The Expanse Episode 2.08 Pyre

Naomi tracks down signs of the protomolecule; Fred Johnson's control over the OPA collapses.

A survivor of the Ganymede attack wakes up among his fellow refugees. They're on a rescue ship in the Belt, and there aren't enough supplies to go around. The man, Dr. Meng, is looking for his daughter, Mei, who was at the clinic in Sector 4 during the attack. He sees a familiar face, Doris, who tells him that Sector 4 was destroyed. Mei is gone.

On Tycho Station, Diogo is in custody for helping Dawes escape with Cortazar. Fred Johnson grabs Diogo by the throat and leans on him for information, but Diogo is defiant. He tells Fred to go back to Earth, his real home. Holden demands to know how Dawes was able to escape. It seems that he had some kind of inside help, and a few eyes look to Drummer with suspicion.

Dawes sends a message to Fred, accusing him of lying about having destroyed the ProtoGen weapon (the Protomolecule). Dawes chalks this up to Fred's Earther nature. The Belters, Dawes says, refuse to be under anyone's thumb. He pledges to hand Fred's secret weapon over to his fellow Belters.

On the rescue ship, Meng and Doris lament their refugee status. It'll take a generation to rebuild Ganymede. Where can they go now? Doris proposes the notion that Mars could use a couple agri-techs like them. Meng is reluctant but agrees. Doris thinks they could start over together and touches his hand, but Meng pulls back.

On Tycho, Naomi secretly checks on the location of the Protomolecule torpedo she hid out in space. She briefly considers sending it to Ceres, but reconsiders.

In some secret corner of Tycho, a group of Belters, including rabble-rouser Staz and Edin, listen to a bootleg feed of Dawes' message to Fred Johnson. They seem especially interested in this weapon Fred kept from them.

On the refugee ship, the Earth-bound and Mars-bound ships are here. Meng attempts to board the ship for Mars with Doris, but the Belters in charge won't let him because he's not an Inner by birth (he was born on Ganymede). They say goodbye through the door, and it looks okay, until the Mars-bound refugees are suddenly shot out of the airlock! "Inners wreck Ganymede" says one of the guards as Meng looks on in horror.

Naomi and Samara are checking the exterior antennae on Tycho for signal records of Cortazar's communications so they can find out where the Protomolecule is. While they do, Drummer tells Naomi about how she and Dawes found Fred on Ceres and recruited him. Drummer tearfully expresses her loalty to Fred. The women then find out where the Protomoleule signal was coming from: Ganymede.

Dr. Meng ends up on Tycho station, still in a daze from what he's seen. He tries to report the crime the Belters on the refugee ship committed, but he doesn't even know the name of the ship he was on. There's nothing the doctor can do about it.

Holden and Naomi put their heads together to figure out how the Protomolecule ended up on Ganymede. They find a ProtoGen connection in one Dr. Lawrence Strickland, a pediatrician in a clinic on the station. They see a photo and identify one of the men with Strickland as a survivor on Tycho station: Dr. Meng.

While Fred and Drummer have a disagreement about refugee placement, Staz leads a group of Belters to storm the control deck, aided by the Edin, who appears to be the Tycho crew member leaking information to Dawes. Fred and Drummer are taken captive as Staz demands the stockpile of nukes.

Holden and Naomi find Dr. Meng among the refugees and grill him about Strickland. Meng says Strickland is merely his daughter's pediatrician, though he also calls him a "gifted geneticist." Naomi takes Meng at his word, and in searching the footage from Ganymede, they see Strickland take Mei out of the clinic. Meng, realizing his daughter might be alive, begs Holden and Naomi to take him with them.

Staz threatens to kill people if Fred keeps stonewalling him. Staz prods Drummer to join them, but she refuses. So Staz shoots her in the gut!

On the Rocinante, Alex finds Amos and tells him people need their help. Amos, still feeling out of it and considering getting the Cortazar procedure on his brain, says he doesn't feel like it, and he and Alex get into a fight. Alex and Amos get back on the same page once they learn about the attempted coup. Amos space-walks to a switch where he kills the oxygen to the control deck. As Staz, the rebels, and Fred all begin to pass out, Fred is able to knock Staz's gun away from him.

Holden and Alex lead the charge onto the deck, where they capture the rebels. He tends to Drummer first, and as he leads her away, she grabs Alex's gun and shoots both Staz and Edin in the head. So there ends that uprising.

In the aftermath, Amos welcomes Meng to the Roci, Holden and Naomi pledge not to keep any more secrets, and Fred tells Holden that if he leaves to search for the protomolecule on Ganymede, he won't be welcome back on Tycho. Holden expresses his doubts that Fred will even be in charge when he gets back.