Over the past seven years, The Expanse has taken us from the surface of Mars and Venus to the asteroid belt; from distant solar systems to the alien Ring Space and beyond. Of all the science fiction shows to come out in the past few decades, it stands as one of the strongest offerings the genre has ever seen on the small screen.
Based on the bestselling book series by James S.A. Corey (a pseudonym for authors Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham), The Expanse has had anything but a traditional TV run. The show got its start on the Syfy Channel in 2015, where it ran for three seasons before being cancelled. Due to a dedicated #SaveTheExpanse movement and the personal interest of Amazon head Jeff Bezos, the show was eventually renewed for an additional three seasons at Amazon Studios.
Even now, with us watching The Expanse series finale, it doesn’t quite feel like the end for this show. There are nine novels in the series, with a time jump taking place between books six and seven. The latest episodes, “Babylon’s Ashes,” covers the climactic events of book six, with which it shares a name. That means that even as The Expanse is ending, there’s still a lingering question of whether this is truly the end.
Regardless of whether we’ll ever see more of this fascinating science fiction tale, for now, we’re here to celebrate the finale. “Babylon’s Ashes” is one of the finest episodes of The Expanse to ever air, and while I was left with a few lingering questions about its future, there’s no denying the towering achievement of this super-sized 63 minute episode.
As always, there will be SPOILERS for the episode below, as well as for the entire sixth season of The Expanse.
Why are the parents on Laconia so awful?
As has been the case in every episode this season, we begin on Laconia. The Laconia sequence this week is bookended with an ominous shot of Admiral Duarte, the ghost of a smile upon his lips as he stares up at the massive ship-thing that’s been orbiting around the planet all season. It’s now glowing with an ominous protomolecule-blue light. Book fans will surely know what this portends, but for show watchers, it presents a mystery. We’ll discuss that a bit later, but for now, I’ll say that I have really enjoyed the Laconia story this season and love how it sets up a potential future for The Expanse. I wish it tied into the main story of the season a bit more, but knowing that it’s setting up an even greater story we may one day get to see makes that a little easier to forgive.
Something that’s less easy to forgive, however, is how ridiculously awful the parents are on this planet. Cara (Emma Ho), our intrepid child explorer who has been at the center of the Laconia plotline, comes back home to find her parents worried sick about her. They immediately start bombarding her with questions while not giving her anything even remotely resembling an opportunity to answer. Eventually, she shouts out that the “dogs” fixed her brother, who as far as the parents know was dead as a doornail.
On cue, her brother enters the building. Now that we can see him in the light, it’s clear that he looks preeeetty creepy. He has blackish-blue eyes and is moving in a jerky fashion. He’s still speaking with his voice though, and clearly has the same consciousness, even if it’s been somewhat changed by his resurrection. In spite of that, his parents freak out. Perhaps that’s reasonable; they’re seeing their child return from the dead, after all. But to me, it just felt so frustrating. This whole season Cara’s parents have been caught up in their work and ignoring every single thing she says — and considering that they’re living on an alien planet and their daughter has been actively getting to know a species of clearly sentient aliens, that is a pretty horrendous parenting oversight.
Cara’s father tries to stab his reanimated son with a knife, but ends up only causing a minor cut to the hand. Black blood drips out, and the wound quickly heals. So the parents, continuing to freak out, lock the kid in a closet and call the military. Cara tricks them into leaving the house, frees her brother and they escape into the forest. We get a POV shot from her brother’s eyes, and sure enough he’s seeing through the lens of the protomolecule. It’s beautiful, and terrifying, because as he points out that Cara will starve without anything to eat in the alien forest, she just shrugs and says if that happens the “dogs” will bring her back to life.
And thus concludes our stay on Laconia. The overarching plotline for Duarte becomes relevant a little later in the episode, but for Cara, that’s it. As much as I enjoyed Laconia, one of my only gripes for this finale (and the entire season) is that it didn’t cross over into the main story more. We’ll talk about this more in the wrap-up, but for now, we’re off to our solar system.
