"why would you use live rounds?" Because martians are hard-core AF. Also they are a special forces unit and not a regular detachment of Marines. So they train much harder than regular Marines
Fun fact, the Texas accent usually means someone is from the Mariner Valley, because a lot of Texans settled there. Many Martians are from parts of the Earth that were heavily affected by climate change, especially low sea level locations or hot climates. Thus there are a lot of people from Texas, India, and New Zealand, for example.
Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper ran directly through the valley to "stimulate the battle environment." As the guns fired at her, her squad could back-track the rounds back to the guns, transmit those locations to Draper's suit weapons system, and program Draper's weapons to target the guns. Nerdy is right that in the vacuum of space, heat loss is the last thing to worry about. They do know that in this series. They do know that. You noticed Miller's beard growth. Transit times are played kind of loose in the series. Beard growth is one of the ways they indicate that travel takes weeks to months....but don't try to track it too closely. "Do you like space gladiator movies" is a reference to the hilarious 70s comedy "Airplane!" Watch it when you get the chance. I suspect there had been a space remake of "Spartacus" in their time. At this point, the conflict between Earth and Mars is kind of like the situation between Britain and the US in 1800. Yes, the US had won its revolutionary war because Britain had more important issues at the time...but the US knew it was still in danger.
Not quite the same, but analogy is right. In books Mars is politically independent but still dependant on importing water, air, food, and lots of other supplies and prefers to trade with the belt, but still kinda needs imports from Earth. Mars is a militaristic society (most of it's population are ex-Earth military deserters, also scientists and engineers). Mars has 2 main focuses - terraforming Mars into livable world (for future generations, as it will take several hundred years) and defending their independence. And since Mars has only 1/3 of Earth gravity it's possible to build ships on the surface and also build bigger/heavier ships, with more armor and stuff, more advanced overall. And with Earth gravity u need to build bigger ships (most military) on the orbit, because u just can't launch a big ship from the surface. And there's a whole problem of constructing shipyards in space, transporting resources and people to those shipyards and so on.. Earth's ships are much more expensive, and basically older, but Earth has much more in numbers. Omg, just every time I think of those things I realise how good the books are with all those realistic details. And the show is great also.
"Transit times are played kind of loose in the series. Beard growth is one of the ways they indicate that travel takes weeks to months....but don't try to track it too closely." Agreed. The show does a decent job of showing that significant portions of time have passed - but not always perfectly consistently, and even when done where it should be, each of those times tends to require that the audience be paying VERY close attention to minor details that are easily overlooked. This isn't necessarily a problem for the series - arguably, it's actually a perfect example of the concept of "show, don't tell" - but The Expanse asks a lot from its audience. If you're distracted by your phone, or even by chatting with another viewer (or reactor, as the case may be), the odds of missing important details go up significantly. And in most shows this would be a problem, but here these tend to be wonderful worldbuilding details but they aren't truly integral to the overall plot, so if you miss them on your first watch you aren't missing something major. Many viewers are likely instead to catch them on a rewatch rather than their first time through, which is exactly what you want on a rewatch: to catch details you missed the first time that only make the show better than you already thought it was. But it still does mean that if you want to get everything that The Expanse has to offer on your first time through... you REALLY need to pay attention. I don't have any objection to reactors taking a moment mid-episode to discuss what they just saw, but if our two reactors want to make sure they're getting everything they can from their first ride through the show, I hope they're rewinding to catch the parts they're talking over. Because there is not a single line of wasted dialogue in all six seasons of this show.
@@Stforv "And since Mars has only 1/3 of Earth gravity it's possible to build ships on the surface" Irrelevant since the UN's shipyards are Luna-based which is 1/16th Earth gravity, and the logistics of getting those resources to those shipyards in a society with matured space travel is negligible at best, especially considering how common place mining on the moon is and asteroid mining. Most of your points are literally just pulled from your ass.
When Naomi talks about "hiding" the protomolecule out in the asteroid belt, it is like dropping a pearl in the ocean, realizing that the ONLY way anybody will ever find it is by knowing where you dropped it, or sheer dumb luck.
This episode has one of my favorite examples of how sound effects artists can help tell the story. When Miller swings on Amos... just listen to the sound of Miller hitting Amos, and then compare it to the sound of Amos hitting Miller. Miller's punch didn't sound like it would have hurt ME, let alone Amos.
Amos spent years on Earth, under Earth's gravity. He is much stronger than any Belter. With thicker muscles and bones. Moreover, he obviously has some experience in violence. Later more will be revealed.
Shirley you cant be serious. "Do you like space gladiator movies?" "Have you ever been in a space Turkish prison?" and "Have you ever seen a grown spaceman naked?" are quotes from the future movie Space Airplane. And as far as Bobbies hair goes, when youre on Mars or cruising around space at 1/3rd G all the time, you only have to do your curls once a month
One thing the writers have said but that isn’t explicitly mentioned on the show is that EVERYONE in space is on birth control, out of necessity: unplanned pregnancies in low gravity and high radiation always lead to life-threatening complications. There are a few safe places (like Ganymede) where Belters can go for planned gestation and childbirth.
Fun Fact: The showrunners were lucky that they got actor Frankie Adams who plays Bobbie Draper. In the books, Bobbie is of Polynesian descent and stands just above two meters call. Frankie Adams is of Samoan descent, a little shy of two meters call, and was a boxer on top of being an actor.
I love love love that they found someone for Bobby that matched her ethnic and physical background. She is wonderful, and does look like someone who could gain muscle mass just by walking by a gym.
I mean... not quite. She's pretty short. Bobby in the books towers over everyone, and is so large her armour has to be custom fitted, which is why it's outdated. But to find an actor built like a professional body builder who is also Samoan? And is taller than most of the rest of cast?
@@theshadowling1 Hahahaha, ok maybe not exact, but they did far better than they might otherwise have. She’s only a few inches shorter than Bobbie (5’11 versus a bit over 2 meters, the latter being higher than the average Martian male), and fits other aspects. 😁
Was about to hit the hay but this dropped. Paraphrasing to avoid spoilers: "To tighten a nut, you use a wrench. To weld a joint, you use an arc. To fuck shit up, you use a Bobbie Draper."
