The Expanse Season 6 Finale Explained

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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.

👍︎︎ 75 👤︎︎ u/RebornPastafarian 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

"And Drummer becomes Queen of Space..."

Well, I for one welcome our new overlord and promise to follow her into battle...

👍︎︎ 152 👤︎︎ u/WellFiredRoll 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

Was fun identifying the names of the assault team. Good to see Saberhagen amongst them.

👍︎︎ 29 👤︎︎ u/davechua 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

Interesting how this is only posted now. I guess it must've been part of his contract.

👍︎︎ 54 👤︎︎ u/The_Celestrial 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

Ooh I never would've caught the shipping container with the Mao scrubbed off.

👍︎︎ 15 👤︎︎ u/uristmcderp 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

Quite enjoyed this one.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/campbellm 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

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.)

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/gogojack 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

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

👍︎︎ 7 👤︎︎ u/Relevant_Truth 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies

Alt Shift X is such a dreamboat! Sploosh amirite

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/FlamingPrius 📅︎︎ Mar 29 2022 🗫︎ replies
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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.
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Channel: Alt Shift X
Views: 679,244
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Length: 27min 2sec (1622 seconds)
Published: Sun Mar 27 2022
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