The Expanse thrives on its ability to weave disparate plot threads, but now that episodes like “Godspeed” have started to bring these far-flung plots and characters together, it doesn’t seem to be losing any steam. A few plots came together on Wednesday’s episode when the harebrained plan Miller came up with in the waning moments of last week’s episode, “Static,” lurched into action. Miller had the bright idea to use the generation ship Nauvoo as a missile to completely destroy the Protomolecule-infected outpost on Eros Station. But two major things nearly happened: Miller almost died, and the plan almost worked.
After the Season 2 premiere, Miller was definitely on Fred Johnson and Holden’s shit list. Their options for finding out exactly what shady company Protogen was doing testing the Protomolecule on Eros died along with Dresden. But, after his crisis-of-faith chat with a Mormon missionary, Miller brought the idea of using the Nauvoo to destroy Eros straight to Fred Johnson. Johnson may have given in to Miller’s absurd plan a bit too easily, but he’s swayed by a kind of moral imperative.
“This is gonna destroy you, and everything you’ve tried to build here,” Naomi says of the plan. “Somebody’s gotta act, and it’s the right thing to do.” Johnson responds. Later, Holden can’t help but side with Naomi, telling her, “It feels like we’re covering up a crime.”
So as the Nauvoo rockets towards Eros, Miller joins a drop team to manually plant bombs on the station’s surface while the Roci is needed to deliver the payload and provide cover. Because nothing is ever easy on The Expanse, there are two main speed bumps: The Roci encounters a rogue ship called the Marasmus snooping around the infected station, and space debris make one of Miller’s bombs short circuit into manual override mode, forcing him to stay behind to finish the job himself.
The crew of the Marasmus claims they’re on a humanitarian mission, but Holden can’t risk inadvertently having them take Protomolecule samples away from Eros. Plus, they could be lying and just be Protogen agents keeping the bioweapon alive. After a tense moment where the Marasmus crew declines Holden’s stipulations, he makes the tragic but necessary decision to fire on them. Did he just murder humanitarian aid workers, or did he prevent further genocide? When The Expanse posits moral grey areas like this, it’s at its best.
Before we can pass judgment, we think we’re going to have to witness Miller’s ignominious death, clinging to a nuke only to wait until the moment of impact between the Nauvoo and Eros to end it all. But at the very last second, the enormous space station rockets past Eros, missing it entirely. But Fred Johnson’s Tycho Station goons didn’t get the calculations wrong. The Eros somehow moved out of the way on its own. Heading into the halfway point of Season 2, the question on everybody’s mind about the once desolate Eros should be: who, or what, is still inside?