I'm still impressed and eternally grateful that SyFy took on The Expanse - considering the budget required - and then did something so amazing that Amazon was inspired to continue it.
11:57 One of the writers told me that they actually cracked the glass in the table when Miller's stunt double landed on it. It stays that way for quite a while
They finally let the leash off Chrisjen's mouth, and it's glorious to see and hear the character from the page. The opening dream was a nod to Ripley in Aliens, I think.
The landing area where Chrisjen almost got blown up and the area where she and her spy have their conversation are outside of Toronto city hall. I figured you two would appreciate that being from Tarrana and all 😉
Fun fact: Lieutenant Sutton (the bald commander of the Martian ship) was played by Hugh Dillon, head singer for the Kingston punk band The Headstones. And also the voice of Nick from Left 4 Dead 2, so quite a cultural icon! Love this show and your reactions!
As always, another great reaction to S2:E1 of The Expanse. We watched it too, this evening...so that we remembered all the pertinent things that aren't shown in the UA-cam version. You both "get" the show and the trajectory of future episodes (and seasons), without know actually what is going to happen. Your theories are really well thought out. Don't know your backgrounds, but it does seem like you both are in the entertainment industry somehow. You technical knowledge on how the episode was shot was cool, Nerdy and Clarus' understanding of character makes us feel that she is an actress (knowing the ins and outs of what actors have to deal with), making your reactions SO much more intuitive. Thanks for these insights. You are both right...so that is a great collaboration within this episode's discussion. Looking forward to your future reactions as this season progresses...especially as we get closer to Ep. 4. Yeah. Then what happens next. You are right, Season 1 was amazing, but you "ain't seen nothing yet...ba ba baby" song lyric (from Bachman Turner Overdrive [1974]) for Nerdy, since he was doing it during his reaction. Talk to you, later.
There are lots of accents on Mars, because there are lots of colonies on Mars. Alex is from one that was colonized by Texans (and people from India, literally cowboys and Indians), but Bobby Draper's from one colonized by various Pacific Islanders. Whether something is cold in space depends on whether it can radiate heat or not. If it can't radiate heat, the heat has nowhere to go but to build up in itself, so weirdly, it might be cool to the touch but with a high enough internal temperature to melt. Pressure also factors into it. Physics is weird sometimes. Bobby Draper goes through one of the difficulties Avaserala had early on: her scenes weren't in the books, yet, so for a bit she kind of has nothing important to do. IMO, they actually handle it a bit better by ramping up to her "origin" but... well, I'm fine with with, but Bobby does come off a bit stronger than I think they meant to. She definitely gets better. The Holden and Naomi romance is a little rushed compared to the books--while they end up together at around the same place, Holden's flaws are explored a little more, and Naomi is more aware of them than Jimbo, so she sort of forces him to mature before she actually reciprocates. I think around the time season 2 started, there was a change in hour-long drama format, getting an extra commercial break (I don't recall exactly, most likely for greed). The feeling of the commercial breaks are gonna feel strange for a few episodes...
More commercial breaks doesn't equal more profits for the network (at least in the short run) if the runtime of the episode stays the same. I personally haven't picked up on it, but if it's true that an extra commercial break was added, it's more likely to make the breaks shorter, which might help with viewer retention. But yeah, it could make it feel more awkward, as traditionally, commercial breaks have been aligned with act breaks.
Amos grew up in 1G while Miller in about .3G so the outcome of their physical altercation was inevitable. Pretty much anyone from Earth could do this to anyone from the belt.
@Johan Wittens Unless you are in open space, they would still be wearing magnetic boots in zero G even on a ship so the advantage is only there for a very specific scenario.
You have to work out a lot to maintain muscle mass and bone density in low/micro gravity environments. The crew of the ISS have to exercise for at least 2 hours a day to keep that loss to a minimum over a 6 month stay.
Something utterly ridiculous considering the feats that armor is capable of. The show does pretty well with showing the science of humans in space and other planets, except when it comes to Draper. Beating power armor that is shown to be able to pry open hydraulically-sealed blast doors is laughable. Then she is seen besting an Earther male (who is built like a brick shithouse and is shown to be exceptionally good in CQB) in hand to hand despite the fact that its an absolutely ridiculous assertion even for an Earther woman with the same training, let alone a Martian woman who grew up in 0.3g and only occasionally trains in 1g, as opposed to growing up in it like said male character. "Oh but she is on muscle growth and bone strengthening drugs", but she isn't which is why that was specifically emphasized for her visit to Earth and ONLY that. The fact she needed to take those for weeks/months in advance just to withstand real 1g for a short period of time is telling enough. And no, this isn't a dumbass "wahh, strong women bad" chud rant. They had everything they needed to have their cake and eat it too regarding her. But they fudge their own rules of scientific accuracy to make her a badass while showing in-universe why that shouldn't be possible. A few tweaks to the writing and it'd be perfectly logically for her to do what she is seen doing. The inconsistency is what annoys me. You set a high standard of accuracy and I expect it to be upheld. In any other show I wouldn't even blink at her doing these feats. Show that Martian recon are on a standard regiment of muscle and bone growth drugs, not just emphasizing it for only visits to Earth, have her not laughably win hand to hand fights with a guy that could literally bench press her for a warmup, do a better job at showing why or how she can beat her armor, and so on. If you don't think sexual dimorphism in humans is real, you have some reading to do. Especially if you are a woman and reading this. That knowledge can save your life. Don't believe me? Ask a trusted man or even teenage boy to mock fight or wrestle with you, you'll learn really fucking quickly just how powerful testosterone is, even in boys that are barely in puberty. I have seen boys that are barely 12 or 13 toss grown women around like ragdolls because they tried to intervene in a fight they had no business trying to break up, considering how dangerous it is. This rant comes from a place of having a good understanding of a bit of seemingly niche knowledge/science, that is ignored in a show known for its scientific accuracy because they went the lazy route with their token Strong Woman character instead of making her a more genuine badass that can easily be explained in their existing world (in ways they simply refused to do). I mean, for fuck's sake, look at Holden and Miller on Eros. Miller gets sicker and weaker far faster than Holden, and losses easily to him in their fight. A clear example of the physical and health differences between an Earth and a Belter. Meh, autistic rant over. I'm the only one that gives a shit about this anyways. No real point in doing so either but I've committed too much time to delete the comment now.
