from the Expanse Wiki: https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/New_Terra_(episode)#:~:text=With%201300%20new%20worlds%20within,gatekeeper%20to%20humanity's%20new%20frontier.

The Expanse S4 Ep 1: New Terra

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Blockade running

At the Ring Gate, a group of desperate Belter ships try to run the UN blockade preventing entrance into the Ring Network, in order to find a habitable planet to settle in. Many are destroyed but a small cluster of ships makes it through.


The Barbapiccola, full of Belter refugees, receives warnings from the UN blockade to stop and surrender or be shot at and, when the Belters refuse, the UN starts chasing after them. A young girl, strapped to her seat, tells her parents that she is scared, but her mother decisively tells her that they will make it, and her father concurs, holding hands tightly and stating that they will do it together.

Camina Drummer intervenes and warns the UN that they are not authorized to fire within the Gate Network, but she also sternly tells the Barbapiccola to comply. Carol Chiwewe, the leader of the Belters, announces that they have not been allowed to port anywhere since the destruction of Ganymede, and that they are not going to comply. The Belters all chant "go!" at the pilot as the UN starts to shoot, destroying all the Belter ships except for the Barbapiccola, which makes it past one of the rings.

The next clue to the case

Eight months later, Holden is home in Montana, enjoying a campfire with Elise, where they talk about Holden's family meeting Naomi. Elise would have liked to meet Naomi in person, but Holden explains that it's difficult for her Belter body to withstand gravity, and the drugs required to do such a thing have brutal effects, which he wouldn't have asked her to go through. Elise gifts Holden an old paper-print copy of Don Quixote for his next journey, and asks him what it is that he saw out there in space. Holden replies that it's difficult to explain. After Elise leaves to close up the house for an incoming storm, The Investigator appears and cajoles Holden to transport him through the Sol gate, but it is difficult due to the UN barricade. Holden appears to enjoy spending time with what appears to be Miller, talking about Holden's childhood and how beautiful Earth is, but, when the Investigator begins to mechanically repeat sentences like a robot, Holden's smile fades.

Later, Holden's family has a video call with Naomi, who is on the Rocinante with Alex and Amos. Holden ends the video call when one of his dads tries to speak Belter to Naomi, which they both agree was agonizing, though Naomi is smiling warmly.

A call from Peaches

Amos and Alex are repairing the Roci, when Amos receives a video call from Clarissa, who is serving life in prison. She thanks him for the time they spent together while heading back to Earth. She asks him about one time that he left her to work alone in an unsecured airlock, during which she could have easily spaced herself, and he offers that he'd like to have the option if he was facing a life sentence. Clarissa thanks him again, but remarks that Anna was right and that she doesn't deserve the easy way out after what she has done. Amos interrupts her, telling her to stop, and gives her some advice: "You breathe in, you breathe out, eat, shit, sleep, you take what they give you and you give nothing in return". Clarissa looks thoughtfully at Amos and nods, before she has to end the call and go to therapy. She asks Amos if she can call again, to which he replies "Sure thing, Peaches".

The Investigator gets his wish

In New York, Secretary-General of the UN Chrisjen Avasarala orders the continuation of the Sol gate blockade against opposition from UN Home Secretary Nancy Gao. Avasarala believes the risks are too high until the unknown is explored and wants to prevent reckless settlers from dying, while Gao sees a solution to Earth's massive homelessness and unemployment, adding that sooner or later people will try to run the blockade and they will have to shoot their own citizens. Avasarala receives a message that Holden has arrived, and rudely shuts Gao's ideas down before telling everyone to just do what she tells them to and then leaving the room.

