TV REVIEW: THE EXPANSE - Episodes 9-10: Critical Mass / Leviathan Wakes

The episode is the season finale. There is a set of expectations imposed when wrapping up a season on television. It is the same as when ending a book which is part of a series. The creator(s) must tie up all the loose ends without appearing to force feed them. At the same time, the major story arc must not only have a way forward; it has to retain sufficient interest to bring the audience back for the succeeding installment. 

Did The Expanse manage all of this? We’ll only know by diving into the ongoing plot, which means many spoilers. 

Holden and Miller finally meet, much to the displeasure of both sides. They stood over the body of Julie Mao, the subject of the initial sequence of the season. Apparently infected with a biological agent, they do not dare touch it. It turns out Julie Mao’s father was behind the whole thing, and the plan is to use Eros as a testing place for it. Back on Earth, Avasarala learns the stealth ship which killed the Canterbury, Scopuli, and the Martian vessel, was built by Earth. Julie Mao’s father is behind the whole thing.

The long episode concerns how Miller and Holden end up working together but separate from Holden’s crew. They grudgingly split up, with most following secret passages to get back to their ship. Miller and Holden look into what should be a safe room, only to receive a fatal dose of radiation. In spite of increasing physical problems from radiation poisoning, they manage to get back to the ship for treatment. A large part of the episode consists of a series of fights, leading up to where Mao’s people end up fighting the thugs they recruited to contain the Eros population.

They finally leave Eros and discover a ship with Mao’s people on board have just departed. As a loose end, the spy remained on Eros, only to be taken by the biological agent. This agent is changing as it absorbs people. It is, as one of Mao’s people put it, ‘learning.’ Presumably, we will come to know the substance as ‘Leviathan.’ 

While they settle most loose ends, there aren’t many conclusions. Back on Tycho, Johnson knows the battleship from Earth about to dock does not bode well for him. Fearing for his life, Johnson sent the information to Earth that Avasarala acquires. In the process of getting the Rocinante off Eros, they blow off their disguise. It is hard to know where they could go from there.

Overall, the season started off going in many directions. Several of the plot lines bogged down a bit, but things look promising for their second season. I wish them well and plan on being on hand when they start up again. Reports are thirteen episodes will begin in early 2017, possibly as early as January.

Reviews and commentaries about the show say the series is the most expensive SyFy has done but believe the result will justify it. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my reviews, and if there’s a program you’d like me to check, you know where to find me. I’m writing horseback.The episode is the season finale. There is a set of expectations imposed when wrapping up a season on television. It is the same as when ending a book which is part of a series. The creator(s) must tie up all the loose ends without appearing to force feed them. At the same time, the major story arc must not only have a way forward; it has to retain sufficient interest to bring the audience back for the succeeding installment. 

Did The Expanse manage all of this? We’ll only know by diving into the ongoing plot, which means many spoilers. 

Holden and Miller finally meet, much to the displeasure of both sides. They stood over the body of Julie Mao, the subject of the initial sequence of the season. Apparently infected with a biological agent, they do not dare touch it. It turns out Julie Mao’s father was behind the whole thing, and the plan is to use Eros as a testing place for it. Back on Earth, Avasarala learns the stealth ship which killed the Canterbury, Scopuli, and the Martian vessel, was built by Earth. Julie Mao’s father is behind the whole thing.

The long episode concerns how Miller and Holden end up working together but separate from Holden’s crew. They grudgingly split up, with most following secret passages to get back to their ship. Miller and Holden look into what should be a safe room, only to receive a fatal dose of radiation. In spite of increasing physical problems from radiation poisoning, they manage to get back to the ship for treatment. A large part of the episode consists of a series of fights, leading up to where Mao’s people end up fighting the thugs they recruited to contain the Eros population.

They finally leave Eros and discover a ship with Mao’s people on board have just departed. As a loose end, the spy remained on Eros, only to be taken by the biological agent. This agent is changing as it absorbs people. It is, as one of Mao’s people put it, ‘learning.’ Presumably, we will come to know the substance as ‘Leviathan.’ 

While they settle most loose ends, there aren’t many conclusions. Back on Tycho, Johnson knows the battleship from Earth about to dock does not bode well for him. Fearing for his life, Johnson sent the information to Earth that Avasarala acquires. In the process of getting the Rocinante off Eros, they blow off their disguise. It is hard to know where they could go from there.

Overall, the season started off going in many directions. Several of the plot lines bogged down a bit, but things look promising for their second season. I wish them well and plan on being on hand when they start up again. Reports are thirteen episodes will begin in early 2017, possibly as early as January.

