Episode 8 ‘Salvage’ of SyFy’s space drama The Expanse reveals more about the Scopuli and follows the leftover traces of Julia Mao on Eros. Jim Holden and Detective Miller meet face to face, but there are no leads on who is responsible for destroying the Donnager and The Canterbury.
Detective Miller is on a belt transit ferry headed to Eros. Meanwhile, Fred Johnson is up to something. It’s unclear if he has good intentions but he is trying to break into a chip that could reveal more details about the Donnager attack. You can tell he’s found something important, but episode 8 does not reveal what he has discovered.
The Rocinante flies close to a barren asteroid on the belt. “No life pod. No emergency habitat. Nothing,” Rocinante pilot Alex Kamal points out. “These are the coordinates we were given,” Naomi adds. As the Rocinante flies by carefully exploring the asteroid, Naomi spots something inside a deep crevice. The dark shadow appears to be stealth ship similar to the warships that destroyed the Donnager and the Canterbury. Holden asks the Tycho station spy to help identify the ship. He says it does not look like it belongs to the Martians, but nobody else can afford a stealth ship.
The crew is searching for Lionel Polanski, but are confused why Fred Johnson would send them to a creepy abandoned ship and are suspicious how he knew it was there in the first place. The spy is convinced Johnson sent them on a salvage mission, but Holden assures him they are looking for survivors and answers. While Naomi, Holden, Amos and the spy board the abandoned ship, The Rocinante’s pilot Alex discovers the name of the ship, the Anubis, which the Spy says means “Egyption God of the dead.” Upon entering, Holden and Naomi immediately come across traces of blood and a floating Scopuli space suit. Alex uses his drone and realizes Anubis’s airlocks are all open and the shuttle ship is gone, meaning it is likely someone did survive and escape.
Holden and Naomi find a very weird alien nanofluid that seems to be connected to the power sources on the ship. Scared they will be exposed, the four leave immediately. Alex discovers the ship was heading from Phoebe Station to Eros, then Holden orders Amos to destroy it on their way out.
Here’s the big theory on the Anubis and the Scopuli: The Anubis boarded the Scopuli, a Martian transport ship used by the OPA with Julia Mao aboard. The Anubis crew took the Scopuli crew prisoners and lured in the Canterbury by sending a distress call. Holden and his team, while on the Canterbury, went to investigate the Scopuli distress call. A ship similar to the Anubis destroyed the Canterbury. Then soon after, the Donnager. Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos survived the Canterbury explosion because they were out on the shuttle ship responding to the distress call at the time.
Miller makes it to Eros and is arrested in the first 5 minutes after violently interrogating a worker so he could get a glimpse at Eros’ ship docking records. Luckily, he has a friend, Sammy, living on Eros who bailed him out. It appears Sammy and Miller used to work together but Sammy got kicked off the force. After a few minutes of catching up, Sammy gives Miller information on Lionel Polaski.
Miller heads to the Blue Falcon Hotel where he saves the Rocinante crew from UN Secretary Sadavir Errinwright’s planned attack on Holden. After killing everyone, they all head upstairs. Amos and Holden don’t understand why Miller is calling out “Julie.” When they open the door, they are greeted by a strong odor and just as they are about to call it quits, Miller finds Julie, presumably dead, covered in some kind of strange black substance.
There was a lot of mention and foreshadowing involving the Nauvoo, a Mormon ship built to travel beyond the solar system. It’s unclear whether this will play into the overall conspiracy.
Tune in to SyFy next Tuesday at 10 PM for two hour season finale.”With Holder and Miller uneasy allies, the truth behind Julie Mao’s disappearance is revealed.”
