In The Expanse Season 2 episode 5, Detective Miller convinced Julia Mao (who was in complete control of the protomolecule on Eros) not to crash the planet into Earth. As Earth’s people planned to evacuate, and after 40 minutes full of will-he-wont-he moments, Miller took off his space helmet, sacrificing his life to get her to redirect Eros into Venus. It was his love for Julia, a woman whom he’d never truly met, that ultimately saved millions of lives on Earth and prevented a nuclear war between Mars, Earth and The Belt (for now).
Miller’s departure from the series was sad, but satisfying. Last season, he was at odds with the Roci crew. But even after he killed the main scientist behind the protomolecule experiments, who had all the answers they needed to ‘stop’ it, the team came to accept Miller’s brute approach may have been what was best. In the end, it wasn’t an easy decision for Holden and Naomi to leave Miller to die on Eros. But I’m here to say his mission lives on, and not only through the Roci crew.
From the first moment we met Detective Miller, he’s been obsessed with one goal: help Julia Mao. And I have a feeling that’s exactly what he’s going to do, even though we seemingly just watched him die.
I have not read The Expanse books and I couldn’t tell you if the show is following them closely, but I find it hard to believe SyFy is pulling a real Ned Stark, as many Game of Thrones fans are calling it. Not only because The Expanse shouldn’t be compared to GoT, but I just don’t think Detective Miller is a single season one-off. Miller's death doesn't only move the plot forward, he is the plot. The series has spent far too long on his character development. His roots run deep, and now that the protomolecule is running the show, I think he’ll have roots there too. He and Julia Mao were the first characters introduced in the series. It’s hard to get a mental picture of The Expanse without Miller, and for good reason.
Miller has great instincts and intuition. He sensed Eros was being controlled by some sort of intelligence and was the first to have the feeling something greater was at work, something bigger than some science experiment. Once he learned this, that the protomolecule had a heart -- Mao’s -- he no longer sought to destroy it. Miller chose to help control it instead, and I think the protomolecule will continue to show him mercy, allowing him to do so. Mao may be conscious enough to know Miller died for her, and she could reward him by saving his soul in the protomolecule as a sort of sub-artificial/alien intelligence of sorts.
Julia Mao is the only person we’ve seen take on the protomolecule’s full physical form. The reason she wanted Eros to crash into Earth was because she wanted to go home, not because she wanted to destroy Earth. So while the protomolecule does have a mind of it’s own, we can’t necessarily assume it’s evil yet. Miller was able to walk right through Eros all the way to Julia Mao without being attacked like the others, who are now dead. I think the protomolecule may be less ‘artificial’ and instead something more actually alien. Miller and the protomolecule will be their own character arc, there to help us, and the Roci crew (the only people who know the truth about Mao) figure out the real story behind its origins, which doesn’t seem to be just some alien science experiment.
Executive Producer Marc Fergus also alluded to this same idea in a recent interview with Inverse.
“Miller’s story is such a culmination that it’s really the heart of this first chunk of the show,” he continues. “I’m only so far into reading the books, and as far as I’m concerned he inhaled protomolecule, so he’s dead. He’s gone in the same way that that wasn’t really Julie on Eros. It was echoes of her consciousness or soul hanging on via the protomolecule.”
So what do you make of Fergus’ statements? Will Miller live on as a sort of ghost of the protomolecule? Let us know in the comments below!
