Hey, yall. I don't know what episode number we're on but... your hosts, Inda and Didi are back from a long hiatus to talk about a small feature film called Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.  We get into the many themes explored in the movie and why we (spoiler) loved it. We also start a Tenoch Huerta Mejia fan club of two. Call us, Tenoch!

Links to Check Out: 

From The Mary Sue: The Worst ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Fan Theory Is Emblematic of a Bigger Problem - https://www.themarysue.com/the-worst-black-panther-wakanda-forever-fan-theory-is-emblematic-of-a-bigger-problem/

From Refinery29: With Namor, Wakanda Forever Does What Latine Media Will Not - https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2022/11/11191045/wakanda-forever-namor-indigenous-latine-representation

Barry Jenkins’ Twitter Thread on Wakanda Forever- https://twitter.com/barryjenkins/status/1598870713691033601?s=46&t=R9NUZXu47g3vCH59a3OjmQ

Contact Info: Black Girl Squee  on Twitter; via Email: blackgirlsquee@gmail.com

Podcast Available on Apple Podcasts (Please Rate & Review!), Google Play Podcasts and using our RSS feed. All episodes up at blackgirlsquee.simplecast.com/.

Let’s find out what the girls, women, and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode six, the series finale,  “Babylon’s Ashes”.

Transcript: 

The Women of The Expanse podcast, ep. 14 - “Babylon’s Ashes”

Introduction 

Welcome to The Women of The Expanse podcast. I’m your host, Didi. 

So, the series finale of The Expanse aired last week and already the fandom is discussing whether the show ‘stuck the landing’. I’ll leave the whole ‘stick the landing’ conversation to people who get paid to talk about TV. It’s not really interesting to me. But I will say that I felt more satisfied by this finale than I did after watching the finales of all them other shows y’all love to compare with The Expanse. The show that’s been called “Game of Thrones in Space”, managed to wrap things up fairly well for this book reader. I hope that maybe now we can stop making these comparisons when one show is clearly better. 

As for the much-maligned cold opens in Laconia, I see them as a follow-up to the mass exodus of Martians and their technology during seasons four and five. Where were those Martians going? Well, they went to settle planets beyond the Rings. Laconia is one of the settlements where the Martian way of life is taken to the extreme. That, plus the protomolecule experimentation leads to dangerous consequences for the entire solar system, as shown in books seven through nine. So for me, the cold opens served as a bridge that connected the Martian storylines from seasons four and five to the final sixth season. It also introduced us to Admiral Duarte, a character we’d only previously heard Sauveterre talk about. And we needed to know who he was before he hammered one of the last nails in Marco’s space coffin. It can make narrative sense whether you’ve read the books or not. But people like to complain. That was gonna happen either way. 

Now let’s find out what the girls, women, and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode six, the series finale,  “Babylon’s Ashes”. 

Cara

We start the episode in Laconia with Admiral Duarte gazing up at the protomolecule monstrosity of a ship. There’s a sense of success on his face as he watches the ship flash its blue lights on the planet. 

Cara’s parents, Gary and Dot, are waiting restlessly in their home. Cara comes back finally and the parents’ postures sag with relief. Cara apologizes for being gone so long and taking Xan’s body with her. But she didn’t know “how long it was gonna take to fix him”. Then the reanimated Xan walks in the door asking for a hug. Gary is freaked out by Xan’s black eyes with no iris or pupil, the paleness of his skin and the twitchy movements he makes ever so often. He pulls a knife off the kitchen table and cuts Xan’s hand. Black blood drips onto the floor. The wound heals right away. 

Gary locks Xan up in a cabinet and calls the soldiers on his hand terminal. They look around and Cara’s gone again. Dot goes out looking for her. They find her hand terminal in the woods with a recorded message. Meanwhile, Cara has gotten Xan out of the cabinet and is headed into the woods with him. Xan reminds Cara that she can’t eat anything in the forest. She’ll die out here. But that’s okay with Cara. She tells her brother that if she dies, “the dogs will fix her”. We see Cara through Xan’s eyes, shot through with protomolecule. One last look at the protomolecule ship above Laconia before we leave this story.

 It’s pretty much beat for beat what happens at the end of the Strange Dogs novella. 

ChrisJen Avasarala

Leaders from the UN, MCRN, the Belt, and the Rocinante are with ChrisJen on UNN One to make plans to engage with Marco before he gets to Medina Station. The Roci’s going to hit the rail guns at Medina while the other ships go after Marco. 

