The Expanse Season 5 finale is out now, and we made a video explaining the mysteries and
character arcs of the season – which you can watch at the link below if you haven’t already.
But there’s also a lot of cool stuff in the book series that wasn’t included in Season 5.
Like Bobbie surfing a missile in space and saving the Martian prime minister – for
example. As well as lots of character moments, world details, and thematic stuff.
So how does Season 5 of the show compare to the books, and what cool bits didn’t get included?
This video has info from the first five books and the novellas, but no spoilers from the later
books, so it’s safe if you just watch the show. Each book in The Expanse is told from the point
of view of a different set of characters. So the first five books all have Holden chapters,
but Book 1 also has Miller chapters, Book 2 has Avasarala and Bobbie and Prax,
Book 3 has Anna Clarissa and Bull, Book 4 Elvi Basia and Havelock. Book 5,
Nemesis Games, is the first time we get chapters from Naomi, Amos and Alex’ point of view.
In the early books, Amos and Alex are pretty minor characters – they’re actually more fleshed out in
the TV show. But in Book 5, each of the Roci crew go off on their own stories, and we get inside
their heads for the first time, as the worlds change dramatically around them. Season 5 adds
plotlines about Avasarala and Drummer, but Nemesis Games is about Holden, Alex, Naomi and Amos.
So when Holden is alone on Tycho, he really struggles to cope. He needs to be around people,
but he’s uncomfortable with how strangers treat him like a celebrity. So Holden spends some nights
in a crappy Italian restaurant drinking mediocre margaritas, and before long, he is crying,
drunk on bourbon with his pants off, talking to his spaceship in in the dark. Being unable to help
his crew when they’re in danger is a nightmare for Holden, and his emotions are all over the place.
Luckily, Monica keeps him busy. In the TV show, Monica investigates a plot to steal
Fred’s protomolecule. But in the book, Monica investigates colony ships that have disappeared
at the Ring gates. In the show, there’s just one ship that disappears in the finale, destroyed by
mysterious aliens. But in the book, there’s a dozen civilian ships that just disappear. At
first, Monica and Holden think this is related to Marco and Duarte’s black market ships,
and it’s only at the end of the book that they realise, oh shit, aliens have been eating people
this whole time, those colony ships were destroyed by the entities in the Ring. At one point,
Monica asks Holden to use Fred’s protomolecule to try to reconnect to the consciousness of Miller,
and ask him what’s vanishing the ships, like a séance to summon a ghost – but Holden refuses.
So Monica gets kidnapped, and in the books, it’s kind of Holden’s fault. Cause Holden
blabs about Monica’s investigation to Sakai, who is secretly working for Marco.
So once again, Holden’s habit of sharing sensitive information creates trouble. As Avasarala says,
Holden’s “record for blurting information” “is the stuff of legend”. But later,
Holden chooses to keep it secret that Fred’s protomolecule was stolen, to prevent panic –he
actually withholds information for once. So Holden does learn from his mistakes, he’s “changed”.
Holden and Fred find Monica because Monica’s terminal is still connected to her hidden camera.
In the books, there’s an extra step here because Monica’s terminal is smashed.
The device still works, but the screen is shattered and scrambled into shards of glass.
So they get help from a scientist. Astronomers interpret light that reflects and refracts around
planets and stars and stuff. So the scientist uses those same principles to decipher the light that’s
scattered by this smashed screen, creating like a digital lens to resolve it into a visible image,
and that’s how they find Monica. So it’s always cool when there’s some science in the sci fi.
In the show, Marco’s people attack Tycho and kill Fred Johnson. In the book, Fred does get
shot, but he survives. In fact, he fights back this attack in badass fashion. He toughs out
the bullet-wounds, coordinates a defence, and he uses this secret code he’s got with Drummer
to set an ambush on the attackers. After all, this is “Colonel Frederick Lucius Johnson”,
“the Butcher of Anderson Station”, “traitor to Earth”, he’s an experienced military tactician,
he’s prepared for this kind of thing, so he fights back and survives. Still, Marco’s attack
and the rise of the Free Navy is a huge blow to Fred politically. He no longer speaks for the Belt
when these radicals are in power. Anderson Dawes tells Fred that he’s gotta cooperate with Marco,
and Fred seriously considers joining Marco’s side, and trying to make peace,
moderating the radicals from within. Holden says it’s be bullshit for Fred to change sides again,
like when he left Earth to help the Belt. But Fred says he “never changed sides”,
“The sides keep changing around” him. Fred will join whatever faction can do the most good, but
in this new political situation, it’s not obvious which faction that is. Holden argues that Marco is
obviously the bad guy here, and ultimately Fred goes to work with Avasarala, Earth and Mars.
Alex goes back to Mars to reconnect with his ex-wife Talissa. In the show,
they have a son called Melas, but in the books Alex doesn’t have a son – as far as he knows.
