The Rocinante searches for a safe port.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
After last week’s action packed escape from the Donnager “Back to the Butcher” was much more of a calm walk in the park as far as The Expanse goes. The crew of the Canterbury find themselves drifting together again, this time on a Martian Navy Corvette, and Miller, well he’s still searching for Julie Mao. New details emerge and the story definitely advances but this is definitely a lot of build with no big payoff.
The crew of the Canterbury find themselves in another pickle as they’re once again trapped on a ship with nowhere to go. At least this ship isn’t on the edge of falling apart and has some cozy accommodations including alcohol and coffee. The primary dilemma presented here comes in the form of a message they receive from OPA big shot Fred Johnson who invites them to Tycho station where they will presumably receive a warm welcome.
Naomi’s ardent refusal to make the trip to Tycho station apparently has everything to do with Fred Johnson, a man she refuses to trust. She doesn’t seem to know Fred personally but as she says, “She knows the type.” Considering their situation it seems like a paper thin reason to take a chance on finally finding an end to the rollercoaster ride they’ve been on. Jim doesn’t put up much of a fight regarding the whole thing either, instead he just waits it out while Wes talks some sense into Naomi. As far as an interesting conflict or dilemma everything about Naomi’s original refusal to go Tycho was flat. It’s either a badly executed story or Naomi knows more about Fred Johnson than she’s letting on. I’m hoping for the latter. The big reveals were that space coffee is just as important as Earth coffee and Jim now knows he’s famous.
Juxtaposed with the scenes aboard the Martian corvette were flashbacks from an incident that occurred eleven years ago between some workers in the belt who took issue with the conditions their kids were being exposed to and revolted, violently, against their employers. This results in an intriguing standoff with a UN vessel that appears to be completely disinterested in communicating or negotiating with the workers, instead dismissing them as terrorists and destroying the station they are on. It’s an important bit of world building as we get to see just how poorly people are treated in the belt and how the UN government, at least 11 years ago, treated them. It definitely feeds into the disdain shown towards Earth’s government and why the belters would form their own nation. It also establishes the importance of the OPA as an organization that would rally to aid belters and defend their rights.
Also, the pivotal reveal to conclude the flashback is that Fred Johnson was the man behind the destruction of the station. Does this suggest that Fred Johnson is a man who shouldn’t be trusted like Naomi suggests or are we seeing an important transformative moment for a man who was tasked with killing the lives of children. There’s a little of both in there for sure.
Meanwhile, Miller is still doing his detective thing and attempting to track down Julie Mao. It feels like every week we watch Miller gather one more piece of evidence. I like watching it because I like Miller and I love his brand of detective but I have to admit that the investigation feels like it’s dragging just a little bit at this point. At least Miller’s hair was interesting and it was good to see Jared Harris again.
At this point, the investigation into Julie obviously become a bit of an obsession for Miller and a lot of the work he’s doing is off the books and probably above his pay grade as was suggested to him this week. I actually wonder if the warning this week to take things up stairs instead of handling it himself had more to do with some inside knowledge or just genuine concern. Athena knows him best so maybe it’s simply the latter, and she was right too. After Mille tracked down what could be a key piece of evidence he was kidnapped. Maybe while he’s in captivity he can work on his pronunciation of Anubis. I thought that was a cute character flaw.
“Back to the Butcher” was an enjoyable change of pace after last week’s bombastic escape from the Donnager but it was maybe a little too subdued at times. The most interesting story here is Fred Johnson’s flashback that delves into past relations between Earth and those working in the belt.
