Hello Multiversity TV bingers! For this year’s Summer TV Binge, I’m tackling the SyFy/Amazon show The Expanse, based on the novels by James S. A. Corey. My boyfriend Frank joined me for our look at the first season, and as we move into the second season, I’m flying my own Rocinante all alone.
Detective Miller is homeless and friendless after his actions during the raid, Avasarala makes a connection, and Naomi has some fun. Let’s dive into “Static” – – and as always, spoilers within.
1. Persona Non Grata
This show wastes no time in dealing with Miller’s actions from the end of “Doors and Corners” – – the murder of Dresden the technician who knows the most about the proto-molecule. Miller is not only in cuffs with the rest of those from the comm stations, he’s nearly beat up by Holden and then kicked off of Tycho Station. Even the resident psychopath Amos knows Miller stepped out of line:
“So I’m dipped in shit right now?” — Miller
“This shit is permanent.” — Amos
Why, Miller – why? What was your endgame with your decision to kill Dresden?
2. Ovary Power
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the heart and strength of this show is its women. Naomi, a voice of reason and a conscience for Holden. Bobbi, a unifying force for her Martian cadets. Chrisjen, a bureaucrat discovering her conscience and using her power to guide that conscience, consequences be damned. Even the Tycho Station bartender holds her own, cutting Miller off from his alcoholic descent into despair and cleverly handling some Tycho teens who seem to have just discovered booze and women. While this season aired before the #MeToo movement, watching it now with that in mind makes the ladies of The Expanse even more significant. They own their voice and their agency, no matter the risk to themselves.
3. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
I’m thrilled to see Naomi have some room for fun after the raid. She and one of the other station residents, Tis Drummer, play a little racquetball and go dancing (scenes nicely contrasted with Miller shaving and Alex replaying his simulation of the attack over and over).
Once physical survival is assured, one’s mental and emotional survival should be next. Frank and I have been catching up on Fear the Walking Dead this week, and in one episode, a pair of survivors is out looking for food for their compound . . . in a library. While one half of the pair starts gathering up books in lieu of food, the other finds the action rather silly. The goal is food, not literature. Not so, the partner responds: people need more than food now. They need stimulation for the mind to survive.
Two different shows in my viewing repetoire dealing with the same essential question: what constitutes survival?
4. Free Will Vs. Determinism
Here’s another deep question posed in this episode via the (newly shaven) Miller: “You’re born into it man, one side or the other. You play it out.” In short, Miller believes free will does not exist, and that your role in life is scripted on the stage, with no room for improv. In his search for answers, he finds himself at the headquarters of the Space Mormons, who show off their ship, the Nauvoo. Is he looking for a quick escape from Tycho or a longer-term change in faith?
Neither. He’s back on Tycho looking to dig deeper into the mysteries of Eros, because running away with the Space Mormons won’t do a damn thing there. He killed Dresden not because he was crazy, but because he was making sense. Tactics aside, Miller was on to something – – Holden and company discover during interrogations of their Thoth prisoners that the proto-molecule is growing. It needs to be stopped.
5. You’ve Got Mail
Well, Chrisjen goes through with it. “It” being a message to Fred Johnson looking for his help — in the form of evidence — to stop an impending Earth-Mars war. He is certainly shooketh (as the kids say these days), but Tis Drummer reminds him of the consequences should the OPA find out that he is now helping a woman that the Black Sky faction tried to kill (on his orders).
Continued belowThe sides of Earth, Mars, and Belter, are getting greyer. Lines are becoming less defined in the sand by the minute. You’ve heard the saying, “politics makes strange bedfellows?” Here is Exhibit A.
Afterthoughts:
– I love the Tycho station bartender’s Helena Bonham Carter-cum-Bellatrix Lestrange look. Are there goth clubs on Tycho?
– Naomi and Holden have their first lovers’ spat as they disagree on who Dresden was. By the end of the episode, things are right in paradise.
– Miller shaved and I am rather distraught about this, but the mohawk is mighty nice.
Line of the Episode:
Avasarala: “Please give it to me and go, there’s no need for us to hang together.”
Cotyar: “Oh I’m sure they’ll hang us separately. You’ll get a better view.”
See you next week for “Godspeed” and tell me what you thought of this episode in the comments!
