btp

Dumping core is not dumping the engine; it's just basically what is burning inside the reactor at that moment. After dumping core, you can restart the reactor (assuming that you still have fuel). It might take a few minutes, but it's doable. I loved this episode; it was quiet but tense throughout. Amos & Clarissa make for an odd couple, but a very compelling one. I can totally get what they see in each other, and Nadine Nicole is doing a fabulous job of playing Clarissa/Peaches v2 (Vulnerable Edition). Given that she is now appearing in the main credits, I'm presuming that she will continue to be on the show, and I'm looking forward to that.

That link seems to be to an article in Science Magazine about allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines. Maybe you copied & pasted the wrong link?

I guess he never got out of Baltimore. Interestingly, neither IMDB or Wikipedia lists his (Frankie Faison's) casting in The Expanse, at least so far. I wonder how many other surprises we might see in this and/or upcoming seasons. I'm keeping book spoilers out of this, but there are certainly several characters in the books that I am hoping we'll get at least a glimpse of this season. EDIT: You know, we've had both Cutty and Burrell on the show now, can we get a cameo in which a distant relative of Clay Davis shows up and says "sheeeeeeeiit?"

A-fucking-men to that. Shorter's score, too, has been incredible this season. I wonder if there's any chance, with the increased exposure the Amazon platform has given the show, that it might actually get nominated for some technical Emmys. I'm not expecting any nominations for Wes Chatham or Cara Gee -- those would be well-earned, but history suggests they'd never happen. But sometimes shows like this win for things like costuming, musical score, VFX, and that kinda thing. It would be awesome to see that.

Oooh, I like that, but I'm coming up short here. Diogo and ... who? Of all the plot lines this season, I find this one the least believable, unfortunately. I mean, I get it, they needed something for Shoreh to do, and I get it, it might be interesting to see what happens when Avasarala ventures out of her comfort zone into places where she may actually not Get Shit Done or Keep Her Head Attached To Her Neck. But this is just a little too on the nose for my taste. This show usually eschews the broad and obvious in favor of the nuanced and enigmatic, but Chrisjen's story this season is pretty heavy-handed. Very uncharacteristic of this show, and very unfortunate. They can't all be winners, of course, and overall this show still continues to amaze and delight. But so far, at least, I feel this part of the story rings rather false for me.

What's causing the collapse of Martian society and the "Martian dream" is not the onset of a period of (relative) peace, it is the emergence of over a thousand habitable planets within a few month's journey, which completely changes the economics of terraforming. The terraforming project has basically been Mars' raison d'etere since Earthers first colonized there, and now there's little reason for it to continue. Some will make a go of it still, certainly; presumably companies like the ones own by Private Hillman's family, whose fortunes are entirely tied up in the terraforming effort, will try to convince the Martian public that it's still a worthwhile endeavor, but that's going to be an uphill battle. Most people will wonder why all this effort (not to mention money) is being put into this technologically difficult project when it would be a lot cheaper and more expedient to ferry large groups of Martians through the ring gates, where they can use their superior technology to make a new home in a much more habitable place. The military is shrinking as a result of easing tensions in the system as well, but we all know that humans will always find things to fight about, so I don't think anyone thinks the Martian military will shrink to nothing. They won't likely have to deal with as many conflicts, though, so some shrinkage there is likely too. Without a terraforming project to protect, it just doesn't have to be as big as it was.

