Another brilliant season of The Expanse ends with episode 13 of Season 3: Abaddon’s Gate. (Caution! This review contains SPOILERS!).
With most of the action taking place on the Behemoth, the two main protagonists, Holden (Steven Strait) and Ashford (David Strathairn), are on a collision course from beginning to end. At the start of the episode, Holden is still in the brig, while Ashford is planning his attack on the ring using the communications laser, in cahoots with the UNN and MCRN. Anticipating problems, the MCRN commander puts Draper (Frankie Adams) on alert, to be ready at any time.
From this starting point, the episode steps up a gear and delivers a great hour of genre TV, that I don’t think misses a beat. If I was to be extremely picky, there might be one bit of character development that happens a touch quicker than I would like, but that is a tiny, tiny, nitpick.
After being ignored by Miller/protomolecule (Thomas Jane) for some time, Holden finally makes contact, and we see this played out via CCTV as Drummer (Cara Gee) and Naomi (Dominique Tipper) look on, slightly bemused by his one sided conversation. With Miller now giving him some information, Holden knows what to do, setting off the other main thread of this episode’s plot.
THE EXPANSE — “Abaddon’s Gate” Episode 313 — Pictured: (l-r) Cara Gee as Drummer, Steven Strait as James Holden — (Photo by: Rafy/Syfy)
It appears, from what Holden says, as if Kolvoord’s (Chris Owens) experiment, detonating the skiff’s reactor, has made the Ring Station view all active reactors as a potential threat. This gives Holden the idea that they need to power down all the reactors within the ring space, and then no one would be destroyed by the ring. Unfortunately for Holden, when Drummer contacts Ashford, it appears that he is hellbent on his plan to destroy the ring, putting them at odds.
THE EXPANSE — “Abaddon’s Gate” Episode 313 — Pictured: Dominique Tipper as Naomi Nagata — (Photo by: Rafy/Syfy)
With Ashford being resistant, and determined to follow through on his plan, we get two main effects. The first is that all useful technicians get drafted in to help, including Clarissa/Melba. The second is that Drummer, Naomi, and Holden have to get to the reactor and forcibly turn it off. This they set in motion, but not without getting attacked by Belters using the MMC suits. This whole section works well, with some nice character moments mixed in with very effective action elements, including a couple of twists. Drummer has been a brilliant character all season, and it’s good to see her get more screen time in the past couple of episodes.
THE EXPANSE — “Abaddon’s Gate” Episode 313 — Pictured: (l-r) Cas Anvar as Alex Kamal, Anna Hopkins as Monica Stuart — (Photo by: Rafy/Syfy)
One positive effect of needing to get the word out about the reactors is that we finally get to see Monica Stuart (Anna Hopkins) back in contact with our ‘heroes’. She has been broadcasting to all the ships giving them updates, so Amos (Was Chatham) and Alex (Car Anvar) persuade her to help, with some assistance from Anna (Elizabeth Mitchell). This gives us another great group of scenes between Amos and Anna, with there clearly being a bond developing. Wes Chatham’s work this season has been great, with Amos’s understated emotional coldness being brilliantly portrayed. It has also been used well in the plot, especially in the Anna/Amos dynamic, but also with Monica.
THE EXPANSE — “Abaddon’s Gate” Episode 313 — Pictured: (l-r) Elizabeth Mitchell as Anna Volovodov, Wes Chatham as Amos Burton — (Photo by: Rafy/Syfy)
Equally, it’s been good to see more development of Draper as a character, and her choices that will mean we see more of her. There’s a lot we don’t know about the Martians, so hopefully the additional benefit will be more exploration of that side of things.
The denouement of this episode, and the whole season, has a very satisfying conclusion, which not only gives us solid drama with characters making bold choices, but also opens up new avenues. Clearly, Miller/protomolecule wants Holden to go and investigate what happened to the parent civilisation, and that has probably been its intent all along. What the opening up of all the other ring gates means for humanity though, we shall have to see, and we get a little foreshadowing of potential consequences from Holden’s closing voiceover.
This whole season has been a fantastically written story, with even the shift in focus halfway through not detracting from the flow. In some regards the two halves of the season had distinct ‘feels’, but it still retained a common voice and thread throughout. With the recent news that Amazon will be taking it on, it seems that we will get to enjoy some more of the best TV sci-fi for at least one more year.
