Discuss The Expanse Season 6 Episode 3. This Christmas Eve Nick and Danny Discuss the midway point of the final season of The Expanse! They cant believe its already halfway over. The UN gets an unwelcomed surprise at Ceres, The Roci stumbles upon its nemesis, and Bobby and Amos receive a scientific breakthrough from a past crewmate.
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Episode Transcript
00:00:03:20 – 00:00:16:14
Unknown
Seasons greetings, everybody, welcome back to discuss The Expanse this week, we’re going to be talking about episode three. As always, I’m joined by. I’m honored to be joined by my co-host Danny here on Christmas Eve. How are you doing today, man?
00:00:17:03 – 00:00:26:27
Unknown
Doing great. Doing great. Merry Christmas Eve. Absolutely. We’re going to go ahead and jump into the episode here before we do daily. Can you tell us who the what the title the writer and director for episode three is?
00:00:28:00 – 00:00:45:15
Unknown
For sure, for sure. So episode 603, The Expanse is titled Force Projection, it was written by Dan Nowak and directed by Jeff Woolnough. Amazing guys. As always, an overview for the podcast is we’re going to start with our general overview or our general thoughts on the episode and where we rank it with our other episodes here that
00:00:45:15 – 00:00:56:28
Unknown
we’re going to jump into a scene by scene breakdown where we go a little more in-depth on our thoughts on the episode and then follow that with our predictions and hot takes and crazy takes that we think are going to happen as the season progresses here.
00:00:57:24 – 00:01:12:19
Unknown
With that all being said, Danny, what were your initial thoughts of episode three force projection and where would you rank it with the other episodes in the season? You know, I feel like I’m going to start beating the dead horse where I feel like every episode gets better, but this is absolutely my favorite episode.
00:01:13:09 – 00:01:31:06
Unknown
Lots of cool stuff happened, some good character moments, some good, I think reactions to experiences as well as understanding some of the the way that they interacted with with the war that they’re that they’re in the middle of right now.
00:01:31:06 – 00:01:46:16
Unknown
So I really enjoyed a lot of that and seeing characters kind of push themselves forward, and I’m excited to talk about this one. What about you? Yeah, I think I think this it’s really weird. It’s hard to separate these episodes because they all feel so consistently strong.
00:01:46:17 – 00:02:01:29
Unknown
It’s hard to like, separate them and rank them together. But I think I’d probably put episode three. Maybe, maybe second. I think I put two ahead, two ahead of that one slightly, but not by much. I mean, it all feels very consistent and feels like almost they like.
00:02:02:08 – 00:02:15:11
Unknown
So far, the season feels like a movie that they just split in sections. You know, it doesn’t feel they don’t feel very different from each other, which is a testament, I think, to the show running to that they have these different writers and directors and everything feels so consistent, coherent together there.
00:02:15:11 – 00:02:32:08
Unknown
But yeah, I really enjoyed the episode. Like you said, it had a lot of stuff, a lot of a lot of great moments happening in here. I think what I’ve been most impressed with, considering that they’ve had this shortened season and had to pack so much into these seasons with these really big budget set pieces and everything
00:02:32:17 – 00:02:46:02
Unknown
is their consistent dedication to the quieter moments. And I think I really love how they’re balancing that still, and they’re still prioritizing that these kind of quieter moments between the characters and a lot of a lot of kind of character development stuff.
00:02:46:29 – 00:03:03:28
Unknown
So I’ve been really impressed that they’ve they’ve kind of stayed true to that. But with without further ado, we’re going to go ahead and jump into our scene by scene recap for season six, episode three force projection. So the show opens, we’re back again as a pattern in the show.
00:03:03:28 – 00:03:27:02
Unknown
We’re back on Laconia. It kind of shows the external structure of Laconia, and then we dial down into a classroom where we see Kara. Kara, I believe, is is being taught in a classroom, and she leaves the classroom and decides to go run away to her lake, where her, I guess birds are nesting and stuff to see
00:03:27:02 – 00:03:43:10
Unknown
how they’re doing. And there’s a quick scene with her and her brother, where she kind of rebuffs her brother and tells him to leave her alone and then runs off to the lake to see the birds there and then finds out, I’m miss what I was trying and I kind of wanted to get you.
00:03:43:11 – 00:04:06:22
Unknown
Get your thoughts on this, this scene as well, but I believe the birds were healed. Somehow they they were all of a sudden healed and her drone was also fixed as well. And she sees that dog, the strange dog nearby and concludes that they must have kind of done this and been integral in that happening before running
00:04:06:22 – 00:04:22:09
Unknown
home to find kind of her. I don’t know if they’re grieving or just concerned parents when she gets into her house and it looks like her brother is in is in dire straits. What it seems like because he’s laying on the bed and he’s got blood all over his face.
00:04:22:22 – 00:04:35:12
Unknown
And then it ends that scene. What were your thoughts on that intro scene and what was kind of your interpretation on maybe what was happening with that whole like healing of tech and and the local fauna, I guess?
00:04:37:02 – 00:04:53:23
Unknown
I did not expect that scene to go that direction at all. Having no knowledge of the Strange Dogs novella, I was just kind of watching it and experiencing it. And when she saw the the drone fixed, I was like, Oh, that’s that’s interesting.
00:04:53:24 – 00:05:16:06
Unknown
Like her drone works again. And you know, you can see that the fourth little propeller was was the one that looks different. And so I was like, OK, so maybe some things interacted with it. And as it led to the strange dog being the seeming progenitor of how that occurred, I was like, Well, how can this happen
00:05:16:06 – 00:05:38:17
Unknown
? Like. Like, did this dog do this by ingesting it? Did it take it to a place where things are healed? It kind of looks almost like a biological android. Almost the word. And so using that kind of logic line when she goes in and she sees her brother in dire straits, my first thought was, Oh, she’s going
00:05:38:17 – 00:06:00:23
Unknown
to take her brother to the Dogs Act and we’re going to we’re going to see that kind of play out. And so it feels like that is the route that it’s going. And it’s it was a cool scene because it’s again bringing us into whatever this Laconia and culture is and how they learn and how it’s like
00:06:00:24 – 00:06:19:23
Unknown
. It doesn’t matter where we came from, when we came, we’re all Conings now and they’re they’re embracing this place, this planet that they’re on in the ring gate. So I really enjoyed it. I I again, I don’t know what this is leading us up to from our overall Expanse storyline, but I’m enjoying this little kind of short
00:06:19:23 – 00:06:33:20
Unknown
film playing out over the episodes at the beginning. But this is definitely the most curious one and the most that brought me back to like season one, season two protein molecule type stuff when they’re in me. Some quick notes that I wanted to say on the scene was when they’re in the schoolroom.
00:06:34:16 – 00:06:49:04
Unknown
I noted down that the teacher had a very like youth pastor energy to them. But also, yeah, he does say that, you know, they’re all from different places. Some came from the, I think, he said, the L nine voyage or something.
00:06:49:04 – 00:07:04:28
Unknown
And then also, you know, some came from Mars expeditions as well. They all came from different places and they’re they’re united as Laconia is now. And then also a point that that I, I heard was that he said they’re asking if anything has seemed different in the last few weeks.
00:07:05:24 – 00:07:24:01
Unknown
And that kind of was odd to me that he brought that up or just seemed kind of interesting because if he’s asking schoolchildren like in different classes, if they’ve seen anything weird occurring in the last few weeks, it means that whatever they’re doing up in the sky, they’re expecting a grand scale impact on maybe the ecology or
00:07:24:01 – 00:07:36:11
Unknown
something on the ground floor. So this seems like a very big thing that’s happening. If, if, if they’re going around asking any teachers in any classrooms to ask their students if they’ve seen weird stuff, it’s it doesn’t inspire confidence for me.
00:07:36:11 – 00:07:50:07
Unknown
If I heard that, I’d be like, Wait, you guys don’t know what’s going on. You need us to report back to you what might be happening on the on the ground floor here. So it seems like whatever is going on is going to have some kind of grand impact on the ecology or something that that the day
00:07:50:07 – 00:08:06:01
Unknown
to day people would see on the ground level, which I found interesting. And then, yes, she goes to the Laconia Lake Broken drone is fixed and the I think the the the dead bird alien. Again, I haven’t come up with a better term for that.
00:08:06:12 – 00:08:16:23
Unknown
At the dead bird, alien has has seemed to be revived. I think you made a great point where you said it seemed like a biological android because I noticed that too. It seemed like the CGI has been really strong.
00:08:16:24 – 00:08:32:20
Unknown
I did want to make that point so far. Like the dogs and everything, they all look great. But when the bird comes out, it almost has a stop motion equality to it. And I wonder if that was intentional, and that might be like hinting at some kind of merge between biological and synthetic, which is how maybe it
00:08:32:20 – 00:08:47:27
Unknown
was revived because it seems like this with the drone being fixed, maybe these dogs have some kind of ability to access both of those things. The same goes quickly after that to the UN ship seems to be heading towards series.
