Holden Holds On In The Hold?!? | The Expanse Season 2 FINALE Reaction & Review | SyFy & Prime Video

[@Mannchini]

The female scientist in the previous episode said “we made the Protomolecule do what we wanted, we made it in our image.” Where as, as Clarus identified, Eros was an uncontrolled experiment.

[@scottwatrous]

And ultimately there's no saying that if one of these Proto Monsters were to bleed on a human it wouldn't cause big problems. Like always, the PM was only contagious through contact. The monster doesn't seem to leave PM goo around just from mere touch either so its got a functional skin barrier in that sense. Another thing is that it might be a matter of dosage and control. We saw Julie Mao get a 'small' dose of PM from a mere touch on a pipe but it might be that was actually way, way, too much and so it turned her into a full on bio-crystal. Meanwhile the relatively small amount of total mass from her was enough PM to synthesize the doses given to literally everyone else on the station so those folks probably only got a dose of a few parts per billion of PM goo and still turned them into, basically, zombies within a few hours. So yes a small amount is super effective. The Eros incident seems to have been a study on "the PM seems to get more powerful with more biomass, lets see if we can make it much more powerful, and also if used as a bio-weapon what can it do?" The Caliban project is about "if we use the PM in a very controlled way, can we make someone into a super-human?" and so the amount of actual PM that's in an active contagion/spore/spreadable state might be very low.

[@VerticalBlank]

Fun fact: in the books, Bobbie's armor was shipped in a crate labelled "Formal Wear".

[@StarkRG]

You never know when a party might break out.

[@AustinStarDust]

“Holden was starting to feel like they were all monkeys playing with a microwave. Push a button, a light comes on inside, so it’s a light. Push a different button and stick your hand inside, it burns you, so it’s a weapon. Learn to open and close the door, it’s a place to hide things. Never grasping what it actually did, and maybe not even having the framework necessary to figure it out. No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito. So here the monkeys were, poking the shiny box and making guesses about what it did.”

[@liamjohnston2000]

Caliban is a character from the Shakespeare play "The Tempest" who is half-human and half-monster. All the book titles have some reference to history, mythology, or literature.

[@georgemckay7795]

Came to say this. You beat me to it.

[@kirkdarling4120]

Who ultimately could not be controlled by his creator.

[@The_Other_Dan]

Yep. and the Mao-Kwikowski protomolecule project was called Project Caliban

[@axlm.808]

When the cam zooms toward the "disconstructed" Arboghast, you can see Mythbuster's Adam Savage as one of the crew members (you can see him briefly in the previous scenes aboard the ship) Nice cameo as he's also a well known movie props/miniatures specialist and a core fan of the franchise There will be some other references to him in the next seasons

[@rodentnolastname6612]

In a previous ep, when Team ABC were about to launch from Earth, Cotyar mentions that he was "securing our luggage". He meant Bobbie's power armor 😲

[@DadJokeSamurai]

Team ABC I love it.

[@artor9175]

+1 for Clarus's wardrobe this episode. I vote for her getting into Avasarala cosplay.

[@spacewizard69]

well , I am a yes! to

[@brian_mighty9663]

Or not, she can stay the same and I won’t be mad at it…😊

[@evilvolts]

yes her outfit is burn your fingers hot ]:P

[@dapeach06]

Belter cosplay too!

[@victorluke5816]

@@dapeach06 Oh, its cosplay. I just thought it was lingerie night.

[@rodentnolastname6612]

Bobbie isn't just a Marine. She's "Force Recon". Think Green Berets, SEAL Team, and any other bad ass mother fucker that ever picked up a gun. She's Rambo's high tech sister 😲

[@Justanotherconsumer]

With a mean right hook. I love her later interaction walking into someone holding a gun who basically says “OMG just do what she says.”

[@axl1002]

They don't get fat chicks in the seals.

[@BrunoBarata78]

In this episode I feel I can add a little clarification with no risk of spoilers. The thing the Hybrid was taking out of it's chest was a bomb (a fail safe mechanism), the books explain that eventually the protomolecule would always take over and Protogen's people would always lose control of the hybrids, so they implemented the bombs on them to destroy them when they lost control. This was also the reason Bobby survived the encounter with the hybrid on Ganymede. There's a flash of light as she turns away, very similar to the flash of light we see when this hybrid chucks the bomb out of the airlock's ripped door. The books says the blast threw her for miles across the surface of Ganymede, but her armor protects her from the blast. As a little curiosity, the actor who made motion capture for the hybrid is the actor who plays Kenzo back in season 1, which you should totally look up because he did a bunch of voice acting for known video games including Adam Jensen in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

[@rodentnolastname6612]

The proto-monster burning up in the drive plume was a nod to the ending 9f the original Alien film. Also, the core of the nuke wouldnt explode in the plume. It needs to be explosively compressed to detonate. It's actually really hard to set off a nuclear explosion.

