List of The Expanse episodes
Updated: 5/20/2026, 7:11:05 PM Wikipedia source
The Expanse is an American science-fiction television series that premiered on December 14, 2015 on Syfy. The series was developed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby based on the series of novels written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the pseudonym James S. A. Corey. Set in a future in which humanity has colonized the Solar System, the show follows United Nations executive Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), police detective Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane) and ship's officer James Holden (Steven Strait) and his crew as they unravel a conspiracy that threatens peace in the system and the survival of humanity. On May 11, 2018, Syfy canceled the series after three seasons. However, on May 26, Amazon Video announced that it would produce a fourth season. In July 2019, Amazon renewed the series for a fifth season, which premiered on December 15, 2020. In November 2020, the series was renewed by Amazon for a sixth and final season, which premiered on December 10, 2021. During the course of the series, 62 episodes of The Expanse were released over six seasons, between December 14, 2015, and January 14, 2022.
Tables
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | |||
| First released | Last released | Network | |||
| 1 | 10 | December 14, 2015 (2015-12-14) | February 2, 2016 (2016-02-02) | Syfy | |
| 2 | 13 | February 1, 2017 (2017-02-01) | April 19, 2017 (2017-04-19) | ||
| 3 | 13 | April 11, 2018 (2018-04-11) | June 27, 2018 (2018-06-27) | ||
| 4 | 10 | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | Amazon Prime Video | ||
| 5 | 10 | December 15, 2020 (2020-12-15) | February 2, 2021 (2021-02-02) | ||
| 6 | 6 | December 10, 2021 (2021-12-10) | January 14, 2022 (2022-01-14) | ||
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | U . viewers (millions) | |
| 1 | 1 | "Dulcinea" | Terry McDonough | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | December 14, 2015 (2015-12-14) | 1 | |
| The series opens with Juliette Mao breaking out of a storage locker on an unidentified spaceship. Seemingly the only survivor, she breaks into the engineering room of the vessel to find its nuclear reactor fused with human remains. On the dwarf planet Ceres, Star Helix Detective Joe Miller is assigned to find Mao and return her to her rich parents | |||||||
| 2 | 2 | "The Big Empty" | Terry McDonough | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | December 15, 2015 (2015-12-15) | 0 | |
| On Ceres, Miller investigates water theft from a wealthy area of the station, now severely rationed due to the Canterbury's failure to return. In Mao's apartment, he finds clues placing her aboard the Scopuli. On Earth, Avasarala sends the suspected OPA captive to Luna for further interrogation after her superior, Undersecretary Sadavir Errinwright | |||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Remember the Cant" | Jeff Woolnough | Robin Veith | December 22, 2015 (2015-12-22) | 0 | |
| Holden's broadcast triggers protests on Ceres, with the OPA quickly blaming Mars for the destruction of the Canterbury. While responding to the riots, Miller's partner Havelock is brutally attacked and a man with the handle "Nightbandit31", with whom Mao was in contact, is killed. On Earth, Avasarala leaks information to the Martian ambassador abou | |||||||
| 4 | 4 | "CQB" | Jeff Woolnough | Naren Shankar | December 29, 2015 (2015-12-29) | 0 | |
| On Ceres, Miller identifies the dead "Nightbandit31" as Bizi Betiko, only to later discover the real Betiko is alive. Miller then learns that the deceased man was a data broker with multiple spoofed electronic IDs and recovers an implanted, encrypted memory storage device. Meanwhile, the Donnager's pursuers initiate an attack and reveal themselves | |||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Back to the Butcher" | Rob Lieberman | Dan Nowak | January 5, 2016 (2016-01-05) | 0 | |
| For lack of options, the Canterbury's survivors accept a proposal by Fred Johnson to dock at Tycho Station. With his help, they modify the ship's transponder, renaming the ship the Rocinante to hide its connection to the Donnager. A flashback shows how Johnson became "The Butcher of Anderson Station" eleven years ago; as a UN Marine colonel, he led | |||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Rock Bottom" | Rob Lieberman | Jason Ning | January 12, 2016 (2016-01-12) | 0 | |
| On Ceres, Miller is interrogated by Dawes, demanding to know what he has learned about Julie. Dawes' operatives attempt to kill Miller but he is saved by fellow Star Helix officer Octavia Muss. Miller and Muss investigate the data cube recovered from Mao's apartment. Miller brings the data cube to his boss at Star Helix and confides his suspicions | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Windmills" | Bill Johnson | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck | January 19, 2016 (2016-01-19) | 0 | |