00:08:47:27 – 00:09:01:14
Unknown
So after the fallout from last episode and after them being able to stop those rocks being hurled at Earth, it seems like the UN has deployed its fleet and it’s heading towards series to engage Marco in kind of a show of force.
00:09:02:21 – 00:09:15:20
Unknown
When they get there, they don’t see anything on the scanners they start approaching series and as they go in, they don’t find any any heat signatures. It seems like everything in this in the station has been stripped down.
00:09:15:27 – 00:09:36:07
Unknown
All the resources have been taken from series and they find the populace of series all kind of huddled together in one kind of terminal of series. They find Nico there, so she takes Nico in for questioning and asks where Marco is and what’s happening, and realizes that Marco has left them with this big burden of having to
00:09:36:29 – 00:09:54:23
Unknown
. Provide aid to series and and kind of kind of let them holding the bag on this one. And what were your thoughts of the scene from when they first approached series to finding out what Marco’s done and kind of his plan to to hamstring them with with a relief effort?
00:09:55:08 – 00:10:15:09
Unknown
And and what did you think of the scene between Nico and Christian as well? Something that was really interesting was they go in and you’ve got like, you’ve got like the U.N. people going in, like its SEAL team six or eight and you’re expecting, Oh, we’re going to have a firefight and you see all of these people
00:10:15:17 – 00:10:33:00
Unknown
and they’re just huddled. There’s there’s no insurgents or anything like that. And my thought was, OK, so why would why would Marco abandon series as I’m watching the episode? He was just talking about how important it was and how this was going to be the center of their efforts.
00:10:33:16 – 00:10:52:10
Unknown
And as the scene plays out and we learn a little bit more about how he has handicapped them and stripped all their resources. I was like, Oh, he’s forcing Christian, who is a person who was trying to unite everyone to help them out, which Earth is already in trouble.
00:10:52:16 – 00:11:10:12
Unknown
So that’s going to make those restraints. You’ve got people’s prejudices coming into play. So while I think it was a smart move, so to speak, by trying to spread then resources even thinner, it goes to show you that a lot of what Marco does is pride.
00:11:10:20 – 00:11:29:22
Unknown
He doesn’t care about sacrificing people. He’ll he’ll believe something to be for the greater good. But really, it just kind of comes down to his ego and kind of what he’s built up this fight to be. And so when when Christian and Negan are talking and she talks about, like, how could you be working with someone who
00:11:30:06 – 00:11:54:24
Unknown
killed Anderson? Does I really appreciate that she she understands like, hey, what if you what if you help? What if we were to work together? I kind of like that ideal, but I’ll be curious to see if after the whole implied investigation, that brutal investigation, how much information they get out of Nico.
00:11:54:24 – 00:12:06:27
Unknown
And if Nico truly wants to cooperate for the good of series, or if this is going to be something that is just going to cause more problems between the Belters and the owners. But I appreciated the scene. I thought it was.
00:12:06:27 – 00:12:22:11
Unknown
It was a lot going on in there politically as well as war effort wise. But I liked it. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think the point about Marcos Pride necessarily taking over, I think that’s definitely true. I think it’s a that’s a priority for him and that’s kind of all he really cares about.
00:12:22:20 – 00:12:39:25
Unknown
But just strategically, it seems to make sense to me to where it’s like it seems like, you know, you do that and you leave series. They made a kind of not obviously in retrospect, not a throwaway line, but they made a line in the episode one about maybe not being able to get supplies to series.
00:12:39:25 – 00:12:54:27
Unknown
And it seemed like they were kind of, yeah, we’re not, you know, we don’t have to worry about that. I think it was Rosenfeld that said something along those lines. And now in retrospect, their whole plan the whole time was that they were going to kind of abandoned series and leave the U.N. in this situation of having
00:12:54:27 – 00:13:14:02
Unknown
to having to deal with the humanitarian crisis when their when their resources are already stretched thin. So it’s still kind of fits in for me as the ends justify the means kind of thing where he’s thinking, if this, if this, if this is the reason that we turn around and beat the inners and finally like and this
00:13:14:02 – 00:13:31:14
Unknown
and this war with the inners, then this would have been a a justifiable sacrifice or something along those lines. So I’m just putting my marco hat on. That’s what I’m thinking. The the rationale is between that. But but I think I think that’s all window dressing for his pride, like you were saying.
00:13:31:14 – 00:13:50:27
Unknown
So I think it’s mostly his pride, but it does make strategic sense and it totally makes. It really puts the the U.N. and and Mars in a really tough spot. You know, now to to be able to first politically and publicly show that they’re helping to build, to try to inspire that connection, but also just the logistics
00:13:50:27 – 00:14:09:05
Unknown
of having to actually provide that amount of aid in that situation there. Some quick notes that I wanted to say on the scene was I really like the shot of them, the the two Mars power armor people. I thought they were really cool and then be flying from the ship to just kind of hop into series.
00:14:09:05 – 00:14:20:13
Unknown
And they did that in one shot. I thought that was really, really awesome. We we found out that Nico did work for doors. I think that was probably new information that Nico worked directly under. Anderson does a quick note, too.
00:14:20:13 – 00:14:32:29
Unknown
I love the so they swipe up and you see Cristian on a screen in front of Nico, and I liked the I like. They didn’t cheat the perspective. I think one of the things that I see a lot of that a lot of that time is they’ll show a virtual screen like that.
00:14:32:29 – 00:14:43:06
Unknown
And then when you see the perspective of the person on the screen, they’re looking directly at the person when it wouldn’t make sense that that virtual screen would have a camera on it. So I like that the camera was on.
00:14:43:07 – 00:14:56:11
Unknown
The screen person like security person that was nearby, and it showed from that angle. It’s a really, really small point, but I just remember thinking that’s that there was really well thought out because a lot of times they’ll cheat that camera, even though it doesn’t exist in the shot just to make it look good.
00:14:57:16 – 00:15:16:14
Unknown
The scene goes from then to we are on the rocks, and that’s it seems the astronauts heading to series and Holden is very tired. And he’s leaving, and it seems like he’s asking them out to take over controls for the race, so it’s great to see him kind of trusting her with those kind of important duties after
00:15:16:14 – 00:15:37:07
Unknown
and we get a really great character moments between Clarissa and Holden, where she kind of confides in him maybe some of the guilt that she’s experienced in some of the terrible things that she’s done really in in a in a revenge effort against Holden for what he did to Jules Pierre Mao in the first seasons and her
00:15:37:08 – 00:15:53:29
Unknown
her kind of her path of vengeance that she’s been on and some of the terrible things she’s done. And he seems to appreciate that she confided in him and then tells her that everyone on the crew of the Rassi has done things that they’re not proud of and has done kind of a moral actions that she’s more
00:15:54:11 – 00:16:09:18
Unknown
, she’s at home in this, in this situation, and that they’re not going to judge her for it. What did you think of the the interaction between Clarissa and Holden and that he’s kind of trusting her with the with with like really important crew duties now?
00:16:11:01 – 00:16:29:03
Unknown
Yeah, I think I think this was the beginning of part of the reason why this was my favorite episode so far, which is there were a lot of really good, quiet moments between characters in this episode. And so seeing James just kind of say, Hey, you know, like, I’m tired, I need to get some sleep.
00:16:29:18 – 00:16:43:13
Unknown
You can just be there to watch the rats eat like she will do most of the work. We just need you to share basically babysitting and for him to trust someone who tried to kill him not that long ago, to drive while he rest.
00:16:43:25 – 00:17:00:14
Unknown
Just kind of kind of goes to show how the strides that they made in episode two, when she went in there for Naomi, even even if she wasn’t following procedure to do so, just kind of shows that he is like, OK, she was serious about trying to be a little bit better.
00:17:00:23 – 00:17:18:13
Unknown
And so when she kind of confesses, you can tell that this is something that’s been building up in her for a while, and she wanted to get this off of her chest and for her to carry around that guilt and that regret for some of the things that she did to that guy, Ren, who had supported her
00:17:18:27 – 00:17:32:05
Unknown
on her path of vengeance. And then for a whole into recognize like, OK, you’re you’re of similar people. We have we have similar experience, in my case, just kind of goes to show you that they have had this opportunity to bond.
00:17:32:05 – 00:17:51:21
Unknown
And I think that’s a really cool thing about this time on the Roxy that they get to just interact as people instead of always having the fight, which the fight will come. But that was a really strong character scene for me, and I’m looking forward to seeing how her relationship with Naomi might improve, potentially.
00:17:51:27 – 00:18:02:17
Unknown
I just got it seems like she’s hitting each different member of the Raza Nancy and kind of winning them over a little by little. And I am excited for it. But what do you think? I thought it was great.
