I believe that Holden told Naomi that he loves her many times before this episode. This moment was not about being the first time, it was about being the LAST time, as Holden believed that they were likely about to die.
I think Ashford's comment about wanting to leave this world a better place when he passed represents how most of us feel about our lives, if only because we want our children to have better lives. But trying to figure out exactly how to accomplish that elusive goal is a huge problem. We all know the subtance by which the road to Hell was paved. As a lawyer I was involved in some large legal battles that could not be settled and needed the intervention and a decision by a Judge. What struck me most about those legal conflicts was that the people on both sides were really good people. There were no "bad guys", which is why how The Expanse presents these sorts of struggles hit home particularly well with me. It confirmed my own observations. In essence, trying to "leave the world a better place" will oftentimes involve choosing a course of action you believe will have a beneficial result. Oftentimes, what you might choose to do will fall victim to the rule of unintended consequences, and you will, instead, make things worse. When people who are confronted with a major problem choose different actions to try and fix things, they can and do end up embroiled in conflict, sometimes violent, deadly, and destructive. If truth be told, neither side can guarantee each other, or the rest of us, that their choice as to how to fix the problem will actually fix what's wrong. It's all speculation about what the future will bring us. There are never any guarantees. That's an unsettling way to live, so people tend to "believe" in what they are doing as an substitute to knowing for certain their actions will produce the desired result. The stronger the belief, the more radical the plan to bring about that "better world" tends to be. It is all too easy to eventually get to a point where rational attempts to fix a problem are replaced with belief that whatever you are doing will result in that fix. That seems to be the spot where Diogo found himself by this episode, convinced that the new Belter nation would make life better for Belters without having any idea how or why. The Expanse presents these sorts of issues extremely well. It has been hard to pinpoint who the good guys and the bad guys are in this story. I think the show is trying to show us that when all sides seem to have good people calling the shots, the solutions which are mostly based upon known facts have the best chance of fixing the problem at hand, while those based upon belief and tending towards death and violence are likely to produce bad outcomes. In a world ouside of juvenile cartoon-like characters, this is how you identify the bad guys.
It is truly amazing how this show can keep coming back to us and teach us more about ourselves and the complex universe we live in. I know you have seen as many reactions as I have and I still learn, both from the show and the different perspectives reactors have to these episodes. I appreciate your insights to the story and agree with the importance of at least hearing the other side out and trying to see "the other" as just as complex and devoted to their cause and families as you are. To me the foundation of making a "good choice" or a rational one needs to be based on both self knowledge (who you are and your own strengths and weaknesses) and education based on facts and not hearsay. Holden's choice here was based on gathering as much information about the protomolecule as he could from Miller and as the only real conduit to that information, this was a critical step. Bobbie's choice was made based on what she knows about the Roci crew having been with them in the past despite her own sacrifice of her career (again!). Melba (Clarissa's) choice came about because she was essentially forced into listening to Holden and the others discuss their plans and his goal to sacrifice himself for the good of others. But each person used new knowledge to effect the change that was needed in that moment. I can't love this show enough!!
@@kirkdarling4120 One of those legal cases involved efforts to shut down big old mental hospitals and place the mental patients in "community mental health" residences. One side had academic studies concluding this would be wonderful for the paitents to be mainstreamed back in to the normal world, while the other side had their studies showing it would be a disaster for everybody affected to by the changes. Looking at the studies, it was readily apparent the accepted set of "facts" were completely different. Academic studies and expert opinion are for sale in the market for expertise.
18:21 It is explained better in the books, but it would have been difficult to do on the show without an info dump. Miller was trying to get to the station's computer and take control of the station itself, but he couldn't do it as long as the station was on a high level of alert. So when all the ships powered down, the station lowered the alert level, and Miller could highjack it.
It does illustrate that the various devices of the Protomolecule builders do not share missions or necessarily even information. Miller has a mission, and mere connection with the Ring Sphere didn't create agreement between them.
Iirc the Diogo arc was about seeing how someone gets radicalized which is an important conversation and worth exploring in art since it’s so common IRL.
Shout out to the composer Chris Short for the soundtrack. And on the protomolecule being sentient or intentional: I always took Miller's assertion at face value, that the station at the heart of the space that connects the rings is simply trying to dial home, trying to connect with those who made it, but it can't because they are gone. So the station is just doing what it was programmed to do, to call back.
