Though The Expanse isn’t exclusively about adventures aboard a spaceship, the exploits of James Holden and his ragtag crew of the Rocinante do make up a big part of what drives the series. But now, there’s a bit of turbulence: The crew of the Rocinante can’t stay together for much longer.
Spoilers ahead for The Expanse Season 2, Episode 11, “Here There Be Dragons.”
This week’s episode is all about all the various different characters in different parts of the solar system all becoming increasingly aware of a vast conspiracy. On Earth, Bobbie Draper finally finds evidence that her own Martian government conspired to harness the protomolecule and turn it into monster soldiers who can breathe in space. After Bobbie beats up a jerky, insane general, he admits to crazy super solider experiments. “We made the protomolcule do what we wanted,” he says. After getting the scoop on “Project Caliban,” Bobbie requests asylum from the U.N., solidifying her alliance with undersecretary Chrisjen Avasarala. She tells Avasarala that the weaponized monster-version of the protomolecule is “up for sale, and Mars wants it.” While this briefly paints Mars as the biggest bad in the solar system, fans of the second Expanse book, Caliban’s War, know things are a little more complicated than that.
Meanwhile, over on Ganymede, Holden and the Rocinante gang are raiding the secret black ops lab trying to find Mei, Prax’s missing daughter. As in the book, Prax has an itchy trigger finger, which gets the crew into a little bit of trouble with evil mad scientists. The ensuing firefight is bad, and it ends with Amos being wounded. Luckily, the ever-resourceful Alex took some initiative to swoop in with the Rocinante at the 11th hour.
But this doesn’t turn out to be a great moment of triumph because Naomi has decided she’s actually not cool with hanging out with Holden anymore. She feels bad shooting her way through every situation and wants to stay and help people. In the book, this was done a little differently, with Naomi temporarily leaving the Roci crew when everyone returned to Tycho Station. Instead, TV Naomi is ditching Holden and the crew to do some humanitarian work but also taking the wounded Amos with her! Essentially the entire ensemble is divided now, with only Prax, Holden, and Alex left as part of the crew. Holden and Naomi get a goodbye kiss, and then things get even worse.
Because if things weren’t already bad enough for Holden, Alex suddenly spots a new problem on the surface of Ganymede: a monster, just like the one that destroyed Bobbie’s squad, jumping around on the surface of the Jovian moon. Without a space suit.
The Expanse airs on Wednesday nights on SyFy at 10 p.m. Eastern. The second season finale will air in two weeks on April 19.
