Bull is also a major belter character in the books too from what I understand who while not in season 3's mutiny arc, should have been. I figure they'll say he was there and off screen. I'd be cool if he joined the current cast
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The Expanse Season 5 |OT| Last Man Standing
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Bull is also a major belter character in the books too from what I understand who while not in season 3's mutiny arc, should have been. I figure they'll say he was there and off screen. I'd be cool if he joined the current cast
I do have to echo sentiments that this season has been a big dud, at least for me. I have no problem with a slow story or focusing on space politics. But, the reason I never read past the first novel is because the politics never seemed that deep or interesting. So far, the season has just been character's spinning plates outside of maybe Amos and Naomi. Bobby and Alex have been chasing the same ship pretty much all season, Holden is a wet towel whose done nothing but also chase the same ship most of the season, Amos gets some development which is nice but could use more, and Naomi is pretty much the only one that's actually getting to do stuff both plot and characterwise.
If you want to have a season more focused on the politics, then do that. But, that's not what we're getting. This isn't Space: The Wire or Space: Game of Thrones, hell its barely DS9 with regards to its political depth. Either go hard on the more human political angle or go track down ancient alien mysteries, don't just sit there doing neither.
If you want to have a season more focused on the politics, then do that. But, that's not what we're getting. This isn't Space: The Wire or Space: Game of Thrones, hell its barely DS9 with regards to its political depth. Either go hard on the more human political angle or go track down ancient alien mysteries, don't just sit there doing neither.
Count me with the people who's sadly kind of disappointed with this season. Regardless of how much is being set up for S6, it just feels so lifeless.
I was fine with the first three episodes being setup, and the events of the fourth one should have had MASSIVE repercussions, but it just feels like it wasn't that big of a deal, aside from Avasarala's plotline. We actually see her dealing with the loss of her husband and scrambling around in the political aftermath.
Amos' storyline has had a little bit of the first-hand aftermath of the meteor strikes, but seeing as we never really saw THAT much of what earth was like beforehand, we don't have much to compare it to. We saw Holden's family farmland, which was always kind of presented as an unusual situation, and we also saw Bobbie dealing with the homeless people in S2 when she escaped from the embassy, but otherwise, all we ever hear is how much it sucks on Earth, so we never really get to see how much worse it got after the attacks, except for Baltimore. For example, did that guy who had the standoff with Amos in "Tribes" have that land fenced off before the meteors fell, or did he do that afterwards? From what we know of life on Earth, it could go either way.
What does the average Martian think of what's going on? Apparently Marco also attacked the martian Parliament at the same time, so you'd think that the citizens would, if nothing else, be all for teaming up with the UN to take him down.
And more than anything else, what do the belters think about what's going on? In past seasons, we always got scenes on Ceres or Tycho to show what they were rioting over or who they were celebrating, but we've had nothing this season. As far as I understood it, Fred Johnson was pretty well-liked amongst his faction. Sure, he had his enemies, but I still always got the impression he was right up there with Dawes as far as being respected by the belters went. What do the belters think about the fact that Marco had him killed?
On top of that, Marco keeps going around acting like blowing up the Rocinante will endear other belters to his cause, which seems like kind of a dumb plan. Holden seems to be VERY popular with the belters. He got a heroes welcome after they attacked Thoth station, he almost single-handedly resolved the whole situation in the ring space in S3, and he also helped resolve the situation on Illus in a way that ended up extremely favorable for the settlers. Even this season, we see him getting the "beratna!" toast from random belters in a bar, so I can't imagine that his death would go over well. Sure, at first he was planning on making it look like a drive malfunction (which might have still made a martyr of him), but now he's just planning on straight-up attacking him. At this point, it just feels like he's attacking the Rocinante because it's what the bad guy does: attack the "heroes".
I was fine with the first three episodes being setup, and the events of the fourth one should have had MASSIVE repercussions, but it just feels like it wasn't that big of a deal, aside from Avasarala's plotline. We actually see her dealing with the loss of her husband and scrambling around in the political aftermath.
Amos' storyline has had a little bit of the first-hand aftermath of the meteor strikes, but seeing as we never really saw THAT much of what earth was like beforehand, we don't have much to compare it to. We saw Holden's family farmland, which was always kind of presented as an unusual situation, and we also saw Bobbie dealing with the homeless people in S2 when she escaped from the embassy, but otherwise, all we ever hear is how much it sucks on Earth, so we never really get to see how much worse it got after the attacks, except for Baltimore. For example, did that guy who had the standoff with Amos in "Tribes" have that land fenced off before the meteors fell, or did he do that afterwards? From what we know of life on Earth, it could go either way.