Phoebe orbits backwards compare to the other moons of Saturn which highly suggest it was was a space object (like an asteroid) that was captured by Saturn's gravity. But most likely, still from our own solar system.
I think Mars had various waves of colonists, and it's only the Mariner Valley area settlers and descendents that speak like they're in a cowboy movie (like Alex). Bobbie Draper is descended form Pacific Islanders who relocated to Mars because of rising ocean levels.
The shot with Naomi and Holden touching masks was not just an intimate shot. They put the masks together to speak to each other without transmitting on comms. The sound vibrations pass through the touching helmets by conduction. They can hear each other but no one else can hear them!
"They blow up the guns as part of the training?" As someone who was a part of our nation's military industrial complex, combat arms... The amount of money spent on ammunition and the things we would practice blowing up is insane. So there's that.
This series plays out like a reversed Faberge Egg- each time one is opened the puzzle gets bigger. This is one of the most realistic versions of space sci-fi ever and the character driven power is real. (One of the key inspirations for the show is the "blue collar" workers in Alien.) This will only get better.
Mars is like the US of the solar system. They make so many weapons they can afford to use them for target practice (they were probably older models that had been superseded).
I continue to enjoy your reviews of the Expanse and am very happy you are still enjoying the show. I am one of those that completely believes that this show gets better every season, right up to the final episode of the final season! Thank you for letting us all share you enjoyment of this wild ride!
Only some of the Martians have that drawl like Alex. Mariner Valley where Alex is from on Mars was settled by a contingent that were a mixture of Chinese, East Indian and Texans. The Texan accent was the one that caught on =)
"Do you like space gladiator movies?" I'm pretty sure this was an homage to the line "Do you like gladiator movies?" from the classic comedy film "Airplane."
What I will say about this show is that that characters are freakin' awesome! Other than The Last of Us, I don't think I've been more drawn to the individual plots and lives of the characters in a show as a whole, like this one. You start off feeling one way, then by the end you found you did a 180 and have no idea at what point you started to like them. Two of my favorites characters who have yet to even enter the show fit into those exact categories - Drummer and Ashford. I guarantee what your first impressions of them are, won't be the same as what they are once you get to know them!
Bobbi is just a true believer. She believes in the dream of Mars. And she'll do whatever it takes to safeguard that dream. She is, however, angry that she'll never see that dream. Or, in the words from another well-written show: _"I burn my life for a sunrise I know I'll never see."_
Love that each of you watched the same episode and had two different takeaways: one said it was more character development and the other it was more plot development. Just a credit to how good this show is, both threads were intertwined so well
1:48 The whole point of training is to get as close to real combat conditions as possible. So often, you'll find blanks and MILES, when your opfor on the exercise is other people. Live fire is a part of that, but it's typically worked up to, starting with normal range shooting (when you're nice and rested), through variations on the theme of the March & Shoot (typically a 5 mile run in kit - which could be as little as lid, rifle and 20lb in your webbing, plus water bottle and ammo, or as much as full CBRN, though you'd have to have really pissed someone off for that) all the way up to living in the field for a week or more, with live fire against pop-up or drone controlled targets. Of course, being shot at is rarely a part of it, though it's not uncommon for controlled pyro to make an appearance to simulate being under fire. And if you're onle of the Hereford Hooligans, then there's always a risk when live-fire training for multiple dynamic entries to the Killing House.
20:25, I can't not see Thomas Jane veering into Ray Drecker for a minute, as if it's a *"Hung"* space sequel, looking around & saying, "Damn, Holden, it's like a f*ckin' snow globe in here!"
Welcome to season two of The Expanse!! So glad you are enjoying the show so far! I can't overstate that this show is just getting warmed up! Your post analysis is well done! When watching this episode it blew my mind when I realized that the Protomolicule was sent on Phoebe from outside our solar system. Earth was its target. Then I came to understand that it was eons ago so inelegant life probably hadn't arose yet on Earth! Looking forward to the next one!
Ok Bobbie’s backpack rockets: make a mental note to remember them… At 16:23, I wonder if that’s a reference to the 1980 comedy film “Airplane!” where Peter Graves as the airline captain creepily asks a young boy if he likes movies about gladiators.
The Expanse in a nutshell: a hard, realistic sci-fi setting with ugly politics encounters Star Trek techobabble hand-wavy bullshit, and no one thought to include an instruction manual. And what does a hard, realistic sci-fi show with ugly politics do with it? Weaponize the fuck out of it, of course.
Why does Bobbie hate Earth so much? Her attitude mirrors that of Lopez (the Martian on the Donnager) and that of many Martians. The books did a better job than the TV series explaining how Martians are indoctrinated into thinking how easy it will be to fight Earth and how easy that Earthlings have. That is how you see Bobbi now. Btw, Alex's ancestors were East Indians who settled in the same area as those from Texas. That is why he has the southern accent. He also loves country music. ;-)
I respect the crap out of The Expanse for completely skipping the will-they-won't-they. It's tired. It's over-used. And what the world really needed was representation of two grown-@$$ adults who knew what they wanted and went for it.
there are regional accents like on earth the southern accent on mars are from the Mariner Valley as the original colonist of that area were from Texas and India
Haha I love how you (boy especially) pick up on the oddest things (like when a commercial break would be) and also comment on Naomi and Holden 'making a mess' in the room Miller was in 12 minutes later.... Holden is firing blanks remember, so I'm pretty sure the mess was safely contained...... 😂😂
According to the writers of the book, it was millions of people who were killed on Eros, but the executives at SyFy were not comfortable with that number of people getting murdered on a TV show, so they changed it to 100,000.
Personally it wouldn't be about feeling comfortable, I would just not think the TV audience would buy Earth and Mars not reacting extremely to "Someone, possibly Earth's government, killed millions of Belters in one swoop and nobody seems to even know what they died of."
