Holden and the Roci face off against Marco's forces and Drummer, while Alex and Bobbie attempt a dangerous rescue of Naomi, and the balance of power in the Solar System shifts.
This episode presents the following tropes:
- Ammunition Conservation: Holden grimly notes that the Roci is low on torpedoes and PDC ammo, having gone without a resupply after the battle with the Zmeya, and that the Serrio Mal alone could probably overwhelm them in a fight. During the battle, the Roci uses quick bursts from her PDCs rather than the Gatling Good she normally employs, and manages to shoot down all incoming missiles.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Serge begs for his life when Marco brings him into the airlock to space him, insisting that his crew is loyal and Drummer wouldn't have done what Marco claimed she did, to no avail.
- Atomic F-Bomb: The captain of the Koto, when Drummer abruptly disables the Dewalt with a missile."Tynan, Koto. What the fuck are you doing!?"
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Drummer turns on Karal and holds her at gunpoint, but then she's jumped by Bertold and drops her gun. Just as Karal is about to shoot Drummer, Michio smacks Karal in the back of the head with a canister, killing her and saving Drummer's life.
- The Rocinante and its current crew (which includes Holden, Monica, and Bull) is facing certain death against five Free Navy ships, but after Drummer retakes control of her crew, she and Josep fire on and cripple the other ships, saving the Roci.
- Just as a free-floating Naomi runs out of air in her suit, Bobbie arrives in her power armor to rescue her, and gives her oxygen.
- Back for the Dead: The UNN Tripoli, a Truman-class dreadnought first seen in season four, meets its end here at the hands of the Free Navy.
- Cavalry Betrayal: Martian ships show up as the UN fleet is being hammered by the Free Navy, but they turn out to be Laconian defectors and finish off the damaged UNN ships.
- Character Death:
- In one of the biggest deaths of the whole series, Alex Kamal, a main character and one of the True Companions, dies of a stroke thanks to the strain placed on his body from repeated, prolonged and excessive g-forces.
- Karal, who is decked from behind by Michio before she can shoot Drummer and cracks her head against a railing as she falls forward, killing her instantly.
- Serge, the member of Drummer's crew who was "loaned" to Marco as part of their alliance in exchange for Karal, is Thrown Out the Airlock by Marco in retribution for Drummer turning against him.
- Sauveterre and Babbage are killed, for lack of a better description, by the hyperspace aliens.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Earlier in the season, Alex and Bobbie discovered that Sauveterre and Babbage were conducting illegal deals with the Free Navy, but when they tried to investigate the matter, they were attacked and forced to flee. At the same time, Cortázar was kidnapped and Fred's protomolecule sample was stolen. This plot thread mostly got dropped when they were distracted with receiving Naomi's fake distress call and trying to rescue her, though it was reasoned that the latter might be payment for the former. This all comes together near the end of this episode, where it's revealed Marco's benefactor is a previously unmentioned "Admiral Duarte" and whatever his faction has been plotting (which involves the protomolecule) has been proceeding according to plan.
- Cliffhanger: In something of a Downer Ending, Marco successfully destroys several Inner ships at the Ring, and he's revealed to be working with a group of rogue Martians who've been using the protomolecule for their own ends. The final shot shows the hyperspace ring aliens devouring Sauveterre and Babbage's ship.
- Combat Pragmatist: Marco uses a stealth micro-meteorite storm to cripple the UNN ships before attacking the Sol Ring, leaving them at a fraction of their combat potential and easy pickings for the combined Belter/Martian fleet.
- Cool Ship: The heavy frigate Serrio Mal, essentially a beefed-up Roci with a hammerhead and twice the missile load. The Roci only defeats it because Drummer's mutiny keeps it busy shooting down missiles as the Roci moves into railgun range.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Free Navy's assault on the Sol ring destroys three UN/MCR battleships, at the cost of two or three Belter skiffs.
- Death by Adaptation: Alex (see Real Life Writes the Plot below), who is still alive as of the ninth book in the series, but dies in this episode, which is part of a season adapting the fifth book.
