#’The Expanse’: Avasarala for President! Plus, Amos Fights to Leave Earth Behind (RECAP)

The stage is set for a nail-biter of a season finale for The Expanse, as “Winnipesaukee” moves our heroes (and villains!) into place for unexpected interactions and explosive confrontations.

There’s not a ton of forward movement in this episode, but it’s easy to see how the decisions made will make for an interesting finale. Amos (Wes Chatham) and Clarissa (Nadine Nicole) continue their mission to get off of Earth, but of course, there’s a glitch in the plan. Avasarala (Shohreh Agdashloo) gets everything she wanted — but not the way she wanted it. Holden (Steven Strait) and his pals continue tracking Naomi (Dominique Tipper), and Drummer (Cara Gee) takes on a horrifying new mission…and realizes Oksana (Sandrine Holt) is hiding something from her.

Marco’s Threat

Picking up right where last week’s episode left off, Karal (Olunike Adeliyi) tells Oksana not to breathe a word to Drummer about Naomi’s potential survival: If she does, “whatever comes after will be [her] fault.” Yikes! And now Drummer’s new objective is to destroy the Rocinante, with Holden on board. Double yikes! She figures out Oksana’s hiding something from her, and demands to know what it is. Eventually, Oksana relents and tells Drummer there’s a chance Naomi is alive — but there’s nothing she can do to help, because they’ll all be killed if they go against Marco.

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Trouble at Winnipesaukee Island

On Earth, Amos, Clarissa, Erich, and a few others from Baltimore make it to Winnipesaukee Island. They find their way into one of the mansion’s hangars and stumble upon a group of servants who worked in the house (they remember Clarissa from when she and her family came to Thanksgiving there one year. Small world!). They relay that there is, indeed, a sub-orbital shuttle…which hasn’t worked in years due to a problem with the reactor.

Their problems compound when more off-season staff shows up at the gates, asking for help and food. Amos and Erich walk away, but Clarissa offers the people a place on the ship. The group is displeased with her, but eventually, Amos comes around and takes her side. That’s not the end of it, though; next, a group of armed people calling themselves “private security for the island” demand the group’s food. Things escalate, and both sides start pointing guns at each other, until Clarissa, again, plays peacemaker… and Amos orders them to “walk the f**k away.”

The group gets back to work on the ship to try to get it working before the “security team” comes back. Erich and Clarissa also have a chat about Amos, namely that to Erich, Amos is Timmy, but Clarissa’s only ever known him by the former name. Her questions are buried when the ship gets working again, and they plan to head out in 15 minutes. Which, of course, means the security team comes back and starts firing on them.

Stuck outside, Amos has to blast his way back in and down the hall to the ship. Just when things start to get hairy and it seems Amos might make it, Clarissa activates her implant and rips the security team members inside the bunker to shreds. That’s probably bad for her health, considering the side effects of the implant, but it allows Amos and everyone else to make it out alive on the ship.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

President Avasarala

On Luna, Avasarala takes a look at the latest headline — “United Nations Strikes Back” — and figures out the UN took out Pallas Station. “You son of a bitch,” she snarls at Felix Delgado (Michael Irby) as they walk into the meeting room. Things then go from bad to worse; around the table, discussions center around whether to eliminate Ceres Station, too, which would lead to hundreds of thousands of innocent people being killed. Seeing no other option as her arguments against it fall on deaf ears, Avasarala resigns. So do four others at the table.

Except that’s not the end of Avasarala’s time in government — far from it. A staff member comes to tell her that a vote of no confidence in the current president is being scheduled for the next day, and he’ll lose. At first Avasarala misunderstands, believing she’s being asked to take part in a coup. But, she’s wrong — she’s being asked to lead Earth again. Avasarala for president!

Naomi Keeps Working

The entire Roci crew, on separate vessels, plans to get to Naomi as fast as they can, regardless of the change in the distress call. Back on the Pela, Marco tells Filip that Naomi is alive. “She didn’t walk out of that airlock out of sadness or despair or remorse,” he tells his son. “She was trying to escape. She left us. She left us both. Again.” Filip starts to cry, and Marco holds him.

Meanwhile, on the ship, Naomi’s still trying to defuse the explosives set by Marco and his people so, hopefully, she can be rescued. As the episode ends, she suits up one last time and gets back to work.

The Expanse, Wednesdays, Amazon Prime Video