Not the most satisfying finale, but still a well-done one. It gets the tense evenly spread across: despite properly knowing who the major characters are by this point, The Expanse manages to convince me that any of them can be at a stake at any point. Well, perhaps except the main Roci crew.
The shootouts were well made: other series should follow what The Expanse does with their shootouts: doors and corners. People take covers and shots are taken carefully. I think I'm used to watch movies/shows where character's death happen for the shock value, that I expected something to happen when Amos, Alex, Dr. Volovodov, and Reporter Monica were doing their job.
However the writing on supporting characters could've been... more on par with previous seasons. Ashford came off as... a bit more reckless, and the way Amos justifies it ("He's a pirate") seems to be not the strongest plot device to make the story moves along with the tense, as everything that leads to the climax of this episode ultimately rests on his decision alone. We were introduced two new captains but they act as nothing but stocks to show that Ashford appears not to be the single commander (he seems to be though). There is something that feels a bit... artificial, after a very humane and rational Ashford we've seen in previous episodes. I feel like the episode attempts to replicate the Ganymede crisis on previous half-season, but in a more downsized scale.
I am not too sure with the resolution of Melba's arc either, with her having a change of heart then suddenly coming to the rescue, not to mention she is aboard Rocinante now, where she should've been a war criminal, murdering people in Seung-Eun? It seems to be too convenient. As is with Holden's and Rocinante crewss fate, who appears to get out of the trouble without having to face the criminal prosecution accused to them earlier.
That being said, this finale is a fitting end for The Expanse's run in Syfy. As it moves to Amazon Prime, a brand new channel, so does humanity move to new systems opened by the Ring. The three season that has occurred in The Expanse so far seems to be about how humanity discovers interstellar travel.
Review by GabyBlockedParentSpoilers2018-12-06T05:57:05Z
Way to kick the door open for season 4. So many questions!
Holden and his team managed to save everyone and the rin by following his destiny, by being the hero who has to make the hard choices, by trusting his instincts even when it may lead to resistance and possibly his death. Holden's heroics even manage to make a believer out of Mao, who had been trying to get vengence for her father's demise, blaming Holden as sole cause of it. Wasn't expecting that from her.
As Holden is the only one the ring/protomolecule is communicating with, he didn't tell everything he saw in his mind meld with the ringstation. Jim knows that Ring-Miller wasn't leading them for the sake of saving humanity, or because it was worthy of expanding into the universe.... no, Jim knows that Ring-Miller is a surroagate for the protomolecule. He knows that there is something it needs from him, from humanity.... and that thing is to figure out who destroyed the ancient civilization that made the protomolecule, made the ring, and made the wormhole/portal system that the rin belongs to. But the question is, when they find the answer to the mystery, will humanity be able to handle what it finds? will it survive its journey to the unknown? or will it follow the ancients, and perish at the hands of a force it could never imagine?
Best scene: Bobbi being sent to stop the broadcast and unknowingly firing on Alex and Amos, then being like "you freaking idiot" when she realizes who she is firing upon.