The Expanse Season 5 Reactions will continue on Thursday (01/02/2025)! I hope you all have days of peace and laughter to end 2024! Thank you for letting me fly with you. See you in 2025!
The stuff that Marco has done was brewing since season 1. If you remember Avasarala had a Belter on the hooks in the very first episode for stealing Martian stealth tech.
Correct, the bombing of the Martian Parliament happened offscreen. It was was a separate event from the bombing of the dock where Bobbie was working. Marco threw 8 to 10 distinct rocks at the Earth. The plan was for them all to hit in a series. The first rock from Ep501 got too close to the sun and broke up (completely destroyed); that was accidental. Rocks 2 - 4 hit successfully. Every other rock was destroyed by Earth's recalibrated defense system or missed. The problem is that 3 successful strikes is more than enough to do a lot of damage.
@@nitanor6475 They're all about the same size, although the script-writer were off by a few orders of magnitude on the damage done. It's measured in *megatons* and not kilotons. The dinosaur=killer was 10 km (6-7 miles) in diameter, and there's no way any ship in the Solar System could move something that big. Even if they could, most telescopes would pick it up in a hurry (even covered in stealth composites) just from the stars it blocks, not to mention that the engine-flare from the power needed would've shown up to everybody, everywhere. But remember, Earth is in this setting what China and India are now -- countries one of my History professors called a "high-energy society." The population density is *so great* that it takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources just to keep everybody fed, sheltered and (mostly) secure. The power grid and transportation logistics can't be interrupted, or the whole planet seizes up as if it were a highly-revved engine with metal filings in the fuel tank.
This episode is up there with red wedding in terms of shock for me. Massive throwback to Avasarala day on the roof in S1 worried about shooting stars. Marco has thrown a bunch of similar sized rocks at earth, the first broke up, 3 have hit and 1 destroyed so far... I don't think any 1 rock would have been extinction level on its own. Great reaction
Of note; there was a manufacturerer label on the industrial spiderbot "Savage Industries". A nod to Adam Savage of Mythbusters, a friend of the show. ♥️🤟😎♥️
Dont forget, it's not the initial destruction at the point of impact but the collateral damage. The collision will kick up dust into the upper atmosphere, cascading into a classic nuclear winter, significantly affecting crop yields for decades 😯
In terms of the secrecy Inaros was able to pull off... Consider that multiple characters were shown to get a wind of what he was doing. They just didn't get the full picture, or concrete enough proof to be able to get the authorities to take him seriously enough, soon enough. They were in the process of peeling away the secrets, but just didn't get there in time. And there'll be some more pieces to the picture coming up in later episodes, of course.
"Chef Casey" has been acknowledged as a nod to Steven Segal's role as "Chef Casey" in "Under Siege." RIP to Chef Casey. They lost New York: RIP to Niko and RIP to Charles. As closely as the first rock swung around the sun, it would have had the greatest velocity of all of them. I don't think Marco could calculate whether the one rock could have been an extinction event in itself...but Marco did have multiple rocks targeting Earth, so he certainly didn't care if Earth died. I think the only way a bomb got inside the Martian parliament was by someone on the inside...a highly trusted renegade Martian who had access to the parliament without being searched. I think Sakai was the biggest surprise of the entire season. And that event held a surprise for novel readers, too. I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but 'way back in episode 3 when Naomi was being interrogated by Lopez, Lopez showed her a computer screen of the intelligence Mars already had on her. It showed a picture of Marco as a known associate. "Gaugamela" was the ancient battle against the Persian empire that made Alexander the Great great. Also, Pella was Alexander's birthplace.
Charles was in Baltimore. He may have survived. Also not whole New York died. Nico might be fine as well. Naomi's file didn't show a picture of Marco, but his name, among with others like Cyn, Karat, and Capt. Rokku.
@@madux42 You're right. There's someone else early that shows his picture...I guess I'll have to rewatch the entire series to find it! But we saw that Baltimore was under water, and Nico was near the the UN and Columbia University, which were also under water.
@@kirkdarling4120 I don't think there was any image of him shown prior to season 4. Since Koen Alexnder was only casted when they reached that season, I don't know how they would have done that.
The one who shot Fred, I always find that line so haunting, and it lives in my mind, "too bad. So sad. You lose." Summary of the episode. The source of the warships will be revealed soon. Don't want to spoil anything for you, but there are a lot more details about the MCR in the books and a whole extra thing going on with Alex and Bobbie in Nemesis Games.
We saw in the very last scene of season 4 that Marco sent 9 rocks all on different trajectories that should all hit Earth on its orbit, one after the other. We also saw different rocks with different projected locations to hit and different impact times in episode 5x01. The one that broke apart was just one that failed, getting too close to the Sun when meant to slingshot around it. The rocks that hit now have nothing to do with the one that broke apart. Also, the attack on the Martian parlament was only mentioned in the news and happened off-screen.
The one that broke up would have been another one similar to the ones that hit. As others pointed out he threw 9 and 3 hit, 1 broke up, and 5 were destroyed by earth only because Avasarala managed to get Gao to retask the watchtowers to look for them or else the other 5 would have hit too (so that was saved by mere seconds since Gao died moments after retasking the watchtowers). If you remember the scientist that broke up the joke about the Belter, Martian, and Earther drinking with his analysis of the rock that broke up he claimed that an asteroid hitting earth would be the equivalent of 1 to 4 megatons (about 200 times the Hiroshima bomb). HOWEVER, the scientist was incorrectly assuming that the rock would have been traveling at "normal" asteroid speeds, but Marco is a slingshotter and sent the rocks around planets/stars to increase the speed like a slingshot pilot would and since F=ma^2 (and the acceleration of an impact is the deceleration of the asteroid being stopped by the earth) so the faster the rock is going the worse (squared!) the force of the impact. So a slingshot asteroid would be way worse. You don't need it to be extra big if it is traveling extra fast.
Whew! I'm so happy I can finally say this -- There will come a time you'll like Monica so don't be too hard on her! LOL Other than that, all I can do is chuckle happily. 😜
Clarissa is the first person thats truly blurs the lines of Amos's "3 types of people" rule, he doesn't need to protect her, won't follow her and in his eyes she's not a 'bad person' thats needs ending.
Amos has been protecting Peaches...that's why he visited her in the first place. There will be more to see about that. Amos has always treated Naomi as equally both someone to follow and someone to protect, and he will treats Holden that way as well. If Prax had told Amos to leave Strickland alive, Amos would have. We see with Peaches that even his "bad people" category can be permeated. His three categories have never been absolutely mutually exclusive, and to a certain degree, circumstantial.
Wild episode! The female guard who gave Amos the 'tour' of the facility was played by Natalie Brown. She was Three's significant other in Dark Matter (the older SyFy series). I knew I recognized her from somewhere! So happy I am experiencing this again with you!
The _only_ negative I can say about the casting choice of Filip is that, in the books he's around 14 years old and they kept a lot of that immaturity in the TV adaptation even though I don't think he could reasonably be considered younger than 17. That's barely a negative at all since, yes, he might be a 17-year-old, but he's a 17-year-old raised in a cult, as the only child of its leader, so he's bound to not fit within a range of maturity levels one would expect for that age.
An earth killer asteroid coated in stealth tech would occlude so much starlight that it could easily be detected by regular telescope activity in a setting where there would be cameras pointed everywhere.