Holden and Avasarala convene in her office, where she shows him that the Barbapiccola landed on a planet they've named "Ilus", the only one on which the settlers survived, and that they have started mining lithium. Holden is not very impressed until Avasarala shows him some strange, towering structures on the planet that look to be protomolecule created. Holden notes that the structures appear inactive, but Avasarala retorts that for hundreds of years humanity considered Phoebe a simple ball of ice. She is very worried about Holden's visions of mass annihilation, and asks him to go to Ilus to evaluate the risk that the structures present and to investigate if another Eros incident is developing. If that is the case, she tells him to evacuate the Belters, destroy the protomolecule if he can, and "get the hell out of there".

Back on the Rocinante, Holden brings Avasarala's information to the crew and they discuss what they will do. Holden feels responsible for opening the gate, but Naomi points out that every decision they have made, they have made together as a group, with which Amos and Alex agree. They make plans to go to Ilus, and for Holden and Amos, who are more used to gravity, to land and begin the investigation while Alex and Naomi stay in orbit. Naomi declares that she will go to the surface too, and reassures a worried Holden that she will have enough time on the trip there to adjust to the gravity drugs, adding that with so many new systems to see, she wants to experience them herself and not just from orbit. She kisses Holden, saying that whatever happens, they will deal with it together.

Bobbie tries to settle in

On Mars, Bobbie Draper is forced to dismantle decommissioned MCRN warships for a living, discontented with her plight. She returns home on public transit, where she notices a man staring at her, before she gets off and heads home. She's in the process of finding her own apartment, so she is temporarily staying with her brother Ben and her nephew David. Bobbie meets David's new girlfriend, Leelee, when she comes to pick him up for a study date, and she recognizes Bobbie, saying that David calls her a war hero. Bobbie replies that he is a nice kid, before the two of them leave. Alone in the house, she receives a call from Alex and they talk about their current lives and the Roci's trip to Ilus. Alex says Bobbie can't understand what it feels like, because she has never been scared of anything in her life. Bobbie disagrees, saying that she has a trick to deal with her fear: It can't control you if you feel like what you're doing truly matters. They are forced to say goodbye when the communication delay starts getting very bad and interfering with their conversation, leaving Bobbie alone once more.[8]
A pirate's perspective

With a truce between Earth, Mars, and the Belt in effect, Ashford commands the OPA Navy Tynan, which is a peacekeeper, tracking down and neutralizing pirates. When the pirate ship he is chasing refuses to comply, Ashford is forced to fire at it, leaving it incapacitated. One of the pirates survived, though wounded, and he is brought on board, asking Ashford if it "pays well to kill your own for the Inners". Ashford is trying to uphold the truce and ensure that peace remains, but the pirate accuses him of being a traitor to the Belt, content for the Inner Planets' table scraps. The pirate believes that Earth and Mars are keeping the Belters out of the ring so they can colonize the new worlds first and take control of those resources as well, and he tells Ashford that he is also complicit in the Belt's oppression. Ashford watches in silence as the pirate dies of blood loss.

Belter determination

As the Roci approaches the blockade, Naomi undergoes a painful treatment to develop a tolerance to gravity similar to Earth's. She needs multiple, ongoing injections to increase her bone density, muscle mass and lung capacity, but the injections are extremely painful. Holden asks her if she needs a break, but Naomi sees news coverage of the Barbapiccola settlers talking about all the death and suffering inflicted on Belters by Earth and Mars's wars, and how Ilus is their land now, and she tells Holden to keep going.
The Roci flies by Medina Station

Drummer commands the former Behemoth, now renamed Medina Station, which controls the Ring Space and oversees transit within. She has a video chat with Naomi, where they talk about the strangeness of working alongside the Inner Planets as equals, Drummer's efforts to set up communications throughout the Ring Space, and her healing spine, which is regrowing its nerves with implants after her injury during the Slow Zone Incident. Drummer figures out that they are going to Ilus and she and Naomi disagree on the Belters' settling attempt: Drummer thinks it was foolish and dangerous for them to attempt to settle on a planet whose gravity is killing them slowly, and that Belters belong in space as a culture, while Naomi admires their drive and believes they are justified in wanting free air, water and land for themselves and their families. Drummer ponders that, in one or two generations, they will have turned into Inners and will have forgotten their culture and roots. Naomi retorts that everyone has a right to decide for themselves and, while Drummer says "of course", it's obvious that she disagrees. They stare at each other in tense silence for a moment, before a concerned Naomi bids Drummer farewell and ends the transmission. As the Roci goes through the Ring, The Investigator appears to Holden and thanks him for the ride.