Avasarala meditates in her quarters until she gets a message about locating the Pella. She tells a nervous junior UNN soldier that she will not stay in the rear guard. She needs to be up front and close enough to have real-time communication with the fleet. She is determined to give certain orders herself. The junior soldier keeps talking, this time saying that he's disappointed that more Belters didn’t join the cause after her efforts to aid them on Ceres Station. But for her, that effort was “too little and too late”.

Sometime after the battle, ChrisJen says that war ends at the negotiating table. She starts with things that everyone agrees on, ring traffic must be controlled, the creation of a transport union. But they don’t agree on who should lead the union. After some back and forth between Camina and ChrisJen, they decide on giving leadership of the transport union to an independent party - James Holden of the Rocinante. 

Rosenfeld Guoliang

Rosenfeld got Filip reassigned to the bridge for this battle. She tells Filip that she got Marco to reinstate his son because she thinks he will be a better leader with Filip at his side. She thinks that Marco needs Filip, though he’d never admit it. She says that the rest of the Free Navy needs to be able to count on him. Filip assures her that they can. 

Rosenfeld meets with Marco to discuss strategy. The enemy has split their forces but Rosenfeld still does not like the odds. She’d rather fight after they’d made it to Medina behind all those Laconian guns. Marco hints at more surprises coming from Laconia. 

Walker’s last stand against the Pella does some damage but doesn’t destroy the ship. Rosenfeld gets hit and dies at her station. Filip tries to get her a medic but it’s too late. 

Marco gets a surprise from Admiral Duarte but it’s not the one he wanted. Duarte denies Marco’s request for more weapons, closes communications between the Free Navy and Laconia, and warns that any ships that enter Laconian space will be destroyed. “You were a useful distraction, but I’ve got gods to kill.” That statement means more to readers of the last three books but also gives non-readers an idea of what Duarte’s focus is. 

Filip comes in at the end of Duarte’s message to tell Marco that his XO died. Marco shrugs off the news, saying it’s an honor to die for the cause. Filip wonders aloud if they’re dying for the cause or for Marco. Marco tells Filip that he cannot see what he’s been given. Filip says he does now and goes back to his station. 

Marco gives a speech about the ‘end of the Inners’. But it’s a speech with no conviction, given to weary, demoralized Free Navy soldiers. Filip has heard enough and turns his back on his father. 

Bobbie Draper

Bobbie and the crew of the Roci are on an ice hauler called the Giambattista. Fans will remember that before there was a Rocinante, the people who would go on to crew that ship first met on an ice hauler called the Canterbury. Full Circle. 

Bobbie and James reminisce about the former pilot as they unpack weapons and such. 

Bobbie, Amos, and the rest of the strike teams land on the ring station. But a lot of them get hit as they land. The railguns are using armor-piercing rounds. Bravo and Charlie teams are cut down to single digits before they can start the mission. 

Bobbie decides to bomb the railguns before the Free Navy can come take them over. She’s hit with a lot of heavy fire but Amos shields her from most of it until the Roci can provide cover fire for them. 

At the end of the episode, we see Bobbie piloting the Rocinante. 

Clarissa Mao

Clarissa stumbles again, this time, it’s in front of Amos. He tells her to get some rest. She says she’ll do that once everything is ship-shape. Naomi gives her a task to check on the juice injectors  so she can talk to Amos. 

She hears a high-pitched ringing sound in her ears and falls down. When she gets up she goes to the medi-dock and lets it scan her. She finds out she has Complex Endocrine Collapse Syndrome (CECS). Symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, salt craving, seizures, weight loss. Average life expectancy is five years. The syndrome is a result of continued use of endocrine mods that increase the risk of sudden death. 

Instead of telling anyone, she decides to make the crew a home cooked meal of textured mushroom seco de carne and soy tequenos. Amos tells Clarissa that he’s going to fight on the ring station, leaving her to be the ship’s mechanic. She tells him he sure ends up being a hero a lot of times. The crew have a big dinner together before the big battle.

During the fight against the Free Navy, she leaves the bridge to fix the reactor on the ship. She finds the problem with the coolant pipe but gets hit in the helmet. When Naomi comes to check on her a bit later, she’s barely conscious but she’s managed to fix the reactor without using her mods. “I’m gonna earn my keep,” she says. 