What does the average Martian think of what's going on? Apparently Marco also attacked the martian Parliament at the same time, so you'd think that the citizens would, if nothing else, be all for teaming up with the UN to take him down.
And more than anything else, what do the belters think about what's going on? In past seasons, we always got scenes on Ceres or Tycho to show what they were rioting over or who they were celebrating, but we've had nothing this season. As far as I understood it, Fred Johnson was pretty well-liked amongst his faction. Sure, he had his enemies, but I still always got the impression he was right up there with Dawes as far as being respected by the belters went. What do the belters think about the fact that Marco had him killed?
On top of that, Marco keeps going around acting like blowing up the Rocinante will endear other belters to his cause, which seems like kind of a dumb plan. Holden seems to be VERY popular with the belters. He got a heroes welcome after they attacked Thoth station, he almost single-handedly resolved the whole situation in the ring space in S3, and he also helped resolve the situation on Illus in a way that ended up extremely favorable for the settlers. Even this season, we see him getting the "beratna!" toast from random belters in a bar, so I can't imagine that his death would go over well. Sure, at first he was planning on making it look like a drive malfunction (which might have still made a martyr of him), but now he's just planning on straight-up attacking him. At this point, it just feels like he's attacking the Rocinante because it's what the bad guy does: attack the "heroes".
I'm loving this season. I think the Amos/Clarissa storyline dragged on a little bit too long at the end, but Naomi's storyline has made up for it.
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Might want to spoiler tag that tweet. It's how I assumed it would go down, but a spoiler nonetheless.
I'm pretty sure this season isn't about politics outside of "background flavors", but about character development, and specifically about 2 characters: Naomi and Amos, including a fuckton of backstory and "relationships".
I enjoy the difference, but if what you enjoy is the team together in high stakes space opera antics, you will be disappointed.
Heck, the other big arc, the rise of Marco Inaros as a "Free Belt" leader and his attacks on Inners takes a definite back seat to the Naomi drama.
I even think Clarissa might have had more screen time than Holden this season so far in fact.
Thing is, I think this season is just laying down the threads for season 6 in many ways (I have not read the books yet).
Holden's barely been in the show since that cool robot stole the protomolecule sample. There's barely been anything for Alex and Bobbie to do too.
But as an adaptation of the book I'm loving it. I wish we had gotten a little more of the Martian navy corruption story that Alex and Bobbie were looking into, but what we've been given has been great.
Damn, last episode already. This season has flown by.
At least 'For All Mankind' is back in 2 weeks for my space sci-fi fix. Anyone who likes The Expanse should check that show out, it's pretty incredible.
At least 'For All Mankind' is back in 2 weeks for my space sci-fi fix. Anyone who likes The Expanse should check that show out, it's pretty incredible.
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Seeing as how filming was probably done before the whole thing with Cas came out. They must've written and filmed that Alex wrap up after the fact. Maybe originally he was suppose to pass out, or maybe they filmed that one scene with Cas to wrap it up. But that Holden dialogue definitely had to have been written after.
Quite an unusual way to wrap it up but that's ok, but now they got either Bull or Clarissa to replace him. Bull's probably gonna go run Tycho though.
Quite an unusual way to wrap it up but that's ok, but now they got either Bull or Clarissa to replace him. Bull's probably gonna go run Tycho though.
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Yeah lol. Him randomly stroking out was kind of funny. If i didn't know about the Cas Anvar stuff I would've been like WUT.
That was a good finale to a decent season. The cgi and action is just nutty. I must replay every little missile fire like 3-4 times because of how much detail is packed into these little snippets. And holy shit. Naomi's jump was crazy. When Bobbie catches her and you see the background stop spinning I legit said wow out loud. And then later among Drummer's crew when one of them cries you see the tears floating around her head. The attention to detail is just pure insanity. It makes me forgive this show's faults.
It's a shame we won't get to see Alex and Bobbie's friendship continue to grow. Their relationship is definitely one of my favorite aspects of the series.
Fantastic finale. I didn't think we would see the platforms so soon.