00:18:02:17 – 00:18:14:12
Unknown
I felt like she was. She seemed to be holding on to this for a long time and maybe wanting to release this. Like you said, get this off her chest for some time with Holden. So it really puts into perspective the six months where she was just kind of biting her tongue and talking to Amos in those
00:18:14:12 – 00:18:30:27
Unknown
situations that having to live with the crew when she maybe she maybe wanted to confide in them in these ways, but their relationship just wasn’t there. It kind of puts that in perspective. I think a really interesting point in their conversation was that she says she’s expressing guilt over this character, Ren, that she she she kind of
00:18:30:27 – 00:18:48:04
Unknown
killed indiscriminately, and she’s confiding a whole lot about it. But what I found interesting was that she thinks that the vomiting that happens when she she bites her models is not from any kind of physical ailment or any kind of side effect of the mods she thinks it may be from, like moral abhorrence at the at the
00:18:48:04 – 00:19:01:02
Unknown
kind of actions that she did against and at that time, and maybe reminding her of the horrible things she did to an innocent to innocent people or an innocent person. And that’s what causes hurts. You vomit when she she bites the mods.
00:19:01:15 – 00:19:11:20
Unknown
I don’t necessarily believe that that’s the case, but the fact that she even thinks that that’s a possibility says a lot about her character and how much it’s really it really tore her up that she did that and how much she regrets it.
00:19:12:03 – 00:19:27:20
Unknown
But I thought that was an interesting touch, that she thought of it that way. She thought of maybe it was a moral abhorrence instead of physical. The scene then goes to Bobby in Amos there in the in the be kind of kitchen area, and he’s eating his slop, I guess.
00:19:27:20 – 00:19:45:05
Unknown
And this was, you know, in in reference to what you said about the quieter moments being highlighted. This was probably one of my favorites was this interaction between Amos and Bobby and kind of recanting for better word stories of the cards, what he was there and talking about those different, you know, different things on series.
00:19:45:05 – 00:19:59:25
Unknown
And it really highlighted a lot of different things about each character that I found. I found really interesting. And she again continues on. She again continues on the the pattern of kind of baby naming him or calling him like Pee-Wee.
00:19:59:28 – 00:20:12:08
Unknown
I think she calls him honey buns in this one. And they seem to be building up to that. It seems like they they might pay that off with some kind of clash between the two, potentially, which would be amazing to see.
00:20:12:18 – 00:20:31:10
Unknown
But yeah, they kind of talk about the, you know, really kind of world building stuff about series, about how there’s like noodle shops and booze and brothels, mostly on series and her kind of asking about the food and everything very like you said, a very quiet moment worldbuilding kind of conversation.
00:20:31:23 – 00:20:50:25
Unknown
What did you think about their interaction in that conversation between Bobby and Amos in the in the crew quarters? I love a no nonsense conversation about nonsense. I think I think that kind of sums up their how they both are because Bobby is like kind of this straight shooter, and Amos is definitely a straight shooter, but they’re
00:20:50:25 – 00:21:05:07
Unknown
from different sides. You know you have or you have aliases or, you know, I grew up in rough areas and did the whole thing. So I’m really kind of unfeeling, generally speaking and just very direct. And then you have Bobby, who was all about, I grew up on Mars.
00:21:05:07 – 00:21:16:18
Unknown
Mars was everything. I’m a soldier. This is my no nonsense. And so for them both, the kind of. B, having that rapport back and forth, I loved hearing. It was just really funny to me. It was a great scene.
00:21:16:23 – 00:21:28:18
Unknown
I love like the inside baseball conversation about series, she says. The other great line that I thought was, she says, is there anything on series other than other than noodles, booze and brothels? And he said, I never looked.
00:21:29:02 – 00:21:44:20
Unknown
So that really sums up Amos’s character, as those are kind of the three things that he would only be concerned with on that stage. And I thought that was a great line between the two. And yet they both both characters feel like two sides of the same coin where they are both no nonsense.
00:21:44:20 – 00:22:04:20
Unknown
Most action over words and they seem like they they’ll, you know, eventually have this mutual respect because they do seem very similar as characters. But at the same time, they’re they’re contrasted by, like you said, Bobby’s soldier attitude and Amos is more of kind of a loose gunslinger with a criminal background.
00:22:05:00 – 00:22:18:22
Unknown
But they they both have those. They both have those same traits, but they come from very different backgrounds and very different priorities. I guess that they they hold true. So it’s going to be really interesting to see how their relationship develops as the show goes on.
00:22:19:14 – 00:22:38:20
Unknown
It moves from then to a scene between Naomi and Holden, so Holden is finally debriefing with her about her issue that we had that she had in the last episode that we we talked about. It was one of the highlights of the episode for us was her hesitation when she was going to jump off the Roxy in
00:22:38:20 – 00:22:54:15
Unknown
their last mission and her freezing up about it. And this is where she’s really confiding in him about what occurred. And she just says, like her body froze up and she’s beating yourself up about it. She’s she’s kind of giving herself a hard time for she’s she calls it extremely embarrassing.
00:22:55:08 – 00:23:05:17
Unknown
And Holden tells her that, you know, would you be embarrassed if I went through what you went through? And she said, no, but you’d be beating yourself up, too. I thought it was a really good character interaction between the two.
00:23:05:27 – 00:23:27:05
Unknown
And it leads into Holden giving her this mission about finding out about that data. So he gets data from Bobby in the previous episode regarding these microchips that have been disappearing at the ring gates. And that’s when we see that red, that red color kind of eating away, the ships that we saw towards the the last scene
00:23:27:05 – 00:23:47:28
Unknown
in season five. And he’s getting some information about these, these disappearances, but there’s a whole lot of data that they need to pass through. So he enlists Naomi to pass through that data for him, and she says, You’re just giving me a like a task that will distract me from my ineptitude or my failing that occurred.
00:23:48:28 – 00:24:03:27
Unknown
I’m going. Get your thoughts about these last two scenes here. But it cuts to the paella and we get Marco on the paella with Rosenfeld, and they are kind of debriefing over leaving series. Philip is seeing some propaganda.
00:24:03:27 – 00:24:16:01
Unknown
Maybe that is being put through to his phone. That’s calling Marco a coward. Seems like the belts or at least series belters have kind of turned on him for abandoning them, stripping the station and then having the UN come in.
00:24:16:02 – 00:24:34:29
Unknown
Obviously they would. I would. I would probably not be a fan of his, either after that, that kind of move. And he’s. Philip seems to be conflicted about this. He has a conversation with Marco, which I thought was a really great scene and kind of talks to him about the motivations behind the entire attack.
00:24:35:22 – 00:24:48:18
Unknown
What were your thoughts on those last two scenes with Holden and Naomi and debriefing her about her issues and in the scenes with Philip and Marco talking about his decision to kind of leave series in the position that it’s in?
00:24:48:18 – 00:25:00:03
Unknown
So when it comes to the scene with withhold it in Naomi. I like the because one she was just like, All right, like, let’s just talk about it. I don’t want to talk about it the same way I froze up.
00:25:01:08 – 00:25:18:20
Unknown
There’s there’s a ease there between them. After having been together for so long after everything that I knew, we experienced that whole experience. Her just kind of responding about how she felt was good, especially when you just kind of see how she she still looks tired.
00:25:18:26 – 00:25:31:09
Unknown
She looks exhausted after everything that she’s been through. And so I really I just really love to see those two interact. It’s it’s romance done well because they still recognize that their crewmates as well as in this romance.
00:25:32:06 – 00:25:48:25
Unknown
And still, when you know the doors are closed behind closed doors, they’re able to kind of speak freely, both on the romantic level as well as the crew level. So that was strong. And then I really loved this because this was our first inclination that we’re going to get some of that Laconia payoff, right?
00:25:48:26 – 00:26:02:16
Unknown
So we’re seeing some of that like, Hey, there’s these ships that have gone missing. There was the barkeep. And things are a little weird. Can you can you try and make sense of it? And so that’s our first inclination that, hey, there’s something going on.
00:26:02:16 – 00:26:20:22
Unknown
We might see some ties to this. So I realized that. So overall, it was a nice little cute scene, but it also has some some repercussions that we’re going to see. And I’m excited to find out how the Ross mantle is going to play a role in meconium now for the Philip and Marco Niro scene.
00:26:21:16 – 00:26:37:05
Unknown
That was a great scene because if so, I really loved your response earlier where you’re like, If I put on my mark, okay, I can see why he did that and same, I could do that. But if I were a belter, just not part of all the action and I’m doing this, I would think that he was
00:26:37:05 – 00:26:50:04
Unknown
a coward. I would think that he’s abandoned us and that he that we were played by this guy, so I would get pissed. And so when Phillip is confronting his dad about about what he’s done, Marco, of course, has the answer.
00:26:50:14 – 00:27:05:25
Unknown
Of course, Marco was like, we gave them with a problem or we gave them a problem that is going to be so difficult for them to solve. And so especially when you consider how he knew about supply lines and all that, he he he was purposeful with it.
00:27:06:03 – 00:27:24:03
Unknown
But it doesn’t feel right to fill up all the way. And so I like that conflict and specially considering how Philip had been wrestling with his guilt and how he killed his friend. And now he’s seeing his father and the people who believed in his father feeling like he’s a coward and calling them out of scholars.
