Dominique Tipper Teases A Big Reveal For Naomi In The Expanse Season 5
With a massive cast of characters, warring factions whose loyalties are subject to flip on a dime, and an existential threat to humanity hovering over the whole proceedings, there are more than a few comparisons to make between the sci-fi epic The Expanse and fantasy favorite Game of Thrones. Like the latter, The Expanse is based on a series of acclaimed novels, brimming with interconnected stories and some very satisfying moments of foreshadowing.
The fourth season of The Expanse ended with the rise of a radical insurgent leader named Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander). Marco is a Belter, someone who lives in the solar system's asteroid belt, who has been purchasing stolen Martian military technology in preparation for a large-scale attack on the Inners, who call one of the inhabited planets like Earth or Mars home. He's being assisted by a crew of Belters who share his ideological beliefs, including his own son, Filip (Jasai Chase Owens).
While these characters were introduced during season 4, unbeknownst to viewers who aren't familiar with the books, they had actually been referenced obliquely multiple times throughout the run of the series. That's because Marco is a former lover of one of the main characters of the series, Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), and Filip is the son she had with him.
Tipper explained in a recent interview how that revelation had actually been teased throughout the run of the show, and hinted that there might be more revelations in store for Naomi in The Expanse's fifth season.
Light spoilers follow for the first three episodes of The Expanse season 5, which were released on Amazon Prime Video on December 16.
There may be more for viewers to learn about Naomi's backstory
During an interview with ScreenRant, both Tipper and Alexander were asked about the challenge of bringing their characters' past relationship into the present moment through their performances. Tipper acknowledged, "It was a challenge, for sure." However, she also pointed out that, whether viewers realized it at the time or not, her relationship with Marco and Filip has been present and alluded to on the show since the beginning.
She went on to say, "Obviously, we had some great source material, and also four seasons of seeds being planted that I think if you watched it from the beginning — and even if you went back and watched now — there is stuff from season one in Naomi's life and things that are happening; things she's hiding that literally get to play out in season five."
In the first three episodes of the fifth season, we have already seen Naomi track down Filip and Marco. Based on Tipper's comments, it looks like the series plans to give viewers more insight into Naomi's past and the history of her relationship with Marco. And based on the fact that Tipper alluded to her hiding something, it could end up being a significant revelation.
Over on Reddit, fans of both the books and the show have already been tracking the clever ways that the show has been hinting at future events since season 1.
How the show has been teasing Naomi's relationship with Marco since season 1
Even before The Expanse introduced viewers to Marco and began to unravel Naomi's complicated relationship with him, fans on Reddit were scouring the show looking for the ways it's been teasing out later revelations, even during the early seasons.
In one thread from a year ago on the series' foreshadowing, user u/James-vd-Bosch noted a moment from the first season that quietly laid the groundwork for the revelation of the existence of Filip. They wrote, "In return for doing the mission Fred Johnson tasked them to do, Naomi asks Fred about finding someone for her when the time comes, obviously, hinting at Filip."
An even earlier thread highlighted how the series was making direct connections between Naomi and Marco before viewers even knew who he was, let alone their relationship. User u/Picard2331 wrote, "They've definitely been teasing... since the beginning. When they're on the Donnager and Lopez shows Holden the data pad about Naomi you can see Marco Inaros and his crew listed!"
If you haven't read the books, you won't want to go digging too deep on Reddit to find other future events that the series has left breadcrumbs for. But when season 5 of The Expanse finishes, it could certainly be a fun way to pass the time before the show's sixth and final season.