[@MrHarbltron]

Yeah, the core is probably just enriched uranium or plutonium. Removed from the rest of the device it's harmless, likely not even highly radioactive, but still putting-off enough rads to be more attractive to Caliban than Holden as far an energy output goes.

[@UserName-vb4lg]

That end scene with the proto-monster burning up always looked like a nod to the end of LOTR to me. The blue version of the volcano.

[@jubronaljoan]

Always remember, the more we learn about the Protomolecule, the more it learns about us. Plus the Protomolecule communicates with itself. Season three reveals a lot about the PM and what it is up to.

[@dmann05]

Dudes! We are here! Season 3 is coming! These reactions are gonna be GREAT! Next season they find out why it’s called The Expanse!

[@drunkrat9041]

It's super satisfying watching y'all enjoy this show. As someone who's whole-heartedly loved and recommended the show to practically everyone, I've sometimes been frustrated when peoples initial response is, "Oh its just another space show", when it is clearly quite different. Also, be grateful that you don't have to live through the break after season 3, where, before Amazon stepped in, it was undecided if the show was going to even continue to season 4.

[@rougarabid]

Amos doesn’t say he can’t make the right decisions cause he isn’t capable of leading. He says that because he’s incapable of using good morals. He doesn’t understand right from wrong and if he was in charge they’d do really well but also do some very evil shit. He’s a sociopath that doesn’t know right from wrong and needs others to guide his actions. Great character.

[@thomashiggins9320]

Good comment, but Amos is not a sociopath. That's a very specific pathology, and the fact Amos recognizes there are some people to protect, some to follow, and some to kill, means he can't possibly be a sociopath. Sociopaths can't recognize those differences in people. It's a *serious* (and seriously dangerous) emotional disability. Amos is emotionally damaged, in a very real way, but it's not sociopathy and, unlike that problem, Amos actually starts to recover a bit, as the series progresses -- albeit incompletely, and *very* slowly.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

Sociopaths have an inflated view of themselves and view others as disposable. There are definitely sociopaths in the show. Heck, even Avasarala displays some of those tendencies at times. Spoilers: Marco is a textbook sociopath.

[@kirkdarling4120]

@@thomashiggins9320 Thank you, and your recognition that Amos' ability to follow and to protect removes him from that capacity.

[@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps]

There is no moral "right from wrong" e.g. rape is not inaccurate despite being objectively evil. Morality is not about accuracy and inaccuracy. We humans are just narcissists that want the universe to revolve around us i.e. it does not prioritize us acting in any particular manner i.e. we're utterly free to be so evil that we go extinct and the universe would not label this "morally inaccurate behavior". Also, Amos defies the sociopath label as he clearly does not seek to mask whatever condition he does have with charm or seek power for its own sake (in fact, he basically avoids doing so "because that's how bad people act").

[@fundi_mike]

Protomolecule so far: It is unknown exactly what the protomolecule is, in it's raw/pure form, when it's wet/sticky it's contageous and it seems to kill/take-over whatever it comes in contact with - As seen with Eros it is somehow able to more or less change the normal laws of physics, and it seems to have it's own objectives. Mao and his corporation has been doing research based on the protomolecule trying to tame/use/weaponize it and/or unlock it's secrets, Eros was one such experiment to try and gain some knowledge/data here they just "set it lose" to see what happend. Another research project working in a different direction - or maybe working based on the knowledge obtained from the Eros experiment, is the "hybrids project" so not protomolecule in it's raw form, but instead humans effort to create a "super-soldier" (can operate in space, superstrong, etc..) which they can control (testing it against Boby's elite marine team), hence the built in "fail-safe" bomb in it's chest (yeah that really worked out well). One underline point/theme here is that humans will take wheaver technology and try to weaponize it, before they fully understand it and any possible ramifications of doing so.

[@Idiot_Illuminati]

Exactly; the underlying assumption that everyone is making about the Protomolecule is that it's a weapon.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

@@Idiot_Illuminati You can use just about anything as a weapon. All it requires is intent.

