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Grimace in Peace

The death of Captain Canady

Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi

Writer: Rian Johnson

Director: Rian Johnson

In the waning days of the Galactic Empire’s reign, survivors and leaders hand-selected by Palpatine himself headed out into the shadows of the Unknown Regions to reform, regroup, and rethink how best to rule the galaxy again. As Grand Admiral Rae Sloane said in the final moments of Chuck Wendig’s novel Aftermath: Empire’s End, “It’s time to start over. That is our first order. To begin again. And to get it right, this time.” The Empire was no more, but the First Order was born that day.

A lot happened between then and the events that led up to The Force Awakens. The First Order grew for sure. It made itself into a looming threat to the New Republic and then struck out in full force, scarring the galaxy forever. However, the First Order is a combustible mix of the old and the new. Leaders like the frenetic fascist General Armitage Hux and emotionally unchained Kylo Ren are new to the party; leaders like Captain Moden Canady have been around since the glory days.

When the First Order dreadnought the Fulminatrix arrives in all its splendor to finish off the pitiful Resistance forces in the opening minutes of The Last Jedi, Captain Canady is on the bridge with the glowering presence of a man who hates working for his younger and less experienced boss. Canady is surrounded by rookies. You get the sense that he spends his evenings staring into a bottle of space booze, reminiscing about the days when oppressing the galaxy was done right by tougher people. He’s not wrong. Sure, sure…let’s be clear…the First Order are the bad guys, but there is something interesting about the ranks of the First Order being filled in part by an older group at odds with the inexperienced, one-note upstarts they’ve been forced to work amongst.

Every fiber of Captain Canady’s being, excellently portrayed by Mark Lewis Jones, is that of a more skilled leader resigned to his position and, eventual, fate. His grimace seconds before he dies is one of the finest character moments in all of Star Wars. It’s a galactic case of the Mondays.

In the heat of the moment, you can almost forgive yourself for rooting for a man who has spent his entire career on the wrong side of the fight. Moden Canady was a proud and dutiful commander of a Star Destroyer during the Galactic Civil War. He kept his allegiance to the core principles of the Empire and transferred his loyalty to the rising First Order. You have to think that he understood where the likes of Rae Sloane and, General Hux’s father, Brendol Hux were coming from, and where they wanted to go. A chance to rebuild the Empire and serve again? Check and check. Unfortunately for Canady, it was not as easy as that.

Canady’s final moments in life were a poignant insight into the true state of the First Order and a biting comment on the evil buried within. It was mindless, chaotic, and without honor. (Yes, again, the Empire was nefarious. The bad guys for sure, but, to many in the working class ranks of the system, it was an honorable career.) Canady wasn’t just an old cranky guy tired of working, who felt he was surrounded by eejits. He was surrounded by them.

The younger ranks of the First Order were arrogant, ineffectual, and convinced of their own superiority with no merit. They were evil for evil’s sake and their leaders were driven by fear. In The Force Awakens, General Hux rages and postulates. He’s so over the top, it almost devolves into parody. But as The Last Jedi opens up and Captain Canady watches the advantage of a perfectly good surprise attack vanish at the hands of one puny fighter, we learn along with him, that the First Order is all rage and no substance. Which makes them even more dangerous: they don’t even comprehend boundaries to their actions. To someone like Canady, removing the Resistance might just mean the First Order can settle into a nice, comfortable place of control over the galaxy. What he feels is needed is structure to a galaxy with no true center any more. General Hux won’t stop with the Resistance. His fear will lead to the world being burned down.

So, Captain Canady’s glares, grunts, and muttered rebukes play out in several directions. On the surface, it’s highly entertaining office politics that stretch beyond a galaxy far, far away and land in your job’s conference room. But on a deeper level, it’s a look into a rising power that has no checks and balances. As the last Resistance bomber races toward its target, Canady’s precious dreadnaught, Canady screams for it to be destroyed but it’s less of a command and more of a hope. Canady is doomed, and he knows it. Years of proud service, experience, and knowledge mean nothing. As the fires race toward him, the look on his face displays a bevy of emotions but settles on one thought: “Of course, I’m about to die. I work for idiots.” Grimace in peace, Captain Moden Canady. You deserve it.