Great episode this week! We did indeed get some resolution to the mystery of the Ganymede battle and it looks like our heroes will be heading there soon.
The Earth/Mars/Belter stiff is great. Poor Fred Johnson, pariah of Earth, never fully trusted by the Belt, the guy just keeps trying to do the right thing for the thousands of people he feels responsible for and people keep screwing him over at every opportunity (which is a nice parallel to Holden too). Stealing the scientist guy though, that makes no sense. What the hell are they going to do with him if he has none of the lab equipment and no proto-molecule to play with? Unless…
There was a lot of good CGI and effects in this episode. I really have to hand it to the producers of this show, a lot of times the coolest effects are happening as part of the sets or in the background, and while the show would be good without some of that stuff, including it makes the whole thing more connected and real.
I’m very much enjoying this series, it’s one of the best things on television right now in my opinion. Never read the books, and probably won’t as long as the series is ongoing, as I don’t want to be spoiled.
Dawson thinks he is Fred’s pocket Ace, the only known expert on the protomolecule. Not really sure either what he would be able to contribute over time unless it pops up again, but all that other stuff is replaceable.
Was wondering how much he got of that from Fred’s 2nd and how much is conjecture.
Is Fred’s 2nd in command supposed to be Dawson’s daughter? It kind of seemed that way right up until the end of the scene where they were talking in front of the shop window, at which point it veered into the “maybe she’s his girlfriend?” or “extremely creepy if she is his daughter” territory.
Her belter speak had a few phrases that may have implied a father/daughter relationship but I cant say for sure.
This was another good episode. Less action and more exposition but it is doing a good job of setting the table for what’s to come. Great series so far.
I got the impression she used to run in his crew back on Ceres and has since moved on. He’s going with the, “You never really leave the neighborhood. Remember your loyalties,” approach. Vito Corleone would be proud of him.
Last episode was great, showing how the Martian-born would have trouble on Earth.
BTW, I know it’s too late now, but how hard would it have been to have the actors learn that the empathy-less scientist’s last name is pronounced “corTAssar” and not “CORtazar”. Hell, any one of them who remembered anything from taking college Spanish would have seen the written accent on the last name (Cortázar*) and known that you always stress a vowel with a written accent. On the other hand, maybe the books’ authors never wrote it with the accent. :-\
*the last name of a great Argentinian 20th Century writer, Julio Cortázar BTW.
The show Spanish does not seem to be the best. The one that bothers me is Carne Por La Machina, which is supposed to be “Meat for the Machine/Grinder”. You could handwave it by saying belter’s all a new pigdin language anyway, I guess.
I didn’t make the connection that the little girl waving, May, was the figure Bobbie saw from the agg station right before the shooting started. Did anyone else? Makes me feel dumb. I had the impression she waves out, then stuff immediately blows up and Prax is knocked out.
SyFy advertised this show so poorly when it first came out. I didn’t even give it a chance. This week I finally got tired of Amazon Prime recommending it to me that I gave it a shot. 4 days later, I’m done with the first season. Turned out to be a hundred times better that I thought it would be.
Only problem now is that it’s so later in to season 2 that now I pretty well need to wait until the season is on streaming before I can catch up.
Glad to hear there will be a season 3. It’s nice when a show that is actually good, somehow gets the science right, and manages to create suspense without seeming silly ends up catching on and getting renewed.
Gaaa! For some inexplicable reason my TiVo failed to record The Expanse tonight, and the repeat isn’t till Saturday at 12 AM. >:-(
Thank God for Usenet.
It really is a great show and I hope we get a few good seasons out of it before it jumps the proto molecule shark.
I’m curious though. In the previous episode we were told during the Earth/Mars meeting that Earth doesn’t have enough jobs for everyone and that some sort of UBI is available in lieu of work. From that I assumed 23rd century Earth got it shit together and nipped homelessness and poverty in the bud but in this most recent episode we see street dwellers and a guy who hustles to get medicine for his friend. I knew the belters had it rough but I was really let down by the dreariness of it all when the Martian Sgt is asking for directions. She eventually reaches the water via a sewage tunnel runoff tunnel.
23rd century and we’re still confined to our solar system and people are still nasty towards each other. Roddenberry was way too optimistic.
Yes, things are pretty grim on earth, it’s mentioned that clawing your way out of Basic is almost impossible, I figure this means social mobility is almost nil.
This is still fairly optimistic compared to what we’re facing because the world has surely not gotten its shit together yet
“Actually, the people we’re shown in that scene aren’t on basic.
The most common way to be on basic is that your parents apply for a procreation license, and then when you’re born you’re registered with the government and entitled to basic. But if your parents didn’t have a license, you may be kept underground and off the grid, and you won’t receive basic unless you go through some hoops to sign up.
Some people, for various reasons, never go onto basic, and these people are among them. I didn’t notice it myself, but Ty and Daniel pointed out that there’s actually a drone that flies through one of the scenes playing a advertisement promoting how easy it is to sign up for basic.”
Yeah, this was probably my biggest disappointment in the series so far. They made Bobbie extremely one dimensional to the point of being annoying. Glad they are finally allowing her character to stretch a bit.