It's Gaugamela... *according* to Alexander... heck, he even named his flagship "Pella" and has the eagle motive on his suit... One point however remains: is *Nancy* Darius? Are Earth and Mars truly decapitated? Oyedeng Raoul G. Kunz
When Fred is being pulled to the med bay and sees all his work being destroyed while bleeding out… that hits me hard every time. He really was trying to make the belt independent, and he was getting close too. It’s just so sad. Also, the rocks that hit Earth had nothing to do with the rock that broke up, that one was spotted hence Chrisjen and Felix speculating about it in the first couple episodes. The rocks that hit were all separate rocks.
As far as I know all the rocks were of similar size. I don't think they have the capability to push a rock big enough to be a planet killer. I think the prison was in the Chesapeake area. I think that's displayed when they show the wide shot of the prison
Somewhere relatively near to Baltimore.. As Amos does basically say he had to take care of some stuff in Baltimore, and implies he was just in the neighbourhood, when Clarissa asked him about his visit..
Ganymede is still out of commission, and won’t be producing food for years. If Marco thought that the Belters were being starved before, wait till he has to explain to them all how he just plunged their last primary food source into a new ice age. Whoops!! 🤦♂️
Actually a great point that gets talked more in the books and not dwelled on in the show. When people tell him he basically condemned the Belt to starvation for years to come he just shrugged it as nonsense. That's Marco. The only thing important to him, is himself.
Marco doesn't give a shit about Belters. Dawes may have been a selfish narcissist, but at least his narcissism included the benefit of all Belters. Marco isn't a narcissist, he's a psychopath.
You’re way overthinking this. The rocks that hit earth aren’t the pieces of the one that broke up. That one was just a miss. Asteroids have crazy complex makeups, they just miscalculated that one. That’s why they had to hit the ship that spotted it. The scope of everything will become clearer. Right now we just know that at least 5 rocks were thrown. One failed and needed intervention to prevent discovery of the others. 3 others hit. The 5th was spotted and destroyed.
No, the broken up rock was not a "planet killer". The scientist Chrisjen interviewed stated it would have impacted with the force of 20-40 megatons (i dont recall exactly, but it was only 10's of megatons). Additionally, larger rocks could be detected, even if coated in stealth, just due to their size.
There's . . . reasons for the lack of an equal attack on Mars. The show doesn't explore that QUITE as well as the books do, but it touches on it. And, no single one of the asteroids Marco landed on Earth was going to be the "planet killer" in the way you're thinking, BUT . . . they EACH were enough to cause long-term problems. That also will get explored by the show: the extent to which the Earth is screwed, or not. Also, the big season-ending attack on Mars, with the dome decompression, and Bobbie in the middle of chaos and destruction -- that's not what they're referring to in this episode, when they talk about the attack on the Martian Parliament. That's offscreen. On the other hand -- that scene from season 4 WAS an attack led by Filip. We just don't know to look for him in that episode -- but we do see him briefly! Honestly -- My personal thought is that the books did the Marco storyline a little bit better -- but I like the crew storylines better in the show. As much as you hate Marco Inaros in the show -- he's so much more fleshed out (and obnoxious) in the books! Would love to hear your take on it once you go through the books, sometime! Thank you, as always, for your reactions! It's always fun to hear your thoughts, and see how immersed you get in the story.
That is right - fucking bards! Inaros is one of the best villains I've seen in recent years and the entire episode is a massive punch which leaves you dazed and confused. Plus the ending speech is a masterpiece.
Alex and Bobbie are on the tail of what has been going on. There are quite a few more pieces of the puzzle yet to come... ...though you may have seen some of their edges already.
Hahahahaha. I love the expanse. And no, we didn't see the attack on Mar's Parliament. The rocks do enough damage aren't quite big enough to be planet killers, like instantaneously or anything, but plenty big enough. I love it that your reaction to characters is basically the same as what I went through. Redeeming Clarissa is masterful writing.
Remember the very first episode of the first season when Chrisjen questioned this belter who was caught transporting Martian stealth composites and they didn't find out what the plan was for those?
Yeah, Maro Inaros is extremely real. This season kills me because I was married to one like him for a decade, and I recognize every move he pulls on Naomi. Sometimes the only thing you can do is walk away.
None of the rocks Marco threw were big enough to “kill the planet” by themselves…. But a bunch of small- med. sized rocks (small being harder to detect) would have a cumulative effect / the more hits the worse it will get on Earth… this would likely be damaging to the planet for generations. …. ☄️ 💥💥💥 On to the next episode!!! 🚀🚀
Well it's no secret how much I love this show. And I constantly gloat how good it is. So many fantastic moments. Emotional moments that tug at my heart and triumphs. Then there's this! The show said they were going for the emotional impact similar to when the towers were attacked. To say the least they succeeded! I've never been shooked, shocked and emotionally compromised from an episode of a TV show! I've never hated a character so much than Marco! All the way back in season one when Chrisjen was lying on the roof saying she worried about people who throw rocks.... 😢 The writers sure play the long game! My God, the way we lost Fred absolutely broke my heart! That little c*nt that shot him! I liked her too! How can I love and hate an episode at the same time! Well done Expanse.... well done.
Marco's ship is called the "Pella". Pella was the name of the city where Alexander the Great was born. That should tell you a lot about how Marco Inaros thinks of himself.
It's easy to forget how divided the belt is generally. People have been investigating stuff but they're is so much prejudice and finger pointing that Marco could play different angles. Earth/Mars generally knew and suspected Dawes and Johnson as being the main powers in the belt. While the hunt for Marco showed that there are several smaller factions all weighing in food their sides. Even when Ashford caught up to him his assumption was that Marco was after Eris and Tycho. And Mao caused a big upset before with his stealth fleet so that could have seen suspicions about stealth theft closed as solved until Bobbie got into this new line of black market trading.
The question I have about threatening to unleash the Protomolecule is, whether it would still be a threat at this point. I mean, 'the work' in the Sol system is done and there won't be any new assignments because the Romans are gone. It could be totally passive now, it's just that of course nobody dared to find out.
It seems to have it's own BIOS to assimilate biomass until it's powerful enough to network with other protomolecule... so a local sample like that might do the same thing as it did in season 1 until it's big enough to find out it is obsolete? Just a theory. At any rate it answers the question of whether Naomi did the right thing preserving it for the belt. This is exactly what Holden was afraid of when he ordered it destroyed...
They definitely do not have the capability to send an asteroid as big as the one that killed the dinosaurs, because that would be at least several times larger than the Nauvoo, if not 10x larger. The asteroid that broke up did not hit, all of those pieces were detectable once there was stealth coating on only one side of them
I hate having to wait for the next reaction. Thankfully I was able to binge the show at first but now I'm stuck waiting to see the next reaction! Aaarrrgh
@@obelisk21 Yep, what Marco did was objectively horrific and wrong. His actions were all rooted in the fact that all other options had feasibly been exhausted and the belt was heading towards irrelevance and annihilation. Without immense and swift systemic changes, the belt would be abandoned by Earth and Mars and left to die in the dark, with the inners colonizing the ring systems and scouring them for resources via all the unemployed masses from Earth. They were facing no future, and all signs pointed to the UN and Mars letting them die off instead of letting justice be done through reparations, bolstering of rights, transferring ownership of Tycho/Ceres/etc. to Belters from the owning corps via eminent domain, swift restoration of Ganymede after the UN/Mars conflict gutted it, etc. The rings brought about an existential crisis for belters, and marco was right in that the ring didn't change the hearts of the UN/Mars leadership. They'd bring in the OPA to the table, knowing they could out-vote them 2 to 1, and utilize them as a police force to keep inner colonists safe while colonization proceeds, and that's not charity on the part of the UN/Mars, it's just a different colour of exploitation while they bide their time and recover their strength. Marco was able to do what he did because the UN and mars neglected their moral and ethical duties to the belt for generations, and opposed progress at each and every step, eliminating all peaceful and orderly options from belters who knew they deserved change. They made Marco inevitable. And Marco, he capitalized on that desperation and the neglect of the belt, and on the egos of the inner governments which didn't even consider the belt capable of something like this. The speech at the end is a master-stroke. Knowing Marco by what we've seen so far, we know there's more to the story and that he's not this righteous revolutionary, but placing ourselves outside of that context, the demands he makes aren't out of line, and his comments on the moral/social character of the inner governments are painfully accurate. It's what makes Marco one of my most hated villains. What he did was horrible, but push comes to shove, I can't think of any other feasible course of action. He was the necessary evil, made necessary by generations of exploitation and neglect and unaddressed suffering. Is just so incredibly tragic on all fronts, because had any reasonable people taken the helm of the UN/Mars across the past generations (and as much as I enjoy Avasarala, that includes her, she was not a reasonable government official), Marco would have been avoidable.
