"Dulcinea" is the series premiere of the American science fiction television series The Expanse. It originally aired on Syfy in the United States on December 14, 2015. The episode was written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and directed by Terry McDonough, and is based on the first chapters of James S. A. Corey's novel Leviathan Wakes, the first novel in The Expanse novel series.
As the series premiere, it introduces a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System. The episode centers around three characters across different parts of a fully colonized solar system. Detective Joe Miller (Thomas Jane) is assigned to search for a missing girl in the asteroid belt; executive officer Jim Holden (Steven Strait) of the spaceship Canterbury faces a moral dilemma when he responds to a distress signal in the outer realm near Saturn; UN politician Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) interrogates a potential terrorist who may have crucial information.
Before its official release on December 14, the episode was posted early online on November 23, 2015, and it received praise from critics for its world building, aesthetics, and storytelling. 1.19 million American households watched the episode on its initial airing.
Plot
Background
The background of the series premiere is set two hundred years in the future. Humans have fully colonized the solar system, split up in three factions: Earth is controlled by the United Nations, Mars is an independent military power, and both depend on the resources of the colonized Asteroid belt, occupied by Belters, who work and live on the colonies set on the asteroids. For decades, tension has been rising between Earth, Mars, and the Belt, which increases the imminent possibility of a system-wide civil war, which will be one of the major plot points in the series.
Story
Prologue
Trapped in a small room on a space ship, a frightened young woman wearing a space suit hears ominous sounds and cries out for help, but no one answers. She then successfully breaks out of the room on her own, and searches for anyone on the ship. Then, she makes her way to the engineering bay, which is drenched and glowing with unknown blue material, and notices what looks like a human being sucked inside the vortex. She screams.
Ceres Station
Ceres, an asteroid in the Belt, has been transformed into the most vital port in the Belt, whose occupants work and live there under harsh circumstances, such as physical deterioration from the gravity and their residence in space, rationing of air and water, and constant mistreatment by Earthers and Martians. Belters have grown contemptuous and have organized activist groups, such as the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA), in order to raise awareness and recognition for the Belters. Joe Miller is a Belter who works as a corrupt detective for Earth-based Star Helix Security, the Earther police force on Ceres, and is often scolded by his own people, who call him a "welwala" (Belter for 'traitor to our people').
Having been assigned a new partner, Dimitri Havelock from Earth, Miller is given a new assignment: to find a missing girl, Julie Mao, a champion pilot and activist who is the daughter of wealthy businessman Jules-Pierre Mao. Miller is ordered to find Julie and bring her back to her family living on Luna. Miller takes a brief detour from his investigation; he tries unsuccessfully to flirt with his ex-lover and former partner, Octavia Muss, who shows signs of discomfort and concern for Miller's well-being. Miller later has a change of heart and decides to end his collaboration with Vargas, the sleazy owner of a sweatshop, whose child workers often develop sickness due to poor air filtration. Miller roughs up Vargas a bit, throwing him into an airlock and removing some of the air, in order to get his point across. He then continues his investigation of Julie afterwards.
Earth
On Earth, politician Chrisjen Avasarala, the U.N. Deputy Undersecretary, is spending time with her husband Arjun and grandson in her Westchester home, when she is contacted by officials and is taken to a U.N. black site, where U.N. officials are interrogating and torturing Heikki Sabong, a Belter member of the OPA accused of carrying contraband stealth technology. However, Sabong refuses to speak and Chrisjen orders to have his interrogation and torture prolonged.