[@Toofast4005]

Ya’ll got me watching this show…Thank you!!! Been a blast catching up.

[@wagnarokkr]

15:02 you can tell when the lead guy refers to Bobbie as "the girl" that he has woefully misunderstood the situation he's in and it is not going to go well for him

[@neutchain7838]

Yeah I always laugh at that. This "girl" could easily rip his head off and piss down his neck.

[@aboubenadhem9066]

As Mao explained to Avasarala, he thinks using the PM as a weapon is idiotic-but he’s trying to present it as one to play Mars and Earth against each other and continue his own research. So he doesn’t actually care if it can be weaponized as long as they think it MIGHT be.

[@aftonforred3685]

Amos is my favorite character for so manay reasons. One of them is that he WANTS to do the right thing. He thinks about it all the time. He just doesnt always know what the right thing is. Part of his issue is the emotional stunting

[@NorybDrol82]

It's like he can think about "the right thing" rationally but has no intuition for what is right.

[@Ajonr]

Caliban - the monster in Shakespeare's The Tempest. (Fire does not detonate fissile material.)

[@swhaw]

I totally get the confusion with the proto-molecule, the original proto-molecule and the way it acted was more like a virus because its original purpose was to consume and use biomass to do something, IE Julie saying "we can't stop the work". Eros was the result of it consuming 100k belters in pursuit of that, which is the original sample still alive on Venus. The only reason we have the proto-molecule Eros do something like try to collide with Earth was because of its consumption of Julie as the seed crystal, like Miller said, maybe she infected it back, but it could only move Eros because it had consumed enough biomass. The proto-molecule that went into the hybrid weapon was modified in some way to try to control it as a weapon by humans.

[@kvoltti]

I thought it was the fact that the kids they were using had compromised immune systems which allowed the proto molecule to grow without the body attacking it which means the proto-molecule doesn't kill them before converting them.

[@rodentnolastname6612]

The Protomolecule acts more like a fungus, a slime mold. A distributed parallel processing system with nano disassembler/assemblers. It works on emergent behavior as it's biomass increases, based more on instincts rather than specific instructional code.

[@AngeloBarovierSD]

We may be getting into spoiler territory folks. Why the Protoperson and the protomolecule infestation on Eros behave differently is an intended mystery. When we first we watched it, we didn’t know anything beyond Eros being a, um, mass experiment and Mao running a demo on Ganymede with something more deliberate and controlled. What exactly is at play in Mao’s weird science division isn’t _explicitly_ known at this point. Mystery and clues build interest. Our hosts aren’t gonna stop watching if no one explains the explicit differences. There’s a reason for that.

[@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps]

_"because its original purpose was to consume and use biomass to do something"_ Function. "Purpose" is a myth.

[@swhaw]

I was trying to avoid everything that we don't know yet at this point in the series when I wrote my original comment, the stuff about the children hasn't really been delved into much yet. At this point we know that it consumes biomass to evolve. We know that it has a function/purpose. We know that it consumed Julie which led it to try to make it's way to Earth. We also know that the proto-person was modified from the original function of the proto-molecule to fulfill the desires of humans to act as a weapon. We have to avoid spoilers. I was just trying to differentiate the different forms of the proto-molecule so it is easier to understand the difference for Nerdy.

[@theoriginalshew]

Adam Savage from MythBusters was in the ship that got deconstructed above Venus.

[@destro6971]

This is a good episode to point out that there are a number of Expanse videos on Adam Savages Tested channel, behind the scenes stuff and interviews.

[@whtz9000]

Fun fact. Proto monster was mocaped by other spy, Kenzo. rip.

[@WitzyZed]

Adam Jensen FTW

[@neutchain7838]

Mei and the rest of those kids have a very special illness that makes it easier for Strickland to turn them into hybrids. That device was how they controlled them and also failsafe (an explosion device) in case it got out of control.

[@hoos3014]

We don't know that yet.

[@davemorris9368]

I can't wait for you guys to see season 3. The first half of season 3 is probably the show at its finest. I wish Patreon allowed for ala carte purchases. I'd watch all of your Expanse, FMAB and SW reactions. Also Clarus looks amazing in that outfit.

[@doomhamatime]

I think Naomi telling Holden the protomolocule is everywhere now is just a way for her to help Holden come to terms with the fact that it isn't his responsibility. Up until that point Holden naively acted like their sample was the only one out there, and that its his ultimate responsibility. That it wasn't possible for it to be anywhere else.

[@Braincleaner]

"...SHE NEEDS COM ACCESS!!"

