Episode Recap: Remember the Cant

We begin with Holden's message throwing Mars under the bus for the destruction of the Canterbury being transmitted all over Ceres. There's now major tension brewing between the Belt and Mars … tension that will lead to rioting on Ceres, and Havelock (Miller's partner) being brutally murdered by street thugs.

Elsewhere on Ceres, Miller continues his search for Julie Mao, even though Captain Shaddid has told him to drop the case in light of the situation with the Canterbury. Miller tracks down Anderson Dawes (Jared Harris), the charismatic and mysterious Outer Planets Alliance leader on Ceres (Reminder: The Outer Planets Alliance, or OPA, is a unsanctioned political group fighting for Belter rights), who denies all knowledge of Julie and her being on board the Scopuli. Sure, sure.

Meanwhile, the survivors of the Canterbury are being interrogated on board the Martian warship, the Donnager. Lt. Lopez uses a series of intimidation tactics to rattle the crew, making some of them believe that Naomi might be an OPA sleeper agent who helped destroy the Cant. As a former Martian Navyman himself, Alex is especially keen to this theory … a theory that seems all the more likely when a mystery ship is spotted en route to the Donnager, which Captain Yao believes was sent to rescue Naomi.

Ultimately, Mars ends up being cleared of any possible involvement in the destruction of the Canterbury, thanks to Chrisjen Avasarala, who manipulates her old friend and colleague, Franklin DeGraaf, the U.N. Ambassador to Mars. She lies to him that intel indicates the stealth ships that blew up the Canterbury came from Mars. She has Frank monitored. When his calls to Mars indicate that he was inquiring about stealth ships/stealth tech - and reports are that nothing is missing - Avasarala is convinced Mars is innocent in the Canterbury's destruction. After all, if Mars was guilty, why would they secretly check if their stealth was missing? However, when Mars realizes Frank was tracked by Avasarala and in turn secret weapons facilities were exposed, he's banned from Mars. He cuts all ties with his former friend.  

So if Mars didn't destroy the Canterbury, who did? "Someone who's trying to start a war," says Chrisjen.

If you want to see all the events of this episode, learn more about the characters, locations and organizations - and track the mystery of Julie Mao's disappearance - do it by exploring our 3D map of the Expanse solar system in The Expanse: Enter the Future.