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.
As we conclude this first season, our principals are fighting their way across the humanitarian disaster of Eros so that they can get off the rock. On Earth, the increasing drums of war have Chrisjen Avasarala spooked. Let’s dive into “Leviathan Wakes” – – and as always, spoilers within.
Kate’s Five Thoughts
1. Public Life and Private Interests
Back on earth, the public and private interests collide for Chrisjen on micro and macro levels. UN Secretary Errinwright reveals that the information Avasarala found on Franklin’s hard drives on fusion drives and stealth ships. Indeed, they were manufactured on Earth, but for a private contractor who just happens to be a UN security advistor to Errinwright . . . who also just happens to be Julie Mao’s father, birther of the proto-molecule that’s wreaking havoc and destruction on Eros. Eyebrow up? Eyebrow up.
Let it be known that The Expanse is both gloriously and problematically feminist in this regard – – gloriously feminist in showing how women leading the way, but also problematically feminist in showing women bearing the majority of emotional burdens, albeit by choice.
2. Watching the Game, Controlling It
Most of this episode on Eros is a cat and mouse game for the Rocinante crew and Detective Miller to avoid the CPM crew en route to the shipyards (and in the case of Holden and Detective Miller, avoiding sudden immediate death). So it’s nothing short of appropriate that Holden and Miller take refuge early on in one of Eros’s arcade parlors, and one of the CPM thugs remarking as he takes a game break from their search within that parlor, “The game’s rigged from the start.” Sure, he’s talking about the Erosian video arcades, but it’s certainly a larger statement on the lives of everyone in this universe, and this entire season. Every aspect of this life is a game, being controlled by a small number of players. Anatoly Sergievsky said it best in the musical Chess: “I’m only watching the game, controlling it.” Who’s watching? Who’s controlling? Who thinks they fall into the latter camp but really belongs in the former?
3. Loyalty
I don’t trust Amos five minutes with my houseplants, and he’s been a questionable sort all season. More than once I wondered if Holden was just going to leave him somewhere on Eros or to his own devices in space when his psychotic tendencies go one step too far. It takes the final third of this finale for him to show that he’s in with the Rocinante for the long haul, executing Sematimba as he and Naomi bicker over when to leave Eros (Sembatina wants off now, Naomi wants to wait the full three hours to see if Holden shows up as he promised).
Continued below“You say wait so we wait boss.” – Amos to Naomi. No doubt he’ll still be a difficult sort as the Rocinante crew travels on in further season as his violent tendencies will clash with the more pragmatic and pacifist Naomi and Holden, but he wants it clear to all where his loyalties lie. Will Naomi accept this demonstration of fealty, especially when it (in the form of Sembatina’s blood) is all over her face?
4. Secrets, Secrets, and More Secrets
Naomi, Amos, and Alex manage to get to the shipyards via an underground network of tunnels that the OPA used for smuggling purposes. Hmm. Cas: “You’re full of surprises.” Naomi: “I’ve heard that.” Here’s something else The Expanse has been dancing around all season: Naomi’s OPA ties. This revelation is no Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey finally hitting that lift at the end of Dirty Dancing. But it’s the closest confirmation we have so far of Naomi’s direct involvement with the outer space rebels.
(Did I just date myself by name-checking Dirty Dancing? Probably.)
5. Where Do We Go From Here?
According to Frank, this first season took up half of the first of The Expanse novels (also named Leviathan Wakes, so roll credits!) – – and a second season of the show had already been announced by Syfy. While the crew does make it off of Eros (yay!) with Holden and Miller alive (yay!), the Martian Kenzo (remember him? The stowaway that was trying to get Fred Johnson in the crosshairs but got himself in those instead?) is still wandering the desolate streets of Eros. He confronts a world now transformed by this protomolecule before it also swallows him whole. It’s one of many questions I have for season 2 (which I will dive into next week, more on that later). What is the purpose of this protomolecule – – is it just to start a war? What end does this impending war have for Earth – is it to quell the bubbling rebellion from the Belters, start something larger with Mars, or both? Do all the players who have had power this season know the extent of the responsibilities of that power, and the implications of their actions? It’s clear Chrisjen Avasarala is starting to see this – – will this revelation come at the cost of her life? (It is implied that she suspects Franklin DeGraaf’s death wasn’t truly a suicide, but arranged by the UN when he found out about the fusion drives.) With 13 episodes in Season 2, I doubt we’ll get all or even some of these answers.
Afterthoughts
– Miller is able to get some sweet, sweet, vengeance for the thugs that beat up Havelock. “He had it coming.” (Which then prompted this to get stuck in my head for the better part of the evening.)
– The heartbreak at Naomi’s realization that she won’t be able to save everyone on Eros, particularly a little girl that she befriended in their journey through the tunnels, is another rare show of deep emotion for her.
