The Expanse 1×9 Reaction

8 thoughts on "The Expanse 1×9 Reaction"

1. As someone who spent 18 years outside of Cleveland, 8 years in Marietta, 8 years in San Francisco, and now another 2 outside of Cleveland again, I can verify for you time does, in fact, move more slowly in Ohio, and we frequently referred to Marietta as a black hole when I lived there.

2. Something that I didn’t realise the first time I watched this episode: Julie’s distress signal is the one that Holden heard a part of, that persuaded him to log it and force the Canterbury to go and help. The planted distress signal that the bad guys left to make it look like Mars was responsible for the Scopuli being attacked was the message that the Canterbury’s crew wanted to ignore. If Julie hadn’t sent her own distress signal, the Cant would not have been caught in the trap and destroyed.

3. A little radiological assistance for you guys: stable KI pills or potassium iodide pills, if taken before receiving a dose of radioactive Iodine, saturates your thyroid with its stable form to prevent absorption of the radioactive form. Only if you take it before the event occurs and it’s based on your mass or age. I work in the nuclear field and have KI pills nearby if ever there is an event which requires them.

4. Hang in there Aaron, it all makes sense in the end.

5. The story is complicated and took me a rewatch to put it all together. You guys are doing a great job though. Frank DeGraaf was from Earth and he was Earth’s ambassador to Mars. He and his husband loved Mars so much after spending time there as ambassador that they were hoping to retire there someday. When Avasarala ‘leaked’ to him about the stealth tech he immediately checked into it with his contacts on Mars, they then panicked and called all their top secret bases to make sure no stealth tech was missing which revealed the location of all the secret bases to Earth. Mars was upset that they had been put in that position – of giving away all their secret bases – and Mars then said that they wanted DeGraaf removed as ambassador from Earth to Mars because he “incited panic” and they couldn’t trust him so he lost his position – and his retirement home.

   What Avasarala found in his desk was info on drives built on Earth that didn’t seem to have an known ships that they had been put in. Whether he knew what had happened to those drives (and if he did when he found out), we’re unsure of at this point. And with him gone it’s hard to say.

6. Building on Emwun’s comment: Mars then declared Frank DeGraaf “persona non grata” aka no longer welcome on Mars because he was manipulated by Earth to reveal the stealth facilities. And after that he really was a man without a home. As Christian says “I think you love Mars too much” so Earth sees him as loyal to Mars (and they used that), and Mars sees him as an untrustworthy liability whose actions revealed previously unknown stealth facilities to Earth.

   Remember that Dawes was trying to bribe Miller to share the info on his investigation into what happened to Julie. The OPA doesn’t have unlimited resources. Johnson needed the Rocinante to go on the rescue mission, Dawes needed Miller to share info, the Scopuli was a kind of junky freighter and that’s all they had available for their big op… No matter who got the message from Julie, a rescue mission wasn’t guaranteed.

   Iodine is more for radiation exposure from a meltdown or bomb than from getting the equivalent of a whole bunch of x-rays at once. It gives your body “clean” iodine to prevent the thyroid from absorbing the radioactive version of iodine, which you would get from eating contaminated food or the air, etc. It only protects against absorption of radioactive iodine, no other form of protection, and you have to keep taking it while in the polluted environment.

7. Geezez, Aaron…
   Miller sees the bird first time… goes to goon he’s got paid by and always spaces him (change of character/story)
   Miller looking at the bird outside the window while learning about Anubis and decides to leave Ceres (change of character/story)

   easy, right

8. DeGraaf was Earth’s Ambassador to Mars. When Chrisjen leaked the info to him, the guy giving the briefing plainly says “We intercepted a series of communique’s between Ambassador DeGraaf and his counterpart on Mars, then a spike between MCR command and 9 facilities believed to manufacture and store stealth composites.” DeGraaf is an Earther, lived in Anchorage, Alaksa with his husband. They planned to retire to the Mariner Valley on Mars when he left the diplomatic corps.