As well as this recap video, we've got a new video out about the first episode of The Expanse
Season 6, that you can watch now at the link below.
The Expanse is a show about space, war, family, politics, alien mysteries, and Shohreh Aghdashloo
bein sassy – “Wherever I goddamn like”.
The sixth and final season is coming soon, so what’s happened in the story so far?
In Season 1, humanity is divided into Earth, Mars and the Belt.
Earth is powerful, but it’s old and slow, its environment strained by overpopulation.
Mars is a new rival superpower, with advanced technology, unified by the dream of terraforming
Mars.
The asteroid Belt and outer planets are mined for resources.
The people of the Belt have their own culture and language, and bodies, adapted to space.
But the Belters are oppressed and exploited by Earth and Mars, so activists and extremists
like the OPA fight for freedom for the Belt.
In Episode 1, a mining ship called the Canterbury is mysteriously destroyed, sparking conflict
across the solar system.
Four survivors of the attack form an unlikely crew – Holden is an idealistic hero type
from Earth, Naomi is a secretive smart engineer from the Belt, Alex is a loveable pilot from
Mars, and Amos is.. complicated.
Amos grew up in Baltimore as a victim of organised crime.
He’s emotionally detached, and often violent, but he follows Naomi as his moral guiding
light.
Together, they steal a ship- or rather, they legally acquire a ship by legitimate salvage,
and they name it the Rocinante.
The Roci crew uncover a conspiracy with the help of a cynical cop called Miller.
Miller investigates a missing girl called Julie Mao.
It turns out she was killed by a mysterious alien virus called the protomolecule.
Julie’s father, a powerful businessman called Jules-Pierre Mao, experiments with the virus
to make it a weapon.
He blew up the Canterbury to deliberately cause war.
And now to study the protomolecule, Jules-Pierre infects a hundred thousand innocent people
on the moon of Eros.
Miller and the Roci crew fight to escape and survive.
But the protomolecule on Eros starts building some weird scary alien shit.
So with the help of OPA leader Fred Johnson, the crew try to knock Eros into the sun by
hitting it with a giant Mormon spaceship called the Nauvoo.
But the protomolecule makes Eros dodge the Nauvoo, and Eros speeds towards Earth.
So Miller journeys into Eros, and finds Julie Mao’s consciousness alive inside the protomolecule.
He convinces Julie to crash Eros into Venus, and they disappear into the clouds together.
So in the face of war and aliens, the Roci crew come together as an unlikely family.
And they learn from each other.
Holden starts out as a dangerously impulsive naïve hero, but Naomi helps him make smarter
decisions – and eventually they fall in love.
Miller challenges Holden’s moral idealism and teaches him to be more ruthless to get
shit done.
Amos comes to trust Holden as a leader alongside Naomi.
And Alex.. makes really good lasagne.
While the Roci crew flies around saving the worlds, Avasarala handles the politics.
Avasarala is a powerful politician in the United Nations, the government of Earth.
In Season 1, she’s ruthless in protecting Earth from Belters and Martians.
She tortures, blackmails, lies and betrays cause she believes that “Earth must come
first”.
But then she discovers that the conspiracy behind the war didn’t come from the Belt
or Mars.
People in her own government conspired with Jules-Pierre to weaponise the protomolecule.
So Avasarala fights the conspiracy with the help of Bobbie.
Bobbie is a tough Martian soldier, fiercely loyal to Mars.
But her squad gets killed by a protomolecule monster.
And she find outs that the Martian government was behind this – they also work with Jules-Pierre
to weaponise the protomolecule – transforming children into protomolecule killing machines.
So Bobbie defects from Mars, suits up, and fights to help Avasarala and the Roci crew
end the war.
They kill some protomolecule monsters, and they help a botanist called Prax save his
daughter Mei.
So these Earthers, Martians and Belters put aside their differences, and work together
to make peace.
This story is about the tribal politics that divide us, and the common humanity that can
unite us.
But meanwhile, alien forces grow on Venus.
