The Hilarious Season 5 In-Joke That Only Die-Hard Expanse Fans Will Get

Aside from the propulsive narrative and compelling characters, sci-fi fans love The Expanse because it's a show that is rich in detail (and often eerily precinct). The worldbuilding is intricate, both because of the set and costume designs and the way the series canonizes its lore by making frequent callbacks and references. Season 5, which just came to a dramatic conclusion, is no exception. In fact, while watching one episode of the season, fans on Reddit noticed a blink-and-you'll-miss-it inside joke from seasons past.

Way back in season 2, there was an episode of the series titled "Doors & Corners," a reference to advice given by Detective Joe Miller (Thomas Jane). He recounted explaining to a rookie cop the importance of keeping one's guard up when going through doors or around corners during a police raid, as those are the moments you are most vulnerable to potential attackers. The phrase has popped up on the show since and has become a bit of a fan favorite. It's even the name of an expansion pack for The Expanse board game. So, obviously hardcore fans of the series always have their eyes and ears open for it to be worked into the show.

Eagle-eyed posters on Reddit noticed that the phrase did indeed make an appearance on the show's fifth season, however the context left them wondering exactly what it all means.

On a Reddit thread appropriately titled "Doors and Corners. That's where they get you," user u/Achromatikon posted a screengrab from the season 5 episode "Down and Out." It shows a split-second shot from a scene where Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) is being held captive on her ex-partner Marco Inaros' (Keon Alexander) warship. Trying to gather resources to escape, she uses one of the ship's terminals to see what kind of access she has.

When it registers who she is, it displays a screen indicating that she basically has no access to any of the important areas or utilities on the ship. The only thing that lists "ALLOWED" next to it is something named "DOORS: CRNS_CNTRL."

Fans got a kick out of the callback. User u/ianm42 wrote, "The attention to detail in this series never ceases to amaze me," while u/not_judging_you said simply, "Hah! Very perceptive!"

There was a little chatter about what the reference could possibly mean. Is Detective Miller coming back from the dead again? Was it a meta warning to Naomi to keep her wits about her? Ultimately, most fans were following u/decoy321's train of thought. They commented, "I love how it's definitely an Easter egg, because why would you need control panels for corners? Like 'sorry, kid. You don't have clearance to turn this corner.'"

In fact, a user called u/Chutney_Chiller who works on the series as a motion graphics supervisor confirmed this. They wrote, "So this one was shameless and pure Reddit bait. Hoping you all got a kick out of it!"

It looks like mission accomplished on that one.