Camina Drummer

Camina gets dressed while listening to the message that UNN One has located the Pella. She  takes one last look at Michio’s bed before leaving her quarters. 

On the bridge, Liang Walker calls her and asks if the Belters will get cut out of negotiations should the Inners get to Marco first. Camina is not sure but will stick to her part of the plan for now. Their target is the frigate. If they destroy it first, they believe the rest will surrender or flee. Walker proposes taking the frigate instead of destroying it. And Camina seems to like that idea, a pirate till the end. 

Camina calls off any actions on the freighter, urging them to focus on the frigate. Camina watches as the freighter releases all the plates disguising them to reveal the Pella. They fire at the Belter ships in their way, destroying four of Camina’s ships and cutting power to another five. There is a huge hole in the Tynan and Camina’s pissed off enough to head straight for the Pella on a one-way mission. But Walker beats her to it. Camina watches until his transmission is cut short. 

The reactor on the Tynan is low but they can limp away from the battle. She tells her Communications Director to send a tightbeam to the fleet apprising them of the Tynan’s status. She wishes the Rocinante luck, as they’ve done all they can do now. 

Camina becomes President of the Transport Union after Holden resigns. 

Naomi Nagata 

Naomi patches things up with Amos by comparing how Clarissa calls him boss the same way that Amos used to call Naomi boss on the Cant. 

Avasarala tells the Roci crew that Inaros will reach the Ring with what’s left of his fleet. The UNN doesn’t have any ships within range to cut Marco off from the Ring. She says she’s sorry. 

The crew runs through several options. There’s not enough time to power up the railguns using the Roci’s reactor. No one wants to ‘cut and run’ through any nearby rings and even if they did, they don’t have enough fuel. They could hurl the Giambattista at the Free Navy and shoot at them with whatever weapons that the Roci still has left. 

Naomi has another idea. She has figured out a way to trigger the ring entities using all the mass and energy of the ice-hauler and the Roci’s torpedoes, it could work. It’s a bad idea, but the only one that they might survive long enough to complete. James is worried that once the entities are woken up, they might stay awake. 

As the Pella approaches the ring, Naomi flashes back to baby Filip. She closes her eyes and pushes the button to overload the reactor. The crew watches the Pella disintegrate with various looks of victory and relief. Naomi wails in agony for what she’s done.  

After resigning from the Transport Union, Holden asks Naomi if he did the right thing. She says he did, because he did it not for the accolades or ‘a pat on the head’, but because it was what he believed in. That’s all you can do, whether you know the outcome of your efforts or not. As she speaks, we see that Filip left the Pella during Marco’s last speech. He got on his own ship and changed his name to Filip Nagata. Naomi may never know that he survived because of the things that she told him about Marco. All Naomi has is the knowledge that she tried. 

As Naomi tells James, “The universe never tells us if we did right or wrong. It’s more important to try to help people than to know that you did. More important that someone else’s life gets better than for you to feel good about yourself. You never know the effect you might have on someone, not really, Maybe one core thing you said haunts them forever. Maybe one moment of kindness gives them comfort or courage. Maybe you said the one thing they needed to hear. It doesn’t matter if you ever know. You just have to try.” 

James brings up a few plot threads that the finale did not tie up. What will the Roci do for work now that the battle is over? What about the protomolecule sample? Naomi stops him and urges him to stay in this moment for a while. And we end the series with the Roci flying off into the vast expanse of space. 

Outro

That’s it for The Expanse on television. For now. And that’s also the end of The Women of The Expanse podcast.You can tweet about The Expanse with me @blackgirlsquee or email blackgirlsquee at gmail dot com and put Women of The Expanse in the subject line.  Thanks for listening. 

Let’s find out what the girls, women and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode five called, “Why We Fight”. 

Transcript:

Introduction

Welcome to the Women of The Expanse podcast. I’m your host, Didi. 

This episode gave us more character moments, and a reunion between Camina and Naomi. Plus, it got everyone where they needed to be for the series finale. Holden’s decision from “Force Projection” looks even worse after the L’s that the joint fleet received during this episode. But Holden’s not going to apologize or even admit it to Avasarala. If anyone is a “self-righteous shit”, Camina, it’s James, not his partner. 

Now let’s find out what the girls, women and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode five called, “Why We Fight”. 

