Television Review: Caliban's War (The Expanse, S2X13, 2017)

Caliban’s War (S0213)

Airdate: April 19th 2017

Written by: Daniel Abraham & Ty Frank
Directed by: Thor Freudenthal

Running Time: 44 minutes

The Expanse’s second season finale maintains the series’ tradition of naming its concluding episode after the corresponding novel in James S.A. Corey’s source material—a practice established with Leviathan’s Wake in Season One. This structural homage, however, belies a significant narrative divergence: unlike the novels where Caliban’s War represents a self-contained narrative arc, the television adaptation repurposes the title not as a neat culmination but as a thematic anchor for Season Two’s sprawling climax. The choice proves ironically apt, for while the episode eschews a tidy resolution to the season’s complex geopolitical machinations, it delivers precisely what its Shakespearean title promises—a visceral, chaotic war waged across multiple fronts, replete with gunfire, moral ambiguity, and the ever-present spectre of annihilation. Yet this very multiplicity of conflicts becomes both the episode’s greatest strength and its critical flaw, as three distinct storylines of wildly uneven quality compete for emotional resonance amidst the interstellar carnage.

The most compelling thread unfolds aboard the Rocinante, where Holden, Alex, and Amos retrieve Naomi and a traumatised Praxidike Meng following their harrowing escape from Ganymede. Their relief is short-lived; unbeknownst to them, they’ve smuggled aboard a monstrous stowaway—the human-protomolecule hybrid developed under Project Caliban. This creature, previously hunted by Holden on Ganymede, now turns the ship into a claustrophobic battleground. Meng’s desperate hope that the hybrid might retain traces of his daughter Mei’s consciousness creates a profound ethical schism: while Naomi and Holden insist on immediate destruction, Meng pleads for communication, his paternal grief blinding him to the existential threat. The tension escalates horrifically when Holden is crushed in the cargo bay during an initial confrontation, forcing the crew into a race against time for both his survival and the ship’s. It is Meng, ironically, who ultimately engineers the solution via scientific deduction. Observing the creature’s attraction to the ship’s reactor, he realises it feeds on radiation. Initially, they exploit this by cutting power to halt its advance, but Naomi devises a final gambit: removing a nuclear warhead from a torpedo, luring the creature with it, and detonating the device within its grasp. The plan succeeds, saving the Rocinante but leaving Holden critically injured. In a poignant coda, Naomi confesses she never destroyed the protomolecule sample; believing the Belt might leverage it against Earth and Mars, she entrusted it to Fred Johnson—a revelation underscoring the episode’s central theme: survival often demands morally compromised pragmatism.

This segment stands as the episode’s undisputed triumph, masterfully evoking the suffocating tension of Alien whilst consciously eschewing horror for cerebral action. The special effects—particularly the creature’s biomechanical fluidity and the reactor’s eerie glow—heighten the realism, but it is the writing that truly elevates the sequence. Meng’s arc is exceptional: his initial, emotionally driven misjudgment gives way to a solution born not of sentimentality but cold, precise science. In a genre often reliant on firepower, it is profoundly commendable to witness a crisis resolved through intellect—a testament to The Expanse’s commitment to hard sci-fi principles. The emotional weight of Meng’s grief, juxtaposed with his eventual rational breakthrough, delivers genuine pathos without melodrama, making this the season’s most resonant character moment.

Regrettably, the other two subplots falter under the weight of their own execution. The standoff aboard Jules-Pierre Mao’s yacht, featuring Cotyar’s valiant but wounded negotiation with Mao’s mercenaries, begins with promise. Cotyar’s physical deterioration and Asaravala’s whispered coaching create palpable tension, and Bobbie Draper’s eventual intervention—crawling through ventilation shafts to reach her concealed power armour—is a visually striking payoff. Yet the sequence suffers from jarring pacing: the protracted negotiation feels overlong, while Bobbie’s decisive takedown of the mercenaries occurs in a rushed montage, robbing the victory of catharsis. Naomi’s closing voiceover, attempting to lend thematic weight to Cotyar’s ordeal, rings hollow, rendering the entire segment curiously anti-climactic despite strong performances from Frankie Adams and Nick E. Tarabay.

Most perplexing is the UNS Arboghast’s ill-fated mission to Venus. Colonel Janus and Dr. Iturbi’s decision to descend into the protomolecule-controlled Eros crater, despite grave scepticism, culminates in the ship’s instantaneous disintegration—a spectacle of nihilistic destruction. While intended to underscore the protomolecule’s terrifying power, the subplot feels narratively redundant. The Eros catastrophe already established the entity’s godlike capabilities; revisiting this theme here adds little beyond gratuitous spectacle. Worse, it wastes two intriguing characters—Janus and Iturbi—introduced solely to be obliterated, their potential for future development sacrificed for a hollow demonstration of cosmic horror. The sole redeeming note is Adam Savage’s cameo as a doomed crewman, a nod to MythBusters’ legacy that will delight fans but cannot salvage the segment’s fundamental pointlessness.

Structurally, "Caliban’s War" exemplifies the pitfalls of The Expanse’s ambitious multi-threaded storytelling. While the Rocinante sequence thrills with its intellectual rigour and emotional authenticity, the yacht standoff’s pacing issues and the Arboghast’s narrative vacuity dilute the finale’s impact. The episode’s title, referencing Shakespeare’s enslaved, monstrous Caliban, proves thematically rich—each storyline explores beings trapped by forces beyond their control (Meng by grief, Cotyar by duty, Janus by curiosity)—yet the execution lacks cohesion. The Rocinante crew’s triumph, the yacht’s rescue, and the Arboghast’s annihilation should coalesce into a symphonic climax; instead, they feel like disconnected movements in a fractured symphony. The emotional beats land unevenly, with Meng’s victory overshadowing Bobbie’s heroics and the Arboghast’s demise feeling like an afterthought.

That said, the episode’s conclusion lands with chilling precision. Naomi’s confession about the protomolecule sample—and her belief that the Belt must wield it as leverage—sets up Season Three’s central conflict with elegant efficiency. At the time of broadcast, this revelation carried profound real-world weight; The Expanse had been cancelled by Syfy after Season Two, leaving fans in agonising limbo. For months, this cliffhanger threatened to join the ignominious ranks of unresolved sci-fi finales (Firefly, Carnivàle), a cruel tease for a show seemingly abandoned mid-sentence. Only the extraordinary efforts of its devoted fanbase (#SaveTheExpanse) secured its revival on Amazon Prime—a resurrection that transformed this moment from a frustrating dead end into a symbol of the show’s improbable survival.

Ultimately, Caliban’s War is a flawed but fascinating specimen of science fiction television. Its Rocinante sequence alone ranks among The Expanse’s finest hours—a masterclass in blending intellectual problem-solving with visceral tension. Yet the episode’s structural imbalances and wasted potential prevent it from achieving true greatness. In hindsight, however, its very imperfections feel emblematic of The Expanse’s journey—a show that, like its characters, repeatedly defied annihilation through sheer resilience.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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