Further thoughts on the back half of Expanse season 3
No spoilers past 3x13 - just some general musings on rewatching it, thematic stuff and little details I missed the first time around.
- I'm still pleased with myself for figuring out, the first time around, that the Behemoth can produce its own gravity by spinning before it came up in the show. I mean, like 3 lines of dialogue before, but still. They did a nice job of depicting the ship in a shape that is obviously meant to spin. And the solution to their gravity problem is even foreshadowed with Drummer's comment about the Mormons taking night and day to the stars with them, so of course they would take gravity too.
- I completely missed on the first watch that Ashford spins up the Behemoth specifically to save Drummer's life. I mean, it's to save everyone else too, of course. But he's looking at her when he makes the decision and it's pretty obviously a big factor.
- The parallel of an injured and subdued Ashford limping onto the blood-soaked bridge of the damaged Behemoth to take command (and then using his new command to extend an olive branch to his equally trapped and damaged enemies), vs cocky and confident Ashford strutting onto the bridge a few episodes earlier with intentions of taking command away from Drummer, is just a fantastic piece of characterization and cinematography. The two scenes being shot similarly really drives home the point, as he looks around at the blood and the damage and the decimated and shaken crew, that he got what he wanted in the worst possible way and now the weight of it has landed on him.
- The music was so on point in this arc. That bombastic bass-heavy music gives so much drama and gravitas to the outside scenes, especially the pans across the Behemoth and around the ring station. Gives me shivers.
- One small thing (really one of VERY few false notes in a story arc that's almost entirely note-perfect) is that I'm not sure if I quite believe in Anna managing to get herself over to the Roci in a space suit in time to save Naomi. It's a nice scene when she shows up, but she's such a n00b to all of this that I'm not sure if I quite buy that she could figure out everything from using and navigating in the spacesuit to boarding the ship fast enough to actually get there and help. That's a little thing, though, and partly just because we didn't actually see it.
- God, I love the conflict in this part of this season. I love that every character on every side is prepared to sacrifice their lives to do what they believe is the right thing to save everyone else, even though it puts them all at odds. Just about every single character gets at least one really cool personal moment of bravery and sacrifice: Ashford and the Mars captain lady having that shared moment of "if this works, no one will ever know that we died to save them," Drummer with the grenades, Alex putting himself between Bobbie and a gun, the doomed last stand of the group at the communications array, Holden and Naomi walking unarmed into a control room full of people prepared to kill them, Clarissa throwing herself on the power array with people shooting at her ...
One of the things that cements this arc as my favorite is the repeated motif, over and over, that it's individual acts of compassion and trust that save everyone. Over and over, the "right" choice is not achieved at the end of a gun but by taking the leap of faith to put their guns down and trust someone else, or by putting someone else's survival above their own. Aside from the obvious big examples, like Drummer saving Ashford who in turn saves her, or Alex defending Bobbie by putting his gun down and actively putting himself between her and his teammates' guns, the theme is even carried through in small ways - I think my favorite of these, because it ties together the season so nicely, has to do with Clarissa. In the end, the thing that saves every life in the solar system is a trick that was shown to her by that tech she killed, who showed her the reversed-power-coupling thing in a small act of kindness towards (what he believed was) a frightened and overwhelmed rookie that he went out of his way to teach and train. Everyone's lives were saved in the end by that small act of kindness - and by the other choices of various individuals who interacted with Clarissa afterwards: because Anna stopped Amos from killing Clarissa in spite of her own personal hatred for Clarissa, because Ashford went over to help her with the power cable and then gave her a second chance by taking her restraints off, and because Clarissa herself decided to sacrifice her life on the word of someone (Holden) that she had every reason to hate. Basically their eventual victory was the result of a cascade of small choices to trust someone, or save someone, or simply to be kind when they didn't have to.
And this season is FULL of that kind of thing. It comes up over and over, episode after episode: Ashford offering to save the non-Belters along with his own people (and leading by example with the blood donations); Drummer putting aside her own feelings for Naomi to help her help Holden; Bobbie turning against her own people to help Alex and co.; the reporter lady deciding to trust Alex and Amos over her personal enmity towards them; Drummer trying (unsuccessfully as it turned out) to reach out to Ashford to go along with Holden's nonviolent solution. Actually, there's even a sort of passing-it-forward aspect from earlier episodes here too -- the Roci crew having helped Bobbie earlier is the only reason they ended up facing a Martian Marine who was friendly to them instead of simply getting slaughtered. (Side note on that scene: I absolutely love how Bobbie switches from Serious Marine Voice to that much softer and higher "Alex?" when she recognizes him. It's such a great bit of acting with the switch between Serious Game Face Bobbie and normal-person Bobbie.)
And all of this without ever feeling insipid or losing track of multiple threads of conflict. I mean, it's not just an arc about characters doing the right thing; it involves a lot of people dying or killing others, people being assholes to each other, people giving in to fear and greed and the desire for revenge. But in the end, the season arc's theme emphasizes, over and over, that the little acts of kindness and compassion matter - even when they don't seem to, even when it's only holding the hand of a dying woman or reaching out to someone you'll never see again or saving your enemy instead of killing them.
It's not specifically a "do the right thing" message because they're all doing the right thing! Ashford is actually not wrong that the station is a tremendous threat; he's just wrong about the Behemoth's relative ability to deal with it. Bobbie and her team aren't wrong to follow orders and defend the ship against what they perceive as a threat from within. Rather, the show seems to be saying that if you have an opportunity to resolve things nonviolently, do it; if you have a chance to do something kind for someone, do it. Not everyone comes out ahead; in fact, in some cases, doing the kind or unselfish thing gets them killed. But in the end their choices do pay off and do matter, even if they never see it.