Miller's appearances in those scenes reminded me a bit of another show. I think it would've been much more fun if he had a hand terminal that he kept banging on, saying things like "Ziggy says there's a 67% chance that you're supposed to do something at the alien station." But seriously, yeah, there really wasn't much to be done there to keep that from looking hokey. Maybe if they had made Miller appear a tad less substantial and introduced some of the glitchy effects they had early on it would have helped. Though that would have been contrary to the narrative that "the signal is stronger" in the ring. Tough call, but I think in the end it worked well enough. I'm not sure staying with Team Roci was ever really an option for Bobbie, at least not at this point in the story. She trained to be a marine all her life, and her decision to defect was one of desperation, I think. Once the bad guys at the top were exposed and the MMC reached out to her and offered to reinstate her, I don't think she really felt she had the option to say no. It would have been extraordinarily unpatriotic to do so. Bobbie is still young, though. I wouldn't be surprised if she followed Naomi's example later on, once she realizes that she has a "family" there, and one whose moral choices seem more pragmatic than dogmatic. Bobbie certainly has the grit and guts to be a Marine, but I don't think she's very good at blind loyalty, and eventually I think she's going to become disillusioned over that. And even if you don't buy that, obviously the show needs to get her back on screen and on the side of the Good Guys, so I'm pretty sure they're going to figure out a a way to do that regardless.

I did, briefly, but honestly I didn't spend much (enough) time with it. Not the podcast's fault, really, just life and work intruding on my leisure time (as they do). I'll get back to the podcasts for sure, though, probably more than one of them, but possibly not until the long Expanse drought we're about to enter. At which point I will likely consume every bit of Expanse-related media I can find. :)

For what it's worth, there seem to be examples in this series already of (mostly) unmanned support vessels being brought along as part of a fleet of vessels on their way to one thing or another. I could imagine any number of reasons for this. For example, a science vessel like the Seung Un might be packed to the gills with instrumentation, leaving no room for crew quarters, galleys, etc. Think of it as a science lab in space, which is what it basically is, really. People may work there, but they don't live there. And while the fleet was still underway to the ring, there wouldn't have been much reason for people to be there in the lab, as there was nothing yet to study, analyze, etc. They may even turn life support off during periods when it is uninhabited, much as you might turn off the lights and the Air Conditioning when you leave your office at night. There are current day, and even historical, examples as well, going back as far as the 60s (the Lunar Modules on the Apollo moon missions were empty during the trips to and from Lunar orbit). So I think it's entirely plausible that the Seung Un had no humans aboard (other than Ren) when Melba blew it up. As to the reaction, Fake!Holden declared the explosion to be a demonstration and a warning of things to come if the Inners didn't turn tail and go home. So that was a bit of a non-starter, to say the least. Plus, manned or not, that wasn't exactly a cargo container "Holden" took out; it was likely millions of dollars worth of scientific equipment, plus the multi-million dollar vessel carrying it. When someone robs a bank without killing anyone, society is not exactly soft on them because no lives were lost. Same deal here, I would think. I'm not saying there's a huge amount of evidence any of this speculation is on the mark, but there certainly isn't any evidence it isn't, either. Fair enough. The point that motivation plays a big part in this is well taken. I think I could quibble that, in Clarissa's mind, her father's motives were probably way more noble, and the deaths not his fault, but still, revenge -- even if you stipulate that it is against someone who falsely imprisoned your father -- is a far poorer excuse than saving millions from an unjust war. So yeah, that's reasonable. Thank you both for pointing it out. I always think it's a bit of a cheat when the published description of an episode reveals critical facts that were not evident from the presentation itself, so yeah, I agree with your minor complaint. Perhaps there were parts of that sequence that were cut out that would have made that clearer? Just a guess. But definitely, that reference to the future, plus that depiction of a solar system that looked an awful lot like our own getting itself Blowed Up Real Good was rather unsettling. But was it a clue? A warning? A prediction? Or was it all just a bit of misdirection? Hard to say. I'm kind of surprised that there hasn't been more detailed, nerdy frame by frame analysis of Holden's Vision in forums, comment sections, reaction videos, blogs, reviews, etc. I think of things like the final sequence in 2001, to which this sequence bears at least a superficial resemblance, or Cooper's Dream in Twin Peaks, or any number of other visions, dream sequences, and the like in television and film over the years, and many of those generated reams of analytical text. Though I've seen some discussion of this one, most of that analysis has been pretty tentative. Maybe it's just that this one was comparatively brief and, at least compared to the Twin Peaks example, wordless. I also suspect at least half of the audience has read the books, and those folks are (admirably) avoiding too much public comment, so as to avoid spoiling anything. But all that aside, I was looking forward to reading a lot of interesting theories, and while there have been some, the discussion hasn't been as extensive or robust as I would have expected. Oh, well.

