Exclusive The Expanse clip highlights the season’s best performance

Season 5 of The Expanse is off to a roaring start, with a few twists and turns that fans of the original novels weren’t expecting. This season is also clearly pushing the franchise’s newest major character to the forefront. Polygon had the chance to speak with authors S.A. Corey about Camina Drummer, played by actress Cara Gee. You can get a sneak peek at her performance — opposite Keon Alexander as Marco Inaros — in the exclusive new clip from episode 6.

Drummer was originally a named character in Nemesis Games, the fifth novel first published in 2015, where she was the chief of security at Tycho Station. In the television series that role has been expanded to incorporate the storylines of several other characters.

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“One of the things that’s really cheap and easy to do in prose is make a new character,” co-creator Daniel Abraham told Polygon during an interview last month. “You don’t have to cast anybody. You just write down a new name. It happens. It’s wonderful.

“As a result, you have a whole bunch of people with a whole bunch of stories and a whole bunch of kind of cool moments,” he continued. “When you have a really good actor, then you can shift those over to you kind of wind up with this, this concentration of awesome. Cara is good enough to carry it.”

But, in season 5, Drummer is more than just an expeditious way to get in the best bits from the novels. The character is also the commander of a polyamorous crew of Belters trying to make their way along the hostile edge of space. She finally feels like a vital character in her own right — centered by Gee’s dynamic performance — as a stand-in for the more moderate, level-headed wing of the erratic Belter faction.

Episode 6, which premieres Jan. 6, will bring her team dangerously close to the center of the conflict — and on to the same starship with the terrorist Marco Inaros. This clip, Abraham said, is just the tip of the iceberg for Drummer this season.

“As to her character specifically in season 5 and her arc and season 5 and the things that she does in season 5,” Abraham told Polygon, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The first five episodes of The Expanse season 5 are available now — alongside the previous four seasons — on Amazon Prime Video.