The Expanse - 3.12 & 3.13: Congregation and Abaddon's Gate

[ctg]

Spoiler: S03E12 & 13 - Congregation & Abbandon's Gate

I'm glad "That guy" showed up to deal with Mao's daughter problem. Amos is right. She is one of those people who are never going to give up, because the revenge is rooted in her head. Thing is even though Rosinante's AutoDoc is very capable piece of machine, there is no saying can it handle all the tricks Clarisse might have hidden in her body. So as soon as Naomi and Alex came up with the plan to abandon the ship and go to Behemoth, I thought about double tapping just to be sure.

You cannot leave a psycho alone into the war-vessel and expect everything to going to be okay. To my mind it's just one of those big no-no things. But in the plot terms, what else would be better then having a psycho in control of the vessel capable of launching nuclear missiles?

This group shot has to be the most awesome sight in the whole season. The power-armours just make it glorious. But it makes me wonder why they don't coat them with MCRN colours? Ashford did the right thing on ordering Bobby's squad to surrender the weapons. It just showed the Inners that OPA is strong! Thing is if Bobby would have had Avasarala's diplomatic skills, Acting Captain Ashford would have heard rude words and nothing would have happened. In fact, she could have stood strongly on the position of being in the emergency situation and therefore in standby and OPA would have had to escort them around.

In all that insanity that went around after everyone docked with the Behemoth I didn't expect Clarisse to end in the brig with Holden. Why Amos didn't put her down? What use she is going to provide to everyone when it was her that caused most of the problems inside the Ring? Nothing. War criminals takes resources and provide nothing.

Holden in the other hand, with all things stored in his head and his connection to the nucleus through Miller is far more valuable. Too bad nobody trusted him as they thought he'd gone nuts. But it did bug me that within a minute they'd locked Holden in the brig, Drummer had sprung him out and Amos had rearmed himself.

Why to put in plot things like failing power-grids if you're not going to allow viewers to see crews implementing them? It was a really big disappointment to find out that the plot point was convoluted on Ashford's attempt to solve the Ring problem in humanity's old fashioned way. To my mind they should showed Naomi's route to Drummer and then Drummer connecting with Holden before they showed Clarissa on the bridge with the Acting Captain.

I understand that they had do something to build up tension. But the problem is that the tension was there already in the form of locked ships and the impossibility to get back to the terra system in human lifetime. The terror on being stranded with inside alien device is enough without additional events, Ashford crazy plan on pulverizing the nucleus.

I don't know who edited the final two hour episode, but whoever did it, managed to make it a total mess with the time-jumps. Otherwise it would have been a great if they'd showed it progressing lineally.

 

[Anthoney]

I enjoyed it. All the main characters were able to shine in their own way. It may have been a little choppy in places but enough to really bother me. Who, where and how things ended were just about what I wanted.

Looking forward to a 10 episode binge next season. I just hope it doesn't take Amazon more than a year to get it done.

 

[clovis-man]

Now that the last SyFy episode has been shown, I will only use the spoiler device for anything involving differences between the TV series and the books. Actually there isn't much occasion where it would be needed.

The final two episodes, bracketed together, did a nice job of summng things up. Right up to the end of the events in book three. The producers elected to morph the characters of Michio and Bull from the book into more of a role for Drummer. I thought it worked fine and saved any needless character confusion.

Spoiler

I thought it was prophetic when Anna told Clarissa that simply killing her would be wrong because she shouldn't get off that easy. Her ongoing role in the books will attest to the truth in that, as much as I might have been okay with rubbing her out at the time of my reading. That being said, if the book version is followed by Amazon, she won't appear at all in the book four scenario. Of course, neither would Bobbie, but that seems to have been obviated by her inclusion on the crew (in terms of optics anyway). I also thought it was interesting that Ashford got a much more sympathetic role in the series than he did in the book.

So now we will all be waiting to see what Amazon will do with the next installments. I'm quite hopeful. And I say that with the transition of the Longmire series from just a re-issued TV show on Netflix to one in which the content was not constrained by the limits of an hour long episode with time shaved off for commercials. The Netflix original episodes were quite good. I'm hoping for the same thing from Amazon.