| During a visit to Holden's co-op parents' house in Montana, Avasarala learns of Holden's troubled childhood and gains some insight into his decision to affiliate with Fred Johnson. On their way to Lionel Polanski's coordinates, an asteroid near Eros, the crew of the Rocinante realize too late that Kenzo, a UN-affiliated spy from Tycho Station, is o | |||||||
| 8 | 8 | "Salvage" | Bill Johnson | Robin Veith | January 26, 2016 (2016-01-26) | 0 | |
| Rocinante arrives at the asteroid and the crew discover the Anubis, the stealth ship that had destroyed the Canterbury. It is empty and completely vented except for a mysterious organic substance that covers the ship's reactor and seems to respond to radiation. After taking the ship's safe, the crew blasts the Anubis with nuclear missiles, then hea | |||||||
| 9 | 9 | "Critical Mass" | Terry McDonough | Robin Veith & Dan Nowak and Naren Shankar | February 2, 2016 (2016-02-02) | 0 | |
| A flashback from seven weeks prior shows the lead-up to Julie Mao's gruesome death; the Scopuli, with Julie as part of the crew, are on an intercept course with the Anubis, which they believe to be transporting a weapon from Phoebe Research Station to Eros on behalf of Julie's father, Jules-Pierre Mao. The Anubis ambushes the Scopuli, killing the c | |||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Leviathan Wakes" | Terry McDonough | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | February 2, 2016 (2016-02-02) | 0 | |
| Miller and Holden (who are suffering from radiation sickness) and the Rocinante crew make their separate ways through the increasingly dire situation on Eros towards the ship. They think that the conspirators behind the stealth ships are using the population as food for the "protomolecule" infection. Miller begins to see hallucinations of Julie Mao | |||||||
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | U . viewers (millions) | |
| 11 | 1 | "Safe" | Breck Eisner | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | February 1, 2017 (2017-02-01) | 0 | |
| The season opens with Martian Marine gunnery sergeant Bobbie Draper and her team undergoing combat training on Mars. They are deployed to Phoebe Research Station, which had been reported as being attacked. The United Nations debates blockading MCRN fleet deployments; Avasarala backs the measure but privately believes that she is being prepared by E | |||||||
| 12 | 2 | "Doors & Corners" | Breck Eisner | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck | February 1, 2017 (2017-02-01) | 0 | |
| Avasarala hires freelance spy Cotyar Ghazi. The Rocinante arrives at Tycho Station and Johnson is unhappy with them, but the situation is defused by explaining what is happening on Eros and that the data from the Eros incident is being beamed to Thoth Station. Fred Johnson pulls together a strike team from rival Outer Planets Alliance factions, kil | |||||||
| 13 | 3 | "Static" | Jeff Woolnough | Robin Veith | February 8, 2017 (2017-02-08) | 0 | |
| Earth destroys Mars's moon Deimos as retaliation for the MCRN's nuking of Phoebe. This creates tension in Bobbie Draper's squad. Holden and his crew return to Tycho Station, angry at Miller for killing Dresden, the lead scientist on the protomolecule project. Fred Johnson tells Miller that he needs to leave, but Miller remains and visits the Mormon | |||||||
| 14 | 4 | "Godspeed" | Jeff Woolnough | Dan Nowak | February 15, 2017 (2017-02-15) | 0 | |
| Avasarala gathers information linking the protomolecule to Jules-Pierre Mao, Julie's father, and hatches a plan to leak this information. Miller's Nauvoo plan is put into action. After assembling a demolition team to seal Eros's docks, the Nauvoo is evacuated of its people, commandeered, and set on a collision course to knock Eros into the Sun. Aft | |||||||
| 15 | 5 | "Home" | David Grossman | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | February 22, 2017 (2017-02-22) | 0 | |
| Eros is speeding on collision course for Earth. Miller and the crew decide that Miller will bring the bomb into the heart of Eros to destroy it and then escape back to the Rocinante. On Earth, the United Nations decides to fire its planetary defense nuclear missiles at the incoming Eros, but the asteroid evades them by 'going stealth', ceasing to r | |||||||
| 16 | 6 | "Paradigm Shift" | David Grossman | Naren Shankar | March 1, 2017 (2017-03-01) | 0 | |
| Flashbacks show Martian colonist Solomon Epstein envisaging a future where Mars is freed from Earth's control by use of his fusion drive. In the present, Avasarala demands Errinwright bring Mao out of hiding by threatening Mao's family and business empire. On Tycho, Fred Johnson's idea to use the thirty missing nukes as a bargaining chip against Ea | |||||||
