 What's up guys and welcome to one take. I'm Gil and today we're talking about the Expanse Season 5 Episode 4. This will be a full recap and review so it will of course be full of spoilers through episode 4 but I haven't read any of the books so no spoilers for any future episodes. I'll say right at the top that this was my favorite episode of the season so far, mainly because of how substantial and climactic it felt almost like a season finale. But the great thing is we now get to live with the fallout from this episode and see how things play out over the remaining six episodes of the season. One of my favorite aspects of the episode was the way they chose to show us the collision of the asteroids. It reminded me of something Steven Spielberg talked about when he made War of the Worlds. Going into that production he said that there weren't going to be any of the usual sweeping helicopter shots you get in big action movies where you get a great view of the carnage. Instead, everything was going to be from the perspective of the people on the ground. You only see what the characters see. Similarly, any time an asteroid hit this episode we were with one of our characters. For example, in the opening scene Bobby and Alex learn about it from an emergency broadcast. Later we're in the plane with Gao when the third asteroid hits. Seeing the attacks through our character's eyes makes it more visceral and effective. So I thought that was a great choice. Anyway, love the episode. Let's jump into the recap. But first, just a quick reminder. If you're enjoying these videos, please go ahead and hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, and hit the bell icon so you get notified the next time we do a video. We start the episode with Alex and Bobby on the razorback. If you pay attention, you'll see it says razorback on the screen before that's replaced with screaming firehawk. This is a reference to season one where Alex wanted to name their ship the Screaming Firehawk, but of course got outvoted and they went with the Rossinante. Anyway, they're following Emily Babbage's ship on a supply run. They expect to see her meet with black market dealers as part of the illegal Martian weapons trade. Alex is skeptical that so many people could be involved in it and wonders how Bobby can be so nonchalant about the whole thing. So she tells him the story of her pet rat. She was so grief-stricken after it died but eventually ran out of grief. She buried the rat and moved on. Similarly, she's buried Mars. She realizes that it no longer represents something that she can fight for. She assures Alex he'll soon have a similar realization and be able to move forward. Then in a touching moment, Alex tells her that it's good having someone to talk to about this stuff. He's sorry he can't be that person for his son and he tells Bobby that he hopes his son can one day find someone like Bobby that he can talk to. Like I mentioned before, they're interrupted by an emergency broadcast about flight restrictions due to emergency relief efforts caused by the asteroid hitting earth. So I already mentioned how I loved seeing each of our characters reacting to the news of the asteroid. I also like getting a peek into Bobby's psyche here. In my last review, I talked about how great it is seeing the fallout of the ring all the way down at the street level. This is a great example of that. The entire culture of Mars has shifted and we see how that's crushed the spirit of many people, including Bobby. Now we get to see how she's rebuilding herself and finding something to fight for. Next, we rejoin Amos. A couple of episodes back, he asked Vasurala to arrange a meeting for him and we finally get to see it here. He's at a UN penitentiary where he's brought to the basement. Inmates with body modifications are kept down there because they require extra precautions. Finally, we see who he's there to meet and it's Julie Mouse sister, Clarissa. She's in a bad state, heavily medicated with blockers because of her mods, which can't be removed without apparently making things even worse for her. When she asks Amos why he's there, he explains that People like us, the things we do is not just on us. This world is messed up and it can mess you up. I was lucky. I had somebody that helped me. And I assume here he's talking about Lydia, his surrogate mother. Clarissa asks Amos if he's there to help her and he admits that he is, even though she thinks that's impossible. Nobody can help her. They're interrupted when things go into lockdown, the lights go out and asteroid number two has hit earth. I mentioned in my last review that I love the Amos character and I'm a fan of where he's going this season. He's always felt a bit like Clint Eastwood to me. Man, a few words, but a badass who always gets things done. Now he's sort of transformed into later stage Clint Eastwood of the movie Unforgiven. He's looking back on a violent life and reconciling with himself. Now, I haven't been as much into the Clarissa character, mainly because I never sympathized with her. Early on, we saw how coldly she killed innocent people and let others die. I was never really able to see past that, even though to some extent we can understand why she would do all that. Either way, I definitely enjoyed the relationship between her and Amos last season and I'm excited to see more of it here. I think watching him try to help someone go through a similar journey as the one he's been through will be interesting and it'll teach us something about Amos and probably change him in some ways. I also just think we're in for a pretty cool story. I assume that being in the basement of the penitentiary protected Amos and Clarissa from the asteroid, but now they're trapped underground with a bunch of criminals with body modifications. So they'll probably have to fight their way out and then once they get out they'll have to navigate the chaos above. So, seems like he's going to be our man on the street for the Earth asteroid story. Also, I should mention, stay tuned for a video I'm working on recapping Amos Burton's origin story from the novella, The Churn. It details much more of his backstory, which has really only been alluded to in the show. Next, we check in with Avasrala, who is pissed after the first asteroid hit. She's struggling to get the word out that it was not just a random collision but a planned attack. Then Felix informs her that a second asteroid is hit. With Felix's help, she finally figures out how to get a message to Secretary General Gao through a chef on board Gao's plane. Avasrala tells Gao she needs to reactivate the Watchtower satellites so they can detect the remaining asteroids, which are protected by Martian cloaking technology. Gao is finally convinced to heed Avasrala's warning, but then asteroid number three hits, taking out Gao and much of her cabinet. This