The Expanse Recap with Spoilers: Remember The Cant

The third episode of the season starts with Holden broadcasting a message to the Ceres, telling them what happened, specifically that the Canterbury was destroyed by Mars. "We're dead anyway," he said.

The young detective Havelock goes to a bordello, but not for the usual reasons. He wants a belter to teach him how to speak to other belters in their own language and mannerisms. He and the belter girl sure seem to have something going, though.

At Star Helix Security, the captain is telling her police that the Cant's explosion will be stressful for the Ceres. "We will remain impartial," she tells them. "You bust any heads, and I'll bust yours." Miller sees an alert about the Scopuli, and tells the captain that Juliet Mao was on that ship. "This was a favor; she's not on the Ceres, I'll run that up the line and Daddy Warbucks can bother some other station chief," she replies. Nice to know Annie is still being referenced in pop culture two hundred years from now.

On the Mars vessel, the crew of the Knight (all that's left of the Cant) are being checked in by their... hosts? Captors? Yeah, judging by the way they're throwing the crew around, the Martians definitely consider them captives. Everyone gets locked up - except for Alex. When they did a check-in test on him, a different sound came out of the device. Hmm.

On Earth at the UN, they argue whether Mars actually blew up the ice freighter Canterbury. Chrisjen wants the fleet redeployed to protect the Ceres. "Our plan of action can't be just sit and wait." Admiral Souther disagrees, and they decide to sit and wait.

Ambassador Frank DeGraaf, ambassador from Mars, says he doesn't have any information. Chrisjen invites him over to her house with his husband. It looks like she's manipulating him, though.

Ceres: The detectives are walking through the little downtown area. A mormon comedian invites them to a comedy night - and Havelock gives him the Captain's name. What a jokester. The same protestor from the first episode is now cheering "Remember the Cant" and getting dangerously close to inciting a riot, until they stop him.

Det. Miller talks with Octavia about his current troubles, and that he's upset about the Mao case being pulled from him. He asks her to cover for him for an hour and she reluctantly agrees.

Holden and the Knight crew chat from their jail cells on the Martian vessel. Holden gets taken out of the lockup by some of the mars crew to interrogation. The interrogator takes a pill that apparently gives him some level of telepathy, it seems. He asks Holden "Why did you destroy the Canterbury?" Huh. Holden starts to argue. He was a Navy officer until discharged. The interrogator tells Holden that Naomi is an OPA agent. "Did she affectuate those emergency repairs? It's not impossible, is it?" Holden denies the possibility, but the interrogator says that it's clear he believes it.

Ceres: Det. Miller goes to the docks and wants all the boxes open to search for contraband, though it's pretty clear it's a ruse. He chats with an OPA worker there, asking for some help looking for something.

Earth: Chrisjen and her husband host Frank and his husband Craig for a nice dinner. The husbands go outside to play some cricket, and Chrisjen and Frank talk. "We caught an OPA agent with Mars technology," Chrisjen warns him. He insists the Martians "wouldn't do that."

On the Martian vessel, Shed tries to talk to the guard. Amos wakes up while Shed is babbling. He starts talking some shit to the Martian guard, who doesn't take the bait. Naomi is next to interrogation.

Holden, meanwhile, has been let out, and sees Alex standing in a full Martian uniform. "I flew with the Mars navy for 20 years before I shipped off on the Cant. They let me clean up, outta respect," he says. He confronts Holden about his dishonorable discharge and what happened. "Who stands to gain if Earth and Mars get into a throwdown?" Alex thinks Naomi is OPA, too.

A fight breaks out on the docks at Ceres. Miller breaks it up, but gets confronted. Another man enters the scene, and stops the fight, thankfully.He tells the workers to "treat the Martians the way we want them to treat us." He's Anderson Dawes and seems to have the docks fairly locked down.

Dawes asks Miller what he wants, and he's honest, Julie Mao. Dawes asks Miller why a Belter is working for Earth corps. "Ceres will need men like you in the days to come."

Mars vessel: Naomi looks nervous in interrogation. The agent unlocks her restraints. She says she "doesn't believe in causes and will not be a scapegoat." He takes the pill. He starts to ask her about Holden not going back to Earth for 12 years. He asks her about who logged the distress call, and can tell it wasn't her. When he finally gets to Holden's name, she unfortunately blinks. "You and Holden are working together" - he clearly thinks there's something going on here that no one else knows about.

Shed and Amos are brought into the room with Holden and Alex and start talking about their pasts and what they've been told about each other. Amos doesn't care if Naomi is OPA or not. As soon as she walks in, Holden asks her straight up if she's OPA. She's not happy about it. They argue, and Amos goes and attacks Alex, ready to use him as "a human shield." Naomi makes him let Alex go, and Holden screams out that he's ready to talk, but only to the ship's captain. Why is Amos so insanely loyal to Naomi?

At the UN, a call from DeGraaf to Mars was logged, which led to 9 military contacts being contacted, meaning they were logging their inventory. Through this, Chrisjen discovers that Mars did not destroy the Canterbury. "Someone was trying to start a war."

Mars Vessel: The captain tells Holden he has to publicly recant his statement as "it is a lie. Mars is innocent." She wants him to say that Naomi destroyed the Canterbury, that she's "an agent of an OPA sleeper cell." She shows him another ship - one that's not Martian or from Earth, and that they suspect was sent for Naomi.

Ceres: Miller checks out where Scopuli flew, but can't seem to get any new clues. He does, however, find an incident report from the docks involving Juliet. She was hassled, but took the guy down herself.

Downtown, there's a major protest going now. It's very close to a riot, and a curfew is placed on the Medina. Everyone wants to kill Martians instead, though, and starts trying to bust into a Martian building there. They start attacking Martians. Man, Holden really fanned some flames here. The protestor from earlier starts shouting "Remember the Cant! OPA!"

The UN, Earth: Chrisjen and Frank have a chat. "At least you stabbed me in the chest," he said. He loves that Mars still "knows how to dream." He lost his diplomatic credentials and has been "banned from Mars for life." She tries to reassure him that they "may have stopped a war." The two grew up together, and he tells a story about them playing cards, and the way she completely changed the game. "You will do anything to win, just like your father. That's what got him killed. I won't play with you, ever again," he says. Her lip quivers and she tries to stop him, but he leaves.

At the Medina on Ceres, it's chaos. Lots of injuries, and Miller walks through them. There's at least one death from the riots - and it's someone else associated with Mao. Hmm.

Havelock, meanwhile, is checking out another part of town. Two belters come up and threaten him. He tries to tell them to calm down the way the girl taught him. They literally nail him to a wall through his chest. Um, so that just happened. Dammit, I was really starting to like Havelock, too.

And that's the show. Yowza.