The Expanse (2015) s02e10 Episode Script

Cascade

1 NAOMI: Previously on The Expanse HOLDEN: Dr.
Strickland pulled your daughter out of the clinic an hour before the battle started.
I believe we'll find your daughter.
We'll leave the Somnabulist once we dock and then we'll intermingle with the locals.
I'm gonna take the Roci and mosey on down to the dark side of Ganymede.
I'm gonna tuck her behind one of those 71 cute little moons.
And we'll rendezvous at one of these service airlocks here.
Are your plans always this vague? This is about average.
We mistook a training exercise as an active engagement and opened fire without orders.
CHRISJEN: What was the reason? We thought we were under attack.
CHRISJEN: Under attack? So you were fired upon? He was trying to kill the enemy.
I didn't even know what it was, nobody did.
He wasn't wearing a vac suit She knows we're working together.
Forced me to explore other options.
You need me.
You need my government's resources and my protection.
Eros changes everything Just like a soldier on Ganymede without a suit.
We're taking all of the cargo and the ship.
All clear! I'm sorry.
Go! Get off my ship! Go! [THEME MUSIC PLAYING.]
We shouldn't have left her alone.
She didn't want us there.
We've got her husband killed.
Those cops were going to kill them both.
It was the right move.
I'm going to keep telling myself that.
If we do what we came here to do, I'll figure out a way to live with it.
How many people have you killed? I'm not sure.
You're not sure? Well, I'm not a homicidal maniac.
Holden and Naomi, they're not like me.
They're better.
I'll watch your back, but they'll find your little girl.
NAOMI: It's a directory of the dead and missing.
Let's see if they're on it.
She's not dead.
And Strickland's not dead or missing, which is good.
They could both still be here.
Where was Strickland when he took Mei? Ganymede Pediatric Care, Clinic 7.
Let's see if anyone who worked there is still around.
NAOMI: There's a few.
- They're all in Ag Dome 9.
- This way.
PRAX: This is where I used to work.
It was beautiful.
I'll try using my imagination.
A single soldier kills a dozen marines on the surface of Ganymede without a vac suit? [SCOFFS.]
Please.
The MMC trains their people to believe they're invincible, and that failure is an unacceptable option.
Well, Sergeant Draper failed.
And then she snapped, because she couldn't deal with it.
So you think she's lying.
I think she's crazy.
Still, I wouldn't mind getting her in a room alone.
She seemed perfectly sane to me.
And after Eros, my definition of crazy has contracted significantly.
Well, she has zero credibility.
There's no point talking to her again.
The point is that something was bothering her and she was ordered to suppress it.
Mars is using peace as a distraction.
CHRISJEN: "Peace as a distraction.
" God, I wish I could disagree with you right now.
Our apologies if we kept you waiting.
SADAVIR: Not at all.
How is Sergeant Draper? In her quarters resting.
CHRISJEN: And in no frame of mind to answer any more questions, I assume.
I'm afraid not.
The traumatized mind is a dark place.
But rest assured, we're here, and happy to help any way we can.
We have Earth's best doctors at our disposal.
Thank you, but the medical team at our embassy is more than able.
And if it's absolutely necessary, we can arrange for further testimony after the Sergeant has fully recovered.
But right now, we need to finalize the terms of our accord.
Who was the officer who spirited Sergeant Draper away? A friend of Sergeant Draper's family here to offer moral support.
He didn't seem like the supportive type.
Madam.
Your ships are still heading towards ours at Ganymede.
So unless your intention is to have us shooting at each other again Let's do what we came here to do.
You really fu up in there, Gunny.
I know.
- But I know I saw something.
- Ah, yes.
A man standing on the surface of Ganymede without a vac suit.
Are you absolutely sure about that? [SIGHS.]
So you think I'm crazy.
I think we asked too much of you too soon.
[SIGHS.]
Bobbie, truth and fact are not the same thing.
Now I know this may be too much for you to grab a hold of right now.
But you believe what you saw is true because you need it to be true.
To explain how your team was killed.
So what happens now? Now you go home back to Mars.
You've earned it.
And then what? Then we do what's best for you and for the Corps.
I'd like to see the ocean before I leave.
If that's possible? Sorry.
You're under restrictions now.
You mean I'm a prisoner.
No.
I mean, you're a Martian.
It takes weeks, sometimes months, to acclimate to these open spaces.
You saw what happened when we stepped off the ship.
You're breathing natural air.
You're trying to orient yourself with that damned horizon.
Just rest.
A transport is coming to get you.
You'll be shipping out day after tomorrow.
Open the shades.
Close them.
U.
N.
TECH: Our analysts confirmed that Sergeant Draper's power armor was subjected to massive concussive and incendiary forces.