00:27:24:12 – 00:27:42:04
Unknown
Phillips, a character who right now can still go either direction, whether he’s going to completely rebel against his father or on just father’s shortfall for as long charms like everybody else has. But I like it because it also sets a rosenfeld’s for having some some beef as well later on.
00:27:42:05 – 00:28:00:05
Unknown
So there’s there’s Marcus is operation, you’re starting to see the cracks in there, and it’s I think it can lead to some really exciting fallout later on in the season. But do you think? Yeah, I loved so I love the with the paella.
00:28:01:05 – 00:28:10:01
Unknown
There was a there were a couple of notes that came through. I really like their interaction together. I thought both the performances in that scene were really, really, really well done and they both kind of brought it in that scene there.
00:28:11:15 – 00:28:24:07
Unknown
He so Marco initially shows that he’s not concerned. I think Rosenfeld’s like, wait, they have more of an arsenal than we anticipated, and he seems kind of smiling in that in the face of that, which is very emblematic of him as a character.
00:28:24:07 – 00:28:40:05
Unknown
We’ve talked about in previous episodes about him having this, this kind of overconfidence when it comes to kind of fighting and stuff as well. So he does seem very, almost giddy when he finds out this, that they have more of an arsenal than than they were anticipating their.
00:28:42:21 – 00:29:00:10
Unknown
He tells Philip, why do you care what a dissident, what dissidents believe and kind of adds to that air superiority that he’s cultivated in that crew since he’s since he’s become captain and kind of in their resistance as a whole, they feel in this kind of alludes to my next point, which they feel kind of like they’re
00:29:00:13 – 00:29:17:26
Unknown
they’re pure belters. They’re they’re they’re more worthy of respect in and they’re on a kind of higher plane than most belters. He talked about series Belters. Like they weren’t real belters. They kind of capitulated to the U.N. and and they, you know, living on that rock, it was it was kind of in them to be weak and
00:29:17:26 – 00:29:36:18
Unknown
be subservient to authoritarian rule, you know, and it kind of adds to that kind of purity test of their Beltre purity test that Marco seems to have have kind of mentally about his status as a belter and everything, and that they were kind of bred for this fighting and to be out in space and stuff.
00:29:36:18 – 00:29:48:17
Unknown
But he he kind of looks down upon Series Belters, which really adds to I’ve talked about in previous episodes about one of the strengths of the show is that no one group of people is monolithic. They all have different variations within them.
00:29:48:17 – 00:30:05:18
Unknown
So having this pull between in the Belters between like real belters and Series Belters and, you know, people that are maybe bred for space and people that are bred to like, live in Iraq and all that kind of stuff and having those different factions within that community really makes it feel more rich and layered.
00:30:07:02 – 00:30:22:14
Unknown
He says that he told people what they needed to hear, what they needed to hear it, and he seems to be alluding that Philip needs to have a more ruthless attitude when it comes to this. If he wants to be a leader like his father, another note that I put was towards the end he was using we
00:30:22:14 – 00:30:35:29
Unknown
a lot. He was almost talking about him and Philip, like they were the same person and that kind of a something we said in the previous episode, which is that he’s kind of shesays Philip as like a clone of himself or a mini version of himself that he wants to take over for him after he goes, I’m
00:30:36:16 – 00:30:49:25
Unknown
not really respecting Philip as his own agent or his own person with his own decisions. You just kind of sees him as a a small, a smaller kind of stand in for him. You know that that that could happen there.
00:30:50:21 – 00:31:05:22
Unknown
So I did really like that scene. It cuts to the Tynan and the Ina Zalmi. Hopefully, I’m pronouncing that right, but they are the two ships that are traveling together. one is with the Golden Bough, Liang Walker, his ship and hers traveling together.
00:31:05:29 – 00:31:23:17
Unknown
And it seems like they’re they’re kind of coming up with their plan on what they’re going to do. She’s asking him about the supply caches, and they’re trying to recruit some golden battleships as they’re as they’re talking. We see Michaud and Michaud is watching some news.
00:31:23:22 – 00:31:38:22
Unknown
So I immediately thought this was the project that Monica was working on for Avasarala. When she was, she was looking at it there, and it seems like Michaud might be one of those belters on the fringes that Christian was talking about that might be turning over and kind of empathizing a little more with the plight of the
00:31:38:22 – 00:32:00:03
Unknown
inners and what’s been happening on Earth these past six months. And there is a great conflict between Michaud and Joseph Michaud. A Joseph have a kind of argument about he’s like, Oh, poor inners, you can’t get access to food and water, and they have kind of an argument between the two before the.
00:32:02:02 – 00:32:16:08
Unknown
They get a tight beam come from a local ship to Camino. They say that we we used to be for Golden Bow and now we fight for you. And she says, good because I’m ready to fight. What were your thoughts in the scene between the Golden Bough ship kind of being recruited by drummer and that she seems
00:32:16:08 – 00:32:28:21
Unknown
to be kind of building out her forces in her fleet to maybe take one of these supply caches? And then also the conflict between Michaud and Joseph and kind of how that ethical conflict kind of bubbles up and what it maybe means for the show going forward with Drummer.
00:32:28:24 – 00:32:50:23
Unknown
I appreciate her action. She being smarter this season, she’s not letting markings or abilities and war catch her off more. She she’s planning smart things as she’s speaking, speaking with weeing walker and discussing the merits of, Oh, this is how we could do this.
00:32:50:29 – 00:33:05:17
Unknown
This is trying to understand what Marco’s plan is, so then they can help cut it off in her own way. We’re seeing her for leadership qualities come forward again. And I think that’s an exciting place for her to be in because that’s where she’s been very effective.
00:33:05:18 – 00:33:20:00
Unknown
She’s never really effective when she takes that back seat. But once she finally makes that decision, she’s going to get engaged. You can’t stop drummer drummers just going to do her thing. So I really like that. I’m excited to see if she can take one of those stations.
00:33:20:00 – 00:33:34:13
Unknown
And if so, is she going to use that to help benefit people from the belts? Or is she just going to use it as a way to fight Marco? So I’m I’m curious to see what direction she’s going to go with that, especially considering she’s working with a pirate.
00:33:35:07 – 00:33:49:17
Unknown
And so I’m excited to see that. But the ethical conversation between Joseph and Nico I really love, especially because we saw the pastor from season three of The Expanse, Anna, and I also thought I was like, Oh, this has to be Monica.
00:33:49:17 – 00:34:07:28
Unknown
And I was a role as little propaganda thing because Christian really did understand that there are probably people out there like Michaux who can see that there’s that despite where we come from, we’re all people. And you could tell because she was like, No one should have to live how we lived.
00:34:08:19 – 00:34:26:13
Unknown
And that is the difference. There are some people who want to make others suffer like they have suffered. And then there are people who recognize that suffering just shouldn’t happen. And so some of that rage that Joseph has for how the illness treated them and how they grew up versus Michelle, who has a little bit more of
00:34:26:13 – 00:34:43:29
Unknown
a perspective of, Hey, what if we just tried to be better? I like that, and it’s kind of like an angel devil on the shoulder of a drummer, which is why I like when Ling was like, I see why you want to leave her because it shows where he stands.
00:34:44:09 – 00:34:58:17
Unknown
And so you have of micheaux as this one dissident voice of of what Belcher’s could be and what they could do for people and how they could interact. And that’s exciting to me because at first I was like, Well, she froze up.
00:34:58:17 – 00:35:16:13
Unknown
She couldn’t press a button all that. But now kind of seeing where she stands on like a drummer might meet her around because what is to stop drummer from just enacting kind of a Marcos sort of mentality because she she has that potential right to just be only about the belts?
00:35:16:25 – 00:35:33:02
Unknown
Especially considering some of her actions from previous seasons. But Michio might be showing her that there could be potentially a different way. And I like that. Yeah, I think I loved your characterization of them being like an angel and devil on caminos shoulders, Joseph on one side and Michelle on the other.
00:35:33:02 – 00:35:45:21
Unknown
That seems to be kind of where they’re where they’re heading there with Miko having more empathy and seeing more of the humanity in a situation and Joseph seeing more like tit for tat. You know, this happened to us which had happened to them.
00:35:46:09 – 00:36:02:08
Unknown
It seems like justice as opposed to as opposed to kind of trying to make everyone’s life better, which kind of me she was fighting for. And then, yeah, this scene from Liang and Liang saying, I can see why you wanted to get rid of her immediately, like you said, shows where he stands there.
00:36:02:15 – 00:36:18:10
Unknown
And I can really see a burgeoning point of conflict if they are to take these supply depots as to what to do with them between Liang and Camino. Because Liang is going to want to keep them for himself being a pirate and the golden bough who are going to help her, maybe a sister and getting any supply
00:36:18:11 – 00:36:28:22
Unknown
depots are going to want to do that too. And it’s going to be people like Michaux and hopefully Kaminer. And I think I think it would be community that would say we need to give these resources to people that need them.
00:36:28:22 – 00:36:40:17
Unknown
That might be in in these situations and kind of give them back to the belt. It’s going to be really interesting to see how maybe that that plays out as the as the season goes forward that that point of conflict between the two.
