Spoilers The Expanse Season 5

[eschaton]

That was...pretty much exactly what I expected, as someone who's read the books. Effectively once the show is done Seasons 5/6 should be looked at a single season, with this being the midpoint in the overall narrative. It was very effective. This was clearly Naomi's season.

I knew they were writing Alex off the show because Cas Anvar is a creep and was fired. But I didn't know they'd just up and Poochie him! I figured his exit was planned while they were still filming, and wondered if they had pared back his plot from the books because of it (which wouldn't have been fair to Frankie Adams). But it seems like they just used a static shot to symbolize his death and then edited in new dialogue referencing it in reshoots. All things considered it was well done, but if I hasn't known the circumstances it would have been jarring.

 

[Phily B]

A little sad to see the character of Alex Kamal being written but i do know the reasons why he was killed off.

I was confused by Josep and Oksana's actions. I wonder why did Josep side with Drummer as i did not recall Josep being anti Marco Inaros. I always thought that Oksana would eventually side with Drummer. She left Drummer instead.

I actually liked Amos guilt tripping Holden into allowing Peaches onboard. Holden is reasonably not fond of a multiple murderer being onboard the ship.

So can i assume Sauveterre and his crew are dead ? And where is Admiral Duarte right now ?

BTW having only two Earther and one Martian ship guarding the Sol Ring is stupid. They should have either disarmed Medina station or placed Marines onboard the station to make sure that they didn't side with Marco Inaros.

I think it wasn't unreasonable to have such a small defensive force at the Sol ring, neither Mars nor Earth would know about the splinter faction or Marcos having such a formidable fleet. Both Earth and Mars seem to get caught with their pants down quite a bit. I don't know what Marcos plan is though, but I still feel he is in a bad position overall, Mars is clearly manipulating him and setting him up for a fall, hell, they were probably hoping Earth would nuke the belt. And Medina Station might have strapped a ton of weaponry to it, but it is still a sitting duck.

 

[Reverend]

I figured his exit was planned while they were still filming

So far as I'm aware, filming wrapped last February and the allegations didn't come to light until the following summer. This was most likely done in the editing bay and the ADR booth.

That's from the books. My question was has any of that come up in the show

How could there have? It literally only just happened in the final minutes of the finale...

I think it wasn't unreasonable to have such a small defensive force at the Sol ring, neither Mars nor Earth would know about the splinter faction or Marcos having such a formidable fleet. Both Earth and Mars seem to get caught with their pants down quite a bit. I don't know what Marcos plan is though, but I still feel he is in a bad position overall, Mars is clearly manipulating him and setting him up for a fall, hell, they were probably hoping Earth would nuke the belt. And Medina Station might have strapped a ton of weaponry to it, but it is still a sitting duck.

Yeah, the picket at the ring wasn't there to guard against enemy fleets, it was there as 1) a traffic warden 2) stop any more crazy slingshotters fucking with the ring, and 3) discouragement against piracy.

 

[Phily B]

That was...pretty much exactly what I expected, as someone who's read the books. Effectively once the show is done Seasons 5/6 should be looked at a single season, with this being the midpoint in the overall narrative. It was very effective. This was clearly Naomi's season.

I knew they were writing Alex off the show because Cas Anvar is a creep and was fired. But I didn't know they'd just up and Poochie him! I figured his exit was planned while they were still filming, and wondered if they had pared back his plot from the books because of it (which wouldn't have been fair to Frankie Adams). But it seems like they just used a static shot to symbolize his death and then edited in new dialogue referencing it in reshoots. All things considered it was well done, but if I hasn't known the circumstances it would have been jarring.

I saw pictures from the gathering at the end in the bar, he was there, so they either did reshoots or digital/camera trickery to remove him. On one hand, I'm sad to see the character go, but I'm glad they were not overly sentimental about it and wallowing around, they've lost people before and will again.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

How could there be? It literally only just happened in the final minutes of the finale...

There was mention of ships disappearing. There could have been scenes of people investigating or discussing Dutchman before that scene. So don't be so condescending

 

[Reverend]

There was mention of ships disappearing. There could have been scenes of people investigating or discussing Dutchman before that scene. So don't be so condescending

I'm not; it's just called logic.
And if you remember enough that there are a few passing mentions of ships going missing, how would you have missed an in-depth discussion on whether or not the rings were eating them?

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

I'm not; it's just called logic.
And if you remember enough that there are a few passing mentions of ships going missing, how would you have missed an in-depth discussion on whether or not the rings were eating them?

