 What's up guys and welcome to one take I'm gil and today we're talking about the expanse season 5 episode 6 titled tribes This will be a full recap and review So it'll be full of spoilers through episode 6, but no book spoilers So nothing from any future episodes. I thought this was a solid episode and a step up from last week's We saw some very powerful character moments We see Avasarala more rattled than I think we've ever seen her before We see Amos and Clarissa both really having to struggle and confront who they are as people We also see Marco challenged by drummer and sin, which I really enjoyed similar to last week's episode There are a few things I'm still not loving about the Amos and Clarissa storyline Which I'll get into but as I mentioned with the increased focus on character development for both of them this episode I still thought it was an improvement with that Let's get into the recap first quick reminder if you're enjoying these videos Please go ahead and hit the like button hit the subscribe button and hit the bell icon So you get notified the next time we do a video We start with Avasarala in her office this whole scene was pretty heartbreaking since as I mentioned I don't think we've ever seen her in this state before She has tears in her eyes and sounds broken when she calls Arjun again and just barely starts her message She's interrupted by David pastor the minister of transportation who reveals he is the new acting secretary general He talks about the destruction he witnessed and promises to pull every string He can to try and locate Avasarala's husband They do a great job here of showing how in over his head David is he shares his credentials And we know his expertise is in transportation He's not exactly the man for the job on top of that He's not used to off-planet gravity So he stumbles as he reaches her desk which creates a great visual of his inexperience So within seconds at putting the dialogue aside we already have an impression of this person David asks if she'll join his provisional cabinet and she of course accepts After he leaves the room the camera lingers on Avasarala for about a minute as her hands shake She puts her jewelry back on and she attempts to pull herself together Again, I love this scene and my only complaint which is really a compliment is that I want to see more I'm very ready to watch Avasarala get back into the fold see how she responds to Marco and Deals with the massive tragedy on earth I think this will be her biggest professional and personal challenge yet And I'm psyched to see it play out next we'll quickly check in with Holden on the Rossi They've checked the reactor and hopefully have everything back in working order after Sakai's tampering Then Monica shows up and insists on coming along for the ride Bull is against it, but she insists it's thanks to her. They even know where the Zamiya is going Plus some of Marco's goons are probably still after her so she's safer on this ship Bull relents and they let her stay then Holden tells the computer to grant Monica guest privileges only And I love the detail here where in the background on the computer You see a big list of privileges and when he says guest only you see a bunch of them get grayed out Finally Holden notices an unread message from Naomi with the subject if something goes wrong My impression is that Naomi left this message before finding Philip and getting mixed up with Marco Meaning she knew there was some risk going into this and wanted to leave something behind for Holden in case things went south So I'm very curious to see what is in that message next. Let's talk about Alex and Bobby Last episode they dumped their core meaning they ejected the fusion reactor the plasma out of their ship And until that reaction starts back up they're relying on thrusters Which would get you a fraction of the speed you get with fusion power Now that is the least of their problems as they're currently being boarded by a belter ship as the Belters Cross the bridge and begin to open the door of the razorback Bobby comes out guns blazing Shooting one of the men in the face in her Martian power armor Bobby easily dispatches the men on the bridge and Drives any survivors back onto their ship the Belters begin to disconnect from the razorback in retreat Which is a problem for Alex who is holding on to the side of their ship Bobby tries holding the ships together and by Alex some time There's a great shot here of her suit being stretched to his limit reminiscent of spider-man 2 at the last second Alex Plays a bomb in the belter ships thruster and leaps back toward the razorback Another great moment here as Alex makes his way back to the ship the razorback is spinning So for a second Alex sees nothing but the void of space I felt real tension here as getting spaced Floating through the empty abyss is something that never gets less scary on this show But Alex reaches the razorback they get inside and leave victorious I thought this was a solid moment But emphasis on the word moment with so many different POVs in each episode It is starting to be a bit of a bummer when we get so little screen time for some of the storylines But again, that's sort of a complaint. That's really a compliment because I'm just saying I want to see more I also just want to add I kind of love the way this scene started out Where we have very little context and then all of a sudden Bobby comes out blasting away and we