- Death by Falling Over: Karal, after being struck from behind by Michio, hits her head on a railing and dies instantly.
- Defiant to the End: Despite being heavily crippled, the UNN/MCRN ships keep firing with everything they have until the very last second.
- Died Standing Up: Serge, when being Thrown Out the Airlock, dies still on his feet via suffocation; Marco kicks him out the door after he's already dead.
- Divided We Fall: Marco sends Drummer and her crew (who are all in a polyamorous relationship with each other) the video footage of him killing Serge in response to them turning against the Free Navy. As a result, Oksana and Bertold, the two members of the group who tried to stop their crewmates from rebelling, break up with Drummer and take one of the crew's two ships with them, while Michio and Josep, the crew members who rebelled along with Drummer, choose to stay with her (in the latter case, surprising Oksana, who apparently thought Josep would leave with her).
- Do Not Go Gentle: Lacking the fuel to escape the Free Navy attack group and the firepower to defeat them, Holden decides that their best bet is to fly right at them and go out in a blaze of glory while Alex and Bobbie rescue Naomi. Fortunately, Drummer's change of heart renders that unnecessary.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Alex dies of a stroke caused by excessive g-forces rather suddenly and with little warning.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Just before the Barkeith goes through the ring, ships ahead go through first, and the light of their drive plumes disappears. This could be due to light-bending physics of the rings, but it's probably because they're getting disintegrated.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: After the events of the previous episode, Drummer knows that Naomi is possibly still alive and can be saved. Now, she has to choose between following Free Navy orders and attacking the Rocinante to kill Naomi's friends, which will possibly doom Naomi as well by leaving her with little hope of rescue; or defying the Free Navy, which will put her and her crew in Marco's crosshairs and likely result in the death of Serge, their crewmate on "loan" to Marco's ship. She chooses the latter, and Serge does indeed die as a result; though Drummer is saddened by this, she is certain she made the right decision.
- Hope Spot: Near the end of the episode at a gathering on Luna, Avasarala gives a short but inspiring speech to the Roci crew and the room at large that Earthers, Martians, and Belters coming together and working as a team will be how they'll win against Marco's forces. It seems like an uplifting way to end the season...too bad there are five minutes left in the episode, in which the Free Navy attacks the Earth ships at the Ring, and it's revealed that Martian defectors have been working with Marco, have already claimed another colony with ancient alien structures like Ilus, and have been using the protomolecule to revive these structures.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Drummer is genuinely heartbroken by Serge's murder, which was caused by her turning against Marco, but when Oksana confronts her about it, she still remains steadfast that defying Marco was the right choice, and states that now the crew can choose their own path instead of being forced to do someone else's dirty work. This fails to sway Oksana, who breaks up with her.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Marco murders Serge, the member of Drummer's crew who was "loaned" to his ship, as payback for Drummer betraying the Free Navy and the death of Karal.
- If I Do Not Return: A variation: As was shown previously, Naomi made one such video as a self-eulogy that she sent to Holden, but after they reunite here, he reveals to her that he never listened to it, because that would have meant admitting that she was gone, which he wasn't ready to accept. Naomi then plays it for him, and in addition to reaffirming how much she loves the Roci crew and him in particular, it also works in some ways as a eulogy for Alex.
- Irony: As the Rocinante prepares face off against the Free Navy in a battle they know they can't win, Holden fully expects to die, but asks Alex and Bobbie to save Naomi with the Razorback in the hopes that they, at least, can live. In the end, Holden and the Roci survive thanks to Drummer, and Alex ends up dying instead from a stroke.
- It's All My Fault: Naomi feels guilty that Alex died during his and Bobbie's efforts to rescue her from what she views as her own mistakes. Amos reminds her that Alex knew the risks involved, and that he died being a hero, which was both fitting and what he would have wanted if he had the choice.
- Kick the Dog: Sauveterre's last act before the ring aliens devour his ship is to get on Babbage's case for wearing a non-regulation bracelet (a family heirloom of her late mother).
