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Fridge Brilliance:

  • When Holden and Amos went into the Scopuli to inspect a distress call, only Amos brought a gun with him. You later learn that Holden couldn't bring himself to kill anybody, hence the lack of weapon.
    • The name of the shuttle being Knight is also quite fitting to Holden's personality.
  • Before Miller decide to leave Ceres for Eros, he saw a bird. More specifically, a bird that's flying in a rotating space station instead of normal atmosphere. It gave Miller an idea: adapt.
  • In the two-parter Season 1 finale, we are shown that water is leaking all over Eros station. Given how important water is as a resource to people in the Belt, this shows that the owners of Eros are up to something, since lack of maintenance on critical water infrastructure shows they intend to write the population off.
  • A cant is a dialect or secret language exclusive to a particular social-group. The Belter creole and hand gestures could be considered one. When Havelock tries to talk down the OPA rioters in their own language, they attack him anyway and tell him to "Remember the Cant."
    • Admittedly, in this case, "Remember the Cant" actually refers to the Canterbury, the ice hauler that got blown up, resulting in the increased water rationing that led to the riot.
  • In "Doors and Corners," Fred Johnson has the crew run simulations against one of the stealth ships. Where do they get the information that lets them do this against a ship that barely registers on sensors? From the CIC data recovered on the Donnager, that Johnson had cracked at the end of the last episode.
  • In "The Monster and the Rocket," Bobbie ends up on Jules-Pierre Mao's private luxury ship, and notices a tray of dainty cucumber sandwiches. She rushes straight over and gobbles them up — all of them. Yes, it's hilarious, but when you think about it, cucumbers are such a wasteful vegetable — they take a ton of water to grow, and aren't very nutritious. Since Mars has to be very economical with their agricultural output, cucumbers would be a rare treat. No wonder Bobbie does a beeline for them!
    • That's also likely why Mao provides them on his yacht—like the artwork and expensive furniture, inefficient luxury foods are another display of conspicuous wealth, even if a more subtle one.
  • The designs of the UNN and MCRN ships perfectly match their respective homeworlds: UNN ships are busy, weathered, and lit well because Earthers are used to bright light back home, and also preside over an aging and numerically superior population. In contrast, MCRN ships are minimalist and dark, yet futuristic, because Martians are used to less light back home, live beneath a planet in harsh conditions requiring them to to be as pragmatic in design as possible, and have the most advanced technology in the solar system outside of maybe Protogen.
  • After seeing all the factionalism/infighting within the OPA last season, it's a bit odd to see Avasarala talk about them as if it's some sort of monolithic entity that has every Belter under its heel in "Assured Destruction". However, it makes sense since even with her being as politically savvy as she is, Avasarala still has her own cultural biases coloring the situation "out there" as an Earther politician. Additionally, Avasarala assuming that Naomi, as one of the "good" Belters, would not want to be associated with the OPA nicely showcases the UN's imperialist attitude towards the Belters.
  • In "Immolation," when Jules-Pierre Mao is brought before Avasarala and sees her, a very brief moment of terror and disbelief flashes across his face. She is wearing a Mao-Kwikowski flightsuit from the Razorback. The one that belonged to his daughter. So, From a Certain Point of View, both Julie and Avasarala are bringing him to justice for his crimes (however symbolically).
    • Earlier in the season, after Avasarala wears the suit for the first time, Holden inquires about it, with her saying she was, "Wearing the skin of my enemies." So, it's not just the possible interpretation that both Julie and Avasarala are both bringing him to justice, but that she's bringing him to justice while wearing Julie's "skin".
  • Most Belters have side shaves or mohawks, or otherwise very short hairstyles (the longest hair we see being Drummer's), whereas Avasarala practically has yards of hair. Which makes perfect sense, because out in the Belt, water is very limited—Belters can't afford to have a lot of hair because it would take up too much of their water rations to wash, whereas Avasarala, a rich and influential Earth politician, probably has access to as much water as she wants (or at least a lot more).
    • Having freely hanging long hair in zero gravity would also quickly become a liability with how easily it would get in your face with the slightest turn, or caught in any exposed machinery.
  • Winston Duarte made a lot of mistakes, but one of his biggest is probably designating the Gate-Builders as "Romans" and the Unknown Aggressors as "Goths". By thinking of the Gate-Builders as an analogue of the Roman Empire, Duarte - being a fascist in all but name - would be primed to think of the Gate-Builders' relentless expansionism and exploitation of other lifeforms in terms of "bringing civilization to the barbarians", and thus something admirable rather than horrifying, giving him a blind spot regarding the danger Gate-Builder technology posed to humanity. With the "Roman master plan" theory (Which claims that Duarte's attempt to unify humanity into a hive mind was part of a larger plan by the Gate-Builders to rebuild their civilization by hijacking humanity's bodies.) now confirmed by the authors, its not unreasonable to assume this blind spot was what allowed the protomolecule to manipulate him in the first place.
  • In the show's first season episode "Windmills", after being told about MCRN's black ops codes, Alex recalls a moment where a ship he was on was about to board a freighter suspected of being a pirate ship and a whole line of gibberish from the captain of the other ship ending with the phrase "donkey balls." Given that Alex did the same thing to the Martian ship that was about to board them, there's a good chance that the crew of that ship will remember that they almost boarded the Rocinante and will likely also remember receiving the line of codes and hearing the phrase "donkey balls" in the same manner as Alex did.

Fridge Horror:

  • Ashford in Season 3 has extensive scarring on one side of his face, and based upon the way he walks, the rest of his body may be heavily damaged as well. He mentions while dressing down Diogo that he watched his only child burn to death. Given that Belter crews are family operations, there's strong odds that Ashford was burned in the same event that claimed his daughter (and likely while trying to save her as well).
  • Mars is the most advanced faction in the Solar System, with a highly automated economy. Yet, despite having a larger population than 21st-century Earth (which is suffering economic upheaval due to automation), Mars claims every citizen is a productive and contributing member of society and isn't tolerant of anything similar to Earth's welfare state. Considering Mars is also reliant on a sealed environment and food imports it won't tolerate unproductive individuals or extend a social safety net to those who struggle.
  • It's played as a joke when Amos tells Chrisjen that walking in mag boots is just like walking in pumps, simply replying to Chrisjen's and Bobby's confusion with "I didn't always work in space". But he also mentioned having grown up among prostitutes and implied having first hand knowledge of human trafficking. Confirmed; he used to be a child prostitute, which is part of the reason he's so screwed up mentally.
  • Erich later decides to take his crew on a colony ship through the ring gates. We never do hear more of his story. Given Marco and other belters preying upon the colony ships, did Erich ever make it to a new world?
    • Later revealed in the novella, Auberon. Yes.
  • Earth was always just a few missed meals away from catastrophic social collapse. With Marco's asteroid impacts, it looks like that may just have been enough to push the entire planet into unescapable chaos. While we see a few parts of Earth in disarray, given there seems to be no help of rescue and what's left of government has nobly fled to Luna, it's implied that the entire planet is in peril. Just how little damage is actually required to collapse an entire society? Keep in mind that the show is based on real life and the asteroid impacts are pretty much this universe's September 11.
    • We already do know. In 2010, there was a 1 in 100 year drought in Ukraine, which caused a shortage of wheat that fall and winter (and only a modest one when compared to famines in ancient times). Ukraine is a major supplier of grains to the Mid-East, and come the spring of 2011, well, virtually every Mid-East and North African country was facing some crisis or another, many lasting for years if not STILL going on. Now add in recent events in Ukraine and an even more massive shortage on the horizon...

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