You know, this comparison of Cotyar's crimes with Clarissa Mao's does raise a question. One of the things that seem to set Clarissa's crimes apart from Cotyar's is that Clarissa is said to have been willing to murder many people in order to frame Holden. But this presumes some facts that are not necessarily in evidence. All indications from what we saw was that the ship the blew up, a Science Vessel, was unmanned. There certainly were no crew members wandering around during their time there, and when the ship did blow up, nobody on screen seemed to be mourning the loss of anyone other than Ren. So... let's suppose, for argument's sake, that Clarissa killed (so far) the same number of people that Cotyar did. Does that make any difference? Both characters seemed to be fairly decent, helpful people, but both were arguably red shirts, whose deaths we seem to accept more readily for some reason. And Clarissa took out millions of dollars worth of equipment, but that doesn't usually get our rankles up as much as murder. Putting the ship aside for a moment, though, the murders committed by Cotyar and by Clarissa seem to line up pretty well. Both were committed, not as a primary objective, but rather in the mode of collateral damage (cleaning up a perceived loose end in both cases), both characters seemed remorseful, both characters likely saw their actions as necessary because they were at war (Clarissa's may be mostly in her heads, but that's the way she sees it).... I dunno. I mean, this is all moral relativism anyway, and so it's all kind of suspect. But if we're willing to forgive Cotyar so easily, why are the rules for Clarissa so different? And that's not a rhetorical question; it's something I really do wonder. I feel that way too - Cotyar is a hero and Melba/Clarissa is ... well, not. But why? If you analyze their actions dispassionately, (and assume the blown up ship was indeed unmanned), aren't they pretty similar? What does everyone think?

I have no quarrel with how Melba is executing her plan, such as it is. I just think, from a storytelling perspective, we need a better view of her thinking, of why she holds James Holden, in particular, responsible for her father's demise. That honor would seem, to me, to go to Chrisjen Avasarala, the person who pursued Papa Mau initially and, presumably, had him arrested and prosecuted. Holden just happened to be the guy who picked him up. If you wanted to avenge the person who ruined your family, wouldn't you focus on the person who actually directed that operation, not the street cop who cuffed him and brought him in? I can understand that Holden is getting a lot of credit for being the big hero, and so in some sense he is the "face" of the entire operation, but it's not like Chrisjen is some sort of shrinking violet in this matter. I'm sure she spoke out forcefully, as she did all along. I just feel like her hatred of Holden above all others is, lacking any further explanation, a little over the top, and I'd like to see the logic (even if it's flawed) behind it. Otherwise, she's just angy, and fixated on an inexplicable target. I have to believe there's more to it than that. I'd like the writers to show me.

Either? Object [noun ob-jikt, -jekt; verb uh b-jekt] ... 3. the end toward which effort or action is directed; goal; purpose: Profit is the object of business. "Objective" works too.