And the suit's internal data logs, as far as they go, are consistent with the MCRN's account of the battle.
The Martians wouldn't have given us the armor if it were otherwise.
What about biologicals? U.
N.
TECH: Well, we did find traces of various plant material, but again that's consistent with the accounts.
She was found in the wreckage of the Ag Dome.
I'm not talking about soybeans.
I mean exotic biologicals.
Anything that shouldn't be on Ganymede.
U.
N.
TECH: Sir, I'm not sure what you're getting at.
We did a pretty thorough analysis I don't want "pretty thorough.
" I want you to go over every goddamn molecule on that armor and tell me if there's anything you've missed.
Do you understand me? U.
N.
TECH: Yes, sir.
Right away, sir.
NAOMI: Do you have any idea where Dr.
Strickland might have been going? Lucky for me, I wasn't anywhere near the clinic when the mirrors came down.
I have no idea where Dr.
Strickland is.
Have you seen any patients with any kind of bluish mottling or unusual, heavy skin growths? The growths might have been glowing.
From what? Radiation exposure, possibly.
I haven't seen anything like that.
What is it? Something we heard about.
It's probably just a story.
Then do me a favor and don't spread it around.
People don't need anything more to worry about.
The battle took out three of these domes but we managed to save two.
We've got things moving in the right direction now.
We're going to rebuild this place.
This doesn't feel like Eros, does it? Maybe it just hasn't started yet.
I haven't seen Strickland around for a while.
There's a lot of turnover these days.
Aid workers come in, refugees go out.
Location services are real spotty.
It's hard to keep track.
Sorry.
What do we do now? I'm not the guy you should be asking.
This yellowing indicates a nitrogen imbalance.
We have phage-resistance bacteria in the hydroponic lines to prevent that, which means that something got in and killed the good bacteria.
Which means the hydroponics have been contaminated.
Is that a hard fix? Under normal circumstances, no.
These are too far gone to make it.
Basia? God.
Is that you? - Prax? - Yes, it's me.
[GROANS.]
Coward! You goddamn coward Our children are out there somewhere scared and alone and you just And you just leave? You just Are you done? It's got nothing to do with you.
He's helping me find Mei.
I came back to look for her.
Basia, have you seen Mei? He took Mei out of the clinic before the mirrors fell.
If Mei's still with him, then maybe Katoa is too.
We - We gotta go! - Do you know where Strickland is? I don't know Roma will know.
[STAMMERS.]
We gotta We gotta show this whole thing to Roma.
- We gotta go right now.
- Hold on, hold on.
Who's Roma? He finds people.
He's helping me.
He's He's helping all of us.
You guys got things to trade.
Okay, that's good Because Roma, he doesn't take scrip.
Only barter.
[STAMMERS.]
He likes chicken.
Only Only canned chicken.
That works the best.
- Canned chicken.
- Wait.
He works for food? BASIA: Yeah.
You give him canned chicken, he gives you a video from the security monitor.
You give him more chicken, he gives you more video.
He said that he could find Katoa, but I I didn't have enough chicken.
Yeah, that sounds like a scam.
Does this Roma provide results? Yeah! He's got a place in the AWP Corridor.
Level 2, room 2K.
Please, I can take you there No, no, no, stay, Basia.
Stay, rest.
Rest.
I'll talk to Roma for the both of us.
I promise.
For Mei and Katoa.
[DOOR OPENS.]
A friend at the Martian Embassy managed to get me Sergeant Draper's service record.
Anything interesting? Not at all.
She's an exemplary soldier who does what she's told to.
What's wrong with you? Hmm? Sit down.
I think she did see something on Ganymede.
Something we're not supposed to know about.
And what is fueling these thoughts? I believe that Ganymede was a test of a new weapon that Jules-Pierre Mao is developing for Mars.
Based on technology he unleashed on Eros.
You've been in contact with him.
No.
But I was aware of his weapons research Because I was working with him.
[CHUCKLES.]
You've known for a while.
Ever since you had Frank Degraaf killed.
I know it makes no difference, but I had no hand in that, Chrisjen.
But you covered it up.
You protected Jules.
You need to understand that It started out as a conversation about peace.
About the discovery of this incredible protomolecule on Phoebe.
This was a way to guarantee the safety of Earth.
At a terrible price.
You're the one who taught me that Earth must come first.
And Eros? A hundred thousand souls.
Did I teach you that? If I had known what was going to happen on Eros, I would have stopped the project and Jules-Pierre Mao along with it and you know that! Eros nearly destroyed this planet.
You will have to answer for your part in that.
I know And I will.
But what we need to do right now is keep the system from burning down.
This is everything that I know about the protomolecule project.
