S06.E01: Strange Dogs

[marinw]

On 12/12/2021 at 5:50 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Holden looked different to me at the beginning of the episode. I almost didn't recognize him.

https://gizmodo.com/the-expanses-holden-and-naomi-explain-how-love-can-endu-1848182570

"He’s just under tremendous strain. And I wanted to show that, not only just internalizing the the constant doubt of “Am I enough for this moment? Am I the leader I need to be for this moment? Am I going to break in this moment?” but also physically. I lost quite a bit of weight before the season started; I wanted him to look gaunt and like he hadn’t slept and he hadn’t been eating. He’s holding it together, but not well. All of them in their own way have just kind of come to the end of their rope."

Not sure how I feel about an actor of any gender starving themself for a role, but it's his body to do what he wants with.

Edited December 14, 2021 by marinw

[edhopper]

5 hours ago, marinw said:

https://gizmodo.com/the-expanses-holden-and-naomi-explain-how-love-can-endu-1848182570

"He’s just under tremendous strain. And I wanted to show that, not only just internalizing the the constant doubt of “Am I enough for this moment? Am I the leader I need to be for this moment? Am I going to break in this moment?” but also physically. I lost quite a bit of weight before the season started; I wanted him to look gaunt and like he hadn’t slept and he hadn’t been eating. He’s holding it together, but not well. All of them in their own way have just kind of come to the end of their rope."

Not sure how I feel about an actor of any gender starving themself for a role, but it's his body to do what he wants with.

I doubt he starved himself, there are healthy diets that reduce calories and cut out fat to safely lose weight. It is probably worse when an actor gains a lot of weight for a roll.

[tennisgurl]

I admit that I was putting watching this off, I just don't want this to be the last season! Its why I'm alright with them putting out one episode at a time, I was to savor every tasty morsel of show until the end. Not a ton actually happened in this episode, it was basically just showing what everyone is up to and how things are going (its not great) but they did a good job at setting up a ton of things for them to deal with this season and showing how rough things are for everyone.

I hate seeing the Roci crew so run down and at odds, they all look like they're about to pass out at any second. Losing Alex was a real gut punch, he really was their heart, he kept their spirits up and did so much to help them connect to each other like family, him being gone has left this massive hole in their ship beyond just needing someone to fly the ship. Now they are constantly on the run, leaving them all exhausted, which is making all of their issues with each other even worse. Amos is on edge, defensive, and is only as on it as he is because he doesn't want to disappoint Holden, Naomi is clearly still traumatized from last season and cant even look at Clarissa, who is keeping her head down while sticking to Amos, and Holden is just ridiculously tired. These people need a trust building exercise stat, watching them like this is just so depressing. 

Of course no matter what, Holden's first response to a problem will always be "hit it until it works." Its worked so far, why stop now? I really do love exploring the future technology of the space ships, even in bad spots, it all makes the world feel so real and lived in. It feels like something that could actually exist someday and I can see how people use them in their day to day lives. 

 Things might be bad on Earth, but at least it means that Avasarala can upgrade her fabulous wardrobe to battle bling! even with Earth in dire trouble we can count on her to stride around looking fabulous while dropping appropriate f-bombs when needed. Which is most of the time considering what she has to deal with. Avasarala really excels in a crisis, she is clearly in her element here. Plus, Bobbie and Avasarala are always great together, even as Bobbie is desperate to get to do something. and I am always happy to see Monica, even if Bobbie is less happy to see her then I am. 

Marco has somehow become even more of a smug dickhead this season, which I thought was impossible but he managed to find a way. I hope the Belters realize that they have put their whole future on the shoulders of a narcissistic monster soon, I so want to watch someone wipe the smug smirk off his face. Preferably Drummer, but I'll take what I can get. Marco thinks he is the Alexander the Great of space, but its clear that he has no ability to run a real war, let alone some kind of Belter utopia, its clear that he really only has an interest in murdering people and listening to people chanting his name. He's a narcassistict terroristic with delusions of grandeur, and eventually its all going to come crashing down around him. Even now he refuses to listen when people bring up very real concerns about how they are going to keep feeding their people without Earth, putting it off as "spreadsheets" and giving big speeches to the people at the station while planning to strip their resources and leave if they aren't useful anymore. He doesn't seem to have much of a plan now that neither Mars or Earth has surrender in terror, and its inevitable that they will end up going on the offensive soon, and they have much great capacity to build ships and weapons plus more resources, the second they really try to strike back they will be in big trouble, even if they don't start running low on food and supplies first. Filip meanwhile is becoming more of a whiny little shit every day, even killing his only friend in a stupid fight. Poor Naomi, stuck with that little shit as a son. I am sure that he will come around, but as of now he's just too much of a whiny shit to care about. 