So the planet thing, is supposed to be a sort of projected "mind palace" innerspace of holdens. TY Jokes that that means thats how Holden sees himself. Nekid. Thats just him. Also if you have the opportunity to show a buff Steven Strait in the buff you take it. Personally i loved seeing Dieogo getting hit with a lift. Narratively he serves as a lesson regarding radicalisation.
I think each Protomolecule device is limited to its purpose, and all its artificial intelligence does is strive in pursuit of that purpose. The Ring-building device had the purpose of creating its Ring, reporting completion to the Builders, and then likely shutting down. At this point, the Ring device (of which Proto-Miller is a remote component) has not completed all the steps of its purpose. There is also that blog of Protomolecule on the Roci, which is also part of the Ring-building device. All of the instances of Protomolecule in our Solar System had the one purpose of building the Ring, and they were all in constant contact with each other. So, when the Ring was constructed, the next step was to contact the Builders, which it likely attempted...with no response. In any other case, that would have been the end, but in this case the Ring-building device had ingested an Investigator and thus had a tool to investigate _why_ it could not contact the Builders and a ship by which to continue the attempt by other means.
Once the humans demonstrated that they did not pose a threat to the station, the station's security programs went back on "standby." This allowed The Investigator to access its primary systems and reopen the gates that had been closed to stop the "invader" that had killed the protomolecule's creators. The protomolecule we have experienced is just a "road construction tool," and now that it has established the gate in Sol-system, it is attempting to report that it has completed its mission,. However, there appears to be no one for it to report to.
Great reaction and thoughtful analysis as usual. Bravo! Looking forwards to your return after the break. Regarding Diogo, I understand that the TV writers put him in the show (he's barely in the books) to illustrate how an innocent but downtrodden kid living in the oppressed parts of the world can be easily manipulated and radicalised (spurred on by his Uncle and the encounter with the Martian Patrol, and later by Anderson Dawes) such that he blindly follows a cause and goes to extremes in its name. I think Holden says "I love you" to Naomi because he thinks it likely that they may both be about to die. I'm sure he's said it to her many other times, it's just not salient to the story so we don't see it. They've also been way from each other for many months, and it was unclear whether that was going to be permanent or not. Holden in the buff on the beach - I think you're right that it is in part to show vulnerability. A reminder of how frail the human body actually is, relatively speaking, and how we're still really not much more than a naked ape, babies in civilisation and technological terms relative to whatever made the protomolecule and the ring gates. Proto-Miller, on the other hand is casually walking on water 🤣 The shoreline seems a visual metaphor. We're about to set sail to unknown lands.
Yeah, Diogo was kinda like Luke Skywalker in that regard (unpopular opinion). I think that when the Protomolecule builders were in control, the view Holden saw was from an artificial surface environment the Sphere maintained on for them. I think Holden was naked because the Protomolecule builders didn't do clothing. The Sphere did not create the vision according specific to Holden, as the image of Proto-Miller has been constructed. I think the Sphere's normal mode was "rings open" and kept the rings closed until it became convinced there was no threat from its organic residents. It may not have actually known a difference between organic beings, which would be why Holden's hand worked in the key. That suggests the Protomolecule builders always eliminated advanced organic life in all the systems it inhabited...the lock wasn't specific because their were never any other beings that would try to open it.
There *may* be significance to Holden standing on the beach, based on the later books, but I think it's more of a symbolic thing. You're right to wonder about the hat. There's a lot going on, and I like your takes on all of it! The Protomolecule is a great alien AI. It had specific purposes, but what does it do now it doesn't have them? How does think? Diogo... Diogo is an inevitable result of what Earth and Mars are doing to the Belt. Not all rebels are as considered and articulate as Ashford and Drummer. Enjoy your holiday!
maybe the show was called The Expanse due to the vast expansive emptiness of space between objects in our solar system, However, I'd like to welcome you to the real Expanse! Humanity now has access to 1300 new worlds, new earths to explore. I think I view the protomolecule like an AI, who came home after a long time and now is trying to figure out what happened to its master. I think that "if you're not ready for the commitment of 'I love you', you shouldn't be sleeping together" is putting it mildly. it was well said though! more tactful and considerate to 'the world' than I could manage.
I always assumed that miller was trying to open the ring gates but he couldn't get the station to do it while it was in a defense mode. Probably didn't have a high enough level of access. but as soon as it was out of defense mode he could turn on all the gates, and so he did.
