Is anybody else watching The Expanse?

I don't know if the Amos actor can handle being a character who is more than a cipher.

Lots about saving the Roci in this episode which seems like much smaller stakes than in previous stories.

drummer and her crew and tensions there?

I hated this scene lol, the bit/supporting actors on this show are mostly very wooden and it's a consistent problem

I don't know if the Amos actor can handle being a character who is more than a cipher

Wes Chatham is totally delightful to me in this tbh

Holden is absolutely the most boring character on this show. It's like biting into a Tootsie Pop and finding a ball of dry lint.

Strait has gotten a little easier for me to take over the years (mostly thanks to crew/cast rapport) but yeah I can't imagine anyone watching for him.

feels like very little happened in this one

i am very much enjoying this season but i was very much not enjoying naomi on marco's ship, just very badly written and acted all around, marco in particular, yikes.

feel like the belt not being able to make its own air and water would be a huge thing everyone would have in mind at all times as a political issue re: independence, didn't any of these people watch total recall??

he’s certainly a step down from straithairn and jared harris.. i dunno, in a way it just makes him even more bad and hated for me so it sorta works

the endless urgently whispered threats to an imprisoned naomi do get v repetitive after awhile though. it’s one thing to see her helpless and want her to escape; it’s another for maybe your most iconic character to be stuck in jail for a whole season

i think my favourite bit of wtf writing was after naomi has already assaulted his head engineer with a wrench and they’ve essentially expressed their undying enmity towards each other, the writers needed a way for naomi to get to the airlock so inaros says “look i’m giving you the liberty of the ship.. but if you try anything, i’ll be watching you!!!” let naomi hack her way out of her cell or something at least sheesh

When you have high-speed interplanetary travel the belt and outer planet moon systems are full of water ice you can tow where it's needed and crack for oxygen. It's live soil and food that are the issues.

THat was Naomi's parents taht were with the belter army wasn't it? Mother now on the ship with the female captain and expressing surprise that Naomi might be alive at the end of the episode after having been the one to say that she was dead. NOt exactly expressing maternal feelings so is she mother or step mother?

Hmm no I don't think so. Do you mean the badass Black belter from Inaros' ship who's now on Drummer's as a result of a purported crew swap? I don't think she's related to Naomi - she just said that she used to know Naomi back in the day.

We found out that Drummer's eyeshadow is actual makeup and not tattooed on.

xxp - uh, those women are not related, in fact I am pretty sure that woman is/was a romantic rival

the way she suggested to Marco in a previous episode that if he wanted Naomi spaced, rather than have Phillip do it, she would do a better job of it

hard to argue with tbf

she's just not very maternal innit

alas all this "naomi in peril" stuff should have been greatly condensed

The "Marco and Philip hug and cry" scene in this week's episode could definitely have been cut. Glad to see the Amos-visits-Earth plot resolve in a somewhat interesting way, though.

unfortunately the writing for Clarissa is hopelessly inconsistent

Amos ruled, as usual. "Nobody ever starts over because they never really leave anything behind"

"why does he call you Peaches?"

"I have no idea. Why do you call him Timmy. Do I even want to ask?"

"I wouldn't"

was great as well

and I like the Naomi scenes, she's slowly figuring out bits and pieces of a solution, it's all silent, very tense

the Marcos/Philip tears should have been cut for more Clarissa/Erich banter imo

I'm wondering with Naomi, has she slept since she arrived on the ship. has she any food on the ship since I would assume it was stripped when it was booby trapped. Also including what's the story on air supply? NOt sure how that is sorted for any vehicle and assume that there must be a limited supply available, is it contiunually reprocessed by shipboard equipment or is it something one buys a supply of taht one carries with one?

I mean she's on a ship that was only really supposed to be present for one very limited reason and therefore shouldn't really be set up for human survival should it?

yup, they stripped almost everything out of there and she’s running out of time

I found the Naomi scenes super tense and gut wrenching last week. this week I was just like....I get it, yknow?

The casting for this show is so weird -- "you give off bible camp counselor vibes -- you're perfect for dystopian Baltimore crime boss!"

why are there so many canadians in baltimore

it does seem like they have really fucked up the pacing for naomi’s story. this week’s episode ends almost exactly like last week’s. the inaros family psychodrama stuff is interesting only insofar as it gets you to big moments of decision or conflict and those have been thin on the ground.

absolutely phenomenal escape from earth. what started as a slightly shonky low-budg children of men homage became surprisingly stressful and the last gasp where amos goes back for the gang member (who had earlier helped him out of a similar scrape!) was bananas - at first i was like omg amos, you’re not rescuing them only in order to use them as a human shield??! but then they came up firing with a backup handgun as amos dragged them back towards the ship!! a+ teamwork

xxp Erich was more physically frail in the book! Part of the history was that he was the more frail, but very hackerish, of the duo. Timmy (Amos) was the one who protected him as the muscle

yeah if anything he should be skinnier. mostly I just don't like how canadian he sounds lol

i'm finally caught up and I've pretty much adopted Avasarala's "whereever I goddamn like" whenever anybody asks where I'm going or what I'm getting at.

her screen career is really something

What was Amos doing to Hutch's (Erich's enforcer) body at the end? Sealing the bullet holes so blood wouldn't get everywhere?

possibly, I guess due to lack of gravity?

wonder what Havelock is up to rn

Yeah was wondering of she'd totally had it or could recover at all.

Some amount of destruction left in their wake though. I thought those vehicles were like holiday hoppers so suppose that can't have been the normal effect. Every time they take off the owner has to rebuild the family pile.

the ship’s computer had said that the blast doors weren’t closed yet and Erich (?) said fuck it and took off anyway

oh right, thought it might be a little expensive otherwise

Yea he incinerated the pursuers, the homes and everything else were collateral damage.

Weirdly the Amos/"Peaches" of that ep felt reminiscent of the end of the movie Wind River to an extent. The atmosphere of the shootout in the dark was well done.

Pacing is nuts -- does Avasarala's reclaiming the iron throne take more time in the books?

She doesn't lose the election in the first place in the books, from memory.

since we didn't see the plane go down, i'm sure Gao will return looking like Toxie from Toxic Avenger and reclaim her right to the throne

that was it? all the naomi stuff was just timekilling bullshit?

yeeaaaahhh not a great back half overall

i think it was undone by the expectedly awkward handling of Alex due to having to fire Cas Anvar. a lot of it felt very holding pattern.

though WTF happened at the end?

omg it's the Unknown Aggressors that killed the Builders innit?

one season to go, it'd have to be

I know they were in a shitty situation but was that really the best solution they could find? makes me think the call was made pretty damn late in production

I'm sure that's what happened. It's just weird because of how it was executed. It was a Chekhov's stroke. Also considering all of the adventures they'd been on together and how they usually reacted when one of their own was in danger, they were surprisingly disaffected by Alex's death

I guess my question would be what would this chunk of season have been like "according to plan"? does it explain stranding naomi wordlessly on a ship for three full episodes? what would have been the endgame and how did having to kill Alex off ruin it?

anyway, the first five episodes were some of the best they've ever done and there was still lots of great stuff in the other ones, but it's a shame they didn't knock this one out of the park like it seemed they would. I will say that technically the show's never been better- loved the sound design on Bobbie's rescue of Naomi, and the wonderful "fucked up digital video artifacts" effects in the ending scene. also laughed very hard at Amos' little speech to Holden and the reveal that followed