The Expanse Episode 2.02 Doors & Corners

In the second half of season premier, Holden and the crew stage a dangerous raid in search of information about the protomolecule.

At the UN, Earth officials are arguing about how to respond to the Martians destroying Phoebe Station. Admiral Souther is adamant that Mars won't attack them and that a trade embargo will suffice, but Errinwright (at Chrisjen's nudging) suggests targeting a radar station on the Martian moon Deimos. Souther refuses to go along with this aggression and resigns his post rather than be relieved of it.

At Tycho station, the Rocinante makes its return after going rogue, and Fred Johnson is not happy with them at all. But after everything the Rocinante crew has seen, they -- Naomi and Miller especially -- aren't having it. They tell Fred everything that happened on Eros.

Holden tells Fred that the people who carried out the Eros experiment beamed their data to a communication station. If they're ever to avenge Eros, they need to take that station.

After helping introduce some Belter refugees from Eros to their new surroundings on Tycho, Alex grabs a drink with Amos and airs out his guilty feelings about not saving enough people. Amos is stoic, saying they got out and that was enough. Alex has more survivor's guilt to work out, but when he turns back to Amos, he only sees the beautiful woman Amos paid to listen to Alex's moaning in his stead.

Holden and Naomi work on the ship. He's also working out his guilt, while Naomi has some anger she'd like to work out on the people who did this. Holden also wonders if Amos will be okay finding out that he and Naomi are together.

Meanwhile, Fred is having a hell of a time keeping the new Eros Belters in line. He needs to recruit 50 good fighters for the mission to the space station, but the Belters don't want to follow orders. Fred isn't about to let dissension and treachery tear his operation apart, so he blows one agitator out of an airlock.

Alex is running simulation missions to prepare for the raid on the communication station, but he keeps failing. Meanwhile, Miller volunteers to be part of the assault team. "Somebody's gotta keep these idiots from shootin' each other."

Chrisjen arranges to meet with Admiral Souther at a fairly swanky bar. She explains that Deimos was as harmless a target as they could have hoped to go after, but Souther is in no mood to deal with her. She wants to know about Fred Johnson, though, and Souther tells her that Fred went rogue all those years back because the UN manipulated him into attacking Belters who'd already surrendered. "He's an honorable man who held onto his soul, and that's a tough thing to do in this line of work."

The freighter ship Guy Molinari approaches the Spin Station, conveniently hiding the Rocinante behind it in its radar shadow. Aboard the ship, the Rocinante crew silently prepare for battle.

Meanwhile, Miller is in with the attack squad in the boarding pd (really just an old FedEx shipping container). Miller hates space and hates people and basically hates his life right now. And that's before a high-spirited Belter named Diogo recognizes him and starts chatting him up. Miller responds by puking.

Well it's a good, old-fashioned firefight as the Rocinante approaches Spin Station. There is weapon fire coming from all over the station. Amos has to leave the deck to go fix a breach on the ship's thruster.

After the first of the breaching pods gets destroyed by fire from the station's asteroid cannon, Amos fixes the thruster just in time for the Rocinante to get on the move and take out the cannon and clear the way for the second pod.

Miller's pod lands safely. Seconds after the soldiers emerge, Diogo is shot in the head, much to Miller's dismay. The good news? It was a gel round so Diogo survived unharmed. "Invincible me!"

Miller and his team find a room on the station that houses six people who all seem to have their heads networked together. For what purpose, Miller doesn't know. But when they're unplugged, they go absolutely crazy, and all but one end up shot by the pod team. Miller manages to keep one of them alive.

Miller finds another room with a man poring over scientific data. It's Dresden, last seen on Eros. Miller arrests him as Fred shows up, but Dresden tries to defend his actions. They're trying to make a vaccine for the protomoleule before it kills everyone. He says the protomolecule could ultimately unlock all human possibility if they can figure it out.

Dresden offers to switch his loyalties to Fred's organization if he'll let him continue his research. He doesn't much care who owns the project so long as he controls the research. Fred appears to agree, but Miller takes matters into his own hands and shoots Dresden in the head. So. That's one solution.