Having been introduced to alien "life" in the form of the protomolecule last season, series 2 makes us question whether it is a hostile force of its own volition, or whether it has become that in the hands of amoral and avaricious people who wish to weaponize it. We also get a horrifying glimpse of how they are doing this, and what they've created with it. This tends to make me more sympathetic than not with Holden's obsession with destroying all protomolecule samples. Although I also understand the argument that it needs to be studied in order to find a way to combat it if necessary. Unfortunately, most of the parties involved are bad faith actors, looking to get their hands on it in order to gain power or leverage over rivals and/or other governments.
James Holden is obviously meant to be the moral center of the show; he genuinely has no ulterior motives. He is horrified by what happened on Eros, and seeks to destroy the protomolecule before anyone else- whether from Earth, Mars, or the Belt- can be hurt by it. This doesn't mean that he never makes mistakes or takes missteps, but he's truly trying to do what's right. His idealism takes a bit of a hit this season though, as he swiftly finds that pursuing justice- or vengeance- frequently means that a lot of innocent people get hurt as well as guilty ones. Holden and Naomi start a romantic relationship in this series, and as we learn more about her character, it becomes clear that she has divided loyalties. She clearly has some sort of history with the OPA and desires more political power- and better lives- for the Belters. It also becomes obvious that something happened in the past which haunts her and makes her feel guilty; when she warns Holden about the danger of using questionable means to achieve one's ends, even if those ends are righteous, you get the feeling that she's speaking from personal experience. Alex- the pilot- has really found his niche on the Roci, but is a little hard to figure because he seems to be full of contradictions. He's constantly trying to make the ship into a home, the crew into family, yet we learn that, after their original ship was destroyed in the first series, he never contacted his wife and son and now they think he's dead. The guy who seems the most in need of family ties has cut his own... it's weird and I don't get it- or respect it.
Amos swiftly became one of the most interesting characters in the show for me. At the beginning of the first series, one might have dismissed him as the "muscle" but he's actually a lot more complicated than that. Yes, he often reacts to situations with extreme violence and doesn't seem to feel any particular remorse when he does so... but he's never gratuitously cruel. If he sees a threat that needs to be eliminated, he does whatever needs to be done to accomplish that, but he doesn't go out of his way to start trouble- he just finishes it, by any means necessary. We also see in this season that Amos regards himself as not being a good person, and believes that there's something wrong with him. Through a few statements he makes to Holden and also to Prax, we get hints that Amos had a very terrible- probably abusive- childhood which goes a long way to explain why he is how he is.
This post is long enough, so in part 2 I'll discuss a couple of new characters and also the political and ethical dilemmas which occur in this season.