The final episode of The Expanse is out now. Amos rides a rocket through a sci-fi kaleidoscope,
Marco is eaten by interdimensional aliens, and Drummer becomes queen of space. What does it all mean? What are the hidden easter eggs and references? And how does the final season compare to the
books? Season 6 is based on the sixth Expanse book,
Babylon’s Ashes. But it also includes the story from an Expanse
novella, called Strange Dogs. So the episode starts on Laconia – the planet
ruled by Duarte, who led a bunch of rogue Martians here last season . Duarte and the
scientist Cortazar experiment with the protomolecule, trying to control these mysterious structures
orbiting the planet. This girl Cara is the daughter of some scientists
on Laconia, and she has encountered some strange alien dogs. The dogs fix Cara’s broken drone. They fix a dead bird, bringing it back to
life as a creepy zombie bird. And now they fix Cara’s dead brother, Xan. Cause these dogs aren’t ordinary natural
animals. They are “repair drones” – technological
“constructs” , created by the alien builders billions of years ago to automatically fix
things. Their faces are described as looking embarrassed
in the books , and they like to say “ki-ka-ko” . The aliens that created the dogs are long
extinct now, but the dogs still keep trying to fix things – even though they don’t
really understand how a human is supposed to work. So after they fix Xan, Xan is different. He says he feels weird , and he sees things
he couldn’t see before in glowing blue CGI . It’s like what happened to Katoa in Season
3, when he was changed by the protomolecule . The dogs haven’t just fixed Xan, they’ve
upgraded him with alien biotech. So is Xan still fully human, or is he something
else now? Cara is just happy that she gets her brother
back. But when she brings him home, her parents
Gary and Dot are horrified. They reject their zombie son, and attack him,
to Cara’s horror. Because Cara and her parents have different
worldviews – they literally grew up on different worlds. Gary and Dot are from on Earth, where death
is permanent. But Cara grew up on Laconia, where death can
be fixed by the dogs – that’s normal to her, cause it’s all she knows. Like many real immigrant families, Cara’s
parents have different rules and expectations about the world than she does , and tragically,
this tears their family apart. So Cara tricks her parents with a recording
of her voice and runs into the forest with Xan. She knows she’ll die out here, without food
or water – but says the strange dogs will fix her if she dies . That’s the end of
the story for Cara and Lil Xan in the TV show – but their story continues in the Expanse
books. The Expanse TV show only adapts the first
six books, though there are three more books beyond that. Hopefully the rest of the story will be adapted
one day. Back in the Sol system, Earth, Mars and Drummer’s
Belters plan their attack against Marco. For most of the series, Earth and Mars were
enemies, and the Belt was exploited by the inner planets. These years of oppression and war have not
been forgotten – it wasn’t that long ago Avasarala was hanging Belters on hooks . But
Earth Mars and Belt are now forced to work together against the greater threat of Marco. Cause if Marco’s navy gets to Medina Station
in the ring space, defended by Laconian rail guns, Marco could solidify control over all
the ring gates – dictator of a thousand worlds . Since Duarte gave Marco a bunch of
Mars’ ships, and Earth’s fleet was degraded by years of pointless war , their combined
forces might not be enough to stop Marco . So Plan B is for the Roci crew and a ship called
the Giambattista to race for the ring space and capture Marco’s rail guns before he
gets there . It’s a wildly dangerous, desperate mission, so of course Holden is very optimistic
that it’ll go great . Bobbie and Holden take a moment to remember
Alex, who died last season. Alex was kinda the social glue that held the
Roci crew together. His friendly easy-going personality balanced
out the extreme personalities of Holden Naomi and Amos. While the rest of the crew battled aliens
and saved the universe, he often stayed on the ship and looked after their home, he made
sure everyone was eating and cared for, he was like a parent. So when Alex died, and Clarissa and Bobbie
joined the crew, the whole dynamic of their family was disrupted, and the crew almost
broke apart . Amos almost quit after Holden spared Filip . Holden was uncomfortable with
Clarissa, who did try to kill him a few times. And Naomi didn’t like Amos and Clarissa’s
friendship. Cause it used to be Amos and Naomi who had
a special close relationship. In Season 1, they were both damaged, vulnerable