| 17 | 7 | "The Seventh Man" | Kenneth Fink | Georgia Lee | March 8, 2017 (2017-03-08) | 0 | |
| After the Ganymede battle, Bobbie is rescued by the MCRN and asked to report the events, which some of her superiors do not believe. On Earth, Avasarala demands a peace summit between Earth and Mars to prevent further escalation of the tension, in which both planets believed the other fired first on Ganymede. Over three thousand people were killed | |||||||
| 18 | 8 | "Pyre" | Kenneth Fink | Robin Veith | March 15, 2017 (2017-03-15) | 0 | |
| Aboard a Ganymede refugee ship, the botanist Praxideke Meng (Prax) and others are headed for safety as he privately mourns the loss of his daughter Mei, presumed dead when the mirrors fell from orbit. The ship's crew throws refugees from the inner planets, including Prax's friend, out of the airlock, reflecting the rising tension between the Belter | |||||||
| 19 | 9 | "The Weeping Somnambulist" | Mikael Salomon | Hallie Lambert | March 22, 2017 (2017-03-22) | 0 | |
| Approaching Jupiter, the crew of the Rocinante realize that their ship is too obvious, so they commandeer the Weeping Somnambulist, unable to convince that crew they mean no harm. The Mars delegation arrives on Earth for peace negotiations, and Bobbie Draper gives testimony that makes it look like Mars started the battle of Ganymede by accident. Al | |||||||
| 20 | 10 | "Cascade" | Mikael Salomon | Dan Nowak | March 29, 2017 (2017-03-29) | 0 | |
| Despite confinement by her commanding officer, Bobbie sneaks out of the Martian embassy to see the ocean. She passes through an enclave of street people under some overpasses along the way. Errinwright confesses to Avasarala his role in helping Jules-Pierre Mao with the Eros incident. Avasarala approaches Bobbie with images of the inhuman figure fr | |||||||
| 21 | 11 | "Here There Be Dragons" | Rob Lieberman | Georgia Lee | April 5, 2017 (2017-04-05) | 0 | |
| Bobbie forces Captain Martens to reveal Jules-Pierre Mao's protomolecule technology project. A demonstration of it caused the Ganymede Incident and triggered the battle in orbit. The technology is now for sale. Bobbie takes the information to Avasarala at the UN and requests political asylum. Mao offers to explain everything to Avasarala if she mee | |||||||
| 22 | 12 | "The Monster and the Rocket" | Rob Lieberman | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | April 12, 2017 (2017-04-12) | 0 | |
| Errinwright expresses remorse to Avasarala as she departs to Mao's ship with Bobbie and Cotyar. Mao claims he will give both Earth and Mars access to the protomolecule while he sits comfortably in the middle, preventing war. Errinwright meets with Martian Defense Minister Korshunov, poisoning him with a banned toxin for Martians that makes it look | |||||||
| 23 | 13 | "Caliban's War" | Thor Freudenthal | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck and Naren Shankar | April 19, 2017 (2017-04-19) | 0 | |
| The protomolecule monster is found in the cargo bay on the Rocinante. It attacks Holden, crushing his leg and pinning him to the wall. It tears out panels to get to the reactor core for its radiation. Amos says the only way to get rid of it is to use the air on the ship as a pressurized blast to force it into space, which would also kill Holden. Pr | |||||||
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | U . viewers (millions) | |
| 24 | 1 | "Fight or Flight" | Breck Eisner | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | April 11, 2018 (2018-04-11) | 0 | |
| The crew cleans up the Rocinante, missing a small piece of protomolecule in the process. They also conduct repairs and rename the ship Pinus Contorta to hide during escalating tension between Earth and Mars. Errinwright convinces the UN to declare war, Mars blames Earth for the assassination of defence minister Korshunov, and everyone wonders what | |||||||
| 25 | 2 | "IFF" | Breck Eisner | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck | April 18, 2018 (2018-04-18) | 0 | |
| As the civilians of Earth become more fearful about the prospect of war with Mars, Secretary General Esteban Sorrento-Gillis calls in an old friend, the Methodist pastor Annushka "Anna" Volovodov, to help convince the people that God is on Earth's side. Anna irritates Errinwright by calling for restraint. Jules-Pierre Mao visits Dr Strickland on Io | |||||||
| 26 | 3 | "Assured Destruction" | Thor Freudenthal | Dan Nowak | April 25, 2018 (2018-04-25) | 0 | |