Basically this. The station was in alarm mode because of successive security alerts - first the sling-shotter moving really fast through the gate, then the marines opening fire inside the station, then finally it learned about the existence of fusion bombs. Actually, amend that - the real first one was the thing that killed the Gate-Builders. While the alert mode was on, the Miller-investigator software construct could not access the "danger over, re-open the gates" commands inside the station. Which is why the dangers the station could see - the ships with the dangerously erratic life forms - had to be considered neutralised. Which is what shutting off all the reactors did. At that point, the system could be convinced by Miller-construct that yes, the danger is over and normal operations can be resumed. After all, hey, a gate was open and no sign of Gate-Builder genocide was in evidence behind it, so other gates can also be opened, right?
I differ with that theory the engine layout would be magnetised and thusly would slow down the momentum marginally as we don't know the engineering of anything in the Expanse. Because it's Science Fiction not science fact
@@Paul.PlaysGames we saw that the drum was initially spun up with thrusters on the outside. It will take a huge input of momentum to get it going and also take a lot to slow it down again. However, there will be bearings and they will have friction so as you suggest, there will be some kind of electric motors to overcome this and keep the drum going at the 1/3G at outer surface rate. When the reactor is shut off there is likely to be drag from the inactive motor system as well as the bearings so it will start to slow down, but pretty gradually. They show a bunch of people staggering to one side implying that it did transition from steady to decelerating. That was probably somewhat exaggerated over how quickly you'd actually notice.
Have you considered checking out Fallout, at some point? On the one hand, it might not be up your alley. There's quite a bit of gore, profanity, and sexual-themed humour (though not an extreme amount, nor that much actual nudity or sex), and some stereotyping of religion as a means of weilding power etc. But on the other hand, it's funny, clever, and has some interesting themes and character arcs (including some that parallel things you appreciated in these first 3 seasons of The Expanse in general, and this episode in particular). Talking about The Expanse, the next season is quite a shift, so that 1-2 week break might help against the whiplash that you might otherwise encounter :) (It's still good though, even if it's not most people's favourite, just a bit different)
Diogo is annoying in the same way that the Martian grunts are annoying: they all just have blind zeal without any perspective. It is supposed to be, I think, a commentary on young people and how easily young people are manipulated by the systems in which they are embedded.
I've been waiting 2 seasons to tell this joke; remember back when Diogo's uncle threw him out the airlock to drift in space? He was just hoping to catch a lift 😀
The "Miller" avatar is just The Detective, with the Hat, before he became self aware as a hatless, Mohawked, Belter. That's who the protomolecule melded with, not Holden; Holden is presented "au naturale". lol.
Full disclosure: this episode was the final straw for me; it’s when and why I tapped out of watching the show. Specifically, the penultimate sequence involving Ashford. There’s a lot I liked about the show; the realism of the physics and a good number of the characters being the most prominent. Somewhere along the way I concluded that despite those things, the story itself didn’t hold much interest for me. It feels weird to say that; I’ve been a SF nerd since my early teens and have inhaled shows like this most of my life. Ultimately, this one just didn’t do it for me; Ashford’s actions at the end were simply the final nail. I couldn’t /quite/ reconcile his actions at the end with my interpretation of his character up until that point; it felt a bit like the “character goes insane” trope, which almost always fails for me. I fully accept the possibility that the limitation is mine rather than the story’s…but nevertheless.
I agree; it’s clearly something that’s always on his mind. But even taking that into account, I just couldn’t reconcile the thoughtfulness/introspection he showed when he was trapped with Drummer with the knee-jerk can’t-be-reasoned-with person he was in that last scene. I spent a fair amount of time trying to make it make any kind of coherent sense and couldn’t quite do it. It felt like I got close, but whenever I did, it felt like I was trying too hard; like I said, could well be a failure on my part. And it wasn’t like that was the only sequence which bugged me; it was simply the last I was willing to deal with, given my overall feelings about the show. No shade on folks who find this show to be very much their jam, of course; just didn’t work for me.
@@noahrobin1941 the clue is in his exchange with Melba about the one good thing at the end of your life making up for all the bad things you have done. That's what he thinks he is doing, under a 7 hour countdown to the destruction of all humanity. It' a shame you gave up at that point, as you'll see more of his reflection on this, directly and indirectly, in S4.
Amos world view: there are three types of people... bad ones, ones you follow, and ones you need to protect.
I believe that Holden told Naomi that he loves her many times before this episode. This moment was not about being the first time, it was about being the LAST time, as Holden believed that they were likely about to die.