Given that absolute Zero is -273 C, and the ambient temperature of space is -270 C, I find it a little funny that they are that worried about the cryo system failing while working on the container in the vacuum of space. Unless that 3 degrees is all the Protomolecule needs to wake up, which it wouldn’t since it was frozen in a chunk of rock at the same temperature, then it shouldn’t be an issue.
Averages can fail to tell the whole story. If that cannister spends any time in direct sunlight, it will warm very quickly due to the lack of any significant amount of matter with which it would be in contact to moderate the heating of the sun.
Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper doesn't have a tragic backstory, she's a Martian marine - she's fiercely patriotic, and has been raised since birth to have only one real threat and enemy: Earth. She wants to fight them, it's what she was raised and trained to do.
On the live rounds question, there was one major difference between British Redcoats and other armies of the Napoleonic War. The British trained with live rounds, no-one else did. And no-one could outshoot the British.
The original colonists that settled in the Mariner Valley where from Texas and India. So the Martians that come from the Mariner Valley tend to look Indian but sound Southern.
the expanse is the best sci fi show people don't talk about. it was better than most HBO shows and it constantly struggled to gain mainstream media attention. i'm so grateful it got as many seasons as it did and i hope it continues to create a strong cult following.
The tragic backstory: 50 years of spending most of the budget on arms and ships instead of terraforming. Moving the goal post further and further into the future. Remember Lopes: It would be nice to see the ocean on Mars...
The sterility was due to the massive amount of radiation they absorbed though, not the space medicine. The space medicine just helps with all the cancer, leukemia and stuff.
About the lightning strikes twice bit, it’s actually statistically unlikely that lightning will strike twice in the same exact spot within the same storm, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen but the average is so low it might as well not ever. Now with this said we have to take into account all the storms that have had lightning in earths history and we actually get an inverse result where lightning can Only strike in the same place twice because to our blink of an eye existence there has been more lightning than people born in our entire existence as a species which means the planet has in its entirety been hit by lightning at some point previously. “Just based on Statistics. So nobody can be right or wrong here,” it is after all, just a figure of Speech.
You will learn more about rocket propulsions in this season. And it would be beneficial to understand just how far everything is. For example, to send an unmanned spacecraft to Jupiter today would take years with our fastest rocket. Even longer to Saturn. Hiding the protomolecule in the solar system by an asteroid would be really easy and really hard to find. Space is just too big.
I always thought that the Mars/Earth conflict that led the Martians down the path of a militaristic power was very much like the Cuban Missle crisis in the 60's between the Americans and the Russians. In that case, it led the two sides directly into the Cold War where both prepared for the worst possible outcome and hoped it would never happen. With Mars and Earth, they came to a new understanding where both sides began preparing for a future conflict they hoped would never occur.
"Archangel was not on the vehicle. Her outfit remains intact."
"why would you use live rounds?"
Because martians are hard-core AF.
Also they are a special forces unit and not a regular detachment of Marines. So they train much harder than regular Marines
Correct, Many special forces both past & present use live ammunition in training to a degree, Example = The British Commandos back in WW2.
16:46 in order to communicate without the radios, they have to touch helmets together to transmit their voices through conductive vibrations.
Fun fact, the Texas accent usually means someone is from the Mariner Valley, because a lot of Texans settled there. Many Martians are from parts of the Earth that were heavily affected by climate change, especially low sea level locations or hot climates. Thus there are a lot of people from Texas, India, and New Zealand, for example.
Love the details of this story. Ty & Daniel are a great writing team. 🚀
Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper ran directly through the valley to "stimulate the battle environment." As the guns fired at her, her squad could back-track the rounds back to the guns, transmit those locations to Draper's suit weapons system, and program Draper's weapons to target the guns.
Nerdy is right that in the vacuum of space, heat loss is the last thing to worry about. They do know that in this series. They do know that.
You noticed Miller's beard growth. Transit times are played kind of loose in the series. Beard growth is one of the ways they indicate that travel takes weeks to months....but don't try to track it too closely.
"Do you like space gladiator movies" is a reference to the hilarious 70s comedy "Airplane!" Watch it when you get the chance. I suspect there had been a space remake of "Spartacus" in their time.
At this point, the conflict between Earth and Mars is kind of like the situation between Britain and the US in 1800. Yes, the US had won its revolutionary war because Britain had more important issues at the time...but the US knew it was still in danger.
Not quite the same, but analogy is right. In books Mars is politically independent but still dependant on importing water, air, food, and lots of other supplies and prefers to trade with the belt, but still kinda needs imports from Earth.
Mars is a militaristic society (most of it's population are ex-Earth military deserters, also scientists and engineers).
Mars has 2 main focuses - terraforming Mars into livable world (for future generations, as it will take several hundred years) and defending their independence. And since Mars has only 1/3 of Earth gravity it's possible to build ships on the surface and also build bigger/heavier ships, with more armor and stuff, more advanced overall.
And with Earth gravity u need to build bigger ships (most military) on the orbit, because u just can't launch a big ship from the surface. And there's a whole problem of constructing shipyards in space, transporting resources and people to those shipyards and so on.. Earth's ships are much more expensive, and basically older, but Earth has much more in numbers.
Omg, just every time I think of those things I realise how good the books are with all those realistic details. And the show is great also.
"Transit times are played kind of loose in the series. Beard growth is one of the ways they indicate that travel takes weeks to months....but don't try to track it too closely."
Agreed. The show does a decent job of showing that significant portions of time have passed - but not always perfectly consistently, and even when done where it should be, each of those times tends to require that the audience be paying VERY close attention to minor details that are easily overlooked.
This isn't necessarily a problem for the series - arguably, it's actually a perfect example of the concept of "show, don't tell" - but The Expanse asks a lot from its audience. If you're distracted by your phone, or even by chatting with another viewer (or reactor, as the case may be), the odds of missing important details go up significantly. And in most shows this would be a problem, but here these tend to be wonderful worldbuilding details but they aren't truly integral to the overall plot, so if you miss them on your first watch you aren't missing something major. Many viewers are likely instead to catch them on a rewatch rather than their first time through, which is exactly what you want on a rewatch: to catch details you missed the first time that only make the show better than you already thought it was.
