As the story of The Expanse gets more and more complex the tension between Earth, Mars and the Belters cannot be ignored anymore. The characters sense the winds of war which affects them in various ways.
Alex, struggling from survivor’s guilt, replays the Battle of Thoth Station and tries to find out whether he could have saved the other container with the 24 Belters. Naomi creates herself some distraction and goes for a drink, while Amos is surprisingly calm and focused. Holden is freaked out over Miller killing Dresden and kicks the ex-cop off the Rocinante.
Let’s focus on Miller! He has had a rough time since he found the body of Julie Mao. Shortly after settling down on the Roci, Holden throws him off the ship for killing Dresden. As it was told by Miller, he killed Dresden not because he wanted revenge but he was actually making a bit of sense. Keeping him alive would have been very dangerous. While wandering Tycho Station he ends up in a Mormon church where the priest tells him more about the Nauvoo, an enormous ship that was designed to travel beyond the Solar System. Miller really liked the ship and for a time it seemed like he is about to sign up to the expedition but at the end, he shares his plan with Fred Johnson. Using the ship to push Eros into the sun with the Nauvoo will be extremely difficult considering the fact that they do not even have the ship yet.
So, the lead scientist from Thoth Station is still alive and we found out that he and the rest of the scientists were purged of all empathy. This is actually a really good explanation for how they were capable of doing all their experiments and finally infect the people on Eros. Cortazar could be useful in the future since he knows a lot about the protomolecule and his research might be crucial in order to discover all possibilities of the extra-terrestrial substance.
“Space Jon Snow”James Holden can be really frustrating sometimes because of his freak-outs. Even Naomi considers booting Miller off the ship a harsh move since Miller’s reasons are totally understandable. His character needs a bit of polishing because right now it feels like he always puts himself in the center and acts like he was the leader of the OPA even though he is only the captain of the Roci. I generally do not dislike him but some of his actions are hard to cope with. In a time like that when the humanity is one step away from an interplanetary war, he should take more experienced people more seriously.
Finally, we have also learned more about the Martian culture. It is good to know more about the third faction, for example, that they always train in earth like gravity so they can launch an attack anytime.
Even though this episode was a bit slower than the first two, it was very important and we have learned a lot during the 40 minutes. Miller is going through and exciting character development and it will be interesting to watch how he executes his plan with the Nauvoo. However, simply destroying Eros would be a mistake without investigation the protomolecule and its development on the station.
Score: 8/10
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