This Star Wars TV show has been a series of ups and downs for ambitious Imperial Security Bureau officer Dedra Meero (Denise Gough). In Andor season 2 episode 11, her career is on a definite downward trajectory – in fact, it would be no exaggeration to say it’s in freefall.

Having booked a place at the ISB’s top table with her relentless pursuit of Rebel spy Axis – and built up enough credit in the bank to survive a mission gone spectacularly wrong on Ferrix – the Andor season 2 story has seen Dedra tasked with destroying the credibility of Ghorman in the name of Imperial progress.

But now, following the massacre that prompted Mon Mothma to spectacularly quit the Senate, she’s back on Coruscant trying to make her mark once again. Unfortunately for her, in Andor season 2 episode 11, things don’t quite proceed according to plan…

Spoilers ahead! Proceed with caution if you’re yet to watch Andor season 2 episodes 11 and 12.

Why is everything going wrong for Dedra Meero in Andor season 2 episode 11?

Short version? Dangerous, unchecked ambition.

Dedra’s obsession with finding Rebel spymaster Axis – aka Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) – stretches all the way back to the beginning of Andor, and has been her main motivation throughout. She’s also taken a little too much interest in Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), though not quite as much as her late partner Syril Karn (played by Kyle Soller in the Andor season 2 cast), whose fixation on finding Cassian literally turns out to be the of him in episode 8, “Who are You?”. (It’s a cruel twist of fate when Syril learns the man he’s been obsessively hunting for years has no idea who he is – and is then shot in the head by a Ghorman resistance fighter.)

Even after Syril’s death, Dedra is incapable of letting Axis go, much to the consternation of her boss, Major Lio Partagaz (Dalgliesh’s Anton Lesser). Earlier in the season he criticised her for turning Axis into a cause célèbre – “Next time, catch them first. Then make them famous” – and passed the case to Supervisor Heert (Jacob James Beswick) while Dedra was running the Ghorman smear campaign. Dedra, however, still sees Axis as unfinished business.

If Dedra’s found and arrested Luthen, why is there a problem?

First there’s the fact she’s gone over Heert’s head, strategically choosing his day off to launch her sting operation on Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård)’s antiques shop. Then there’s the fact makes a complete mess of the arrest, so intent on enjoying the moment that Luthen has time to grab a 6,000-year-old Nautolan bleeder (dagger) and stab himself in the chest, leaving his survival – and therefore his potential for interrogation – in the balance. There isn’t even much evidence for CSI: Coruscant to investigate, thanks to Luthen’s impressively thorough efforts to sabotage his equipment.

Failure is not generally tolerated in the ISB (Imperial Security Bureau) so Dedra soon finds herself under arrest.

But it looks like Axis is just the tip of the iceberg in Andor season 2 episode 11?

You don’t get a visit from Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) – aka the man in charge of the Death Star project – unless you’re sitting on the naughtiest of naughtiest steps, and Dedra has wandered into career-ending territory.

Krennic knows that Luthen’s ISB mole Lonni Jung (Robert Emms) used Dedra’s code cert (effectively a password) to access top secret files about the Death Star. She claims she has no idea Jung got hold of her code cert, but Krennic doesn’t care.

He also knows that she’s read several intelligence bundles that landed in her office by accident – information about Ghorman mining schedules; research journals from Eadu (the facility where Death Star head scientist Galen Erso is based); printouts from a working group on Jedha (the source of the kyber crystals crucial to the Death Star’s operation)…

In short, guilty or not, Dedra is the source of a massive data breach, and Krennic doesn’t care if she’s guilty or not. “Your motivations are far less pressing than the extent of your betrayal,” he says coldly.

What does this mean for the rest of the ISB?

Although Luthen’s dead, Krennic realises that his daughter/assistant Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) is still a massive threat to his Death Star-shaped secret. Despite already being late for a meeting on Scarif (home of the Death Star plans), he orders a massive operation to apprehend Kleya before she can leave Coruscant, warning Heert – who’s taking the lead – that “failure will earn you a place in the ever-lengthening ISB death march”. Ouch.

That ultimately proves prescient, after Cassian, Ruescott Melshi (Duncan Pow) and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) successfully transport Kleya back to Yavin IV in the series finale – we already know there won’t be an Andor season 3.

As commanding officer, Major Partagaz takes responsibility and opts to take his own life rather than going into custody. Dedra, meanwhile, ends the season weeping in a prison cell.

For the Empire it’s a series of unfortunate events that will ultimately enable the Rebel Alliance to recover the Death Star plans and for Luke Skywalker to destroy the Empire’s pride and joy in A New Hope. Here’s how Andor season 2 episode 12 kickstarts the galaxy-altering events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Every episode of Andor is now available to stream on Disney+. If you’re yet to watch the show, here are 7 reasons to tune in, even if you don’t like Star Wars.