But it still does mean that if you want to get everything that The Expanse has to offer on your first time through... you REALLY need to pay attention. I don't have any objection to reactors taking a moment mid-episode to discuss what they just saw, but if our two reactors want to make sure they're getting everything they can from their first ride through the show, I hope they're rewinding to catch the parts they're talking over. Because there is not a single line of wasted dialogue in all six seasons of this show.
Yeah my biggest gripe with space stuff is they always make it seem like an icebox when in reality you would boil yourself lol
@@TheJerbol Yeah, that's why real spacesuits always have cooling systems, not heating systems.
@@Stforv "And since Mars has only 1/3 of Earth gravity it's possible to build ships on the surface" Irrelevant since the UN's shipyards are Luna-based which is 1/16th Earth gravity, and the logistics of getting those resources to those shipyards in a society with matured space travel is negligible at best, especially considering how common place mining on the moon is and asteroid mining. Most of your points are literally just pulled from your ass.
When Naomi talks about "hiding" the protomolecule out in the asteroid belt, it is like dropping a pearl in the ocean, realizing that the ONLY way anybody will ever find it is by knowing where you dropped it, or sheer dumb luck.
This episode has one of my favorite examples of how sound effects artists can help tell the story. When Miller swings on Amos... just listen to the sound of Miller hitting Amos, and then compare it to the sound of Amos hitting Miller. Miller's punch didn't sound like it would have hurt ME, let alone Amos.
Amos spent years on Earth, under Earth's gravity. He is much stronger than any Belter. With thicker muscles and bones. Moreover, he obviously has some experience in violence. Later more will be revealed.
Amos was born and raised on Earth. Holden would destroy any belter and Amos is stronger than him
Shirley you cant be serious. "Do you like space gladiator movies?" "Have you ever been in a space Turkish prison?" and "Have you ever seen a grown spaceman naked?" are quotes from the future movie Space Airplane. And as far as Bobbies hair goes, when youre on Mars or cruising around space at 1/3rd G all the time, you only have to do your curls once a month
The funny thing is Airplane! II *was* Space Airplane.
@@NozomuYume Mother of god
tons of little references like that in The Expanse
Don’t call me Shirley
This show is the golden standard of female characters in science fiction, so many well written ladies here.
It’s definitely solid, but there are definitely others and I’m not sure it’s the absolute top.
“If you value your lives, be somewhere else.”
@@Justanotherconsumer YES! but I think Drummer and Avasarala are up there with Delenn.
And Naomi
Naomi is the secret main character of the show over all six seasons tbh.
@@Justanotherconsumer 'He is behind me. You are in front of me.'
One thing the writers have said but that isn’t explicitly mentioned on the show is that EVERYONE in space is on birth control, out of necessity: unplanned pregnancies in low gravity and high radiation always lead to life-threatening complications. There are a few safe places (like Ganymede) where Belters can go for planned gestation and childbirth.
Fun Fact: The showrunners were lucky that they got actor Frankie Adams who plays Bobbie Draper. In the books, Bobbie is of Polynesian descent and stands just above two meters call. Frankie Adams is of Samoan descent, a little shy of two meters call, and was a boxer on top of being an actor.
I did not know she was a boxer, based on her knees when she walks on Earth, I thought she wasn’t athletic as a child.
I love love love that they found someone for Bobby that matched her ethnic and physical background. She is wonderful, and does look like someone who could gain muscle mass just by walking by a gym.
I mean... not quite. She's pretty short. Bobby in the books towers over everyone, and is so large her armour has to be custom fitted, which is why it's outdated. But to find an actor built like a professional body builder who is also Samoan? And is taller than most of the rest of cast?
@@theshadowling1 shes 180 cm tall she's not towering over anyone but she sure as hell isn't short
@@theshadowling1 according to the podcast, Casting kept sending skinny white women, no matter what they asked for.
@@theshadowling1 Hahahaha, ok maybe not exact, but they did far better than they might otherwise have. She’s only a few inches shorter than Bobbie (5’11 versus a bit over 2 meters, the latter being higher than the average Martian male), and fits other aspects. 😁
@@AnotherScribbler I'm just a bit sad that we're not going to get towering Bobbi flirting/trying to subvert with Laconian marines
Some of the “war room” scenes in this season are some of my favorite pieces of dialogue and debate in a show
Was about to hit the hay but this dropped. Paraphrasing to avoid spoilers:
"To tighten a nut, you use a wrench. To weld a joint, you use an arc. To fuck shit up, you use a Bobbie Draper."
I'm still impressed and eternally grateful that SyFy took on The Expanse - considering the budget required - and then did something so amazing that Amazon was inspired to continue it.
Have to say Frankie Adams is an amazing casting as Bobbie. She matches the book character so well
11:57 One of the writers told me that they actually cracked the glass in the table when Miller's stunt double landed on it. It stays that way for quite a while
They finally let the leash off Chrisjen's mouth, and it's glorious to see and hear the character from the page.
The opening dream was a nod to Ripley in Aliens, I think.
The landing area where Chrisjen almost got blown up and the area where she and her spy have their conversation are outside of Toronto city hall. I figured you two would appreciate that being from Tarrana and all 😉
By the way, Dresden, the scientist in the Phoebe video, was played by the same actor who played Spunkmeyer in "Aliens"
Fun fact: Lieutenant Sutton (the bald commander of the Martian ship) was played by Hugh Dillon, head singer for the Kingston punk band The Headstones. And also the voice of Nick from Left 4 Dead 2, so quite a cultural icon! Love this show and your reactions!
He’s also the prison warden from season 3 of “The Killing”.
As always, another great reaction to S2:E1 of The Expanse.
We watched it too, this evening...so that we remembered all the pertinent things that aren't shown in the UA-cam version.
You both "get" the show and the trajectory of future episodes (and seasons), without know actually what is going to happen. Your theories are really well thought out.
Don't know your backgrounds, but it does seem like you both are in the entertainment industry somehow. You technical knowledge on how the episode was shot was cool, Nerdy and Clarus' understanding of character makes us feel that she is an actress (knowing the ins and outs of what actors have to deal with), making your reactions SO much more intuitive. Thanks for these insights.
You are both right...so that is a great collaboration within this episode's discussion.
