Writer Daniel Abraham, who is in the writers room and who writes The Expanse novels with collaborator Ty Franck under the name James S. A. Corey, has a simple answer to that question. “You just lay it out there and go, ‘Really? You thought these were the good guys because they were the underdogs? You still think that?’” he said in our exclusive interview before the December 16 premiere. Franck pointed out that the first episodes of The Expanse season 5 address that issue head on. “We actually put that line of dialogue in a character’s mouth this season,” he told us. “Bull says to Fred, ‘You think that just because somebody’s the underdog, that means they’re the good guy.’ Really that is philosophically what we are exploring with the Belters.” Abraham recalled the irony of a season two marketing campaign which asked fans of The Expanse to “choose a side.” He noted, “One of the things that keeps happening all the way through, has from the beginning, is people ask, ‘What faction are you? Are you a Belter, are you a Martian, or are you an Earther?’ And it’s a trick question. If you watch the show, any of those answers is wrong.” Franck noted that insisting that there should be no sides is why Holden is the hero of The Expanse. “Holden is the only one who ever says that, and everyone treats him like he’s a naive idiot because he believes that’s true,” he said. “That level of idealism — that we should all be on the same team, that we shouldn’t be fighting over these petty things — is treated as naive and stupid. That’s really the core of the problem.” Fans of The Expanse would do well to remember that the next time they decry Earther exploitation of hard-won OPA resources or Martian blindness to any problems other than their own. If there’s one thing that The Expanse season 5 has made clear, it’s that no one is innocent, and a lack of unity is exactly why the protomolecule is still being hoarded as a symbol of power despite proof that no one can control it.
