Hello Multiversity TV bingers! For this year’s Summer TV Binge, I’m tackling the first season of the SyFy/Amazon show The Expanse – – and for this, I’m enlisting a little help in the form of my boyfriend, Frank, who is a big fan of the show and its source books by James S. A. Corey. What’s going to make this fun? As I said, he’s a big fan of the show and has been watching it from the beginning, whereas I’ve never watched it before. Two people with different perspectives watching the same show, who also happen to be dating. Hilarity is bound to ensue.
The first part of the two part season finale gives us a glimpse into Julie Mao’s immediate past, while Miller and the Rocinante crew are confronted with a crisis that may have been staged while on Eros – – but for what end? Let’s dive into “Critical Mass” – – and as always, spoilers within.
Kate’s Five Thoughts
1. Firsts
Although this is the penultimate episode of the first season, there are some firsts for me in this episode, no doubt thanks to viewing the series on Amazon Prime. We get to see the first full play-through of the opening credits (which are, per Frank, still used for the season that just concluded on Syfy), and they are astounding. From bird’s eye views of Earth from space, computer generated construction of settlements on Mars and ships, concluding with plants aligning with a horizon, these are a joy to behold, and I’m surprised we did not see them sooner. This may have something to do with the fact that this episode and its successor, “Leviathan Wakes” aired back to back in their original telecast, but are split in viewing on Amazon Prime.
Another first that viewers can expect when the show moves to Amazon is more graphic nudity. [Warning: entering spoiler territory!] In the concluding moments of last week’s episode, and seen in the first third of this episode, Julie was found dead in her hotel room, naked – – and we do see full frontal female nudity. As Frank remarked to me “the first time I saw this, this scene was heavily edited.” If you’re like me and try to liven up your sad desk lunches at work with the latest on Netflix or Hulu, you may want to rethink this show in your office lunchtime rotations, as it will probably dip into NSFW territory.
2. Julie’s Story
It took us nine episodes to get here, but we finally find out the story of Julie Mao. This was a girl who grew up in the lap of luxury, but left it to find greater personal fulfillment with the OPA, being accepted as a Belter even though she is Earth-born. It’s just another day as a freedom fighter on the Scopuli for her until her latest ambush turns out to be the Anubis, which also just happens to be owned by her father. Then things go wrong. Very wrong. The ambush turns into a capture, and Julie is left for dead in an airlock while the Anubis crew slaughters everyone aboard the Scopuli. Of course, there’s snatches of the plot afoot to destroy the Cant (and we all know that happened), but Julie can’t hear them from her prison. She needs to stay alive, and resourceful girl she is, she makes it out of the Scopuli and on to the Anubis – – coming face to face with Blue Goo, the same Blue Goo that the Rocinante crew discovered. As if walking by your dead colleagues as you plot your escape wasn’t bad enough – – hey look, a bioweapon! Despite her best efforts, Julie’s skin comes in contact with said Blue Goo, and it ultimately takes her life in a painful physical and mental torture alone in a No-Tell Motel room on a strange space station. What a heartbreaking way to spend your final hours. She certainly deserved better.
And as if this means to her demise wasn’t enough, we discover that her father has something to do with Blue Goo, now referred to by Eros security personnel as “the proto-molecule.” Thus, Blue Goo was some sort of bioengineering, but for what end? Mr. Mao takes a moment to grieve for his daughter’s death, followed by a steely resolve to continue “as planned” with whatever those plans are. They don’t appear to be benevolent, that’s for sure.
Continued below3. Grief
Chrisjen Avasarala, wearing another fabulous winter ensemble (seriously, this woman makes manipulation look ever so stylish), makes a trip up to Alaska to see Franklin DeGraaf’s widower and pay her respects. While gracious, Craig makes it clear that he does not tolerate Chrisjen’s presence. As the kids say these days, he’s keeping the receipts and I don’t think he’ll fear using them in the future. He does grant Avasarala a moment alone in Franklin’s office to say goodbye, another funeral of sorts without the corporeal presence of the deceased, the first being the destruction of the Anubis (the killer of the Canterbury) by the Rocinante crew. It’s an interesting study in futuristic concepts of death and grief.
Of course, Chrisjen being Chrisjen, this isn’t a purely selfless act. She leaves with some souvenirs to remember her friend by – – pencils. Pencils that just happen to be portable hard drives (hey Apple, you see this? Apple Pencil 2.0?) with some plans that look very similar to what was containing Blue Goo on the Anubis.
You ready? You know you are. Wait for it….
4. Crisis on Eros-X
Miller and the Rocinante team really aren’t having a good go of things on Eros. First it was a shootout at the hotel, then it was finding a dead woman infected with some sort of alien virus. Everyone agrees it’s time to make tracks and get off this floating bean (seriously, the asteroid looks like one) as fast as possible, but a little complication called a radiation breach puts the shipyards on lockdown and sends civilians to shelter. Miller’s no spring chicken and is already smelling a foul plot afoot, an affliction which spreads to Holden (much to Naomi’s chagrin). 24th century Starsky and Hutch start sniffing around and discover that the security force for Eros was a newly hired private company that offered a lot of money up front and no questions asked.
Sure, that sounds legit. Real legit. About as legit as those people who keep leaving me voicemails offering me health insurance.
