Unpossible. The protomolecule was sent billions of years ago on Phoebe and trapped in Saturn's orbit.
The Expanse season 2
- Thread starter RAMA
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I guess that's possible, but I'd imagine that our EM based transmissions are more likely.
Mr Awe
Yes, I think a couple episodes ago one of the scientists estimated that the protomolecule arrived in the system 2 billion years ago. Of course, they could be mistaken or hide something.
Okay, then I guess the Epstein hypothesis isn't cromulent.
I just saw the latest episode. The Belters did behave in an abhorrent manner in dealing with those Earth and Martian Refugees.Is it just me or do 90% of the belters come across as stupid thugs? Hard to care for them or their plight.
Also... Continuum crossover!
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I'm having a hard time caring for anyone or anything in this show right now. They're making the same mistake as Galactica, Defiance, and so many others -- assuming that relentless darkness and violence is the same as sophistication. It isn't. As soon as the refugee-ship captain ordered the "Inners" into the airlock, it was obvious from the mawkish sentimentality of the two featured characters' farewell that they were setting us up for a "shocking" scene of the people in the airlock being spaced. Except it wasn't shocking, it was entirely, tediously predictable. This kind of relentless darkness, having everything turn out in the worst possible way, has become the cliche of TV drama. It was striking when it was new and rare, so everyone copied it blindly until it became ordinary and routine. And I'm so sick of it that I almost turned off the TV, both in the spacing scene and later on when the Belters shot up Fred's control room. It's all just so tiresome.
I will give them props for getting airlock physics right, possibly a television first. They didn't have everyone immediately blown out into space by a huge gale, because there wasn't a large enough air volume in the lock to do that. The air was gone in moments, and the people just drifted inside the lock until the ship fired thrusters to push itself in the other direction, leaving them behind.
I noticed that after Terry Chen's character tried telling that jumpsuited Tycho Station employee about the murders and she gave an ineffectual reply, the very next person he interacted with was Alex. I can't help thinking that if he'd passed that woman by and told his story to Alex, then something more would've gotten done about the murders.
To be fair, the novels weren't all that different. They fall into the same scifi trope again and again with plot lines that can be summarized as "sociopathic asshole ruins it for everyone by doing sociopathic asshole things." Which almost took me out of the series until, in very short order, my home town basically fired its two longest serving and most competent administrators out of what appears to be personality conflicts and then elected as president of the school board a man who said in public "The achievement gap is a myth, minority students just don't have the same potential as white students and we shouldn't treat them like they do" and then three weeks later, Donald Trump was sworn into the white house, and suddenly "Sociopathic asshole ruins it for everyone" didn't seem all that far fetched.
I am a little distressed that the series appears to be spinning off its bearings more and more, adding convoluted and elaborate subplots that don't seem to be going anywhere. It looked like they were setting up a path to the next steps with the Battle of Ganymede, but now I don't know WHAT the hell is going on.
Huh?Also... Continuum crossover!
Also... Continuum crossover!
Terry Chen, who played the injured Ganymedian (Ganymese?) man who thought he'd lost his daughter, was a recurring character in the first season of Continuum and again in its last couple of seasons. I think that's what Aragorn was referring to. Although he's not the first Continuum cast member to appear on the show; the Martian marines' commanding officer in several episodes was played by Hugh Dillon, who played the recurring role of Escher in Continuum.
Dag Namnit Christopher. It's irritating when I agree with so completely! That's not supposed to happen!
But, I do agree with what you write about too much darkness, or darkness for the sake of darkness, gets old. You have to care about something or else you start to lose interest. I had that problem with nuBSG even though I enjoyed it overall.
At least for me, though, The Expanse hasn't reached that point. I totally agree that the scene was trying too hard to set us up to be shocked. I also didn't believe that the belter crewmember would allow the new male character (dang, forgot his name) to witness the spacing after expressing affection for his friend. That's asking for trouble!
I still find that there are enough good characters to care for. Basically all of the Rocinante crew, even Amos.
I find Jim Holden to be a very relatable character who tries to do the right thing but has doubts. I don't think the actor is the strongest but it works out well enough.
Alex is funny. He's got the faux cowboy persona thing going which I find personally funny because I knew a person just like that. But, he's a good, caring person underneath that. It's clearly an intentional facade to help him cope.
I like Naomi, and she has some secrets and a complicated history yet to be revealed.
Miller was a great down and out character on the mend. Great actor too. I'd never seen him before.
Fred Johnson is a great character. He's flawed but not so badly that I can't relate to him. He's been used and abused. He's cares probably too much and he tries to find ways to protect others.
Chrisjen is a fantastic character. The very embodiment of a smart woman who knows how to work the system . . . for the good. It's a joy to watch her work.
At least for me, The Expanse hasn't crossed the line for being too dark. Sure, the overall situation is dark but the main characters are good enough to keep me hooked.
Mr Awe
What could be done, though? When Prax tried to tell the Tycho doctor, she did ask him the name of the ship or its captain, which he knew neither. Had he talked to Alex, Alex likely would have asked those same questions (they are a logical starting point) and when Prax still couldn't answer, the resolution to their conversation would be the exact same as it currently is. Sure, Alex could promise to pass things along to Holden and see what he could do on the matter, but with refugees continuing to come in from Ganymede, the shit going down with Dawes, more protomolecule discovered at Ganymede, not to mention an attempted coup against Fred Johnson, I can easily see how this wouldn't be at the top of anyone else's priority list. Even for Prax himself, I'm sure the discovery his daughter might still be alive has shifted his priorities away from finding justice for the ones the Belters spaced.
I find that hard to believe. From an in-story perspective, Alex is a pretty dedicated and compassionate guy and he has a resourceful crew that has the ear of the head of the station (or did at the time, at least). Plus he's Martian, like many of the victims of the mass murder, so he'd have a reason to get personally invested. If Prax had told him the story, he would've had more incentive and more ability to investigate than that woman did. Just because Prax couldn't answer the questions right away doesn't mean they were impossible to answer. They could backtrack to where he boarded the station, either through his memory or from surveillance video, and thus find out which ship he came from. They could check the traffic records, determine which ships had come from Ganymede, and show him pictures of their captains. There were lots of options. At least Alex would've been more likely to try, whether or not he succeeded.
And from a story-logic perspective, a main character is less likely to be written as ineffectual than a bit player is.
How is that "game over"? Look two posts above yours, the show is getting a third season. Maybe they'll pull the plug after that, but we're still getting thirteen more episodes after this season is done.
Still, everything is going down amidst some serious turmoil on and around Tycho station, and by the end of the episode even Prax's own priorities shift away from seeking justice.
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