Get your ass to Mars.
Warning: Full spoilers for The Expanse season premiere follow.
Syfy's chilling conspiracy space saga, The Expanse, returned with a double-sized premiere - two episodes in one, "Safe" and "Doors & Corners."
Sometimes with these double-episode premieres you have to sort of check and see if the two chapters were designed to play back-to-back or if they're just being shoved together for the sake of shortening the seasonal run.
With these two installments though, it's fairly obvious that they were written to pair up with one another nicely, as "Doors and Corners" was very action-heavy and "Safe" was more about the crew of the Rocinante reeling from the Eros incident and then finding ways to come together for the big push on the communications relay (which turned out to be a research station headed by the now-shot dead Dr. Dresden).
It was great to see Nagata be the one to do most of the rallying too. She more or less brought Miller and Holden back from the brink. Not just healing them from the Eros radiation, but also getting their heads set on straight for what would become a huge decision for the crew. Of course, with Holden that also meant finally hooking up romantically and making a much more emotional investment.
How will Burton react to the Holden/Nagata news once he finds out? Well, Nagata doesn't seem to be too worried, though it's clear that Burton and his, shall we say, stoic unpredictability constantly creates a wild card element among the crew. Unsentimental would be a kind way of describing him, though the one person he would bend for is Naomi. So, yeah, it's hard to know how he'll react to her being with Holden.
"Safe," while ramping up the tensions between Earth and Mars to the point where Avasarala had to basically thwart Errinwright's plan to fire on a Martian ship headed to Phoebe Station, was also about bringing Miller more solidly into the crew. Having spent most of the entire first season on a separate (though connected) arc from the rest of the outer space cast, Miller would now find himself bonding with this ragtag crew (after a short but brutal clash with Burton) and making a notable choice to avenge Eros - with the lingering ghost of Julie Mao as his guiding star. Now that we know who's behind most of the mysterious events, and trying to instigate war, The Expanse has a chance to be even better now in its second season.
If we had to weed out a seasonal theme so far, after two episodes, it'd have to do with this crew deciding whether or not they willing, and capable, of going up against a galactic shadow plot with a dozen moving parts. And by the end of "Doors & Corners," they'd definitely chosen a side. Fred Johnson too, who we learned was tricked into the massacre at Anderson Station, rose up out of his wannabe politician role for the OPA and took action as well.
It's nice to see that the space action sequences on The Expanse still look and feel pretty genuine. The effects hold up really well and everything's staged in a way that makes sense. The raid on the Protogen facility at the end was very fun - from the Rocinante blasting out that stealth ship to the commando assault inside where we discovered that the protomolecule was a weapon hurled at Earth (and presumedly hit Pheobe instead) designed to wipe out humanity. Launched by who though? What extra-solar entities are out there trying to obliterate, or assimilate, humankind?
New to the series, and introduced right at the outset of the premiere, is a whole new Martian side of the story - featuring a hot-headed soldier, Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams), at the center. Not only is it cool to finally start seeing things play out on the Martian side, but Draper stands, right now, as a stark contrast to everyone else who's trying to either stave off war or uncover an evil conspiracy. She's actually gung-ho about taking on Earth right now, seeing it as a necessary step toward finally terra-forming her home planet.
The Verdict
"Safe" and "Doors & Corners" effectively brought Miller into the Rocinante mix while delivering thrilling action and a few new surprises regarding the protomolecule. Plus, the Martian side of there story finally opened up, giving us a new group of characters who aren't "in the know" like everyone else. With very little information to go on (and no one sowing conspiracy on their side), these Martians have to try and make the right choice in the face of a crisis. Just like our heroes did last season. A great start for Season 2.
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