The Expanse - 5.10: Nemesis Games

[ctg]

Holden and Roci face off against Marco's forces and Drummer, while Alex and Bobbie attempt a dangerous rescue while the balance of power in the Sol changes.

 

[ctg]

The whole season I've been saying that either fuses has been lit or the bombs has gone off. Well that certainly happened in the last episode, but the final blast is in the season final. Two of them, no three. I really don't want to say much about them, but I can see how much effort AMZ put in the production to make it like the first season.

I can certainly see it and I applaud their effort with a tear in corner of my eye. The final episode, the whole season has been somewhat emotionally packed adventure and it continues in the this one. I don't know what the last series is going to be about, but it certainly isn't about the Sol business. I believe we are going back to blue stuff.

If you watched it, please say a word or two about this season and the final episode! The thread is yours...

 

[REBerg]

At the risk of being blasphemous, this finale makes the case that The Expanse is as good as or better than the rebooted BSG.
The season was a slow build, but the action and heartbreak here were phenomenal. After the extended peril faced by Naomi, I never thought for a moment that Alex would the one to make the supreme sacrifice for the team.
I couldn't believe that he had died, even at the sight of his lifeless body in the pilot seat, until they said that his ex-wife would handle funeral arrangements. The Viking-style funeral he got from Naomi and Jim was exceptionally fitting.
Yes, it does look as though the Protomolecule will return to center stage in the next season. The thing doesn't discriminate among Earthers, Martians, belters and colonists, which might finally lead all factions to unite against a common enemy.

Susan has the advantage of reading all the books. It is the same to me in the Walking Dead threads when CTG others have read the graphic novels. I do like the speculation, I also do like the extra information provided from the books/graphic novels, so please may it continue.

To be honest though, I believe any TV series should be able to stand alone, and that it has failed if it doesn't convey all necessary information, so that one has to go and check the source material in order to understand what is going on.

I can understand a natural desire to compare television series and films with their print predecessors, but spoilers work both ways. I much prefer reading books as expanded versions, so I would appreciate references to book details in dedicated threads like these be made as spoilers and marked as such.

 

[Dave]

I can understand a natural desire to compare television series and films with their print predecessors, but spoilers work both ways. I much prefer reading books as expanded versions, so I would appreciate references to book details in dedicated threads like these be made as spoilers and marked as such.

I think that is a fair request here.

It does get more complicated elsewhere on the forums. I have had to give up marking spoilers in the Star Trek forums where there are several concurrent series and an animation, all in different timelines, but all creating new plot and referencing each other as they do, while due to them being shown on different networks, with different geographical restrictions, some members have not seen them all, and certainly not in the same order. Star Wars is the same. Anyway, I haven't seen this episode yet so I only read your post as it quoted me. I'll reply again once I've watched it.

 

[Glaysher]

After the extended peril faced by Naomi, I never thought for a moment that Alex would the one to make the supreme sacrifice for the team.
I couldn't believe that he had died, even at the sight of his lifeless body in the pilot seat, until they said that his ex-wife would handle funeral arrangements.

Wasn't it less surprising considering the actor had been sacked?

 

[REBerg]

Wasn't it less surprising considering the actor had been sacked?

I was unaware of that, but I guess it was less of a surprise to you.

 

[svalbard]

At the risk of being blasphemous, this finale makes the case that The Expanse is as good as or better than the rebooted BSG.
The season was a slow build, but the action and heartbreak here were phenomenal. After the extended peril faced by Naomi, I never thought for a moment that Alex would the one to make the supreme sacrifice for the team.
I couldn't believe that he had died, even at the sight of his lifeless body in the pilot seat, until they said that his ex-wife would handle funeral arrangements. The Viking-style funeral he got from Naomi and Jim was exceptionally fitting.
Yes, it does look as though the Protomolecule will return to center stage in the next season. The thing doesn't discriminate among Earthers, Martians, belters and colonists, which might finally lead all factions to unite against a common enemy.

