WildPlum

Not exactly sure how Ashford managed to be simultaneously launched into space, singing his death song, AND be inside the ship to hide his backup data core, which contained those very last minutes. But glad to have the Expanse back, although I'd like it better if more of the crew was in the same place at the same time. And, oh dear, the protomolecule seems to be coming back, in the hands of a splinter faction MORE splinter-y than the OPA. That is on YOU, Naomi.

Count me in the "ruined" category, REALLY dislike Matt and Noel's constant badgering of Sura in this episode, as though he can't think of anything else to talk to her about. It is as though they are an obstacle for the bakers to overcome, they aren't supportive or helpful in the slightest. Pass on this season.

So the protomolecule is "dead" on Ilus (along with the planet), but what about the other 1,299 planets? The stated goal seemed to be killing the planet again by getting rid of every last bit of the protomolecule on the planet, implying that it was the protomolecule trying to bring to planet back to life - to do what? I never quite got Miller's "two masters." One was the protomolecule and the other was ... what? Elvi and Holden agree that there is some other "presence" that seems to inhabit the interstices, is that just some Big Bad for later seasons? I doubt we're going to get a Season 6, I hope Season 5 has an end that is NOT "and they all died horribly."

Although it does point up the plot hole of how the demons knew about the night nurse, knew exactly what agency Linda had hired, knew enough to call and cancel the nurse.... because, well, because the writers needed that to happen so the baby could be kidnapped AND Amenwhosis could have his moment of setup. It would have made just as much sense for one of the possessed to break in, kill the night nurse and steal the baby. More sense, in fact.

Are we so sure there IS a Season 5? I was fine with this as the end of the show. The episodes started off pretty good, but I found myself repeating what I did during Season 3 - FFwd through all of the police procedural stuff, which is bad even by broadcast TV standards, and watching scenes with Dr. Linda and Maze and Lucifer when Chloe isn't around.

New season started ... whenever (probably last week, I watch it on my DVR). Where is David Baker? The knife-throwing test wasn't very successful, don't know if it was the knives or the thrower. Not sure I am wild about this new competition format, maybe they just have a dearth of applicants and had to dig up past competitors.

Now that I have found where this topic is again - still liking Forged in Fire, although liking the gimmicks and tie-ins less and less. To me, "Knife or Death" is absolutely unwatchable. For some reason my DVR decided it did not like this show when it switched nights and I missed several episodes. Must try deleting it off the DVR schedule and then maybe adding it back. Also, if we are going to keep doing the "no power equipment" or "coal forges only" or "must be canister" shows, then the contestants need to be prescreened to people who have at least SOME experience in those areas.

I watched this last night, thinking it was S1E1 and I spent a lot of time thinking "wow, they are really going for in media res". Hmmm, no, I am jumping in to the middle. I kept up, mostly.

Watching the series MARS on NatGeo and trying to view it as the prequel to The Expanse and wondering if Lukrum is run by Jules Pierre Mao's family.

I don't see the point of mining on Mars - Mars isn't likely to have metal ore veins to mine and even if it did, the cost to get any kind of ore out of even Mars's weak gravity well and back to Earth has got to be prohibitively expensive. And if you were going to mine the moons or the asteroid belt, you wouldn't bother putting a base on Mars. And I can't see the scientists getting so huffy about Lukrum when the scientists themselves are terraforming Mars by adding solar mirrors. Either you keep the least footprint possible (sealed climate and complete recycling) or you are doing damage to Mars's ecosystem, such as it is. (Assuming we solve the "how are we going to keep from killing people via radiation exposure on the trip out" question in the next 20 years and go to Mars in the first place.) Of course, I do have to look at this show and think: Oooo, look, it is the prequel to "The Expanse" (formerly on Syfy, soon to be on Amazon).

It's funny, I see ads for things on History that are clearly spin-offs from FIF and so far they've all been junk, completely missing what makes FIF a good show. Knife Or Death we discussed upthread and now Master and Apprentice, which I couldn't watch for more than 20 minutes before I had to turn it off. I'm sure that there is a market for "Jersey Shore Meets Weaponry" but I doubt it is much of a market. The Master and Apprentice episode of FIF was pretty good as far as the tone and the relationship between the contestants (except for the "Master" who just vanished mid-show) but the whining and complaining on this new show ... yikes. Ah, well, must remember not to get sucked in to other things on History and stick with FIF.

This episode did highlight something that kinds of bugs me - "Naomi the Super Engineer" able to fix anything in minutes, or maybe half an hour, tops. It is very convenient for the plot, but it's sort of annoying that she can fix any mechanical, electrical or "software" based system. Granted she knows the Roci by now and she'd had some time (the period of time is unstated) with the Behemoth, so at least they were systems she had some familiarity with. Also (as someone who is a scientist) - scientists come out of the show all looking like megalomaniacs in varying shades of blind/bad. The guy on the UN ship this episode, the two scientists working for Mao, one on Ceres, the other on Ganymede with the kids.

Pretty sure Bobbi killed her female subordinate - that tends to get you shot by your military organization of choice. Bobbi left a weapon on the floor and turned her back on the woman, which pretty much has to mean there is no chance of the woman picking up the gun again, hence: is dead. She sort of has no choice but to take up with the Roci crew. Look at the moment she sort of slinks into the chair next to Alex - her posture is terrible, her expression not particularly good. She doesn't look happy with the choices she's made. But that has been sort of true since she saw her own people betraying Mars, when she was back on earth. Like a line from a Mcmurty song about a character who can;t cope: He opened up his eyes and he snapped out of the groove He saw both sides of everything and found he could not move I presume Holden and the Roci go through one of the gates - without supplies or ammunition or plan. Very Holden-like.