In Season 3, the protomolecule that crashed into Venus rises back up from the clouds and
forms a mysterious Ring – like a star gate or worm hole.
Everyone goes to investigate, and among them is Clarissa, Jules-Pierre Mao’s eldest daughter.
Clarissa wants to avenge her father’s downfall by destroying Holden.She gets high-tech bio
implants that enhance her speed and strength for short bursts.
They’re terrible for her health long-term, but all Clarissa wants now is revenge.
So Clarissa kills a bunch of people and frames Holden for the crime.
So the Roci flees through the Ring into the mysterious alien space within.
Holden gets visions of Miller, whose consciousness now exists within the protomolecule.
Miller guides him to the Ring Station, a mysterious structure at the centre of the Ring space.
And Holden learns that the Ring and the protomolecule were created by some ancient aliens called
the Builders.
But the Builders were destroyed by some other mysterious alien entities.
Naomi works on the Behemoth, a giant OPA ship converted from the old Mormon ship the Nauvoo.
The Behemoth represents the dream of a free Belter nation.
Naomi’s friend captain Drummer clashes with Ashford, over their.. differing views on governance.
The Ring’s security system suddenly traps everyone in the Ring space.
Many die from a sudden deceleration of their ships.
Drummer and Ashford work together to survive, and Ashford welcomes Earthers and Martians
to heal on the Behemoth.
A preacher called Anna gives emotional support to the wounded.
And she gives a slap to Clarissa for being an unrepentant murderer.
Ashford tries to destroy the Ring gate, which almost destroys the whole solar system, but
Holden and the crew stop him, with the help of Drummer, and Bobbie, and Anna, and Clarissa,
who finally lets go of revenge and helps people instead.
After the crisis, the Ring’s true purpose is revealed – inside the Ring space, new
gates open to a thousand new habitable solar systems.
The builders didn’t make the protomolecule to be a weapon.
It’s a tool that builds bridges to new worlds.
So in Season 4, there’s a land rush as people seek new opportunities on new worlds.
On one planet called Ilus, there’s a conflict between Belter settlers and an Earth corporation
– even with a thousand new worlds available, the inner planets continue to oppress the
Belters.
The Roci crew are sent to sort it out, and Holden investigates alien structures on the
planet, whiiich accidentally causes a catastrophic explosion and tsunami.
So everyone hides underground, an alien infection makes them blind, people are killed by death-slugs,
it is.. no fun.
But with the help of a scientist called Elvi they shut down the alien tech, and the ghost
of Miller is finally put to rest.
Holden defeats the murderous Earther Murtry and restores peace.
Elvi stays on Ilus to study the planet’s alien tech.
This artefact seems to be connected to the entities who wiped out the Builders aeons
ago.
Meanwhile on Earth, Avasarala loses most of her political power in an election.
Her husband leaves her for being too ruthless and dishonest politically.
She gets civilians killed in a failed military strike.
But Avasarala learns from her mistakes and remains committed to protecting all of humanity.
In the Ring space, the Behemoth becomes Medina Station, the central hub for the Ring gates.
Drummer and Ashford make political compromises to keep the peace between the Belt Earth and
Mars.
Drummer hates compromising on her values as a Belter, so she quits to be a polyamorous
space pirate instead.
But then Ashford is killed by Belter extremist Marco Inaros, after Drummer had let Marco
go free – so Drummer feels guilty for Ashford’s death.
On Mars, Bobbie is depressed because the Martian dream is dying.
Mars used to be united in the project to make the planet a habitable world.
But now, there’s no point in terraforming Mars, because there are thousands of already
habitable worlds through the Ring gate.
Bobbie’s purpose and identity as a Martian is gone.
So she gets involved in organised crime, and discovers a conspiracy selling Martian stealth
tech and ships to Marco Inaros.
Marco paints some asteroids with the stealth tech, and launches the deadly rocks towards
Earth.
Cause all through the story Belters have been exploited by Earth and Mars.