I can understand a natural desire to compare television series and films with their print predecessors, but spoilers work both ways. I much prefer reading books as expanded versions, so I would appreciate references to book details in dedicated threads like these be made as spoilers and marked as such.

Not blasphemous at all. I think The Expanse has taken on the mantel that was previously held by BSG. The ending of BSG sort of ruined the whole series for me and I hope the final series of The Expanse does not flunk out the way BSG did.

On the episode. It was awesome. This was the perfect payoff for the build up in the series. Go Team Drummer. I bloody well cheered at the screen when she took over.

There were real moments of jeopardy for our protagonists and I I wasn't sure how it was going to work out. The tension was palpable. I do wish we could have had more action around the Battle of the Sol Gate(I believe it is called). A 90 minute finale would not have gone amiss. As an aside I wonder why they didn't. It being on Amazon they are not restricted to scheduling times for networks.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

The finale was well worth waiting for. As far as the character lineup change goes, as soon as it dawned on me, I immediately looked for articles to see how it all came to be.

 

[ctg]

The finale was well worth waiting for. As far as the character lineup change goes, as soon as it dawned on me, I immediately looked for articles to see how it all came to be.

I knew about it, and I might have posted about it in the general thread. Anyway what's done it's done and there's no grieving over it. Alex got a wonderful send off.

 

[Dave]

I think you've said it all. I haven't read the books or spoilers, so Alex was a surprise to me too. It seemed poignant that after all the battles, disasters and firefights, he died from something as mundane as a stroke due to a hard deceleration, rather than out with a bang. I think they wanted to emphasise the everyday danger of space. I also wasn't sure he was dead until that mention of funeral arrangements.

I do wish we could have had more action around the Battle of the Sol Gate (I believe it is called). A 90 minute finale would not have gone amiss.

I agree. Both that and Alex's death seemed needlessly rushed. A double episode could have done it, with cliff-hanger. I think I need to re-watch the Battle of Sol Gate because I missed exactly what occurred.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Wasn't it less surprising considering the actor had been sacked?

From the articles I have read the, "sacking" came after filming had finished. Whether it was tackled in re-shots the producers have been closed lipped about it. I feel the actor's actions put them in a situation where there was no choice, and to my mind it was the right one. (If you want to know the details do a search, but I am not putting them on this thread) Still it fitted well into the storyline, re the risks. All in all the whole series did justice to book 5. I have a few niggles, but not worth mentioning here.

As I said before I did find the Alex character in the series a bit bland compared to the one in the books.

 

[Dave]

So, that's why he didn't look very dead! If his death was an after-thought following the filming, that would explain why there was no "death" scene filmed, and instead the idea of a stroke. I think they could have filmed something a little better than a conversation about his wife and his funeral though.

Edit:

Filming on the fifth season finished before the allegations against Anvar came to light. While some have theorized that the character death was added to the finale via reshoots, showrunner Naren Shankar did not confirm the theory when we talked to him ahead of the episode’s airing.

So, pressure of time obviously. And maybe they had to remove some of the battle in order to explain the death?

 

[ctg]

The reunion of the Rocinante crew (minus one) and Avasarala’s return to power provided some measure of resolution in The Expanse season 5 finale, but even with season 6 being the final outing for the show, the story of the protomolecule is far from over. Showrunner Naren Shankar helped shed some light on those final moments, including the nature of Laconia and the status of several characters whose arcs are ongoing.

The Expanse Season 5 Ending Explained | Den of Geek

The final scenes in The Expanse season 5 finale were chock full of details open to interpretation, so what really happened in the end?

www.denofgeek.com

 

[Parson]

Who's going to pilot the Roci? What's that thing in the air? How's Drummer going to survive? A Martian marine is the attaché of the UN GS? and on and on and on.

There are so many dangling threads that it would take a large post just to list them. Let's just say that it's going to take a full season to tie them all down. I'll be sure to join this discussion when season 6 Yea!, the final season, No!, airs.

 

[ctg]

Who's going to pilot the Roci?

Bull obviously. Less skill, more attitude.