I think Ashford's comment about wanting to leave this world a better place when he passed represents how most of us feel about our lives, if only because we want our children to have better lives. But trying to figure out exactly how to accomplish that elusive goal is a huge problem. We all know the subtance by which the road to Hell was paved. As a lawyer I was involved in some large legal battles that could not be settled and needed the intervention and a decision by a Judge. What struck me most about those legal conflicts was that the people on both sides were really good people. There were no "bad guys", which is why how The Expanse presents these sorts of struggles hit home particularly well with me. It confirmed my own observations.
In essence, trying to "leave the world a better place" will oftentimes involve choosing a course of action you believe will have a beneficial result. Oftentimes, what you might choose to do will fall victim to the rule of unintended consequences, and you will, instead, make things worse. When people who are confronted with a major problem choose different actions to try and fix things, they can and do end up embroiled in conflict, sometimes violent, deadly, and destructive. If truth be told, neither side can guarantee each other, or the rest of us, that their choice as to how to fix the problem will actually fix what's wrong. It's all speculation about what the future will bring us. There are never any guarantees.
That's an unsettling way to live, so people tend to "believe" in what they are doing as an substitute to knowing for certain their actions will produce the desired result. The stronger the belief, the more radical the plan to bring about that "better world" tends to be. It is all too easy to eventually get to a point where rational attempts to fix a problem are replaced with belief that whatever you are doing will result in that fix. That seems to be the spot where Diogo found himself by this episode, convinced that the new Belter nation would make life better for Belters without having any idea how or why.
The Expanse presents these sorts of issues extremely well. It has been hard to pinpoint who the good guys and the bad guys are in this story. I think the show is trying to show us that when all sides seem to have good people calling the shots, the solutions which are mostly based upon known facts have the best chance of fixing the problem at hand, while those based upon belief and tending towards death and violence are likely to produce bad outcomes. In a world ouside of juvenile cartoon-like characters, this is how you identify the bad guys.
Then you get down to the disagreement of what each side calls "my facts and your beliefs."
It is truly amazing how this show can keep coming back to us and teach us more about ourselves and the complex universe we live in. I know you have seen as many reactions as I have and I still learn, both from the show and the different perspectives reactors have to these episodes. I appreciate your insights to the story and agree with the importance of at least hearing the other side out and trying to see "the other" as just as complex and devoted to their cause and families as you are. To me the foundation of making a "good choice" or a rational one needs to be based on both self knowledge (who you are and your own strengths and weaknesses) and education based on facts and not hearsay. Holden's choice here was based on gathering as much information about the protomolecule as he could from Miller and as the only real conduit to that information, this was a critical step. Bobbie's choice was made based on what she knows about the Roci crew having been with them in the past despite her own sacrifice of her career (again!). Melba (Clarissa's) choice came about because she was essentially forced into listening to Holden and the others discuss their plans and his goal to sacrifice himself for the good of others. But each person used new knowledge to effect the change that was needed in that moment. I can't love this show enough!!
@@kirkdarling4120 One of those legal cases involved efforts to shut down big old mental hospitals and place the mental patients in "community mental health" residences. One side had academic studies concluding this would be wonderful for the paitents to be mainstreamed back in to the normal world, while the other side had their studies showing it would be a disaster for everybody affected to by the changes. Looking at the studies, it was readily apparent the accepted set of "facts" were completely different. Academic studies and expert opinion are for sale in the market for expertise.
18:21 It is explained better in the books, but it would have been difficult to do on the show without an info dump. Miller was trying to get to the station's computer and take control of the station itself, but he couldn't do it as long as the station was on a high level of alert. So when all the ships powered down, the station lowered the alert level, and Miller could highjack it.
It does illustrate that the various devices of the Protomolecule builders do not share missions or necessarily even information. Miller has a mission, and mere connection with the Ring Sphere didn't create agreement between them.
This episode still gives me chills.
Iirc the Diogo arc was about seeing how someone gets radicalized which is an important conversation and worth exploring in art since it’s so common IRL.
Shout out to the composer Chris Short for the soundtrack. And on the protomolecule being sentient or intentional: I always took Miller's assertion at face value, that the station at the heart of the space that connects the rings is simply trying to dial home, trying to connect with those who made it, but it can't because they are gone. So the station is just doing what it was programmed to do, to call back.
Clinton Shorter. And, yes, magnificent!
ET Phone Home?
So the planet thing, is supposed to be a sort of projected "mind palace" innerspace of holdens. TY Jokes that that means thats how Holden sees himself. Nekid. Thats just him. Also if you have the opportunity to show a buff Steven Strait in the buff you take it.
Personally i loved seeing Dieogo getting hit with a lift. Narratively he serves as a lesson regarding radicalisation.