[Netfoot]

4 hours ago, edhopper said:

there are healthy diets that reduce calories and cut out fat to safely lose weight...

And there is KETO...

[Melina22]

Love and agree with your whole post, tennisgurl 😊

[Eulipian 5k]

Amos' retort to Naomi's "You should find somewhere else to be", was ~ "You got that right". That, along with his (Parker-like) concern for payment suggests he's looking ahead to life after the Roci. Yikes!

[mac123x]

Poor Filip, developing a guilty conscience and acting out... I so don't care.  You murdered millions, I want you to die is a painful and undignified waste disposal accident.  Same with Marco.  I thought his clothing last season was ridiculous, but I see they've upped the ante.

 

Honestly, how are they going to resolve both this Marco BS and whatever is happening on Laconia in 5 more episodes?  We're also waiting on some follow up to the final scene of the previous season where the rebel Martian warship got smeared into goo after entering the Laconia gateway.  

 

[I haven't read the books past Cibola Burn so this is speculation not based on source material]  I'm concerned that whatever is going on in Laconia will become a Bigger Threat (tm) that Earth, Mars, and Teh Free Navy have to band together to fight.  

Edited December 16, 2021 by mac123x

[Dobian]

I miss Alex.  With such a short mini-season (why couldn't they do a full ten episodes?), it's going to be a very linear plot-driven finish.  Keep moving the chains.  Avasarala's Big Move should be revealed shortly.

[WatchrTina]

OVERALL

Whoo hoo! The Expanse is BACK!  Oh how I’ve missed you.

 

THE GOOD

Congrats to the writers for getting much-needed “where we are now” recap dialog into the episode without it plodding too much.  Yeah, it was obvious what they were doing, but we needed that.  Now that everyone is up to speed, the upcoming episodes can skip all that rehashing 

Did you catch Holden expressing his disappointment that the beverage he had been handed was “just coffee?”  What a contrast (and a clever call-back) to Season 1 when Holden’s discovery that there was coffee on board the newly-acquired Rocinante led to a nearly orgasmic reaction to his first sip.

I was glad to see that at least SOME of the MCRN ships are helping protect Earth from the stealth asteroids.  I’m glad they recognize that Marco is a danger to the whole solar system.  Did I hear correctly that he’s thrown 200 rocks at the earth in the past 6 months?  Really?  It’s kind of hard for me to grasp that he could muster that much firepower.  Aren’t a lot of people baling out of his fight in favor of escaping through the rings and settling new planets?  Or does TeamMarco control access to the Ring now?  (I’m going to have to go back and watch the last few episodes of the last season, aren’t I?)

As usual the visuals on this show were spectacular.  Amos’ stroll around the hull to check for damage was gorgeous.  And of course they threw in a reminder of Amos’ confidence in space when he releases his mag-boots at one point and space-hops freely to a new location on the hull.

And that wee little piece of space debris that started banging into the side of the drive that the Roci team found attached to an asteroid – that was great.  Just a tiny bit of space trash – like a goldfish banging against a whale – signaling that VERY BAD THINGS were about to happen.

 

THE BAD

Emo Eyeliner Mussolini (a.k.a. Marco) continues to turns my stomach but now his shitty son has vaulted into first place on the list of people I’d like to see tossed into a supernova.  (Side note:  my expression used to be “tossed out an airlock” but Naomi made that phrase obsolete last season by heroically jumping out an airlock – sans spacesuit – and living to tell the tale!)  

I actually felt a little bit bad for Filip at first – still trying to earn his Daddy’s respect (and not getting it.)  But the writers cured me of that with his not taking “No” for an answer when he came on to the female bartender, followed quickly by his shooting his friend for no damn reason.  And you can’t even blame raging adolescent hormones for his conduct because he had gotten laid earlier that same day!   I mean, damn son! 

BTW I counted three witnesses to the shooting (at least) so Marco is going to HAVE to deal with this.  I’ll admit I have no idea which way it will go.  Marco is perfectly capable of putting his own son down like a rabid dog, but more likely he will ignore the murder completely (at least publicly) and dare anyone to challenge him about it.  I don’t think Marco cares a bit about his son but punishing Filip could suggest that Marco (and his son) are subject to the same code of justice as anyone else, and that doesn’t jive with Marco’s whole messianic mind-set.

 

THE UGLY

“Every rock kills us a little more, even when they miss.”  Damn.  The situation on Earth really is dire.

Another ugly thing is that discipline on the Roci is breaking down.  Holden gave a command (to fire on the asteroid they were inspecting) and Naomi immediately countermanded it.  She was later proved right and Holden didn’t seem too fussed about it but I think that’s a hint of potential conflicts to come.

But the ugliest thing in the episode is one of Marcos’ subordinates reporting to him that their side had “spaced the crew” after winning a fight, and no one batted an eye at that news.

