Review: The Expanse Episode 504, “Guagamela”

We’re finally starting up once-a-week new episodes of The Expanse! The latest, “Guagamela,” is a fast-paced thrill ride with a shocking death.

One rock has hit Earth and Avasarala is convinced there are more to come. Her polite exterior is stripped away as she cusses out official after official when trying to reach the President. Crisjen knows how the rocks remain undetected while hurling towards Earth and is in a scramble to get that information to the right people. She calls the chef on the plane carrying the President and orders him to deliver the food while still on the call so she can directly relay the information. But as soon as she does so, the second rock hits nearby, and the call is disconnected. So her plan doesn’t work, but it’s great to see Avasarla’s resourcefulness and intelligence nonetheless.

Alex and Bobbie are in the Razorback following the Martian ship, having a conversation long in coming. Bobbie opens up about her recent coldness and explains why she isn’t distraught over her fellow Martians selling out the planet like Alex is. It’s a chilling speech about being desensitized to so much death and destruction that even a betrayal like this doesn’t surprise her. Actor Frankie Adams delivers with a dry tone and little emotion, but with fight still there. Bobbie’s journey from being the perfect Martian Marine to working for a former leader of Earth has left her hard, but she known she needs to be strong to do what needs doing.

Amos makes his way into a maximum-security U.N. prison to visit Clarissa Mao (Nadine Nicole). The two have a rather odd conversation about the nature of being locked up and regretting one’s past. By the end, Amos realizes why he even came to “Peaches,” as he calls her, in the first place: It was to help her, in some way. He sees the two of them as the same, or at least cut from the same cloth.

Their conversation is abruptly cut short when an alarm for lockdown sounds. Then the shockwave from the third rock hits the prison, which so happens to be eight floors underground.

Holden and Fred put into action their plan to capture the ship that planned on kidnapping Monica. But it all goes horribly wrong when Fred is literally shot in the back by one of his workers while others sabotage the mission. With his last words, Fred tells Holden where he can find the sample of the protomolecule, but after a violent gun fight and an encounter with a seemingly indestructible robot, Holden fails to stop Inaros from obtaining the protomolecule. With the unfortunate death of Fred Johnson, Holden must fight to reclaim the station from chaos.

Naomi wakes on her ship as it docks onto the personal craft of Marco Inaros. The two have an unpleasant reunion, and Marco shows Naomi all the things he’s accomplished in the past few hours. She looks on in horror as she sees the damage done to Earth, the Martian Parliament, and Medina Station. Marco goes on about how this was Naomi’s dream as well as his, and she is welcome to join him at his side once more. She is taken to her room where she is locked in to watch Marcos give a speech declaring the formation of the Free Navy, taking responsibility for the attacks, and revealing his control over the protomolecule. He declares a new age has come, one that will be led by the culture and society of the Belt, with Marco at its head, of course.

Grade: B+

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