Spoilers The Expanse Season 5
- Thread starter KennyB
- Start date
I thought they handled Alex well. I don't think anybody who doesn't know about the behind the scenes issues will think it wasn't always planned.
Overall a really good ending for the season. Now the Roci crew is back together and were ready for the big one to happen. Hope they can 'stick the landing' for the last season.
Overall a really good ending for the season. Now the Roci crew is back together and were ready for the big one to happen. Hope they can 'stick the landing' for the last season.
Well, I had no idea about it, and it felt way off. First thing I did after the episode ended was look up, wtf. Now, in retrospect, I do feel they did the best they could.
Yeah, I also thought they handled it pretty well. It's a bummer because Alex was probably my favorite character, but Cas Anvar turned out to be a creep, so fuck him.
I wonder if the plan was always to have Peaches join the crew, or if they added that after Anvar's departure, since now the Roci needs a new pilot. Part of me was kind of hoping Bobbie would join them, but I suspect she'll have plenty to do working for Avasarala again.
Man, I can't wait for next season. It's a shame it will be the last, but I'm hoping that they'll make a sequel series based on books 7-9.
I wonder if the plan was always to have Peaches join the crew, or if they added that after Anvar's departure, since now the Roci needs a new pilot. Part of me was kind of hoping Bobbie would join them, but I suspect she'll have plenty to do working for Avasarala again.
Man, I can't wait for next season. It's a shame it will be the last, but I'm hoping that they'll make a sequel series based on books 7-9.
She was always intended to join the crew, though as a technician, not a pilot. That role may change next season because of the Poochiefication, but I doubt it. Piloting was more her sister's thing.
They might end up keeping Bull around, or perhaps just invent a new character from whole cloth since the only other character that would even remotely make sense is Drummer, and I can't see how they'd wrangle that what with where her arc will take her next.
Cas Anvar being fired is what it is, but I think there's reason to suspect that killing off Alex is something that could have legitimately happened even if Anvar hadn't been axed given that the TV series is a retelling of the novels spearheaded by the authors as opposed to being an adaptation of them.
FYPIn the Wiki it mentioned the whole fleet, but I don't have a dog in the race as to what is more keel mounted railgun (Oh, oh, did I just mention the forbidden word)
I think they'll keep Bull around - wasn't he drinking from Alex's mug near the end and sitting in the pilot's seat?
Am I to understand then that filming has started on season 6?
Except we know that's not what happened. It's already been made clear killing Alex off was a last minute decision made after the allegations against Cas Anvar started. I mean, there's a picture posted in this very thread showing Anvar was on set when the party scene was filmed, only to be digitally removed in post-production. Or do you actually think they went through that much trouble to preserve a spoiler?
They've got the seeds for Clarissa taking over as pilot if they decide to got that way. Way back in her introductory flashback in season 3, she argued to Jules-Pierre that she could take over flying the Razorback after Julie decided to go all "Common People" and estranged herself from the family, and she was the one who piloted the moon shuttle last week.
The shot of Bull realizing he was drinking out of Alex's mug (and the fact that he was available at all for the reshoot) is pretty good evidence for permanently taking over as pilot, though.
I just googled to check, and the rumor was that filming was set to begin January 20 (for some reason, I was under the impression that filming started in November or December, right after the season 6 announcement). So those pickups could've been done between-seasons instead, though the setups were fairly simple, only two or three actors on standing sets, no fancy camera work or visual effects (aside, perhaps, from recreating the moon-base corridor outside the Roci's docking bridge), so I suppose it's possible they could've been filmed only a couple weeks ago and dropped into the edit, though that'd be surprising with the amount of post-production time the show usually allows itself. I'd also suspect the bare minimum was reshot, so they'd also have to be scrupulous about matching lighting, hair, and makeup to the parts of the scenes that didn't have anything to do with Alex (in the version where he was alive or dead), but that can be finessed with visual effects, though that brings us back to the "Is one week enough time?" problem.