I am traveling on business this week and was forced to watch this episode on a hotel room TV with analog only service. Noisy, low resolution analog. And stretched out (as people often do in hotels) so as to fill the screen horizontally at the expense of maintaining the proper aspect ratio. Hence, everyone was stretched out such that they were short and fat. Even the Belters. Short and fat. And grainy. I do not recommend this as an optimal way to view an episode of this, or any, show. But even with that obstacle, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit, especially that last 2 and a half or so Kubricky minutes. Yikes. The first sentence of Zack Handlen's review of this episode for AV Club is "There aren’t enough characters like Anna Volovodov on TV." He then rhadpsodizes for two and a half paragraphs about how great, fun, and important the character is, and how she reminds everyone of the importance of making connections, which he sees as a major theme of the episode. I'm not bringing this up to be argumentative - my own feelings fall somewhere between your extreme and his. And I'm not going to go on again about grey areas and how this show is chock full of them, because that's pretty obvious. I mention this instead because I frequently marvel at how this story seems to speak so well to so many viewers, each person reacting somewhat differently to individual characters, plots, and even visual effects, yet seemingly agreeing on the whole that the show is excellent (or at least very good). That's a tough high wire act to pull off, and yet the people who make this show do it on a weekly basis. It's pretty impressive. I think ProtoMiller is what he says he is, an agent of the protomolecule, which/who has been tasked with accessing the "locked records" aboard the station. Holden was chosen, as Miller said, because he has a ship. Miller is a tool that find things, Holden is a tool that goes places. Or whatever the exact quote was. As to why a human was needed to "complete the circuit," I initially wondered that myself - like, why doesn't the silly thing just grow those two pieces the rest of the way and complete its own damned circuit? But then I realized (I think) that Miller was speaking metaphorically. The object was not to complete the circuit as in connecting the top piece to the bottom piece. The object was to "unlock" the "records" and provide the means to receive them. I can postulate (fancy word for fanwank) here that, likely for security reasons, the information that Miller seeks has been "firewalled" in some sense; it is not accessible to the other parts of the automated system that the protomolecule as a whole sort of is. A living being (not necessary a human) was necessary to download the data. The circuit being completed was the circuit that delivers the historical record to a living host. Holden wasn't replacing a missing "fuse" in this scenario, he was more like an external hard drive, plugging in to receive a copy of the data in the system. Yeah, for all my "defense" of Melba/Clarissa's misguided motives, I have to agree that she is doing little more than mustache twirling at this point. I know there's more going on there, but it needs to be shown right quick, else I have half a mind to space her myself. And I will yell at her, "forget you, Melba! Forget you and your clusterfudged problems!" as she drifts off into the vacuum of space. Or protobubble.

Of course. Perhaps my tongue was not firmly enough in my cheek. As I said, that was my "fanboy" reaction. The real me is well aware of the world and how it works. I just now and then long for a time when everyone wasn't so jaded. I know it's a pipe dream, but in the words of one Mr. Holden, "I'm going to hold on that for a little while."

This was a really interesting read, but I have to say, the fanboy in me wishes the studio execs quoted in this piece were not so damned cool and collected and professional. Like, Jennifer Salke (new studio head for Amazon Studios) talks about how she heard good things about the show, so she decided to watch some of it, and she concluded that the show was "actually really well done." Which is fine, but, I mean, "really well done?" Is The Mona Lisa also really well done? Citizen Kane, really well done? How about the collected works of Beethoven? I wanted her to tell a story about how she turned the thing on just to satisfy her curiosity, and then, 14 hours later, she had to be pried away from the TV by her family and trained medical professionals and sedated to force her to get much needed sleep. Or when she says that co-head of TV Vernon Sanders was saying "we can make that show into something," I wanted him to be more effusive. I wanted him to be chomping on a cigar and saying something "I ain't seen this much talent in one place since MGM in the 30s." Sigh. I guess I'll take it, though. :)

Can't say I agree with your analogy, but you're welcome to it. I will point out, one final time, that I did not ever claim that Melba was good or blameless, just that I can understand her actions. I can certainly understand them as much as I understand the actions of enemy soldiers, and we forgive those sins when hostilities cease all the time, do we not? And really, I'm not sure how I feel about that, either. My point is that this is not black and white. Few of these things ever are. In any event, this horse we are beating has long since expired. I think it might be time to agree to disagree. :)