Reviews and commentaries about the show say the series is the most expensive SyFy has done but believe the result will justify it. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my reviews, and if there’s a program you’d like me to check, you know where to find me. I’m writing horseback.

TV REVIEW: THE EXPANSE - Episode 8: Salvage

A large part of fiction concerns the timely intersection of events that would not happen in such a neat way in the real world. There is typically a single story arc with some number of sub-plots, and the author or screenwriter forces events to happen fast enough to keep an audience for the tale. If the story teller succeeds, everyone will be quite willing to suspend their disbelief, or ignore the fact that the real universe doesn’t work that way. An example of the real world is this review, written six months after this episode went on the air. 

This time, I saw a large number of coincidences. Several reviewers believe the happy plot intersections should have happened sooner. Others, typically those who read the series of books forming the basis of the show, are happy with most of what they’ve seen. This episode was more action and less concerned with analogies with classic fiction, such as Don Quixote. The conclusion of the show was such as to get the audience to come back in a week.

//Spoilers, we’ve got spoilers. We’ve got stacks and stacks of spoilers. …With apologies to the George Goble show.//

Holden and company arrive at a set of coordinates, which turns out to be a rock. Since the celestial coordinate system only makes sense if you are on the surface of the Earth, that would be quite an achievement. In any case, they find a stealth ship anchored in a hole. It turns out to be the ship Julie Mao was aboard at the beginning of Episode 1. This ship, the Anubis, was dead. Nobody, alive or dead, was aboard. They found that Eros was its home port. Since all hatches were open, and the shuttlecraft was gone, someone survived. There was one thing on the Anubis. It was an organism which came to life when they started to power the reactor. 

It was certain this was the ship that destroyed the Cant. Holden and his crew take grim pleasure in returning the favor, hoping to be rid of the strange organism. 

They proceed to Eros, the only place the Anubis shuttle could go. Up to this point, they do not know the survivor they are after is Julie Mao since she used another name. At the same time, Miller arrives as well, and tracks Mao to a motel, arriving in the middle of a firefight between Holden and the Earth agents sent to kill him. Miller saves the day, Miller and Holden agree they don’t like each other and head to room 22.

They find Julie Mao dead, covered with the same stuff that was on the Anubis reactor. 

Since Miller decided he believed in Julie, and that was his only remaining reason to exist, his world just ceased to exist. Holden, meanwhile, recognizes the substance on the dead woman cannot be good, and makes everybody back off from it.

That was a good show, and the big season finale will be coming next. While I consider whether to get the books, I’m writing horseback.

TV REVIEW: THE EXPANSE - Episode 7: Windmills

The development of the characters — particularly the main character(s) in a story is one of the main elements of story-telling. This is not new information to anyone. In many cases, any dragon slain by the hero is mostly an external reflection of the internal dragons they must overcome. The main characters in The Expanse are both dealing with internal challenges, although their outcomes, at least to this point, go in opposite directions.

In this episode, the tie-ins to Don Quixote continue. The title warns that whatever challenges our characters face either aren’t real or else aren’t what they believe. 

//Spoilers (sigh) follow at this point. That was just in case you had any doubt//

Holden is becoming an increasingly heroic figure. As he leads his small crew through one challenge after another, the group slowly becomes a tighter group. First, they find a spy reporting back to Earth. He is hiding on board and reporting to his handlers when Holden finds him. Then they encounter a Martian naval vessel, which decides to board them. Since they are on a disguised Martian navy ship, that would not have a happy result. With the less than willing assistance of the spy, they are able to find a series of keywords that will send the Martian vessel on its way. Their mission is to rescue the only known survivor of the Scopuli.

At the same time, in true noir fashion, Detective Miller is only slightly less corrupt than the society he deals with. Miller begins to believe in the girl he’s trying to chase down. That proves his downfall, as his agency fired him in the last episode, and he tries to find some reason to go on. Julie Mao, the girl he’s never met, becomes that reason. Miller traces her to Eros and decides to follow her. He gets what money he can manage, and boards a shuttle. There is no way to imagine anything positive coming from the two of them meeting. 

Avasarala, on Earth, visits Holden’s family in Montana. Holden’s mother turns out to be as formidable a lady as Avasarala. The two eventually find common ground in having encouraged their sons to join the military. In the case of Avasarala, her son died, but his body was never recovered. She decides to support Holden’s mother in trying to keep her son alive. Then she finds the UN/Earth discovered several things. Holden has a Martian gunship disguised as a commercial vessel.  He is on his way to Eros. Further, their spy’s transmissions have stopped. The spy has been compromised, so they have declared Holden part of the problem. A team will kill him when he arrives on Eros.