Cara

Cara is sleeping in the woods after taking her dead brother to get ‘fixed’ by the strange dogs. 

Her parents and some of the Laconian military are calling out for her. When she wakes up, Cara doesn’t answer them. She walks further into the forest, looking for the dogs. She finds a group of the dogs surrounding a revived Xan. His eyes are different and he asks Cara what it means to be in substrate.  She doesn’t know either. He says he feels weird and everything looks different. Cara doesn’t care that her brother looks different and says things that don’t make sense. She hugs him and thanks the dogs for fixing him. 

Admiral Kirino

Kirino and her MCRN force head out to Medina Station. They eliminate sentries from the Free Navy at the Ring. On a wide-band channel, the Admiral announces herself and threatens to open fire unless they surrender. They prepare plasma warheads only, no nuclear weapons. But she gets a report about multiple plasma discharges coming from the Ring station. They don’t have time to investigate as several missiles are coming toward the Martian ships. Kirino doesn’t get to finish her request for emergency evasion before her ship is destroyed. 

Rosenfeld Guoliang

Rosenfeld is delivering a report while Marco watches news feeds about unrest on Iapetus and other Belter stations. They salvaged some parts from the Granicus that will be delivered to the Pella. She asks Marco if he would like Filip to be assigned to the detail. Marco doesn’t care. “It's of no concern to me.” 

He is more concerned about what’s being said of him on the news feeds. “They are calling it my war,” he says. Rosenfeld tells him that Iapetus is one insignificant station. But Marco says it only takes one to create doubt. He blames this on Drummer. If enough Belters work with the inner planets, then the Free Navy could lose the war. That’s why Rosenfeld urges Marco to go to Medina. “With 1300 systems and hundreds of colonies under your thumb, as much metal as we can mine, as many shipyards as we can build. Anyone who wants access to that will have to ask you.” But remember, Rosenfeld wants to be Governor of Medina Station, so I think she’s secretly picturing people asking her for access. 

She downplays Drummer’s accomplishments as a raid of a defenseless supply depot. Marco seems to like what Rosenfeld is saying and walks closer to her. But her hand terminal chimes and whatever Marco was going to do is forgotten. She gets word that the Martian ships around Medina have been destroyed, She wants to celebrate and leaves to make arrangements. 

As the celebration commences, Rosenfeld announces that the Martians were taken by surprise and all their ships were destroyed by their new railguns. They will drink Earther brandy ‘liberated from Ceres Station’  in celebration. Tadeo has been sent to the brig because he broke radio silence looking for his brother on Ceres Station. Filip did some digging and told Tadeo the bad news that his brother didn’t make it. Tadeo admits to being on the crew that set up mining charges on Ceres Station. He was told that no Belters would be killed. 

Rosenfeld talks to Marco amid the celebrations. His verdict is that the inner planets have size and the Free Navy has numbers. They cannot engage with all his forces at once. She asks Marco about his father; Marco says he never knew him. Rosenfeld says he ‘improved upon the role’. It must suck to constantly have to blow smoke up this narcissist’s butt. She shows Marco video of Filip’s speech in the galley. It’s hard to tell whether Marco is proud or suspicious of his son. 

Chrisjen Avasarala 

Back on the UNN Zenobia, they watch the last seconds of Kirino’s command. The railguns that fired on them were Martian design but the metal was foreign, something they’ve never seen before. Bobbie says that Marco traded the Belt’s protomolecule sample for Martian ships and weapons. Kirino’s ship took fire from five guns but there are probably six in total. They are perched around the ring, ready to ‘rain hell’ on anyone who approaches. Some members of the council want to blow up Medina so they can’t supply Marco with any more ships or weapons. Bobbie reminds them that the last time they fired up a nuke near a ring station it powered up and almost wiped out the solar system. So, that’s a no.

There’s still time to engage with the Pella before it goes through the ring. But they would have to abandon Ceres Station. Gareth does his best Rosenfeld impression without knowing it by saying they don’t owe Ceres a goddamn thing. Admiral Sidiqi wants to load up every warship they’ve got and ride out. But Avasarala says there aren’t enough ships, the joint fleet is spread too thin. Avasarala wants to give the troops a fighting chance to win. She tells the council that they will have her decision soon and dismisses them. 

