The Women of The Expanse podcast, ep. 12 – “Redoubt”

Let’s find out what the girls, women, and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode four, called, “Redoubt”.

To tell me what you think about the show, you can tweet @ blackgirlsquee or email blackgirlsquee@gmail.com and put Women of The Expanse in the subject line. 

Introduction

Welcome to The Women of The Expanse podcast. I’m your host, Didi. 

There’s no space battle in “Redoubt” but we do get space pirates fighting for booty. That’s not nothing. We pick up where we left off from the previous episode and deal with the fallout of some serious decisions made by one Rocinante captain. Belters don’t want the joint UN-MCRN fleet to occupy Ceres Station even though they desperately need the aid.  And  Filip is still deciding what kind of man he wants to be, for the fifty-millionth time. There’s a lot going on in this episode, despite the lack of high-octane action like we saw in “Force Projection.” And we haven’t even gotten to the cold open in Laconia yet. But we will. 

That said, let’s find out what the girls, women, and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode four, called, “Redoubt”. 

Cara

We open the show at Xan’s funeral. But the first thing we see is one of the protomolecule-made ships flying above Laconia. Cara is sitting by herself, listening to all the adults talking but not really understanding what they’re saying. The teacher talks with her parents about how much everyone loved Xan and to let the school know if there’s anything they can do to help. Two Laconians talk about the accident that killed Xan – a car came around the curve of a road too fast and hit Xan while he was playing. Looks like the driver will be given some lethal Laconian justice. Someone whispers about a firing squad. 

Then Cara’s solitude gets interrupted by Admiral Winston Duarte. And all the book readers perked up at this sighting. He does that thing that some folks do when they’re so focused on a goal or idea. They make everything around them about that one idea or goal, even a little child’s grief over their sibling. Duarte compares Cara’s loss of Xan to his loss of the dream of Mars. Then it turns into some kind of nationalistic pitch for Laconia. He’s basically Marco Inaros with less yelling and more cunning. At the end of his spiel, Cara’s actually comforting and encouraging him to keep trying to achieve his dream. It’s incredibly manipulative but reveals a lot about Duarte. 

Cortazar rushes into the funeral looking lost. He tells Duarte that his new coordination protocol just returned a coherent reply pattern. Duarte tells Cortazar to show him and they leave the funeral as the scientist tells the admiral that he thinks he can turn it on, whatever it is. 

Cara’s kid logic got something a little different from what Duarte intended from his speech about sacrifice. We see her take Xan’s body out of the house, presumably so the strange dogs can ‘fix’ him. 

Nico Sanjrani

Nico’s giving a speech to the Belters who survived the bombing from last episode. They’re telling the people of Ceres Station not to sell their future for “the empty promise of safety”. They cast uncertainty on identifying who vented the water tanks but say that they all know who is building a future for the Belt! I don’t get it, I thought Nico was smarter than to unconditionally support a man who left you to starve to death and then tried to blow up your station. Nico urges the people not to submit to the UN-MCRN for a ‘sip of water’. These Belters don’t sound like the kind that Marco was making them out to be in the last episode. But then we know that Marco is full of shit. They say that the Belt will have peace again once the people from the inner planets leave. 

ChrisJen Avasarala

ChrisJen’s aide, Gareth, cuts the feed from Ceres Station, in frustration. He tells Avasarala that the bombs were Belter mining charges so they were obviously left there by Marco. Gareth wants to make the information public but Avasarala says no. Nico will declare it’s a false flag, yet another lie from the inner planets. It’s going to take more than that to turn them against Marco. 

Admiral Kirino reminds Avasarala that the MCRN is a navy not a police force. ChrisJen tells her that the Navy can’t turn the tide of this war without allies in the Belt. Kirino disagrees and runs down the lost souls: 15 UN marines, 27 Martians and two new frigates out of commission. Kirino and MCRN Fleet Command want to head to the Ring, take out Marco’s sentries, depower Medina Station and regain control of the Ring. Avasarala tells Kirino that rushing in to save face and ‘prove their manhood’ is what Marco wants. Did we learn nothing from David Paster’s headassery in season 5? Maybe Kirino didn’t, she was busy doing Martian things. 

Kirino relays the message that Avasarala won’t commit UN forces to a fight against Marco. Fleet Command says they’ll do it on their own. This is a recipe for disaster that they don’t need right now. It’s like everybody is hunting for L’s. First Marco, now the MCRN. Avasarala has grown from the woman who used to torture Belters with Earth’s gravity to make them talk. She finally has some empathy for the Belters and you’ve got to wonder if it took those asteroids hitting Earth to knock some sense into her. Either way, it’s good to see the growth and a shame that Mars doesn’t want to listen. 

