The Expanse: Delta-V   Show Only 
May 23, 2018 10:42 PM - Season 3, Episode 7 - Subscribe

Crews are united, divided, and converge towards the same mysterious point.

Months have passed. The protomolecule construction last seen rising from the surface of Venus has made its way out past the orbit of Neptune, where it has formed a massive ring of unknown purpose.

Earth, Mars and the Belt, having formed a tenuous peace, are all headed towards the mysterious object. The Contorta crew have been bailed out of the legal proceedings around their salvage of the MCRN ship by a documentary film crew, who have hired them to fly out to the ring. The Belt, represented by the rechristened Mormon colony ship Behemoth, are also headed out, captained by Drummer, with Naomi Nagata as their chief engineer. Anna has a berth with an Earth ship, and Bobbi, returned to the good graces of the MCRN, is aboard the Xuesen. Also with the Earth fleet is the mysterious Melba, an industrial mechanic and saboteur. All are braking, bound for the Ring.

Most definitely not braking is one tightly-wired bundle of toxic Belter masculinity who has been looping through the solar system in a tiny ship using gravity slingshots. Angered that his accomplishments have been overshadowed by the presence of the Ring, he decides to end his high speed run by diving directly through it… where he comes to an immediate, dramatic and very bloody stop.

And: Hat Cop is back!

Highlights: Deep Purple's Highway Star and Eric Carmen's All By Myself with alternate Belter lyrics.

In cancellation news, it appears that Amazon may be in talks to save the show, but nothing is confirmed yet; the campaign to #SaveTheExpanse continues.

As this episode essentially coincides with the start of Book 3 of the series, a reminder that the Books Included thread, covering the entire series, remains open.


posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul (41 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
David Strathairn as Ashford! Holy cow. I didn't recognize him at first.
posted by zarq at 7:30 AM on May 24, 2018 [4 favorites]


Did I just see a wet bar on the bridge of that UNN ship???? When the Reverend is talking to the science guy, he strolls over to it, she follows, and they keep talking as he pours himself one.

Also, kind of fun watching Drummer's shrug reaction to Naomi's report of drug dealing on the ship. And both of them struggling with the concept that maybe doing hard drugs on duty is a bad idea.

I cringe-laughed at the racer's head popping off. I'd been expecting him to disappear and then reappear in an alien solar system because that thing is so obviously some kind of stargate, so just slamming into a wall was the perfect anticlimax for his testosterone journey.
posted by Mogur at 10:00 AM on May 24, 2018 [12 favorites]


This is cool. Someone rigged a GoPro camera to a model of the Rocinante sitting on a small #SaveTheExpanse shelf and attached it to a weather balloon. It made it approximately 33km above the Earth's surface. We can literally see the curvature of the Earth in the photo.

No word on whether the MCRN vessel was shot down by the UNN after being detected so close to the home planet.
posted by zarq at 10:05 AM on May 24, 2018 [18 favorites]


Did I just see a wet bar on the bridge of that UNN ship???? When the Reverend is talking to the science guy, he strolls over to it, she follows, and they keep talking as he pours himself one.

Even if that wasn't the actual bridge, but a science/telemetry/astrogation center, an open wet bar was a weird design choice. That's what Ten Forward is for!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:09 AM on May 24, 2018 [3 favorites]


Oh! And the grizzled old space pirate trying to explain why they can't just airlock their problems anymore (although Drummer deciding that dammit she was going to airlock something was equally wonderful).
posted by Mogur at 10:16 AM on May 24, 2018 [4 favorites]


Sorry, last one. Drummer, Naomi, and Old Pirate calmly watching the pile of drugs grow in the airlock and debating how much it was. Says a lot about their life experiences.

Oh, and Cameraman clearly has cybereyes, as well as something built into his fingers. I was watching to see what happened when he put his hand on Amos' shoulder.