As Eros descends into humanitarian crisis, Miller and Holden know they have to get to the bottom of this, and get people out of the shelters they were ordered to, since they’re clearly not doing the job of sheltering people from nefarious elements. A point that is proven when 24th Century Starsky and Hutch break into one of the shelters and find the inhabitants writhing in pain, followed by a dose of rather strong radiation. This includes Miller and Holden.
Who’s possibly behind this? There’s a damning hint in Mr. Mao’s office: a map of Eros titled, “Protomolecule Evolution: Phase 2.”
I’ll let A Christmas Story’s Ralphie sum this up.
While we end this episode with Holden and Miller confronting the method of their deaths, there’s a stunning monologue by Fred Johnson that could have also served as a place to roll credits on a powerful emotional beat. Fred is waiting for his impending arrest by UN forces by recording a testimony about what he knows and proof that the OPA was not responsible for the destruction of the Donnager. And he has the receipts to prove it, thanks to a data cube he found from one of the deceased Donnager crew: Earth was responsible. Why? “I can hear the drumbeats of war. It’s the sound of lies and the love of power.” It remains eerie when entertainment filmed even only a few years ago drops a statement that fits easily in to our current cultural and political landscape.
Frank’s Five Thoughts
1. Daddy Dearest
We finally start getting some definite answers to some of the mysteries still hanging around in this episode. The most important answer we find out is that Jules-Pierre Mao, Julie Mao’s obscenely wealthy father, is a jerk. The episode begins with flashing back to a little before the beginning of the series and showing us Julie’s journey from the Scopuli to dead in the shower in a seedy motel on Eros. We see that she has quite a chip on her shoulder about her father, his wealth, and how he has exploited the people of the Belt and the Outer Planets, and she has gone full-blown OPA. Using knowledge of her father’s company, she is the one that points the Scopuli to hijacking whatever was being carried from Phoebe which of course sets off all of the events for the series. She ends up being the carrier of whatever it is to Eros, though we get a sense that Eros was the ultimate destination for it anyways.
Continued belowMao’s lack of reaction to the video feed of his deceased daughter and conversation with his scientist tell us that maybe Julie was right about her vendetta against him. He clearly is more interested in the results of his studies and has very little room left to mourn the loss of his daughter.
2. Splitting the Party
A few weeks ago I mentioned how much The Expanse reminds me of an RPG party going on adventures, so this week we get the classic situation that pisses off every gamemaster you know – the party splits up! As the *stuff* hits the fan on Eros, the Rocinante crew plus Miller are split on what they should be doing. Miller is devoted to finding out who killed Julie, and Holden also wants to see to the end of the story. Amos, probably based on his experience in similar situations, wants to just go back to the ship and get the hell out of there. So Miller drags Holden off on his crusade while Naomi, Alex, and Amos try to make their ways back to the Rocinante. Of course, none of it works out so easily. Remember kids, splitting up the party is bad!
3. Experiments
Throughout this episode we get a sense of the different experiments being run at the expense of the Belters (starting to see why they have so many grievances against the inner planets?). We have gotten hints of something clandestine being done on Phoebe. The stealth ships are out there doing deities know what (blowing up ships to start a war) for deities know who (Jules-Pierre Mao). Julie’s ravaged body is treated like just another experiment by her father and his pet scientist, Dresden; they must be particularly pleased to have a new sample since they lost the one on the Anubis. And now from the Ceres gang member turned “lawful” enforcer we find that his employer has been installing cameras and sensors all over Eros Station – obviously it it going to be the place for another experiment.
We also get a quick glimpse at what Mao and his scientists have been calling the creepy blue goo that killed Julie – protomolecule. What is the protomolecule? What does it do? Where is it from? What is Mao going to with it? (I’m just going to keep calling it the magic space fungus.)
4. Gaps and Voids
The Ceres gang member found by Holden and Miller is another call back to a lingering mystery from earlier in the series. This is one of the reasons why this show is considered as great as it is – it presents mysteries, but answers them solidly. Remember back when Miller and Havelock chased down the leaking water in Ceres and they found the tunnel rat was stealing water? The tunnel rat mentions that they were just moving into the spaces created by the bigger gangs leaving. I bet you thought they dropped that plot as Miller grew more obsessed with Julie. No, those gangs were hired away from Ceres to do dirty enforcement work on Eros and prepare it for whatever is planned here. The book also had a weird accompanying plot about Ceres Security finding all their riot gear missing. Turns out that also got shipped to Eros, which is what tips off Miller in the book.
5. Zap!
Near the end of the episode, Miller and Holden force their ways into one of the shelters that the populace were being directed to. They discovered the place filled with the ill and dying. It does not take a rocket scientist to guess that they had been exposed to the same thing that killed Julie. While they were trying to figure out what was going on, they get zapped with a massive dose of radiation. This is bad news for our intrepid heroes, and also leaves us questioning why.
Additional Thoughts
– When Fred Johnson discovers, via the Donnager’s battle recording, that the stealth ship engines were built at an Earth shipyard, he takes a page from Holden’s book and broadcasts the information throughout the system. Avasarala had also discovered this same information through her own means.
Continued below
– Naomi, Amos, and Alex have found themselves caught in the middle of a mob – see that’s what happens when you split the party!
– This was the first part of a 2-part finale that aired together – it’s kind of tough to just talk about this episode.
We’ll see you next week for the second half of the first season finale, “Leviathan Wakes!”