Avasarala asks Bobbie for her opinion. “Have I gone soft? Was I trying too hard to be good when I should have been ruthless?” She makes an offhand comment about the warhead on the Roci that misfired. And I’m glad that no one told Bobbie what really happened. After being needled for a response, Bobbie tells her that now is not the time for self-pity. Just keep your eyes on the enemy and wait for them to slip up again. “I still think we’re the good guys. And I’d rather do a little less soul searching and a lot more fighting back.” I guess that wasn’t what Avasarala wanted to hear so she tells Bobbie to ‘go do something else’. 

Avasarala tells Monica that they got some info from a Belter on Ganymede about some experimental biotech that would help the whole solar system grow food faster. Monica echoes Bobbie’s words about one good person helping change the course of the war.

ChrisJen takes a stimulant before welcoming James Holden. She says he rarely wastes her time and that might be true. But he does piss her off a lot. James tells her about the risks involved in traveling through the rings. Ships that do are disappearing. James wants to share the info with Marco, thinking that he might back off. I thought James had left some of that naivete behind in seasons one and two but nope!

ChrisJen shows James the Free Navy railguns that destroyed six Martian ships in seconds. She can’t afford to think about the future of Ring transit until they end this war. Then she asks Holden how well he knows Camina Drummer. ChrisJen needs an ally, preferably a Belter, with lots of ships and guns. Right now, Camina fits the bill. 

Bobbie Draper

Bobbie’s in the bar on Ceres Station, in civvies, when she sees Amos stumble in. He’s got scratches and glitter on his neck and just been fucked hair. Bobbie’s been trying to forget how much she hates politics. She doesn’t think they’ll lose or win, that their grandchildren will still be fighting over the same things a hundred years from now. Amos tells Bobbie that Holden disarmed the nuke and Bobbie just laughs. Amos doesn’t know what he’s fighting for and Bobbie says in the end all you can do is fight for your people. Which is something that Naomi echoes later in the episode. Amos finally decides to go back to the Roci after one more trip to the brothel. He invites Bobbie and ew… 

Clarissa Mao

Clarissa tells James that the UNN will reinforce the Roci’s hull with carbon silicate lace plating. It’s some kind of new armor that’s used on UNN One. It came from protomolecule research which reminds Clarissa of her dad who did terrible things with the protomolecule to ‘ensure the survival of our species’. Stuff like this makes him seem right and that makes Clarissa uneasy. 

She tells James that Amos went out to the station and doesn’t know when he’ll be back. 

Clarissa stumbles after packing suits and helmets away. This is probably related to using her mods in the X-ray bonus content last week. 

Naomi Nagata

Naomi is listening to a message from Dr. Elvi Okoye. The doctor concludes that many of the ship disappearances in the data were similar to the Barkeith. She thinks the data suggests that there is a mass energy threshold that comes before or even triggers these disappearances. All of this makes using the Rings dangerous. James says that Avasarala needs to see this data, that it’s ‘bigger than the war’. I don’t think Avasarala will agree with that, but whatever, James. 

Naomi’s looking at the news feeds and laughs. But she’s not laughing at James - though she could - she’s laughing with joy at the news of Camina Drummer bringing food and supplies to Ceres Station. 

Camina Drummer

Camina is arguing with an UNN officer on Ceres Station that wants to board each one of Camina’s ships, pilot them into Ceres and conduct a search for Free Navy partisans or Belters with warrants. Avasarala interrupts the connection and lets Drummer and her ships through. They continue to talk, as Avasarala tries to build rapport with a very resistant Camina. “A century of oppression made Marco Inaros inevitable.” Avasarala invites Camina to her ship to talk more but Camina declines. “The Belters here are hungry and I have food. I’m here for them, not you,” she says and ends the call. 

Josep’s limb did not grow well. It will have to be removed and surgery done to prepare for a prosthetic. 

Camina gets a message from Naomi on her hand terminal. Naomi had just seen the report on the news feed. This is before James spoke to Avasarala and before anyone asked Naomi to get Camina to fight with ChrisJen. 

Michio and Josep decide to stay on Ceres Station while Camina goes on to fight the Free Navy. Camina tells them that she loved them because they were builders. She wanted to build something with them. 

Naomi is waiting for Camina outside her ship. They have some awkward small talk and you can tell that Camina wants to hug Naomi but doesn’t for some reason. She invites Naomi inside the Tynan. Naomi calls it a fine ship. She asks to meet Camina’s family but they’re gone. Camina goes through the list of losses she’s had while saving the Rocinante or opposing Marco. 