Oooh and did you hear Naomi say (of Clarissa) “As if THAT could replace Alex.”  “That.”  Not “She.”  Damn Naomi, that’s cold.  As was her statement (to Amos) “You should find somewhere else to be.”  So . . . generally speaking . . . Naomi is NOT in a healthy frame of mind.  (Having your ex-husband and son try to murder you by marooning you in a derelict ship that is rigged to blow up can make a girl cranky).  Well, [SARCASM ON] I’m sure Naomi's poor mental health won’t jump up and bite the crew in the ass this season. [SARCASM OFF]

 

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS 

If you wanted to you could skip almost the entire episode and just listen to Avasarala’s speech at the end.  It’s pretty much a mission statement for the coming season.  She says, “Fuck Good.  We need better than good. We’re wounded.  Broken. Trying desperately to keep ourselves going by pretending we’re not.  Gutting through it all.  Wearing down.  Little wins here and there will not hold us together.  We need more than that.  Something big.  Something to give us a reason to hope.”  And Avasarala has something in mind . . . but WHAT?

 

The other big unanswered question was stated right in the episode:

Q: “Why would Martians take Proto-molecule through the Ring after what it did on Ilus?”

A: “Maybe they know something we don’t.”

 

Oh, and WTF was up with that little girl and the critter she found in the woods at the very start of the show?

 

[raven]

1 hour ago, WatchrTina said:

Oooh and did you hear Naomi say (of Clarissa) “As if THAT could replace Alex.”

Clarissa-as-Melba did try to kill Naomi a few seasons ago, as well as killing a bunch of people and trying to set up Holden for it.  I'm not denying that Naomi has PTSD from her near death experience last season but Clarissa's introduction to the Roci crew was on really bad terms. 

Amos's point about Naomi making decisions (giving the protomolecule to Fred Johnson and lying about it) on her own is also valid.  Our crew needs to hash some stuff out.

[Netfoot]

14 hours ago, WatchrTina said:

Oooh and did you hear Naomi say (of Clarissa) “As if THAT could replace Alex.”  “That.”  Not “She.”  Damn Naomi, that’s cold.  As was her statement (to Amos) “You should find somewhere else to be.”  So . . . generally speaking . . . Naomi is NOT in a healthy frame of mind.

Wow! And I thought it meant Naomi just didn't like her! And who can blame her? Clarissa is a completely untrustworthy mass murdered, so a little disdain is understandable.

[Rlb8031]

On 12/12/2021 at 4:50 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Was that young Filip getting it in so angrily? Whoo, he's definitely jumped headfirst into puberty. Meanwhile, what's up with Marco trying to look like a space Prince impersonator? I kept waiting for him to bust out in a cover of Purple Rain, lol.

So glad you said that! Happy to know I'm not the only one to see that resemblance. When he jumped up on the crates in Medina Station, I was like "Where are The Revolution?"

[cleo]

Late to the party but I still find it jarring and unrealistic that the Belters aren't trying to colonize some planets. Not Marcos, but the rest of them.

Esp after that other season where they went on and on about it. 

But even without that- you have worlds of planets with potentially boundless resources (boundless until humans inevitably fuck it up) but to stay in space and potentially starve bc.....? Why again? 

Talk about small imaginations. Marco can't think beyond running some space stations and throwing rocks when there are literally whole galaxies of planets open to them.

 

[MissLucas]

26 minutes ago, cleo said:

But even without that- you have worlds of planets with potentially boundless resources (boundless until humans inevitably fuck it up) but to stay in space and potentially starve bc.....? Why again? 

Living in low level gravity has changed their physiology so that survival on a planetary surface is risky/not possible. Remember that Naomi had to leave the surface of Ilus due to her body not being able to handle its gravity despite her beforehand training and taking meds. Of course they could find a planet with a low level gravity I was never quite sure why that was not addressed. Or maybe it was and I forgot. 

[cleo]

That's a good point, except they basically  contradicted it in that season where they went to the planet. Like yes some struggled and some died but they had the desire to at least try. It's like the desire for something better/more which was presented in that season is just erased.

Last season Marco or someone said they would lose their essential Belterness or culture or something- and there could be an interesting thing to explore bw those who want to change and have something different, and those who are afraid and/or want to stay with what defines them as Belters- living in space.

But the show for the most part takes it for granted that they are all happy with status quo and pretends that season where they were willing to die just for a chance at a planet never happened.

Just bugs me, but I get they can't address everything deeply.

 

[MissLucas]

A lot about the Belters bugged me tbh. One thing that got barely addressed and which should have been a major incentive to get away from low gravity life was that it apparently affected reproductional health. Both getting pregnant and giving birth were problematic and dangerous. You'd think that should be a major concern if you want to establish your own culture.