In episode 9 of Andor season 2, Mon Mothma delivers a rousing speech to the Senate, which sees her challenge the Empire's account of what happened on Ghorman. She concludes by declaring, "The monster who will come for us all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine."
Cassian Andor helps her escape the ISB agents out to silence her, and Mon heads to Yavin 4 to join the rest of the Rebellion.
It's an incredible hour of television, but somewhat contradicts Star Wars canon; in the animated Star Wars Rebels, Mon makes a different speech and broadcasts it across the Galaxy as she's transported to the Rebel stronghold by Gold Squadron.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Tony Gilroy says that he and writer Dan Gilroy felt constrained by having to adhere to Rebels' version of events, "We are hijacking canon," he admits. "In canon, she's rescued by the Gold Squadron and the speech that they gave in the cartoon, which was a canonical show, [is on that ship]. And Danny's like, 'Do I have to stick to this f--ing speech?'"
Rather than disregard that show's own inspiring message from Mon, they figured that if Cassian left her at his old safe house, Luthen Rael could arrange her transport with Gold Squadron (meaning she delivers a second speech after the first).
Gilroy is aware that Andor now lessens the impact of that Star Wars Rebels scene. "In a really sneaky way, we're minimizing what they did in Star Wars Rebels, but we're keeping it consistent," he acknowledges. "We're just saying you don't really know the whole story of what happened."
Genevieve O'Reilly says of the speech, "She has been working for the Rebellion deeply and intrinsically, and she's been vital to the Rebellion. But that is the moment that she crosses that rubicon and she crosses it with Cassian. That felt beautiful, that it is with him, given where we go in Rogue One. But it's that there's no turning back at that point. There is no going back."
Here's Mon Mothma's speech in its entirety for those of you who missed it (you can find our full episode recap here).
"Fellow senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries, I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart," she says. "I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous."
"The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped form our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman plaza. What took place yesterday, what happened yesterday on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide. Yes, genocide. And that truth has been exiled from this chamber. And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine."
Nine episodes of Andor season 2 are now streaming on Disney+.