Cara is determined to try and fix the damage she’s caused, leaving her brother Xan at home and heading back out into the wilderness with the bird. When she does, a much larger creature sneaks up behind her and takes the deceased bird further into the forest. Meanwhile, on a UNN supply ship in the Belt, the Rocinante stop by to pick up supplies… and a UN mission expert to join them. And of course, this is Bobbie Draper. We know she’s been itching to get involved in this fight and here she is. Now, the mission has changed and they’re tasked with capturing rather than destroying the Azure Dragon. It’s a risky mission but Bobbie is confident that this ship won’t have a crew of more than four. Naomi isn’t exactly happy, but Bobbie’s mission seems simple enough. Disable the drive and take the data core. When Bobbie finds out that Mao is aboard though, she’s not exactly pleased. On Ceres Station, Filip finds himself imprisoned after his actions. Marco shows up to free him, giving him a stern warning and making sure he stays in-line. Speaking of in-line, Camina deliberates over her next move after dropping off Michio, handing her over to Liang Walker. There, she learns that the crew don’t have coverage to move Michio around, courtesy of Marco’s security checkpoints. There’s certainly no love lost between Marco and Liang though. He actually transferred Walker out to run supplies around for the Free Navy. Camina immediately senses an opportunity, especially when she learns they’re responsible for moving purifiers, generators and valuable food supplies to different supply depots. Of course, if the supplies can’t move around so readily, it would cripple the Free Navy and she knows this. At the time, Liang enjoyed hitting out at the Inners, giving his disdain for them, but he’s also not exactly kissing cousins with Marco. Camina takes a chance and decides to try and stage a coup from within with Liang. She wants to communicate with the Golden Bough ships that are unhappy with Marco’s rule and act like pirates “snatching the food right off of Marco’s table.” However, the focal mission here falls squarely on the Azure Dragon. The Rocinante crew arrive, but unfortunately they’re spotted en-route, leading to a big chase. With Bobbie in charge, she rejects Holden’s idea of shooting them and tasks him with flying up alongside the ship instead. In doing so, he allows just enough time for Bobbie to jump over. Naomi understandably freezes when she tries to jump too, leaving Clarissa and Bobbie to breach the hold. Unfortunately several Belters show and attack, leading to Clarissa taking Naomi’s place and getting hurt. Thankfully Amos manages to hop aboard and uncover the proverbial mother lode. The files aboard the ship could well turn the tide of battle here. It doesn’t take long for Marco Inaros to learn about the Data Core and the Azure Dragon coup. When he does, Marco scoffs, confident that they’ll be ready to take out the threat to come.
The Episode Review
The final fight is finally upon us and everything looks set to explode in a big way over the coming episodes. It’s still unreal to think The Expanse only has 4 more episodes to go, given how many novels there are for this one, but there we go. However, the series continues to weave its intriguing themes and ideas, even if the protomolecule and the Rings have been sidelined in favour of going after Marco Inaros and the Free Navy. Now, I haven’t read the books so that may be how this one turns out, so we’ll have to wait and see. Either way, the fight aboard the Azure Dragon serves up a nice burst of action, leaving lots of tantalizing prospects for the episodes to come. With the Data core now in the Rocinante’s hands, everything is resting on a precarious knife-edge.
