The Expanse Review: Hard Vacuum (Season 5 Episode 8)
The Expanse Season 5 Episode 8, “Hard Vacuum,” is a jumpy ride that is visually stunning, but leaves us feeling nearly as stranded as Naomi.
Nearly all the scenes are little bites of plot with at most three characters.
This might work if the pairings were right. Unfortunately, the relationships that are explored in these bites aren’t the ones that grab our attention or satisfy our curiosity.
Oksana and Karal are a particularly unnecessary duo who take up precious screen time.
Amos and Peaches should be a power pair!
But, the flame of feeling Amos and Peaches ignite on The Expanse Season 5 Episode 6, “Tribes,” is extinguished by the narrative choices on “Hard Vacuum.”
Look, I am as down for the nitty-gritty, daily life details being included on the show as the next person. Holden and his coffee continues to delight.
But, I simply do not want to see two characters peeing in front of each other and then casually grabbing a snack. It is gross and doesn’t do anything for the story.
The show is signaling that these two are not going to be a romantic pair. Why in the heck not?
For Amos to develop as a character he needs more than just his bodyguard’s journey. He deserves love, both as a person and as a lead character on the show.
Drummer has benefited so much from having romances. Her connection with Oksana makes all of Camina’s scenes on “Hard Vacuum,” more salient and rich.
Her love for Naomi, even though unrequited, has always made Camina a more fascinating and well-rounded character.
Amos should have that too.
That isn’t to say Amos and Clarissa’s scenes aren’t great, they are. It is just that they don’t go as deep or mean as much because the show is shying away from a love connection.
The little discussion they have about the sense of smell is the most interesting on the episode, more interesting even than the show-down with Erich, because it highlights Amos’s care for her. It introduces some vulnerability, and that is where the good stuff is.
Let me repeat it just one more time: Amos and Peaches need to fall in love!
There is no mistaking that Dominique Tipper gives a knock-out performance on the episode. She easily carries the story by herself in a dimly lit setting and minimal action.
The thing is, it is incredibly difficult to watch Naomi in so much pain.
Her swollen hands being ripped to shreds by her efforts to life the grate is too much.
The scenes linger on her anguish and then make it worse. Naomi Nagata proves herself ten times over that she is a fierce, resilient, brilliant person. The show can express this without quite so much agony.
Her tricky plan to mimic the recording and send people to her actual ship, not the trap is a fascinating move. It may be a Romeo and Juliette ending mission, but the plan is genius.
It’s the best part of her arc, and it’s not a close call.
Cyn’s death is absolutely tragic. Marco’s response to put it on Filip showcases how dastardly of a person he has become. It’s gross.
Filip is becoming more and more disenchanted with his father.
Cyn’s death may be close to the last straw for the young rebel. Perhaps he will run straight towards the open (and open relationship) arms of Serge? Now that is a pairing that would captivate!
Avasarala is back where she belongs, on the outskirts of power, able to control the play.
The conflicts, though, trod on well worn ground. Rather than incorporate the hard-earned wisdom Chrisjen has earned, it sets up the new Secretary General to make the same mistakes.
What is missing? The protomolecule!
The impacts of alien life and The Ring are not present on the episode at all. This is strange because that dang protomolecule has always been a core character on the show. It is sorely missed.
All that said, the episode is still fantastic.
The visuals alone, with the lusciously framed shots and the drinking-water-in-space shenanigans, make the episode light-years above many other shows.
“Hard Vacuum,” is simply not the best of The Expanse. Once Amos and Peaches get on that ship to Luna, things are sure to get exciting.
Stray Asteroids
- The tequila motif is the best.
- First Fred Johnson and now Cyn?! Just let us have a daddy, The Expanse!
- Again, can we check in on Sakai?
- The speech hall is so fascinating and has some serious Michel Foulcault “prisoner’s watchtower” vibes.
- The Polyam Fam is fighting they aren’t always going to be able to fix it with a dash of silliness.
- Monica knows Holden really, really well, I’ll give her that.