[@crystalfire5564]

That was so funny! His face was priceless

[@berlindude75]

Now off to the best season of the show covering the rest of Book 2 and cramming all of Book 3 into the second half. You will love it.

[@IanHillan]

Season 3! Season 3! Season 3! Season 3! Best season-opening shot ever, and then it gets better and better from there.

[@CraigUdy]

I look forward to Mondays, because that means a Nerdy Nightly The Expanse reaction!!

[@tkinsey3]

Amazing reaction guys! I feel like one of the only elements of the show I haven't heard you talk about yet (maybe you have and I missed it?) is the freaking SOUNDTRACK. I was reminded of it again watching this episode with you guys. The music just freaking SLAPS, whether it is really pulse-pounding moments like the monster chasing the Roci crew, or even just awe-inspiring ones like the end of the episode. Just so freaking good.

[@Timmayytoo]

It's been made clear on several occasions that the Calibans are intended to be weapons... that's why they were testing it against Marines on Ganymede. The protomolecule is a tool, which is something the books do a bit better job of getting across.

[@mjbull5156]

Today we will examine whether Eros crashing into Venus destroyed the protomolecule. Myth: Busted.

[@kirkdarling4120]

I see what you did.

[@KylaTalks]

Beware! You're headed into the best season now (with Season 5 being a close second)! Idk how you're gonna keep up the weekly episodes next season but it's genuinely an extremely fast moving train that you're never gonna wanna stop! Stuff's about to get C R A Z Y!!!! :)

[@cliveklg7739]

In the file Avarsarala showed Bobble, the project to create the proto-creature was Project Caliban.

[@johnmoore-fm9db]

True the show is grounded in science, where as the proto-molecule is advanced alien technology and supposed to be unknowable which is why the scientists are experimenting to see what it does, to quote Arthur C. Clarke. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

[@Drummer4President]

“I’m really worried it’s trying to pull the child out of its chest” …… does he think the Hybrids are Titan shifters or something ? 🤣

[@gregweatherup9596]

Or maybe “the 4-5-6”? (Torchwood reference)

[@mndrew1]

Love how Bobbi makes a better Master Chief than the Halo show could produce.

[@akellerhouse83]

I look forward so much to your Monday Expanse videos! I love getting to "rewatch" it this way. It's such a good show.

[@meroftm]

The Protomolecule is learning about humanity at the same pace you're learning the Protomolecule

[@obelisk21]

It appears as though Mao has multiple research programs running in parallel with the protomolecule. The Eros project was examining what the protomolecule was going to do if it was given what it wanted (biomass) and left to evolve on its own. The Caliban project appears to be trying to create a protomolecule humanoid using children with a specific genetic disorder as the starting point.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

Yeah, Eros is curiosity, and Caliban is an attempt to monetise it. Very "Carter Burke".

[@StarkRG]

"Is he about to solve the problem with plants." That's Prax's superpower! The reason the raw protomolecule and the hybrids function differently is the same reason grey wolves and chihuahuas function differently (or any domesticated thing and its wild cousins). The hybrids are created by humans after messing around with the protomolecule for a while (presumably the contageous aspect would be the first thing they'd want to eliminate). This has already been mentioned, but will be expanded upon in the next few episodes. Remember, while this is the season finale, it isn't actually the end of the book and, therefore the story-arc.

[@kirkdarling4120]

I thought the elevator bit was a little cheap. But Mao's goons had spent too much time living soft. Instead of shooting on sight, they were wasting time talking. The loose nuclear warhead they had on the Roci was the one they removed from the torpedo that they put the Protomolecule into. Prax certainly did want to know if he could see any trace of humanity in the hybrid, but it was also necessary for him to wait until the very last moment before throwing the warhead. If he'd thrown it too soon, that would have shifted the "gradient" back to the core; the hybrid would have realized the warhead was out of reach and go back to the core. Last episode, when the Somnambulist was launching from Ganymede and being challenged by the Martians, Naomi was checking out the Protomolecule torpedo on her computer screen. That was when she was sending the coordinates to Fred Johnson. Claroos is right that there were two different directions of Protomolecule research. Mao's financial sponsors, the Mars and Earth politicians, were looking for a weapon. Mao had complained to Errinwright that the political vision was short-sighted. Mao is concentrating on the issue that Dresden raised: What was the reason the Protomolecule was sent to the Solar System and what could they do to protect humanity? For Dresden's purpose, it was better to keep the Protomolecule contagious and even to enhance the contagion with radiation; for Strickland's purpose (as the chief Protomolecule weapons architect), the contagious nature of the Protomolecule was a problem they had successfully solved. But we also know the Protomolecule has its own purpose...remember Cortazar saying "It's building something" and Julie saying "You can't stop the work." As far as _all_ the questions about the Protomolecule are concerned...remember that the story runs nine books, and you're only in book 2. They gave us enough information to know where in the Solar System Strickland and Mei are.

