The Expanse - S3 E12 "Congregation" - Reaction and Commentary

Dive into the second-to-last episode of "The Expanse" Season 3 with Ryan and Nathan as we tackle the escalating tensions and unraveling mysteries inside the Ring Space. This episode is packed with strategic decisions, intense character dynamics, and speculation on the dangerous developments that could threaten everyone in the ring. We dissect the complex interactions and discuss the key scenes that set the stage for the season finale. Stay tuned for our upcoming episode where special guest Melinda will join us for a live reaction!
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[@Dendood]

The UN scientist explained his actions. The ships are trapped in purple fields that limit the speed their ships can move. They are trapped. His bomb test was to use high energy particles to understand the mechanism of the purple field, perhaps giving them information and options on how to escape it. Since they don't have particle accelerators on board to create charged particles their only option is to use something explosive to create them. His assumption was a nuclear explosion wouldn't harm anything because the purple field would act as a net. And this would be reason enough that the ring would not feel threatened. Unfortunately, assumptions and testing can lead to unexpected results. Thanks for the awesome reactions. You guys are really good at this.

[@Daneelro]

Ashford later further explained the UN scientist's logic, if we did not guess it earlier: the speed limit doesn't apply to photons. The station stopped the expansion of the bomb's plasma cloud, but the high-energy photons would get further, and the UN scientist hoped that they would affect the purple fields in some way. Also, if his hope had been right, it might have given him a clue about that other field they failed to get across: the distortion at the ring gate that stopped even the comms laser.

[@MattNolanCustom]

"You have an intruder in your home so you burn down your home" - more like you have gangrene in your foot, so you chop it off to stop it getting your leg. But then you find it did get in your leg, and there's some in your hand, so you chop those off, etc. Don't ever stop singing along with the intro, guys.

[@kirkdarling4120]

"They know!" It showed you right on the teledoc screen that Clarissa has adrenaline booster mods as well as spoofers to hide them from normal medical scans, but not from the Martian autodoc, which knows about adrenaline booster mods. "My apologies, please continue." They taught us in intel school: When you're interrogating someone and he's talking, for god's sake don't argue with him. Holden and Clarissa were being held in the Nauvoo cattle pens...the Mormons hadn't installed a proper brig. Drummer crying in frustration and then figuring out what to do...a well-written "strong woman." "I'm shipping these two" "She's a little old for him...mother issues." There is a reason Amos would be attracted to an older woman, explained in the novella "Churn," but that's for upcoming episode, so no more to be said. Cara Gee does change her voice to play Drummer. As others have already said, the actress is naturally cheerful and bubbly. Ashford's behavior to save humanity...remember the big guy Champa in "Scene 52." The finale...it will make you laugh, cry, sweat, fist-pump, shout. It was written to be the series finale, and these boys know how to write a finale. But...it's not the end of the saga.

[@Daneelro]

Some words about Belter creole. Since the Belt is composed of many far-away stations, there are supposed to be many very different versions of Belter creole, and the showrunners wanted this represented by telling the actors to put their own personal flair on it. The Belter creole in the books was created by the authors based on languages they encountered, which were mostly European (just like Blade Runner, they made heavy use of the strangest among them, Hungarian). For the show, however, they got a linguist to create a brand new Belter creole with more global roots, so you can recognise (Brazilian) Portuguese, Chinese, Persian or Zulu elements (and several more).

[@MattNolanCustom]

@@Daneelro somehow Google News served me a BBC report published in Nigerian Pidgin yesterday. I thought I was reading Belter at first!

[@scottlescard6154]

One thing to keep in mind was that at this point in making the show the ScFy channel had let them know that they were being canceled, so they are squeezing a lot of story in here at the end of season 3. A whole books worth in fact. Something else, different actors speaking the belter creole differently was somewhat intentional. Think of it as them having been from other parts of the belt.

[@madux42]

The announcement of its cancellation was made after episode 3x06 aired. Two weeks later, the show was already saved, that's when ep 8 or 9 was released. The season was filmed over a year earlier. Nobody knew back then that it would be cancelled. But they certainly knew that the chances to not get more seasons was getting higher with every season, as that's how the business works. But for what is known, it was always their plan to tell the story of the first 3 books in the first 3 seasons. So the way season 3 was filmed, putting book 3 into half a season, had nothing to do with the cancellation, which as said happened a year after it was produced.