There will be a good time on Eros, no doubt. It all assumes the location Holden is going to is actually Eros, and not someplace else altogether. Yeah, I’m curious to see how they start to tie up all the loose ends that have been created to date. Until I get through the next episode, I’m writing horseback.

TV REVIEW: THE EXPANSE - Episode 6: Rock Bottom

Some say there is only one story structure, consisting of a goal and an obstacle. There are an infinite number of variations on the basic form. This episode qualifies. It had enough to make me glad I showed up. It teased enough to get me back another time.

The rest of this review is all SPOILER. If you haven’t seen the series yet, and foreknowledge of events is an issue, you might want to read something else now. At the same time, I don’t think knowing a few general details will necessarily spoil the show for you. 

One of the opening scenes features Avasarala, the high-ranking Earth official, at a briefing displaying evidence that someone other than Earth and Mars was building a fleet of warships. In her mind, the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance) is the only possible suspect. She leans hard on a man, formerly in intelligence, but now working for corporations, to get intelligence about Tyco Station and Fred “The Butcher” Johnson from the spy planted there. 

Since Johnson offered Holden and his crew from the Rocinante refuge at Tycho, there may be more information than Earth expects. Johnson and Holden know one another, by reputation, if not personally. They come to an agreement that Johnson will disguise the Rocinante to make it look like a commercial gas freighter, and that Holden will proceed to Phoebe in an attempt to rescue a survivor of some unknown disaster. This was the Scopuli mission when it was destroyed (according to Johnson).

The episode includes a digression, where two independent space miners are boarded by the Martian Navy. The navy personnel get a kick out of harassing the pair, and declare their load of ore impounded until they pay up. The older man shoves his nephew into a spacesuit and ejects him from the ship. Following that, he puts the fragmented asteroid on a course to intercept the Martian vessel. The Martian vessel destroys the mining ship, but may not survive the pile of rocks coming at it. It all pushes the viewer to the side of the OPA.

The cliffhanger of episode 5, where detective Miller ended up with a bag over his head, and drug off to points unknown, is not pursued for a considerable amount of time. It turns out the local head of the OPA had him snatched. His quest to find Julie Mao has attracted their attention, especially since Mao was one of their own. Miller tries to act tough, but his captors are not shy about using something resembling cattle prods on him. After an extended exchange with the local OPA chief, in which it appears that Miller is in love with Julie Mao without having ever actually seen her, the OPA chief stomps off. His supporters then drag Miller to an airlock and throw him in, close the inner hatch and begin to evacuate the air. An associate of Miller shows up, shoots the two, and saves Miller.

Miller takes information he discovered to his boss at Star Helix, which shows there is an enormous conspiracy going on. After verifying that Miller has not given the information to anybody else, his boss fires him, and has him escorted out of the office. The security people giving him the bum’s rush have OPA tattoos. Miller is quite certain at least his boss has been bought by Star Helix.

Both Holden and Miller are on their own now. As I said at the beginning, I’m hooked for another episode. In the meantime, and with bated breath, I’ll be writing horseback.

Cosplay Spotlight: West Wylde Cosplayer

Epic Nerd Shit is proud to introduce our next featured cosplayer, West Wylde Cosplyer. 

 

ENS: Tell me a bit about yourself.

WW: My name is Toni Cardinale. My cosplay name is West Wylde Cosplayer. I am from Northern California. I am an over 30, plus-sized cosplayer. I am a member of the West Coast Avengers, a cosplay group that attends charity events. I am an Instagram page model for Cosplay Heroes. My cosplays have been published in the online magazine COSPLAY+ Magazine. I did the cover and an interview for October 2015, and the cosplay spotlight in the Spring 2016 issue.

ENS: How did it few to be recognized and published in a magazine and featured so many times? 

WW: Getting recognized for my cosplays is very flattering. I like to feel I bring a positive aspect to the community. I like bringing attention to the fact that I am older, plus size and do many things for charity. The cosplay community is not just for certain types of cosplayers.

ENS: How long have you been into cosplay?

WW: I have been cosplaying since February of 2014.

ENS: How much time and energy goes into a costume? Also cost of an average costume, if you are comfortable sharing that?

WW: The time going into a costume varies by degree of difficulty and how well thought-out the project needs to be.

 

ENS: How many cons have you done if any, and what was the biggest?

WW: I have been to at least 25 conventions. My largest was just this past March on Easter weekend, Wonder-Con at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California.

ENS: Have you ever experienced and type of negativity like body shaming or unwanted sexual advances? If yes, how did it affect you?

WW: I have experienced a couple of negative comments online. My reaction to them was to delete those comments. The persons actually reposted the comments again, and I deleted them again and blocked them.  I do not feel it is necessary to respond to online trolls, because any feedback to them just encourages them further.