Fred and Ashford and Dawes tried to free the Belt through politics and diplomacy, but they
failed.
Even when there were a thousand new worlds through the Ring, the inner planets still
tried to take them for themselves.
So Marco argues that Belters can only win freedom through devastating violence against
Earth and Mars.
In Season 5, Avasarala discovers Marco’s stealth rocks, and tries to save Earth, but..
she’s too late.
Marco’s rocks hit Earth and kill millions.
And with the climate and ecosystem broken, billions more will die soon.
Avasarala fails to protect her home, and her husband Arjun is among the dead.
This is Avasarala’s worst nightmare, but she refuses to kill innocent Belters for revenge.
Avasarala regains power as leader of Earth, and works to protect all people, together.
Amos is on Earth when the rocks hit, visiting Clarissa Mao in jail.
Cause Clarissa was imprisoned for her murders in Season 3.
But Amos made friends with her.
He comes to support and guide Clarissa, just like Naomi supported him – which goes to
show how much Amos has grown.
The rocks hit while Amos and Clarissa are underground.
Clarissa is in a deep dark place literally and emotionally, but she and Amos climb their
way out and fight to escape an apocalyptic Earth.
Clarissa convinces Amos to save some innocent people along the way.
Amos then brings Clarissa to join the Roci crew – despite the fact that Clarissa once
tried to kill Holden and many others.
Amos argues that even enemies can become trusted friends – they survive by growing their
tribe.
Back in the day, Naomi had a relationship with Marco Inaros, and they had a son, called
Filip.
When Marco committed a terrorist attack, Naomi left him, and Marco kept Filip from seeing
Naomi.
Ever since, Naomi felt grief and guilt at the separation from her son.
So now she finds Filip and finally reunites with her long-lost son.
But Filip captures her and brings her to Marco.
Marco is a selfish narcissistic emotionally manipulative mass murderer, and Naomi begs
Filip to leave and escape Marco’s control.
But Filip rejects Naomi, so again Naomi is forced to leave her son behind.
She jumps through space to escape, suffers on a booby-trapped ship, then jumps into space
again to warn her friends.
Alex and Bobbie save Naomi, but Alex dies in the high-g flight.
Alex loved flying and helping his friends, so Amos says it’s a worthy death.
Alex’s last words are “That was one hell of a ride”.
Marco gets a powerful fleet of ships from his Martian friends and calls it the Free
Navy – his own personal military of extremists to dominate the system.
Drummer and her crew are forced to join Marco’s navy, and Drummer complies to protect her
family.
But when Naomi is in danger, Drummer betrays Marco and attacks his Free Navy to save her.
But that gets one of Drummer’s family killed, and two more of her partners leave her.
The terrible cost of war is that Drummer’s family grows smaller.
While Naomi Alex and Amos have their own adventures, Holden faces his greatest challenge yet – spending
some time alone without his family.
But then, Marco’s Belters kill Fred Johnson and steal a protomolecule sample, so Holden
and Bull and Monica try to destroy it, to prevent the dangerous alien tech falling into
the wrong hands.
But they fail.
Marco’s Free Navy takes control of the Ring, including Medina Station, the all-important
central hub of the Ring gates.
And Marco lets a rogue faction of Martians through to a new world called Laconia.
These Martians, led by someone called Admiral Duarte, are the ones who gave Martian ships
to Marco, and in return, Marco gave them Fred’s protomolecule sample.
Duarte is working with the scientist Cortazár to unlock the power of the protomolecule,
and to use these mysterious alien structures orbiting Laconia, to build humanity’s greatest
empire.
But as the Laconians go through the Ring, one of their ships is destroyed by these mysterious
alien entities.
So Season 5 shatters the balance of power.
Earth is devastated, Mars is obsolete, and Marco’s Free Navy is triumphant.
Can the Roci crew, Bobbie, Drummer and Avasarala defeat Marco and build a unified future?
Is humanity at threat from the alien entities in the Ring?
And what is going on on Laconia?
The final season of The Expanse comes out on December 10th.
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