The Expansetakes viewers across the solar system, introducing them to a humanity that has grown beyond Earth. However, mankind is far from united. The United Nations of Earth are wealthy and powerful, and have the most control in the solar system. Mars is an upstart colony trying to establish itself and create a haven for its people. The Outer Planets Alliance, or OPA, fights for the rights of the oppressed “Belters” who live on the impoverished stations of the Asteroid Belt. Shadowy corporations operate in secret, and tensions only get more heated when the “protomolecule” comes into play.
But early in the show, before the protomolecule even makes an appearance, audiences are introduced to life in the Asteroid Belt — specifically, on the rock known as Ceres. Here, they meet Joseph Miller, a jaded cop under the employ of Star Helix, an Earth-run security corporation that keeps the local Belters in line. Miller spends his days breaking up street brawls and hauling in impoverished, desperate water thieves. All that changes, though, when the case of Juliette Mao is dropped into his lap.
Who Is Joseph Miller?
Though Miller is a Belter himself, he doesn’t concern himself with their plight, crushed under the boots of the Earthers. To other Belters, he’s a welwala, a traitor to his people. Miller has crawled his way up, and now has a moderately comfortable life working alongside the people who control Ceres. While other Belters rebel against the system, Miller embraces it in the hopes that he can rise beyond his background.
In the show’s first episode, Miller is assigned the case of a missing girl named Juliette Andromeda Mao. When he takes the case, Miller doesn’t really expect to find Julie. He certainly doesn’t expect to get involved in an interplanetary mystery. Soon, though, he connects Julie’s departure from Ceres to an attack that destroyed an ice freighter, the Canterbury.
It’s rare that Miller gets a genuine mystery on his hands. But as his interest in solving it grows, it’s clear that he’s fascinated not only by the questions at hand, but by Julie herself. Even when he’s fired from his job and kicked off the case, he keeps pursuing answers. He develops an emotional attachment to the girl he’s trying to find. What was once just another case has become personal.
Who Is Juliette Mao?
The daughter of scientist and businessman Jules-Pierre Mao, Julie is young, beautiful, and rebellious. She’s the black sheep of her prominent family, and she trekked out to the Belt in defiance of their expectations. There (as Miller learns), she got involved in the OPA, a group of Belters fighting against oppression. She used her skills as a pilot to transport goods and information, and her inside knowledge of her father’s companies to help the Belt gain leverage.
At first, Miller sees her as a “poor little rich girl,” living it up with the lowlifes as a show of rebellion. But he comes to realize that she wasn’t just trying to make her parents angry or defy authority. She put herself on the line, over and over again, for the Belter cause. Born into comfort, power, and vast wealth, she abandoned it all to fight for what she believed in.
Miller and Julie both rejected their upbringing. For Miller, that meant trying to rise above the slums where he was born. He chose to take the comfortable path over the virtuous one. For Julie, though, turning her back on her heritage meant giving up a life of luxury and privilege. For her, it was worth it to fight for the liberation of the Belt. In conversations with those who knew her, it’s obvious that her Belter friends considered her one of them.
In the pieces of Juliette’s life that she left behind, Miller finds something he was always lacking. In her, he sees the courage that he never had: the courage to accept risk for the sake of what’s right. And even though they’ve never met, it rubs off on him. After being fired from his job, Miller follows Julie’s trail to the asteroid Eros. He’s spent all his life trying to stay out of trouble, but now he’s heading into danger in the hope of saving someone else.
What Happens to Julie & Miller?
On Eros, Miller meets up with the crew of the Rocinante, who are also searching for Julie Mao (though they know her by a pseudonym). At a run-down hotel, they all discover Julie’s tragic, gruesome fate. Her ship was sent to retrieve a sample of the alien substance known as the protomolecule, but the crew was apprehended, and Julie was the only one who escaped. Infected with the substance, she hid in the hotel room, waiting for OPA operatives to find her. But Miller, Holden, and the rest were too late. By the time they found her, Juliette Mao had died as the protomolecule took over her body.
Yet, incredibly, that wasn’t the end of her story.
In the early episodes of Season 2, it becomes evident that the protomolecule on Eros is still active. It has killed almost everyone on the asteroid thanks to experiments by corrupt scientists, and those scientists aren’t done with it yet. OPA leader Fred Johnson enlists Holden and his crew, as well as Joe Miller, to destroy the life form that has the potential to be a bioweapon. They plan to use a massive ship to knock Eros out of orbit, detonating bombs planted on its surface and sending it hurtling into the sun. But as Miller sits on the rock, preparing to sacrifice himself to keep the bombs from going off prematurely, the planned collision never occurs. In disbelief, James Holden realizes that the asteroid itself changed course.
Communicating over radio, the Roci’s engineer, Naomi Nagata, guides Miller through the asteroid in search of whatever is controlling it. Somehow, the protomolecule has taken control of this space rock, and is now steering it towards Earth.
As he walks through the tunnels of Eros Station, searching for the energy source that Naomi is reading, Miller hears voices whispering as protomolecule particles float through the air around him. Clearest among them is Julie’s voice, playful and beckoning. Miller proposes a theory: that the substance, an alien life form capable of advanced learning, had somehow absorbed Julie’s human consciousness.
When he finds the energy source, his theory seems to be confirmed. Julie’s body, seemingly alive and conscious, lies at the center of a glowing hub of protomolecule. She is indeed steering the asteroid towards Earth — but not out of malice. Julie’s consciousness is caught in her last moments, dying in agony alone in a grimy hotel. She’s scared and lonely, and she misses her home. All she wants is to see Earth one last time.
I’m done fighting. I just want to go home.
Taking off his helmet, Miller sits by Julie’s side and takes her hand. He speaks to her gently, warmly, easing her fear and telling her that she’s not alone. He found her after all, but they can’t go home. They can’t go back to Earth, or a lot of people will die.
The protomolecule can’t be convinced to stop what it’s doing, so instead, Miller convinces Julie to change Eros’ direction. Instead of crashing into Earth, they fly off towards Venus. As they speed towards the planet’s surface, sacrificing themselves, Miller and Julie share a tender kiss. Even Miller isn’t sure what their fate will be, but he isn’t afraid, because he isn’t alone. As he reassures Julie:
Whatever happens next, happens to both of us.
Because of Juliette Mao, Joseph Miller, who had spent his whole life avoiding danger and trouble, sacrificed himself to both save Earth and stop a potential war. He was inspired by the bravery she had shown, and when Julie’s courage nearly failed her, Miller gave that strength back to her. Though they only met in the moments before their true and final deaths, the connection between the two of them saved humanity from disaster.
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