people, so they supported each other – Amos protected Naomi, and Naomi guided Amos, he
called her his “boss”. But now, Amos has.. grown up, become a leader
himself. Now, he guides Clarissa, and she calls him
boss. So now, Naomi understands and accepts this
relationship , and welcomes Clarissa as a member of their family. But Clarissa is dying. Cause back in Season 3, she tried to kill
Holden as revenge for the downfall of her father, Jules-Pierre. Clarissa got illegal biotech mods implanted
into her body that can enhance her strength and speed for short bursts. But these mods are.. not FDA approved. They constantly leech hormones into her body,
damaging her health. And now she learns she’s only got about
five years to live . The screen says that “salt craving” is one of the symptoms
of her condition – which explains why she ate so much salt in Episode 4 . Clarissa knows
her time is running out, and she chooses to spend her last years with her new family,
cooking a proper meal for them all, like Alex used to do. In Book 6, Naomi thinks she treasures her
time with her loved ones, because it won’t last forever. Everything ends, and that’s what makes these
moments precious . Drummer prepares for battle with Marco – the
man who killed her friend Ashford, killed her friend Fred, and killed her partner Serge. The man who started the war that broke her
family apart. She flies Ashford’s ship the Tynan into
battle, and she’s convinced a Belter leader called Walker to join her side. In the book, there’s a whole plotline about
Holden trying to convince a diverse bunch of Belter OPA leaders to work with Earth and
Mars against Marco . Fred Johnson was the best hope to unite the OPA in cooperation
with the inners, but Fred suddenly dies in Book 6 . So it’s only with the help of Dawes
that Holden’s able to bring the Belters together .
Drummer and her allies attack Marco, but Marco pulls a sneaky trick by disguising his ship
the Pella as a different ship. Kinda like how the Roci was once disguised
as a harmless gas freighter . Marco counterattacks and cripples Drummer’s ship – ending her
chance for revenge. Drummer had to swallow her pride join Earth
and Mars against Marco. She left her family behind to fight this war,
and now she just suffers more defeat. She feels she’s lost everything, that this
universe has no place for her . So in rage and despair, she tries a suicide attack on
Marco , but Walker beats her to it. Is there a place for Drummer in this universe? In the book, Drummer’s plotline is taken
by a similar character called Michio Pa. In her battle with Marco, Pa is badly burned,
and forced to recover in a makeshift hospital in a luxury resort on Titan . It’s a strange,
surreal scene, in limbo between life and death, inner planets and Belt. Pa grapples with all she’s lost, before
rising reborn and finding new purpose. So while Drummer, Earth and Mars distract
Marco, the Roci and the Giambattista get to the ring space. Bobbie and Amos are in the assault team attacking
the ring station to take the rail guns. We see this list of the other soldiers on
the assault team, and most of these names are references to famous sci fi stories. Ripley, Vasquez, Hicks and Hudson are characters
from the Alien movies. The creators of The Expanse have said that
Alien was a huge influence on the series, specifically in how it portrayed average people
with blue-collar jobs in space – like the crew of the Cant in Season 1. Vasquez Hicks and Hudson are from the second
Alien movie, where they land on mysterious alien territory for a dangerous mission – just
like what they’re doing now in The Expanse. We also see the names of Admiral Ackbar from
Star Wars, David Bowman from 2001 , Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect, Duncan Idaho from
Dune, Rick Deckard from Blade Runner, Jack O’Neill from Stargate, Johnny Rico from
Starship Troopers, Sarah Connor from Terminator, and Will Riker from Star Trek. So these are some of the greatest badasses
in sci fi history – and Bobbie Draper and Amos Burton are right there with them. There are more easter eggs in these names
– comment below if you spot one. The Giambattista dumps lots of empty containers
as decoys, to provide cover for the assault team as they drop onto the ring station. One of the containers has the logo of Mao-Kwikowski
Mercantile – that was the company of Jules-Pierre Mao before he was imprisoned for his protomolecule
conspiracy. The “Mao” part of the logo has been scrubbed
off. Jules-Pierre’s daughter, Clarissa, struggles
with her father’s legacy, as we see in a bonus scene for this season. There are five bonus scenes in Season 6, and
you can watch them on Amazon Prime Video, on a phone, PC, or Fire TV , by clicking X-Ray
in the top left, then Bonus Content. The Episode 4 bonus scene follows Clarissa,
