The Expanse: Season 1, Episode 2 – “The Big Empty”

In the vast expanse of empty space, ships can go dark and disappear. Like the Canterbury, dead and drifting among the stars. Like the Scopuli, abandoned and lifeless. In The Expanse‘s second episode, “The Big Empty”, we follow the Knight and its crew members as they struggle to remain alive, while the mystery surrounding Julie Mao (Florence Faivre) and the Scopuli deepens.

Reeling from the Canterbury’s explosion and the death of Ade (Kristen Hager), Holden (Steven Strait) is initially hell-bent on following the Martian ship, insisting that they can’t get away with murder. However, Naomi (Dominique Tipper) quickly takes control by locking the engines, forcing everyone to take a deep breath and reassess their situation — which is looking pretty dire at this point. Space debris damaged the radio antennae and the outer door of the airlock. In order to fix the antennae outside the ship, all the air must be vented outside, leaving the crew members in space suits for the duration of the repairs. Oxygen quickly becomes a critical issue, but Holden and Amos (Wes Chatham) fix the antennae (by kicking it, no less) just in the nick of time. Eventually, their signal is picked up by a nearby spacecraft, but alas! It’s the Donnager, a ship belonging to the Mars Congressional Navy. They immediately take the crew as prisoners, but not before Holden wisely sent a message into space as insurance pending their capture.

The power dynamics happening on the Knight this episode were definitely intriguing. Although Holden is effectively the new captain, having previously been the executive officer, Amos clearly has loyalty ties to Naomi. Whatever their relationship to each other might be, Amos was more than willing to shoot Holden on her command. Naomi herself is emerging as a strong leader, taking charge of repairing the ship and keeping everyone on task. Being able to keep a cool head under pressure just might give her the advantage over Holden’s impulsive nature.

Back on Ceres, the space port is undergoing an increased water ration, as the expected ice shipment from the Canterbury didn’t arrive. It makes sense that water rationing exists in a resource-depleted universe, but it’s curious that one missed ice shipment should’ve had such an impact on rationing. There must be more than one ice trawler hauling in cargo for such an important space port, right? Also, shouldn’t water-recycling technology be perfected by the time we enter the 23rd century? (I suppose it’s plausible that belters didn’t foresee the extent of water depletion from the more privileged and wealthy.) Anyway, Detective Miller’s (Thomas Jane) alerted to some potential water theft happening among the Belter criminals, namely a gang called the Greigas. He discovers that it wasn’t the Greigas stealing water — it was just a group of punks hoping to sell the water for some money, and Miller lets the leader, Diogo (Andrew Rotilio), go free. Amidst the water scuffle, the detective manages to link Julie Mao with the Scopuli, which went dark shortly after taking off.

Despite this, Detective Miller continues to do nothing for me. From fighting for clean air filters for sick children, to letting criminals go on a half-hearted warning, we’re clearly meant to see that this rough-and-tumble investigator has a soft spot. But so far, he succeeds at being neither a dark, dangerous man, nor a kind, loving soul. His threats are toothless, and his good deeds are ineffectual. Without any bite to his bark, Miller ends up coming off as an arrogant, smarmy jerk that lets criminals go because he lacks conviction. A man who believes in nothing could be interesting — if only they could get rid of the tiresome attitude that comes with it.

Meanwhile, political tension’s mounting among the inner planets when UN operative Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is reprimanded for using gravity torture on the Belter suspected of being part of the OPA (a Belter militant organization). It turns out that the stealth technology he was found with, referred to by Chrisjen as the “holy grail”, could very well disrupt the delicate balance between Earth and Mars. Since Earth isn’t in a position to afford such tech, Chrisjen fears the worst: that Mars has somehow found an ally in the Belters. “The cold war is over”, she portends ominously. “This is something new”. What makes Chrisjen such an interesting character is that she’s clearly a believer in higher ideals, which makes her dangerous: she’ll do anything it takes to achieve her goals. Aghdashloo does wonders in lending Chrisjen dignity and power with her commanding presence, while still making her come across as sympathetic.

The Expanse has been receiving a lot of comparisons to Battlestar Galactica in the media. I don’t believe the show has quite reached that level of greatness yet, as it’s still lacking in edge-of-your-seat thrills and magnetic lead characters. However, The Expanse is definitely taking steps in the right direction. Focusing more on character-driven stories can steer the show around common science fiction pitfalls, such as being too dense and overstuffed with plot. Zooming in on the intensity and fear of dying in outer space (losing oxygen, losing water) is a smart move, and makes the action and characters all the more compelling.

Other Thoughts:

Even though I doubt Ade will play a major role in the series, seeing how she’s dead and all, it still bothers me that she was cast as a white woman when she was clearly described as Nigerian in the book series. Will the whitewashing never end?

I’m hoping that Holden will come clean about logging the Scopuli’s distress call, because his guilt will surely affect his judgement in the future. Also, angst-ridden protagonists get annoying fast.

The dizzying, spinning effects as the Knight got hit by the debris field were very well-done.

Havelock (Jay Hernandez), although not really contributing to the show in any way yet, still made me laugh as he cradled his cactus plant throughout the episode.

Amos, just after musing about how easy it would be to murder Holden: “Can you pass me the drill? Thank you”. I chuckled.