Camina wants to know why Naomi came to see her. Holden asked her to appeal to Drummer so that she might fight with Avasarala against the Free Navy. Camina asks Naomi how she can fight with and live with inners, how she can pick their side over and over again. But we know that Naomi has not always picked their side. She most definitely picked the Belters when she gave Fred Johnson the protomolecule sample. And the crew members of the Roci who came from inner planets made her miserable about that for the better part of a season. Anyways, Naomi tells Camina that all we can do now is stand by the people we love. Camina says, “Fuck you, you self-righteous shit,” but finally hugs her. 

Something that Naomi said must have gotten through to Camina because she does agree to meet with ChrisJen and set terms. Will the Belters be remembered after the war is over? ChrisJen promises they will. Camina’s people will not take orders from ChrisJen. They shake hands and an alliance is born. 

Outro

And that’s everything the girls, women, and non-binary people did in The Expanse season six, episode five, “Why We Fight”. That’s also it for The Women of The Expanse podcast. Thanks for listening. 

Let's find out what the girls, women, and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode four, called, “Redoubt”.

To tell me what you think about the show, you can tweet @ blackgirlsquee or email blackgirlsquee@gmail.com and put Women of The Expanse in the subject line. 

Introduction

Welcome to The Women of The Expanse podcast. I’m your host, Didi. 

There’s no space battle in “Redoubt” but we do get space pirates fighting for booty. That’s not nothing. We pick up where we left off from the previous episode and deal with the fallout of some serious decisions made by one Rocinante captain. Belters don’t want the joint UN-MCRN fleet to occupy Ceres Station even though they desperately need the aid.  And  Filip is still deciding what kind of man he wants to be, for the fifty-millionth time. There’s a lot going on in this episode, despite the lack of high-octane action like we saw in “Force Projection.” And we haven’t even gotten to the cold open in Laconia yet. But we will. 

That said, let’s find out what the girls, women, and non-binary people of The Expanse did in season six, episode four, called, “Redoubt”. 

Cara

We open the show at Xan’s funeral. But the first thing we see is one of the protomolecule-made ships flying above Laconia. Cara is sitting by herself, listening to all the adults talking but not really understanding what they’re saying. The teacher talks with her parents about how much everyone loved Xan and to let the school know if there’s anything they can do to help. Two Laconians talk about the accident that killed Xan - a car came around the curve of a road too fast and hit Xan while he was playing. Looks like the driver will be given some lethal Laconian justice. Someone whispers about a firing squad. 

Then Cara’s solitude gets interrupted by Admiral Winston Duarte. And all the book readers perked up at this sighting. He does that thing that some folks do when they’re so focused on a goal or idea. They make everything around them about that one idea or goal, even a little child’s grief over their sibling. Duarte compares Cara’s loss of Xan to his loss of the dream of Mars. Then it turns into some kind of nationalistic pitch for Laconia. He’s basically Marco Inaros with less yelling and more cunning. At the end of his spiel, Cara’s actually comforting and encouraging him to keep trying to achieve his dream. It’s incredibly manipulative but reveals a lot about Duarte. 

Cortazar rushes into the funeral looking lost. He tells Duarte that his new coordination protocol just returned a coherent reply pattern. Duarte tells Cortazar to show him and they leave the funeral as the scientist tells the admiral that he thinks he can turn it on, whatever it is. 

Cara’s kid logic got something a little different from what Duarte intended from his speech about sacrifice. We see her take Xan’s body out of the house, presumably so the strange dogs can ‘fix’ him. 

Nico Sanjrani

Nico’s giving a speech to the Belters who survived the bombing from last episode. They’re telling the people of Ceres Station not to sell their future for “the empty promise of safety”. They cast uncertainty on identifying who vented the water tanks but say that they all know who is building a future for the Belt! I don’t get it, I thought Nico was smarter than to unconditionally support a man who left you to starve to death and then tried to blow up your station. Nico urges the people not to submit to the UN-MCRN for a ‘sip of water’. These Belters don’t sound like the kind that Marco was making them out to be in the last episode. But then we know that Marco is full of shit. They say that the Belt will have peace again once the people from the inner planets leave. 

ChrisJen Avasarala

ChrisJen’s aide, Gareth, cuts the feed from Ceres Station, in frustration. He tells Avasarala that the bombs were Belter mining charges so they were obviously left there by Marco. Gareth wants to make the information public but Avasarala says no. Nico will declare it’s a false flag, yet another lie from the inner planets. It’s going to take more than that to turn them against Marco. 