The theater of war
After two seasons of hit and run guerilla warfare, the conflict between the Free Navy and the combined fleet of Earth, Mars and Drummer’s Belter allies has finally reached its unavoidable conclusion. The first scene sets the table for the battle to come, with various factions pointing out their own ideas about how best to proceed. Avasarala keeps everyone from each other’s throats long enough to form a plan to force Marco Inaros’ fleet into a pitched battle outside the Ring Space. Should they fail and Inaros slip past into the Ring, they are convinced he’ll be able to take command of the crossroads to a thousand new star systems and control the fate of humanity. So yeah, some pretty high stakes.
Holden, however, has a back-up plan in case the Free Navy are able to overcome the allied fleet. Last week it was established that the Ring Station was outfitted with six huge rail guns that will allow it to blast anything that comes through the Rings. Holden and the Roci crew have devised a scheme to get a small strike team onto the Ring Station and capture the rail guns, turning Marco Inaros’ ace-in-the-hole against him.
The whole thing is one daring plan on top of another, but at this late point in the war that’s all anyone has left. There are no more safe options.
Next comes the inevitable clashing of spaceships and wills. Aka, we have finally made it to the opening credits. You didn’t think this was going to be a quick affair, did you?
The lead-up
From here, “Babylon’s Ashes” checks in with all the different parties involved in the battle. We see Filip (Jasai Chase-Owens) looking conflicted as he hears people on the Pella talk about how Drummer is licking the Inners’ boots. Marco (Keon Alexander) and Rosenfeld (Kathleen Robertson) discuss how there might be one more surprise coming to help them from Laconia. On the Roci, Holden and Bobbie reflect on the ship’s Martian origins and Naomi advises Amos that Clarissa is looking up to him in the same way that he once looked up to her back on the Canterbury. It’s equal parts setup and reminder of how far everyone has come (and how much they have to lose.)
That point is driven home when it’s revealed that Clarissa is suffering an endocrine system collapse due to repeated use of her super strength mods. It’s untreatable and she now has a life expectancy of five years. So that’s some bad news right before the battle.
Extra points need to be given for foreshadowing here. Aside from the fact that Clarissa has been stumbling and acting dizzy regularly throughout this season, another symptom of the medical issue she’s having is a salt craving. Remember how she’s been dumping it on her food this season?
It all leads to Clarissa deciding to cook the crew one last proper meal before they go into battle. The dinners were always really enjoyable bonding moments, with various characters gathering around the table in the Roci’s mess hall and finding common ground over full bellies. It’s been missing since the ship’s chef/pilot Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) died at the end of season 5. So Clarissa turning around and putting her grief into something to bring the crew together feels like the perfect sendoff for these characters we’ve all come to know and love before their final battle.
First contact
It’s a fast track from there into the battle’s opening salvo. The U.N. has identified Marco’s ship, the Pella, thanks to a drive signature that Holden provided them. Drummer brings her Belter fleet to bear on another frigate and the shooting starts. The music on The Expanse is always excellent, but during this sequence it really steps it up. You can tell that composer Clinton Shorter pulled out all the stops for the series finale, and it gives the whole sequence an extra gravity.
On my first watch, there were moments that I felt were somewhat anticlimactic, like the torpedoing of the “Pella” by the U.N. Fleet. But then you realize that that anticlimax is actually just part of the extremely clever writing that the show is always pulling off, giving you that same feeling of being tricked as the allied fleet once it becomes clear that Marco Inaros’ Pella is actually disguised as a freighter in a different part of the battlefield. Casualties mount, with Liang Walker attempting a last heroic suicide run on Marcos’ ship. Though it fails, Rosenfeld is killed while Filip watches on helplessly. The whole sequence is brutal as hell, and the spaceship effects are breathtaking.