 

[REBerg]

This double episode worked for me as either a season or series finale. I'm glad that it's the former.

Spoiler

It was great to see all three factions united, although Amos (as I recall) observed that all it took to bring them together was the threat of death for all. With multiple habitable planets open to them through the Protomolecule gates, the interplanetary conflicts driven by limited resources should diminish. Inners and Belters may yet gather around an Amazon camp fire for a group hug and a rousing rendition of Kumbaya.
Best of all, despite another brush with self-sacrifice, Drummer remains among the living. She has become my favorite character.

 

[clovis-man]

Spoiler

With multiple habitable planets open to them through the Protomolecule gates, the interplanetary conflicts driven by limited resources should diminish. Inners and Belters may yet gather around an Amazon camp fire for a group hug and a rousing rendition of Kumbaya.

Spoiler

Dream on!!

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

With multiple habitable planets open to them through the Protomolecule gates, the interplanetary conflicts driven by limited resources should diminish.

Yeah, they indicated that there are several habitable planets behind those ring gates. Are they in ruins, inhospitable or protected by some ancient planetary defence machines, we have to see, imlications however is that there used to life in the solar system. I hope AMZ puts those disposable delux campfires (only 9.99 per log) on sale.

 

[svalbard]

This double episode worked for me as either a season or series finale. I'm glad that it's the former.

Spoiler

It was great to see all three factions united, although Amos (as I recall) observed that all it took to bring them together was the threat of death for all. With multiple habitable planets open to them through the Protomolecule gates, the interplanetary conflicts driven by limited resources should diminish. Inners and Belters may yet gather around an Amazon camp fire for a group hug and a rousing rendition of Kumbaya.
Best of all, despite another brush with self-sacrifice, Drummer remains among the living. She has become my favorite character.

I share your final sentiment. A really standout character played brilliantly by the actor.

It was a brilliant finale. The double episode worked and I wanted it to leap into the next installment(which I hope Amazon brings us). There is far too much quality in this series for it to be dropped.

 

[ctg]

I write while I watch, hence the pieces reads often that I didn't watch it fully before I put my fingers on the keyboard. Because the final was edited the way it was, it completely cocked up what I had written and then I couldn't be bothered on changing the details. I'll hope AMZ does better job. Otherwise it was a good season. Not as brilliant as the first one. The biggest thing for me was seeing Bobby in the action, the Razorback and Drummer gaining her own ship. I would have loved hearing Avasarala muttering the f-word when the portals opened.

 

[elvet]

Well, I have finally watched all of season 3. For some reason, I like to watch this in the winter, and have managed to hold off all this time.
I thought it was extremely well done, concise, and true to the story in the books. Highlights for me were Drummer and Anna. Drummer, as a ‘new’ character made for the TV series, held my interest, as I didn’t know what was going to happen to her.

Spoiler: Spoiler

I was sure she was going to die in the last stand off in the elevator

Anna was perfect. Believable as compassionate and empathetic, but strong. Speaking of that, all of the female characters were excellently portrayed.
Now that I have watched this, I can proceed with my reading of the 7th book, Persepolis Rising, which I’ve been also saving.

 

[Juliana]

Speaking of that, all of the female characters were excellently portrayed.

One of the things I love about the show is that there's a wide variety of types of strength in the female characters.

 

[Bugg]

Watched the finale of season 3 last night. Brilliant stuff. Drummer rocks. Thought David Strathairn was excellent (as always). Still think Miller is the best role Thomas Jane has ever had.

My only problem with this show is Steven Strait. I think he's a pretty poor actor and it really does drag me out of the experience at times. When he tries to do emotion he just looks constipated

With season 4 will the show get its own sub-forum?

 

[Bugg]

Thank you to The Powers That Be for giving the show its own sub-forum

I was having this conversation with a friend in between acts at a gig the other night, so can I just say it again: Drummer rocks.

Which is probably handy if she's a drummer.

I'll get my coat