[@jamesholland5761]

👍

[@GuardianOwl]

The bomb in a chest was a call back to the episode when proto creature attacked bobbie’s unit. The drone overhead began flashing and then the chest of creature glowed before it exploded next to Bobbie. The drone sent the signal to destroy all evidence of the protocreature with the bomb after the test had finished.

[@VerticalBlank]

24:43 Clarus brings up a point that has fascinated me all my life: "what is the molecular basis of instinctive knowledge?" This seems to be to one of the deepest mysteries facing molecular biology.

[@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps]

Well, I'm no expert but I guess that's a bit of a misnomer. Instincts are instincts and knowledge is knowledge. The body doesn't "know" fire is dangerous when it instinctively retracts your hand out of an open flame, that is programming activated by stimuli. This would be the same even if the body's programming was feeding your conscious mind information on everything Shakespeare wrote, it's not "knowledge" to the body, it's just contents in a box it is programmed to deliver in a robot-like manner.

[@LeeCarlson]

The only times that the Caliban "tore through walls" is when there was a seam (on Ganymede) to get purchase on, as the Roci's airlock was already compromised by the detonation of the torpedo that they destroyed.

[@artboymoy]

Whoo! Great time with Team ABC and the Roci fighting the PM beastie. What happened to the Arboghast was amazing and I'm surprised you didn't notice Adam Savage in the crew. This isn't the actual end of the second book but a nice place to have some revealations and excitement. Klarus is right in that they were using the PM in different ways. It's like any new technology, they wanted to explore what the PM was capable of. The PM creature is contagious but being a hybrid does limit it's nature a bit. Onto season 3!!!

[@kevinoneill2090]

They skip or edit out many important scenes that other Expanse reactors cover. It's starting to spoil the reactions, though Klarus is great, she's clearly the one with the brain cells.

[@MrTheCamel]

The Adam Savage (Mythbusters) episode, he was on the ship above Venus

[@rodentnolastname6612]

Remember, the proto-monster is a prototype The scientists still don't fully understand what the Protomolecule is or does. They're kinda at the level of apply some electricity to the nerve and watch the frog leg kick. They THINK they have the hybrids relatively under control, hence the self destruct in the chest. The books go into greater detail on how much control they don't have over the hybrids plus some other interrelated things NO SPOILERS!!

[@christopherkowalczyk4405]

Season 1 protomolecule is the pure form. The hybrids are a diluted form. The chest peice was a control and kill switch. Thats why the first one didn't kill Bobbi, the drone she saw sent a recall for it. The kids were picked because of a genetic disorder that let the protomolecule bound but held back it's growth rate. The hybrid is a weapon still in r&d stages. At this point its a berserker you can drop on a planet, ship, or station and let it cause havoc. The goal was full control of the hybrid. Far as Moa and his scientists are concerned they are reverse engineering a weapon sent by hostile aliens, any people who die in the process are acceptable losses as long as the species survives.

[@theshadowling1]

Thing is, this episode, more than any other shows the issue with ending part way through a book in Season 1. The scene with Bobbi and Avasarala in the books is one of my favourites, because Avasarala calls everything that will happen before even boarding Mao's yacht. She is in complete control every step of the way. So when the captain attempts to imprison her, Bobbi and her staff, Avasarala opens a chest labelled "Formal Wear" and tells Bobbi to go be a marine while she fixes herself a drink. In the show, the Avasarala we've been shown wouldn't make a move like going face to face with Mao without a serious armed escort, but because the show needed a dramatic finale, we get a dramatic finale

[@matthewtopping2061]

Season 2 and 3 of this show feel like one continuous story. Or, maybe that's just because I binged the whole show in one sitting 😂

[@peadarruane6582]

As well.... in the books, Bobby's armour is in a crate labelled Avarsarala's Evening wear.

[@Hapsard]

In saying this hybridized human protomolecule creature isn't much of a weapon, I have to point out that neither the UN marines or Bobby's squad had a concentration of radioactive material, but the researchers had enough control over it to go send it after them for the promotional demonstration (and, of course, obliterate the two groups of marines).

