If you're not already watching "The Expanse" on Amazon Prime Video right now, go and do so immediately. If you watch every episode without stopping for sleep or sustenance, you might just make it before the conclusion to the entire series that airs today (Jan. 14).
Space.com had a chance to talk to "The Expanse" actors Cara Gee, who plays Camina Drummer and Keon Alexander, who plays Marco Inaros.
Drummer is a very serious character and rightly so. In the last few years she's had to deal with the death of her friend and mentor Klaes Ashford and she had her spine crushed while commanding the OPA Behemoth during the Slow Zone Incident. Either of those two things will take the wind out of your sails. Gee on the other hand is riding the storm with the wind at her back. So how does she prepare for the transformation from reality to role?
"I dive into drummer like face first, every chance I get," she laughs. "They hand us these brilliant words to say and her voice and the makeup, like it is, it is a gift to be able to transform so completely."
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Alexander's role is no picnic either. To put it bluntly, Marco Inaros is insane and to deliver a performance as convincing as Alexander has, you have to wonder if it's difficult to let go, once your head is in that space.
"I feel like I'm still deconstructing some of the ways that he's gotten intertwined with me, so yes, absolutely. I mean, he obviously there. There are parts of all of us that are like him, which is what makes me bristle a little bit when people use the word 'evil' — these are the traps of narcissism and the extents to which the ego will go if it's unrestrained in all of us," Alexander said. "It's been an interesting thing to step away from him, for sure a process."
This sixth and final season picks up with the solar system engaged in all-out war, as Marco Inaros continues to launch devastating asteroid attacks on Earth and Mars. However, both Gee and Alexander joined the story after it was already airing Syfy, the former in 2017 in "Doors & Corners" (S02, E02) and the latter in 2019 in "Retrograde" (S04, E04). After all that time, they must have taken something from the show to remember the "The Expanse" experience.
"It's OK…you can tell them…" Alexander says to Gee, laughing. "She took Marco Inaros' underwear. Yeah, she liberated Marco's underwear…"
And if you want to hear more on that story…you'll need to watch the video above.
Related: How Amazon Saved 'The Expanse'
It's sad to think the show is coming to an end, but we'll get to see Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), Jim Holden (Steven Strait), Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) as well as Clarissa Mao (Nadine Nicole), Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) joining Gee and Alexander for the show's gripping finale on Friday.
Might be time to indulge in a series re-watch.
This is the last season that Amazon Prime Video is going to produce. It brings us up to the events in book 6, "Babylon's Ashes" by James S. A. Corey — the joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. In the overall story, there is a 28-year gap between the events of "Babylon's Ashes" and book 7, "Persepolis Rising," so this seems like a natural place to break. The final book in the series, the ninth novel, "Leviathan Falls" is out now.
Season 6 consists of just six episodes, each about an hour long. The sixth and final episode, "Babylon's Ashes," drops on Amazon Prime TV today ( Jan. 14).
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