If Ganymede really was a test, then this is It's just the beginning.
[CLATTERS.]
[GASPS.]
[WIND WHISTLING.]
[THUDDING.]
[BIRD SQUAWKING.]
[GASPS.]
Basia's son Katoa and Mei have the same genetic disorder.
They met under Dr.
Strickland's care.
They've been best friends ever since.
Katoa means everything to him.
He's a good father.
These plants have been stripped bare.
That nurse said that a dozen freighters packed with food left the station after the battle to honor contracts instead of feeding the people here.
They've been eating the plants to survive.
These plants have no nutritional value.
They're air scrubbers that supplement the station's system.
Roma's place should be somewhere around here.
Looks like no one's got a place around here.
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING.]
WOMAN: I have a family to feed! - Please! - MAN: Get out! What you want, pampa? You Roma? Who Roma? There's some people on the station we need to find.
Heard Roma's the man to talk to.
Ah, in that case Ah, cute kid, copain.
We need to find her and the man with her.
And we need to find them quickly.
Lot of jobs ahead of you.
Lot of work for other people.
You got chicken? That's what I like.
Gonna take a lot.
You guarantee results? No.
That doesn't give us much faith in your work.
Then leave.
You seem to be doing quite well for yourself.
I mean, you got enough here to feed half the station.
Put that back.
This guy just wants to find his little girl.
She's sick.
She could die if he doesn't find her.
This business.
We got rations, protein bars, ammunition.
We're happy to barter.
What I want is chicken.
No chicken? Back of the line.
- [GRUNTING.]
- Amos, no! NAOMI: Stop! - Amos! - Enough.
Stop! Stop it! He can't find Mei if you bash his head in! What's wrong with you? Are you gonna help us? Absolutely.
I find little girl.
Pro bono.
Thank you.
[ALARM BLARING.]
AUTOMATED VOICE: [OVER PA.]
The amnesty has been extended indefinitely.
Take advantage of basic income, group housing, medical services.
Register today for a better tomorrow.
[INDISTINCT CHATTERING.]
Excuse me.
Do you know the fastest way to the ocean? For 50, I do.
[AIRCRAFT WHIRRING.]
COTYAR: My source inside the Martian Embassy just informed me that there's a lot of activity around Sergeant Draper's quarters Because she's no longer in them.
That is very interesting.
Why would she run? I'm not sure.
But I've learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Hmm.
You have to find her as quickly as possible.
I'm on it.
I can access our full surveillance network, - we'll find her face - And as quietly as possible.
The Martians will, of course, be trying to find her as well.
But they are at a severe disadvantage on the streets of our planet.
Make sure they are stopped frequently by the local authorities and checked for proper identification.
My pleasure.
Oh, uh Are we information-sharing with Errinwright now? I'll tell him later.
Why haven't you turned him in? At this moment, he's more useful to me outside of a jail cell.
You're the only person who knows the truth about him.
The only person anyone might actually believe.
And that puts you in a precarious position.
Something changed with Errinwright.
Maybe when he saw Eros hurtling towards Earth with no way to stop it and realized what he'd put into motion, and only miraculously avoided That it was time to make amends.
I wasn't trying to be funny.
I wasn't laughing.
It's just I'd forgotten how it felt to be fighting for the good guys again.
I like it! It's nice.
[DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Uh Excuse me.
Could you please tell me how to get to the ocean? [CRYING.]
Don't take it personally.
The clinic stopped giving Peter his meds two months ago.
Makes him forget his manners and his reality sometimes.
But I can tell you how to get to the ocean.
I don't have any scrip.
You're Martian, aren't you? That obvious? Well, I've seen a few of you over the years, being how close we are to the UN.
But that's not what tipped you.
It's the way you're walking.
Like the sky might fall in on you.
Like the ground's gonna bite you.
And if you're Martian, you'll have Osteo-X.
Give me what you can spare and I'll tell you how to get to the ocean.
You're a drug dealer.
They're not gonna fly you to the moon.
I know what Osteo-X is for.
Then why do you want it? I can trade that and get a month supply of meds for the kids who've been exposed to radiation from the drive plant.
And I can probably get a month supply of the new chloroquine.
It'll save some of us from dying in the summer when we're forced to drink sewer water.
Jesus.
Is that true? Would it matter if I said it was? So you're a doctor? I put myself on the vocational training lists when I was 17 years old.
I'm 52 now.
Still waiting for my slot.
But we still gotta take care of ourselves down here.
And so we do.
I'm sorry.
That's okay.
Everything we've been told about Martians is probably garbage anyway.
That you're all a bunch of robots with no souls who just like to conquer shit.
Oh, and I hear your music ain't nothin' to write home about neither.
