So… this feels like getting towards the end, right? What I mean is, the appearances in this episode had some real “back for the finale” energy about them. I’ve opined, in these virtual pages, that it would be cool as hell to get Elizabeth Mitchell to be our guide to Earth, After the Rocks, and even if we’re not treated to a whole season of her, I appreciate that we did get a glimpse of Anna Volovodov here, courtesy of Monica Stuart’s documentary.
But oh boy. That message from Prax had a real feel to it, you know? One of the things I’ve appreciated about the television show is how, even when characters exit, they still feel like a part of the universe (except for Dawes, f***ing Marco), and that’s just nailed with Prax’s message to Amos. For one thing, it had a reason for being: It wasn’t purely fanservice, but inspired by the events around it, including the iron grip that Marco’s Free Navy is placing on Ganymede. I admit, when the show mentioned someone getting shot on Ganymede, I was disappointed that it didn’t name-check Prax, but that’s only because they had something better in store. So Prax Meng has a reason to get in touch with Amos, asking him to send the results of his research to the powerful people (Chrissy) that he knows, and of all the people in the Outer Planets, it makes so much sense for it to be Prax who would see the potential for the people of Earth. Combine that with stuff like the character beat of Amos’ shrug at Bobbie “give him a second, he’ll get around to it,” and I’ll cop to the fact that maybe 4 minutes of this episode charmed me so completely almost to the exclusion of considering the episode around it. I just loved that. “I miss you my friend.” I tell you what, I’m gonna miss this show when it’s gone.
But there’s more to this episode than Terry Chen and Elisabeth Mitchell, so. Our time on Laconia includes a glimpse of the protomolecule-infused orbital stations, and then finally a glimpse of the awesome power of the “strange dogs,” which have the power to repair, from Cara’s busted drone to the dead bird, they can fix what was broken (if death can be considered something to be fixed). It’s an abrupt swerve that the show just suddenly shows us that Cara’s brother Xan has died (violently)… I thought we’d see something building up to that, but with one scene per episode maybe that was expecting a bit much.
This episode for the most part deals with the tactical impact of Marco’s decision to abandon Ceres to the Inners. We get to see Avasarala apparently directing the action up close and personal (and… it’s an odd choice but whatever gets Agdashloo some screen time). The Rocinante goes en route and Marco Inaros happens to stumble on them, launching an ill-considered attack that even his XO seems to think isn’t the best plan. And with Bobbie at weapons, the Pella gets disabled, though Holden very kindly opts not to turn it into a cloud of expanding gas.
Lastly, it’s not really clear to me how that whole big explosion happened on Ceres. I mean, I’d have assumed that the Inners would, you know, sweep for bombs or something? It didn’t look like something minor that might have been missed, did it?
Once again, if you’ve read “Leviathan Falls” feel free to come on to our spoiler space! If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it.
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