Season 3, Episode 3:
Assured Destruction
Earth strategizes a costly ploy to gain advantage in the war against Mars; Anna struggles to convince Sorrento-Gillis to do the right thing; Avasarala and Bobbie seek refuge aboard the Rocinante.
Tropes:
- Cosmic Plaything: Avasarala jokes that Holden is one, being almost unsurprised at this point that the Roci was the ship that saved her.
- Even Evil Has Standards: As evil as Jules-Pierre Mao is, he immediately puts a stop to the experiments on the children... for the moment.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Twice.
- Jules-Pierre Mao is gradually forced to recognize the damage his schemes have done on innocent children, especially after Mei reminds him of how his conspiracy got his daughter killed.
- Errinwright is visibly upset when his push for war results in the deaths of two million Earthers in South America. He then blames Sorrento-Gillis for taking too long to act.
- Reassignment Backfire: Admiral Souther was demoted for his anti-war position, only to be placed in the perfect position to get a grasp of The Conspiracy.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Avasarala and Naomi embark on a string of these in their every interaction.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Nguyen takes swift control of the Agatha King when he realizes Souther is onto the Protogen conspiracy.
- Would Hurt a Child: Strickland actively pursues experimentation with the protomolecule on the kidnapped children.
