The joint Mars/UNN task force takes Ceres, while Marco plots his next moves.
Tropes:
- Back from the Dead: Cara's dead bird is revived by the Laconian repair drone.
- Batman Gambit: The Pella dodges to port three times to avoid the Rocinante's railgun shots. Seeing the pattern, Bobbie manually sprays a PDC burst in that direction and times it with a railgun shot, causing the Pella to fly right into the bullets.
- The Bus Came Back: Prax sends a coded message to Amos, providing details on a new strain of yeast that could potentiality solve the food crisis.
- Calling the Old Man Out: When his attempt to destroy the Rocinante ends in failure, Marco starts blaming the crew for Holden's "luck". Filip stands up and puts the blame squarely on him, as they didn't need to engage the Rocinante and only did so because Marco couldn't put his ego aside. Marco relives him of duty in response, but it's clear Filip's words got to the crew.
- David vs. Goliath: The Rocinante is outgunned by the Pella individually, other than their railgun, and outnumbered by Marco's two Belter escorts. Nevertheless, the Rocinante manages to bring it down to one-on-one with a lucky railgun shot that disables one Belter ship and forces the other to provide assistance, then forces the Pella to retreat with a clever strategy that hinges on the Pella dodging predictably. Marco is understandably annoyed that he lost a battle he had every advantage in.
- Don't Create a Martyr: This is Holden's reasoning for not destroying the Pella while it's disabled, as he thinks capturing Marco alive is preferable to leaving him a martyr. Marco refuses to surrender and Bobbie nearly ends him for it, but Holden disarms the missile to spare Filip.
- Hero Ball:
- Holden not already having had a talk with Naomi about how they are at war with a genocidal maniac, and their job is essentially to kill Marco Inaros and if required, Filip along with him.
- Holden disarming the torpedo might be one, but Bobbie has very obviously picked up the ball when she only fires that single torpedo at the Pella, considering she could have fired a volley of torpedoes or just fired again before the Pella had a chance to retreat.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: Marco assures Rosenfeld that this kind of strategy will serve them well against the superior numbers and firepower of the joint task force. She is put off by his flippancy about the whole thing.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Marco is defiant when Holden demands his surrender, but when he is saved from death by what he can only assume is a dud nuke, he wisely decides to retreat before Holden can fire again.
- Mood Whiplash: Cara learns that the larger creature repairs things, both the drone she broke and the dead bird. However, when she comes home to tell everyone, she finds her brother is dead.
- Never My Fault: Marco immediately starts blaming the crew when he's forced to retreat, complaining that his escorts abandoned him (one went to assist the other, at his own direction no less), singling out his pilot for falling for the Rocinante's trick, and saying that Filip should have destroyed them even though he literally could not have performed his job any better. Filip immediately turns it back on him, laying the blame on Marco's shoulders for picking an unnecessary fight.
- The Reveal:
- The large creature Cara met on Laconia is a living repair drone, able to reconstruct biological and technological objects.
- Laconia is supplying Marco with new ships, presumably explaining why he's been diverting supplies to Medina Station.
- Revenge Before Reason: When the Pella happens to get a ping on the Rocinante, flying alone and out of range of backup, Marco diverts to destroy it even though it will force them to reveal their position and delay their current mission. Rosenfeld tries to talk him out of it, but to no avail. Filip calls him out after the failed battle.
- Sadistic Choice: Marco seems to intentionally seat himself next to Filip when the Rocinante demands his surrender, no doubt trying to silently manipulate Holden into not killing him. Bobbie nearly blows up their ship anyway, but Holden disarms the warhead at the last second.
- Salt the Earth: Marco abandoned Ceres and stripped it of virtually everything necessary to keep the populace alive, leaving them with a mere three weeks of supplies. He did this so the joint task force would have to expend resources to keep it livable, since they need it as a forward operating base, and would be forced into the tough decision of either providing for the Belters or leaving them to die, which would itself reinforce Marco's cause. A mass bombing causes further disruption later.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Filip calls out Marco for abandoning Ceres and raiding it on the way out, as it's a betrayal of the Belters they're supposedly fighting for. Marco insists it was smart strategically, despite the negative press doing so has generated.
