#The Expanse Springs A Trap As It Reaches The Halfway Point Of Its Final Season

Like the episodes before (and presumably the episodes after), the start of “Force Projection” begins on Laconia. We see Cara (Emma Ho) and her brother Xan (Ian Ho) in school, where we get a bit more exposition about the Laconian colony — the human residents may have come from all over the system, but they’re all Laconians now and are under the rule of the Martian faction that broke away from Mars and is helping Marco on Medina Station.

With the exposition over, Cara leaves her brother and goes back to the woods to check on the little bird creatures. She doesn’t see them at first, but noticed her drone is fixed (and tinged a bit blue) and then sees one of her “dogs.” Behind the dogs, however, we see that mama bird again … alive! Alive, yes, but different — also tinged with a blue that “Expanse” fans will easily identify as protomolecule. Cara is excited about this and rushes home to tell her parents. When she gets home, however, she finds out her brother is dead.

We leave Laconia then, and man, what a bummer note to end on! Given the setup, however, we can see where things are going. Will the dogs fix Xan? And if so, will he be the same afterwards, or some weird protomolecule version like Miller (Thomas Jane) was in season 4 or the bioengineered children from season 2? We’ll have to wait until later episodes to find out, as the rest of “Force Projection” focuses on the war raging in our solar system.