[@kirkdarling4120]

It's a politician's weapon, not a soldier's weapon.

[@davidbergfors6820]

0:27 I am sure someone have already told you in the comments, if not, Caliban is the project name of the "protogoblin" the thing from Ganymede. we have seen the name as the title to the video file that the Martian had when Bobby found out that her squad was killed as a "Sales demo"

[@gork8468]

Eros was an experiment in letting the protomolecule do what it 'wanted', to let it grow and develop as its creators intended with the hopes of learning from it as it developed. Ganymede is an attempt to force it to something 'useful' like Clarus said. Eros' protomolecule, as seen in S1 and here in S2, is *ridiculously* more pure and potent than Ganymede's protopeople - able to accelerate a frigging planetoid at high G indefinitely, absorb people and memories, and I guess use the Force to telekinetically take a ship apart perfectly. From a monstrously objective view, the Eros experiment is arguably the more successful and advanced one.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

"We're more or less fucked" - I mean, it's both. Once it gets to the reactor and breaches it, they die, but pretty much instantly. But on the other hand, they've got a long time (the rest of their lives, you might say) to watch it coming, and while its not physically painful, it's got to be like having your soul's arsehole fisted by an elephant.

[@kevintaylor7627]

The run of episodes that open S3 are ... rollicking. Foot on the gas and don't let up. The writing is top notch. Great post-episode discussion. Clarus is right that the hybrids are soldiers/weapons but control is still problematic. The protomolecule on Venus is, well, something else entirely. ALSO: If Nerdy shows up for a reaction in lingerie, we riot.

[@austinfallen]

The PM in season 1 is its raw form. The project caliban creature was made by the scientists, using PM. I assume they removed the spores because you don’t want your troops infecting your own people

[@hoodwinkiez]

Prepare to have your mind blown for what comes next.

[@blackpaw29]

Its crazy how we get to say that for nearly every episode, so good.

[@The_Other_Dan]

It's protomolecule R&D Season 1 was the research phase of protomolecule. Season 2 is the development phase of protomolecule.

[@scambammer6102]

The proto-molecule learns and changes over time. The hybrids are result of human experimentation. So was Eros. There's reasons for the different versions of proto-molecule. It is fair to say they have been kind if vague about what the PM is.

[@raymondamador1487]

Prax for the win. This show proves why every opinion matters.

[@AngeloBarovierSD]

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” - _Henry V,_ by Billy Shakes. “Being in charge is a shit job.” - Naomi Nagata.

[@JimAW63]

The protomolecule is the McGuffin of this show. It's like a magic jewel in dungeons and dragons that you don't really need to know details about how it works. It works outside of the known laws of physics because it's alien. If they try to "explain" it, it would come across as forced. Any explanation would come from the human perspective. It's better to leave the details to the imagination of the viewers.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

Monkey, Mozart.

[@JimAW63]

@@Justanotherconsumer Shhh...no spoilers!

[@chrism7395]

I agree - not everything needs to be explained by technobabble (IMO hardly anything needs to be). If the show tells you that this thingy with the flashing lights works by "reversing the polarity of MacGuyver Radiation and realigns the quantum entanglement of the object's Quarks" it adds nothing but a pile of meaningless gobbledegook. "any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic" Arthur C Clarke

[@JimAW63]

@@chrism7395 It's the same as how they explain the Epstein Drives that power all the ships. All they say is that they operate by "efficiency." Going into more detail sets them up for critics, who will dissect it and say it couldn't possibly work like that. All we need to know is that it's future tech. It's a necessary part of the show because the distances in space are so large, without a way to speed up, it would take months or years to make one trip anywhere. It's also the best explanation for artificial gravity I've ever seen. They use constant acceleration for the 1st half of the trip, then flip the ship and decelerate for the 2nd half.

[@johnbrinker2580]

The show doesn't answer _all_ of your protomolecule questions, but the final three books will.

[@AL-fl4jk]

Naomi cradling a nuke like a baby isn’t even in the top 5 badass things she does in this show

[@mndrew1]

Check the first credits screen there at the top...Playing 'mission specialist' is none other than Adam Savage. I knew I recognized him. :D

[@ShasOFish]

Funny you mention the computer interiors with no glass panels, in the book Mao's ship has a massive, beautiful painting over most of it. The passengers will never see it, because they are inside. It would only ever be going to a private dock, so no outsiders would ever see it. It's done solely and purely because Mao had money to burn.