get this moment of extreme violence It was a pretty visceral and surprising way to start out the scene next. Let's go to Marco Naomi and drummer Marco is very frustrated with Philip. Thanks to Philip bringing Naomi on their ship She was able to warn Holden about the Gamara code saving the Ross and Ante when Philip apologizes Marco demands he space Naomi sin butts in and tells him to do it himself afterward Marco gives the lame excuse that he has better things to do first I loved sin shouting at Marco that was a great emotional release after watching Marco berate his son the last few episodes I also read a lot into this scene last episode I talked about how a lot of people involved in Marco's plot really don't have an appreciation for the horror of what they've done They can hear the sentence you killed millions, but they don't see the children or families they executed They just hear the statistic to me. This scene tells us that Marco is the same He talks about sacrifice, but he won't go kill Naomi right now And it's hard to imagine a mass murderer hesitating to kill someone even if he has an emotional attachment to them But Marco doesn't think of himself as a mass murderer He doesn't see the full scope of what he's done to him Those asteroids were a calculated act of war and nothing more than that And I don't know if he'll ever have his eyes opened it to the real tragedy of what he's done But I think Philip might afterward Philip goes to see Naomi She learns her crew survived and again tells Philip that Marco made him a murderer The highlight though is when Naomi tells Philip that Marco only loves himself and he wouldn't die for you But he would let you die for him That is a brilliant line because it rang so true and it is exactly the sort of thought which could fester in Philip's brain Until he turns against his father It's also very likely that more and more people will die for Marco's cause Which will just further reinforce that thought for Philip Eventually we get to the moment I've been waiting for this episode drummers meeting with Marco First off I laughed at Marco's intro drummer and associates The conversation starts to go south quickly with drummer bringing up Marco's murder of Ashford and Fred But Oksana brings up the future tries to get them refocused and asks about food Currently they're dependent on earth But Marco assures them that agricultural domes will eventually outproduce earth Finally he invites them to join the free navy The biggest highlight for me in this conversation is that Marco believes he already won the war And I knew he was cocky but this sort of crossed the line for me into delusional and naive territory And I think Val will have to be his downfall He'll trust the wrong person maybe Philip or underestimate his enemies and it'll get the best of him back on their ship Drummer and her crew debate their next move They realize that turning down Marco is a death sentence and they join him before drummer leaves Marco introduces her to Philip In their conversation drummers time with Naomi on the behemoth comes up And when drummer mentions that Naomi saved every soul in the solar system Philip says he wants to hear that story So we start to see that he's warming up to his mother He also makes it pretty obvious that they have Naomi aboard And I love the look Marco gives him at that point So I think drummer will suspect that Naomi is being held captive Which of course makes this even more personal for her Right now she needs to be level headed going up against Marco since he is currently in such a position of power And it'll be interesting to watch her struggle to hold back and not charge in to save her friend After already losing two of them to Marco Philip heads back to Naomi though this time he joins her in the cell He asks her about her time on the behemoth and she begins telling the story I loved seeing this. It was sort of the first moment of joy We have for Naomi this season as she finally gets to connect with her son Sadly, I can't see a happy ending for them Again, Philip is complicit in one of the most heinous acts in history So I think these few moments of joy are kind of tinged in tragedy Destined to be short-lived. Also, we see Marco watching them on a security camera So he knows they're bonding and I think he'll take that out on Philip He also pulls up an image of Naomi's ship. So it seems he's plotting something to strike back against the two of them I'm excited to see what it is and also kind of dreading it as I said I don't think this ends well for Naomi and Philip. Finally, let's check in on amos and peaches We see them by an aid station But they can't go in it because there are cops and Clarissa is an escaped convict Amos suggests they take the long hike to baltimore where he knows the right people to be around in these situations So I think we'll eventually see a reluctant reunion between Eric and amos They begin their hike through the chesapeake conservancy zone And this is a pretty dialogue heavy episode for the two of them, which I was very happy with I mentioned a couple of weeks back that Clarissa is a character I never really connected or sympathized with something about killing innocent people or letting them die Just sort of rubbed me the wrong way But this episode started to humanize her for me And we do see that she is really struggling to live with the things she's done As they make their way through the woods Clarissa surprised to