Admiral Kirino reminds Avasarala that the MCRN is a navy not a police force. ChrisJen tells her that the Navy can’t turn the tide of this war without allies in the Belt. Kirino disagrees and runs down the lost souls: 15 UN marines, 27 Martians and two new frigates out of commission. Kirino and MCRN Fleet Command want to head to the Ring, take out Marco’s sentries, depower Medina Station and regain control of the Ring. Avasarala tells Kirino that rushing in to save face and ‘prove their manhood’ is what Marco wants. Did we learn nothing from David Paster’s headassery in season 5? Maybe Kirino didn’t, she was busy doing Martian things. 

Kirino relays the message that Avasarala won’t commit UN forces to a fight against Marco. Fleet Command says they’ll do it on their own. This is a recipe for disaster that they don’t need right now. It’s like everybody is hunting for L’s. First Marco, now the MCRN. Avasarala has grown from the woman who used to torture Belters with Earth’s gravity to make them talk. She finally has some empathy for the Belters and you’ve got to wonder if it took those asteroids hitting Earth to knock some sense into her. Either way, it’s good to see the growth and a shame that Mars doesn’t want to listen. 

Monica Stuart

Monica is watching - or rather, filming, the burial of those who died in the Ceres Station bombing when Avasarala and her aide come in. Stuart tells a story about Darcy Okuda, a Specialist in the East Asian Trade Zone, and how she and one of the Sergeants were competitive swimmers. Gareth wants her to stop filming from her eye camera mod. Monica reminds them that Avasarala gave her full access. Avasarala agrees and leaves her to it. 

Later Monica shows Avasarala footage of that Belter squatter with the cat from the last episode. Avasarala doesn’t like the footage at first because it makes Earth look weak. Monica thinks that’s why it works. Because it makes Earthers and Belters look weak. Monica wants to inspire empathy from the inner planets. 

Naomi Nagata 

Naomi tells Holden that the damage assessment is done and sent to Amos to work on repairs. Holden tells her that the Joint Fleet has the Roci’s flight plan. Naomi’s going through the battle logs to collect any data on the Pella so she can give it to the fleet so they can find that ship. Oh god, I can see this being very useful to the MCRN if they get their hands on the data, and another headache for Avasarala. Holden probably wants to tell her that he disarmed the warhead that would have killed the Pella, but decides not to. 

After a confrontation with Amos, Holden finally confesses to Naomi that he disarmed the warhead aimed at the Pella. He couldn’t be responsible for killing her kid. She says she’s come to terms with the fact that if they win the war, Filip could die. She tried to save Filip and she failed. And instead of martyring herself in the name of motherhood, she left again. All she has left is knowing that she tried. 

I know a lot of people hate Naomi for being weak or for all the crying she did last season or for not being a ‘badass’ like Bobbie and Drummer. But it’s scenes like this that make me love her as a character even more. This is what The Expanse is so good at - making women characters who are three-dimensional, with great strengths and weaknesses that make sense for the lives they’ve lived. They’re all so complex and that makes them more real. They don’t have to be perfect to be great. 

Bobbie Draper

Bobbie’s still mad about that dud missile. That’s because no one on the Roci wants to tell her what Holden did. And it’s probably a good idea that they don’t. Because if they tell Bobbie that Holden missed an opportunity to end the war, it’s going straight to Avasarala. She and Amos bond over missing the former pilot when one of his favorite songs starts playing. They work and sing and grieve at the same time. Multi-tasking! 

Clarissa Mao

Clarissa tells Amos what she found in the ship’s weapon telemetry log. There’s a record of Holden disarming the warhead. She says it’s way above her pay grade and she’s not trying to judge. 

Clarissa decides not to tell Bobbie about the disarmed warhead. But she does tell Holden that she was the one who brought it to Amos’ attention. She tells him that when she saw James and Naomi on the Behemoth (in season three) walking unarmed into fire from Ashford. All the people that Clarissa’s killed haunt her. She tells him not to feel bad about not killing someone. 

Rosenfeld Guoliang

Rosenfeld and Marco are getting a report on the Lauber and the Granicus. The Lauber is a wreck and will be abandoned. Their one repair skiff will be sent to the Pella. Marco wants the two top officers for the Lauber to be spaced and if the leader of the Granicus pleads for clemency they should get the same treatment. 