I think the scientist that Avasarala nad Delgado talked to about the broken up rock estimated the explosive power of the impact to be some number of megatons, I don't remember if 4 or 40. If I remember correctly the biggest nuke test done by USSR was more than that, something like 50 or 60 megatons. The shockwave from that detonation was measurable on air pressure sensors after circling the Earth a few times but no "planet killer". The asteroid hit of similar power could have somewhat worse consequences because the explosion would be after hitting the surface and it would kick up more dust in the atmosphere. Something like a giant volcano explosion that makes the next winter worse and the next summer colder. But again, no "planet killer".
But I don't think that scientist was taking into account the faster acceleration from the slingshotting... I think the idea was for it's momentum to be high enough to make up for it's size. Like would you rather drop a bowling ball on your foot from 3 feet away or shoot your foot from that distance with a .22 pistol?
@@fochdion1152 I am not sure what slingshotting you mean here, I didn't see any. The total amount of energy a falling rock can impart on its target is the kinetic energy it looses on impact. So proportional to its mass and its speed relative to the target squared. Near the Sun where it broke up it would have had higher velocity than when reaching Earth, that is just how orbits work. Climbing out of Sun's gravity well on inertia alone (no engine) has to slow it down. So if the scitentist took that into account and estimated its kinetic energy based on its weight and typical speed such type of asteroid has near Earth if its orbit is eliptical enough to take it that close to the Sun he would have gotten the kinetic energy right. The only things to do any slingshot acceleration with between Sun and Earth would be Mercury and Venus. Doing that typically takes years (look at the trajectories of some probes that used that) unless some absolutely amazing coincidence aligned Venus and Earth just perfectly for it. Nothing like that was mentioned. Even if so the speed boos would not be something like an order of magnitude. For Venus slingshots I have seen you typically pick up maybe 30% extra speed. Inaros having experience with slingshoting was mentioned. But that serves to say that he would know better than most people how to set an object (like a big rock) onto an orbit where it would hit the precise spot he wants months later without any power assist in between. In the Expanse universe the Epstein drive made it so that most people do not use such orbits any more, not for the past several generations, they don't need to. Instead they fly with power on, using completely different trajectory designed to maintain some level of acceleration the whole time to provide some level of gravity on board. The Inaros' weaponized asteroids basically use an outdated navigation style - short delta-V impulse from an engine (a ship) and then free fall for the rest of the trip. Which is at that time used only by slingshotters and nobody else thinks of it when thinking of moving around the solar system.
@@hebijirik Ok, sounds like you have thought about it a lot more than me. I got the impression he was using the celestial bodies to do the slingshot thing to pick up speed on it's way to the target but it sounds like based on your explanation that was not the case and he was just using it to aim. Fair enough. I've only watched it once years ago and then watched this reaction so I may miss a lot still.
@@fochdion1152 I might have missed something, there might be some gravity assist accelerations there too. But in the show we saw him watching an animation of the orbits. There was Earth and its orbit and then many (probably 9) read lines intersecting the Earth orbit ahead of the shown postion of Earth and the intersect points spaced out at seemingly regular intervals. So it made it look he aimed at having a hit every few hours with the 9 rocks. One broke up when cooked up too close to the sun, 3 hit, rest was shot down. If the shown red orbits of the rocks looked like they are basically one orbit shifted a little to stagger the impacts it would have been very possible to have used some slingshot to pick up more speed. Just angle the initial orbits toward the slingshot (say Venus for example) so that they get close to it shortly after each other from such angles that their exit orbits from Venus to Earth have them going basicaly like a trian that spreds sideways very little to make the staggered ipacts. But what was visible in the show was the rocks arriving to intersect the Earth orbit from varying directions. To make that happen using major solar system bodies to accelerate each and have them timed like this would be probably exponentially more difficult. If the result was like 10x more destruction and it was even borderline possible someone like Inaros would probably try it. But to take a rock from the Belt and accelerate it to multiples of its original orbital velocity while also angling its orbit to intersect Earth orbit is such huge delta V that one slingshot would not do it. Maybe multiple around multiple large bodies etc. But that would take many years to do (if not decades) and doing it with 9 rocks all undetected... So I think what they did was find 9 rocks for which a reasonably small delta V could get them to intersect Earth with the right timing, paint them stealth while pushing them with the ship onto the right orbit and and let them go. They still arrive at Earth with a few km/s velocity relative to Earth. That is enough to simulate a large nuclear warhead. But one of them had to be sent via a highly excentrich orbit around the Sun and despite the stealh coating got heated enough to break up from the differential expansion (one side hot, one side cold, too much stress...). That exposed unstealthed surfaced and made the fragments detectable. Also frome reading the book (years ago) I don't remember any more elaborate flightpath than that - just use a good enough computer and precise enough map of the solar system to calculate one epstein drive burn that derails the rock from the belt onto an orbit that hits Earth. But like I said my memory might be missing something. Hmm, now this made me wanna read the books again, they are so good... 🙂
Remember when the UN took out the Mars first strike capability and one missile slipped past the defenses? back when 2 million dead was a catastrophe? good times... 3:57 We've been so preoccupied with the gun aimed at Earth, we didn't see the one aimed at Mars. 9:44 Marco Inaros has had so much time to prepare, all the way back in the very first episode we heard Avasarala worry about people who threw rocks, and interrogating belters smuggling stealth tech! 22:53 No, that's not it. the rock that broke apart had the same size that the ones that did hit, and those weren't fragments of the one that broke. it wasn't 1 big hit to destroy it all, it was always meant to be several smaller ones. you can even see that in the holographic flight plans displayed as far back as the season 4 finale. many separate tajectories planned to hit in short succession. 27:39 well, all the hubub with the Protomolecule and the Ring opening probably overshadowed Marcos plans a little, helping him stay hidden. and I can only reiterate what others have said before, Avasarala was pulling at the threads whe had, only she ran out of time, and Someone with a grudge did go after Marcos, Ashford almost found out. But his scope was so small he couldn't imagine the vastness of Marcos plans, no one could! The Razorback is in world still named that, the on screen name of the Screaming Firehawks is a nod to the dedicated fans who between season 3 and 4 worked to save the show from the cancellation. the fans adapted the name from when Alex mentioned it as a possible name for the Roci in the first season. And as always My Friend!! thank you for bringing me along this journey!
The books have a bit more about Mars, but not much. The Martian Prime Minister shows up in the books, but not much here. Fred dies in the books, but in a different way. He strokes out during high g maneuvers. I like how the show did it better. It was more personal. And it's weird to say being shot in the back is more respectful, but story wise I think it's more respectful for the character.
