Everything you need to know before The Expanse season 4 – FanSided

To help you get caught up on everything you need to know to jump in to the fourth season of the best sci-fi show on TV, heresa snapshot of all the important information. Its the who, what, where and why of The Expanse, except not in that order.

The Expanse is set in a futuristic imagining of our own galaxy, built around three driving forces the government of Earth (the United Nations), the hyper-militarized population and government of Mars (colonized by Earth three generations before the events of the series) and the Belters (humans who have grown up on space stations inhabiting the asteroid belt between Earth and Mars, working to mine for precious resources, including water from ice, who are often treated like second-class citizens by both Earth and Mars).

The show has all of the mystery and action youd expect from an episodic science-fiction adventure show, but the tension between these three entities sets the stage for the show and often provides the narrative gravity powering the smaller storylines. Often, in science fiction, the lessons that apply to our real world are hidden in metaphor and representational analogies. One of the most powerful aspects of The Expanse is there are no layers to peel back to get to the inner meaning. The prescient themes of militarization, exploitation of human and resources, unregulated scientific experimentation and nationalism (or in this case, planetarianism?) are right on the surface.

Compared to other science-fiction space epics, the technology and science of The Expanse is relatively grounded in plausibility. The one notable exception is the mysterious protomolecule an alien structure that, times, represents an infectious disease and at others a microscopic but sentient life form. Our evolving understanding of the protomolecule is one of the primary arcs of the show and will likely continue to feature heavily in the upcoming season.

The series revolves around the remaining crew of the Rocinante James Holden (captain), Naomi Nagata (engineer), Alex Kamal (pilot), and Amos Burton (mechanic and enforcer). The crew all originally worked together on a Belter ice-hauler called the Canterburyand through a series of coincidences and a variety of selfish, heroic or ill-fated decisions, find themselves at the center of the story encountering a universe-altering alien substance, preventing the growth of a full-scale war between Mars and Earth, saving humanity from inadvertent destruction and discovering portals which, in season 4, will presumably lead to the exploration of the farther reaches of the universe.

As the plot arcs of the larger series have swirled around them, the inner relationships of the crew Holden and Nagatas romantic relationship, Burtons platonic devotion to Nagata, everyones suspicions of Nagatas true loyalties and Holdens ongoing reluctance to embrace the role of heroic leader that fate keeps foisting upon him have kept things churning on both micro and macro storylines.

The crew of the Rocinante is the center of The Expanses storytelling galaxy but several other key characters continue to orbit around them.

Chrisjen Avasarala, a force for reason, pragmatism and ultimately peace in Earths government has advanced from deputy undersecretary to Secretary-General of the United Nations. A series of adventures and misadventures over the previous three seasons have repeatedly put her in harms way but with the hawkish scheme of war-mongering former UN Undersecretary of Executive Administration Sadavir Errinwright undone, she is in position to help bring stability to the inner galaxy as the show begins to look outward.

Bobbie Draper is a Martian marine, the closest thing the series has to a physical superhero. Disgusted by the immoral actions of her own people and then by the United Nations, she found herself working to save Avasarala and her pragmatic vision of peace.

Klaes Ashford, Fred Johnson and Camina Drummer represent various factions with the OPA an organization fighting for Belter independence and autonomy. Mars and Earth have regarded the OPA as a terrorist organization. In the spirit of the series, which largely avoids convenient distinctions of good and bad guys, the OPA are not quite antagonists so much as complicating factors for the main characters.

Joe Miller was a Belter detective who featured heavily in the first seasons noirish search for Julie Mao, a missing activist whose father, Jules-Pierre Mao, was involved in the research of and ultimately the release of the protomolecule. Miller dies in season 2 but appears as an avatar of the protomolecule to communicate with Holden in season 3. Julie Maos sister, Clarissa was also active in season 3 and may play a continued role in the series moving forward.

Most of season 3 is driven by the escalating military conflict between Earth and Mars, sparked by the conspiratorial work of Errinwright, which threatens to destroy everything. As those machinations are worked out the focus pushes towards the emergence of a mysterious and enormous ring, a 1000 km in diameter, formed by the protomolecule and hovering near Uranus.

A thrill-seeking would-be viral star films himself flying through the ring, activating it as a gate. The Rocinante passes later passes through the gate to avoid an incoming missile, during an Earth-Mars battle, and finds itself trapped in a pocket galaxy on the other side. The physics and dynamics of the action on the other side of the ring take several episodes to unpack and arent worth dissecting here. In the end, Holden learns that the protomolecule was created by a civilization billions of years old and competing ideas about how to escape from the Ring are resolved with much tension and without the destruction of humanity, narrowly. The result is the opening of 1,372 portals through the ring, leading to unexplored parts of the universe.

Why tune in for season 4?

In season 4, the crew of the Rocinante, and, presumably, others will be using the portals opened by the Ring gate to explore new worlds beyond the previously known galaxy. In keeping with the themes of the show to this point, you can expect gripping smaller story arcs built around encounters with these new environments, set against the backdrop of galactic politics and themes that could have been borrowed from todays newspaper.

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Everything you need to know before The Expanse season 4 - FanSided