Looking forward to your future reactions as this season progresses...especially as we get closer to Ep. 4. Yeah. Then what happens next. You are right, Season 1 was amazing, but you "ain't seen nothing yet...ba ba baby" song lyric (from Bachman Turner Overdrive [1974]) for Nerdy, since he was doing it during his reaction.
Talk to you, later.
There are lots of accents on Mars, because there are lots of colonies on Mars. Alex is from one that was colonized by Texans (and people from India, literally cowboys and Indians), but Bobby Draper's from one colonized by various Pacific Islanders.
Whether something is cold in space depends on whether it can radiate heat or not. If it can't radiate heat, the heat has nowhere to go but to build up in itself, so weirdly, it might be cool to the touch but with a high enough internal temperature to melt. Pressure also factors into it. Physics is weird sometimes.
Bobby Draper goes through one of the difficulties Avaserala had early on: her scenes weren't in the books, yet, so for a bit she kind of has nothing important to do. IMO, they actually handle it a bit better by ramping up to her "origin" but... well, I'm fine with with, but Bobby does come off a bit stronger than I think they meant to. She definitely gets better.
The Holden and Naomi romance is a little rushed compared to the books--while they end up together at around the same place, Holden's flaws are explored a little more, and Naomi is more aware of them than Jimbo, so she sort of forces him to mature before she actually reciprocates.
I think around the time season 2 started, there was a change in hour-long drama format, getting an extra commercial break (I don't recall exactly, most likely for greed). The feeling of the commercial breaks are gonna feel strange for a few episodes...
More commercial breaks doesn't equal more profits for the network (at least in the short run) if the runtime of the episode stays the same. I personally haven't picked up on it, but if it's true that an extra commercial break was added, it's more likely to make the breaks shorter, which might help with viewer retention. But yeah, it could make it feel more awkward, as traditionally, commercial breaks have been aligned with act breaks.
"Physics is weird sometimes" - _Especially_ when it is having a fight with itself.
Amos grew up in 1G while Miller in about .3G so the outcome of their physical altercation was inevitable. Pretty much anyone from Earth could do this to anyone from the belt.
It requires the will.
Amos: “OK, so what else?”
@Johan Wittens Unless you are in open space, they would still be wearing magnetic boots in zero G even on a ship so the advantage is only there for a very specific scenario.
Except for Havelock. But several belters tackled him at once.
Basically, to draw exaggerated Fantasy Parallels: Earthers are basically stereotypical Dwarves, while Belters are basically stereotypical Elves.
You have to work out a lot to maintain muscle mass and bone density in low/micro gravity environments. The crew of the ISS have to exercise for at least 2 hours a day to keep that loss to a minimum over a 6 month stay.
Early first season -- "Amos is a psychopath!"
Now -- "My boy Amos!"
Everyone turns into this
I knew you'd come around on Avasarala. She shows real growth through the series and has some of the best lines.
Gunny (Draper) was arm-wrestling her own power armor.
@@kirkdarling4120 (spoilers, obviously wrong) the power armor’s gonna be bitter about it and cheat on her with another lover.
There's a nice callback to it in season 3 😮
Something utterly ridiculous considering the feats that armor is capable of. The show does pretty well with showing the science of humans in space and other planets, except when it comes to Draper. Beating power armor that is shown to be able to pry open hydraulically-sealed blast doors is laughable. Then she is seen besting an Earther male (who is built like a brick shithouse and is shown to be exceptionally good in CQB) in hand to hand despite the fact that its an absolutely ridiculous assertion even for an Earther woman with the same training, let alone a Martian woman who grew up in 0.3g and only occasionally trains in 1g, as opposed to growing up in it like said male character. "Oh but she is on muscle growth and bone strengthening drugs", but she isn't which is why that was specifically emphasized for her visit to Earth and ONLY that. The fact she needed to take those for weeks/months in advance just to withstand real 1g for a short period of time is telling enough.
And no, this isn't a dumbass "wahh, strong women bad" chud rant. They had everything they needed to have their cake and eat it too regarding her. But they fudge their own rules of scientific accuracy to make her a badass while showing in-universe why that shouldn't be possible. A few tweaks to the writing and it'd be perfectly logically for her to do what she is seen doing. The inconsistency is what annoys me. You set a high standard of accuracy and I expect it to be upheld. In any other show I wouldn't even blink at her doing these feats. Show that Martian recon are on a standard regiment of muscle and bone growth drugs, not just emphasizing it for only visits to Earth, have her not laughably win hand to hand fights with a guy that could literally bench press her for a warmup, do a better job at showing why or how she can beat her armor, and so on.
If you don't think sexual dimorphism in humans is real, you have some reading to do. Especially if you are a woman and reading this. That knowledge can save your life. Don't believe me? Ask a trusted man or even teenage boy to mock fight or wrestle with you, you'll learn really fucking quickly just how powerful testosterone is, even in boys that are barely in puberty. I have seen boys that are barely 12 or 13 toss grown women around like ragdolls because they tried to intervene in a fight they had no business trying to break up, considering how dangerous it is.
This rant comes from a place of having a good understanding of a bit of seemingly niche knowledge/science, that is ignored in a show known for its scientific accuracy because they went the lazy route with their token Strong Woman character instead of making her a more genuine badass that can easily be explained in their existing world (in ways they simply refused to do). I mean, for fuck's sake, look at Holden and Miller on Eros. Miller gets sicker and weaker far faster than Holden, and losses easily to him in their fight. A clear example of the physical and health differences between an Earth and a Belter.
Meh, autistic rant over. I'm the only one that gives a shit about this anyways. No real point in doing so either but I've committed too much time to delete the comment now.
I remember the casting of Bobbie, because she's described as gigantic in the books. Then they found that actress and, like, yep.
In the books she is like 6ft 3 the actress is 5ft 11, but it's hard to find a actress that tall.
@@viniciusjesus2867 She's actually closer to 7 ft tall in the books, which is close to the average height of Belters.
Also, very astute noticing the runtime vs commercial breaks, etc. The scene where Chrisjen recruits the spy wasn't in the broadcast version
Episode 4 and especially 5 of this season are the best science fiction I have ever seen on TV.