Something interesting (at least I think so :)) about Melba's tears: Based on posts I've read in various forums, comments made by reviewers and their like, quite a few people seemed like they were convinced by the tears at first - most people assumed that Melba was being somehow forced or coerced to do the things she was doing, and so they saw her as a sort of tragic figure, crying genuine tears of regret and frustration. Then, when they realized who she actually is and why she actually did this stuff, all the same people declared the tears to be crocodile tears after all and are now convinced she's a villain. I guess I fall somewhere in between, largely because I think one could make a case that she actually is, in a sense, being coerced to do what she's doing. The coercion in this case is not from an actual person, though; rather, it comes from somewhere deep within her wounded psyche, and it's telling her all kinds of convenient lies (because she can't accept the idea that her father is a bad guy). But in her mind, it's as if James Holden is literally holding a gun to her father's head, and she feels she must act. It's wrong-headed for sure, and I'm not sure it's forgivable. But I do continue to maintain that it's understandable. Yeah, I kind of attributed her somewhat flat affect to ... well, a couple of things. In the flashback, at the party, I think she was trying to keep up appearances and not make a scene, as her parents no doubt trained her to do. I think it's in the official socialite rule book. Then, later, once she became Melba, she realized that she had to be measured in her "performance," to avoid raising suspicion. She's trying to blend in as much as possible, and doing that means not making any waves. That's my guess, anyway. As you say, we'll see. Heh. First I called Melba not very bright or eloquent for her tendency to fall back on cliches... and then I throw out that old chestnut a few sentences later. Ah, the irony. :) Shameless though I may be, I do think the idea that perspective figures pretty heavily into people's decision making is pretty much a given. I do also think she did not set out to commit atrocities. Not, again, that that excuses anything, but it does make Melba marginally more sympathetic in my book. I guess, in the end, I was willing to accept those flashback scenes as the only way (short of a long-winded exposition dump of a speech) to reveal Melba's true identity and motivations. The scenes were, perhaps, tonally a little out of place in this show, but maybe that's actually a good thing, because it helps show what a fish out of water Melba is. Everything else aside, she is clearly out of her depth in just about every way right now, and the almost palpable contrast between the fancy party scenes and the gritty space scenes certainly drives that home. I think I do. Figure due to her father, Melba sees herself at war with Earth in general and Holden in particular. She was planning to strike back by blowing up a ship full of faceless tools dedicated to enforcing Earth's injustice on her father. Except that along the way, Melba met some people from Earth who treated her like a human being. And she ended up murdering the person who treated her with more esteem and respect in a few weeks working together than JPM did in his entire life. Guilty as she felt, Melba still went through with blowing up the ship because otherwise she'd have killed that man for nothing, so she had to follow through to make his "sacrifice" worthwhile. So while I certainly blame Melba for the horror she chose to unleash, I lay further blame on Julies-Pierre Mao for being such an utterly shitty father and human being. This, times 100. I think this is the best explanation I've seen for how I view Melba's actions. Thanks, JOHNTFS, for expressing that so well, and so concisely (which is definitely something for which I don't have much of a gift for!)

I have the same bias. I was so excited when I heard he was going to be on this show; he's always been one of my favorite character actors. I have to admit that his Belter accent is a little wonky and sort of comes and goes, but it's a small point and his awesomeness in every other area more than makes up for it. So far, his character is really inscrutable, and I like that. Everything he says seems reasonable and responsible and mature, but there's something a little threatening and dangerous lurking just below the surface, I think. Or maybe I'm projecting from other roles Strathairn has played. Regardless, I love the fact that he's somebody I feel like I should trust, but there's some glint in his eye or something that suggests that trust might be misplaced. Good stuff. Agree on the Drummer & Naomi stuff. Good catch on Naomi not buying into all the military pounding and chest thumping; I hadn't noticed that. Not only is she obviously not into it; that right there might have been the moment where she realized the Behemoth was not the place for her. Also, there was so much subtext in their goodbye scene - they're talking out loud about Naomi's love for Belters and the Belt, but they both know that they are really (or additionally, anyway) talking about their personal relationship as well. Such a sad goodbye, couched in talk of loyalties and battles and politics. Well done, and definitely well sold by Tipper & Gee.