00:36:40:27 – 00:36:51:17
Unknown
I wanted to point out what you brought up about the pastor. I didn’t mention the pastor here, but there’s two instances in this episode where we get some callback characters from previous seasons that are really beloved in the show.
00:36:52:01 – 00:37:08:23
Unknown
The first one is Anna, which is the pastor that we see from season three. She seems to be part of Monica’s propaganda piece that seems to be trying to empathize. Maybe. Alters with the plight of these earthers and stuff, and that’s a great decision to have her do that, as Christian said, she has a knack for inspiring
00:37:08:23 – 00:37:22:16
Unknown
empathy. So I thought that was great as well. So yeah, we’re back on the U.N. ship. With Christian being debriefed, it seems like everything’s going well at series, which means Niko was maybe accurate in her in her descriptions of the situation there.
00:37:22:25 – 00:37:33:25
Unknown
And then we see that Monica is going to be embedding with some Martian relief efforts that are going to be going down on series to hopefully get a boots on the ground view of everything that’s occurring down there.
00:37:34:25 – 00:37:51:19
Unknown
So a really quick scene between them. And then we head back to the paella where they have seen a drive plume. So they encounter a drive flume that Phillip sees on the radars. And once they identify it, they see that it’s the Raza Nancy.
00:37:51:26 – 00:38:06:01
Unknown
So the pilot has identified the rationality they seem to be heading toward series, whereas Marco’s heading away from it. So they obviously have crossed paths. And there’s a point of conflict between the crew on the palace saying we should take this opportunity to take the Rossi out.
00:38:06:08 – 00:38:23:12
Unknown
But at the same time, Rosenfeld is saying, We don’t have time for this. We need to prioritize the war over. Maybe your pride and maybe you’re you’re you’re kind of wanting to get revenge on the rationality for the hunting that it’s been doing these past six months since you started throwing these rocks at Earth.
00:38:24:00 – 00:38:36:06
Unknown
And it seems like there’s kind of an ideological conflict between both Rosenfeld and Phillip and Marco, but the decision obviously rests with Marco, and he decides to man the guns and we head back to the and Nancy where they are.
00:38:36:14 – 00:38:53:04
Unknown
Bobby and Amos again, a really great scene between the two, where they’re going over her Martian power armor and they get a get some information from the other big character that that was a highlight from season two and three, I believe, which is practice.
00:38:53:21 – 00:39:11:10
Unknown
He was the I think I wanted. I don’t know what role he saw, but he was like the biologist. He was like a scientific person that was in season two and three. He seems to have an encrypted messages to Amos, saying that they’ve kind of used some of the proto molecule structure or some information that they’ve gotten
00:39:11:10 – 00:39:30:20
Unknown
from the Frodo molecule to craft some kind of way for them to make an abundance of food in places where food isn’t typically grown. So this would be obviously of huge help to Earth in the belt and seems to be some kind of scientific breakthrough that they’ve made that another scientist was killed for.
00:39:30:21 – 00:39:39:11
Unknown
And he’s giving this to Amy saying, I know you have high contacts in high places and you can get this to somebody and they decide to give it to Christian. So what were your thoughts on those last three scenes?
00:39:39:23 – 00:39:56:22
Unknown
It shows the with both the police finding out about the rationality and Christian seeing that Monica is embedding with the relief efforts on series. And then finally, Amos and Bobby kicking over that information, a Christian and going over her power armor.
00:39:58:05 – 00:40:12:27
Unknown
So when it comes to the Monica scene, the main point of that was for them to, like, set up, Hey, we’re on serious things are good, Monica being there showing how she’s going to be on the ground. We know she’s got the camera.
00:40:13:02 – 00:40:28:13
Unknown
So we knew we were going to get that and that vision of what’s happening. So for that, I was like, OK, cool political angle. She’s going to be like this ambassador, and she’s going to go down and she’s going to get what’s really happening and that’s going to kind of lift spirits, especially if we’re continuing to be
00:40:28:23 – 00:40:48:08
Unknown
with the Anna situation, right? We’re going to see how the U.N. as helping these poor meltzer’s. So that was my first thought about that scene, and I was like, I’ll be curious to see how this plays out, because knowing the expanse, something that’s going to happen, if then we go over to the next scene and the the
00:40:48:08 – 00:41:06:05
Unknown
overarching thought that I had was Marco just can’t help himself. He he he has so much plan for for the belt and the things that he wants to do. He was like, Oh, cool. I understand how I’m going to force the interest to have this supply problem.
00:41:06:23 – 00:41:20:24
Unknown
I’m so good at having my plan. And then he sees the resonance and he thinks about James Holden, and he thinks about Naomi and the thorn that they are in his side. And he just can’t help himself. He has to do something.
00:41:21:01 – 00:41:42:00
Unknown
He it’s really one of the few times that you see him fall away from the master plan for something that he just personally wants. And despite there being, there’s this reluctance from his crew, of course, they’re going to follow him and then he decides to give that honor to his son, that extension of we.
00:41:42:05 – 00:41:59:28
Unknown
So then if his son can be the one who takes out the Ross and Nancy and sheds light on him, he shines, I shine sort of situation. And so you see you see how excited he is. And this was also really funny scene for me personally, because for whatever reason, I did not think about the fact that
00:41:59:28 – 00:42:14:21
Unknown
the Ross and Nancy and the PLO were going to cross paths. It makes perfect sense, but I was just kind of guard because I didn’t expect this conflict to happen right then the way that it did. And so it leads into some really interesting stuff later on.
00:42:14:21 – 00:42:28:07
Unknown
But overall, I like the scenes and I like what they did for each of those characters. Yeah, absolutely. The, you know, for the paella, I thought what was really interesting was in the moment when he tells Phillip, You’re going to be on guns.
00:42:28:20 – 00:42:37:29
Unknown
I initially went, Oh, a bad move, Marco, because I don’t think he’s going to maybe pull the trigger knowing his mom might be on the ship. And that’s why I thought the downfall was going to be was having Philip man the guns.
00:42:38:19 – 00:42:52:24
Unknown
So it’s interesting kind of the way it goes, which we’ll talk to you when we get to that scene. But initially, when I found out about that, I just immediately thought, Oh, that was a that wasn’t a smart move to have Marco put his his kind of son that’s going through these issues and dealing with these, this
00:42:52:24 – 00:43:11:28
Unknown
identity crisis. And in response of being responsible for kind of firing the stuff on there. So I thought that was an interesting part. What did you think about the the scene with Braxton and Amos and Bobby and Pratt’s giving them that information about the kind of food and how they’re going to be using that protein molecule scientific
00:43:11:28 – 00:43:33:23
Unknown
breakthrough to hopefully feed the belt and also help Earth in there? They’re kind of re repopulation efforts or like getting getting more food stores and stuff on Earth. Yeah, so with with the Amos, Bobby and Maxine one, I was really excited to see cracks because I love that Amos referred to him as his best friend from their
00:43:33:23 – 00:43:51:01
Unknown
time together. And and I think that the the idea of this super yeast that can use like a little bit of copper dioxide to really think it struck me as something that Mars really could have used when they were trying to terraform.
00:43:51:22 – 00:44:04:08
Unknown
And so the irony of them having this after the ring gates have been open for a while and Mars has become whatever it is now. The fact that there are scientists that can be killed over this makes sense.
00:44:04:12 – 00:44:18:14
Unknown
This is a major breakthrough. It undermines what Marco has done because, hey, this is a response to series. This is a response to Earth in response to anyone who’s really kind of struggling out there and this this could be something that affects the entire system.
00:44:18:21 – 00:44:36:22
Unknown
And so it’s major, and I like that practice like, Hey, don’t worry about me and may will be fine by it, but this is the most important thing and you need to do so. And so, of course, in a sense, it’s a visceral because they have that connection, and he knows that if she sees that he sent
00:44:36:22 – 00:44:49:20
Unknown
it, she’ll look at it. And so that’s going to be that’s going to be something that might again to play into that whole Christians view of everyone being humans that we’re that we can all be one people in a way.
00:44:50:11 – 00:45:04:21
Unknown
Having that kind of golden answer to that problem might be something that really boosts her and allows her to take advantage of those people that are on the sidelines that are listening to Monica’s propaganda. Now we have an answer for you.
00:45:04:26 – 00:45:25:16
Unknown
Look what Marco has done for you versus look what we have done for you. So it’s got some really, really interesting and season-long implications just for my short little scene. Yeah, it also creates a kind of plot device that helps everyone so it can really be kind of a unifying force if it turns out to be the
00:45:25:16 – 00:45:41:05
Unknown
case that it’s as effective as practice saying it is because and I like that the information kind of came to Amos and Bobby because it, you know, that’s like you said, something that Mars could use and still can use if if, if that turns out to be the case there.
00:45:41:05 – 00:45:55:26
Unknown
So I love that it’s something that given the recent rocks being flung at Earth, Earth really needs that kind of food security. But food scarcity seems to be a problem. That’s that’s a problem for all three of those of those like nations or whatever you want to call them.