Trading war stories

In a bar on Mars, Bobbie notices the same man from before staring at her again, so she confronts him about it. He offers to buy her another beer and they start talking. It turns out that he is also an MCRN veteran, named Thomas. He admires Bobbie's integrity, as she stood by her actions in front of the Martian Court, and lost her position for it. Thomas is passionate and upset at the way veterans are treated, especially with the high numbers of unemployment recently, while Bobbie is more jaded and is fine doing a regular job and moving on without complaining. He asks her what she saw in the Ring Station, and she replies that all she saw was people killing each other to control something they didn't even understand. She tells him he should keep his uniform in good shape, as there are definitely more wars coming.
My friend had a boyfriend with an imaginary friend

Ashford's ship receives a message from an OPA faction rejecting Fred Johnson and Anderson Dawes' leadership, and declaring that those obeying the peace treaty are traitors to the Belt. He crosses the ring, waiting until the last moment to send the UN his authorization code as a way to irritate them, and arrives at Medina Station, where Drummer chastizes him. Ashford brings up his misgivings during the Slow Zone Incident, but Drummer reassures him that she doesn't judge him and that the only reason she reacted more calmly than he did was because her "friend had a boyfriend with an imaginary friend" who told them how to power down the station. He says he thought Holden was a madman, when in truth he was a prophet. Drummer replies that it's possible to be both.

Down the well

The Edward Israel, a ship owned by the corporation Royal Charter Energy (RCE), is sent on an expedition to Ilus, backed by Earth and Mars. A shuttle is sent to the surface, full of personnel, including scientists Elvi Okoye and Fayez Sarkis. Okoye is extremely excited about the historical privilege of being the first scientists to explore and analyze an entirely new planet, while Sarkis is less enthusiastic. Meanwhile, Security chief Adolphus Murtry is complaining to the mission's commander about a group of Belters he once had to deal with when the company wanted platinum that was inside an asteroid in the Belters' possession. The company gave the Belters a percentage of their gains and filled their water tanks and then were free to mine the platinum, but Murtry seems displeased that they had to settle with the Belters. Suddenly, holes begin to blow into the shuttle and it starts to spin out of control, and it is ultimately destroyed during its landing. Sarkis, Okoye and Murtry are injured but survive, and they are assisted by the Belter settlers.

The Roci crew watch a news report sent to them by Avasarala, informing them that the RCE expedition lost many of its personnel, including the commander, and almost all of their supplies. Murtry refused to evacuate the survivors and took control of the mission. The reason for the crash remains unknown. In the message, Avasarala tells them that the Belters are helping the survivors but also insist that the company had no right to land in the first place, and that they don't know if the crash was an accident or sabotage. She emphasizes that the Belters will try to enlist their help against RCE, but that they should remain impartial and focus on the reason she sent them, adding "Holden, do not put your dick in it, it's fucked enough already". Amos remarks that it's good advice.

Traitors or saviors

The Rocinante lands on Ilus, and it is an intense experience for Naomi, as it is her very first time walking on a planet's surface, with its own gravity, under an open sky. Their crew make their way to the Belter settlement named First Landing, arriving amid tensions between the surviving shuttle passengers and the Belter settlers that escalates into an armed standoff. Holden tries to mediate and calm things down to no avail, but the standoff is interrupted when a strange floating swarm passes through the settlement, cutting people's skin and crashing against the structures. When the swarm is gone, Holden picks up one of its fallen units and looks at it: a sharp, metallic thing that looks like a bug.