The end result is that Drummer’s ship is knocked out of the fight, and Marco Inaros manages to slip away from the combined fleet to continue his mad dash towards the Ring.
I’ll admit, I was a little surprised not to see more spaceship-to-spaceship combat in this sequence…but considering that we’re only 25 minutes into the episode and there’s still a lot of action to come, it feels more like a choice of where to put that special effects budget. And considering what’s next, it’s clear the right choices were made.
Assault on the Ring Station
We now cut to the Rocinante and the assault on the Ring Station. After so long spent in our solar system and on distant Laconia, it’s great to get a bunch of action at the Ring. It’s such a powerful setting visually and makes a great backdrop for the action to come.
As Holden and the gang float toward the Ring, all of the small pods that are aboard the ice hauler Giambattista begin checking in. If some of the names of those marines in the drop pods sound familiar, it’s because The Expanse threw all of us nerds a glorious easter egg here. Each name on the list of marines is a reference to some sci-fi property or other. We have Hudson, Hicks, Ripley, and Vasquez from Aliens, Riker from Star Trek, D Idaho from Dune, K Thrace from Battlestar Galactica, C Shepherd from Mass Effect…the list goes on and on. At some point maybe we’ll break down every name on that list, but for now, it’s enough to just say that this is pretty awesome.
Anyway, we’re not here for the easter eggs, but for the absolutely insane action setpiece that occurs when the Rocinante and the Giambattista pass through the Ring and into range of the Ring Station’s rail guns. Between the Roci’s mad dodging to evade the rail gun fire, the dicey drop when the Giambattista releases hundreds of cargo containers (some of which contain marines, many more of which are decoys), and then the subsequent assault on the bunker on the Ring Station surface, this sequence is just perfection. If there’s one action scene in the entirety of The Expanse’s run that deserves to go down in film history, it’s this one. The shot of Amos dropping toward the Ring Station as cargo crates swarm the eerie blue space, rail gun fire blasts right next to him, and the Roci flies in the background is just mindblowing. And don’t get me started on Bobbie’s rush at the bunker in her Martian combat suit. I can’t remember the last time an action scene almost made me tear up, but between the music, Frankie Adams and Wes Chatham’s performances, and the sheer epicness of what was happening, this one came close.
There were a lot of close calls and tense moments throughout this sequence. At different points, I thought Bobbie, Amos and Clarissa all might get killed. But when the dust settles, all of our favorite heroes are still alive. The same can’t be said for the Ring Station’s rail guns, however. In order to win the fight, Bobbie had to blow up their one advantage over Marco Inaros.
“I have gods to kill”
It’s not all bad news though, at least not for the Rocinante. Marco Inaros, however, has quite a bit coming his way. The Free Navy commander gets a call from Admiral Duarte on Laconia, who announces that he will no longer be helping the Free Navy, that the Ring to Laconia is now closed, and that their alliance is at an end. “You’ve been a useful distraction, but I have gods to kill,” Duarte tells him. Talk about a mic drop line. So whatever Marco was hoping for from Duarte (that enormous protomolecule ship, maybe?), we’ll never know.
Regardless, Marco is as undeterred by Duarte’s rejection as he is by the news of Rosenfeld’s death. He rallies his crew with a rousing speech about reclaiming space for the Belt, while Filip watches with a haunted look.
Back aboard the Roci, Holden and company realize that they are now all that stands between Marco and control of the Ring Space. The combined fleet is too far away to help. They briefly consider fleeing until Naomi comes up with a daring plan: launch everything they’ve got into the Ring just as Marco Inaros’ ship is coming through it, triggering the sleeping entities that have been swallowing up ships at random. Holden points out that they might stay awake, but at this point, there’s not much other choice.
The plan works. As the Pella comes through the Ring, a reddish glow appears in front of it, and the ship disappears. We get a pretty cool shot of Marco Inaros being obliterated by some kind of liquid-y beings…and then the Pella and everyone aboard it is just gone.