learn that amos never went to this reforestation area on a school field trip Which made her seem very naive and out of touch just sort of unaware of the privileges She grew up with that not everybody had Which helped me understand how she could be swayed into her misguided revenge mission They also discussed their parents and we get amos giving Clarissa a small version of the conversation he had with Lydia years ago There are ways that you can live a good life Without being a good person I think this is an important moment for Clarissa from the poem we hear from her later We know she doesn't want to be a bad person. She doesn't want to believe that she is a monster But that's not enough. She's clearly tortured and doesn't know how to function or live with herself Versus amos who is clearly introspecting and thinking things over but he gets by just fine Here he's trying to tell her how he does that. He tells her essentially Don't worry about am I a good person or not? You know what a good person would do So just do that they bump into a guy by a campfire who warns them about a survivalist nearby Who is shooting potential trespassers? They leave him and when amos checks if he's following them afterward Clarissa says the guy is harmless and also notes that amos seems like he's done this before he explains I grew up like this Everyone else is playing catch up People are tribal The more subtle things are the bigger the tribes can be The churn comes and the tribes get small again Right now you and I are a tribe of two I thought this episode was filled with some great pieces of dialogue and that was one of them It takes an idea which we all intuitively understand in times of crisis your circle of trust shrinks But it puts it in a way you haven't heard before That feels very true and so succinctly describes amos's mindset amos takes them to survivalist guy And he walks right up to the front door. He pretends they want to trade But the man goes to kill him anyway before he can pull the trigger Clarissa activates her mods And moves at superhuman speed to kill him then she passes out and amos brings her inside I thought her attack looked pretty cheesy, but I figured that's partially a budget thing So I won't hold it against the show. I will say though I mentioned up front that there were some things I didn't love about this storyline And this survivalist guy is mainly what I was referring to One of my issues with the prison escape was the convenience built into it And I think we saw more of that here what I mean by that is something happens Which stretches credulity in a way that seems convenient for the storyline Because I don't mind if something unrealistic happens, especially in a sci-fi show Accept when it benefits our characters in a way that makes things seem too easy Here amos and Clarissa need shelter supplies and transportation So they walk into the woods and boom some guy tells them. Hey, there's somebody nearby with everything you need And bonus he's a scumbag so you can kill him take all his stuff and not feel too bad about it It felt a little like trying to have your cake and eat it too Amos and Clarissa wonder if it's wrong to kill someone purely for your own benefit But there's the escape hatch if he was going to kill us first So we look at this moral gray area without having to really dive into it to be fair She does point out that they sort of provoked him So that saves it a little for me and I like where it ultimately leads from a character standpoint And that's my feeling on this storyline overall this episode from a plot standpoint I didn't love where it went but on an emotional and character level which to me is more important It did work at the end of the episode Clarissa points out that going out of your way to murder someone and take their stuff It's not the kind of thing good people do It's not even the kind of thing bad people trying to live like good people do and I loved amos's response to that Yeah All the never would have proven to move like that I need to get back to my crew I think he realizes that as far as he's come his journey is far from over He still doesn't quite know how to be an entirely good person But it's very self aware of him to note that he needs to be around others He needs to get back to his crew Who have a little bit of a better idea how to be good? And it made me really excited to see the eventual reunion with amos and his crew Because i'm so curious what their relationship will look like now He's clearly changed and I think holden and Naomi will recognize that I also think they'll be able to help him along on his journey to be good Though I imagine it won't be an easy one I also think there will be some mixed feelings if he tries to bring Clarissa along Anyway, I think we can wrap it up there. Like I said, I thought this was a solid episode And I'm excited to see how things progress in the next four Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments Let me know if you agreed with my take where you disagreed and we'll keep the conversation going And if you enjoyed this video, please go ahead and hit the like button Hit the subscribe button and hit the bell icon so you get notified when our next video drops We'll continue to review the show every week and have some other expanse related videos on the way Including one deep diving into fred johnson's character So stay tuned for that with that. Thanks for watching and see you on the next one take