I think each Protomolecule device is limited to its purpose, and all its artificial intelligence does is strive in pursuit of that purpose. The Ring-building device had the purpose of creating its Ring, reporting completion to the Builders, and then likely shutting down. At this point, the Ring device (of which Proto-Miller is a remote component) has not completed all the steps of its purpose. There is also that blog of Protomolecule on the Roci, which is also part of the Ring-building device. All of the instances of Protomolecule in our Solar System had the one purpose of building the Ring, and they were all in constant contact with each other. So, when the Ring was constructed, the next step was to contact the Builders, which it likely attempted...with no response. In any other case, that would have been the end, but in this case the Ring-building device had ingested an Investigator and thus had a tool to investigate _why_ it could not contact the Builders and a ship by which to continue the attempt by other means.
Welcome to...The Expanse.
Yeah, 3 seasons to get there. Awesome 😊
Once the humans demonstrated that they did not pose a threat to the station, the station's security programs went back on "standby." This allowed The Investigator to access its primary systems and reopen the gates that had been closed to stop the "invader" that had killed the protomolecule's creators. The protomolecule we have experienced is just a "road construction tool," and now that it has established the gate in Sol-system, it is attempting to report that it has completed its mission,. However, there appears to be no one for it to report to.
Great reaction and thoughtful analysis as usual. Bravo! Looking forwards to your return after the break. Regarding Diogo, I understand that the TV writers put him in the show (he's barely in the books) to illustrate how an innocent but downtrodden kid living in the oppressed parts of the world can be easily manipulated and radicalised (spurred on by his Uncle and the encounter with the Martian Patrol, and later by Anderson Dawes) such that he blindly follows a cause and goes to extremes in its name.
I think Holden says "I love you" to Naomi because he thinks it likely that they may both be about to die. I'm sure he's said it to her many other times, it's just not salient to the story so we don't see it. They've also been way from each other for many months, and it was unclear whether that was going to be permanent or not.
Holden in the buff on the beach - I think you're right that it is in part to show vulnerability. A reminder of how frail the human body actually is, relatively speaking, and how we're still really not much more than a naked ape, babies in civilisation and technological terms relative to whatever made the protomolecule and the ring gates. Proto-Miller, on the other hand is casually walking on water 🤣 The shoreline seems a visual metaphor. We're about to set sail to unknown lands.
Yeah, Diogo was kinda like Luke Skywalker in that regard (unpopular opinion).
I think that when the Protomolecule builders were in control, the view Holden saw was from an artificial surface environment the Sphere maintained on for them. I think Holden was naked because the Protomolecule builders didn't do clothing. The Sphere did not create the vision according specific to Holden, as the image of Proto-Miller has been constructed.
I think the Sphere's normal mode was "rings open" and kept the rings closed until it became convinced there was no threat from its organic residents. It may not have actually known a difference between organic beings, which would be why Holden's hand worked in the key. That suggests the Protomolecule builders always eliminated advanced organic life in all the systems it inhabited...the lock wasn't specific because their were never any other beings that would try to open it.
Great reaction!
This one always gives me chills!
Looking forward to season four!
"Now I know why you don't carry a gun."
Now imagine finding out the series is cancelled and this was the last show!
yep, that was hard time
There *may* be significance to Holden standing on the beach, based on the later books, but I think it's more of a symbolic thing.
You're right to wonder about the hat.
There's a lot going on, and I like your takes on all of it!
The Protomolecule is a great alien AI. It had specific purposes, but what does it do now it doesn't have them? How does think?
Diogo... Diogo is an inevitable result of what Earth and Mars are doing to the Belt. Not all rebels are as considered and articulate as Ashford and Drummer.
Enjoy your holiday!
maybe the show was called The Expanse due to the vast expansive emptiness of space between objects in our solar system, However, I'd like to welcome you to the real Expanse! Humanity now has access to 1300 new worlds, new earths to explore.
I think I view the protomolecule like an AI, who came home after a long time and now is trying to figure out what happened to its master.
I think that "if you're not ready for the commitment of 'I love you', you shouldn't be sleeping together" is putting it mildly. it was well said though! more tactful and considerate to 'the world' than I could manage.
I always assumed that miller was trying to open the ring gates but he couldn't get the station to do it while it was in a defense mode. Probably didn't have a high enough level of access. but as soon as it was out of defense mode he could turn on all the gates, and so he did.
Basically this. The station was in alarm mode because of successive security alerts - first the sling-shotter moving really fast through the gate, then the marines opening fire inside the station, then finally it learned about the existence of fusion bombs. Actually, amend that - the real first one was the thing that killed the Gate-Builders.
