The series finale of The Expanse has finally arrived, and the show's rail guns of spectacular acting have fired their last rounds. Every character on the series has taken part in an incredible journey, and Chrisjen Avasarala is no exception. From pilot to finale, her arc is one of the show's most significant.
The Expanse wouldn’t be The Expanse without this steel-throated force of nature who has a penchant for incredible attire, as well as a mouth that could make an angry sailor blush. Avasarala began the series torturing a Belter; by the end, well, she’s definitely stopped doing that. She’s learned, and she’s adapted. She's also had one last trick played on her by the perpetual voice of reason that she has always had no choice but to support.
Avasarala has the best lines and even better costumes. She has also been played by the great Shohreh Aghdashloo for all six seasons. Ultimately, Avasarala is iconic because of her compelling portrayal.SYFY WIRE caught up with her at the junket for the final season, where she shared her thoughts about the series finale, as well as the warnings the show offers its audience and humanity at large.
***SPOILER WARNING: If you have not watched the show or the finale yet, swing around and go to full burn. Which is the nice way to say "stop reading."***
Avasarala once tortured a Belter because she could, but, now, she is not that person anymore. That’s still how many Belters see her, but even so, is the lesson to be learned that people can and do change?
You're absolutely right. People do change, no matter what. I have aged enough to be able to say that. No matter what, because it's not just you read more, you watch more, you experience more, but things become dimensional as you're aging. When you're a kid, everything is flat like, "Oh, what a beautiful park. A nice dog." But then, "Who is this dog? Where is this dog come from? Is the dog okay?" I mean, there are so many things involved after that.
So when you age, you start learning, not by just watching and absorbing and observing, but also by making either the wrong decisions or the right decisions. Avasarala is the same. After all, she's a human being. Yes, she changes tremendously… into a people's politician who feels for the people, who believes, finally, believes in empathy and a kind of love that she now has for the people.
So people are not like her subjects; they’re her friends. They're her family. And yeah, she, inevitably, and because of a lot of the experience that she's gained, she has now come to the point that perhaps it's better to try to make sort of peace with whoever is willing to do this. To sign a treaty, a peaceful treaty, in other words.
Somebody who tends to keep her on the moral path, whether she wants it or not, is James Holden. He saves his best trick for last; immediately resigning from the new Transport Union and landing Belter leader, Camina Drummer, with the job. It’s not what Avasarala wanted, but I got the feeling that she couldn't help but be a little bit proud of this move. She's pissed, but she's smiling.
Absolutely, yes. She's pissed, but with the amount of trust she has in Holden, she's thinking that, "Well, maybe Holden is right. And by the way, Holden is far more younger than me. And maybe I am too old to sort of understand what he's trying to do right away, so maybe I better sleep on it, at least for a night or a couple of nights, and try to understand why Holden did this." But, deep down, since she believes in Holden a lot, she agrees with Holden's decision.
What do you hope that the legacy of this series will be?
That this show tried to make people aware of what the consequences are going to be, not in a couple of hundred of years, but the immediate future… to Mother Earth, to our oceans, to our air, everything. If we're not careful enough today to not throw our trash into the oceans, not lose our air, try to be as vigilant as possible, and take care of Mother Earth for the children of our children.
I hope that would be the legacy of the show because according to the scientists, to the real scientists, this is the most accurate measure of the future if we're not careful today.
All episodes of The Expanse are now streaming on Amazon Prime. Beltalowda.
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