God, I love this show.
posted by Mogur at 10:19 AM on May 24, 2018 [2 favorites]


Can we all talk about how badly we need an album filled with Lang Belta covers?
posted by nathan_teske at 11:13 AM on May 24, 2018 [13 favorites]


Witness me! I ride eternal, shiny and ................ splat!
posted by daveje at 2:35 PM on May 24, 2018 [12 favorites]


Did I just see a wet bar on the bridge of that UNN ship?

that may have been the bridge, but there was a party going on at the time, you can see the people in the background all have drinks. I think Anna chose to go talk to that particular guy because he was the only on that appeared to be still working.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 6:35 PM on May 24, 2018 [4 favorites]


I need to go back and just read the instruments. The UNN battlegroup is listed on someone's display as a "floatilla", which could be a production blip or (better) an example of language drift.

Testosterone Boy (btw, kudos to the actor, he basically had to just sit in a chair and talk to the camera and make us at least be interested in the character) had readouts that were at least partly in Belta, maybe even entirely.
posted by Mogur at 7:08 PM on May 24, 2018 [2 favorites]


HATCOP & PEACHES
posted by sixswitch at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2018 [7 favorites]


Naomi Nagata coming in hot with the Prince cosplay this episode.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:19 PM on May 24, 2018 [22 favorites]


stargate

I think you mean fargate.
posted by MikeKD at 2:39 AM on May 25, 2018 [5 favorites]


While I agree that maybe the Roci isn’t the place to raise a kid, I was really wishing Prax would become crew. Especially after Amos’ declaration of friendship. It was so sweet! I hope we see those buddies get to hang again.

It wasn’t super obvious, but was the mars/earth convoy to the gate already there and studying it, or did the belter racer race through the convoy and beat them there?
posted by furnace.heart at 8:30 AM on May 25, 2018 [6 favorites]


Maneo's having a Space Beer with Shed now. Leaves on the wind.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:27 AM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


We saw the fleet braking burns, but Maneo's display show them at the gate, so I'm guessing they were in their last minutes of deceleration and were just arriving. By maintaining his speed, however, Maneo was able to overtake them and, in the last few seconds, zip past them to arrive at the gate first of all. They would be very close behind though, and in a good position to pick up his pieces.

Oh, I just realized why a bomb on a support ship makes sense. At some point, the Roci (I refuse to use that other name) will be nearby in local space as they all study the gate. I was wondering about that.
posted by Mogur at 1:40 PM on May 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


The Belta covers were simply great.

Seems there's a bunch of dignitaries and such aboard the UNN ship, so a wet bar doesn't surprise me. Some junior lieutenant has to worry about stowing that stuff when they're not under acceleration. It might be fun, though, to see the tumblers become lethal missiles.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:32 PM on May 25, 2018


In cancellation news, it appears that Amazon may be in talks to save the show, but nothing is confirmed yet; the campaign to #SaveTheExpanse continues.

Amazon picked up the show. The campaign succeeded. Or Jeff got bored.
posted by bh at 10:52 PM on May 25, 2018 [7 favorites]


From a different emotional perspective: IT'S BEEN SAVED!!!
posted by Lexica at 11:00 PM on May 25, 2018 [13 favorites]


Woot! came to say We #SavedTheExpanse. See that it's covered. Woot!
posted by zengargoyle at 11:25 PM on May 25, 2018 [3 favorites]


Yay!
posted by Coaticass at 4:23 AM on May 26, 2018


RELEASE THE AVASAKRAKEN
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:09 AM on May 26, 2018 [15 favorites]


This is the best news!!!! Not only is The Expanse one of the best science fiction anything’s to drop on a screen, it holds a strong sentimental value for me. Season 1&2 came out when I was going through some dumb medical stuff where “distraction from symptoms” was one of the only things I could do during treatment and recovery. Crawling into this world was fully distracting and helped so much. The cancellation news hit me harder than a tv show getting cancelled probably should, but it was like losing a buddy.

This likely means that they’ll drop seasons all at once? Does amazon ever release things on an extended schedule? I like watching the episodes back to back, but I actually like digesting then week to week.

This is just so fantastic I’m so happy.
posted by furnace.heart at 6:37 AM on May 26, 2018 [3 favorites]


Was the hallucination at the end caused by the cameraguy messing with the environmental controls, a stress thing or the ring, you think?
posted by monocultured at 9:23 AM on May 26, 2018


I think ring.