Monica Stuart

Monica is watching – or rather, filming, the burial of those who died in the Ceres Station bombing when Avasarala and her aide come in. Stuart tells a story about Darcy Okuda, a Specialist in the East Asian Trade Zone, and how she and one of the Sergeants were competitive swimmers. Gareth wants her to stop filming from her eye camera mod. Monica reminds them that Avasarala gave her full access. Avasarala agrees and leaves her to it. 

Later Monica shows Avasarala footage of that Belter squatter with the cat from the last episode. Avasarala doesn’t like the footage at first because it makes Earth look weak. Monica thinks that’s why it works. Because it makes Earthers and Belters look weak. Monica wants to inspire empathy from the inner planets. 

Naomi Nagata 

Naomi tells Holden that the damage assessment is done and sent to Amos to work on repairs. Holden tells her that the Joint Fleet has the Roci’s flight plan. Naomi’s going through the battle logs to collect any data on the Pella so she can give it to the fleet so they can find that ship. Oh god, I can see this being very useful to the MCRN if they get their hands on the data, and another headache for Avasarala. Holden probably wants to tell her that he disarmed the warhead that would have killed the Pella, but decides not to. 

After a confrontation with Amos, Holden finally confesses to Naomi that he disarmed the warhead aimed at the Pella. He couldn’t be responsible for killing her kid. She says she’s come to terms with the fact that if they win the war, Filip could die. She tried to save Filip and she failed. And instead of martyring herself in the name of motherhood, she left again. All she has left is knowing that she tried. 

I know a lot of people hate Naomi for being weak or for all the crying she did last season or for not being a ‘badass’ like Bobbie and Drummer. But it’s scenes like this that make me love her as a character even more. This is what The Expanse is so good at – making women characters who are three-dimensional, with great strengths and weaknesses that make sense for the lives they’ve lived. They’re all so complex and that makes them more real. They don’t have to be perfect to be great. 

Bobbie Draper

Bobbie’s still mad about that dud missile. That’s because no one on the Roci wants to tell her what Holden did. And it’s probably a good idea that they don’t. Because if they tell Bobbie that Holden missed an opportunity to end the war, it’s going straight to Avasarala. She and Amos bond over missing the former pilot when one of his favorite songs starts playing. They work and sing and grieve at the same time. Multi-tasking! 

Clarissa Mao

Clarissa tells Amos what she found in the ship’s weapon telemetry log. There’s a record of Holden disarming the warhead. She says it’s way above her pay grade and she’s not trying to judge. 

Clarissa decides not to tell Bobbie about the disarmed warhead. But she does tell Holden that she was the one who brought it to Amos’ attention. She tells him that when she saw James and Naomi on the Behemoth (in season three) walking unarmed into fire from Ashford. All the people that Clarissa’s killed haunt her. She tells him not to feel bad about not killing someone. 

Rosenfeld Guoliang

Rosenfeld and Marco are getting a report on the Lauber and the Granicus. The Lauber is a wreck and will be abandoned. Their one repair skiff will be sent to the Pella. Marco wants the two top officers for the Lauber to be spaced and if the leader of the Granicus pleads for clemency they should get the same treatment. 

Filip has been reassigned to repairs. Rosenfeld meets with him and asks him to help Marco stay focused on the war instead of being distracted with his teenage antics. She wants Filip to give Marco support and counsel. Filip basically says she doesn’t know Marco as well as she thinks. He threatens to shoot Rosenfeld and asks what Marco would do about it. “I don’t know. Feel really guilty about it, then send money to my family, pretend it’s remorse.” She may or may not know Marco as well as she thinks she does. But she’s got Filip’s number, every digit. Filip can’t say shit to her and goes back to the repair job. 

Rosenfeld gives another report to Marco. The leaders of the Lauber were spaced, the leader of the Granicus was not. She tells him that she assumed that the second order was rhetorical. She says the punishment would have made Marco look scared and weak. Marco balks at the insubordination. Rosenfeld says someone has to talk to him this way; all the others that did are dead or picking up trash. 

If they win, Rosenfeld wants to be Governor of Medina Station. She feels like she’s earning it. They toast in agreement. 

Camina Drummer

Drummer and the combined Tynan-Inazami crew raid the supply depot. But a group of guards shoot at them. They’re expecting more guards to board when a bomb goes off. It displaces one of the large crates and it falls on Josep’s arm. Michio’s a medic so she leaves the ship and amputates the arm so he can get free.

Camina orders comms to open a wideband channel. And she records a message for “the traitor, the coward, Marco Inaros. You hunted me and mine and still we are here… unbent, unbroken, unbowed. And you? You are nothing.” She ends her dragging with the phrase, “Live shamed and die empty.” I’d just like to send that to all the conservatives in Congress and the Supreme Court. Of course, they don’t feel shamed or any other emotions but I do hope they die empty. 

Outro

That’s it for this episode of The Women of The Expanse podcast. To tell me what you think about the show, you can tweet @ blackgirlsquee or email blackgirlsquee@gmail.com and put Women of The Expanse in the subject line. Voice Memos are cool too. Thanks for listening.