WiC Watches: The Expanse season 4

Photo: The Expanse: Season 4.. Image Courtesy Amazon Studios

Episode 402: “Jetsam”

Having just arrived on Ilus, the crew of the Rocinante have already had their first encounter with life on this alien planet. Well, it’s assumed to be life, at least that of the proto-molecule variety. This sends James and Alex on a mission to check out the alien ruins near the village the belters built.

Meanwhile, the tension between the RCE and the belters heats up. Already suspicious of the Belters, Chief Security Officer Adolphus Murtry (Burn Gorman) of RCE takes Amos with him to inspect the site of the initial RCE ship that crashed landed. Amos notices the burn marks on the landing pad don’t match that of a crash, but of an explosion. Murtry doesn’t need much convincing after that, as he then heads into the only bar in town and demands the entire camp of Belters bring him the one responsible for the sabotage.

Back in Sol system, Former Sargent Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) now goes about her day as a ship mechanic, helping build the fleet that will carry off half of Mars’ population to the new worlds. Bobbie’s life has become very civilian since her dishonorable discharge from the Martian Marines. She’s constantly shown looking very somber living with her brother and nephew. That is, until she follows her nephew one night, suspicious of him leaving the apartment at such a late hour. When she discovers him making a focus drug for a local gang, she tries to leave with her nephew in hand. Some gang members show up to try and stop her and we get a vintage Bobbie Beatdown as she easily handles the thugs. The excitement for Bobbie doesn’t stop there, as she’s invited to dine with Avasarala, who makes her a job offer. Bobbie declines but without actually saying no. It’s more of a ‘not right now’ than a no.

Amos stays back at the camp as Holden and Alex go alien hunting. He finds a bar that exchanges shots for bullets, which Amos is happy to pay with. He meets a woman and the connection is immediate. They make it back to her place when they are interrupted by an argument between Murtry and a Belter refugee outside. The woman, Chandra Wei (Jess Salgueiro), one of the camp guards, tries to break it up before it escalates, but she’s too late, and Murtry puts a bullet through the mans head. The camera pans away as Amos and Chandra start running over to the scene.

James and Alex make it to the ruins with the help of one of the RCE scientists, Elvi Okoye (Lyndie Greenwood). This initial visit proves ineffective, as they see no ways the swarm of bug-like creatures that attacked the village earlier could have entered or exited the structure. Miller appears to James later that night and explains how to get inside the ruins. James and Alex head back into the ruins the next day and sure enough, Miller was right and they make it inside. Miller then asks James to cut a root that is growing in between the metal work on the walls. He does so, and the walls begin to come to life as the structure awakens with James still inside. He’s hauled up at the last second before a wall crushes him. He turns to see the sky alive with lighting, streaking down across the horizon.

I love it when a show can present problems in one episode and solve them in the next, while the root cause of these issues comes into focus. Through the first two episodes, our favorite gunship crew has had plenty of obstacles to overcome.