when Luthen Rael’s “Axis network” of spies and guerrillas catalyze into something more. Porko’s death demonstrates how messy and tragic a process that could be, and how the Rebellion made a lot of bad mistakes before becoming the fighting force that toppled the Empire.

New episodes of Star Wars: Andor stream every Tuesday on Disney+.