The Expanse Season 2 Episode 10
No one does subtlety like The Expanse. In an episode that deepens the show’s already rich world-building, the characters are really displaying their consistent but malleable personalities. Especially welcome was Bobbie’s development as a soldier caught in the middle of a political battle, but the extra touches for Amos and Avasarala as well as the slow decline of Holden’s moral resolve really added spice to an episode that otherwise delivered only the tiniest of juicy morsels in the ongoing mystery surrounding Ganymede. Instead of leading us to an answer, the focus is placed on how Holden gets his information. We believe Amos when he tells Prax, “I’ll watch your back, but they’ll find your little girl,” but when Amos beats the greedy opportunist, Roma, with a can of chicken to ensure his cooperation in combing the surveillance footage for Mei, his methods, the brutality of which we’ve become familiar with, are less shocking than Holden’s reaction to them. It’s a tough evolution to watch; as Naomi says, “Every shitty thing we do makes the next one that much easier.” Not that you can argue with the results. Presumably, Holden’s team will be searching for Mei in the oldest part of the station where there are no cameras, a foreboding prospect to be sure. Given this new information and the manner in which it was obtained, it’s surprising that Prax has the scope of observation to notice the changes to his lifelong home that indicate it’s dying. The prospect of a cascade effect resulting from nitrogen deficiencies, people feeding on air-scrubbing plants, and the use of distilled water has the trademark stamp of real science that The Expanse is known for, but Prax’s calm demeanor, logical as it may be for a scientist, is equal parts disturbing and worrying. In fact, the assistant undersecretary’s intel would be suspicious if it weren’t for Mars’ Ganymede lockdown, but Bobbie must feel somewhat vindicated that she wasn’t seeing things when the “seventh man” without a vac suit destroyed her unit. Despite the fact that Bobbie up until this point has been very anti-Earth, almost itching for war, her treatment at the hands of her own people combined with the possible cover-up of a second weapons test of sorts with the ever-resilient Jules-Pierre Mao might persuade her to cooperate with Avasarala. Plus it seems the culture of Earth, specifically the lives of those living on Basic in slums around the city, has made just as much an impression on the Mars-born soldier as the ocean itself (which was less than magnificent, truth be told). Whereas Prax’s cold reporting of the botanical signs of Ganymede’s impending doom was alarming but scientifically satisfying, there’s no substitute for the observable distress Bobbie experiences being in the overwhelming vastness and comparatively greater gravity of Earth. It’s this personal touch that makes the scientific reality pack a real punch.
