I think Julie was the racer but Clarissa is still pegged as a pilot.
I was hoping they’d leave Alex as-is and just recast the character with a new actor. Have a couple scenes in episode 1 of the next season mentioning him by name to make it clear that this is the “new” Alex, but don’t mention it again. But taking killing him off as a given, they handled it well.
Excellent E10!
Naomi and Drummer’s stories were only the first 25 minutes of the show but they lasted for close to 2 and a half hours by my reckoning. An emotional rollercoaster, capped off by the sheer and utter terror of Naomi having to launch herself into space, knowing the odds are that she will simply float off and die in a few minutes. HOLY CRAP that just squicks me out to consider but we’ve now seen Naomi do something even more desperate than this, so… 
If they’re gonna keep Bull around for S6, I agree that they really need to rein in his character somehow. Every scene with him is far too tense. As it stands, I’m waiting for him to prove his name and do something stupid because reasons. I’d rather see Peaches earn the pilot spot or even find a new pilot somehow (oughta be a lot of people from Earth now on Luna looking for gigs, eh). But, as I have not read the books yet AND I have been avoiding all book spoilers I don’t know if that’s even feasible to stay true to the story.
I even found myself appreciating Monica in the end, when it seemed she was more concerned with doing the right thing than chasing a story. Priorities can make all the difference in how a character is perceived.
Last: thank Og I wasn’t the only person going “who is this Peaches and why is Amos visiting her?” It didn’t take me long to figure out she was Clarissa Mao, but I’ll be ddamned if I can remember any reason he might have had to seek her out in his short time on Terra. Like others, I’ll have to binge all 5 seasons (even S4, I suppose) before S6 and see what I don’t remember at all about Amos & Peaches.
It does work better if you’ve read the books, because a) you will not forget her character due to the number of words dedicated to her setup, and b) you get more exposition on how Amos saw her as someone driven by rage, desperation, and abandonment much like he was. He couldn’t be the mentor-figure she needed but he wouldn’t just abandon her, and she was handy as a mechanic as well. He connected with her in a way that is different from his connection to Holden/Naomi, who he uses as moral compasses, or Alex & Bobbi, who he respects for their skills. But in the same way they are part of his “family” now, so is she, so he felt the need to at least visit her while he was on Earth.
And that ties into the fact that in the books Amos is quite a bit older than in the series.
I’m liking the idea of going with Bull with a change in his character.
And the more I think about Naomi’s rescue scene, the more impressed I am by every part of it. Domique Tipper was sensational in it, but equally important was how they filmed it. By framing it with Naomi’s face in half the shot and the spinning starfield in the rest, you could both see her reactions while also feeling like you were experiencing it along with her. The sound of her slightly panicked breathing with the view of empty space made me feel both claustrophobic and agoraphobic at the same time. And by having the first sign of rescue be Bobbie’s muffled voice, I again experienced it as Naomi, so I felt a sudden relief that I wouldn’t have had if I’d seen the rescue play out from a distance.
Just superbly done.
To the everyone’s great credit everything I bolded came across on-screen, at least for me.
I’ve tried very hard to avoid any book spoilers but this minor one slipped thru my radar. It certainly makes sense that book-Amos would be older given that the character obviously has an extensive history AND most of that history is well behind him.
Yeah, I’ve been spoilering book mentions, but thought “character was older” was minor enough to leave alone, like “character was taller.”
To be sure: everyone’s been great about keeping book mentions obvious and/or spoiled; I agree this is a minor detail.
I forgot to concur with this earlier. It felt like they didn’t do much to help us with that, either. Shots could have included a MCRN logo or the individual ships could have streaks of color or something, anything, so it isn’t all “big girder-y truss thing with tanks from an angle I’ve never seen anything before”. I like them exploiting the POVs possible with the vastness of space around, but ddamn don’t turn your fight scenes into the outer space equivalent of a Bourne fight.
And another aspect of the books is that they didn’t have to cut short the travel times between planets the way the TV show has to do for the sake of storytelling. In the books, Peaches spent months as a prisoner on the Roci before they were able to turn her over to the authorities, and it was during that time that Amos got to know her as something other than the crazy sister who wanted revenge on Holden.
In that context, Amos taking his one chance to ever see her again (or so he thought at the time) by visiting her in prison was a foregone conclusion, not something that came out of the blue.
Yeah, I didn’t even think about it being any other way in the books, but the show definitely made you question why would Amos go see this person he knew for such a little while.
Speaking of the books, I remember Nemesis Games (Book 5) as far more tense and interesting than Season 5 of the show. It was one of the best books of science fiction I’ve ever read. They kind of dragged it a bit out in the show (the Naomi on the dead ship, especially).
I might be a bit out of the ordinary among Expanse readers, but
I didn’t love the Laconia storyline in the books. It was well done and I still enjoyed it, but I think the heart of the story was always the Belter/Mars/Earth relationships, and bringing in a seemingly invincible fourth party disrupted this, and allowed them to unite (or sort of unite) in a way that didn’t feel quite as earned and authentic IMO.
Still liked it a lot, just not quite as much as the other storylines.
I am on episode 5 and just scrolled past all the thread to avoid spoilerss so apologies if was askee before.
Was it mentioned how Marco Innaros got hold of a Martian ship?
I had to look up a summary to make sure I wasn’t spoiling things later in the season: but yes, Alex and Bobbie had confirmed by episode 5 that people within the Martian military sold ships (and stealth tech) to Marcos.
Thanks, I posted whilst watching but it was just explained , thanks for the reply though
I agree with everything above and can’t really add much except I loved the interplay between Amos and Holden near the end regarding Peaches. I wasn’t sure how they were going to play it but it worked well.
FWIW, Naomi stepping off the ship and spinning was epic, and they way Bobbie’s voice came through was nothing short of masterful storytelling.
I loved how Amos never quite said what the favor was, and then just acted like Holden was cool with it, leaving Holden holding the bag.
So the permanent crew of the Roci is now just Holden, Naomi, and Amos, right?
Bobbie has run off to be Chrissie’s ( 
) liaison - but how much of that liaison work will be done on/with the Roci?
Peaches is on board as a guest of Amos, but maybe interviewing for permanent status.
Bull was crew (see below), but his status is now unknown.
What about the other crew during the Naomi rescue mission? I guess they just got paid off and told “don’t call us, we’ll call you”.
I’m against the grain here. The finale was fine but as a payoff for the set up episodes? Not enough of a jackpot.
Question for those who read the books, and of course spoiler the answer, but do we ever find out what killed the builders? If it is still out there? Or does this stay relatively provincially focused: relations between humans as our own enemies and allies, the granfalloons of Earthers, Belters, Martians, and now breakaway Martians? (With occasional kumbaya calls.)