Decrypted: The Expanse: “Well, this is off to a good start”

Enlarge / The most badass UN Deputy Undersecretary the solar system has ever seen. Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala.

In this week's episode of The Expanse, our gang wants to get to Ganymede, but the Rocinante is a little too recognizable. Pretending to be a Martian Navy boarding party, Holden and Amos commandeer a Belter freighter, the Weeping Sonambulist, which was transporting relief supplies to the crippled agricultural outpost. Things get worse for the Sonambulist's owners when the local cops on Ganymede decides to alter the terms of their bargain, taking all the relief supplies instead of a smaller cut. It's a tough life out there among the asteroids for the little person.

Bobbie Draper finally gets to ride a dropship down Earth's gravity well, but it isn't the ride she always pictured. The Martians are visiting Manhattan to attend the peace conference. There's obviously little good faith between the two delegations, and plenty of posturing from both sides. Much to Gunny Draper's disgust, the Martians accept responsibility for causing the Battle of Ganymede, offering up the late private Travis as a scapegoat. But Avasarala isn't buying it, and even though Draper was told to keep it quiet she spills the beans about the man without the pressure suit.

The show does a good job this week of conveying just how alien Earth is to the Martians. Bright sunlight, oppressive gravity, and vast horizons would surely be disconcerting to someone used to life in the subterranean tunnels of Mars. It also gives you a good sense of how much contempt the Martians feel for Earth, filled with disgust at a civilization they think has squandered its resources and lies around in idle poverty.