With next season only being 12 episodes too and supposedly bringing us up to Rogue One I guess we're not going to get too many adventures of Cassian. This is honestly something that they could have many seasons of with different missions in 3-4 show arcs.
I'm loving it and want more.
Two seasons would be a mistake at this point. I'm hoping momentum builds in reception to the show and they consider expanding the story. I would be happy to have five seasons with one for each of these five years before Yavin.
Before this episode I started considering who is or was Luthen Rael. In this episode he explained what it's like to be him but no details. He clearly is a skilled pilot, a decent hand-to-hand fighter, good with a blaster, very adept at subterfuge and has access to funds and deep intelligence sources. His 15-year timeline mean's he launched his plan around order 66 and the birth of the empire or maybe a year before If Luke and Leia are 19 at the Battle of Yavin.
Maybe he's a reverse Dooku and had intent to stand against the republic, but in opposition to Palpatine. Maybe he was aware the clone war was a lie but had access to the slush of republic funds and resources to be ready to go nuclear once Palpatine crushed the republic and formed the empire. He could have been deep in republic intelligence similar to Tarkin but with such a deep cover that few people were aware of him or think he's dead.
I am wondering if his antiquities are all genuine or if fakes are part of his scheme. If its all genuine he has crazy Indiana Jones style connections throughout the galaxy. Either way he has some culture and enough schmoozing to pull it off.