Edit: Dominique Tipper killed it this season!
Fantastic finale. I didn't think we would see the platforms so soon.
Edit: Dominique Tipper killed it this season!
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I just don't see how they can stop the story at Season 6 after what they did this episode.
This DEFINITELY means they have to do Laconia story now, be it with a miniseries or a movie. Especially after introducting Laconia, reintroducing Cortazar, linking Duarte with Free Navy, the Ringbuilder shipyard, the Barkeith's removal from existence by unknown aggressors. They can't just drop all that and just do free navy conflict next season, nor can I see them doing Laconia and free navy conflict in one season.
This is why I thought it didn't make sense to just end the TV series at Season 6 because half the material we have in book/season 4-6 is setup for book 7-9. That the whole free navy conflict was a distraction for rogue MCRN faction to sneak into Laconia and build their ships. If you bring it up in the TV show then I don't know how you can wrap it up without doing the Laconia story.
This is why I thought it didn't make sense to just end the TV series at Season 6 because half the material we have in book/season 4-6 is setup for book 7-9. That the whole free navy conflict was a distraction for rogue MCRN faction to sneak into Laconia and build their ships. If you bring it up in the TV show then I don't know how you can wrap it up without doing the Laconia story.
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Recasts are the coward's way out
I think they handled it well (and got some absolute banger performances out of the rest of the Roci crew as a result) given the circumstances
I think they handled it well (and got some absolute banger performances out of the rest of the Roci crew as a result) given the circumstances
I loved it. I loved the whole season really because the character moments were fantastic, with tremendous acting from Dominique Tipper and Cara Gee in particular.
In practice Alex's exit comes across a bit abrupt on screen, but I think it's a fitting end to the character in general.
It was a pretty intense episode with most of the threads resolved in the first 30 or 40 minutes then just the dread of waiting to see what goes wrong to feed us into Season 6.
In for more weird alien shit.
Also interested to see what owns out with Drummer's crew and their new fractures.
It was a pretty intense episode with most of the threads resolved in the first 30 or 40 minutes then just the dread of waiting to see what goes wrong to feed us into Season 6.
In for more weird alien shit.
Also interested to see what owns out with Drummer's crew and their new fractures.
Really good episode that had the unusual feeling of "ok, this is the ending...oops, no, there's more". Happened like 3 times
Had to explain the Cas bit to Mom, as she didn't understand what was going on as it happened. It was a bit Poochie, but they did have a small scene of him showing discomfort coming out of a burn earlier. A decent send-off, but it still feels a little bit "wipe your hands and quickly move on". I can understand for the situation, but it's still a character from the very beginning.
My guess is, it was a bit to get footage they used from another scene or episode and added CGI blood effect. Doubt they let him come back and film anything.
Now, the whole thing in the gate is really enticing. Is that an alien ship in orbit or was it implied it was the same structure that ilus was built around (but this one without a planet)? Is this planet/system implied to be the protomolicle creators homeworks and "Duarte" found it?
Had to explain the Cas bit to Mom, as she didn't understand what was going on as it happened. It was a bit Poochie, but they did have a small scene of him showing discomfort coming out of a burn earlier. A decent send-off, but it still feels a little bit "wipe your hands and quickly move on". I can understand for the situation, but it's still a character from the very beginning.
My guess is, it was a bit to get footage they used from another scene or episode and added CGI blood effect. Doubt they let him come back and film anything.
Now, the whole thing in the gate is really enticing. Is that an alien ship in orbit or was it implied it was the same structure that ilus was built around (but this one without a planet)? Is this planet/system implied to be the protomolicle creators homeworks and "Duarte" found it?
Do we know why the show is ending at 6 instead of continuing the story?
As a non-book reader, can someone fill me in on wtf happened in the last five minutes of the finale there?
I'm trying to figure out if I'm not supposed to know some of this, or if I am and I missed something. So many things and names are flying over my head.
I love this show but I feel as useless watching it sometimes as some of my friends were who felt overwhelmed by Game of Thrones. Lol. I suspect I should know the answers to most of the questions above in my spoiler tag, but man, it's been years since earlier seasons — can't remember all this stuff. Lol.
I'm trying to figure out if I'm not supposed to know some of this, or if I am and I missed something. So many things and names are flying over my head.