Filip has been reassigned to repairs. Rosenfeld meets with him and asks him to help Marco stay focused on the war instead of being distracted with his teenage antics. She wants Filip to give Marco support and counsel. Filip basically says she doesn’t know Marco as well as she thinks. He threatens to shoot Rosenfeld and asks what Marco would do about it. “I don’t know. Feel really guilty about it, then send money to my family, pretend it’s remorse.” She may or may not know Marco as well as she thinks she does. But she’s got Filip’s number, every digit. Filip can’t say shit to her and goes back to the repair job. 

Rosenfeld gives another report to Marco. The leaders of the Lauber were spaced, the leader of the Granicus was not. She tells him that she assumed that the second order was rhetorical. She says the punishment would have made Marco look scared and weak. Marco balks at the insubordination. Rosenfeld says someone has to talk to him this way; all the others that did are dead or picking up trash. 

If they win, Rosenfeld wants to be Governor of Medina Station. She feels like she’s earning it. They toast in agreement. 

Camina Drummer

Drummer and the combined Tynan-Inazami crew raid the supply depot. But a group of guards shoot at them. They’re expecting more guards to board when a bomb goes off. It displaces one of the large crates and it falls on Josep’s arm. Michio’s a medic so she leaves the ship and amputates the arm so he can get free.

Camina orders comms to open a wideband channel. And she records a message for “the traitor, the coward, Marco Inaros. You hunted me and mine and still we are here… unbent, unbroken, unbowed. And you? You are nothing.” She ends her dragging with the phrase, “Live shamed and die empty.” I’d just like to send that to all the conservatives in Congress and the Supreme Court. Of course, they don’t feel shamed or any other emotions but I do hope they die empty. 

Outro

That’s it for this episode of The Women of The Expanse podcast. To tell me what you think about the show, you can tweet @ blackgirlsquee or email blackgirlsquee@gmail.com and put Women of The Expanse in the subject line. Voice Memos are cool too. Thanks for listening. 

Let's find out what The Women of The Expanse did in episode 3 of season 6, called, “Force Projection”.

Join your host, Didi, from Black Girl Squee, as we find out what the women of The Expanse did in season six, episode two, called "Azure Dragon". 

The Women of The Expanse podcast is back! This time, your host, Didi Jenning recaps everything that the women of The Expanse did in season six, episode one, called "Strange Dogs". 

Inda & Didi share some alcindor-washington-week-pbs.html%20">SqueeWorthy News, celebrate a legend finally getting into the Hall of Fame, and  discuss a  Womanist Vocab word that needs to be taught in school.  WARNING: Spoilers for Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad. 

Intro:  Little Simz - Woman

Outro:  Tina Turner - The Best

Contact Info: Black Girl Squee  on Twitter; via Email: blackgirlsquee@gmail.com

Podcast Available on Apple Podcasts (Please Rate & Review!), Google Play Podcasts and using our RSS feed. All episodes up at blackgirlsquee.simplecast.com/.

Inda & Didi share more Squeeworthy News. In Catch the Fade, they talk about the assumed face of 'vaccine hesitancy' in the US and spoiled the Oscars (but no more than the Oscars spoiled themselves). All this and more on Black Girl Squee!

Intro: BussiFame - Dawn Richard

Outro: Perfect Storm - Dawn Richard

Contact Info: Black Girl Squee  on Twitter; via Email: blackgirlsquee@gmail.com

Podcast Available on Apple Podcasts (Please Rate & Review!), Google Play Podcasts and using our RSS feed. All episodes up at blackgirlsquee.simplecast.com/.

Inda & Didi are back from hiatus with more SQUEE! They give some Squeeworthy News then talk about what they got up to during their break. In Catch the Fade, they rant against the anti-trans  and anti-voting bills popping up all over the country. 

For more information about the anti-trans bills proliferating across the country, please check out the Boom! Lawyered podcast with Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo.

Intro:  "Legend" by Yahzarah

Outro:  "Presence of a Legend" by Shea Diamond

Contact Info: Black Girl Squee  on Twitter; via Email: blackgirlsquee@gmail.com

Podcast Available on Apple Podcasts (Please Rate & Review!), Google Play Podcasts and using our RSS feed. All episodes up at blackgirlsquee.simplecast.com/.