00:45:56:03 – 00:46:11:17
Unknown
So I really think that I really think that this could be kind of a unifying overarching thing that comes up where it really addresses problems for for all three of them. Well, initially I thought, Oh, they’re going to have to get this information to someone physically, but he just he just swipes it up.
00:46:12:08 – 00:46:23:26
Unknown
Isn’t it really nice to be able to just kind of like text the leader of the free world, you know, with whatever information is happening? It just got to just go, All right, I’m just going to get this to the U.N. secretary general, who he just calls crazy.
00:46:24:02 – 00:46:34:04
Unknown
So I think it’s funny that they have that resource where practice sends it to him, and he just kind of forwards it like an email, you know, to it’s the, you know, the leader of the Free Solar System.
00:46:34:04 – 00:46:43:08
Unknown
At that point, they kind of riff about about her armor and stuff, and he gets the scene from practice. It was really great to see practice after him being such an integral part in season two and season three.
00:46:43:14 – 00:47:01:26
Unknown
I also did read that, you know, because they had to shorten the season because of budgetary constraints. They had obviously had to cut some storylines that would have been present in this season. And Practice and Anna were both characters that were going to have an expanded role had the season been maybe fully funded and had they had
00:47:01:26 – 00:47:15:08
Unknown
more episodes. So it’s great to see them kind of touching on those characters and still having them be prominent or integral parts of the show here in their own way. So I really I thought that was awesome, and I love the two performers that play those characters as well.
00:47:15:08 – 00:47:30:25
Unknown
I think they’re they’re great actors in and stop their egos from that scene. We go back to Jim and Naomi. He’s in his quarters, and Naomi has kind of cracked something about the ring gates and states that it seems that there’s a pattern to these ship disappearances.
00:47:31:04 – 00:47:43:10
Unknown
It seems like once and maybe you can elaborate on on kind of what she was talking about, but it seems like once one disappears, it immediately opens in another area and another ship disappears. That seems to be this whole that seems to be bouncing.
00:47:43:10 – 00:47:57:03
Unknown
It seems to be like maybe one portal or one hole that seems to be bouncing between ring gates indiscriminately. And she says she’s really not an expert. She can’t say anything definitive about it. And then they’re interrupted by.
00:47:58:03 – 00:48:14:18
Unknown
It seems like Clarissa has, you know, she was she was tasked with watching the rationality. And it seems like on her first watch, she got some bad luck, which was that Marco and Rose, the the biggest terrorist in the system, is barreling towards them, him and his other two ships.
00:48:15:01 – 00:48:28:22
Unknown
So she sees that on the radar and notifies Holden, and he says. And then we cut from that scene there, and then we go to you back on series, the U.N. relief efforts seem to be in full swing.
00:48:29:00 – 00:48:49:18
Unknown
We’ve got some Martian people that are handing out supplies and Monica is documenting the entire thing. We see kind of a great interaction where the Martian U.N. relief guard is speaking to them in Beltre. So I thought that was a really nice touch that they seem to be kind of extending that olive branch to the Belters and
00:48:49:18 – 00:49:06:14
Unknown
trying to communicate them with them on their level. And then also again, going back to the whole, like every, every group of people seems to have different factions. There’s the other Martian guy. This next comes as we were supposed to kill these people and and Monica kind of calls him out for being so rash, even while they’re
00:49:06:14 – 00:49:24:03
Unknown
documenting that on on camera. And she sees a kind of Beltre isolated goes and kind of talks to him trying to maybe get some get a story out of him for her humanitarian project. And then we get these giant explosions series just yet set off.
00:49:24:03 – 00:49:40:11
Unknown
It seems like maybe it was rigged or armed and everything has been everything is exploding. I remember this scene really surprising me. But what were your thoughts on the scene from? Let me see that the past scene about the Ross Nancy and about the ring gates?
00:49:40:20 – 00:49:54:09
Unknown
And maybe what were your your thoughts on what they were referring to? If that seems like an accurate description as to what she was referring to there? And then the paella bearing down on them? And then also that U.N. relief effort scene and then the explosion that ensued.
00:49:55:13 – 00:50:12:08
Unknown
Yeah, for sure. So also, if you hear if you hear a little voice, my niece just join me, OK? Adobe I like the the scene between Jim and Naomi, where she was identifying these these disappearances in clusters because it implies control.
00:50:12:15 – 00:50:23:16
Unknown
Not that this working mechanism has some sort of either predictability to it or it’s being worked on. And you could tell that she was kind of thinking that, but there’s no definitive evidence because the sample size is too small.
00:50:24:15 – 00:50:41:09
Unknown
And so that implies that there is something going on where people are disappearing. These ships are disappearing at a consistent rates and that there’s purpose for it. So I’m curious to see if they’re going to crack that whole code and how that’s going to play out.
00:50:41:15 – 00:51:02:01
Unknown
I think it has to play out. And I think it’ll be interesting to see how they get more data and how that data is going to come through to them, especially considering it’s kind of secondary to what they’re experiencing with the whole Marcos scenario, not just in this initial this fight that’s going to take place, but just
00:51:02:01 – 00:51:15:09
Unknown
with his presence in this in the system. So I’m definitely curious to see where this information is going to go and what where it’s going to lead them, for sure. And of course, when Clarissa is like, Oh, shoot, we got something going down.
00:51:16:01 – 00:51:32:18
Unknown
I was like, OK, here it is. Here’s the fight, and you can tell Jim was ready to go. He knew exactly what it was. But then that series scene, you know, again, this is a scene where I feel like I should have seen the end of that scene coming because it makes sense.
00:51:32:18 – 00:51:47:23
Unknown
I should have seen it didn’t see it coming. But you have the whole OK, cool. We’re occupying series and I’m trying to speak to you and you can tell that there are people again, like you said, with the differing viewpoints on how they’re interacting with these people.
00:51:48:23 – 00:52:06:27
Unknown
But to me that the the scene, the part of the scene that was the most effective was when Monica does go to that belter with the cat and is trying to speak to him on his level. Because even though she and obviously Sarala may differ, they both kind of have that same thing that Michaud has, right?
00:52:07:04 – 00:52:22:08
Unknown
Like, like, there’s a humanity there. There’s the fact that we are shared humans in this system. That should be enough. And so I really actually like that, and then the explosion happens and I was like, Oh man, oh man.
00:52:22:19 – 00:52:34:02
Unknown
And that’s that’s when I was trying to figure out now, what are they going? How are they going to play this? Are they going? Are the belters who see this happen? Are they going to blame Marco for it?
00:52:34:07 – 00:52:45:29
Unknown
Are they going to say, Hey, this happened after the U. The U.N. people came? What’s going to be the way that this is spun? Because there there is the concept of, oh, shoot, these explosions happen as soon as they came here.
00:52:46:05 – 00:53:02:02
Unknown
So it’s got to be their fault. We hate them more. Or is it going to be those that we’re starting to call Marcos out for being a coward? Are they going to be the ones who are going to say, Hey, he was obviously behind this because it bombed both U.N. people and Belcher’s, and he doesn’t really care
00:53:02:03 – 00:53:20:01
Unknown
about the belts? And why are we believing in this guy he killed? Anderson dies. And so I’m trying to figure out if, like there is going to be critical thinking people who are going to see this almost laundry list of offenses that Marcos has done or that Marco has done on over the belt.
00:53:20:04 – 00:53:35:28
Unknown
So I’m excited for that. So we cut from that scene to the climax of the show, which is this big showdown between the rationality and the power, we finally get this big ship showdown between the two Holden and the crew versus Phillip and Marco and the paella.
00:53:37:00 – 00:53:53:15
Unknown
Philip, as we said in the previous scene, as manning the guns there, and there’s a really tense battle between them where they fire all their missiles, the real gun saves them and takes a lot of them out. And they’re kind of at that point, they just start trying to dodge everything and they’re dodging around.
00:53:53:15 – 00:54:08:05
Unknown
And then Bobby and this alpha move comes up to the top. She takes the gunner controls, and he says, you know, they’re dodging all my shots and she just she goes, Just give me the shot. She finds out that it seems like every time they’re dodging, they’re dodging to the port side, so they use all their missiles
00:54:08:05 – 00:54:24:22
Unknown
as a diversion. They shoot the real gun and take out the paella as it as it dodges into the rail guns fire line, which I thought was a really cool scene, really great action scene between the two. I love the little interaction between Amos and Clarissa, where they lose some.
00:54:26:06 – 00:54:34:16
Unknown
I think you said secedes. I’m not exactly sure what that stands for, but they kind of lose that in the firefight and he has to go fix them. And she says, Yeah, but we’re in the middle of a battle.
00:54:34:16 – 00:54:51:02
Unknown
And he said, that’s the job. Peaches, I thought that was a great line for for him. And yeah, I thought this was a really intense action scene, had a really satisfying payoff. And then it leads into the crux of the episode where Bobby is manning the weapons.