While the alert mode was on, the Miller-investigator software construct could not access the "danger over, re-open the gates" commands inside the station. Which is why the dangers the station could see - the ships with the dangerously erratic life forms - had to be considered neutralised. Which is what shutting off all the reactors did.
At that point, the system could be convinced by Miller-construct that yes, the danger is over and normal operations can be resumed. After all, hey, a gate was open and no sign of Gate-Builder genocide was in evidence behind it, so other gates can also be opened, right?
Objects in motion stay in motion. Cutting off power would not stop the spin of the Leviathan. It would actually take energy to slow its spin.
I differ with that theory the engine layout would be magnetised and thusly would slow down the momentum marginally as we don't know the engineering of anything in the Expanse. Because it's Science Fiction not science fact
@@Paul.PlaysGames we saw that the drum was initially spun up with thrusters on the outside. It will take a huge input of momentum to get it going and also take a lot to slow it down again. However, there will be bearings and they will have friction so as you suggest, there will be some kind of electric motors to overcome this and keep the drum going at the 1/3G at outer surface rate. When the reactor is shut off there is likely to be drag from the inactive motor system as well as the bearings so it will start to slow down, but pretty gradually. They show a bunch of people staggering to one side implying that it did transition from steady to decelerating. That was probably somewhat exaggerated over how quickly you'd actually notice.
@@MattNolanCustom Correct
Have you considered checking out Fallout, at some point?
On the one hand, it might not be up your alley. There's quite a bit of gore, profanity, and sexual-themed humour (though not an extreme amount, nor that much actual nudity or sex), and some stereotyping of religion as a means of weilding power etc.
But on the other hand, it's funny, clever, and has some interesting themes and character arcs (including some that parallel things you appreciated in these first 3 seasons of The Expanse in general, and this episode in particular).
Talking about The Expanse, the next season is quite a shift, so that 1-2 week break might help against the whiplash that you might otherwise encounter :)
(It's still good though, even if it's not most people's favourite, just a bit different)
Diogo is annoying in the same way that the Martian grunts are annoying: they all just have blind zeal without any perspective. It is supposed to be, I think, a commentary on young people and how easily young people are manipulated by the systems in which they are embedded.
I've been waiting 2 seasons to tell this joke; remember back when Diogo's uncle threw him out the airlock to drift in space? He was just hoping to catch a lift 😀
I hope you feel better now that's out of your system.
Enjoy the time off! see you later, Hannah!
The "Miller" avatar is just The Detective, with the Hat, before he became self aware as a hatless, Mohawked, Belter. That's who the protomolecule melded with, not Holden; Holden is presented "au naturale". lol.
Full disclosure: this episode was the final straw for me; it’s when and why I tapped out of watching the show. Specifically, the penultimate sequence involving Ashford.
There’s a lot I liked about the show; the realism of the physics and a good number of the characters being the most prominent. Somewhere along the way I concluded that despite those things, the story itself didn’t hold much interest for me. It feels weird to say that; I’ve been a SF nerd since my early teens and have inhaled shows like this most of my life. Ultimately, this one just didn’t do it for me; Ashford’s actions at the end were simply the final nail. I couldn’t /quite/ reconcile his actions at the end with my interpretation of his character up until that point; it felt a bit like the “character goes insane” trope, which almost always fails for me. I fully accept the possibility that the limitation is mine rather than the story’s…but nevertheless.
I think the loss of Ashford's child in a fire that he was engulfed in really affected his outlook.
I agree; it’s clearly something that’s always on his mind. But even taking that into account, I just couldn’t reconcile the thoughtfulness/introspection he showed when he was trapped with Drummer with the knee-jerk can’t-be-reasoned-with person he was in that last scene. I spent a fair amount of time trying to make it make any kind of coherent sense and couldn’t quite do it. It felt like I got close, but whenever I did, it felt like I was trying too hard; like I said, could well be a failure on my part. And it wasn’t like that was the only sequence which bugged me; it was simply the last I was willing to deal with, given my overall feelings about the show. No shade on folks who find this show to be very much their jam, of course; just didn’t work for me.
@@noahrobin1941 the clue is in his exchange with Melba about the one good thing at the end of your life making up for all the bad things you have done. That's what he thinks he is doing, under a 7 hour countdown to the destruction of all humanity. It' a shame you gave up at that point, as you'll see more of his reflection on this, directly and indirectly, in S4.