Sorry. I thought the stuff I mentioned was really, really inconsequential, but obviously you thought otherwise, and if anyone thinks otherwise, I have no problem removing it. Which I did. If there's anything left in my edited post you find objectionable, feel free to PM me and I'll take care of it.

That's Tilly, Tilly Fagan. Basically she's a rich socialite with no particular skills (other than being a socialite) and a bit of a drinking problem. This actually was stated and shown, but it was one of those moments where you had to be listening to every single word of dialog, because it went by very fast. She appeared briefly in last week's episode, where she was chatting with Anna at the end of the table while Hector Cortez (the religious leader who got scared this week and bailed) was pontificating about this and that. Then, in this week's episode, in the conversation she has with Anna about staying on the ship post-evacuation, she admits that she is an "aging debutante" and that she's doing this stuff essentially because she's bored with her life. Beyond that, I imagine we'll find out more about her soon. She definitely has daddy issues, and she's definitely impulsive and childish and justifies horrific behavior with pretty flimsy excuses. But there's also a core of decency in there, which is why she does feel remorse for (at least) the collateral damage she induces. It's definitely paradoxical, but then, actual real-life people who have done the sorts of things that Melba did can be pretty enigmatic, too. Obviously, Melba is not thinking very clearly, and I think any judgement of her worth as a human being should probably start there. Beyond that, though, how much of a free pass you're willing to give her is up to you. My personal take on her is that she's fundamentally a good person in that she knows the difference between right and wrong, but her world view, which is likely based on a fair amount of misinformation, has warped her thinking significantly, resulting in quite aberrant behavior. She either doesn't know or isn't willing to face the truth about her father, so she has substituted a whole bunch of wacky conspiracy theories, leading her to believe that James Holden is basically part of a big system-wide conspiracy to bring down her dad and ruin his family. Given that context, her actions can at least be understood, if not forgiven. Just remember, one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. Melba is woefully misinformed, and probably too eager to accept some of the crap she's been told because, essentially, it's all she has left to hold on to. That's my theory, anyway. Finally, some folks (here and on other boards and reviews I've read) have expressed ambivalence (at least), or even downright hostility to those flashback scenes, calling them cliche and formulaic and slow and, thus, poorly written. And I suppose a case can be made for that, but do keep in mind that these are not necessarily particularly bright, insightful, or eloquent people we're talking about here. People have said that the conversation between Melba and Julie under the tree was particularly poorly written because it seemed like a carbon copy of every other similar scene that's ever been acted before. And I can see that, but I would counter that neither Julie nor Melba is presented as a particularly eloquent person, nor is their father. Not everybody in real life speaks in Shakespearean/Aaron Sorkinian/Woody Allenian prose. Some people talk like they're in soap operas, because they lack the vocabulary or creativity to speak any other way. I think Melba chides her sister with tired platitudes because she lacks the ability to say it any other way. I thought it was in character, and for me, it worked.

