The Women of The Expanse, ep. 13 - "Why We Fight"

Black Girl Squee!

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

Transcript:

Introduction

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

This episode gave us more character moments, and a reunion between Camina and Naomi. Plus, it got everyone where they needed to be for the series finale. Holden’s decision from “Force Projection” looks even worse after the L’s that the joint fleet received during this episode. But Holden’s not going to apologize or even admit it to Avasarala. If anyone is a “self-righteous shit”, Camina, it’s James, not his partner.

Now let’s find out what the girls, women and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode five called, “Why We Fight”.

Cara

Cara is sleeping in the woods after taking her dead brother to get ‘fixed’ by the strange dogs.

Her parents and some of the Laconian military are calling out for her. When she wakes up, Cara doesn’t answer them. She walks further into the forest, looking for the dogs. She finds a group of the dogs surrounding a revived Xan. His eyes are different and he asks Cara what it means to be in substrate. She doesn’t know either. He says he feels weird and everything looks different. Cara doesn’t care that her brother looks different and says things that don’t make sense. She hugs him and thanks the dogs for fixing him.

Admiral Kirino

Kirino and her MCRN force head out to Medina Station. They eliminate sentries from the Free Navy at the Ring. On a wide-band channel, the Admiral announces herself and threatens to open fire unless they surrender. They prepare plasma warheads only, no nuclear weapons. But she gets a report about multiple plasma discharges coming from the Ring station. They don’t have time to investigate as several missiles are coming toward the Martian ships. Kirino doesn’t get to finish her request for emergency evasion before her ship is destroyed.

Rosenfeld Guoliang

Rosenfeld is delivering a report while Marco watches news feeds about unrest on Iapetus and other Belter stations. They salvaged some parts from the Granicus that will be delivered to the Pella. She asks Marco if he would like Filip to be assigned to the detail. Marco doesn’t care. “It's of no concern to me.”

He is more concerned about what’s being said of him on the news feeds. “They are calling it my war,” he says. Rosenfeld tells him that Iapetus is one insignificant station. But Marco says it only takes one to create doubt. He blames this on Drummer. If enough Belters work with the inner planets, then the Free Navy could lose the war. That’s why Rosenfeld urges Marco to go to Medina. “With 1300 systems and hundreds of colonies under your thumb, as much metal as we can mine, as many shipyards as we can build. Anyone who wants access to that will have to ask you.” But remember, Rosenfeld wants to be Governor of Medina Station, so I think she’s secretly picturing people asking her for access.

She downplays Drummer’s accomplishments as a raid of a defenseless supply depot. Marco seems to like what Rosenfeld is saying and walks closer to her. But her hand terminal chimes and whatever Marco was going to do is forgotten. She gets word that the Martian ships around Medina have been destroyed, She wants to celebrate and leaves to make arrangements.

As the celebration commences, Rosenfeld announces that the Martians were taken by surprise and all their ships were destroyed by their new railguns. They will drink Earther brandy ‘liberated from Ceres Station’ in celebration. Tadeo has been sent to the brig because he broke radio silence looking for his brother on Ceres Station. Filip did some digging and told Tadeo the bad news that his brother didn’t make it. Tadeo admits to being on the crew that set up mining charges on Ceres Station. He was told that no Belters would be killed.

Rosenfeld talks to Marco amid the celebrations. His verdict is that the inner planets have size and the Free Navy has numbers. They cannot engage with all his forces at once. She asks Marco about his father; Marco says he never knew him. Rosenfeld says he ‘improved upon the role’. It must suck to constantly have to blow smoke up this narcissist’s butt. She shows Marco video of Filip’s speech in the galley. It’s hard to tell whether Marco is proud or suspicious of his son.

Chrisjen Avasarala

Back on the UNN Zenobia, they watch the last seconds of Kirino’s command. The railguns that fired on them were Martian design but the metal was foreign, something they’ve never seen before. Bobbie says that Marco traded the Belt’s protomolecule sample for Martian ships and weapons. Kirino’s ship took fire from five guns but there are probably six in total. They are perched around the ring, ready to ‘rain hell’ on anyone who approaches. Some members of the council want to blow up Medina so they can’t supply Marco with any more ships or weapons. Bobbie reminds them that the last time they fired up a nuke near a ring station it powered up and almost wiped out the solar system. So, that’s a no.

There’s still time to engage with the Pella before it goes through the ring. But they would have to abandon Ceres Station. Gareth does his best Rosenfeld impression without knowing it by saying they don’t owe Ceres a goddamn thing. Admiral Sidiqi wants to load up every warship they’ve got and ride out. But Avasarala says there aren’t enough ships, the joint fleet is spread too thin. Avasarala wants to give the troops a fighting chance to win. She tells the council that they will have her decision soon and dismisses them.

Avasarala asks Bobbie for her opinion. “Have I gone soft? Was I trying too hard to be good when I should have been ruthless?” She makes an offhand comment about the warhead on the Roci that misfired. And I’m glad that no one told Bobbie what really happened. After being needled for a response, Bobbie tells her that now is not the time for self-pity. Just keep your eyes on the enemy and wait for them to slip up again. “I still think we’re the good guys. And I’d rather do a little less soul searching and a lot more fighting back.” I guess that wasn’t what Avasarala wanted to hear so she tells Bobbie to ‘go do something else’.

