'The Expanse' Season 4 upholds how solidarity runs strong in the humans' quest for transhumanism
The Season 4 of 'The Expanse' kicks off slower than fans would want it to. Especially after the show was canceled and then very publicly announced by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to have been renewed for the company streaming platform, Prime Video. But for all the lapse in crisp pace and solid storytelling within the initial moments of the show, right at the end of the first episode, when James Holden and co. finally get to work together in heir quest to establish domain on Ilus, a common theme of solidarity strikes a perfect balance in this otherwise thrilling and chaotic struggle to achieve transhumanism.
The events of the beginning of this season are pretty much a page-by-page adaptation of 'Cibola Burn', the fourth book in the franchise by James SA Corey, that the show borrows its story from. The crew of the Martian ship Rocicante — Holden (Steven Strait), first officer Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), engineer Amos Burton (Wes Chatham), and pilot Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) — come together only when Chrisjen Avasarala tasks Holden with the responsibility of finding out the developments and potency of Ilus. Chrisjen's motives are clear — she wants Holden to find out about all life forms Ilus contains so they can plan either a sustainable future on the alien planet or rescue people who are fronted with the threats of the planet.
Things, however, work differently when Holden informs the rest of his crew members about his upcoming assignment. In the third season finale, titled 'Abaddon's Gate', we had seen Holden transported to a mysterious ring of proto-molecule and a strange world beyond it, in an attempt to escape an ambush attack on his spaceship. As it was him who had breached the ring and traveled beyond to discover a station regulating the intergalactic transportation, he feels the responsibility of unraveling Ilus is solely upon himself.
When Holden announces this to the rest of the crew, their response to his gallant proposition is equal parts humbling and touching. Naomi reminds Holden that they all opened the gate, which is true as it was a conscious team effort to ensure Holden's safety, and the events that followed were direct consequences of the same. And while Naomi isn't wrong in the slightest, it is the ready eagerness with which the rest of their crewmates side with her stand that proves to highlight one of the most important elements the show has sported ever since it debuted on SyFy.
At the end of the day, 'The Expanse' weaves a story of solidarity that all human and extraterrestrial life join in to sustain life in the vast endlessness of space. As the Earth, Mars, and the Outer Planets Alliance head out to combat the ring Holden had been sucked into, we saw the vast diversity of lives coming together to combat one common villain, and clearly, the latest fourth season carries the same essence of marching towards a better future together as is reminiscent of its previous seasons. Their principles and elements of politics, stellar bodies, and its constituent materials are prevalent throughout the story this time just the way they have been sprinkled all over in the show's past, especially when it comes to their ambitions with respect to transhumanism.
In moments where Holden and Amos are struggling to defuse the tension between the planet's inhabitants and the people of the New Terra, Naomi finds herself tasked with the job of being a spokesperson for the Belters, while she battles some really dark issues with depression and suicidal thoughts. With limits set and people divided, the battle between humans might overshadow their imminent danger in the form of the dark materials of Ilus, acting out to end all lifeforms in its vicinity. But as Holden and the rest fight towards extinguishing the common threat, something that Amazon Prime does a good job at, by keeping the show's aura the same at its core, even though it does tend to get painfully slow at times.
'The Expanse' Season 4 premiered with all 10 episodes on Friday, December 13, only on Prime Video.