Mars' atmoshere is not breathable. There is no life on its surface. Its population lives mainly underground, or under domes that I doubt are very fragile. Any atmospheric shock waves would be weak ones. Damage from an asteroid hit would be limited to whatever collapses might follow the ground shock wave plus the impact zone devastation. Mars' atmosphere has only 0.13% oxygen (Earth has 22%) and 98% carbon dioxide. There would be little or no conflagration at or near the impact zone and nothing for the ejecta to burn. Directing a stealth asteroid to Mars would be a waste of resources.
I have a malignant narcissist across the street. Thank goodness he doesn't measure up to Marco!! DuckDuck: "The Battle of Gaugamela took place on October 1, 331 BC, between Alexander the Great's Macedonian forces and the Persian army led by Darius III. It was a decisive victory for Alexander, leading to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and significant territorial gains for Macedonia."
Just as an FYI: Season 5 rivals Season 3 as the best in the series. 😁 The dinosaur-killler was about 10 km in diameter (6-7 *miles* ), and that's too big for one of Inaros' spacecraft to move. The ones he sent are much smaller -- which is why he sent a *lot* of them.
The rock which broke up was projected to be a 21 megaton collision - over 1000 Hiroshima's worth but in the same order of magnitude as some of the nastiest we've built and tested. Marco's strategy was death by 1000 cuts rather than any single rock doing the job. Big rocks are exponentially harder to push but small ones are cumulative as they increasingly disrupt the atmosphere. Totally killing Earth would be counterproductive as it is the only source of compatible ecology. We've already seen why importing soil from from a ring world could be dangerous. Glad you noticed the 'Screaming Firehawk' detail.
This one is in my top 5 all time favourite Expanse episodes. Might be no 5 4. Abaddons Gate 3. Home 2 and 1 are interchangeable (one being Immolation the other…..)
As shocking as this episode is, this isn't even the one that will break you. :) But as to where did Marco get these ships. Alex and Bobbie watched the trade! We know Marco has made deals with Mars Navy, stealth tech etc Earth wasn't looking because Nancy was blocking every attempt by Cristen To quote Marco "that's the problem with our kind even are dreams are small"
Monster Spoiler: Do not read until you finish Season 6 or Book 6…. Seriously, this is only for the people who know how it ends. If that’s not you then enjoy the way the show reveals it. What is remarkable is that this monstrous tragedy was only a sideshow, a distraction like the monstrous tragedy (it sure seemed like that at the time) of the destruction of the Canterbury and the deaths of everyone on board in episode 1. These writers continually find ways to raise the stakes. Even season 4, which was a step back from everyone in the solar system at risk of dying at the end of season 3, felt to me like a raising of the stakes in terms of the misery and hopelessness of the crew of the Roci. One of the things I’ve loved the most about these writers is that they had a clear plan of where the story was going to go and everything that comes before fits into the big picture so marvelously. The moment the gates open to the 1300+ new worlds, Avasarala knows that the dream of terraforming Mars is dead. The authors don’t just contrive a plot twist of a major political change on Mars. What Bobby sees happening is an inevitable consequence of the gates opening. There are so many things that happened in the show that you don’t really see coming, but in retrospect look like they obviously had to happen. It’s amazing writing that shocks and surprises and will never let you down.
Marcos new fleet is 100% Martian ships, they just aren't lit the same way as the Roci or the Donny. They have fairly specific visual language for all the Martian ships, their ships look far more futuristic but are still chunky and brutalist looking like the earth fleet., because at their root they are the same people and also both want ships that project strength and an almost imperialism in their design. By comparison Mau's stealth fleet was all black and sleek because they were doing the dirt, the Belters are all cobbled together from freighters and light cargo ships, very much a Millennium Falcon vibe. Marco is trading with the rogue Martians for technology and ships sinc season 4 ( season 1 really); you just have to ask yourself what is it this rogue faction wants that Marco has? (Edit: To put Marco in context. he is the extremist in a group of rebels. Star Wars introduced Saw Gerrera as a similar splinter faction that goes against the will of the whole. Not sure if they did designed Saw this way but to me he feels modeled after someone like Bin Laden. Think of Marco's relationship with the other OPA factions and the Belt as a whole in that way. He is an 'the ends justify the means guy but as you have already called, he is a pure manipulator. I lover that you call him a bard because I never thought of a bard as an antagonistic demagogue before and that is 100% something I will try to play in a future D&D campaign)
As someone who broadly considers himself an anarchist, I couldn't sleep all night after watching this episode. I want a world without politicians too Marco, but not like this. Not like this.
The Expanse Season 5 Reactions will continue on Thursday (01/02/2025)! I hope you all have days of peace and laughter to end 2024! Thank you for letting me fly with you. See you in 2025!
Dude, the moment your face lit up when you recognized that Inaro was going after ALL seats of power.
🤟
there are some mighty legendary episodes in this show
then there's this
@@wz9573 the Expanse; the "Hold my beer" of sci-fi 🤣
The stuff that Marco has done was brewing since season 1. If you remember Avasarala had a Belter on the hooks in the very first episode for stealing Martian stealth tech.
Exactly. Marco is the inevitable result of the exploitation of Belters.
That and the line when she says "I'm afraid of people who throw rocks"
There was also the Martian who deleted himself. “The dream of Mars isn’t dead, it’s about to be writ large!”
The writing on this show is FUCKING EPIC.
@@wtimmins Heck, when Fred called for volunteers to go take out Thoth Station, he called out the "Inaros Faction" by name.
Correct, the bombing of the Martian Parliament happened offscreen. It was was a separate event from the bombing of the dock where Bobbie was working.
Marco threw 8 to 10 distinct rocks at the Earth. The plan was for them all to hit in a series. The first rock from Ep501 got too close to the sun and broke up (completely destroyed); that was accidental. Rocks 2 - 4 hit successfully. Every other rock was destroyed by Earth's recalibrated defense system or missed. The problem is that 3 successful strikes is more than enough to do a lot of damage.
As for rest: 👀
But the war reactor raises a great question which I don’t know the answer to - maybe book readers know. What was the first rock the largest?
@@nitanor6475 They're all about the same size, although the script-writer were off by a few orders of magnitude on the damage done.
It's measured in *megatons* and not kilotons.
The dinosaur=killer was 10 km (6-7 miles) in diameter, and there's no way any ship in the Solar System could move something that big.
Even if they could, most telescopes would pick it up in a hurry (even covered in stealth composites) just from the stars it blocks, not to mention that the engine-flare from the power needed would've shown up to everybody, everywhere.
But remember, Earth is in this setting what China and India are now -- countries one of my History professors called a "high-energy society."
The population density is *so great* that it takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources just to keep everybody fed, sheltered and (mostly) secure.
The power grid and transportation logistics can't be interrupted, or the whole planet seizes up as if it were a highly-revved engine with metal filings in the fuel tank.
This episode is up there with red wedding in terms of shock for me. Massive throwback to Avasarala day on the roof in S1 worried about shooting stars.
Marco has thrown a bunch of similar sized rocks at earth, the first broke up, 3 have hit and 1 destroyed so far... I don't think any 1 rock would have been extinction level on its own.
Great reaction
Of note; there was a manufacturerer label on the industrial spiderbot "Savage Industries". A nod to Adam Savage of Mythbusters, a friend of the show. ♥️🤟😎♥️
Who cameoed on the UN science ship that got disassembled above Venus.