Ditto on the podcast non-love - while I am sure they likely think about what they are going to say in advance, the few I have listened to seem very scattered. Give it to me in writing instead of making me listen for a half hour to what I can read in mere minutes, particularly with the umms and uhhh stripped off and minus all the irritating interrupting. But then I am also old and biased toward print rather than other media.

I'd never though about wounds in zero g, that was an interesting aside. As was the stark assessment of the new "speed limit" and how badly they were all screwed by it. Still don't trust Ashford - yes, we heard some of his other motivations (the bit where they discuss how to get Dawes to accept something was good), but he wants the Behemoth and he'll find a way to get it away from Drummer permanently. He'd have called himself "Acting Captain" otherwise. Two hour episode next? Whoppee! I read somewhere that the producers said that if the entire series ended here it would feel complete, so I look forward to some closure with plots. We'll see what comes down the road with Amazon, but I can see how this story arc can be wrapped in two hours (I don't know where it is going, built it has certainly built to something that can be resolved).

What we do know: the main protomolecule mass, the thing that was on Venus, has contact with all the other current bits of protomolecule blob in our system. The fact that the protomolecule wants this little blue planetessimal/ship "investigated" means that the blue ship isn't part of the current protomolecule. Where it came from is sort of a mystery, unless it was always in this little isolated pocket universe and IT, not the protomolecule, is the one enforcing speed limits, etc. The protomolecule wants its records and built the ring to access this little pocket universe, but it is the blue thing that is controlling the pocket.

Minor complaint: the episode description says "Holden sees past, present, and future" - it is a good thing that they flat-out told us that, because I still have no idea what Holden was seeing. The little blue planetoid/ship, yes, 6 (or 8, I forget) other worlds, going blue (protomolecule?) and a close-up of one of them in flames. Someone upthread mentioned Amos talking about what happened to him when he was 5 - didn't we already get hints about that, way back when he was talking to one of the Evil Scientists (the one Dawes has now) about pretty much having part of his brain removed/killed/seriously altered, and he was asking the scientist (in a round about way) if that could be reversed? That's what I assumed, anyway, that was the reason that little tidbit was there. Not sure why anyone would do that to a 5 yr old on purpose but it might have been part of some other issue.

I think Holden putting his hand in there did complete the circuit and "access the Archives." Now he has some of that in his head and it can probably manipulate him the same way Miller can. I still say that Drummer doesn't have that long as a living character on this show and her read of Ashford is exactly what is going to happen. How does Naomi plan to intercept the Roci before the Mars ship, which is ahead of her, does?

If you like Lecke, try Martha Wells "Murderbot" - the first story is a novella, the second is a full novel.

I think Drummer is head for a "Beltalowda! Remember our brave Captain Drummer, a true Belter, let us avenge her" moment after whats-his-name kills her/gets her killed. I think he manipulated Naomi into leaving and manipulated Drummer into locking the skiff so that she lost the trust she had in her last ally. Naomi's face when she listens to the fascist brown shirt rally is pretty telling, she is already done with them. The Melba/Clarissa gets even worse than I thought it was last week. Let us just skip those parts of show the Roci crew and the Ring next episode, shall we? All of this death and destruction so that Daddy will love his little girl? Meh.

So.... Evil Conspirator Blind Guy (ECBG henceforth) puts the "chip" that disables the Roci's communications systems and broadcast the James Holden "manifesto" - because then Holden and crew would get fired on, the ship would explode and they would all die. There is something just a bit off about that, let me think - oh, right, he is on the ship, too! Either he didn't know what was on the chip (which I doubt) or he is suicidal. Even if whoever he is plotting with (and it has to be Mabel or Melba or whatever her name is) had no way to know Holden would actually be right there, in the middle of things (really, don't they even watch the show they are on?) and they planned for some other outcome, ECBG had to know what the actual current status is and what the likely results were.

I guess the difference between the two shows, to me, is that on FiF something is created, hand-made, and the judges are fairly supportive and friendly and you can feel that they want the contestants to do well. On the other it is just shouting and posturing (from the judges and often the contestants, although I suspect they are all told to play that up). It just screams "faux reality show." Some people like those and I am clearly not one of them, lol.

Watched two episodes of Knife or Death and the main host is everything I dislike in reality TV - a shouting, rude jerk. He might as well just beat on his chest and grunt while standing in front of a large bonfire instead of speak. I remember the "knife judge" from FiF, where he was amusing, he continues to be so here and seems like he is a genuinely nice guy, even when he is rejecting a weapon (has that happened often?). Several of the competitors seems grossly unprepared for what they are about to do, but that was fairly true on the first season of FiF as well, until people had watched a season and had an idea of what they would be doing - I'd guess that fewer people will show up with the very short knives in future (assuming the show gets another season).

Interesting title - the protomolecule's interactions with humans thus far prove simply that humans are jerks (actually worse than that). Granted it isn't a human intelligence, but it is clearly intelligent and at this point it should be thinking "wow, humans suck." With the arrival of "the Investigator" though, it seems to be trying to communicate, when it should be trying to get the heck out of our solar system.

Huh. First episode which draws a "meh" from me. The protomolecule ring is interesting, it's got to be a portal of some sort (although apparently not one you can go through at speed). Didn't like the documentary crew thing in the slightest. Don't care about "Melba". Naomi and Drummer are going to get screwed over - I'll be surprised if Drummer survives this story arc. The Miller-looking thing is calling himself "The Investigator" and you can sort of hear the caps in his voice, sort of like the other protomolecule creature talking about The Work. Not surprisingly, this all reminds me of why I don't like George RR Martin's books (didn't get through the first season of Game of Thrones). "I don't care what you think of the characters, look at my beautiful plot! Plot is all!" I'll watch the next couple episodes and hope the hook me.