- Cara Gee in every scene. Let’s just try it.
What did you think of this episode of The Expanse? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Expanse airs Wednesdays on Amazon Prime.
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Janelle Ureta
Janelle Ureta is equal parts Veronica Mars, Raven Reyes, and Rebecca Bunch, but she aspires to add some Tammy Taylor to the mix. An attorney turned teacher, Janelle believes in the power of a well-told story. She is currently exploring how to tell short stories, 140 characters or less, on twitter. She loves to talk about TV, and right now she can't shut up about Timeless, Dear White People, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The 100, or Younger.
2 comments
I have to disagree with several, if not the majority, of the points made here…
One of the things I love and find most fascinating about Amos is his emotional disconnect. He wants to live a good life even though he doesn’t see himself as a good person, but growing up all he learned was how to survive. He understands that often he just doesn’t understand which options are morally wrong, so he relies on the people he has deemed as “good” to act as his moral compass. His character doesn’t make sense having some sort of passionate love affair, because he is not an emotional person. “I dont shit where I eat”, as he has decided that Clarissa is part of his “tribe” would fall under that category. And honestly, Clarissa is so screwed up that she shouldn’t try to have a relationship, but if she did she would probably want someone to love and dote passionately on her to compensate for her extensive daddy issues. Amos doesn’t fit the bill. Honestly I don’t see any way of getting the two of them together without drastically altering one or both of their characters.
Moving on to Naomi.. Considering how whiny and stagnant Naomi’s character has been this entire season (and part of last season honestly) I found witnessing her desperately pushing through the consequences of her badass God call kind of refreshing. One if the things I’ve appreciated most about the Expanse is how much attention they put on keeping the show as scientifically accurate as possible. Reading that they consulted astronauts and physicists and all sorts of scientists while making this show really impressed me. And it made dealing with the protomolecule that much more impressive/scary because they need to deal with some extraterrestrial anomaly that doesn’t obey the standard laws of physics (and every other science), while still being limited by those pesky scientific rules themselves. Keeping all that in mind, I think I would be kind of annoyed if Naomi made a trip through the vacuum of space without a suit, and then dealt with all the BS on the ship with minimal side effects. My biggest issue with that whole situation is how quickly Cyn died, while Naomi was able to carry on for a few seconds longer before injecting herself with the hyper-oxigenated blood.
In regards to lacking the protomolecule. All the parties who had a sample, at this point they know how scary it is and are being excruciatingly careful not to let it run wild again. I think the protomolecule still is playing a significant role, just in a different way. The impulsive “I can save everyone!!” Holden followed the protomolecule, which risked losing Naomi forever (since who knows what that psychopath ex is thinking), shows how seriously desperate they are to never let the protomolecule out ever again. This is not a salvage mission to retrieve the protomolecule for more research, this is a mission to destroy the protomolecule once and for all, no matter what the cost. On top of throwing more asteroids at earth, Marcos threatened to unleash the protomolecule on them, which made his threat that much more frightening. That’s not a “we’re gonna throw more rocks at you and try to kill millions” threat (which is serious enough as it is), that is a “I will destroy your entire freaking planet” threat. So the protomolecule is still playing a large role in this season, it’s just in a less obvious way.
I kind of got sidetracked writing this comment. The reason I looked at this article is because I was trying to find out if the actor’s who played Amos and Clarissa were actually peeing in that scene…
Absolutely right about the Amos/Clarissa thing. The ability of the show to continue to develop Amos as a character while maintaining his emotional deficit is amazing, and witnessing him explore his own (somewhat barren) inner emotional landscape is one of the highlights of the show. He was a 2D brute for much of the first seasons and now he’s growing. Showing him and Clarissa relieving themselves while planning their next steps adds to this element that they’re both askew in terms of what’s intimate and what’s shareable. They’re both practical folk for whom such experiences would be commonplace, especially on the road in unsafe territory. The only sensibilities such a scene would offend are the ones borne of our own shamefully comfortable existence.
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