| Errinwright pushes a preemptive strike against Mars' long-range capabilities. Anna tells Esteban to take as few lives as possible so he refuses. Errinwright tells Esteban he must end this war to unite humanity against whatever comes from Venus, so Esteban has Earth launch an attack. A malfunction in the earth system allows one Martian missile to ki | |||||||
| 27 | 4 | "Reload" | Thor Freudenthal | Robin Veith | May 2, 2018 (2018-05-02) | 0 | |
| Drummer retrieves the Nauvoo. Esteban gives Anna's speech but it is revised by Errinwright to further justify destroying Mars before dealing with Venus. Anna is disgusted and prepares to leave. The Rocinante is very low on fuel and its crew prepares to scavenge supplies from a destroyed Martian gunship, but find three surviving Martian naval crew. | |||||||
| 28 | 5 | "Triple Point" | Jeff Woolnough | Georgia Lee | May 9, 2018 (2018-05-09) | 0 | |
| The Martian crew passes the Errinwright recording along to the captain of the Martian cruiser Hammurabi. Avasarala admits Earth needs a protomolecule sample but wants to unite humanity and needs Holden's help to end the war. Naomi explains to Holden why she gave the protomolecule sample to The Belt; she has a young son in the Belt and believed that | |||||||
| 29 | 6 | "Immolation" | Jeff Woolnough | Alan DiFiore | May 16, 2018 (2018-05-16) | 0 | |
| Believing Holden's group to be Martian Marines, Mao and Strickland prepare to use the children as hostages. The boy hybrid attacks Bobbie. A missile hits and infects the Agatha King. Holden captures Mao and Amos kills Strickland, so that Prax does not have to. An infected Cotyar destroys the Agatha King to stop the protomolecule. Naomi tells Johnso | |||||||
| 30 | 7 | "Delta-V" | Kenneth Fink | Naren Shankar | May 23, 2018 (2018-05-23) | 0 | |
| The protomolecule forms the Ring, a structure orbiting beyond Uranus. Earth, Mars, and the Belt send fleets to investigate it. The OPA is recognized as the government of the Belt, led by Anderson Dawes and Fred Johnson. Anna flies to the Ring with the UNN fleet. Bobbie, reinstated into the MMC, is with the Martian fleet. Mars sues the Rocinante cre | |||||||
| 31 | 8 | "It Reaches Out" | Kenneth Fink | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | May 30, 2018 (2018-05-30) | 0 | |
| Melba hides the body and returns to the Thomas Prince. She briefly meets Anna. Holden keeps scanning himself for brain defects and protomolecule, finding neither. Miller only shows up when he is alone. Using timestamps from Monica's footage Holden determines Miller first appeared when the racer entered the Ring. Monica's cameraman swaps out a circu | |||||||
| 32 | 9 | "Intransigence" | David Grossman | Hallie Lambert | June 6, 2018 (2018-06-06) | 0 | |
| The missile has been stopped and redirected by the Ring but the Rocinante is unable to communicate or access any weapons. A Martian ship follows them inside. Cohen the cameraman admits to sabotaging the ship but says he only wanted information and never met the person who contacted him to do this. Amos sends him and Monica out of the ship to be pic | |||||||
| 33 | 10 | "Dandelion Sky" | David Grossman | Georgia Lee | June 13, 2018 (2018-06-13) | 0 | |
| The Thomas Prince enters the Ring. Anna and others on board theorize the Ring is trying to isolate potential threats. Anna's friend Tilly recognizes Melba as Clarissa Mao and confronts her. Clarissa attacks Tilly to avoid being revealed. The Investigator admits he is just a construct in Holden's brain attempting to fulfill the protomolecule's missi | |||||||
| 34 | 11 | "Fallen World" | Jennifer Phang | Dan Nowak | June 20, 2018 (2018-06-20) | 0 | |
| The mass deceleration caused fatalities and severe wounds among all the ships; without gravity internal wounds cannot drain, meaning many more will die. Naomi returns to the Rocinante treating a wounded Amos and Alex. On the Behemoth, Drummer and Ashford are pinned on opposite sides of a large piece of equipment, working together to try to free the | |||||||
| 35 | 12 | "Congregation" | Jennifer Phang | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck | June 27, 2018 (2018-06-27) | 0 | |
| Everyone boards the Behemoth with all weapons seized by the OPA. Holden is believed to be insane and Clarissa wears an injection system to impair her abilities. She is locked across from Holden without him knowing who she is. Anna tells her all she can hope for now is forgiveness. Holden tells Ashford the beings that created the Rings and protomole | |||||||
| 36 | 13 | "Abaddon's Gate" | Simon Cellan Jones | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck and Naren Shankar | June 27, 2018 (2018-06-27) | 0 | |
| Holden talks with Miller. The station thinks humans are a threat and Ashford's laser will cause it to destroy the solar system. To calm the station, they must power down the ships. Holden, Naomi and Drummer storm the Behemoth's reactor room. Amos, Alex, Anna and Monica broadcast to the other ships asking them to power down. Ashford frees Clarissa t | |||||||
