Television Review: Pyre (The Expanse, S2X08, 2017)

Pyre (S02E08)

Airdate: March 15th 2017

Written by: Robin Veith
Directed by: Kenneth Fink

Running Time: 44 minutes

By mid-Season 2, The Expanse had firmly established itself as television's darkest space opera, teaching viewers that in this meticulously crafted universe, the most extremely unpleasant things could happen to multitudes of innocent people with terrifying regularity. This series' unflinching commitment to portraying the brutal realities of its colonised Solar System had been cemented with the shocking conclusion of Dulcinea, the very first episode, and continued when Eros incident unfolded with devastating consequences. While this grim tone remained consistent throughout the season, certain episodes plunged viewers into even deeper moral abysses than others. Pyre, the eighth instalment of Season 2, stands as one such episode—a profoundly unsettling yet masterfully executed chapter that simultaneously ranks among the strongest episodes of the entire season. It achieves this distinction not through grand space battles or political machinations, but by focusing relentlessly on the human cost of cosmic-scale conflict through the eyes of an ordinary man caught in the maelstrom.

'The Seventh Man', the preceding episode, frustratingly withheld direct depiction of the Ganymede incident, opting instead for indirect exposition that left viewers piecing together events through second-hand accounts. Robin Veith's script for Pyre brilliantly compensates for this narrative gap by introducing Dr Praxideke Meng (Terry Chen), a major character whose connection to the catastrophe is devastatingly personal. Unlike the hardened military personnel and political operatives who dominate The Expanse's landscape, Meng is a botanist—gentle, intellectual, and utterly unprepared for the horrors unfolding around him. Injured by falling glass when one of Ganymede's agricultural domes collapsed, he awoke from a coma aboard a Belter refugee freighter, surrounded by destitute survivors and consumed by a single overwhelming concern: the fate of his young daughter Mei (Leah Jung), whom he last saw moments before the disaster struck.

The episode's emotional devastation begins when Doris (Grace Lynn Kung), Meng's Martian-acquainted colleague, offers him a clue that proves utterly crushing—Mei's clinic in Sector 4 was completely destroyed during the incident, and his daughter is almost certainly dead. As Meng struggles to process this unimaginable loss while Doris urges him to start anew with her on Mars, another atrocity unfolds before his eyes. The ship's crew, operating under the pretext of transferring passengers to another vessel, separates its human cargo between Belters and "Inners" (Earth-born and Martian citizens). Meng, being born and raised on Ganymede, is at the last moment told not to join Doris as she and numerous others are led toward an airlock. The scene that follows is among the most horrifying in the series' history—Meng's helpless witnessing of Doris and others being callously spaced into the void, their desperate pleas cut short by the vacuum of space. When the ship finally reaches Tycho Station, Meng, still in profound shock, attempts to share his horrific story with authorities who dismiss him, preoccupied with matters they deem far more pressing.

Meanwhile, the Rocinante crew faces its own fractures. Following Dawes' abduction of Cortazar and successful escape from Tycho Station, the rift between OPA leadership and Fred Johnson becomes increasingly public. Within the crew itself, tensions surface as Holden belatedly admits his desire to kill Cortazar and prevent another protomolecule horror, while Naomi continues concealing her knowledge of the protomolecule container's whereabouts. When Holden theorises that some remnant of the protomolecule might still exist, Naomi reluctantly participates in triangulation efforts, only to discover—to her utter horror—traces of the alien substance on Ganymede itself.

This discovery makes it painfully clear that the protomolecule, directly or indirectly, played a role in the Ganymede catastrophe. The search for Protogen's involvement leads the crew to Dr Lawrence Strickland (Ted Atherton), a company employee working on Ganymede as a paediatrician who had been scheduled to examine Mei Meng. Further investigation of security footage reveals both Strickland and Mei leaving the clinic well before the incident occurred—a tantalising suggestion that both might have survived. The Rocinante crew resolves to return to Ganymede to investigate further, with Meng—having previously collaborated with Strickland on botanical research—eventually agreeing to join them as their guide, clinging to the faint hope of reuniting with his daughter.