Dont forget, it's not the initial destruction at the point of impact but the collateral damage. The collision will kick up dust into the upper atmosphere, cascading into a classic nuclear winter, significantly affecting crop yields for decades 😯
@@rodentnolastname6612 no point in saying "sssshhhhhh" because he's likely episodes ahead but... aye brother.
Edit: beratna
In the books it’s way _way_ worse… several _billion_ people end up dead.
Crops will fail. Many many millions will die, beyond those killed by the impacts.
Marco Inaros has taught me new levels of hatred for a character I never thought possible... 😆
Chief Casey as a cook on board of UN One is actually a call back to Steven Seagull's character from Under Siege.
Casey ReiBeck, now that's a name I haven't heard in a LONG time...
I love how Fred Johnson quite literally hid protomolecule under his bed. It is so nice touch.
"Every line is a manipulation" that's Marco.
They have launched multiple asteroids. One broke up and got detected. 3 hit the Earth. Nobody on Earth knows how many rocks are still incoming.
And don't forget the few that were aimed at Mars
In terms of the secrecy Inaros was able to pull off... Consider that multiple characters were shown to get a wind of what he was doing. They just didn't get the full picture, or concrete enough proof to be able to get the authorities to take him seriously enough, soon enough. They were in the process of peeling away the secrets, but just didn't get there in time.
And there'll be some more pieces to the picture coming up in later episodes, of course.
"Chef Casey" has been acknowledged as a nod to Steven Segal's role as "Chef Casey" in "Under Siege." RIP to Chef Casey. They lost New York: RIP to Niko and RIP to Charles.
As closely as the first rock swung around the sun, it would have had the greatest velocity of all of them. I don't think Marco could calculate whether the one rock could have been an extinction event in itself...but Marco did have multiple rocks targeting Earth, so he certainly didn't care if Earth died.
I think the only way a bomb got inside the Martian parliament was by someone on the inside...a highly trusted renegade Martian who had access to the parliament without being searched.
I think Sakai was the biggest surprise of the entire season. And that event held a surprise for novel readers, too.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but 'way back in episode 3 when Naomi was being interrogated by Lopez, Lopez showed her a computer screen of the intelligence Mars already had on her. It showed a picture of Marco as a known associate.
"Gaugamela" was the ancient battle against the Persian empire that made Alexander the Great great. Also, Pella was Alexander's birthplace.
I never noticed the s1e3 Marco reference. As if I needed another excuse to do yet another rewatch!
Charles was in Baltimore. He may have survived. Also not whole New York died. Nico might be fine as well.
Naomi's file didn't show a picture of Marco, but his name, among with others like Cyn, Karat, and Capt. Rokku.
@@madux42 You're right. There's someone else early that shows his picture...I guess I'll have to rewatch the entire series to find it! But we saw that Baltimore was under water, and Nico was near the the UN and Columbia University, which were also under water.
@@kirkdarling4120 I don't think there was any image of him shown prior to season 4. Since Koen Alexnder was only casted when they reached that season, I don't know how they would have done that.
The one who shot Fred, I always find that line so haunting, and it lives in my mind, "too bad. So sad. You lose." Summary of the episode.
The source of the warships will be revealed soon.
Don't want to spoil anything for you, but there are a lot more details about the MCR in the books and a whole extra thing going on with Alex and Bobbie in Nemesis Games.
Thank you! I scoured the comments for something like this, I forgot when certain things was revealed and almost spoiled! the source of the ships
Dominique Tipper's acting in this season is off the charts.
Yeah, she breaks my heart again and again. I think she was a dancer with little acting experience when they cast her.
a literal monster under the bed. love where he choose to hide the Proto-molecule
We saw in the very last scene of season 4 that Marco sent 9 rocks all on different trajectories that should all hit Earth on its orbit, one after the other. We also saw different rocks with different projected locations to hit and different impact times in episode 5x01. The one that broke apart was just one that failed, getting too close to the Sun when meant to slingshot around it. The rocks that hit now have nothing to do with the one that broke apart.
Also, the attack on the Martian parlament was only mentioned in the news and happened off-screen.
The one that broke up would have been another one similar to the ones that hit. As others pointed out he threw 9 and 3 hit, 1 broke up, and 5 were destroyed by earth only because Avasarala managed to get Gao to retask the watchtowers to look for them or else the other 5 would have hit too (so that was saved by mere seconds since Gao died moments after retasking the watchtowers).
If you remember the scientist that broke up the joke about the Belter, Martian, and Earther drinking with his analysis of the rock that broke up he claimed that an asteroid hitting earth would be the equivalent of 1 to 4 megatons (about 200 times the Hiroshima bomb). HOWEVER, the scientist was incorrectly assuming that the rock would have been traveling at "normal" asteroid speeds, but Marco is a slingshotter and sent the rocks around planets/stars to increase the speed like a slingshot pilot would and since F=ma^2 (and the acceleration of an impact is the deceleration of the asteroid being stopped by the earth) so the faster the rock is going the worse (squared!) the force of the impact. So a slingshot asteroid would be way worse. You don't need it to be extra big if it is traveling extra fast.
One of my personal favorite episodes. And the title is so fitting...
Whew! I'm so happy I can finally say this -- There will come a time you'll like Monica so don't be too hard on her! LOL Other than that, all I can do is chuckle happily. 😜
Like Monica? Blasphemy!! LOL
I like the character of Monica on account of the actress' charisma. She can't be trusted outside of specific circumstances, but I do still like her.
oh boy, here we go ....this is the one I've been waiting for.
Clarissa is the first person thats truly blurs the lines of Amos's "3 types of people" rule, he doesn't need to protect her, won't follow her and in his eyes she's not a 'bad person' thats needs ending.
I think, he thinks that they're kind of similar animals in that regard.
Amos has been protecting Peaches...that's why he visited her in the first place. There will be more to see about that. Amos has always treated Naomi as equally both someone to follow and someone to protect, and he will treats Holden that way as well. If Prax had told Amos to leave Strickland alive, Amos would have. We see with Peaches that even his "bad people" category can be permeated. His three categories have never been absolutely mutually exclusive, and to a certain degree, circumstantial.
Amos has been (and is being) changed by life on the Roci. His absolute rules are being eroded.
Wild episode!
The female guard who gave Amos the 'tour' of the facility was played by Natalie Brown. She was Three's significant other in Dark Matter (the older SyFy series). I knew I recognized her from somewhere!
So happy I am experiencing this again with you!
RIP Fred Johnson
It's the best day of the week again!
The _only_ negative I can say about the casting choice of Filip is that, in the books he's around 14 years old and they kept a lot of that immaturity in the TV adaptation even though I don't think he could reasonably be considered younger than 17. That's barely a negative at all since, yes, he might be a 17-year-old, but he's a 17-year-old raised in a cult, as the only child of its leader, so he's bound to not fit within a range of maturity levels one would expect for that age.
An earth killer asteroid coated in stealth tech would occlude so much starlight that it could easily be detected by regular telescope activity in a setting where there would be cameras pointed everywhere.
I click on your Expanse videos so fast.
I have an alarm set on my calendar.
The best day of the week.
It's Gaugamela... *according* to Alexander... heck, he even named his flagship "Pella" and has the eagle motive on his suit...
One point however remains: is *Nancy* Darius? Are Earth and Mars truly decapitated?
Oyedeng
Raoul G. Kunz
Yeah, but no Immortals, no Companions.
I just listened to that chapter today at work. A lot more men THOUGHT they were Alexander than actually WERE Alexander
And he named his son Philip.
@@nrran6835 Yeah **distinctly book character** has the best assertions in this whole book.