Well.
That part might be true, yeah.
[CHUCKLES.]
Go back the way you came until you see a drainage tunnel on your right.
Got it.
What's your name? Bobbie.
Nico.
Here's what you do.
Feet planted in line with your shoulders.
Back straight.
Head down, staring at your toes.
Then Raise your chin, slowly Millimeter at a time Till your eyes are locked on the horizon.
Okay.
In a couple of weeks, your brain will forge the pathways.
Your inner ear will get the memo.
Then you'll be no different than an Earther.
Thank you.
Now you.
[SOFTLY.]
Head down.
Okay.
Millimeter I would've stopped him before it went too far.
Every shitty thing we do makes the next one that much easier, doesn't it? You said you weren't a homicidal maniac.
I didn't kill him.
Not yet.
He's a bully.
And where I come from, bullies take desperate young girls like your daughter and force them into prostitution.
And when they finally get knocked up, they peddle them to johns who get off on that.
After they have the kid, they push them right back out on the streets even before they have a chance to heal.
And those kids They use them, too.
Some people deserve to be punished.
When I learned the clinic had been destroyed When I had to accept that Mei was dead There was a part of me that I felt almost relieved.
She was sick her whole life.
I couldn't fix her.
I'm better with plants.
I couldn't help her the way a father is supposed to.
Are you asking me to tell you that's okay? I know it's not.
[TYPING.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
What are you doing? PRAX: Something I actually know how to do.
Did you notice the Epipremnum patatas on the green wall? I'm sure that I did not.
Right here.
Big fork-shaped leaves on the vine.
Same yellowing as before.
If you say so.
They're using distilled water in the hydroponic supply instead of the proper mineral solutions needed for long-term stability.
AMOS: That sounds bad.
They'll only be able to get away with it for another week, maybe two.
After that, the air, the scrubbing plants, what's left of them, will die off.
When that happens, they won't be able to stop the cascade.
What's the cascade? In real nature, there's enough diversity to cushion an ecosystem when something catastrophic happens.
Nothing that we build, our ships, our stations, has that depth.
Now in an artificial ecosystem, when one thing goes wrong, there's only a certain amount of pathways that can compensate for it.
Eventually those pathways get overstressed, and then they fail.
Which leaves fewer pathways, and then they'll get overstressed and then they fail.
AMOS: So it's not the thing that breaks you that you need to watch out for.
Exactly.
And Ganymede is a simple complex system.
Because it's simple, it's prone to cascades, and because it's complex, you can't predict what's going to break down next or how.
Yeah, but Ganymede is the most important food station out here.
They're not going to let it just collapse.
This station is dead already.
They just don't know it yet.
ALEX: [SINGING ALONG.]
Did you ever see A robin weep When the leaves begin to die Like me he's lost The will to live I'm so lonesome I could cry Hear that lonesome whippoorwill He sounds too blue to fly The midnight train Is whining low I'm so lonesome I could cry I've never seen A night so long When time goes crawling by The moon just went Behind the clouds To hide its face Whoo! [ALARM SOUNDING.]
AUTOMATED VOICE: This is an MCRN Priority Alert to all vessels in the Jupiter AO.
A no-fly zone is now in effect - [MUSIC STOPS.]
- around Ganymede Station - until further notice.
- Aw, crap.
Any unauthorized ship entering Aw, this is bad.
or leaving the zone will be fired upon without warning.
This is an MCRN Priority Alert This is very, very bad.
Ah! Good news, copain.
I find the little girl and the man.
They be moving way away from the battle and where the mirrors fall.
Those part of the station still be okay, so if they there, maybe they still be okay, too.
That's as far as you can go? ROMA: Yeah.
Swear.
That's oldest part of the station, no camera after that.
But if you wanna find her, that's where you gotta go.
What's down there? How do I know? CHRISJEN: Is it everything you thought it would be? I can't remember the last time I went down to the water.
You take it for granted.
You're right about that.
Your people are on their way.
So we have to be quick.
Uh, quick about what? We never finished our conversation.
It didn't feel like a conversation to me.
The thing you saw on Ganymede? It was real.
Here.
This is what attacked you and your team, isn't it? A new type of weapon.
It was being tested on Ganymede.
Tested? By your own government.
Fuck you, ma'am.
Sergeant, I wish to God it was my government.
Then I would have some control over the situation.
But right now, all I have is you.
So you're telling me that me and my team, we were Sacrificial lambs.
And your friend Travis I don't believe it.
And I don't believe a goddamn thing you were told to say in that room.
I need to know who is doing this and why.
I need your help.
This has to be a mind game.
You are the enemy.
We cannot afford to be enemies anymore.
We need to go now.

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