Frank’s Five Thoughts
1. Loyalties
This episode really focuses on the concept of loyalty. When Holden and Miller go gallivanting off, he gives a final order to Naomi to leave if he does not make it back within three hours. This order and the loyalty of the crew gets tested when Naomi, Amos, Alex, and Sematimba return to the Rocinante and Sematimba begins to push for them to depart immediately. This leads to a tense standoff on the Rocinante’s flight deck that ends with Amos ending it as Amos usually does – bullet to the brainpan.
Holden and Miller bond together over the shared experience of being brothers-in-arms against the forces making their move on Eros and them both suffering from the major radiation doses they received. The episode shows that they clearly have each other’s backs as they push their way through an increasing hellscape on Eros back to the Rocinante.
Finally, there was also a flash of the tribal loyalty seen among Belters. When Holden and Miller get to the docks, they find their way blocked by an assemblage of security forces – both the hired guns from Ceres and the more elite company mercenaries running the show. They arrive just as the Ceres gang members are raising a fuss about not being evacuated – they are ordered to board ships at the other end of the docks, and who really thinks there will be ships there? Leading the Ceres rabble is the OPA member responsible for spiking Miller’s former partner on Ceres. This man recognizes Miller and knows that the former detective should not be there, but does not reveal him to the security forces. Because Belters got to stick together against those inyalowda, sa sa?
Continued below2. Betrayals
Mirrored on the ideas of loyalty, we also see some betrayals that help tie up some loose ends and set up some tensions for the future. I already mentioned about how it clearly appeared that security forces leading the operations on Eros are planning to leave the Ceres thugs they hired to whatever fate the protomolecule has for them. But we also see a more intimate betrayal of the camaraderie among the Belters. Despite the fact the OPA member did not rat Miller out to security, Miller took the opportunity presented him to get revenge for the assault on Havelock. Just as the OPA member was ready to escape the gun fight, Miller shot him.
Amos shooting Sematimba, who from everything we saw was a pretty decent friend to Miller, is certain to cause tension and conflict as the show continues. Especially as Amos nonchalantly confessed to doing the deed.
3. Screw This
Probably my favorite scene in this episode was the point where Alex, who has probably been feeling pretty useless since he left the Rocinante, decided that he had enough. Enough of being shot at in gun battles. Enough of corpses filled with weird crystals. Enough of his ship being locked into a station that everyone is dying in. Enough of his ship pretending to be a gas freighter. Screw all that! He is a Martian Navy pilot in a Martian gunship. And he shows us exactly what that means as he breaks the Rocinante out of its confines and fly it out of Eros.
As this episode is the finale for Season One, it seems an apt time to look back at the entire season. The Expanse had a heavy lift for this first season – somehow it need to introduce viewers to an entirely new world (or solar system in this case) all the while giving us a reason to keep coming back every week. I believe it did quite well on this matter. We were introduced to some of the major players in the system – Earth, the Belt, and Mars (a bit) – and saw parts of the web of interdependability strung between them. We have met our main cast of characters, and the show took some time to flesh out the characterization of several of them. Finally we got introduced to the mystery that will drive the show forward through the next several seasons, while also getting answers to most of the lingering strands. At times the show did seem inscrutable as we were left wondering how different plots were connected, but in the end, most converged together as well as giving a place for the show to grow. When I first watched The Expanse, I had not read the original source material. After this finale aired, I began to listen to the main novels as audiobooks during my commute, so it has been really interesting coming back to the first season, with the foreknowledge of being seven books into the series.
5. Looking Ahead
As I noted above, I am currently caught up to the series of novels, as well as have watched the entirety of the show, so I know what is coming. I do not want to spoil anything for other viewers out there, but I think we can still extrapolate some insights. The point that this series ends is about the halfway point in book 1, Leviathan Wakes. It seems an interesting choice to split the book as they did, but what it allows the show creators to have spent time introducing us to the world, so that when the plot starts becoming more complex, they do not have to spend a lot of time introducing new concepts. Moving forward, expect to see the plot and action pick up considerably, while also getting some more time discovering more about our characters (and them discovering more about themselves). We will get introduced to more of the elements that make up the Expanse, including better look at the Martians and out to the Outer Planets themselves. We will find out more of what Jules-Pierre Mao intends to do with the protomolecule and even the original intent of the protomolecule. So strap in folks, it is time to turn on the juice and do a heavy burn.
Next week, I’ll be diving into The Expanse‘s second season, but it will be a solo journey, as Frank needs to step back due to work commitments. I hope you’ve enjoyed having him along for this ride (I sure have), and if you want to chat with him more about the show or the books, get in touch with him on Twitter!
