Season 4, Episode 1:
New Terra
With 1300 new worlds within reach after the portal network opened, some Belter refugees decided to go through the ring after running a UNN blockade and settle a planet which they named "Ilus". This brings them into conflict with Royal Charter Energy (RCE) which has been given exploration/exploitation rights to the planet by Earth and Mars. The UN charges the crew of the Rocinante to settle the land dispute on its new colony world, which they call "New Terra". Avasarala also tells Holden to keep an eye out for protomolecule activity.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Amos calls Clarissa "Peaches".
- Badass Bookworm: Holden is given a copy of Don Quixote to reread and identifies Ilus as the brother of Ganymede.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: We learn that Amos allowed Clarissa the chance to space herself once she learned she was facing life in prison, but she did not feel she deserved such an easy out.
- Campfire Character Exploration: This episode starts with Holden talking to his mother and then to Miller around a campfire, establishing the new status quo for this season.
- Category Traitor:
- The Belter pirates consider Johnson and Dawes' factions of the OPA this for being willing to kill fellow Belters to defend Inners and their cargo ships.
- Drummer makes it clear she doesn't approve of Belters building a colony on a planet's surface.Drummer: We are creatures of space. In two generations, their children will be Inners. They won't even remember what they were.
- Evolving Credits: The nuclear attack on South America and the opening of the Ring Gates are now included in the opening credits.
- Flashback Stares: After Holden's mother asks him what he saw out there, Holden stares into the fire and has a flashback to the rings opening in "Abaddon's Gate".
- Insistent Terminology: The Belter colonists insist on calling the planet Ilus, while the UN and the RCE employees call it New Terra.
- Language Drift: We see a return of Belter Creole. Drummer calls Naomi her kopeng (friend). Naomi tells Drummer, "Xalte to sif (stay yourself)". Drummer replies, "Dewe fasi".
- Lightworlder: Naomi is unable to visit Holden's home due to Earth's gravity, and has to undergo a long, painful regime of bone-density-increasing drugs and physical exercise in order to visit Ilus/New Terra.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Holden continues to talk to Miller.
- One Phone Call: Clarissa gets one video call a month while incarcerated and has nobody to call except Amos.
- Meet the In-Laws: Naomi meets Holden's family over a video feed.
- Shout-Out:
- Holden is given a copy of Don Quixote.
- Avasarala references the Yukon Gold Rush
, perhaps recalling the violent fates of the humans in The Call of the Wild. - According to Hesiod and Virgil, Ilus was not only the brother of Ganymede, but also founded the city of Troy in a location where a dappled cow lay down.
- The Ganymede refugee ship is named after Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola.
- The station in the Ring is named Medina, after the city where The Prophet Muhammad sought sanctuary (just like the sector on Ceres).
- The Royal Charter Energy ship is named after Edward Israel, an astronomer who led a failed expedition to the Arctic.
- Amos's Affectionate Nickname for Clarissa, "Peaches," is a tortured one: Her undercover alias was Melba, and peach/peaches Melba is an old dessert. How Amos knows about four-hundred-year-old desserts is anyone's guess.
- Settling the Frontier: Both the Belters and the UN are trying to do this on Ilus/New Terra.
- A Storm Is Coming: Holden's mother looks up in the sky and says a storm is coming in the opening of the episode. Miller later says it is going to be a real turd-floater after a crash of thunder.
- War Refugees: The Belter colonists are refugees from Ganymede, whose homes were destroyed during the war between Earth and Mars
- Windmill Crusader: Holden's mother gives him a copy of Don Quixote to reread.
- Wrench Wench: Amos praises Clarissa as a good mechanic.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Amos gives Clarissa his version of a pep speech: "You breathe in, you breathe out, eat, shit, sleep, you take whatever they give you, and you give nothing in return."