Despite the happiness of most of the Rocinante crew, Naomi breaks down screaming and crying in Holden’s arms. This was her plan, and so far as she knows it also caused the death of her son. Holden refused to kill Marco when he had the chance earlier in the season because he couldn’t bear to be the one to kill Filip…and now Naomi has done it. As horrible as it may be, if anyone was going to kill Marco and Filip, it was going to have to be her. Or so she thinks…
The future of the solar system
With the war between the Free Navy and the rest of the solar system at an end, all the remaining powers that be sit down to negotiate. The action for the episode may be done, but just like James Holden, The Expanse has a couple more tricks up its sleeve. After a fantastic negotiation scene where it never feels like any party is giving way just for the sake of television expedience, it’s eventually decided that an independent Transport Union must be formed to oversee transit through Rings…with Holden as its first president. The Roci captain reluctantly agrees, as long as certain assurances are made in writing which would secure the Belt’s involvement in the running of this new organization.
But then we get a press conference where Holden delivers this news to the public at large, and in a final twist, his first act as president is to resign and hand over power to the Transport Union’s legally ratified VP…Camina Drummer. This is such a James Holden move. It feels so right for the character, who would never have actually wanted that kind of powerful position anyway, and it puts a Belter in charge of a major part of humanity’s history for the first time. Avasarala is understandably frustrated that Holden deceived her, but after a heartfelt entreaty from him, she agrees to let things play out. He even used some of Avasarala’s own words during the speech to announce his faith in Drummer. It was a perfect scene and a brilliant twist.
The Expanse wraps up with the Rocinante taking off from Luna and heading back out into space. We check in with all of the crew members: Bobbie is now piloting the ship, Clarissa has made Amos a keep-sake pin to replace the one he lost while helping her escape Earth in season 5, and Holden and Naomi have one last conversation in their quarters about the ramifications of his actions. She supports the move to step down from the Transport Union, claiming that Holden “followed his conscience in the hope that others might follow theirs.”
It’s a beautiful ending sequence, made moreso by the reveal that Naomi’s son Filip escaped the Pella before it was destroyed. Filip had such a slow burn character arc this season, and his eventual break with his father was something I’d been waiting for. The show pulled it off in an incredibly satisfying way.
Holden reminds viewers there’s still more to do, that the protomolecule sample which was stolen last season (and taken to Laconia) is still out there somewhere. As with the real world, the story goes on. But for now, the Rocinante glides out into the darkness, until its drive plume is just one more star amidst the expanse.
The verdict
Whew! This was a mega-sized series finale, and necessitated a mega-sized review. But what’s the final verdict? Did The Expanse deliver an all around satisfying ending?
For my money, the answer to that question is a resounding yes…but with an interesting caveat. As far as the war with Marco Inaros went, which was really what this season was primarily about, I don’t think the show could have wrapped it up any better. “Babylon’s Ashes” was one of the best episodes in the show’s entire run, and did not have a single bad moment in any of its 63 minutes. The music was incredible, the effects were as good as they’ve ever been, and the writing was sharp as hell right down to the last.
The caveat, however, is that this doesn’t truly feel like the end of The Expanse. There are three more novels after the events covered in this episode, which occur 30 years later and conclude the series. So as much as I loved this season, I wished we saw more crossover with Laconia. The show has long set up the fact that something out in space killed the builders of the protomolecule, and while we saw that plotline tie into the finale through the “sleeping entities” by the Ring, it never came back into the show in a major way because it’s something that is addressed in those final three books.
All that said, I think it’s to The Expanse’s credit that the show stuck to its guns and told the story of Bablyon’s Ashes without trying to cram in those extra plotlines. I would not change one thing about this season…but I do sincerely hope we one day see a revival of the series that explores the last three books. Until then, this finale feels like an ending…but perhaps not the ending to what has been one of the best science fiction shows of all time.
Grade: A
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