Oh, my god, Episode 8! I completely, completely lost it at the final revelation of:
This is Naomi Nagata -- Tell James Holden -- I am in -- control. And then her altered broadcast looping over the credit sequence. It hadn't fully clicked for me what Naomi was doing until we first heard her altered transmission in full. I know she was trying to alter it some form, but hadn't realized her cleverness with it. NAOMI NAGATA! It sounds hyperbolic, but the last minute of the show + credits is now one of my favorite moments of television. Naomi has been through absolute hell this season, mostly emotional and then physical, and for her to go through all that, and still find a way out of a seemingly unwinnable situation? Goddamn chills. It felt like she got her power back, when she'd been at the mercy of the Free Navy all season.
S8 has definitely been Naomi's season, and Tipper has completely outdone herself, particularly with Episode 8. As a credit to Tipper along with the writing, it could have easily been quite grating for Naomi to be trapped by the Free Navy for a season and doing a lot of crying throughout, but instead there's still an incredible strength to Naomi even as she tries not to crumble from her past catching up with her present, along with her love of Holden and the Roci crew. The casting choices for Marco and Filip Inaros were incredible, along with great writing to support both characters. Marco is a charismatic, narcissistic, gaslighting piece of shit, but you could see why he and Naomi were once together -- the flashback with Marco, Naomi, and baby Filip was a gut punch. Filip torn between his parents in S8 and tentatively trying to reconnect with Naomi has lead to some beautiful and heartbreaking scenes.
Gee's Drummer has been another highlight this season, and man, those screams of rage when she thinks Naomi is dead. Go get 'em, Drummer. The dynamic between Amos and Peaches has also been great, with one of my favorite scenes of the season being Peaches explaining her poem (ending with ''monsters aren't afraid"), and Amos realizing his own lack of fear means how badly he needs to be back with the Roci crew to keep his moral compass in check. Amos' character development between S1 to S5 has been such a gift.
I will say, though, this season has been my least favorite of the five. That isn't because it's bad, it's just my favorite aspects of
The Expanse are the Roci crew together + terrifying protomolecule antics/alien which haven't been at the forefront of this season. That being said, for what little I know of the books, I know there is a lot of important set-up happening, so there should be some good pay-off in S6. One disappointment I had with the earlier episodes is that we saw some of Marco's plans from his POV (it was pretty clear that there would be more than one asteroid), whereas I would have preferred if we'd stuck with Avasarala unraveling the mystery, before the full extent of the horror is revealed. As others have said above, I feel like the scale of the devastation on Earth hasn't fully come across on-screen.
It's an interesting point. I know I'm going to sound obnoxious, but browsing on your phone whilst watching a film or a television show seems so odd to me. Using you phone during ad breaks I can 100% understand, but during a streamed show that has no ad breaks? Bizarre. That being said, I know people who multi-task while watching tv (they might be finishing up other physical work so they put a light comedy on, or older family members might be do a crossword), but they never do it with anything really plot-heavy. I'll sometimes put on Critical Role on while I'm cleaning/doing light work that doesn't involve a lot of concentration, but as Critical Role has a lot of down time, it doesn't always matter if it's not my primary focus. At any rate, to each their own, but I can't get my head around the phone thing!
