The Expanse Season 4: Amos, Holden, and Visions of the Past
Steven Strait and Wes Chatham speak to us about how events in the lives of Holden and Amos affect their actions in The Expanse season 4.
Walking across the set of The Expanse can be a fairly surreal experience in that distances between planets are compressed to a few steps. Behind one flat is the UN situation room on Earth where Avasarala is briefed on military operations in deep space, and around a corner is a rocky underground public space on Mars, illuminated colorfully to break up the red stone walls. It is here that we incongruously meet with Steven Strait and Wes Chatham, who play James Holden and Amos Burton on the show, neither of whom spend any time on Mars. āIlus is the next hall over,ā Chatham informs us, referring to the distant planet on which the Rocinante crew find themselves in season 4, mediating a dispute between Belter and Earther settlers who seek to profit from the resources beyond the Ring gates.
Chatham and Strait are both dressed in dusty, rugged clothes with mussed hair and longer beards than weāve seen them sport in seasons past: a clear indication that the planet of Ilus is a frontier world, brand new to humans but long dead to the protomolecule-makers. āOur beard arc tracks how far away from civilization or clippers weāve been for all these months,ā Strait explains with a smile. Chatham adds, āItās also a primal journey because weāve taken a step back in our technology. Weāre on this planet, and weāre not bathing regular. Itās not the same that weāre used to.ā
That being said, Amosā impoverished past has uniquely prepared him for roughing it on an alien planet. āBeing back in an atmosphere and the fresh air [is] awakening things in him that he hasnāt felt in a long time, reminding him of Earth and where he grew up, and thatās kind of awakening dormant memories from his past,ā says Chatham. āAs they go through this season, who he is and whatās motivating and whatās driving him is starting to come to the surface. This season, we will get a window and a glimpse of who he is beyond the external thing that he created to show the world and protect himself.ā
further reading: How The Expanse Defines & Transcends Science Fiction Genre
Ostensibly, Holden and the Roci will be set on their diplomatic mission by Avasarala in The Expanse season 4 premiere, but itās Holdenās visions of Miller, speaking on behalf of the protomolecule, that drive him to go through the Ring to find out what happened to the ancient civilization that made interstellar travel possible. āFor Holden, having this ongoing relationship with this ghost in his mind has become more normalized,ā says Strait. “Heās accepted that this is part of his existence now. Thereās no terror or shock or awe to whatās going on with him anymore. For him as a guy, heās settling into the extraordinary circumstances that heās found himself in, in a much more grounded way than weāve seen in previous yearsā¦ Heās finally at a place where the people around him have given him the support heās needed over the years to actually become the leader he needs to be and they need him to be. For Holden, thatās where we find him at the beginning of season 4.ā
Chatham admits that this normalization of Holdenās inner voice isnāt always easy for Amos. āHe has somebody heās really close to, that he relies on and leans upon, talking to dead people and ghosts,ā says Chatham. āHe believes Holden to a point, in the fact that everything that heās said so far has been true and helped us, so he believes that. But he doesnāt necessarily know that he believes itās Miller in there, and he doesnāt really know exactly whatās going on. Thereās always the fear of, āAm I relying on a crazy person, and heās just been right in the beginning?ā So going through this gate, depending on somebody that heās really close with but doesnāt really know 100 percent where his sanity is, [Amos] is going to trust and be loyal to him and back him up in every way he can.ā
Holdenās past has also informed his current situation, and the characterās evolution to this point has been very satisfying for Strait. āWhat Iāve loved so much about playing Holden is just how vast his arc is,ā he says. āWe you meet him originally, heās this cocky, a bit arrogant, naĆÆve guy who has literally run from the responsibilities of his life and found himself in the middle of fucking nowhere. Only through chance or fate, if you choose to believe in it, he gets pulled into this much larger world than he ever wanted or expected to be in and that heās totally unprepared for. Whatās been fun about playing him, to the best of my ability, is to portray a realistic ascent to heroism. It has not always been pretty; heās had some really ugly turns. He certainly hasnāt always been the most likeable guyā¦ but heās always been vigilant.ā
related: The Expanse’s Cara Gee Talks Indigenous Representation
But Holden has a unique and singular perspective based on his vision last season of the total extinction of the powerful race that made the protomolecule, making the ancient past almost as important as his personal past. āWhat he experiences in the station is about the most extreme dose of humility anybody could possibly ever get,ā says Strait. āHe not only gets an entire record of a civilization that is far more advanced and older than the one that he is part of and its place in the universe, but he understands how fragile not only he, but humanity is as a species. If something this advanced could be wiped out and they had no way of stopping it, what hope do we have on these few little rocks in the middle of the solar system?ā
Chatham agrees that the situation presented by The Expanse season 4, both in the home system and on Ilus, shows how vulnerable our species is in the context of the show and in real life. āI think thatās fascinatingā¦ how malleable and fragile our identities are. To look and say, āIām an American and youāre a Canadian,ā and how many wars have been fought over these identities, these things you are protecting? When the reality is that this gate opens, and these moons are there, and their identities are gone instantlyā¦ Who are we now and what are we going to be? So much of the worst behavior of our inner selves comes from this identity that we think we are. Itās really a house of cards.ā
As Chatham and Strait leave the Mars backdrop to go film a scene on Ilus next door, itās hard not to reflect on the past as the actors had done and as their characters are about to do for The Expanse fans everywhere when the show returns on Friday, December 13, 2019. This magnificent space sci-fi series has maintained its identity as it crossed the gate between Syfy and Amazon, revealing its own fragility through its near cancelation and its adaptability in its new home. The success of the show has been in large part due to the strength of characters like Holden and Amos and the unparalleled writing in adapting the James S. A. Corey novels. How far weāve come, and how far still to go!
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Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter (@mikescifi). He co-hosts our Sci Fi Fidelity podcast and coordinates interviews for The Fourth Wall podcast.