Before the Rocinante can depart Tycho, another crisis erupts. Dawes' inflammatory speech, accusing Fred Johnson of being an Earther incapable of properly representing Belter interests despite his best intentions, incites OPA extremists like Staz (Alden Adair) to attempt a coup and seize control of Earth's thermonuclear missiles acquired during the Eros incident. Though Drummer (Cara Gee) refuses to support Dawes' rebellion, her subordinate Edin (Kevin Claydon) joins Staz and his cohorts in capturing Drummer, Johnson, and the station's control deck. When Johnson refuses to surrender missile codes, Staz shoots Drummer in the stomach and begins torturing her. The coup ultimately fails when the Rocinante crew intervenes, cutting off air supply to the control deck. The plotters lose consciousness, allowing Drummer's rescue. Defying her injuries, Drummer staggers to her feet, retrieves a weapon, and delivers brutal justice by executing Staz and Edin. Though grateful, Johnson informs Holden's crew they will no longer be welcome on Tycho Station.

Pyre succeeds magnificently because, for the first time in The Expanse's ultraviolent epic, the story is told primarily from the perspective of an ordinary person untouched by military training or political ambition. Meng's sole motivation isn't revenge, power, or ideological victory—it's the profoundly human desire to reunite with his daughter and find some semblance of meaning amid senseless destruction. Terry Chen's exceptional performance embodies the first major character who isn't a military veteran, police officer, or hardened labourer, but rather a gentle scientist and devoted family man thrust into circumstances far beyond his experience or comprehension. This ordinary perspective makes the horrors he witnesses even more impactful, as viewers experience the brutality of this universe through eyes unaccustomed to such violence.

This perspective renders the spacing-out scene particularly harrowing. Having barely survived the Ganymede collapse and processed the apparent loss of his daughter, Meng is forced to witness his friend Doris being murdered with casual cruelty. What makes this sequence especially disturbing is how the Belter crew employs methods chillingly reminiscent of Nazi tactics used to deceive victims into gas chambers—same perfidious language, same genocidal hatred justifying the vile act. Directed with unflinching realism by Kenneth Fink, this scene ranks among the most disturbing in the series' entire run, precisely because it's viewed through Meng's horrified, uncomprehending eyes rather than those of a battle-hardened soldier.

There is remarkably little space for humour or levity in Pyre, creating an atmosphere of near-constant dread that only finds temporary equilibrium when the OPA coup plotters receive their just deserts. The sequence where Drummer, despite severe abdominal injuries, staggers to her feet to personally execute her attackers is particularly cathartic—a rare moment of visceral satisfaction in an otherwise relentlessly grim episode. Drummer's defiance of pain and insistence on delivering justice with her own hands provides a powerful counterpoint to Meng's helplessness, demonstrating different responses to trauma within the same brutal universe.

If Pyre contains any flaw, it might be in the suggestion of Mei Meng's survival, which could strike some viewers as a slightly "soapish" copout in an otherwise uncompromising narrative. The revelation that Strickland extracted Mei from the clinic before the collapse introduces a narrative thread that, while necessary for future plot development, momentarily threatens to undermine the episode's otherwise unflinching commitment to portraying irreversible loss. However, this minor quibble does little to diminish Pyre's overall impact, as the episode wisely keeps Meng's hope tentative and fragile rather than presenting it as guaranteed salvation.

Ultimately, Pyre stands as one of The Expanse's finest hours precisely because it refuses to look away from the human cost of interplanetary conflict. By anchoring its narrative to Prax Meng's ordinary yet extraordinary journey through unimaginable trauma, the episode transcends science fiction tropes to deliver a profoundly moving meditation on parental love, loss, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of cosmic-scale indifference. It reminds us that behind every casualty statistic in The Expanse's meticulously constructed universe lies a story as heartbreaking as Meng's—a story of ordinary people navigating extraordinary horrors with nothing but their humanity to guide them. In doing so, Pyre deepens our emotional investment in this universe and elevates The Expanse from compelling space opera to essential, unforgettable television.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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