My mind gets muddled between books and the show.
Sorry for asking questions

 

[ITDUDE]

To say too much would undoubtedly be spoilers. But the Martian (now Laconian) ship passed through the gate from the Ring-space where Medina station is... and never came out the other side. Vanished. In the books the phenomenon is termed "going Dutchman."

Damn, gotta read the books at some point. So the whole fleet disappeared, not just the ship we saw? Is it ever explained in the book why?

 

[KennyB]

I saw pictures from the gathering at the end in the bar, he was there, so they either did reshoots or digital/camera trickery to remove him. On one hand, I'm sad to see the character go, but I'm glad they were not overly sentimental about it and wallowing around, they've lost people before and will again.

Both

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Damn, gotta read the books at some point. So the whole fleet disappeared, not just the ship we saw? Is it ever explained in the book why?

It is part of Naomi's storyline in the Inaros arc books

Spoiler: Books

and gets an explanation as to the mechanics of it but not who or why yet

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Seasons just getting interesting, can't wait for next week!

I was joking they'd just kill Alex off in the last episode off-screen with clever editing and looped dialogue, but I didn't think they'd actually do it (my friend who's been watching the show with me had his money on Alex deciding to have extreme plastic surgery between seasons to represent the finality of his divorce and estrangement from his family; "new face, new me"). I imagine that the technical aspect was a bit involved. There were only a couple of scenes that mentioned his death directly, all on the Rocinante and only involving a two or three characters at a time, so I assume those were reshoots done as the very first thing when filming started on season 6. Anvar was probably painted out of shots he was in during the party scene (there were a couple of conspicuous gaps in the staging, and Avasarala was obviously looped when she mentioned it to Bobbie).

These are from a guy on reddit, I can not figure out how to link to the actual post he made as I would prefer to do that but here are the links to a couple of interesting pre-edit images he provided.
https://imgur.com/eLfu0Dp

https://imgur.com/jOhhyyE

These were apparently in the Amazon X-Ray feature but have been subsequently removed. Now if only they were so quick to add English subtitles to the episode. Mine defaulted to Bahasa Melasu and I thought it was Belter at first.

 

[David cgc]

These are from a guy on reddit, I can not figure out how to link to the actual post he made as I would prefer to do that but here are the links to a couple of interesting pre-edit images he provided.
https://imgur.com/eLfu0Dp

https://imgur.com/jOhhyyE

That's consistent with what I suspected. Painted out of the chair (I expect, I don't have time right now to do a direct comparison and confirm that the same background actors are in the party, but if they reshot the party, we would've seen Shohreh Aghdashloo's face when she mentioned it, and not just some over-the-shoulder jaw movement), and reshoots for the scenes on the Roci.

These were apparently in the Amazon X-Ray feature but have been subsequently removed. Now if only they were so quick to add English subtitles to the episode. Mine defaulted to Bahasa Melasu and I thought it was Belter at first.

Heh, that happened to me, too, but I was watching on a new device, so I assumed it was just a weird alphabetical default I'd forgotten or hadn't noticed.

 

[Xerxes82]

Damn, gotta read the books at some point. So the whole fleet disappeared, not just the ship we saw? Is it ever explained in the book why?

No, actually. Just the one ship. The rest all made the transit safely.

 

[thribs]

Seasons just getting interesting, can't wait for next week!

This was the finale

 

[ITDUDE]

No, actually. Just the one ship. The rest all made the transit safely.

In the Wiki it mentioned the whole fleet, but I don't have a dog in the race as to what is more canon (Oh, oh, did I just mention the forbidden word )

 

[Mr. Adventure]

This was the finale

Meant as a dry joke, hard to translate over the internet sometimes, I was hoping the exclamation point would sell it without going full winky emoji.

 

[ITDUDE]

That's consistent with what I suspected. Painted out of the chair (I expect, I don't have time right now to do a direct comparison and confirm that the same background actors are in the party, but if they reshot the party, we would've seen Shohreh Aghdashloo's face when she mentioned it, and not just some over-the-shoulder jaw movement), and reshoots for the scenes on the Roci.

Before

After

...

(And yes, I know the irony of using a Kevin Spacey meme )

 

[Mr. Adventure]

They needed to have the seat slowly spinning as if someone just left in a hurry.

 

[eschaton]

I have to admit I kinda wished they added some digital blood coming out of Alex's nostrils or something in the static shot. We've seen plenty of examples of nosebleeds during high-G burns on the show.

 

[KennyB]

I have to admit I kinda wished they added some digital blood coming out of Alex's nostrils or something in the static shot. We've seen plenty of examples of nosebleeds during high-G burns on the show.

Look again. It’s there.