as she finds out that her father Jules-Pierre has died in jail. She hates that she always wanted the approval
of such a terrible dad . So much of the evil she did in Season 3 was to try and win his
love. But now she’s found a better family with
Amos and the Roci crew. At the end of the scene, Clarissa starts to
clean up a mess she made – she likes fixing things now, cause that represents making up
for her mistakes . And she continues that in the finale – heroically risking her life
to repair the Roci mid-battle. Meanwhile, the assault team land on the ring
station. Amos survives a sci-fi high-g clusterfuck,
while Bobbie makes a more dignified entrance. But the assault goes badly, and many of the
team are killed – RIP Hudson. “Game over man, game over!”. In the book, the soldiers defending the ring
station are Duarte’s rogue Martians, helping Marco. So Bobbie loves the opportunity to get revenge
against the Martian traitors who betrayed her homeworld . Bobbie goes all Iron Man and
defeats the enemy, but is forced to destroy the rail guns with a missile. Which was not the plan – they hoped to capture
the rail guns, so they could use them against Marco when he arrives. But Bobbie had no other choice. In the book, it’s different. Bobbie tries to capture the rail guns by just
blowing up their power source. But the explosion causes a reaction from the
ring station itself. The entire station turns green and it physically
expands, breaking the rail guns – like how it reacted to an explosion in Season 3. Bobbie’s attack seems to make the station
angry . So this is a reminder that the ring space is a remnant of a vast and mysterious
alien empire, and humanity is messing with powerful forces that they do not understand. But point is, the rail guns are broken, leaving
the Roci is alone and defenceless , with all the power of Marco’s Free Navy burning hard
to destroy them. On the way to the ring, Marco gets a message
from Duarte on Laconia. Duarte is an important ally for Marco – Duarte
gave him his ships and his rail guns. And Marco hinted earlier that he’s expecting
more from Duarte soon , like some secret weapon or reinforcements or something. But now Duarte tells Marco to get fucked,
he’s on his own – Laconia won’t help Marco any more . Cause all along, Duarte was
using Marco. He only gave Marco ships and weapons so that
he’d keep Earth and Mars busy so Duarte could settle on Laconia undisturbed . Having
Marco in the ring space was a useful buffer, so that to get to Laconia, people would have
to get through Marco first . Duarte’s tone is kinda mean and vindictive here – he enjoys
disrespecting Marco. But in the book, Duarte is more respectful
and sincere. Duarte really believes he’s doing what’s
best for humanity – and that’s part of what makes him so dangerous. Duarte says he has “have gods to kill”
. Because Duarte’s mission is to defeat the mysterious entities in the ring gates. Duarte is building a great Laconian empire
empowered by alien technology to save humanity from this interdimensional threat. So Duarte and Laconia have a really cool plotline,
which continues in the next three Expanse books. Duarte’s rejection is a huge loss to Marco. But when Filip turns up, Marco hides his rage
and acts like everything’s going great. Marco constantly lies and bullshits everyone
around him. He said himself that he tells people whatever
they need to hear . The books emphasise how whenever he fails at something, he acts like
that was actually his plan all along . Marco manipulates everyone – including his son. This season, Filip questions his loyalty to
Marco. Filip feels guilt for helping Marco kill billions
of people on Earth, and guilt for killing his friend Yoan out of stupid misdirected
rage. He meets this guy Tadeo, and learns that Tadeo
had a brother who was killed by Marco’s bombs on Ceres. Last season, Naomi told Filip that Marco made
him a murderer, and one day Filip will feel guilt for his crimes . And now that day has
come. Filip is shaken by the death of Rosenfeld,
and tells Marco it could have been Filip who died . But Marco doesn’t care, and says
he’d be proud if Filip died for his cause . Last season, Naomi told Filip that Marco
would let Filip die for him, but Marco wouldn’t die for Filip . Now Filip sees she was right. Marco only really loves himself. Marco gives a big speech about how his revolution
will free the Belter people. But now Filip sees that’s not true. Marco abandoned millions of Belters to die
on Ceres. Marco doesn’t listen to Sanjrani’s plans
to feed the Belt. He’s more interested in his personal vendettas
against Drummer, Holden and Naomi. Marco’s revolution only serves himself. Filip finally sees that his father is nothing
more than a selfish manipulative murderer .