mumble mumble. Doors and corners, kid, that's where they get you. Really loved you in that scene in Episode 8. So, there was this unlicensed brothel on Ceres... (I could do that better if I actually knew anything about GoT. Never could get into it, surprising as that will be to many here. Just doesn't do it for me.) Anyway... The Investigator tells Holden why it chose him. It's because he has a ship. "I'm a tool that finds things. You're a tool that goes places." There are other people on the Rocinante, and they all share ownership of it, but Holden is the Captain, so he's the lucky winner of the "This is your brain on the Protomolecule" contest. Ah, the paradox that is Steven Strait. The funny thing is, if you watch him interviewed, or you talk to him (as I actually had the good fortune to be able to do once), it's clear that this is a man who thinks a great deal about his craft, someone who goes out of his way to get things right. He's a very thoughtful actor, just not always a very good one. But actually, I agree, he's come a long way, though a lot of that is development of the character, who has grown up and become more realistic of late, plus the writing and direction has become more tight of late. And certainly one would expect his performance to become better and more natural as he spends more time in the role. But I agree, he has done that. A lot of people have commented on it. It's great to see, especially since Strait seems to be a hell of a nice guy, who deserves much success. EDIT: I also might point out, there is a long history of scenery-chewing commanders in Science Fiction. Just Saying. She really does. They seem to have quite a few underrated actors up there in the Great White North. I think this is actually one of the advantages of making a show in places like Canada, Australia, etc, These are places where productions sometimes go to get the most bang they can for their budgetary bucks. But as a bonus, there's often a huge pool of untapped talent in places like this, and as a show like The Expanse gains some prestige, it starts to attract the best of the best, not only locally, but eventually from Hollywood as well. I mean, obviously there are plenty of shows made in Toronto and Vancouver and other Canadian places, I'm not trying to suggest that Canada is some sort of soulless, barren tundra. But if you compare the number of productions in Canada to the number of productions in Hollywood alone, it's just obvious that there are going to be a comparatively larger pool of actors to choose from, and a better chance of finding somebody truly gifted in that larger pool. Plus, I think the show just happens to have an uncommonly good casting team with a real talent for finding really top notch people. And then you couple this with writing and direction that's at the top of its game, and everyone just steps it up a notch. It's ... synchronicity, one might say.

A belter walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "Hey, why the long face?" Yeah, I know. Hey, they can't all be comedy gold. Yeah, I think it predates Cher by a fair amount. They didn't start doing the podcast until at least late season 1, as I recall, and people were calling Holden "Space Jon Snow" on Reddit and AV Club and probably dozens of other places pretty much from Episode 1 (or maybe 2) on. The pain in Dominique Tipper's face and voice as Naomi was being dragged off the command bridge, all the while pleading with Drummer, basically pleading for Holden's life, was palpable. I loved her pleas to Drummer, in Belter: "To sasa im! To sasa im!" she cries. That's Lang Belta for "You know him!" That was a nice touch, appealing to Drummer in their shared native tongue. Another way they are like The Wire is that all three shows do a fair amount of world building without explicit exposition. You are dropped in the middle of a foreign place and are expected to catch up and figure it out. I love that way of telling stories, I love it when they give the audience credit for having brains and the capacity to figure this stuff out. It does require pretty much rapt attention of the viewers, though, lest they miss an important line or phrase that helps make sense of it all. Occasionally, especially recently in light of all the public accolades the show has been receiving, I read a post somewhere by a person who doesn't like the show, and then when I read the explanation of why they didn't like it, it's clear their problem is they weren't paying attention. Yeah, the show can be a bit confusing, especially at first, but if you don't try to watch it while simultaneously folding laundry, eating a sandwich, and doing your homework, you can absolutely work it out. It's not really that confusing. (okay, turning on captions helps too) I thought I copied somebody's message above into my multiquote box, but it appears I don't have it anymore... the question was whether Naomi in this episode was the first person to call Drummer by her given name (Camina). Ashford actually called her that a couple of times last week, so he was first. Fun book fact (really not significant enough to call a spoiler) - in the books, we don't learn Drummer's first name until book 8. And she doesn't seem to like being called by it very much, either. So far, TV Drummer hasn't indicated that she cares much one way or the other, but I think it would be pretty funny if she eventually yelled (or worse) at somebody who called her that.

