“Anything other than noodles, bars, and brothels?” “I never looked.”
The Expanse Episode 3 brought us to the mid-way point of the final season of one of the best
sci-fi fantasy shows of all time. It’s a six episode season, so we’ve got just 3
more to go. Let’s start with an update on the Strange Dogs.
In the prior episode, Cara went back to bury the mommy bird. As she was doing so, one of
the Strange Dogs grabbed the dead mommy bird and ran off with her.
This episode began with Cara in class. After class, she went back to her little spot and
found out that her mother’s broken drone had been fixed. Then, she turned around and
saw that the mommy bird was alive again. Cara concluded that the Strange Dogs fix things.
And they do. But fixing a drone is one thing. Bringing something back to life is an entirely
different story. Something that should concern her, but she’s just a kid. So she’s too
innocent to worry about the implications. When she got home, she found out that her
brother was dead. For better or worse, Cara most likely has an idea as to how to fix her
brother. Now, let’s look at Marco’s moves.
In the prior episode, the Rocinante crew located the Azure Dragon, boarded it, and extracted
its data. The data showed them where every rock was. So that freed up the Joint Fleet
to pursue Marco Inaros. The Joint Fleet of the United Nations of Earth
and Luna and the Mars Congressional Republic went to Ceres, but the Free Navy was no longer
there. Marco had stripped out useful gear and abandoned Ceres. And it was a trap of
sorts. The 1 million people of Ceres had food and air for just three more weeks. If the
Joint Fleet abandoned them, it would be a humanitarian crisis. So basically, the Joint
Fleet has been forced to expend resources helping out the belters on Ceres. And later,
bombs went off, lessening their supplies even further.
But, Prax sent Amos a new discovery. A way to grow food from just CO2 and waste. Amos
then forwarded that on to his girl Chrissie, so that should help out the people on Earth
who are suffering in the aftermath of Marco’s Rock Attacks as well as those on Ceres, freeing
up the Joint Fleet to go after Marco. Meanwhile on the Pella, Rosenfeld warned Marco
that the UNN has three new capital ships, and the Martians have two new Donnager class
battleships. Marco laughed it off – a sign that he is spiraling out of control. He is
in denial of truths. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
After abandoning Ceres, Filip began to see belters on the news calling Marco a coward.
So he approached his father, and Marco tried to justify it by saying that the people of
Ceres were not true belters. In other words, his entire movement was built upon the concept
that belters had been abused for being different, and now, he’s doing the same thing to his
own people. Marco is losing control. On the flip side, the crew of the Rocinante
grew closer to one another. First, Holden and Clarissa had a 1 on 1, in which Clarissa
opened up about the guilt she carries for having killed Rey. And sadly, the side-effects
of her mods are getting worse and worse. Bobbie and Amos also had a 1 on 1 while eating
some bad food. They talked about how far they’d come, and how much their views have changed
since the misunderstood events of Season 1 such as the Canterbury and the Donnager.
Last, but not least, Holden and Naomi had a 1 on 1, in which Naomi opened up about her
PTSD. So Holden tasked Naomi with looking into the ships that went missing after ring
transits, and later on, she discovered a pattern. Elsewhere, Drummer connected with Walker and
learned that Marco Inaros has a number of supply depots floating around. Drummer has
decided to raid them. And two other Golden Bough ships called her up to say that they
would join her. So Drummer’s faction is growing, but at the same time, there’s tension
among her own since Josep still hates Earthers, but Anna’s message about all humans being
part of the same team resonated with Michio. Another ongoing wild card is Monica. Monica
released that bit from Anna. And Avasarala liked it, but of course she did. Avasarala
had approved it in the first place. But Monica takes pride in her journalistic integrity,
so she promised Avasarala that her next piece is going to be better. Avasarala told Admiral
Sidiqi to have an eye kept on her since Monica tends to cause trouble. So basically, the
show has established that the next thing that Monica releases will likely have an impact.
Now we get to the battle scene. Marco would never admit this. But he is losing
control. He has become obsessed with the fact that Naomi has moved on to Holden. So when
Marco’s team noticed the Rocinante out there all alone, they went after it 3 on 1. The
Pella, the Lauber, and the Granicus vs the Rocinante.
Like any good father would do, Marco gave Filip the control of the weapons. So Filip
had to shoot at a ship carrying his own mother. That’s vicious.
Filip got a lock and, unfortunately, he took the shot. But as usual, the Rocinante shot
them all down. Bobbie warned that more torpedoes were incoming, so they heated up the rail
gun. Since the rail gun is not on a turret, they had to bust out hard spins to shoot it
back. And their first shot was a hit. They took out the Lauber. The Granicus then disengaged
to help out the Lauber, so that first shot was 2 for the price of 1.
As expected, Marco recklessly pursued the Rocinante alone.
Filip fired more torpedoes, which the Roci shot down. And they continued with their spin
attack using the rail gun. Unfortunately, Marco dodged the second and the third. That’s
when Bobbie came upstairs, asking for fire control. She then shot the fourth, and noticed
that Marco dodged to port. The same dodge every time. So they came up with a plan.
The Roci sent out 4 torpedoes to give Marco something to think about, and Bobbie shot
the PDCs out to portside. As expected, the Pella turned port and the PDCs disabled it.
Holden called up Marco to surrender, but of course, that was never going to happen. Instead,
Marco slowly moved to the side, letting Holden and Naomi see that Naomi’s son was on board
with him. But Bobbie had had enough. And earlier, she
had been given fire control. So she proactively fired a torpedo at them. But before it connected,
Holden deactivated the warhead. So Marco’s reactor came back online, they disengaged,
and they flew off in a withdrawal. Marco immediately began to blame everyone
else, and no one stuck up for themselves. No one except for his son Filip. Filip called
out his father for their reckless and unnecessary attack, saying that they didn’t need to
kill Holden. That Marco had tried to do so for his own pride. And Filip was right. Everyone
knows it. Marco then flipped out and relieved Filip of his duty. So Marco was in a bad spot.
But before the episode ended, he got some great news.
Marco received word from the Medina Station that some new ship called the RSR-G6 had arrived
through the Laconia Ring Gate, and operational testing would begin as soon as possible. The
message said that if it performed as well as the others, it is going to be fun. So the
show has set up the RSR-G6 to be a big factor in the upcoming episodes.
And of course, we can also look forward to Bobbie’s response if she finds out that
Holden had deactivated the warhead. “Good. I’m ready for a fight.”