[@autdelux]

im sure you will love the way they adress the lack of protomolecule information. mark my words ;)

[@LeeCarlson]

Imagine "deploying" the Calibans by dropping them on the surface of a Planet (either Earth or Mars) and watching them tear through everything in their paths to get to any power source that they can detect. On Mars that would destroy the colonial infrastructure. On Earth that would be 30 billion people being turned to paste. That is what makes Strickland's experiment a "weapon."

[@Justanotherconsumer]

For what it’s worth, most nukes are temperamental devices that require a very precise set of events to happen to go to fission, especially to fusion. Damaging it won’t set it off and they’re relatively safe to play with, though the initial stages involve some conventional explosives so there may still be some boom, just not a nuclear one.

[@wompa70]

The protomolecule can be thought of like potassium. So many uses. What it does depends very much on what it's mixed with. In its original form all it did was consume and spread. Once Julie's consciousness was absorbed enough it took on her desire to go home. Luckily Miller was able to talk "Julie" into hitting Venus instead. Mao's scientists manipulated it enough to get to the point of having human-protomoluce hybrids (The things you can do when ethics are thrown out.) Nerdy, your faith will be rewarded. As I've said every 6th or 7th episode, "Hold on to your butts."

[@lutzheckmann5093]

So I guess they are not mythbusters fans? Enjoyed the reaction and I am really looking forward to the next season.

[@magus104]

dont know if ive seen a single reactor who has recognized him. he even gets some lines. i guess if you havent been following him on youtube after mythbusters was a LONG time ago at this point

[@ezrawyrd9275]

At one point in the full-length Nerdy recognized him, but yeah they didn't really latch onto it

[@wild_lee_coyote]

Think of the protomolecule as a universal seed. It has its own programming, but humans have looked at it and see how it can unlock human potential. So in its raw form it was just harvesting organic material, that’s why it was so infectious. But when you reprogram it to evolve humans then you get a less infectious version. Granted there is still some goo in there but it is encased in different tissues. Later on it will have different uses.

[@ThePrimeVictor]

I think the best way to describe the Protomolecule is “a tool with its own agenda” which is what we’re seeing on Venus, but with time and knowledge it can be manipulated for other uses which we are seeing with the children experiments/proto-monster.

[@nathanielhoward1498]

Calm down Clarus. LOL. Her reaction to that alone… chef’s 😘

[@cacheman]

I completely missed Adam Savage at first... until I saw him in the credits and went back and looked for him.

[@blairworzella]

I totally missed him until I saw another reactor notice him.

[@ige-individualgroupeffort-kenl]

I check every day for a new Expanse reaction from you two. Today's did not disappoint. Really enjoy your channel. Clarus was a bit distracting today BTW. Also, killer eye makeup and look overall. Good job.

[@peadarruane6582]

If you rewatch the fight with bobby's team and the Protomolecule creature, just before the end of the episode, you saw the drone flash a red light, and then you saw a bright flash.

[@ejr87r]

Your confusion about the protomodule gets cleared up more in S3 and remember it's constantly learning from us

[@evilvolts]

fun fact the guy from the show Myth Busters was on the ship exploring Venus

[@shawnloging8649]

An interesting fact, the actor who played the spy in season 1 is the one who did the motion capture performance for the hybrid.

[@pgreen0001]

Everything will be answered as much as it can be answered.

[@Metaljacket420]

16:50 Should be fine the explosives that detonate a nuke are extremely insensitive high explosives. They require a powerful shockwave to detonate heat will actually just burn them

[@Dan_Jacob]

The way I look at the protomolecule, is that this show is still in the mystery genre. For this reason I think it's great that they don't just spell out what capabilities or limitations of the protomolecule are. When it does something new, it can be shocking and/or scary depending on the circumstances.

[@Icypenguigo]