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
| 37 | 1 | "New Terra" | Breck Eisner | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Avasarala orders a blockade of settler ships near the Ring, wary of the risks of expansion. A convoy of Belter refugee ships from Ganymede attempts to run the blockade; of the few that succeed, the Barbapiccola lands on a planet named "Ilus" which features prominent alien structures. Avasarala sends Holden there as her envoy, with the rest of his c | ||||||
| 38 | 2 | "Jetsam" | Breck Eisner | Laura Marks | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Avasarala visits Mars and invites Bobbie to a state banquet. At the banquet, Bobbie is rebuffed by fellow Martians and offended when she perceives that she is being used by Avasarala; she rejects a job offer from Avasarala. Bobbie discovers that her nephew, David, is preparing illicit "focus drugs" for a gang. She ends his involvement by beating up | ||||||
| 39 | 3 | "Subduction" | David Petrarca | Dan Nowak | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| On Earth, Nancy Gao, a former UN Home Secretary who has resigned from Avasarala's cabinet due to the disagreement over her blockade strategy, runs for UN Secretary General against Avasarala on a pro-expansion platform. Avasarala's aides uncover a nepotistic scheme that benefited Gao in her career; Avasarala has evidence of it discreetly leaked. On | ||||||
| 40 | 4 | "Retrograde" | David Petrarca | Matthew Rasmussen | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Drummer and Ashford apprehend Marco Inaros for stealing the Sojourner and executing its passengers. Drummer, Ashford and three other OPA faction leaders hold a trial for Inaros; he appeals to Belter solidarity, offers them the money he made from the Sojourner and promises to abide by the truce with the Inners. They acquit him by the three to two vo | ||||||
| 41 | 5 | "Oppressor" | Jeff Woolnough | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Avasarala and Gao's first public debate, during which Avasarala's attempt to use accusations of nepotism against Gao backfires, is cut short by a security threat; an unidentified ship, initially claiming to be a civilian ship experiencing a system failure, has diverted course toward an Earth asteroid defense platform and gone silent. After the ship | ||||||
| 42 | 6 | "Displacement" | Jeff Woolnough | Hallie Lambert | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Alex and Naomi inform Holden of the explosion and an impending earthquake; it will be followed by a shock wave, and then a tsunami that will destroy the settlement and flood the continent. Once privy to this knowledge, the settlers finally consent to evacuate Ilus; the Belters only do so after Holden agrees to vouch for their claim on the planet to | ||||||
| 43 | 7 | "A Shot In The Dark" | Sarah Harding | Dan Nowak | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| On Ilus, the Earthers and the Belters set up separate camps inside the alien structure. Everyone besides Holden, who is immune, has been infected with microorganisms that are growing in their eyes; Okoye determines that the microorganisms will cause blindness. Settlers also start being killed by neurotoxic "slugs" that are growing along and crawlin | ||||||
| 44 | 8 | "The One-Eyed Man" | Sarah Harding | Dan Nowak | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Avasarala is condemned over the Pizzouza's destruction. In order to salvage her reelection campaign, she leaks images of the environmental disasters on Ilus, but gets confronted by her husband Arjun for putting her pride above the interest of others. Drummer resigns from her position, upset over Fred Johnson giving the evidence of Inaros' location | ||||||
| 45 | 9 | "Saeculum" | Breck Eisner | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Murtry has the Israel launch a weaponized shuttle at the Rocinante. Alex destroys the shuttle, but the resultant debris damages many of the Rocinante's thrusters; Lucia is knocked into space but is saved by Naomi. Alex uses the ship's railgun as a makeshift thruster to maintain orbit. Miller, who can now intermittently overcome his protomolecule pr | ||||||
| 46 | 10 | "Cibola Burn" | Breck Eisner | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck and Naren Shankar | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
| Miller is gone, having successfully stopped all of protomolecule activity on Ilus; the ships in orbit get their power back. Murtry and Amos recover aboard the Rocinante. The settlers on Ilus decide to stay, planning to rebuild the settlement together and continue research. Murtry and Lucia are to stand trial for their respective crimes, but Holden | ||||||