The Expanse Book vs. TV Recap: Back To The Butcher

After binging on the first four episodes via Syfy’s website, we finally got a new episode last night, and it offered up a ton of exciting developments. “Back to the Butcher” offers up another major divergence from Leviathan Wakes, but not in the way that you might expect.

As we open with the episode, Miller confronts Havelock about his attack, telling him that he should have been more careful, before we’re sent back to the Tachi, where the crew is waking up. We’re back into book territory (Page 158). They’ve escaped from the Donnager, and are drifting. Amos’s leg is broken, and they find that Lopez died during the burn. This scene is right out of the book, right down to how they reset and bind the mechanic’s leg.

While they discuss how they’ve gotten away clean, Amos wonders how, if nobody knows that they survived, they are getting a call. He points to the comms panel, where they have an incoming message.

Here, the episode gets interesting. While the first season is ostensibly adapted from Leviathan Wakes, the writers go deeper into the series and pull material from a short story, The Butcher of Anderson Station, a subplot mentioned only briefly in the novel that explores Fred Johnson’s background as a U.N. Captain who hunted terrorists in the belt. Throughout the episode, we flash back to the station, learning that it was populated by miners who protested working conditions and wound up accidentally killing an overseer, prompting swift and fatal action from the UN.

Fred Johnson is the one hailing them. We were introduced to him in the last episode, and he knows our heroes are alive. He offers them safety, recognizing their importance in the larger conflict. The crew debates over what to do: Naomi wants nothing to do with Johnson, while Alex wants to go to Mars and Amos wants to return to Ceres. Holden wants to go to Johnson. The crew is at an impasse.

Back on Ceres, Miller is still on Julie’s case, even as Star Helix mobilizes against the men who attacked Havelock. We’re getting a really good idea of how the political tensions between Earth and the Belters are playing out, and why there are so many problems between the two. As Anderson Dawes tells Miller, the Belters want a home of their own, and Earthers should stay at home.

Back on the ship, Naomi starts to get acquainted with the Tachi, and talks with Amos, who convinces the Johnson plan is the right one. She comes around, and the crew get ready to meet up with Johnson. They change over the ship’s transponder (another scene that’s very close to the book), and the crew of the newly-named Rocinante get on their way.

There are some fun moments here—Holden discovering the Roci‘s coffee maker is entertaining, while Alex trying to name the ship things like Screaming Firehawk and Flying Alamo is hilarious. There are also a few departures from the book, such as Miller discovering Julie Mao’s former boyfriend, that helps to set up some key revelations down the road.

We’re now at the half-way point in the season, and we’re only up to page 179 in the novel. Overall, this episode feels like a bit of filler, with stuff that’s being used to set up the next half of the series. That isn’t a bad thing, and it’s interesting to see how they’ve pulled a bunch of things from the wider Expanse universe to tell a larger story rather than what’s found in Leviathan Wakes. Already, we can’t wait for next week’s episode.