[@jaiverdeorta1295]

Great reaction guys. Yes Ashford is a complicated character. Many are in The Expanse. One good thing i like about the series. Not cut all good and bad, black and white.

[@Daneelro]

*Spoiler warning to those who haven't seen the show up to this episode...* For astute observers, none of what Holden says to Ashford is new information, it's just confirmation of what was implied or "shown, not told" before. It was all contained in what Proto-Miller said to Holden on the descent to the station and earlier, and in the vision the station gave to Holden. Proto-Miller already said that "there was a civilisation here but now it's gone", and that the Protomolecule is trying to find out why, by getting Holden to access the archives of the station. Holden's vision was 100% of the past. Many first-time viewers don't get this, but one clue they dropped was Proto-Miller talking about a "records room", and another was that Holden's vision started with a reverse playback of things we have seen. In the vision, we saw not one but several Rings, with different star systems visible through them, and then the Rings were closed one-by-one, with the vision ending with the station blowing up a star through one of the rings. This last one was what Holden described as "cauterizing a wound". So the station was fighting some menance that spread through all those systems.

[@MattNolanCustom]

I thought Holden's vision was 100% past / context too. But someone commented on another review channel that if you watch carefully, the last solar system destruction looks suspiciously like our very own Sol System - the sequence of planets it zooms by matches ours. So I guess it is either a warning of what might be in the future, or Holden's mind casting his own inner knowledge onto a vague vision of the past.

[@madux42]

_"Holden's vision was 100% of the past."_ I don't think that's correct. The star system Holden sees blowing up at the end looks very much like it's our Solar System. Watch the scene in slo-mo and and look at the planets the "beam" is passing on its way to the star. You can see Saturn, Jupiter, and other Sol planets before it hits the Sun. That's why he refers to it as "the end of everything". He sees a possible future.

[@Daneelro]

@@madux42 The planets _do_ look similar both in their number and form, and I don't know if that was laziness (re-use of some existing CGI models) or intentional (meant to keep the viewer guessing). However, we only see the planets in silhouette, the star that is blown up is definitely reddish, and the shot goes off while several rings are open and some are closed, that is after unsuccessful attempts to isolate the systems affected by the enemies of the Ringbuilders. As for Holden's "I saw the end of everything", that was intentionally vague for the cliffhanger and Ashford's wager, but later Holden is more explicit about what he saw and that was without him getting any new info.

[@madux42]

@@Daneelro The Expanse doesn't do that kind of "laziness"... ;) The protomolecule "plays" with spacetime all the time. Past and future are not what it is to us. See Miller's and Julies' visions.

[@Daneelro]

@@madux42 In my view, such a hand-waving form of time travel is what would be too lazy for _The Expanse_ creators 🙂 Miller and Julie's visions of each other weren't visions of the future, only supposed to be the result of quantum-gravity entanglement in their future merger. (That's not really how entanglement works, but it was inspired by very real quantum weirdness.) Holden's vision was nothing like that. Furthermore, without telling how the book series ends, I think it's no big spoiler to say that it does not end with the destruction of human civilisation; and it doesn't veer into Multiverse territory (one half of the writer duo, Ty Franck, often expressed disdain for this or that time travel stories are all nonsense), so it cannot be a vision of a possible future, either.

[@Daneelro]

The idea behind the comm beacon and the nuke was similar: the speed limit only applies to matter, not electromagnetic radiation. They knew the station will stop the expansion of the plasma cloud produced by the nuke blowing up, but wanted to see the effects of high-energy radiation released in the explosion on the containment field, also hoping it gives them at least an idea on how to penetrate the distortion at the ring gate with the comms laser.

[@MattNolanCustom]

I thought the UN scientist spoke specifically about trying to figure out the containment field with the high energy blast. If they could figure out how to release the ships they could get out before they starve, or get one ship out to get help, seeing as the comm laser was not able to get the help message out.

[@Daneelro]

@@MattNolanCustom There was an "also" missing there (which I now added in edit).

[@gilserrano8301]

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