Best regards
Raoul G. Kunz
Welcome to the churn.
When Fred is being pulled to the med bay and sees all his work being destroyed while bleeding out… that hits me hard every time.
He really was trying to make the belt independent, and he was getting close too. It’s just so sad.
Also, the rocks that hit Earth had nothing to do with the rock that broke up, that one was spotted hence Chrisjen and Felix speculating about it in the first couple episodes. The rocks that hit were all separate rocks.
The episode Ive been waiting for. Will watch as soon as I can give it all my attention.
As far as I know all the rocks were of similar size. I don't think they have the capability to push a rock big enough to be a planet killer.
I think the prison was in the Chesapeake area. I think that's displayed when they show the wide shot of the prison
Yeah it’s in Bethlehem but it isn’t specified if it’s PA or WV or somewhere else entirely
I wonder if the first one was larger - as suggested by the warp reactor - and maybe that’s also why it broke up.
Here we go!!! My favorite episode :D
Somewhere relatively near to Baltimore.. As Amos does basically say he had to take care of some stuff in Baltimore, and implies he was just in the neighbourhood, when Clarissa asked him about his visit..
Ganymede is still out of commission, and won’t be producing food for years. If Marco thought that the Belters were being starved before, wait till he has to explain to them all how he just plunged their last primary food source into a new ice age.
Whoops!! 🤦♂️
Actually a great point that gets talked more in the books and not dwelled on in the show. When people tell him he basically condemned the Belt to starvation for years to come he just shrugged it as nonsense. That's Marco. The only thing important to him, is himself.
Marco doesn't give a shit about Belters. Dawes may have been a selfish narcissist, but at least his narcissism included the benefit of all Belters. Marco isn't a narcissist, he's a psychopath.
@@nokta7373 He does the same thing on the show.
Just import space lettuce from the ring worlds... just wash off the invisible slugs first before consuming...😁
You’re way overthinking this. The rocks that hit earth aren’t the pieces of the one that broke up. That one was just a miss. Asteroids have crazy complex makeups, they just miscalculated that one. That’s why they had to hit the ship that spotted it.
The scope of everything will become clearer. Right now we just know that at least 5 rocks were thrown. One failed and needed intervention to prevent discovery of the others. 3 others hit. The 5th was spotted and destroyed.
When it aired, this instantly became my favorite episode. Felt like a punch to the solar plexus.
No, the broken up rock was not a "planet killer". The scientist Chrisjen interviewed stated it would have impacted with the force of 20-40 megatons (i dont recall exactly, but it was only 10's of megatons).
Additionally, larger rocks could be detected, even if coated in stealth, just due to their size.
There's . . . reasons for the lack of an equal attack on Mars. The show doesn't explore that QUITE as well as the books do, but it touches on it.
And, no single one of the asteroids Marco landed on Earth was going to be the "planet killer" in the way you're thinking, BUT . . . they EACH were enough to cause long-term problems. That also will get explored by the show: the extent to which the Earth is screwed, or not.
Also, the big season-ending attack on Mars, with the dome decompression, and Bobbie in the middle of chaos and destruction -- that's not what they're referring to in this episode, when they talk about the attack on the Martian Parliament. That's offscreen. On the other hand -- that scene from season 4 WAS an attack led by Filip. We just don't know to look for him in that episode -- but we do see him briefly!
Honestly -- My personal thought is that the books did the Marco storyline a little bit better -- but I like the crew storylines better in the show. As much as you hate Marco Inaros in the show -- he's so much more fleshed out (and obnoxious) in the books! Would love to hear your take on it once you go through the books, sometime!
Thank you, as always, for your reactions! It's always fun to hear your thoughts, and see how immersed you get in the story.
That is right - fucking bards!
Inaros is one of the best villains I've seen in recent years and the entire episode is a massive punch which leaves you dazed and confused. Plus the ending speech is a masterpiece.
LoL
😂
Fucking Bards
Alex and Bobbie are on the tail of what has been going on. There are quite a few more pieces of the puzzle yet to come... ...though you may have seen some of their edges already.
Say what you will about Monica but we keep seeing that when push comes to shove she does the right thing even if it risks her safety.
Hahahahaha. I love the expanse. And no, we didn't see the attack on Mar's Parliament. The rocks do enough damage aren't quite big enough to be planet killers, like instantaneously or anything, but plenty big enough. I love it that your reaction to characters is basically the same as what I went through. Redeeming Clarissa is masterful writing.
Remember the very first episode of the first season when Chrisjen questioned this belter who was caught transporting Martian stealth composites and they didn't find out what the plan was for those?
Yeah, Maro Inaros is extremely real. This season kills me because I was married to one like him for a decade, and I recognize every move he pulls on Naomi. Sometimes the only thing you can do is walk away.
Ive always thought Amos came to offer Clarissa a “way out” if she wanted it
This is the episode that made me fall in love with the Expanse.
Oh wow. No turning back for me at S2E5. Love just endured right up to S6 finale (and the comic Dragons Tooth and books 7 to 9)
Yeah, this episode blew my mind when I first watched it. Such an amazing show.
None of the rocks Marco threw were big enough to “kill the planet” by themselves…. But a bunch of small- med. sized rocks (small being harder to detect) would have a cumulative effect / the more hits the worse it will get on Earth… this would likely be damaging to the planet for generations. …. ☄️ 💥💥💥
On to the next episode!!!
🚀🚀
Screaming Firehawk was the name Alex suggested when they were guessing the name for Roci.
Well it's no secret how much I love this show. And I constantly gloat how good it is. So many fantastic moments. Emotional moments that tug at my heart and triumphs. Then there's this! The show said they were going for the emotional impact similar to when the towers were attacked. To say the least they succeeded! I've never been shooked, shocked and emotionally compromised from an episode of a TV show! I've never hated a character so much than Marco!
All the way back in season one when Chrisjen was lying on the roof saying she worried about people who throw rocks.... 😢 The writers sure play the long game!
My God, the way we lost Fred absolutely broke my heart! That little c*nt that shot him! I liked her too!
How can I love and hate an episode at the same time! Well done Expanse.... well done.
Marco's ship is called the "Pella". Pella was the name of the city where Alexander the Great was born. That should tell you a lot about how Marco Inaros thinks of himself.
It's easy to forget how divided the belt is generally. People have been investigating stuff but they're is so much prejudice and finger pointing that Marco could play different angles. Earth/Mars generally knew and suspected Dawes and Johnson as being the main powers in the belt.
While the hunt for Marco showed that there are several smaller factions all weighing in food their sides. Even when Ashford caught up to him his assumption was that Marco was after Eris and Tycho.
And Mao caused a big upset before with his stealth fleet so that could have seen suspicions about stealth theft closed as solved until Bobbie got into this new line of black market trading.
The question I have about threatening to unleash the Protomolecule is, whether it would still be a threat at this point. I mean, 'the work' in the Sol system is done and there won't be any new assignments because the Romans are gone. It could be totally passive now, it's just that of course nobody dared to find out.
It seems to have it's own BIOS to assimilate biomass until it's powerful enough to network with other protomolecule... so a local sample like that might do the same thing as it did in season 1 until it's big enough to find out it is obsolete? Just a theory. At any rate it answers the question of whether Naomi did the right thing preserving it for the belt. This is exactly what Holden was afraid of when he ordered it destroyed...