Bobbie is literally my favorite character (together with Chrissy ofc) you'll love her arc this season
Phoebe orbits backwards compare to the other moons of Saturn which highly suggest it was was a space object (like an asteroid) that was captured by Saturn's gravity. But most likely, still from our own solar system.
16:33 physical helmet contact probably indicates that they are talking one-to-one via physical sound, with radio mikes muted
Each actor had personalized in-helmet lighting for their specific facial structures.
I think Mars had various waves of colonists, and it's only the Mariner Valley area settlers and descendents that speak like they're in a cowboy movie (like Alex). Bobbie Draper is descended form Pacific Islanders who relocated to Mars because of rising ocean levels.
I love your point about Martians. Even a tie means lose for them. It forces them to be
militarily prepared.
The deeper you get into this show the more excited for these reactions I get. Gonna be wild!
The shot with Naomi and Holden touching masks was not just an intimate shot. They put the masks together to speak to each other without transmitting on comms. The sound vibrations pass through the touching helmets by conduction. They can hear each other but no one else can hear them!
"They blow up the guns as part of the training?"
As someone who was a part of our nation's military industrial complex, combat arms... The amount of money spent on ammunition and the things we would practice blowing up is insane. So there's that.
This series plays out like a reversed Faberge Egg- each time one is opened the puzzle gets bigger. This is one of the most realistic versions of space sci-fi ever and the character driven power is real. (One of the key inspirations for the show is the "blue collar" workers in Alien.) This will only get better.
It is the granite that Grand Central Station is made out of that is giving off the radiation.
Granite naturally produce Radon, a radioactive gas, while its sub elements decay
It can cause lung cancer if inhaled
Holden was thinking: Remember the Cam.
Mars is like the US of the solar system. They make so many weapons they can afford to use them for target practice (they were probably older models that had been superseded).
3rd and 5th seasons are my favorites personally.
Same!
Seasons 3 and 5 and books 3 and 5 👍 Amos chapters are something special haha
The 3rd is the best and in terms of the books the 3rd and 7th are may favorites
@@foxtango3862 7th book? Starts well but I found it a slog. Book 8? Burned thru that so quickly. Book 9 doesn’t quite peak but love the epilogue
Fuck yes. Y'all got me looking forward to Fridays even more now.
I continue to enjoy your reviews of the Expanse and am very happy you are still enjoying the show. I am one of those that completely believes that this show gets better every season, right up to the final episode of the final season! Thank you for letting us all share you enjoyment of this wild ride!
Only some of the Martians have that drawl like Alex. Mariner Valley where Alex is from on Mars was settled by a contingent that were a mixture of Chinese, East Indian and Texans. The Texan accent was the one that caught on =)
"Do you like space gladiator movies?" I'm pretty sure this was an homage to the line "Do you like gladiator movies?" from the classic comedy film "Airplane."
What I will say about this show is that that characters are freakin' awesome! Other than The Last of Us, I don't think I've been more drawn to the individual plots and lives of the characters in a show as a whole, like this one. You start off feeling one way, then by the end you found you did a 180 and have no idea at what point you started to like them. Two of my favorites characters who have yet to even enter the show fit into those exact categories - Drummer and Ashford. I guarantee what your first impressions of them are, won't be the same as what they are once you get to know them!
In space you can't dissipate heat at all. So any heat that the object grabs will stick with it
Space isn't as cold as we used to think 😀
"Someone's gonna find it", you must not realize how big and empty space is..
Comments like this make me hungry for fairy cake.
Bobbi is just a true believer. She believes in the dream of Mars. And she'll do whatever it takes to safeguard that dream. She is, however, angry that she'll never see that dream.
Or, in the words from another well-written show: _"I burn my life for a sunrise I know I'll never see."_
Love that each of you watched the same episode and had two different takeaways: one said it was more character development and the other it was more plot development. Just a credit to how good this show is, both threads were intertwined so well
1:48 The whole point of training is to get as close to real combat conditions as possible. So often, you'll find blanks and MILES, when your opfor on the exercise is other people. Live fire is a part of that, but it's typically worked up to, starting with normal range shooting (when you're nice and rested), through variations on the theme of the March & Shoot (typically a 5 mile run in kit - which could be as little as lid, rifle and 20lb in your webbing, plus water bottle and ammo, or as much as full CBRN, though you'd have to have really pissed someone off for that) all the way up to living in the field for a week or more, with live fire against pop-up or drone controlled targets.
Of course, being shot at is rarely a part of it, though it's not uncommon for controlled pyro to make an appearance to simulate being under fire. And if you're onle of the Hereford Hooligans, then there's always a risk when live-fire training for multiple dynamic entries to the Killing House.
20:25, I can't not see Thomas Jane veering into Ray Drecker for a minute, as if it's a *"Hung"* space sequel, looking around & saying, "Damn, Holden, it's like a f*ckin' snow globe in here!"
The Space Gladiator Movie comment was a reference to Airplane. "Do you like gladiator movies Joey?"
Welcome to season two of The Expanse!!
So glad you are enjoying the show so far! I can't overstate that this show is just getting warmed up!
Your post analysis is well done!
When watching this episode it blew my mind when I realized that the Protomolicule was sent on Phoebe from outside our solar system. Earth was its target. Then I came to understand that it was eons ago so inelegant life probably hadn't arose yet on Earth!
Looking forward to the next one!
Draper is one of my faves!!!❤❤ I’m looking forward to the other seasons and your reactions!!
Same here, alongside (Spoiler) Camina and Peaches
Listen, I've been watching so many of your reactions but I need to say that you two are adorable together.
Ok Bobbie’s backpack rockets: make a mental note to remember them…
At 16:23, I wonder if that’s a reference to the 1980 comedy film “Airplane!” where Peter Graves as the airline captain creepily asks a young boy if he likes movies about gladiators.
The Expanse in a nutshell: a hard, realistic sci-fi setting with ugly politics encounters Star Trek techobabble hand-wavy bullshit, and no one thought to include an instruction manual. And what does a hard, realistic sci-fi show with ugly politics do with it? Weaponize the fuck out of it, of course.