Avasarala once mentions that Alex has a son he doesn’t know about, which is weird.
Did Talissa hide his son from him? Or is the mother some other woman? The books don’t say.
Alex helps Bobbie investigate black market Martian military gear – so in the show,
Alex talks with Sauveterre and Babbage. But in the books, Alex talks to Duarte.
Duarte appears to be just this average military bureaucrat guy, described as likeable, and
competent. Duarte tells Alex that’s he’s aware of the black market ships and is investigating, but
is powerless to stop it. It’s only at the end of the book that you realise ‘holy shit, that Duarte
guy was lying, he was the secret mastermind behind the black market ships and Laconia all along.
So Alex and Bobbie investigate missing ships on the Razorback, and in the book they also rescue
the Prime Minster of Mars, from an attack by Marco – Marco’s plan is even more ambitious in
the books, trying to kill the leader of Mars as well as Fred Johnson and Holden and Earth.
The Martian Prime Minister’s name is Nathan Smith, he’s described as “polite” and “Inoffensive” and
he just sort of tags along in the back seat while Alex and Bobbie go save Naomi. But when Bobbie
wears her power armour, she can’t fit in her seat on the Razorback, so she rips out the seat and
just stands there whole time, bracing herself on the walls in high g with sheer strength.
The Razorback can’t safely get to Naomi fast enough, so Bobbie hops on missile
and rides it as it’s fired next to Naomi, and that’s how they grab her in the book.
But in the show, they race in on the Razorback, and Alex dies of a stroke from their high g burn,
which is a risk they mention in the books. But in Book 5, Alex doesn’t die – it looks like
they killed him off in the show because the actor isn’t returning next season.
Maybe in the show, Bull will take his place as pilot on the Roci. Bull is a weird addition to the
show, cause in the books, he only appears in Book 3, playing a similar role to Drummer in Season 3.
Naomi is taken prisoner by her emotionally manipulative terrorist ex Marco and their son
Filip. And in the book she goes to a really dark place – all the old trauma and fear and guilt from
her past comes flooding back. Being around Marco again makes her question her identity – is she a
prisoner, a terrorist collaborator, a mother – she doesn’t know which is “her real self”.
In her despair, Naomi draws strength by thinking of Amos. She asks herself “What would Amos do?”.
Which is funny, because Amos is not exactly a great model of wisdom and decision-making.
But Amos’ resilience and emotional detachment is what Naomi needs to survive this fear and
trauma. And at the same time that Naomi draws strength from Amos, Amos thinks of Naomi,
and tries to emulate her, in his relationship with Clarissa. So it’s beautiful that
even when they’re a zillion miles apart, Naomi and Amos’ bond makes both of them stronger.
So Marco attacks Earth, kills billions of people, and starts a militant Belter uprising, and in the
book, he has more specific reasons for doing this. Cause Belters are a people and a culture
adapted to space, their economy is based on mining asteroids in the Belt. But now there are hundreds
of new worlds beyond the Ring with resources that are way easier to extract, on planets with free
air and water. So the asteroids and stations of the Belt have no economic future. But Belters’
bodies are adapted to life in low gravity – in the books, Belters look different to inners, they’re
tall and thin, with big heads and weak bones. Many Belters can’t survive on a planet with full
gravity, like how Naomi couldn’t live on Ilus. And for the Belters who can live on planets,
after a generation in gravity, they wouldn’t be Belters anymore. The Ring is a threat to the very
existence of the Belter people, so part of Marco’s goal is to block off access to the Ring gate.
He lets Duarte go to Laconia, but doesn’t let anyone else through, holding the solar system
captive to preserve a future for the Belt. Fred compares Marco to Alexander the Great,
who defeated a Persian emperor at the Battle of Gaugamela – which is the title of Episode 4. At
Gaugamela, Alexander was way outnumbered, but he won because he “saw an opportunity”,
and was brave and audacious enough to take it – just like Marco had the audacity to defeat Earth.
But Fred wonders if Marco really is as Great as Alexander, or if he just thinks he is. The book
emphasises how fake and superficial Marco is. He’s really good at appearing noble and powerful, but
it’s a “mask”. And when that mask slips, Naomi sees a “rage-filled boy” behind it.
When Naomi and Holden reunite, at the end of the book, Naomi tells Holden about Marco and Filip
and her past for the first time. When she leaves at the start of the book, she doesn’t tell Holden
where she’s going, just that she needs to go do something, and needs to do it herself. It’s
important to her that Holden respects Naomi’s right to fight her own battles, and keep her own
secrets. Holden has to learn that doesn’t get to know everything or control everything. Naomi tells
Holden about her past when she’s ready, on her own terms, and that makes their bond even stronger.