00:54:51:02 – 00:55:08:28
Unknown
And as the paella is all but destroyed and kind of just sitting there for the taking, he tries to get Marco to surrender so that they can take him in. I thought it was a great line that he set about Marco being better as a prisoner than a martyr because, you know, revolutionary leaders like that their their
00:55:08:28 – 00:55:22:28
Unknown
message seems to get amplified if they die in in battle like that. And then when Marco declines, Bobby fires the missile. We get a tap on the wrist from Holden right before the missile hits the disarms it, and it just hits off like a dud.
00:55:24:21 – 00:55:41:09
Unknown
And then Marco gets away. What were your thoughts in this scene from start to finish the action scene with the paella and the Rossie going at it, some of the character interactions between Amos and Holden and Bobby kind of coming up and really coming in clutch for the Rocinante as far as her, her kind of war expertize
00:55:41:18 – 00:56:05:21
Unknown
. And then the decision from Holden to disarm the bomb, saving both the paella and Naomi sign in the process. So this was a fantastic, fantastic action sequence. It it showed me how much I enjoy space battle in the expanse again and for it to be this one on one dogfight.
00:56:05:27 – 00:56:18:29
Unknown
I loved seeing the way that the ships would flip around and fire to be strategic about it, especially when it came to the fact that it was a three on one and it should have been really easy for them.
00:56:19:06 – 00:56:37:22
Unknown
But you can be outmaneuvered and outgunned, or you can be outmaneuvered even if you’re outgunned based on someone’s war expertize. And so for them to basically disable it to the point where it was just the paella versus the residency, that was really exciting, but they were like the pelican.
00:56:37:22 – 00:56:53:05
Unknown
I would fire them. It’s it’s a matter of time. And so for for Philip to be the one to like, try and make these shots and they’re just barely missing or they’re hitting and and it’s glancing off. And it’s like Amos and Clarice are the ones having to fix it.
00:56:53:08 – 00:57:05:19
Unknown
And she’s like, You want to fix it while we’re in battle. He’s like, That’s the job. You know, that’s that’s what we do. And and the craziest thing, though, was I was like, I don’t again, I don’t know how they’re going to get out of this.
00:57:05:27 – 00:57:19:29
Unknown
And then Bobby comes up and Bobby is like, All right, we’re going to do this, do it again. And she noticed that they dodged to the left. Mm-Hmm. And so she’s like, even though they’re not within our range, we’re going to use the PDC, which is their point defense cannon.
00:57:20:27 – 00:57:37:19
Unknown
And we’re going to we can do this, but it’s going to take a sec and you’re going to have to trust me on it and we’re going to fire anyway. And so again, all of that like character building relationship, building stuff that they have been doing earlier in the episode and in the previous episodes makes it so
00:57:37:19 – 00:57:57:24
Unknown
that when hold in trust, Bobby, it’s like, OK, cool, we can make the shot. But when he opens up and he’s talking to Marco, and Marco is like, I’ll die before I leave at the end of your leash and you get that little perspective of Phillip coming to the side and you know, Naomi’s watching, and Jim knows
00:57:57:24 – 00:58:15:25
Unknown
they know he’s watching and he’s like in his head. He’s he’s thinking that he can’t kill her son. And so that’s that’s when that whole like martyr sort of situation kind of comes up as well. But you realize that’s yes, that is part of the reason why he did it, because if he immortalized as Marko dying in
00:58:15:25 – 00:58:30:17
Unknown
the fight, you know, there’s going to be people who carry on that spirit and fight the good fight. But it’s because of Philip and because of what he means to me. Despite everything, despite the fact that he fired off, which I was surprised by, I didn’t think he’s going to do it, especially after his kind of conversation
00:58:30:17 – 00:58:48:20
Unknown
with his dad earlier. So I was I was impressed by that, and I just love that whole scene. And then for Marco to realize that he was in trouble and and that he needed retreats against the rationale that even though he should have been able to beat them, it was as a moment where it felt like Marco
00:58:49:06 – 00:59:06:21
Unknown
actually took to the loss. Yeah, we go from there, too, back to the paella. They’re kind of licking their wounds after their loss to the rationality in combat. And yeah, you start to see Marco unraveling and his his leadership starts to come into question.
00:59:07:12 – 00:59:23:17
Unknown
You see you see both judgmental looks from Rosenfeld. And then also Philip kind of vocalizes that it was his pride. And going back to the actual battle, it really was his pride that lost them. Because when the one ship got hit, the other ship said they were going to peel off for aid for the other ship.
00:59:23:28 – 00:59:37:29
Unknown
And he kind of hubristic. We said, we don’t really need them, you know, and obviously they did, you know, they obviously did need them in that moment. And you wonder if the battle would have gone differently if he would have said, leave them for now, would you do the fight we can always give aid after?
00:59:38:07 – 00:59:47:07
Unknown
But he he kind of, in this moment of pride, just says we don’t need them. We’ll take them on on ourselves. We have more missiles than they do. So it really was his pride that lost in the fight.
00:59:47:07 – 01:00:00:24
Unknown
And Philip kind of points that out in front of the entire crew. Marco kind of explodes on him and tells him he’s relieved of his duty, and there seems to be a huge, a huge rift between Marco and many Marco.
01:00:01:05 – 01:00:14:09
Unknown
So there seems to be a really huge rift between who he he he he thought of his clone going into this, and they’re also setting up from earlier in the episode as well. They’re also setting up that Rosenfeld and he seemed to be.
01:00:14:09 – 01:00:36:08
Unknown
There seems to be maybe a growing rift between the two where he seems more interested in, as you said, his pride and his his his reputation. And Rosenfeld is wanting him to focus on war because he’s so gifted at strategy that coming in with this really half cocked plan to take out the rationality, it doesn’t really look
01:00:36:08 – 01:00:52:27
Unknown
good in her eyes at all. And I think that’s going to make itself known as the season goes on. And then it goes into the final scene, which is he gets a tight beam from somebody, I believe on Medina Station and the person on Medina Station says that they’re delivering an rc rg six.
01:00:52:27 – 01:01:09:14
Unknown
It looks like this very crazy missile looking almost a nuke looking thing that’s coming through the ring gates from Laconia. And he says if this performs as well as the others, it will be fun. What were your thoughts in this last scene with the rift between Marco and his son and Rosenfeld and then getting that crazy scene
01:01:09:14 – 01:01:20:23
Unknown
at the end where it looks like some kind of some kind of structure is coming through the ring gates that has something to do with the proto molecule, judging from something where he said it’s coming from Medina Station and it’s coming through the ring gates.
01:01:20:23 – 01:01:43:04
Unknown
And they’re saying that obviously this seems to be a game changer for Marco, judging by his reaction. So the summation of that scene to me is Marco screaming at his son, I relieved of duty and then going into him leaving and then going and just breathing for a second.
01:01:43:20 – 01:02:01:16
Unknown
Marco Marco knows I messed up. He knows it. He’ll never admit it out loud. But he is someone who has to blame other people because he is the mastermind and he is. He is the revolution. I mean, he’s the one that everyone has believed in, so there’s no way he’s going to actively admit that he’s wrong, even
01:02:01:16 – 01:02:21:18
Unknown
when he is. And so when his son stands up to him, despite his son having impressed him by at least trying to fire the missile right? The whole deal is I’m going to shame you because of what I feel and and to see that interaction, especially considering Rosenfeld is was against the plan in general.
01:02:22:00 – 01:02:40:11
Unknown
It Marco is seeing that everyone has recognized what he’s done. And so he can’t stand down, though, because if he stands that one, he allows people to undermine him in public. And if he is undermined by whether it’s his son or a second in command, that’s going to weaken people’s resolve.
01:02:41:05 – 01:02:52:16
Unknown
So it’s a father, and he can’t allow that. And so he has to double down on his choice, and he has to double down on the concept of people. Rising up against him is going to result in them being dismissed.
01:02:52:28 – 01:03:12:23
Unknown
And basically, it is a power play by him. So I like that it continues his same trends that he’s been doing. But when we see the RG Sex Act, the ring gate, that that implies that he’s he’s still interacting with those people that that the giant assault that he had at the end of season five coming from
01:03:12:23 – 01:03:32:03
Unknown
the other side of the gates that he hasn’t given up on that. And so Marco doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who plays every card in his hand. Immediately, he keeps them close to the chest. But this definitely seems like one where he is excited that it happened at this point and in the war, especially
01:03:32:03 – 01:03:45:25
Unknown
with how people have been kind of vocalizing their their grievances against him. Do you think that that weapon at the end has something to do with the protein molecule? They said it was coming from Laconia, right? So that’s why I was assuming it has something to do with the protein molecule.