Edit: Season 5 spoilers in comments, but they're labeled for (hopefully) easy avoidance. This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1368573.html with
comments.
- I'm still pleased with myself for figuring out, the first time around, that the Behemoth can produce its own gravity by spinning before it came up in the show. I mean, like 3 lines of dialogue before, but still. They did a nice job of depicting the ship in a shape that is obviously meant to spin. And the solution to their gravity problem is even foreshadowed with Drummer's comment about the Mormons taking night and day to the stars with them, so of course they would take gravity too.
- I completely missed on the first watch that Ashford spins up the Behemoth specifically to save Drummer's life. I mean, it's to save everyone else too, of course. But he's looking at her when he makes the decision and it's pretty obviously a big factor.
- The parallel of an injured and subdued Ashford limping onto the blood-soaked bridge of the damaged Behemoth to take command (and then using his new command to extend an olive branch to his equally trapped and damaged enemies), vs cocky and confident Ashford strutting onto the bridge a few episodes earlier with intentions of taking command away from Drummer, is just a fantastic piece of characterization and cinematography. The two scenes being shot similarly really drives home the point, as he looks around at the blood and the damage and the decimated and shaken crew, that he got what he wanted in the worst possible way and now the weight of it has landed on him.
- The music was so on point in this arc. That bombastic bass-heavy music gives so much drama and gravitas to the outside scenes, especially the pans across the Behemoth and around the ring station. Gives me shivers.
- One small thing (really one of VERY few false notes in a story arc that's almost entirely note-perfect) is that I'm not sure if I quite believe in Anna managing to get herself over to the Roci in a space suit in time to save Naomi. It's a nice scene when she shows up, but she's such a n00b to all of this that I'm not sure if I quite buy that she could figure out everything from using and navigating in the spacesuit to boarding the ship fast enough to actually get there and help. That's a little thing, though, and partly just because we didn't actually see it.
- God, I love the conflict in this part of this season. I love that every character on every side is prepared to sacrifice their lives to do what they believe is the right thing to save everyone else, even though it puts them all at odds. Just about every single character gets at least one really cool personal moment of bravery and sacrifice: Ashford and the Mars captain lady having that shared moment of "if this works, no one will ever know that we died to save them," Drummer with the grenades, Alex putting himself between Bobbie and a gun, the doomed last stand of the group at the communications array, Holden and Naomi walking unarmed into a control room full of people prepared to kill them, Clarissa throwing herself on the power array with people shooting at her ...
One of the things that cements this arc as my favorite is the repeated motif, over and over, that it's individual acts of compassion and trust that save everyone. Over and over, the "right" choice is not achieved at the end of a gun but by taking the leap of faith to put their guns down and trust someone else, or by putting someone else's survival above their own. Aside from the obvious big examples, like Drummer saving Ashford who in turn saves her, or Alex defending Bobbie by putting his gun down and actively putting himself between her and his teammates' guns, the theme is even carried through in small ways - I think my favorite of these, because it ties together the season so nicely, has to do with Clarissa. In the end, the thing that saves every life in the solar system is a trick that was shown to her by that tech she killed, who showed her the reversed-power-coupling thing in a small act of kindness towards (what he believed was) a frightened and overwhelmed rookie that he went out of his way to teach and train. Everyone's lives were saved in the end by that small act of kindness - and by the other choices of various individuals who interacted with Clarissa afterwards: because Anna stopped Amos from killing Clarissa in spite of her own personal hatred for Clarissa, because Ashford went over to help her with the power cable and then gave her a second chance by taking her restraints off, and because Clarissa herself decided to sacrifice her life on the word of someone (Holden) that she had every reason to hate. Basically their eventual victory was the result of a cascade of small choices to trust someone, or save someone, or simply to be kind when they didn't have to.
And this season is FULL of that kind of thing. It comes up over and over, episode after episode: Ashford offering to save the non-Belters along with his own people (and leading by example with the blood donations); Drummer putting aside her own feelings for Naomi to help her help Holden; Bobbie turning against her own people to help Alex and co.; the reporter lady deciding to trust Alex and Amos over her personal enmity towards them; Drummer trying (unsuccessfully as it turned out) to reach out to Ashford to go along with Holden's nonviolent solution. Actually, there's even a sort of passing-it-forward aspect from earlier episodes here too -- the Roci crew having helped Bobbie earlier is the only reason they ended up facing a Martian Marine who was friendly to them instead of simply getting slaughtered. (Side note on that scene: I absolutely love how Bobbie switches from Serious Marine Voice to that much softer and higher "Alex?" when she recognizes him. It's such a great bit of acting with the switch between Serious Game Face Bobbie and normal-person Bobbie.)
And all of this without ever feeling insipid or losing track of multiple threads of conflict. I mean, it's not just an arc about characters doing the right thing; it involves a lot of people dying or killing others, people being assholes to each other, people giving in to fear and greed and the desire for revenge. But in the end, the season arc's theme emphasizes, over and over, that the little acts of kindness and compassion matter - even when they don't seem to, even when it's only holding the hand of a dying woman or reaching out to someone you'll never see again or saving your enemy instead of killing them.
It's not specifically a "do the right thing" message because they're all doing the right thing! Ashford is actually not wrong that the station is a tremendous threat; he's just wrong about the Behemoth's relative ability to deal with it. Bobbie and her team aren't wrong to follow orders and defend the ship against what they perceive as a threat from within. Rather, the show seems to be saying that if you have an opportunity to resolve things nonviolently, do it; if you have a chance to do something kind for someone, do it. Not everyone comes out ahead; in fact, in some cases, doing the kind or unselfish thing gets them killed. But in the end their choices do pay off and do matter, even if they never see it.
Edit: Season 5 spoilers in comments, but they're labeled for (hopefully) easy avoidance. This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1368573.html with
comments.