I hesitate to bring this up for fear someone will draw the wrong conclusion, but in a post-finale interview, Naren Shankar tried very hard to smokescreen that this was anything other than a creative decision, saying that at the beginning of pre-production on season 5, the writers' discussed whether it might be reasonable in the interests of drama to kill off a main character. Reading between the lines, I took from that statement that since killing off one of the core four had been on the table, even if they hadn't decided to actually do it, it made killing him off during the season finale a more palatable option when they had to figure out what to do with Alex and how they were going to do it. Of course, it's also possible that the discussions he talks about were entirely about killing Fred Johnson off earlier and in a different manner than in the books, and it was total B.S. that it had anything to do with the decision to kill of Alex except in the most generously-read hindsight.
I didn't say that killing off Alex wasn't a 'last-minute decision' made as a result of Cas being fired.
My point was that the way that the authors of the novels have treated their involvement in the TV series means that the decision to kill off Alex is in line with what they've already done irrespective of the real-life reasoning behind it.
My point was that the way that the authors of the novels have treated their involvement in the TV series means that the decision to kill off Alex is in line with what they've already done irrespective of the real-life reasoning behind it.
Yes, the floors are aligned with the thrust vector. All ships in the Expanse should be thought of as tall buildings or sky-scrapers, not horizontal ships like in most SciFi.
Here is a Rocinante cross-section from the show, copied from one of the display screens:
Yeah. That‘s how they generate gravity, during burned flight.
They constantly accelerate with 1G about when cruising.
At their halfway point they flip orientation to decelerate.
When in hard burn mode they strap into their chairs.
And only when they are not burning are they using mag boots to stick to the decks.
They constantly accelerate with 1G about when cruising.
At their halfway point they flip orientation to decelerate.
When in hard burn mode they strap into their chairs.
And only when they are not burning are they using mag boots to stick to the decks.
Before
After
...
(And yes, I know the irony of using a Kevin Spacey meme)
Perhaps the first photo can be seen as Alec's ghost staying behind because of unfinished business. So he was their in spirit after all!
Jason
They also use them for lower-than-usual gravity. At the beginning of the season when she met Amos, Avasarala complained to him that, living on the moon, she had to wear magnetic boots all the time to keep from hopping around like Neil Armstrong.
I think it works as a bit of art-by-accident that the group shots and eyelines in the party scene included the now-empty chair. Even if they had actually filmed it without Anvar present, it would've been a good directorial choice to block and frame the sequence as if he was there, to draw attention to his absence even though they weren't overtly talking all the time about how sad they are that Alex is died, and how much they miss him, and if you close your eyes or look look at the reflections in the glassware or the pattern of film grain over the chair, it's almost like he's still with us.
(Photoshop jokes!)
Oh I know she can do it, it's just that sticking with Amos in the machine shop seems more likely. I mean, Holden and Naomi may allow her to live aboard, but pilot? I don't think they're anywhere near that level of trust yet, and probably won't be before the end of next season.
And yeah, Bull seems more likely at this point since he was only ever on Tycho for Fred, but Fred is dead and Bull is spoiling for a fight.
It does however raise the question of who's running Tycho now, and who's leading Fred's OPA faction.
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The ending was alright. I thought the rescuing of Naomi was nicely done but really that whole thing was stretched out. The entire season seems to be setup for the next season. Yeah, I know this is a middle season, but not all of the seasons in the middle felt that way. They really didn't have 10 episodes of material to work with this season.
I thought how they handle the Cas Anvar situation was fantastic. No letting it fester with people wondering and debating what should be done. They just pulled the band aid off quickly and bam, Alex is dead. Got it done with quick and simple. That was the right way to do it.
It gave me a smile seeing Amos back on the ship! He needs his family or he starts to lose his way. He can act like a good person for awhile without them but he needs to be back with them.
Looking forward to the next season!
I thought how they handle the Cas Anvar situation was fantastic. No letting it fester with people wondering and debating what should be done. They just pulled the band aid off quickly and bam, Alex is dead. Got it done with quick and simple. That was the right way to do it.
It gave me a smile seeing Amos back on the ship! He needs his family or he starts to lose his way. He can act like a good person for awhile without them but he needs to be back with them.
Looking forward to the next season!