The Expanse: Babylon's Ashes
Jan. 14th, 2022 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI have to say, that was one of the most satisfying series finales I've seen -- I was really happy with how the trajectories of all the different characters played out.
Obviously there was one enormous hanging plot thread: whatever is going on with the Martians on that planet and the kid who resurrected her brother. There was no way that wasn't going to be creepy, but it was really, really creepy. And unless we actually get some kind of follow-up movie, we may never know more, and all those minutes could have been spent on whatever is up with Avasarala's health, or more of Naomi's PTSD and recovery. I guess they needed to explain why the Martian defectors weren't going to come back to help Marco Inaros?
Moving on to things I do care about... DRUMMER!!!! Queen of all she surveys! But I love that before she got there, she had to give up her pursuit of Inaros, even though it had cost her so much. She couldn't even go down in a blaze of glory: she just had to sit there and let someone else take over. I feel like she needed thst to happen, if she was going to move forward. I also really liked the horse-trading that led to her ending up as president of the Union: that Avasarala (who I love, and whose outfit was AMAZING) still on a really basic level didn't get that the Belters could never agree to an allaince where they would be the junior partner -- that the history of their exploitation was too long, and went too deep. And that Holden, who does get that, hands Drummer the power he really didn't want (the other thing I liked about this is how it tied back to Holden's characterization in S1, and how he was raised to be a leader but doesn't want to, and runs away -- and the thing is that he's a pretty good leader, but he hates it, and even though people like Avasarala keep trying to put him into positions of power, I love that at the end he escapes to the Roci.)
I was also so happy with how the crew of the Roci ended up -- free, with Bobbie on board (because even though it's legitimate salvage it just seems right that there should be a Martian on the crew), and also Clarissa being accepted. I loved the point Naomi made, that the forgiveness Clarissa was looking for was the same forgiveness she would have wanted for Filip. And I also loved her moment with Amos, making th point that he had -- I don't know, not grown up, but become the sort of person who can make his own decisions and guide other people, like Naomi had done for him. In fact this was an empisode full of wonderful Naomi moments, culminating in her decision to destroy the Pella, believing that Filip was on board, and her breakdown afterwards.
Someone presumably is already writing the story where she finds out that he survived, right?
But yes, this was what I wanted for Naomi: she solved the problem, and she acted. (Even though no one likes her red kibble!) The last episode was a great one for Drummer (but heart-wrenching) but I really loved that Naomi got to shine here.
The battle was appropriately tense -- it really did feel like a major character could die, even though none of them did.
Overall, I would have liked another couple of episodes but I really feel like they did a great job to tell the story with the space they had. It felt like an ending with a lot of openings for "what happened next" stories -- to all the characters, and their different worlds.
Obviously there was one enormous hanging plot thread: whatever is going on with the Martians on that planet and the kid who resurrected her brother. There was no way that wasn't going to be creepy, but it was really, really creepy. And unless we actually get some kind of follow-up movie, we may never know more, and all those minutes could have been spent on whatever is up with Avasarala's health, or more of Naomi's PTSD and recovery. I guess they needed to explain why the Martian defectors weren't going to come back to help Marco Inaros?
Moving on to things I do care about... DRUMMER!!!! Queen of all she surveys! But I love that before she got there, she had to give up her pursuit of Inaros, even though it had cost her so much. She couldn't even go down in a blaze of glory: she just had to sit there and let someone else take over. I feel like she needed thst to happen, if she was going to move forward. I also really liked the horse-trading that led to her ending up as president of the Union: that Avasarala (who I love, and whose outfit was AMAZING) still on a really basic level didn't get that the Belters could never agree to an allaince where they would be the junior partner -- that the history of their exploitation was too long, and went too deep. And that Holden, who does get that, hands Drummer the power he really didn't want (the other thing I liked about this is how it tied back to Holden's characterization in S1, and how he was raised to be a leader but doesn't want to, and runs away -- and the thing is that he's a pretty good leader, but he hates it, and even though people like Avasarala keep trying to put him into positions of power, I love that at the end he escapes to the Roci.)
I was also so happy with how the crew of the Roci ended up -- free, with Bobbie on board (because even though it's legitimate salvage it just seems right that there should be a Martian on the crew), and also Clarissa being accepted. I loved the point Naomi made, that the forgiveness Clarissa was looking for was the same forgiveness she would have wanted for Filip. And I also loved her moment with Amos, making th point that he had -- I don't know, not grown up, but become the sort of person who can make his own decisions and guide other people, like Naomi had done for him. In fact this was an empisode full of wonderful Naomi moments, culminating in her decision to destroy the Pella, believing that Filip was on board, and her breakdown afterwards.
Someone presumably is already writing the story where she finds out that he survived, right?
But yes, this was what I wanted for Naomi: she solved the problem, and she acted. (Even though no one likes her red kibble!) The last episode was a great one for Drummer (but heart-wrenching) but I really loved that Naomi got to shine here.
The battle was appropriately tense -- it really did feel like a major character could die, even though none of them did.
Overall, I would have liked another couple of episodes but I really feel like they did a great job to tell the story with the space they had. It felt like an ending with a lot of openings for "what happened next" stories -- to all the characters, and their different worlds.
