“Oyedeng” is a, as I have termed it, “space family melodrama” heavy episode. There’s a lot of Marco and Naomi arguing; Naomi trying to convince Filip over to her side, and Filip ultimately betraying his mother (again) and siding with his real dick of his father. This isn’t an entirely bad thing — it’s well performed and the arguments made are compelling. The only problem is — we’ve heard nearly all of this before. Marco feels like Filip is a child and therefore totally manipulatable (he is); Naomi feels like Filip is a man who can make choices on his own, the most significant one is letting go of Marco and his terrible ideas; and Filip just wants both parents to stop squabbling over him and let him do whatever he wants to do.

Naomi (Dominique Tipper) tries to convince Filip (Jasai Chase Owens) over to her side in Oyedeng
Dominique Tipper as Naomi Nagata and Jasai Chase Owens as Filip Inaros
Credit: Amazon Studios

Marco wins the argument by the end of the episode, telling Filip that he’s basically building a dynasty for the leadership of the Belt, of which Filip is the heir. Considering Marco’s love of the protomolecule, I kinda doubt he actually intends to eventually die and leave Filip with everything, especially since he hates Filip approximately 90% of the time. And he dumps his second scheme to kill off Holden squarely in Filip’s lap; he’s using the ship Naomi gave Filip to bait Holden and destroy the Roci with some explosives. Filip goes along with this, visions of crowns and thrones dancing in his head, and slaps Naomi for good measure.

Naomi ends “Oyedeng” by going into the airlock and ejecting herself towards the ship she gave Filip, in a desperate attempt to save Holden. Somehow, she succeeds, making it to the other ship alive, without a vac suit. I’m told she had an emergency decompression kit, which will help her survive the vacuum of space, but I’m not sure I believe it. She also gets Cyn killed for good measure, while Filip watches. His two genuine parental figures are gone in a heartbeat, and one only wonders how much impact that will have on the troubled young man.

Asides from the space family melodrama, not much happens. Holden, Alex, and Bobbie are teaming up — Holden going after the protomolecule (with a brief diversion to follow Naomi); Alex and Bobbie going after Naomi. Finally, someone has an idea of where the poor woman is. Amos and Clarissa don’t appear at all in this episode, and Avasarala only appears briefly.

The title of the episode is “Oyedeng,” referring to the Belter word for “farewell/goodbye.” That happens by the end of this episode, and if we are also saying goodbye to the melodrama, it certainly wasn’t soon enough.

Watch The Expanse Season 5 Wednesdays on Prime Video.

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