After recovering from her ordeal, Naomi feels at peace for the first time in a while.
Amos goes back to Earth, and on the way, he meets a Belter couple called Jianguo and Rico. In the
book, these guys have a daughter called Wendy, and Amos makes a special effort to protect her,
and buys her an ice cream. He later sees a street kid in Baltimore, and wants to help him too. Amos
has always had a particular need to help children, because of how terrible his own childhood was.
Amos’ backstory is explored in a novella called The Churn,
and the show included the basic details – as a child, Amos’ name was Timothy,
and he was sexually exploited in organised crime. A woman called Lydia was like a mother to Timothy.
What the show leaves out is that in The Churn, when Timothy was about fifteen, he and Lydia
also had a sexual relationship. It says they weren’t lovers, they weren’t mother and son,
they were just Lydia and Timothy, and in their strange complicated relationship,
they found comfort in each other. In the show, Amos picks up this glazed mug – which is mentioned
in The Churn as a gift that eight-year-old Timothy gave Lydia for her birthday. So Timothy
and Lydia’s relationship was tender and wrong and sweet and dark and it made Amos who is now.
After the asteroids hit, the books describe the apocalyptic devastation of Earth. Ash rains down
coating everything with a layer of gray, blocking out the sun like “A funeral shroud” “over the
planet”. All the plants start dying, animals freak out. All over the world, food and water runs out,
there’s riots and looting. “The birthplace of humanity” is “in its death throes”, and
billions die. Unlike the other characters, Amos doesn’t feel horror or fear at this catastrophe.
He doesn’t worry about what he can’t control. He only thinks about how to survive in the present.
So Amos and Clarissa escape the Pit, and survive apocalyptic America together.
Amos calls Clarissa “Peaches” because in Book 3, Clarissa called herself Melba, and a Peach Melba
is a kind of dessert, so Peaches. He also calls Clarissa “little tomato” once, for some reason,
which is adorable. Previously, Amos called Anna “Red”, cause she’s a redhead in the books.
Amos calls Konecheck “Tiny”, which is interesting because in The Churn, Amos’ crime boss called
Amos “Tiny”. So Amos is a man with a fake name, who calls others by many different names.
There’s a moment in the show where Clarissa mentions faking an ID, and Amos and Erich smile
at each other. Because in The Churn, Erich created the fake ID that made Timothy into Amos Burton.
So Amos and Clarissa and Erich find a ship to escape Earth at Lake Winnipesaukee. It’s an
enclave where rich people have holiday homes, and the books describe how luxurious everything is,
with mansions, and boathouses, and a genetically engineered dog, and this ship the Zhang Guo.
The books describe its opulent decorations in silver and gold and velvet and it’s this giant,
lavish, totally impractical ship – more a statement of wealth than a means of transport.
Avasarala later calls it a “gaudy turd”. And this highlights the inequality on Earth.
We’ve seen that many people live in poverty and squalor on Basic. And here are these “Assholes”
with mansions bigger than housing blocks that would fit thousands. But in the end, that wealth
doesn’t mean shit in the apocalypse – it’s the mansions’ staff, along with Amos and Clarissa and
Erich, who use the ship to escape Earth. Amos says that in times of conflict,
human groups fracture into small hostile tribes. Everything that keeps society
civilised like laws and countries and money are just stories, and when the shit hits the fan,
those stories die, and violence starts. Clarissa has a more optimistic inclusive perspective,
like when she makes friends with the staff at Winnipesaukee to peacefully grow their tribe.
So she tells Amos that yes, peace and civilisation are just stories, but people are good at telling
stories that can bring people back together. In the end, Amos brings Clarissa to join
the crew on the Roci – even though Clarissa tried to kill them all once. And in the book,
he physically smuggles her onto the ship inside a crate, and she pops out like a
jack-in-a-box and scares Alex and it’s great. So overall, Season 5 is a pretty close adaptation
of Nemesis Games, though reading the book does add detail and depth. Throughout all
the storylines in Book 5, there’s a lot of thought and reflection about aging and change.
In Nemesis Games, the worlds and politics of The Expanse are dramatically shaken,
heading for a radically different future. But the characters are still so defined by their pasts.
“Shit changes and doesn’t”, Erich says. Naomi thinks Things change, and they don’t change back.
We can’t undo the damage of the past. But even when everything goes wrong,
and our tribes are split apart, we’re really good at telling stories to put things back together.
Thanks for watching. Please like and subscribe, and thank you to Amazon Prime Video UK
for sponsoring this video. We’ve made four videos for The Expanse Season 5, and you can watch them
all at the links below. Thanks to Patrons Jessica Rose, Patrick Shearer, Demps 2002,
Martin Schalling, Evan & Clare, Marco Caron, Shalom Entner, CHARLES A HULME, and G. Cheers.