Season Four Of Amazon Studio’s The Expanse Loses No Ground In Keeping The Series Fresh, Forward Thinking, And Relatable

The Roci Squad in all it’s scientific glory. Photo courtesy of Thrillist   

We begin with Captain Jim Holden (Steven Strait) being tasked by the current Secretary-General of the United Nations Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) to take the Rocinante crew out to a newly colonized world named New Terra (also known as Ilus, depending on who is trying to claim the rights to it) to settle a property dispute between the Belters (colonists) and a corporate-sponsored team of mercs role-playing as scientists called the RCE (Royal Charter Energy) who claim that the planet and all of its resources belong to their little fun group because someone gave them a piece of paper saying so. The Belters also have a piece of paper from another someone that gives them mining rights to Ilus, therein lies the apparent and old-as-time problem. 

The planet is almost inhospitable, with the Belters barely eeking out a living there mining for mineral deposits, so the RCE’s obsession with the planet is extremely suspicious. However, when the RCE’s ship tries to land on New Terra for their planned scientific expedition, it is attacked by an unknown entity resulting in numerous casualties with the Belters being blamed for the incident. Not the best way to start off a new living situation, so things get very bad, very quickly between the groups.

Meet Captian Murtry. He loves sushi, romance novels, long walks in the park, and killing innocent civilians. Photo courtesy of engadget.com

The Ring Gate is open, and with it, new planets and systems are ripe for exploration. If of course, you have enough money and connections to get permission to do so. So, Belters, or those born in space but lack a viable home or financial resources, have to wait until they can afford to purchase approval to cross through the Ring Gate, for which they literally wait by the gate until they are allowed to cross through. Those who trespass are seen as a threat and escorted back out or shot if they don’t comply, those who wait risk being robbed or killed by pirates, and those who get permission and get out into new space run the risk of unleashing an alien life force that is capable of making it back to Earth and killing everyone, so there’s some pressure there as well, especially politically.

Speaking of fun times in politics, it is also an election year for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, with Avasarala feeling the pressure of the polling numbers. Her young and idealistic opponent, Nancy Gao, is running on the platform that everyone should have access to the Ring Gate, regardless of personal risk, in hopes of creating new opportunities for financial growth and economic development in a time when automation is an ever-increasing threat to employment and financial security. Between navigating an election year, putting out human rights fires out on New Terra (Ilus), and dealing with newfound terrorist activities on Mars, the current Secretary is struggling to maintain control of her personal and professional life, which causes more than a few missteps in her bid for reelection.

Someone has obviously forgotten the door code to the alien fortress. Photo courtesy of tvinsider.com

Miller (Thomas Jane) and Holden team up again, but this time it nearly kills everyone on New Terra when Miller’s advice inadvertently sets off a biological chain of events that brings the planet to the brink of destruction. Chaos ensues as all three groups on the planet and their corresponding support rescue ships in orbit around the planet, are locked in a life and death battle with natural phenomenons from the environmental shit storm Miller helped create and efforts of sabotage from corporate giant RCE of the Rocinante trying to rescue the Belters and the Roci team from certain death. It’s all just destruction and lawlessness until Miller figures out a way to set things right at a great personal cost that lays the foundation for a smooth transition into Season Five, should the powers that be decide on one. Looking at the responses and numbers, there just might be.

The storyline is great (yes it’s political) but pretty hard-lined, as in, there really wasn’t any room for discussion about the issues raised or the politics behind the decisions once you finished an episode. The character interactions are fantastic, the episode flow is solid, the side stories are layered in well throughout the whole series (which is why this damn review is so long) with the special effects tying everything together nicely. It’s also open enough to where someone unfamiliar with the series can sit down and binge-watch, at least this season, without it being a struggle to understand everything that is going on and why.

The official trailer can be seen here

The Expanse IMDb is here