"I worry about people who throw rocks" - Avasarala S1E4 ........ I
They definitely do not have the capability to send an asteroid as big as the one that killed the dinosaurs, because that would be at least several times larger than the Nauvoo, if not 10x larger. The asteroid that broke up did not hit, all of those pieces were detectable once there was stealth coating on only one side of them
I hate having to wait for the next reaction. Thankfully I was able to binge the show at first but now I'm stuck waiting to see the next reaction! Aaarrrgh
The hardest thing about Marco is... he's not wrong. He's not right, but he's not wrong. 🤔
Marco is not wrong in his grievances, he is definitely wrong in his actions.
@@obelisk21 Yep, what Marco did was objectively horrific and wrong. His actions were all rooted in the fact that all other options had feasibly been exhausted and the belt was heading towards irrelevance and annihilation. Without immense and swift systemic changes, the belt would be abandoned by Earth and Mars and left to die in the dark, with the inners colonizing the ring systems and scouring them for resources via all the unemployed masses from Earth. They were facing no future, and all signs pointed to the UN and Mars letting them die off instead of letting justice be done through reparations, bolstering of rights, transferring ownership of Tycho/Ceres/etc. to Belters from the owning corps via eminent domain, swift restoration of Ganymede after the UN/Mars conflict gutted it, etc.
The rings brought about an existential crisis for belters, and marco was right in that the ring didn't change the hearts of the UN/Mars leadership. They'd bring in the OPA to the table, knowing they could out-vote them 2 to 1, and utilize them as a police force to keep inner colonists safe while colonization proceeds, and that's not charity on the part of the UN/Mars, it's just a different colour of exploitation while they bide their time and recover their strength.
Marco was able to do what he did because the UN and mars neglected their moral and ethical duties to the belt for generations, and opposed progress at each and every step, eliminating all peaceful and orderly options from belters who knew they deserved change. They made Marco inevitable.
And Marco, he capitalized on that desperation and the neglect of the belt, and on the egos of the inner governments which didn't even consider the belt capable of something like this.
The speech at the end is a master-stroke. Knowing Marco by what we've seen so far, we know there's more to the story and that he's not this righteous revolutionary, but placing ourselves outside of that context, the demands he makes aren't out of line, and his comments on the moral/social character of the inner governments are painfully accurate.
It's what makes Marco one of my most hated villains. What he did was horrible, but push comes to shove, I can't think of any other feasible course of action. He was the necessary evil, made necessary by generations of exploitation and neglect and unaddressed suffering. Is just so incredibly tragic on all fronts, because had any reasonable people taken the helm of the UN/Mars across the past generations (and as much as I enjoy Avasarala, that includes her, she was not a reasonable government official), Marco would have been avoidable.
"Not a peep got out."
What was Avasarala doing in episode one, season one? What was did she accuse the Belter of doing?
Great episode and reaction! I love this season.
Planetistic. New word (I think) and we heard it here first!!!! Love the reactions and will be sad when it's all done.
I think the scientist that Avasarala nad Delgado talked to about the broken up rock estimated the explosive power of the impact to be some number of megatons, I don't remember if 4 or 40. If I remember correctly the biggest nuke test done by USSR was more than that, something like 50 or 60 megatons. The shockwave from that detonation was measurable on air pressure sensors after circling the Earth a few times but no "planet killer". The asteroid hit of similar power could have somewhat worse consequences because the explosion would be after hitting the surface and it would kick up more dust in the atmosphere. Something like a giant volcano explosion that makes the next winter worse and the next summer colder. But again, no "planet killer".
But I don't think that scientist was taking into account the faster acceleration from the slingshotting... I think the idea was for it's momentum to be high enough to make up for it's size. Like would you rather drop a bowling ball on your foot from 3 feet away or shoot your foot from that distance with a .22 pistol?
@@fochdion1152 I am not sure what slingshotting you mean here, I didn't see any.
The total amount of energy a falling rock can impart on its target is the kinetic energy it looses on impact. So proportional to its mass and its speed relative to the target squared.
Near the Sun where it broke up it would have had higher velocity than when reaching Earth, that is just how orbits work. Climbing out of Sun's gravity well on inertia alone (no engine) has to slow it down. So if the scitentist took that into account and estimated its kinetic energy based on its weight and typical speed such type of asteroid has near Earth if its orbit is eliptical enough to take it that close to the Sun he would have gotten the kinetic energy right.
The only things to do any slingshot acceleration with between Sun and Earth would be Mercury and Venus. Doing that typically takes years (look at the trajectories of some probes that used that) unless some absolutely amazing coincidence aligned Venus and Earth just perfectly for it. Nothing like that was mentioned. Even if so the speed boos would not be something like an order of magnitude. For Venus slingshots I have seen you typically pick up maybe 30% extra speed.
Inaros having experience with slingshoting was mentioned. But that serves to say that he would know better than most people how to set an object (like a big rock) onto an orbit where it would hit the precise spot he wants months later without any power assist in between. In the Expanse universe the Epstein drive made it so that most people do not use such orbits any more, not for the past several generations, they don't need to. Instead they fly with power on, using completely different trajectory designed to maintain some level of acceleration the whole time to provide some level of gravity on board. The Inaros' weaponized asteroids basically use an outdated navigation style - short delta-V impulse from an engine (a ship) and then free fall for the rest of the trip. Which is at that time used only by slingshotters and nobody else thinks of it when thinking of moving around the solar system.
@@hebijirik Ok, sounds like you have thought about it a lot more than me. I got the impression he was using the celestial bodies to do the slingshot thing to pick up speed on it's way to the target but it sounds like based on your explanation that was not the case and he was just using it to aim. Fair enough. I've only watched it once years ago and then watched this reaction so I may miss a lot still.
@@fochdion1152 I might have missed something, there might be some gravity assist accelerations there too. But in the show we saw him watching an animation of the orbits. There was Earth and its orbit and then many (probably 9) read lines intersecting the Earth orbit ahead of the shown postion of Earth and the intersect points spaced out at seemingly regular intervals. So it made it look he aimed at having a hit every few hours with the 9 rocks. One broke up when cooked up too close to the sun, 3 hit, rest was shot down.
If the shown red orbits of the rocks looked like they are basically one orbit shifted a little to stagger the impacts it would have been very possible to have used some slingshot to pick up more speed. Just angle the initial orbits toward the slingshot (say Venus for example) so that they get close to it shortly after each other from such angles that their exit orbits from Venus to Earth have them going basicaly like a trian that spreds sideways very little to make the staggered ipacts.
But what was visible in the show was the rocks arriving to intersect the Earth orbit from varying directions. To make that happen using major solar system bodies to accelerate each and have them timed like this would be probably exponentially more difficult. If the result was like 10x more destruction and it was even borderline possible someone like Inaros would probably try it. But to take a rock from the Belt and accelerate it to multiples of its original orbital velocity while also angling its orbit to intersect Earth orbit is such huge delta V that one slingshot would not do it. Maybe multiple around multiple large bodies etc. But that would take many years to do (if not decades) and doing it with 9 rocks all undetected...
So I think what they did was find 9 rocks for which a reasonably small delta V could get them to intersect Earth with the right timing, paint them stealth while pushing them with the ship onto the right orbit and and let them go. They still arrive at Earth with a few km/s velocity relative to Earth. That is enough to simulate a large nuclear warhead. But one of them had to be sent via a highly excentrich orbit around the Sun and despite the stealh coating got heated enough to break up from the differential expansion (one side hot, one side cold, too much stress...). That exposed unstealthed surfaced and made the fragments detectable.
Also frome reading the book (years ago) I don't remember any more elaborate flightpath than that - just use a good enough computer and precise enough map of the solar system to calculate one epstein drive burn that derails the rock from the belt onto an orbit that hits Earth.