Laconia (is that the new ring world we saw a glimpse of?), Duarte (person or ship?), MCRN betrayal — did the entire Martian Navy go over to Marco? Who were those two at the end in the scene with the bracelet? Who's Cortazar?
I love this show but I feel as useless watching it sometimes as some of my friends were who felt overwhelmed by Game of Thrones. Lol. I suspect I should know the answers to most of the questions above in my spoiler tag, but man, it's been years since earlier seasons — can't remember all this stuff. Lol.
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I want more space battles I need more space battles. I love Sci Fi but you don't get Sci Fi of this quality nowadays.
Also amazing cliffhanger.
Also amazing cliffhanger.
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Laconia is the name of the world and eventually becomes the Laconian Empire.
Winston Duarte is the leader of the splinter group and eventually becomes the equivalent of a God-king of that world.
A percentage, say a third, of the Martian fleet branches off with Duarte.
Winston Duarte is the leader of the splinter group and eventually becomes the equivalent of a God-king of that world.
A percentage, say a third, of the Martian fleet branches off with Duarte.
My impression was (I too had trouble following due to the lack of subtitles available) that this was a MCRN faction planning to establish a military dictatorship on Laconia. They supplied Marco in exchange for access to the Ring.
They are the martian general and his second in commander, Bobbie and Alex were investigating early in the season.
We knew his second in command was crooked but it turns out that the general is a radical instead using Marko for his own goals.
The transition through the gate could be the aliens that killed the proto molecule creators. Holden mentioned that he felt someone being angry everytime he went through the ring.
PS. Nice red herring with the genersl being introduced holding a lecture on how to defend the ring.
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This has all been technically alluded to or shown on the show so far so I don't think it's a spoiler anymore:
The martians knew that with the ring worlds terraforming mars was a waste of time, so a rogue faction under admiral duarte convinces a bunch of martian ships/people to leave for greener pastures, using the whole free navy thing as a cover so no one notices they're missing, they make a deal with Marco to supply him with the ships for his navy and helping him take control of the ring gate in exchange for the protomolecule sample and a single system: Laconia. It's what Bobbie and Alex investigate at the start of the season, those two people at the end are Sauveterre(?) and the woman Alex talked to in a bar. Duarte has not been shown on screen so far.
Pablo Cortazar (the one who is on Laconia at the end) is the only surviving protomolecule scientist that worked on the Eros project back in season 2, Monica mentions somewhere this season that he has been kidnapped or is missing.
I'm not that familiar with the last books but my guess is they became aware of that alien structure on Laconia and deduced that it was like the one on Ilus so it could be used to terraform just like that one, but they needed the protomolecule to power it up.
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From the interviews Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham have given, season 6 will focus on book 6, but there may well be new elements introduced.
whew that was one way to get rid of him. amazing finale. I need to rewatch the space battle again to get a better grasp at what's going on.
Oh man Alex's death was hilarious.
LMAO. This is how exactly how I felt.
Cannot wait for the Laconia saga. Skimmed some wikis about it and it sounds pretty epic.
RIP Alex Kamal. Cause of death: special effect.
More spoilery version
Non-spoiler version: the red stuff was an outside force destroying the ship. The Martians have their own plans for the protomolecule.
More spoilery version
Mars is fucked, but a sizeable chunk of Martian society led by the military wants to effectively restart Mars elsewhere to keep their perception of Martian ideals alive. That's the more authoritarian, regimented society that we've seen several times throughout the series (most notably season 1). They know they need their own habitable planet, so they've taken one. They know that they need time to develop, so they've mined off their gate entrance. They want to retain (and stretch) the technological advantage that Mars had over the rest of human civilisation, so they've grabbed the protomolecule. Protomolecule research up until this point was restricted, both by availability of the protomolecule and the law. The Martians (Laconians, now) will not restrict their research efforts.
It's like poetry, it rhymes.gif
Bear in mind all this was filmed before they had confirmation of the cancellation, so it wasn't done with the intention of pushing for any kind of additional level of closure in season 6. They might end up altering their season 6 plans as a result, so I guess we wait and see for that.
There's no indication that Laconia was the homeworld of the ring builders, but their civilisation was so old and huge that their home world was probably no more special than many of the others anyway. In terms of this particular strand of the story, some planets and systems do have many more examples of working technology lying around, and Laconia is one of the more notable ones, and that's one of the big reasons why Duarte chose it.