It’s from the novella Strange Dogs, which takes place concurrently with book 6 (Babylon’s Ashes), but doesn’t really tie in to the story until book 7 and 8.
Yeah, like TroutMan said, it is from a side-story. (There were a few, like bonus webisodes, only paper.) I never even read any of the side-stories, and never felt anything was missing from the novels having missed them.
Also, between books 6 and 7 there is a 28 year time jump. 
(Suggested emojis added because I like the way they make the spoiler box colory.)
I’ve only read up to Book 6, and only know a little about Books 7-9, but the Strange Dogs stuff has really wanting me to read them right away.
I forget another great moment: Amos in the drop-chair.
It was heart-racing-oh-shit-fuck-fuck-FUCK to watch and all involved (the actor(s), the special effects, the audio, etc.) conveyed well that it would be unbelievably terrifying to experience.
Those scenes felt like they were from an entirely different show to me.
I thought the bait and switch of the Transit Union President was brilliant and hilarious.
I hope this show continues.
I was going to complain about the lack of attention to detail in that scene: his thruster was going in all directions instead of a fast burn down for the first half and a fast deceleration for the second. Then I realized it’s a purposeful random path to avoid the rail gun rounds. You’re right, it was edge-of-the-seat all the way, and the visuals of shit flying past him in all directions were awesome.
Heh, and to contrast Bobbie coming down in her armor in a relatively controlled fashion afterward was pretty nice. Amos is a badass, but I’m pretty sure it’s his first drop.
Aye; that was part of what conveyed “unbelievably terrifying” was that Amos, a true badass motherfucker in every sense, was disoriented and screaming, hanging on for dear life the whole way down.
That felt too abrupt to really be satisfying. The production company knew this would be the last season and they’d have to wrap it up, right? Then we should’ve spent that Laconia time on something else. Or at least on the plan for the rogue Martians - I feel like the Martian admiral and any plans he had with Marcos should’ve been fleshed out more.
Maybe I’m forgetting scenes during the season, but Marcos only drops the hint to his Lieutenant in this episode that there’s going to be a surprise up his sleeve at the ring - presumably he’s talking about the Martian fleet on Laconia. And then I think it’s supposed to be a big surprise that the Martians betray Marcos. But since it was never really fleshed out, what should’ve been a grand betrayal and Marcos’ scheming coming to bite him in the ass ended up being kind of perfunctory. We ended up having like 45 seconds of screen time spent on what should’ve been a major story beat in the downfall of Inaros. I assume the books make a bigger deal of whatever plans/deal the rogue Martians have and their betrayal.
The ring “entities” thing is weird. The series definitely plays it off as “sometimes weird horrible shit happens when things transit the ring” - and hey, really, that’s all you need to fulfill the plot point - but it’s weird that they start talking about “waking up alien entities” when nothing in the series that I recall establishes that there are some sort of entities and they can be awoken. That seemed out of the blue and not fleshed out at all.
Filip escaping the ship before destruction… he wasn’t that interesting before, and he wouldn’t be that interesting after… it seems like the only way he would’ve been interesting/had payoff is if he would’ve been the one to betray/kill Marcos. Having him just run away at the last second is pretty unsatisfying. We spent a lot of time on a not terribly interesting character for that ending.
Clarissa’s thematic conclusion seemed a bit odd. They looked like they were setting her up for a heroic sacrifice, but then it’s revealed that she didn’t use her mods and that she was “earning her place on the ship” or whatever she said. That’s a weird message. No one on the Rocinante crew thought her mods were a cheat or somehow would’ve disrespected her if she used them in a life or death situation like that. It’s almost like they tried to insert a “I stayed clean! I didn’t use my drugs mods!” theme, or perhaps “I didn’t cheat with my mods!” theme that seemed out of place.
I get that Amos joining the strike team sort of makes cinematic sense, but it kind of ruins the mystique of the Martian Marines. They made it seem like that power armor is really special and needs a ton of training to use properly, not that any dude can just put it on and become a badass. Minor quibble but that should’ve been Bobby and the Martian Marines’ time to shine.
For all the effort to recruit Drummer to their fleet, during the climactic battle they tasked her fleet with taking out one frigate and a bunch of transport ships. It ended up being a Marcos Surprise, but her role in the big final battle felt pretty anticlimactic.
The politics of the transport union needed more time.
This season could’ve used 2 or 3 more episodes to wrap things up, I think. Obviously I hope the show can continue in some way but it seems unlikely - Amazon is all for funding ambitious projects and if they’re not doing it anymore I doubt anyone else is.
Inaros was a disposable mook that Duarte used as a distraction for his getaway, and was tossed aside when he was no longer needed. That was a scene of Inaros learning that he was nothing. The TV show played Inaros as a bigger deal than he was in the books. For example, in the TV show he had hundreds of asteroids that he threw at the Earth for several months. In the books, he had three. His entire asteroid attack lasted a couple of hours.
That’s great that that is how the books worked but this is the show. And in the show he was the main antagonist for several seasons now. The Lacona stuff was essentially a waste of time in an already shortened season. If this was just another season and a new season was coming this would have been very satisfying but for a final season that was already shortened they made a huge mistake including this stuff.
I also did not see this coming and it was a great moment for Holden. I want to give credit to the lady who plays Chrisjen as well. She is such a great actress and you could see her…realizing what this jerk Holden is doing just before he does it.
Love her so much. I also love how she could look at Holden a few episode earlier and just say, “Oh, you are so naive.”
Unless Alcon’s gamble works and someone else picks up the last 3 books, of course.
But the extensive Laconia tease just wasn’t interesting (or comprehensible) enough for any large segment of fans to demand more episodes. In fact, I think there would be more demand if fans were left with no idea about what happens next.
The show was saved from oblivion once. It is very very unlikely to happen a second time. Maybe Amazon changes their mind but no other service will take an expensive show that was already canceled once before. If the show were doing well for Amazon they would have made another season. Obviously there was more story there to be told.
Why? The story would be completely over with no additional tease. Folks would just think there was nothing to add to the protomolecule story. Laconia points to there is more story to be told.
At the very least I’ve seen lots of show only fans ask what was with the Laconia stuff and book readers have been able to fill in with that’s a preview of what Books 7-9 are about. I’ve seen that back and forth a bunch of times on reddit.
No tease is better than a bad one. Maybe it’s because I’ve already read the books, but I saw nothing in those Laconia scenes that make me excited to see what the Hell it’s all about.
I’ve already mentioned I haven’t read 7-9 (nor Strange Dogs) and the Laconia stuff makes me immediately want to read them after I’m done with what I’m currently reading (Eye of the World, after watching S1 of Wheel of Time). I finished reading Babylon Ashes before the season and probably wasn’t going to get to the other 3 anytime soon. But the Laconia stuff pushed that timeline up.
I just finished the season.
And I am left wondering …
What the hell happened?
Am I the only one baffled?
What was all that stuff about the planet with animals that can raise the dead? So far as I can tell there was no plot there.
And WTF happened with Marco? Was it just a deus ex machina? The final scene with Marco reminded me of how Poochie was removed from Itchy and Scratchy.
And then the ending with Jim and Naomi: “Wow, what adventures we have had! And yet we still don’t know what happened to the proto molecule!” I’m surprised it didn’t end with a freeze frame.
I can’t imagine a worse ending to this series. What utter garbage.
Re: What happened to Marco. They had said in a previous episode that if traffic through the ring got to high ships would just disappear (the aliens take them). Basically the Roci did something (it wasn’t clear to me what) to artificially create these conditions when Marco was traveling through the ring so that his ship disappeared.
I agree it wasn’t well explained.