Also, it is such a relief that this will be back! :)
posted by mordax at 10:14 AM on May 26, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'd assume the ring itself. It sounded a lot like Miller's visions of Julie that showed up as Eros got more powerful.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 10:18 AM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


So it's a Solaris kinda thing?
posted by monocultured at 11:51 AM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


Next up, Chrisjen replaces Bezos as Amazon CEO. I want footage of that first board of directors meeting.
posted by Ber at 1:44 PM on May 26, 2018 [6 favorites]


I like to imagine Chrisjen's coup back on Earth. All the frustration of being cooped up on the Roci and working with sporadic tightbeam messages with twenty-minute timelags burns away when finally she's got an office on Earth, a working phone and her ROLODEX! It must truly been glorious and bloody in its own special way.
posted by Mogur at 1:53 PM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


Oh! Her secret police (we saw them in season one)! Her blackmail files (I can only assume)! The people who owe her favours accumulated over nearly a half-century in public service! Her swearing and magnificent clothing! I think I need some kind of vid set to a montage. :)
posted by Mogur at 2:00 PM on May 26, 2018 [4 favorites]


Did I just see a wet bar on the bridge of that UNN ship???? When the Reverend is talking to the science guy, he strolls over to it, she follows, and they keep talking as he pours himself one.

There was a sign that said "Observation Deck" so maybe they have a separate room that's the same layout as the bridge but for guests/civilians.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:04 PM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


FINALLY getting to this and good lord, the first, what 12 minutes may be my favorite 12 minutes of the whole show so far! SUPA STAR
posted by mwhybark at 10:58 PM on May 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


oh man, the camera drone HUD!
posted by mwhybark at 11:21 PM on May 28, 2018


There was a sign that said "Observation Deck" so maybe they have a separate room that's the same layout as the bridge but for guests/civilians.

Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks! For a minute, I was wondering if it was a Dark Mirror reference. :)
posted by Mogur at 4:39 AM on May 29, 2018


David Strathairn as Ashford! Holy cow. I didn't recognize him at first.

I thought the blind camera man was basically doing Whistler from Sneakers and then went to IMDB to see if it actually WAS Whistler - because it looked like him too - I got very confused.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:29 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


Finally seeing this and Old Pirate is Best Pirate.
posted by corb at 10:47 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]


oh man, the camera drone HUD!

Geordi La Forge's Visor Mark II.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:03 AM on May 30, 2018


I'm late to watching but surprised & relieved that people liked this episode so much. If you haven't read the books I'm impressed this episode made any damn sense at all. It's a huge narrative leap and I don't think the TV show did enough to guide us over it. Like it'd be easy to miss how The Ring is out by Uranus from Venus, although they did at least give us a Basil Exposition scene about that about 20 minutes in. And characters scattered everywhere, each with a 5 second update, but like why is Bobbi back in the MCRN? And why are all these specific ships heading out to the Ring, like why the Behemoth?

I guess it made sense enough for the it to hang together and I admire that they condensed the transition down to like half a 46 minute TV show. But boy is it a big turn in the narrative. Still a bit confused why they chose to split the books up across seasons the way they did.
posted by Nelson at 7:16 AM on June 10, 2018 [1 favorite]


Nelson, I have a couple theories about that.

One is strictly commercial: since the books end, in general, with narrative closure, it actually benefits the series to end each season on cliffhangers.

The second is a bit more sketchy and something I doubt very much is an intentional aspect of the midseason midnarrative break. It's turnaround. It's midway in orbital transit between point A and point B, the point at which the narrative, the season, flips the ship of story over and initiates braking procedures.
posted by mwhybark at 11:47 PM on June 10, 2018 [4 favorites]


Since this is a show-only thread, it seems like the wrong place to discuss how and why they made changes from the books.
posted by Lexica at 10:19 AM on June 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


On rewatch, I noticed something about the UNN-Mars "cooperation". When the Reverend Doctor says "The Martians have better probes than ours. What did they find?", the UNN guy sort of grimaces and says "They corroborated our findings."

ie The Martians did not give the Earthers one single solitary scrap of extra information that they had found, they just said "Yep, that thing you found is there, all right.", which strikes me as exactly the kind of passive-aggressive condescension that makes a UNN guy grimace.
posted by Mogur at 1:49 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]


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