The main players in The Expanse have been separated by the vastness of space, but the show has been setting up their eventual collision course all series long. There is Josephus Miller’s (Thomas Jane) ongoing investigation of Julie Mao’s disappearance and Jim Holden’s (Steven Strait) fight to find the true culprits behind the Canterbury’s destruction. Both characters are destined to meet and “Windmills” is the episode that sets up the merger.
Miller pays a steep price for being a good detective and figuring out the truth. He gets fired by his bosses (who have been paid off by the mystery antagonists) for figuring out the connection between the Scopuli, Julie Mao, and Phoebe station. It’s surprising to see him feel such guilt over not being able to help Mao in the episode. The man who tells others to guard against putting yourself out there for other people, did just that by taking the Mao case this far. His sentiments make a whole lot of sense for plot purposes: His feelings for her propel him to leave Ceres Station to chase a lead on her whereabouts on Eros. In reality though, it does feel like the show did not set up Miller to be a person motivated to care about somebody else to this extent.
At the same time that Miller’s investigation finally leads him to Eros, Holden and the crew of the Rocinante embark from Tycho Station under orders from Fred Johnson to find Lionel Polanski. They run into problems when their disguised ship is flagged by Martian patrols and they are set to be boarded. They also find an uninvited guest on the ship in spy Sadavir Errinwright (Shawn Doyle). The crew is naturally suspicious of Doyle, who claims to be a corporate spy on the run from Johnson, but in reality he is an operative from earth sent to find Holden.
It makes for a rather tense situation as the Rocinante crew have to rely on him to escape the Martian patrols. The whole situation makes for some instant tension in the episode and an interesting sidequest on their way to Eros.
We also get some backstory on Holden when Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) goes to see his parents on earth. Avasarala has an inkling of doubt about Holden, who seems to be the perfect candidate to defect and work for the Outer Planets Alliance. The whole meeting with Elise Holden (Frances Fisher) provides some interesting backstory and fleshes out details that have only been alluded to at this point. The boy who was conceived and raised by a cult of political extremists looking for generational land rights, is given the opportunity to leave and make his own life elsewhere. It’s almost too perfect that he would naturally sympathize with the OPA, but of course it’s more complicated than that and leads Avasarala to rule him out as a criminal mastermind.
The prospect of Miller and Holden finally meeting is exciting because it means that some of the answers that both men (and the audience) have been seeking to the overarching mystery hanging over this series will finally be revealed. The ones who killed Julie Mao and destroyed The Canterbury are one and the same and there is nothing more puzzling than to have a foe whose identity and motives are unknown. There’s a sense of anticipation in watching this episode that some answers are finally forthcoming and they couldn’t come soon enough.