The Ethics of Exploration: Moral Questions Raised by The Expanse Season 4

A network of wormholes, referred to simply as the Ring Network, marked the end of season three of The Expanse and the beginning of an exciting, potentially dangerous, and undoubtedly greedy new exploration for human civilization in the Solar System and beyond. James Holden expresses his concern about how the wormholes, which connect the Solar System to hundreds of inhabitable planets across the Milky Way galaxy, might turn into a gateway to a blood-soaked gold rush that once again leads the Earthers, the Martians, and the Belters to an unavoidable all-out war for power and resources. The Expanse Season 4 delivers a clear picture that failures to hold on to moral practices and sound ethics will bring nothing but disastrous consequences on the hard-earned truce in the Solar System civilization.

The Expanse Season 4

Bobbie Draper on Mars

For much of Season 2 and 3, Draper spent her life double-dealing and defecting from one conflicting party to another, mostly because of the issues created by the complexities of the tension between Earth and Mars. Season 4 has Draper back on Mars. The former MCRN Gunnery Sergeant now lives with her nephew, David Draper, and works at the Marine Valley shipyard, dismantling decommissioned Martian military ships.

Her difficult times adjusting to civilian life takes Bobbie once again to the realization that maintaining high ethical standards is sometimes impossible when the stakes are too high. David finds himself involved in a drug-trafficking organization, prompting Bobbie to take matters into her own hands. After she destroys the organization’s labs and inventories, David is kidnapped and forced to work in order to repay the damage. Bobbie pleads for David’s release, but the gang could only let David go under one condition: Bobbie has to allow the gang to steal some military equipment from her workplace. Facing a moral dilemma, she complies. And what follows is a bombardment of poor ethical decisions on her part.

It doesn’t take long until Bobbie comes to her better senses and reports the incidents to the police. Little does she know the police officer, Esai Martin, who logs the report actually is the gang leader. Even when her supervisor at the shipyard, Caskin, finds out about the theft, Bobbie is surprised to hear that he wants her to let it happen again to make more money from the black market.

And that’s not the end of it. Esai uses her position as a high-ranking police officer to extort Bobbie to work for him. She later discovers that everything is a scheme organized by a Belter faction. In another theft job, Bobbie comes along with the gang to deliver stolen items to some Belters, who end up executing the gang. Bobbie witnesses the massacre and notifies Avasarala about the incident.

Earth, OPA, and Avasarala

The UN’s official stance in the wake of the Ring network is to blockade an exodus from the Solar System through any of the wormholes. In a rather surprising turn of events, the OPA will repurpose the Behemoth as the Medina Station, under the command of Drummer and Ashford, to help enforce the blockade. Of course, the OPA only teams up with the UN hoping Earth will grant the Belters a more respectable place in the near future when the new galactic order is established. But not every Belter is happy with the plan, as many of them see it as an act of betrayal to their true cause. Marco Inaros is one of the most persistent oppositions to the deal.

Few people take Marco seriously, until he captures the Sojourner, a UN Navy colony ship, and executes everyone on board. He was later captured and taken on board the Medina Station to face trial. Major OPA faction leaders assemble to decide whether Marco should be sentenced to death or acquitted. Marco has committed a mass killing, and the decision to acquit him is seen by the UN as adding an insult to the injury. Avasarala is not happy about it. Combine that with the news of her dwindling poll numbers on Earth, and you get a recipe for poor decision-making.

Upon hearing news that Marco is likely on board the Pizzouza (a Belter’s freighter), Avasarala sends a team to capture him alive. While the plan itself is not particularly a poor decision, the rush to jump to conclusions without further attempt to verify the information leads to yet another disaster. Marco is not on board on Pizzouza, and the firefight that ensues during the mission costs many lives. The incident puts her reputation at risk and brings her poll number down even further.

As a desperate effort to regain support, Avasarala takes on a fear-mongering tactic. The other candidate for the UN Secretary General, Nancy Gao, is a proponent of the colonization of inhabitable planets accessible through the Ring network. Avasarala deliberately releases a video of an environmental disaster on Ilus, the first exoplanet colonized by humans, to put some pressure on her opponent’s stance. The tactic doesn’t work. Nancy Gao finally becomes the new Secretary General of the UN, replacing Avasarala.

We think The Expanse Season 4 is loaded with scenes and plot lines that showcase morally questionable decisions by the typically morally sound individuals and poor ethical practices displayed by the otherwise respectable figures in influential positions. Bobbie Draper, Avasarala, and the Medina Station only make a fraction of all the surprises you’ll discover from the season. Major figures from the UN, the MCRN, and the OPA are split between supporting the exploration (as it might actually solve the problems with the dwindling resources in the Solar System) and proceeding with great caution because no one really knows what threats lurk on the other side of the Ring. Both sides have justifiable reasons, but what they do to achieve their objectives is sometimes difficult to justify.

What is your favorite episode from The Expanse Season 4? Do you think Avasarala will regain her reputation as a formidable leader? We’d love to hear from you.

Other Things You Might Want to Know

What’s the history between Marco Inaros and Naomi Nagata?

They used to be husband and wife. During their time together as Belter pirates, Marco tricked Naomi into writing a code to disable other spaceships’ nuclear reactors. Marco then used the code to overload the reactor of a docked ship, killing hundreds of people.

What ship did Marco destroy?

It was the Augustin Gamarra, a civilian transport ship.

Who is The Investigator?

The apparition of Miller who has often appeared before Holden and helped him a lot in every quest is actually an avatar of Miller created by the protomolecule. However, the real (deceased) Miller still has some control over his conscience – because he was consumed by the protomolecule to begin with – and tells Holden that the hat-wearing Miller who has been speaking to him all these times is not the real Miller, but the protomolecule-created The Investigator. It makes little sense indeed. The Expanse, which is supposed to be a hard sci-fi, seems overly keen to take on the supernatural in this matter. It remains to be seen if the two Millers will have any consequences in the storyline.

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