But like I said my memory might be missing something.
Hmm, now this made me wanna read the books again, they are so good... 🙂
@@hebijirik I'm on my first time reading Leviathan Wakes... will go through the whole series eventually
Remember when the UN took out the Mars first strike capability and one missile slipped past the defenses? back when 2 million dead was a catastrophe? good times...
3:57 We've been so preoccupied with the gun aimed at Earth, we didn't see the one aimed at Mars.
9:44 Marco Inaros has had so much time to prepare, all the way back in the very first episode we heard Avasarala worry about people who threw rocks, and interrogating belters smuggling stealth tech!
22:53 No, that's not it. the rock that broke apart had the same size that the ones that did hit, and those weren't fragments of the one that broke. it wasn't 1 big hit to destroy it all, it was always meant to be several smaller ones. you can even see that in the holographic flight plans displayed as far back as the season 4 finale. many separate tajectories planned to hit in short succession.
27:39 well, all the hubub with the Protomolecule and the Ring opening probably overshadowed Marcos plans a little, helping him stay hidden. and I can only reiterate what others have said before, Avasarala was pulling at the threads whe had, only she ran out of time, and Someone with a grudge did go after Marcos, Ashford almost found out. But his scope was so small he couldn't imagine the vastness of Marcos plans, no one could!
The Razorback is in world still named that, the on screen name of the Screaming Firehawks is a nod to the dedicated fans who between season 3 and 4 worked to save the show from the cancellation. the fans adapted the name from when Alex mentioned it as a possible name for the Roci in the first season.
And as always My Friend!! thank you for bringing me along this journey!
Im saying bye from drummers ship. I'm trying to get her to realise she needs to not give up on the revenge quest, and it is her fight.
Love that.
Thank you for watching, my friend!
Good catch on the traitor/engineer possibly being a sabateur. 🤟😎
The books have a bit more about Mars, but not much. The Martian Prime Minister shows up in the books, but not much here.
Fred dies in the books, but in a different way. He strokes out during high g maneuvers. I like how the show did it better. It was more personal. And it's weird to say being shot in the back is more respectful, but story wise I think it's more respectful for the character.
you have seen 5 launched asteroids so far.
the first broke up,
the next 3 hit,
the 5th was destroyed.
Two key words in your post
Best episode of television.
Mars' atmoshere is not breathable. There is no life on its surface. Its population lives mainly underground, or under domes that I doubt are very fragile. Any atmospheric shock waves would be weak ones. Damage from an asteroid hit would be limited to whatever collapses might follow the ground shock wave plus the impact zone devastation. Mars' atmosphere has only 0.13% oxygen (Earth has 22%) and 98% carbon dioxide. There would be little or no conflagration at or near the impact zone and nothing for the ejecta to burn. Directing a stealth asteroid to Mars would be a waste of resources.
I have a malignant narcissist across the street. Thank goodness he doesn't measure up to Marco!!
DuckDuck: "The Battle of Gaugamela took place on October 1, 331 BC, between Alexander the Great's Macedonian forces and the Persian army led by Darius III. It was a decisive victory for Alexander, leading to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and significant territorial gains for Macedonia."
Just as an FYI:
Season 5 rivals Season 3 as the best in the series. 😁
The dinosaur-killler was about 10 km in diameter (6-7 *miles* ), and that's too big for one of Inaros' spacecraft to move.
The ones he sent are much smaller -- which is why he sent a *lot* of them.
The rock which broke up was projected to be a 21 megaton collision - over 1000 Hiroshima's worth but in the same order of magnitude as some of the nastiest we've built and tested. Marco's strategy was death by 1000 cuts rather than any single rock doing the job. Big rocks are exponentially harder to push but small ones are cumulative as they increasingly disrupt the atmosphere. Totally killing Earth would be counterproductive as it is the only source of compatible ecology. We've already seen why importing soil from from a ring world could be dangerous.
Glad you noticed the 'Screaming Firehawk' detail.
This one is in my top 5 all time favourite Expanse episodes. Might be no 5
4. Abaddons Gate
3. Home
2 and 1 are interchangeable (one being Immolation the other…..)
As shocking as this episode is, this isn't even the one that will break you. :)
But as to where did Marco get these ships. Alex and Bobbie watched the trade!
We know Marco has made deals with Mars Navy, stealth tech etc
Earth wasn't looking because Nancy was blocking every attempt by Cristen
To quote Marco "that's the problem with our kind even are dreams are small"
Nothing can ruin Discovery any more than the writers lol
There are 9 asteroids, it was never just 1 :)
Based on the other shows you watch and like you need to check out Farscape! I love sci-fi and have since I was a kid. Farscape is amazing.
The Pella is very martian...
The answers to several of your questions have been subtly sprinkled in previous episodes, starting with Season 1, 1. 🙂
Monster Spoiler: Do not read until you finish Season 6 or Book 6….
Seriously, this is only for the people who know how it ends. If that’s not you then enjoy the way the show reveals it.
What is remarkable is that this monstrous tragedy was only a sideshow, a distraction like the monstrous tragedy (it sure seemed like that at the time) of the destruction of the Canterbury and the deaths of everyone on board in episode 1. These writers continually find ways to raise the stakes. Even season 4, which was a step back from everyone in the solar system at risk of dying at the end of season 3, felt to me like a raising of the stakes in terms of the misery and hopelessness of the crew of the Roci. One of the things I’ve loved the most about these writers is that they had a clear plan of where the story was going to go and everything that comes before fits into the big picture so marvelously. The moment the gates open to the 1300+ new worlds, Avasarala knows that the dream of terraforming Mars is dead. The authors don’t just contrive a plot twist of a major political change on Mars. What Bobby sees happening is an inevitable consequence of the gates opening. There are so many things that happened in the show that you don’t really see coming, but in retrospect look like they obviously had to happen. It’s amazing writing that shocks and surprises and will never let you down.
Marcos new fleet is 100% Martian ships, they just aren't lit the same way as the Roci or the Donny. They have fairly specific visual language for all the Martian ships, their ships look far more futuristic but are still chunky and brutalist looking like the earth fleet., because at their root they are the same people and also both want ships that project strength and an almost imperialism in their design. By comparison Mau's stealth fleet was all black and sleek because they were doing the dirt, the Belters are all cobbled together from freighters and light cargo ships, very much a Millennium Falcon vibe.
Marco is trading with the rogue Martians for technology and ships sinc season 4 ( season 1 really); you just have to ask yourself what is it this rogue faction wants that Marco has? (Edit: To put Marco in context. he is the extremist in a group of rebels. Star Wars introduced Saw Gerrera as a similar splinter faction that goes against the will of the whole. Not sure if they did designed Saw this way but to me he feels modeled after someone like Bin Laden. Think of Marco's relationship with the other OPA factions and the Belt as a whole in that way. He is an 'the ends justify the means guy but as you have already called, he is a pure manipulator. I lover that you call him a bard because I never thought of a bard as an antagonistic demagogue before and that is 100% something I will try to play in a future D&D campaign)
There is someone worse than Marco Inaros in the Expanse book series. Read It
I love that the books go from normal villian to worst then worst then Marco then…that guy
As someone who broadly considers himself an anarchist, I couldn't sleep all night after watching this episode.
I want a world without politicians too Marco, but not like this. Not like this.
Who's Clarissa? You mean Peaches?
If you don't have beta blockers, I suggest you start practicing some breathing techniques, my friend!
The fact you get dressed up depending on the franchise you are covering is still crazy to me, but keep it up.
You reaction to this made me so happy tonight