So I was wondering how they were going to handle the whole "It reaches out" thing in the show. Because in the books, it was not part of any character's POV (arguably unless you consider the Prototmolecule itself a POV character). Turns out (3x08 stuff here, don't read if you haven't watched it yet) .... ...turns out they had Miller say it. And damn if it didn't work. I actually guessed that this was how they'd do it (if they did it at all), but I worried it would come off as hokey. Which, in retrospect, was a ridiculously unfounded fear, because this show is almost never hokey. Having not-quite-there-yet, mumbly Miller do that line, along with the talk of the "create/exceeded boundaries/kill" cycle, worked extremely well, and it was damned creepy ("creepy AF," as the kids say) to boot. Pretty awesome. Other than the (sad, but understandable) absence of Bull, the adaptation of Book 3 is going quite swimmingly so far. I'm really pleased.

I don't think there is a peace summit, as such. During the 6 months since The Ring appeared, some sort of peace treaty (or armistice, a least) was agreed to by all parties, first because the truth of the war's corrupt origins was revealed, and second because all of humanity seems to agree, at least for now, that there's something out there at the edge of the solar system that's potentially a bigger threat than anybody's nukes. So I think everybody has already agreed to put aside their differences, at least for now. The convoy of ships, or I guess I should say the three convoys of ships, headed for The Ring are headed there on a joint mission of research and discovery. I'm sure there will be skirmishes and incidents of one-upsmanship, but I believe they've substantially done all the summitting already and they're all, at this point, ostensibly on the same side. This gathering is for science, not politics. Melba was placed with a team of maintenance folks based on the UNN Thomas Prince, and they took a skiff over to one of the smaller vessels in the convoy to do some maintenance. I don't believe that the ultimate role that this smaller ship will play has yet been revealed, so we don't really know why Melba chose that place to plant her bomb. Maybe her target was someone on that ship, or maybe this was just a dry run for a larger operation she has planned for later. Or something else. But it's not about peace summits, I don't think. Unless I'm wrong. Which, you know, is entirely possible...

Meant to comment on this earlier. I think anybody who's been watching this show up to this point knows by now that nothing in this story is simple, and very little of it is expected. I agree that if a bunch of alien cruisers came through that thing and started pew-pew-pewing at all the humans, it would be extraordinarily pedestrian, and therefore, I'm going to say that I don't believe that's what we're dealing with, not for one second. Now, because we have all seen various bits of the Stargate franchise, and/or that episode of Star Trek (TOS) written by Harlan Ellison, and/or any number of other similar works of written and televised Science Fiction, we all know that when any sort of arch, ring, gate, or what have you of unknown alien origin appears, there's a good chance that passing through it will take you somewhere else. This much, I suppose, is pretty standard. But beyond that, I would think we would know by now that The Ring in this show is probably a good deal more enigmatic than a doorway through which aliens will soon emerge to eat us for lunch. Just because that's how the creative people behind this story roll. As to the Protomolecule's intent likely being benign, in addition to all the fine reasons you gave, we know it was sent here long before there was intelligent life in our solar system. Remember, it arrived here hitching a ride on Phoebe, which is a moon of Saturn now, but originally it came from somewhere "out there" and, the theory goes, may have been headed for Earth, when it was trapped by the gravity of Saturn and ended up orbiting it. So it never arrived at its original destination. But had it done so, it would have arrived there eons ago, finding nothing but Primordial Soup on Earth, some of which it might have borrowed to achieve its goal of building the Space Squid which in turn made the Ring. But that would not have killed any sentient life. And again, it all would have happened billions of years ago. Even if the ring were put there as a doorway through which either a hostile or imperial race would come, the invaders and/or colonists who sent it would more than likely be long gone by now. So I think the Protomolecule has indeed proven to be benign already, because at the end of the day, while arrogant people like Mao and Dresden and Strickland tried to turn it into a weapon, it eventually finished its "work" and achieved its purpose, which was to build this ring/portal/gateway/whatever it is. Is it an invitation to visit, a doorway for "them" to visit us, or something else? I have a feeling the answer to that question will turn out to be elusive. But I see no reason to believe that whoever sent that thing here was hostile.