Avasarala tells Monica that they got some info from a Belter on Ganymede about some experimental biotech that would help the whole solar system grow food faster. Monica echoes Bobbie’s words about one good person helping change the course of the war.

ChrisJen takes a stimulant before welcoming James Holden. She says he rarely wastes her time and that might be true. But he does piss her off a lot. James tells her about the risks involved in traveling through the rings. Ships that do are disappearing. James wants to share the info with Marco, thinking that he might back off. I thought James had left some of that naivete behind in seasons one and two but nope!

ChrisJen shows James the Free Navy railguns that destroyed six Martian ships in seconds. She can’t afford to think about the future of Ring transit until they end this war. Then she asks Holden how well he knows Camina Drummer. ChrisJen needs an ally, preferably a Belter, with lots of ships and guns. Right now, Camina fits the bill.

Bobbie Draper

Bobbie’s in the bar on Ceres Station, in civvies, when she sees Amos stumble in. He’s got scratches and glitter on his neck and just been fucked hair. Bobbie’s been trying to forget how much she hates politics. She doesn’t think they’ll lose or win, that their grandchildren will still be fighting over the same things a hundred years from now. Amos tells Bobbie that Holden disarmed the nuke and Bobbie just laughs. Amos doesn’t know what he’s fighting for and Bobbie says in the end all you can do is fight for your people. Which is something that Naomi echoes later in the episode. Amos finally decides to go back to the Roci after one more trip to the brothel. He invites Bobbie and ew…

Clarissa Mao

Clarissa tells James that the UNN will reinforce the Roci’s hull with carbon silicate lace plating. It’s some kind of new armor that’s used on UNN One. It came from protomolecule research which reminds Clarissa of her dad who did terrible things with the protomolecule to ‘ensure the survival of our species’. Stuff like this makes him seem right and that makes Clarissa uneasy.

She tells James that Amos went out to the station and doesn’t know when he’ll be back.

Clarissa stumbles after packing suits and helmets away. This is probably related to using her mods in the X-ray bonus content last week.

Naomi Nagata

Naomi is listening to a message from Dr. Elvi Okoye. The doctor concludes that many of the ship disappearances in the data were similar to the Barkeith. She thinks the data suggests that there is a mass energy threshold that comes before or even triggers these disappearances. All of this makes using the Rings dangerous. James says that Avasarala needs to see this data, that it’s ‘bigger than the war’. I don’t think Avasarala will agree with that, but whatever, James.

Naomi’s looking at the news feeds and laughs. But she’s not laughing at James - though she could - she’s laughing with joy at the news of Camina Drummer bringing food and supplies to Ceres Station.

Camina Drummer

Camina is arguing with an UNN officer on Ceres Station that wants to board each one of Camina’s ships, pilot them into Ceres and conduct a search for Free Navy partisans or Belters with warrants. Avasarala interrupts the connection and lets Drummer and her ships through. They continue to talk, as Avasarala tries to build rapport with a very resistant Camina. “A century of oppression made Marco Inaros inevitable.” Avasarala invites Camina to her ship to talk more but Camina declines. “The Belters here are hungry and I have food. I’m here for them, not you,” she says and ends the call.

Josep’s limb did not grow well. It will have to be removed and surgery done to prepare for a prosthetic.

Camina gets a message from Naomi on her hand terminal. Naomi had just seen the report on the news feed. This is before James spoke to Avasarala and before anyone asked Naomi to get Camina to fight with ChrisJen.

Michio and Josep decide to stay on Ceres Station while Camina goes on to fight the Free Navy. Camina tells them that she loved them because they were builders. She wanted to build something with them.

Naomi is waiting for Camina outside her ship. They have some awkward small talk and you can tell that Camina wants to hug Naomi but doesn’t for some reason. She invites Naomi inside the Tynan. Naomi calls it a fine ship. She asks to meet Camina’s family but they’re gone. Camina goes through the list of losses she’s had while saving the Rocinante or opposing Marco.

Camina wants to know why Naomi came to see her. Holden asked her to appeal to Drummer so that she might fight with Avasarala against the Free Navy. Camina asks Naomi how she can fight with and live with inners, how she can pick their side over and over again. But we know that Naomi has not always picked their side. She most definitely picked the Belters when she gave Fred Johnson the protomolecule sample. And the crew members of the Roci who came from inner planets made her miserable about that for the better part of a season. Anyways, Naomi tells Camina that all we can do now is stand by the people we love. Camina says, “Fuck you, you self-righteous shit,” but finally hugs her.

Something that Naomi said must have gotten through to Camina because she does agree to meet with ChrisJen and set terms. Will the Belters be remembered after the war is over? ChrisJen promises they will. Camina’s people will not take orders from ChrisJen. They shake hands and an alliance is born.

Outro

And that’s everything the girls, women, and non-binary people did in The Expanse season six, episode five, “Why We Fight”. That’s also it for The Women of The Expanse podcast. Thanks for listening.