- Magnetic Weapons: The Roci uses her railgun to deadly effect against the Koto and the Serrio Mal, crippling the former and destroying the latter outright. That said, they only got close enough to use it because Drummer's mutiny distracted the Free Navy ships.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Cas Anvar, the actor who plays Alex Kamal, got fired from the show after Season 5 thanks to a
Role-Ending Misdemeanor; thus, Alex is written out of the series via a rather sudden Death by Adaptation. - Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Drummer and two of her crewmates, Josep and Michio, turn against Marco and refuse to attack the Rocinante, attacking their fellow Free Navy ships instead. Josep, when Oksana asks what he's doing, even responds with "What we should have done a long time ago."
- Sixth Ranger: Amos brings Clarissa Mao aboard the Roci as a permanent new member of the crew, since she has nowhere else to go. Holden looks a bit horrified but doesn't object, realizing that he walked straight into the trap that Amos, of all people, had set up.
- Space Mines: The Martian defectors have mined their side of Laconia's ring so no one can interfere with their work.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Alex dies of a stroke, caused by excessive G-forces, rather suddenly and with little warning.
- Thrown Out the Airlock:
- Naomi does this to herself by getting a running start and jumping off the Chetzemoka into empty space, in a desperate last attempt to ward off the Razorback from docking and getting themselves killed. She's in a spacesuit and is using her arms to send Belter emergency signals warning of what will happen, but she only has a limited amount of oxygen, plus she's spinning out of control. She nearly suffocates in space, but fortunately Bobbie manages to spot her, Alex interprets her signals, and Naomi gets rescued by Bobbie in her EVA.
- Marco kills Serge this way, as he opens the airlock with both of them in it while he is in a spacesuit and Serge is not. After Serge has suffocated to death, Marco kicks his corpse out the door into free space.
- Trouble Entendre: When Marco realizes that Drummer turned on him and Karal is most likely dead, he calls Serge, Drummer's crewmate who's been staying on his ship in exchange for Karal, to come meet him on the deck to "send a message" to Drummer. Serge, who doesn't yet know what happened, doesn't realize that Marco has sinister intentions, but the audience does.
- Unwitting Pawn:
- As payment for their military aid, Marco agrees to give Laconia to the Martian defectors, along with the protomolecule and Cortazar. As Sauveterre communicates with the latter, we see how these pieces fit together: Laconia is a protomolecule world with a structure in orbit, and Marco has given them the means and the knowledge to activate it.
- Earlier in the season, when trying to impress Babbage to get her to reveal secrets about Sauveterre, Alex explained how the protomolecule sample on the Roci was able to activate the larger structures on Ilus. He made the reasonable assumption that the information was of no practical use without any protomolecule left to exploit, but this episode reveals the Laconians are using that knowledge to activate Laconia's protomolecule tech.
- Wham Episode:
- Alex dies of a stroke (see Real Life Writes the Plot).
- A group of MCRN defectors joins Marco in seizing the Sol Ring in exchange for Laconia, one of the worlds beyond the other rings.
- Laconia is another protomolecule world, and in orbit is a massive structure they've managed to get running with the stolen protomolecule sample.
- Finally, as Sauveterre's ship passes through the ring, the hyperspace aliens suddenly devour their ship, causing it to simply fade into nothing as it passes through the ring.
- The Worf Effect: The UN/MCR fleet guarding the ring consists of two Truman-class dreadnoughts and a Donnager-class battleship, the most powerful warships of their respective navies and leagues more powerful than anything in Marco's fleet. All three ships are overwhelmed and destroyed in quick succession thanks to several sneak attacks, showing Marco's tactical skill. It had been previously stated that these three ships have more firepower than Marco's entire fleet multiplied by three (however, this was before the UN was aware of the Martian defectors). The stealth meteors crippled the ships, but even then, they were holding out against the Free Navy. The Sagamatha was taken out by a sneak attack from Medina Station, while the two Trumans were ambushed on their flanks by the Martian defectors.
