Last night's season finale of The Expanse was supposedly the series finale but it clearly wasn't meant to be. There are at least three unresolved subplots from the season, plus the overall series plot about the protomolecule doesn't feel done. Even as a season finale, it didn't have quite the impact of previous seasons.
Partly I wonder if it's the absence of actors like Thomas Jane or David Strathairn. And, of course, the absence of Cas Anvar continues to feel wrong, for the absence of his performance but more for the absence of his character, Alex. It's like if Scotty died in the second season of Star Trek and no-one made a big deal about it.
Spoilers after the screenshot.
There was a lot of awkward moral clean-up in this season, too, like Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) expressing regret about torturing the Belter in season one or Clarissa (Nadine Nicole) feeling sorry about killing the mechanic she worked with. Maybe they both do feel sorry about these things but their confessions came at awkward times and felt artificially injected.
The episode also did that thing Chris Chibnall has garnered criticism for doing on Doctor Who--showing the protagonist about to sacrifice herself only for a minor character to step in and do the sacrifice at the last minute. Drummer (Cara Gee) had that cool line, "Leave the Pella to me!" before she set up her suicide run only for someone else to do it. Bobbie (Frankie Adams) made like she was going to sacrifice herself to take out some gun defenses but her special suit ended up surviving a hail of bullets. That's a little more plausible, at least, but the moment felt deflated anyway.
And, of course, Filip managing to sneak off and survive felt like bullshit. The show would've been better off letting Naomi's (Dominique Tipper) grief remain legitimately earned. That's war.
Well, the action sequences were nice. But this show is definitely a long way from its heyday and, if this truly was the final episode, it's going out on a weak note.
The Expanse is available on Amazon Prime.
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