So the Protomolecule is not airborne. It can be spread by skin-to-skin contact, but injection is the most efficient way to get it into someone's system. If you recall, on Eros, the Protogen people were giving people fake "radiation inoculations" that was actually Protomolecule, and then irradiating them to rapidly spur its growth. So, hypothetically, the protomolecule monsters made by Protogen could spread it to others by touch, but they're far more likely to just rip you apart or throw you so hard at something that your body is turned into chunky salsa by the impact. Also, a nuclear warhead is not like a stick of dynamite. You don't have to worry about it going off if you jostle it too much or expose it to a little bit of heat. It has to go through a series of highly intricate technical steps in order to detonate. Burning it down to its component atoms in 10,000+ degree heat will work just about as well to destroy one as it would work on anything(including the Protomolecule). The Protomolecule does function in a mostly consistent way. It was designed by its creators for a specific purpose. But it's not something we can fully understand at our current level. That's part of why Protogen screwing around with it so dangerous and unpredictable. It's like a monkey trying to figure out a microwave oven. Whoever or whatever created it was advanced enough to try to use it against our solar system over 2 billion years ago. I would LOVE to explain more, but I don't wanna get spoiler-y. They will explain more about it as the show goes on, and the books elaborate on its nature and purpose a whole lot more as well, if you plan on reading them. And don't worry, the cosmic horror in this show is just clearing its throat, and getting ready to enter stage left.

[@chronos1111]

Enjoying watching the show again through a different reactors eyes The Expanse set the bar SO high for sci fi going forward

[@davidbergfors6820]

11:20 Me petting my computer right now. In my defense, I didn't realize that my new RAMs was lighting up until i got them. I do have some openings where it shines through though!

[@rickjonzz]

To paraphrase the Dresden Files, the protomolecule is like a supersonic passenger jet. Mao & the Caliban project team have figured out the equivalent of how to turn on the reading lamp in one of the seats in coach. Meanwhile, on Venus, the jet is moving out onto the runway.

[@GuardianOwl]

The Protocol Molecule has a purpose and wants to fulfill that purpose (and what that purpose is will eventually be revealed). But Mao’s head scientist figured out that the particular gene deficiency in children both stabilizes the growth in the human body and curbs it’s impulse to fulfill its purpose (for a little while at least). That is why they appear so more advanced than the protomolecule in S1, it’s the protomolecule in chains.

[@inthannon169]

In three blink-and-you-miss-it moments, fans of Mythbusters can see Adam Savage as one of the mission specialists on the Arboghast. 😁

[@jamesholland5761]

Great reaction! Love your conversations after the episode! Clarus is actually got a great grasp on the storyline! Absolutely banging outfit too Clarus! At this time I would like to say that please pay special attention to the dynamic between Amos and Prax! It will serve you well! One other thing I come to realize after seeing this masterpiece several times is they give Naomi some amazing monologs while some important scene is playing out. But they are so important and meaningful! Looking forward to season three! It's going to be crazy!!

[@reverance_pavane]

Getting an old fashioned critical mass nuke to make a big boom requires explosions to be triggered in a strict sequence to hold the material together long enough - otherwise you just get a very small boom (with a lot of radiation) that blows the pieces apart again. This is even more important with a modern critical density nuke such as the torpedoes mounted. So slagging it with the drive would not be a problem. The Caliban programme was focused on integrating the protomolecule with a human host. It required the [child] host to have a genetic quirk that prevented it from effectively fighting the protomolecule infection. No fighting, easier integration without force majeure. The protomolecule does seem to be designed to integrate existing biological life into itself and then make use of it. It is interesting to ask whether the protomolecule was intentionally placed in space (and requiring a space-capable civilisation to "discover" it), or was simply intended to infect any life bearing world and just failed to get to Earth. The first requires a certain degree of intellectual sophistication in the host species for whatever purpose its hosts required.

[@jayburn00]

Its still contagious, but inside a container so to speak. Basically its fluids are still contagious i think.

[@donrichards271]

A nuclear device requires more than incidental damage to explode. The core is surrounded by shaped charges that, upon triggering, compress the fuel to a degree that permits a chain reaction.

[@bajasmancer]

Who says it's not contagious? Blood is contagious, it's inside your body.

[@Aeolusdallas]

Caliban refers to the monster it's a reference to the tempest

[@grafffuller3265]

One of the questions or frustrations that Nerdy has with the show...is why the differences/reactions with the Protomolocule so far shown in the TV series? Which is a legitament question. I just so happened to be watching another reactor watching S2:E3 and she watched the sequence with Kortazar (the scientist that got amped because the protomolocule was his obsession). In the scene, he says (not verbatim) ...it does something different everytime. The more biomass that you give it, it learns. Later, when they are feeding his obsession, Kortazar says that it's building! and Holden asks, "It's building what?" and Kortazar look maniacal and says, "we're going to find out." So, without ruining ANYTHING going forward...your answer will be explored and answered, but then you will have additional questions. I know you are having fun with the show, and we've loved it too. Now, we get a kick out of people reacting to it. We've watched dozens of reactors watch this show. It is SO good (and satisfying). Talk to you, later.