01:03:46:02 – 01:04:05:26
Unknown
Anything with Laconia, I’m associating with the protein molecule in general right now, which is that how we saw it, right? And so I’m trying to figure out if this is something that is a supply that has to do with the protein molecules or if this is something that they want to reach Laconia so that the protein molecule
01:04:05:26 – 01:04:25:14
Unknown
can come back because the whole concept of Laconia and James Holding was talking about this earlier was, Hey, there is that missing part of molecules from Fred, right? Fred Johnson? So all of that, anything that has to do with like the ring gates and these weapons and the disappearances and whatnot on the has to do with the
01:04:25:14 – 01:04:40:21
Unknown
promoter. But we had always talked about they’re going to resolve the Marcos storyline and then go to the protein molecule storyline. And this seems to be a subtle merging of the two. If that’s the case where it seems like maybe the Marcos storyline is linked with the protein molecule storyline in some fashion there, which is really interesting
01:04:41:09 – 01:04:53:21
Unknown
, and it’ll be really great to get to kind of see how that develops here. But that was the episode, guys, it cuts out. After that, we’re going to jump into maybe some predictions and hot and questions that we may have had on the on the episode there.
01:04:54:09 – 01:05:06:04
Unknown
I did want to ask you two questions before we get into you, maybe any any hot takes or where you think the show is going to go, which is who do you think is who do you think was responsible for killing that scientist that practice had to get the information to?
01:05:06:13 – 01:05:20:01
Unknown
So there’s some kind of maybe political imagination about not wanting that information to get out there or not wanting that information to be to be widely known about that yeast. What do you who do you think may be responsible for that?
01:05:22:21 – 01:05:47:09
Unknown
See, I’m torn because part of me is like it would make sense for Marco to have spies throughout the system, right? That would be really interesting to me if if this was a more expanded storyline or season, rather, I would assume we would see more cracks and I could see a situation where a Marco insurgent has hidden
01:05:47:09 – 01:05:59:17
Unknown
themselves against are among the scientists. And as they’ve kind of gone farther and farther, maybe they’re feeding him information and then ends up killing the person to try and steal the nation, and praxis is able to get that and transmit that.
01:05:59:27 – 01:06:12:03
Unknown
In that scenario, perhaps would die. So like, that’s that’s kind of where my mind would go if we had more episodes in the season that there’s probably a spy. But when when I think about it, I’m like, Well, who?
01:06:12:13 – 01:06:27:07
Unknown
Who benefits from killing this scientist, right? Earth doesn’t benefit by killing it because this whole deal would help Earth. The belts in general wouldn’t would any benefit from killing them because, oh sure, we could provide for our people.
01:06:27:07 – 01:06:47:23
Unknown
We’re in a restricted scenario. So the only other faction that that is left in my head is is Laconia. But Laconia is detached from from that they’re kind of doing their own. So I actually have no idea because I can’t figure out a motive besides if there was a spy.
01:06:47:28 – 01:07:08:22
Unknown
Yeah, I think I think a case could be made that Earth does benefit if that person’s dead. And the reason being is that even with their capacity and all the stuff that’s happened on Earth, their ability to to to to grow food or have food available for in that system, is there really one or is one of
01:07:08:22 – 01:07:27:02
Unknown
their major advantages over the belt and Mars is their ability like they have that biosphere that they can kind of rely on and have that food. So even with their their issues that they’re going through relating that biosphere to give up that advantage that they may have between the other two may have, may have caused them to
01:07:27:02 – 01:07:39:15
Unknown
to maybe kill that scientists and not want that information out. So they may have the information that maybe they could use for Earth, but they may not want that out for Mars and the belt because they want to hold that power over them where they’re having to ship them food resources.
01:07:39:15 – 01:07:52:05
Unknown
And it’s a huge trade export for Earth. So it’s going to be really interesting to see the motive behind killing that scientists there. Do you have any other predictions after seeing this episode as to how you think the series is going to go or maybe what you expect from the next few episodes?
01:07:52:23 – 01:08:09:05
Unknown
Given the information that we got in this in this one, I’m trying to figure out what what happens to Marco at the end of the season if I can’t see a scenario? Well, let me take a look. I can see a scenario where he is captured alive and he is in prison for the rest of his life
01:08:09:09 – 01:08:24:19
Unknown
. So then he can be an example of the inner is not having to kill Belcher’s in order to make a point. So I could see that, but I’m also more figuring that he might die. And if that’s the case, how would he die?
01:08:25:15 – 01:08:40:21
Unknown
Do I see it being Holden? Not unless it’s self-defense, and it would be a one on one sort of situation. Do I see it being Naomi? No, because I don’t think even though she hates what Marco has done, even though he’s tortured her before.
01:08:40:28 – 01:08:54:01
Unknown
I don’t see her being the one to pull the trigger. I could see Philip doing it in the act where he finally mans up and tries to protect his mom. But I also think it can be really interesting if Marco died via protein molecule.
01:08:55:11 – 01:09:07:11
Unknown
And especially because we’re starting to see some interaction with him in Laconia. So where my line is going for pretty much all my predictions is what’s going to happen to Marco and how is he going to end this season?
01:09:07:11 – 01:09:22:07
Unknown
That is the most anticipated part of the season for me. Yeah. Well, one of your big predictions that you made in the first episode that we did regarding Marco was that potentially Phillip kills Marco, and I still think that could possibly be the case here, too.
01:09:22:07 – 01:09:32:12
Unknown
I think having gone through this, especially with the rift that’s now growing between the two. There’s there’s kind of a motive for Philip to maybe make that decision later on, and it might be a really kind of tragic end.
01:09:33:15 – 01:09:48:03
Unknown
I think Marco could kill Philip, too. And I think that that, you know, and I think that’s something you alluded to in episode one that we did too, was that that could be the case. But I think if we do get Marco, it’s going to be at the cost of Philip.
01:09:48:03 – 01:10:01:21
Unknown
I think I talked about in the episode one that I think Philip making it out of this season alive after the things that he’s done, even if he’s being a he’s only he’s only kind of been a surrogate party to his father is very unrealistic to me.
01:10:01:21 – 01:10:17:20
Unknown
I think that they’re going to have to have him make a redemptive move and potentially sacrifice himself to to save, you know, to stop this enormous threat. And I think I thought maybe that redemptive moment would come in this episode, and it didn’t.
01:10:18:06 – 01:10:32:12
Unknown
He definitely shot every time his father told him to. He didn’t really care. Kind of who is at the end of that, that that missile that he was sending off, so he indiscriminately did it in this one, but you’re starting to see a rift where he’s he’s losing faith in his father’s leadership and maybe the crew is
01:10:32:12 – 01:10:49:17
Unknown
too. And I could see a case where he does something to destroy the engross kind of kind of terrorist regime or whatever you want to call it, and Marco kills him for it. As far as the next episode, I think we’re going to get more information about that structure that left the ring gate and get some information
01:10:49:18 – 01:11:01:22
Unknown
about that. We’re obviously going to get an intro on Laconia and see what happened with those dogs and the little kid. If the dog maybe is going to field a little kid like you alluded to earlier. That seems to be the implication after those two scenes.
01:11:01:22 – 01:11:12:24
Unknown
Being back to back is that she’s going to think that maybe that dog can fix her brother like you fix that other stuff. So that might be a move there. And then I think we’re going to get more drama in the next episode.
01:11:12:24 – 01:11:27:29
Unknown
I think Drummer Liang’s mission for their supply caches is going to kind of come to fruition in the next episode there. So that’s going to wrap it up for us guys here for for The Expanse episode three. It’s so crazy, but we’re halfway through the season already.
01:11:28:19 – 01:11:41:24
Unknown
It seems like it’s going by extremely quickly. And obviously with only being six episodes, we’re already halfway through, so we’re in our back half of the of the season so far. It’s been great so far and I’m really interesting to see how everything ends.
01:11:41:24 – 01:11:56:23
Unknown
But if you guys are watching on YouTube, make sure to like, comment and subscribe on the video here if you’re listening on the podcast platforms. Make sure to rate US five star if on Apple Podcasts and if you’re on any of the other podcast five times to share it with any other screaming fire hawks that you know
01:11:57:15 – 01:12:06:06
Unknown
and kick it around us. Some people that may be watching The Expanse and may get something out of this that would be very much appreciated. I did a review for the power of the dog that you guys can read.
01:12:06:06 – 01:12:21:02
Unknown
I’m also working on a review for the tragedy of Macbeth. I also just wrapped up my Discuss Hawkeye series. So if you guys are watching that MCU show, you guys can watch all of our episodes for one through six for that one or me, and just kind of breakdown the Hawkeye episode there.
01:12:22:06 – 01:12:36:21
Unknown
Do you have anything you want a promo, Danny, anything that’s going on that you want to tell the people about at all? Not right now. Just check out just me and discuss. It’s been super fun during all this so far, and the conversations are great, and I think you guys will benefit from listening to it.
01:12:36:21 – 01:12:48:02
Unknown
So definitely give it a shot. All right, fantastic. Well, Danny, I hope you’re having a fantastic Christmas. If you know you guys are listening to this on Christmas Eve, have a great, great time. I hope you’re spending it with family and loved ones however you celebrate.
01:12:48:25 – 01:12:52:08
Unknown
And as always, guys discuss among yourselves and we will see you next week.