Last season, Naomi told Filip that sometimes, the only choice is to walk away . And so now,
Filip walks away. He leaves Marco on his own ship, and escapes
his controlling father. He rejects the Inaros name, and instead names
himself Filip Nagata, after his mother. Naomi never finds out that Filip escaped Marco. She thinks that she failed to save him last
season. But her words free her son. The Roci crew stand alone in the ring space
– apparently Sarah Connor and Duncan Idaho didn’t make it. They’re outnumbered and outgunned by Marco’s
Free Navy, so they prepare for a heroic last stand. But then Naomi suggests that they wake the
mysterious alien entities. These entities have been destroying ships
that go through the ring – like the Barkeith last season. Naomi and the scientist Elvi figured out that
these entities become active after a certain amount of mass and energy goes through the
ring . So just as Marco arrives, the Roci crew throw the Giambattista through a ring
to activate the entities, and so Marco is obliterated along with his navy, right at
the moment he thought he was victorious. It’s kinda like Gollum dying amidst orange
CGI at his moment of victory in Lord of the Rings. There’s even a ring. In the books, when the entities kill people,
people experience changes to their perception and consciousness. In Marco’s last moments he stops seeing
objects, and instead sees the molecules those objects are made of, and the photons bouncing
off them. Instead of hearing sound he perceives the
vibrations in the air. His sense of self melts into a cloud of energy
– before the entities slither through the nothingness and sweep him to oblivion . The
entities manipulate consciousness itself as a weapon, and these ideas are explored more
in the last few Expanse books. So the Roci crew kill Marco and finally end
this terrible war. The horror for Naomi is that she believes
she has killed her son Filip. Never knowing that Filip actually left Marco
and survived, inspired by her words. Later, Naomi says that all we can do is try
to help others. It doesn’t matter if we ever know we made
a difference, it’s not about making ourselves feel good. But the right kind word might change someone’s
life, so it’s always worth trying . There’s a big meeting with the leaders of
Earth Mars and the Belt, to figure out “the architecture by which we try to unfuck ourselves”,
as Avasarala says in the books . She says war doesn’t end on the battlefield – war
ends at the negotiating table . Cause killing Marco was the easy part. The hard part is making a peace that will
last. Unless they can build more fair and stable
political order , they’ll just end up with more war in the future – as Drummer said,
Marco’s extremism was inevitable in an unjust unequal system. The big problem, especially in the book, is
that the Belt doesn’t have a future. The whole reason why Belters exist was originally
to mine resources in the asteroid belt. Over the generations, their culture and bodies
adapted to life in low gravity. But now, through the ring gates, there are
thousands of new habitable planets, with free air and water, where it’s way easier to
get resources . These new worlds are the future of humanity. But Belters have no place in this future . Because
most Belters, like Naomi, can’t survive on planets with gravity, because their bodies
are adapted to space. And those Belters who can live on planets,
within a few generations, won’t really be Belters any more . The Belter, as a people
and a culture, face extinction . Marco’s solution to this problem was to block off
the ring gates, so Earth and Mars would still need the Belt . He wanted to preserve the
status quo, just with Belters in charge instead of the inners . But now the leaders of Earth
Mars and Belt find a better solution, looking to the future instead of the past. They form a Transport Union to govern the
shipping and trade between the ring gates. It’s really important to have someone coordinating
ring transits , because otherwise people might accidentally get eaten by the entities . And
there needs to be a lot of trade right now, because since Marco broke Earth, and was blocking
off the ring gates, the colony worlds and damaged Earth are desperate for each other’s
resources. Plus many people want to leave Earth and Mars
to settle on the colony worlds. So there’s a lot of work to be done coordinating
transport and trade in space, and Belters are the best people to do it – the Belters’
new hope for an economic and political future is to become galactic shipping magnates . In
the book, Holden jokes that they should call the union “the spacing guild” – which
is a reference to a similar concept in Dune. So everyone agrees a Transport Union is a
good idea, but they can’t agree on who should be in charge of it. After a century of conflict, the inner planets
and the Belters don’t trust each other. Avasarala suggests that Holden should be in
charge – because has worked with Earthers Martians and Belters fairly, he has experience
with the ring space and Medina Station, and y’know, he’s the protagonist and he’s
very handsome, so of course he should be in charge. So Holden agrees to be the first President
of the Transport Union – the brave warrior protagonist becomes king in the end, like
Aragon in Lord of the Rings or the bloody Pevensie kids. But in an unexpected twist, Holden immediately
steps down and makes Drummer the new President instead. He says if the Transport Union is the future
for the Belters, it should be led by a Belter . And Drummer is more qualified than Holden. She has experience running Medina Station
in the ring space, and she was Medina’s captain back when it was the Behemoth. Drummer did shipping and distribution work
bringing supplies to Ceres, which is exactly what the Transport Union will do . Drummer
has proven her commitment to the Belt over and over, and she’s shown her willingness
to cooperate with Earth and Mars. Drummer was always the quintessential Belter,
and after six seasons of struggle, she brings hope for her people. It’s also a great character moment for Holden
to pull off this sneaky trick – he pretended to agree to be President, under certain conditions
, plotting all along to give it to Drummer . Because Holden’s whole thing in the beginning
of the series was to be honest and open about everything. He thought he knew what was best for everyone,
he made the decisions, and he told everyone his true intentions . But this time, he hides
his true intentions, and gives the power to someone else. It shows how much Holden has changed and grown
from the naïve idealist he once was. Miller and Avasarala taught him that sometimes
it’s necessary to lie for the greater good . And Naomi and Drummer showed him that he
needs to share leadership with others . He is not personally responsible for running
the universe. Saving humanity is “a group project” .