was one of my favorite moments of the episode because they managed to work a crazy emotional roller coaster into a five-minute block of television. We start with the rage and urgency as Avasrala worked to figure out how to get her message through. Then we have triumph as she finally gets the message out but moments later that's undercut by another freaking asteroid hitting Earth. Again, we're shaken by it all the more because we're experiencing it through her eyes and it's a major status quo shift less than halfway through the season. It's a bold and awesome choice. Next, we check in with Holden and Fred. They're pulling the trigger on their Trojan horse plan. Basically the people who kidnapped Monica expect to find her in a shipping container, but instead they'll find Bull and a couple of his men. A ship called Zamiya approaches to pick up the container but turns out they're not there to pick up a shipping container at all, instead they attack. Suddenly Sakai shoots Fred and goes in search of the protomolecule. In his last breaths, Fred tells Holden that the protomolecule is in his quarters with security fully engaged holding off the attack Holden heads to Fred's quarters himself. He shoots one of Marco's goons but finds a droid digging out Fred's protomolecule. Holden tries and fails to stop the robot so the droid grabs the protomolecule sample and Sakai ejects it, sending the protomolecule to Marco Inaros. First, I gotta say that Fred and Bull's plan here was pretty terrible. Even if the bad guys did pick up the shipping container you have no idea what kind of firepower they'll have so you just don't know what you're stepping out of that shipping container into. But either way the moment the coup began was incredible. I was genuinely shocked to see Fred shot, also just like with the asteroids, Fred's death was shown to us in an interesting way. On most other shows we would have been in the hospital room as they're trying to save his life. We'd hear them yell clear, try to zap him a few times, then CPR, etc. Instead we experience it through Holden's eyes. We see Fred taken away then the next time we see him he's bloody and dead. We see towels drenched in blood everywhere so we understand the fight that took place as they tried to save his life. In the last few episodes we saw Holden mulling over his place in all this. Should he pack it up, go home and have a good life, or stay in the fight? After seeing Fred taken out I think Holden will very much stay in the fight and will try to honor Fred's legacy. Also I have to say Sakai did a great job of making me absolutely hate her. When the protomolecule sample gets away she laughs and is kind of a very sore winner. It felt very naive to me as if it's all a game to her even though she is culpable or at least okay with the deaths of millions of people on earth. I think this plays into the show's narrative that Marco is a charming leader whose rhetoric can get people like Sakai to commit atrocities. These are the best kinds of villains where we can hate them and at the same time understand them. Next we go back to Avasarala. She leaves a message with her husband begging him to reply and just let her know that he is okay. From Felix she learns that there is still uncertainty over who is next in line to succeed Gao. But the watchtowers are being retasked. Felix also apologizes for not fighting harder to get people to listen to them. Then takes Avasarala to a common area where people are congregating and comforting each other. Finally the watchtower detects a fourth asteroid and stops it. Now when Felix takes Avasarala to this room there's one guy in the foreground who says for some reason that line hit me as super cheesy like they just needed a one liner so we understand the topic on everyone's mind in that room. But putting that aside I loved the moment of the fourth asteroid getting stopped. It was sort of the one triumphant moment in a series of tragedies this episode. Finally we wrap the episode with Naomi. Philip takes her to see Marco and we get the reunion that's been years in the making. He surprises her with the news of the three asteroids. She is of course devastated saying that Marco has stained their son's hands with blood just like he did to Naomi years ago. Philip insists that it was his choice. Then he locks Naomi up. She begs him to let her go. Then she sort of breaks down. I've got to say Dominique Tipper continues to crush it as Naomi here. She's doing a great job of communicating the pain that that character is in. But now that we've seen her in pain for a few episodes I'm hoping we see that turn soon. I would love to see a Rorschach-esque I'm not locked in here with you you're locked in here with me situation. I'm hoping that Naomi will be able to fight Marco's group from the inside. I'm also hoping she gets a chance to tell Philip more of her story so that he might understand a little bit better the choices that she made. I think that's going to be part of the fight against Marco. If she can win some of Philip's sympathy she might be able to get him to budge from blindly following everything Marco does. Anyway Marco celebrates three asteroids that successfully hit earth then sends a message to the world taking credit for the attack. He lays out that he is the commander of the Free Navy the military arm and voice of the outer planets. The attack was retribution for years of atrocities committed by inners on Belters. Maybe most importantly he points out that they now have possession of the last remaining sample of protomolecule. He wraps up by saying that outside of earth and Mars the vacuum the ring gates and the ring worlds all belong to the Belters. The title of this episode was Gagamila which I believe refers to the battle of Gagamila. That's where Alexander the Great had a major victory which was a large part of his conquests. This episode was Marco's battle of Gagamila. He's taken a big step toward conquering the world or worlds and I thought his ending speech here was chilling. Also showing us the reaction from various characters as the speech played out was great. We see how totally dumbfounded they are and we know that they feel completely at Marco's mercy in this moment. Again this felt like a season finale moment where we would normally have to wait a year to see the ramifications. But here we only have to wait a week and I can't wait to see what happens next. Anyway like I said I was a big fan of the episode. Can't wait to see where things go next and with that I'll just say if you enjoyed this video please go ahead and hit that like button, hit the subscribe button and hit the bell icon. We'll be reviewing this show weekly so you'll definitely want to keep up. Also let me know in the comments what you thought of the episode and we'll keep the conversation going. With that thanks for watching and see you on the next one take.