Why does Bobbie hate Earth so much? Her attitude mirrors that of Lopez (the Martian on the Donnager) and that of many Martians. The books did a better job than the TV series explaining how Martians are indoctrinated into thinking how easy it will be to fight Earth and how easy that Earthlings have. That is how you see Bobbi now.
Btw, Alex's ancestors were East Indians who settled in the same area as those from Texas. That is why he has the southern accent. He also loves country music. ;-)
In the books, Bobbie, the Martian soldier, is Polynesian, over 6'6", and she's built like a professional wrestler 😮
I am so happy that you will be reacting to this weekly. I can’t wait for every reaction.
Aw man, did you not get the Airplane! reference with "Do you like space gladiator movies?" .
5:44 In the books there were 1.5 million belters on Eros!
I want that kitchen too, but I do have a Rocinante plaque in my small ass kitchen.
Sooooo... 🤷🏾♂️✨
I respect the crap out of The Expanse for completely skipping the will-they-won't-they. It's tired. It's over-used. And what the world really needed was representation of two grown-@$$ adults who knew what they wanted and went for it.
Bobby Fucking Draper! LET'S GOOOOO! Looking forward to the ride Nerdy & Clarus are about to go on. . .it's gonna get wild.
“We stan a sterile King.” 😂
there are regional accents like on earth the southern accent on mars are from the Mariner Valley as the original colonist of that area were from Texas and India
Hold on to your butts, season 2 gets wild 😁
15:47 Wow, that's a cool welcome into the Expanse fandom. That is a gunship and you two are now Navy pilots.
S2 Opener is such a great setup and hook, and I am hanging out for the next episode! One of my favourites.
Haha I love how you (boy especially) pick up on the oddest things (like when a commercial break would be) and also comment on Naomi and Holden 'making a mess' in the room Miller was in 12 minutes later.... Holden is firing blanks remember, so I'm pretty sure the mess was safely contained...... 😂😂
According to the writers of the book, it was millions of people who were killed on Eros, but the executives at SyFy were not comfortable with that number of people getting murdered on a TV show, so they changed it to 100,000.
Personally it wouldn't be about feeling comfortable, I would just not think the TV audience would buy Earth and Mars not reacting extremely to "Someone, possibly Earth's government, killed millions of Belters in one swoop and nobody seems to even know what they died of."
I took it as an Airplane Easter egg. “Do you like movies about gladiators?” Also, Maple Syrup Cartel was my Honey Heist one shot.
Given that absolute Zero is -273 C, and the ambient temperature of space is -270 C, I find it a little funny that they are that worried about the cryo system failing while working on the container in the vacuum of space. Unless that 3 degrees is all the Protomolecule needs to wake up, which it wouldn’t since it was frozen in a chunk of rock at the same temperature, then it shouldn’t be an issue.
Averages can fail to tell the whole story. If that cannister spends any time in direct sunlight, it will warm very quickly due to the lack of any significant amount of matter with which it would be in contact to moderate the heating of the sun.
Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper doesn't have a tragic backstory, she's a Martian marine - she's fiercely patriotic, and has been raised since birth to have only one real threat and enemy: Earth. She wants to fight them, it's what she was raised and trained to do.
Good Militaries "Train the way you fight". If you destroy stuff when you fight, then you destroy stuff when you train.
On the live rounds question, there was one major difference between British Redcoats and other armies of the Napoleonic War. The British trained with live rounds, no-one else did. And no-one could outshoot the British.
The original colonists that settled in the Mariner Valley where from Texas and India. So the Martians that come from the Mariner Valley tend to look Indian but sound Southern.
My favorite science fiction show of all time. Enjoy!
The western Texas accent is just the Mariner Valley colonists, not all of Mars
It's the dose of radiation that left them sterile, not the cancer device.
Just a heads up. Every season is basically 2 seasons in one. Very clear midpoint and new beginning every season
Bobby arm wrestling a robot will come into play later on
This is where the fun begins.
the expanse is the best sci fi show people don't talk about. it was better than most HBO shows and it constantly struggled to gain mainstream media attention. i'm so grateful it got as many seasons as it did and i hope it continues to create a strong cult following.
Love the hat, Nerdy. And I'm glad other people appreciate Amos as.much as I do.
The tragic backstory: 50 years of spending most of the budget on arms and ships instead of terraforming. Moving the goal post further and further into the future. Remember Lopes: It would be nice to see the ocean on Mars...
The Donager had Martians without southern accents.
15:00 My Dad was struck by lightning three times and lived to age seventy four. My Mom always said that God was trying to tell him something.
The sterility was due to the massive amount of radiation they absorbed though, not the space medicine. The space medicine just helps with all the cancer, leukemia and stuff.
Most anti-cancer (antineoplastic) drugs also cause reproductive issues. Could definitely be the space medicine.
28:36 Claroos nails it. The Martians just want their independence.
Only Martians from the Mariner Valley have the southern accent. It was settled primarily by Indians, ethnic Chinese, and Texans.
About the lightning strikes twice bit, it’s actually statistically unlikely that lightning will strike twice in the same exact spot within the same storm, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen but the average is so low it might as well not ever. Now with this said we have to take into account all the storms that have had lightning in earths history and we actually get an inverse result where lightning can Only strike in the same place twice because to our blink of an eye existence there has been more lightning than people born in our entire existence as a species which means the planet has in its entirety been hit by lightning at some point previously. “Just based on Statistics. So nobody can be right or wrong here,” it is after all, just a figure of Speech.
yet another Canadian connection, Hugh Dillon of the Headstones (among other things) plays the Martian Lt.
You will learn more about rocket propulsions in this season. And it would be beneficial to understand just how far everything is. For example, to send an unmanned spacecraft to Jupiter today would take years with our fastest rocket. Even longer to Saturn.
Hiding the protomolecule in the solar system by an asteroid would be really easy and really hard to find. Space is just too big.
I always thought that the Mars/Earth conflict that led the Martians down the path of a militaristic power was very much like the Cuban Missle crisis in the 60's between the Americans and the Russians. In that case, it led the two sides directly into the Cold War where both prepared for the worst possible outcome and hoped it would never happen. With Mars and Earth, they came to a new understanding where both sides began preparing for a future conflict they hoped would never occur.