Clarissa gives Amos a badge of a devil face. Amos used to wear one like this, but apparently
lost it last season. Clarissa now replaces it, and makes one for
herself – as a super adorable symbol of their friendship. Though the badge has a dark backstory. In the Expanse Origins comic book, we see
Amos and his friend Saru when they were sexually exploited as children. Saru committed suicide, but he gave Amos his
devil badge, telling Amos to live and to “keep smiling”. So the devil badge represents Amos hiding
his trauma behind a mask, being emotionally detached to survive. But over six seasons, Amos grows and uses
his experience of trauma to help others – transforming a symbol of pain into one of connection and
hope. At the end of the finale, Holden says we still
don’t know what’s happening with the protomolecule, and Laconia and Duarte. At the end of the credits, we see the entities
still lurking in the ring. The Expanse TV show is ending without finishing
the story from the last three Expanse books. The creators of the Expanse say that they’re
just pausing the story, and that last three books might be adapted someday . It does make
sense to pause here, because Book 7 actually starts 30 years after Book 6. Holden is eager to face this future, but Naomi
says let’s just stay and enjoy the moment in the present, as the Roci sails the vast
expanse. The Expanse is about aliens and spaceships
and explosions, and it’s really about the tragedy of human conflict. No matter how far we expand into the universe,
our politics and tribes divide us – heroes are those who try to unite us. At the end of the Expanse everything has changed. Humanity has expanded from just one solar
system to new worlds across a thousand stars. Earth is devastated, Mars is obsolete, the
Belt is transformed. But the old divisions remain – this isn’t
the end of war. So everything’s changed, but nothing’s
changed, really . At the end of Book 6, Anna and her family head for a new life on a new
world. She thinks no matter how far humanity expands,
we’re basically stuck with each other – we’re spending our lives together, and all we can
do is try to get along. If we’re gentle, maybe the stars will be
better off with us . Thanks for watching, and thanks to Amazon
Prime Video UK for sponsoring this video. You can check out the bonus scenes for Season
6 on Amazon Prime Video by clicking on X-Ray then Bonus Features. Please like and comment, and subscribe – to
this channel, and to Alt Shift X. Cheers.
Alt-Shift-X may be the only channel which earns using “explained”. He references the books and events that happened in prior episodes/seasons, every other channel is just a play-by-play “this scene had a person walking. They walked from this room to this room.”
Props to whoever convinced the right people to hire him to do these for the show.
"And Drummer becomes Queen of Space..."
Well, I for one welcome our new overlord and promise to follow her into battle...
Was fun identifying the names of the assault team. Good to see Saberhagen amongst them.
Interesting how this is only posted now. I guess it must've been part of his contract.
Ooh I never would've caught the shipping container with the Mao scrubbed off.
Quite enjoyed this one.
So Laconia will one day have mumble rap. Interesting.
(that was a clever bit that few here probably got. I actually met Lil Xan once. He is definitely weird.)
I always felt that The Expanse (TV show) could easily have been set in the Alien universe. It reminds me of the bleak 90's Alien Dark Horse comics so much.
Slow-burn squad focused sci-fi drama-thriller where we rarely see the xenomorphs? Yes please
The "conversion" would be so easy.
Shift the Belters with one of the independent colonist coalitions (Colonists & space-truckers), then shift the Martians with the Three World Empire primarily based on Mars (UK, Japan alliance)
Protomolecule conspiracy is replaced with Weyland Yutani Corporation (bioweapon division)
Add a secretive high society religious cults that unknowingly worship xenomorphs to bring forward the apocalypse and/or be 'reborn'
The protagonist "squad" is a ragtag group of "Colonial Marines", scientists, a secret android, a trucker and a deserter caught up in the whirlwind of all the factions vying for control of the xenomorph
etc etc
Alt Shift X is such a dreamboat! Sploosh amirite