‘The Big Empty’ opens with a flashback to the moment Holden meets Adè (pronounced AH-DAY), the new navigator of The Cant. In Episode 1, she’s the woman Holden is in a casual relationship with. The flashback quickly ends with Adè whispering,
“There’s something you should know…”
before we burst back into the action as Holden and the small shuttle crew are attempting to escape the debris field caused by the destruction of The Cant.
After a few moments of tense action where the shuttle is hit by debris and the crew tossed about, things finally calm down when the pilot Alex manages to get them through the field.
Afterward, Holden immediately causes an argument by ordering Alex to follow the mysterious ship. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew does not want to follow and they no longer feel that Holden is the ranking officer given the new circumstances.
Frustrated, Holden storms off.
When Holden has calmed down, he and the rest discuss what their next move is going to be. They’re trapped in a small vessel and far away from any help. To top it all off, they’ve found a breach in the shuttle’s hull.
After the initial panic of the discovery, Holden and Burton head outside to fix the breach. They find that things may be worse than they thought. While outside, Holden and Burton enter a tense understanding of each other. Burton’s motivations become clearer. He explains a bit about himself and why he’s so loyal to Naomi.
Inside the shuttle, Naomi, Alex, and Shed (the medic) have had to shut off the oxygen supply and put on their space suits. Alex’s suit oxygen begins to get dangerously low. With the crew in danger of losing their only pilot, Shed has to spring into action and solve the problem. Eventually, he stabilizes Alex’s suit by sharing his oxygen while Holden and Burton manage to fix the hull breach.
They rush back in and pressurize the cabin just in time to revive Shed who’d passed out from lack of oxygen.
Getting through this tough situation together brings the members of the shuttle crew closer together.
With problem one fixed, they turn to overcoming problem 2: no radio service. Naomi speculates she can repair the radio with spare parts.
Still low on air, the crew gets to dismantling any unnecessary components.
While working, the crew discovers that the shuttle is actually a top grade Martian ship which has been disguised. They begin to believe The Cant was attacked by the Martians who were using stealth technology. Possibly to recover the shuttle.
Eventually, they get the radio working and send out a distress signal.
With oxygen getting lower and lower, their distress signal is finally picked up. But the rescue ship is further away than hoped, meaning the stranded crew will be extremely low on air by the time their rescuers arrive.
It also turns out the rescue ship is The Donnager, the flagship of the Martian navy.
Back on Ceres Station. The Belt.
We pick up with Miller who’s still in the beginning phase of his investigation into the disappearance of Julie Mao. He heads to Mao’s apartment to see what he can find. Using his do-it-all future phone he’s able to gain entry and change his voice to unlock Julie’s security system.
He replays her last message which is from her father. We find out a bit more about Julie through the message. She’s apparently from a well-to-do family. Her father is unhappy with her for leaving home to take up with less affluent friends. He threatens to cut her off.
From Julie’s response to her father, she does not get along with him. She’s decided she doesn’t need him or his money.
Miller continues to explore the apartment. Before leaving he notices a hamster running on a wheel. It doesn’t occur to him that, mysteriously, the hamster is not in a cage and that it has blood red eyes.
Later, Miller and his new partner, Havelock, are called to the nicer part of Ceres Station to answer a complaint about the water supply being tapped into.
To investigate, the two of them head to the level where the water supply pipes are situated. While there, they find a bunch of punk kids who have tapped into the pipes and are siphoning water away for themselves.
Miller and Havelock scuffle with the kids before capturing one. Miller questions the kid and soon takes pity on him and lets him go. It seems Miller comes from a similar background.
During this short conversation we first hear mention of the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA). The OPA is either a pro-belter social movement or a terrorist group, depending on who you’re talking to.
The United Nations. Earth.
We’re now introduced to Sadavir Errinwright (Shawn Doyle) the UN Undersecretary General who’s grilling Chrisjen Avarasala for torturing the belter, Heikki Sobong, who they captured in EP 1. Errinwright commands Avarasala to put Heikki Sobong in a water tank where he’ll feel lighter and closer to the gravity he’s used to in the belt.
She does so, then continues to question Sobong now that he’s more willing to talk. She’s still curious to know what he was doing and why. He refuses to cooperate and Avarasal finds out nothing.
Neither does the audience. The circumstances of the prisoner’s capture are not yet clear. It’s possible he was smuggling stealth technology.
Avarasala decides to send Sobong away for further questioning. Unfortunately, Sobong kills himself on the shuttle by escaping from his restraints and letting the g-force crush him.
What’s Next?
The episode concludes as we see Havelock slink back to the brothel he and Miller were called to in the first episode to investigate a murder. He’s meeting with the same prostitute who they questioned.
Meanwhile, Miller heads to the docks where Julie Mao worked to see if he can get any more information on her. He’s told she was pretty tough and that she was stationed on The Scopuli.
Back at his apartment, Miller researches Julie Mao’s dating profile to find out who she may have been with before she disappeared. He doesn’t get anywhere, but in a photo he notices a scar on her face which he thinks may be a an important clue.
Before the five stranded shuttle members are picked up, Holden causes another controversy by recording a message telling what has happened to The Cant. In the message, he names the Martians as the attackers. To the rest of the survivors dismay, he sends the message.
Shortly after, they are boarded by the Martians and taken prisoner.
[…] is still with the prostitute. It turns out he’s learning the Belter language from her, but there is a sense of caring and […]
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