The Season 5 Mystery The Expanse Fans Want Resolved In Season 6

Amazon Prime's The Expanse is one distinguished sci-fi show, and season 5 does plenty of heavy lifting to uphold that reputation. The season continues to display the series' uncanny knack for constantly upping its game and uncovering more and more of its vast and interesting mysteries, socio-political relations and historical struggles. Though The Expanse has had to leave out a bunch of stuff from James S. A. Corey's books, the show is still so good that some people feel it seems to predict the future. It's so good, in fact, that despite the fact that it's set to wrap up after season 6, there's still speculation about its potential return to TV after that. 

Despite all the acclaim, even the greatest show always has something that goes slightly unattended. Recently, some fans have focused on one particular conundrum that they feel The Expanse season 5 didn't explain properly. Let's take a look at the season 5 mystery The Expanse fans want resolved in season 6. 

A driving force of The Expanse's internal dynamics is the longstanding conflict between the wealthy Earth, the plucky Mars, and the chaotic Belt. The relationship interplay between all three factions is in full effect when Earther politician Chrisjen Avarasala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) meets United Nations Navy Admiral Delgado (Michael Irby) for her newest ploy to keep Earth safe. 

While this has all the makings of a dramatic scene in its own right, some fans on Reddit seem greatly bothered by the joke Delgado tells during their meeting — yet never finishes. 

The joke is a variation of the "three men walk into a bar" template, in which the Belter asks for a Martian drink, while the Martian wants an Earther one, both proclaiming in turn that "drinking like my enemy lets me think like my enemy." Unfortunately, Delgado is interrupted before saying what the Earther orders, which presumably would have been the punchline. "Is it ever finished in the books?" user switchedatdivorce asked, on the aforementioned Reddit thread, regarding the joke. "What is it? It's driving me NUTS since I LOVE 'walk into a bar' jokes." 

Other Reddit and Twitter users have also been bothered by the lack of punchline, to a point that they've collected multiple potential endings to the joke. Generally, these seem to revolve around the central concept that the Earther orders whatever he wants because he's either unwilling to play with the joke's conventions, or doesn't care about the other two, or even because he simply recognizes he's "already like my enemy."

All of these are cool ideas, and potentially viable ending templates for the joke, should you ever find yourself walking into a bar with a Martian and a Belter. 

Then again, redditor Darck47 pointed out that the scene actually kind of does deliver the punchline, thanks to the fact that the joke is interrupted by an Earther scientist — ordering an Earth drink, bourbon, which in the joke's context would technically confirm the Earther as both his own enemy and being in blatant disregard of the other two. As the user wrote, "Personally I think the joke kind of finishes itself when the Dr. comes in and when asked what he wants he says 'Bourbon' and Delgado goes 'ah' and chuckles almost like the Dr's request was the punchline." 

Right now, it's up to the fans to decide whether Delgado was right to let his joke to end with that happy accident, or if he — or some other character — should return to the well in The Expanse season 6. If the joke is popular enough in-universe, it would definitely be interesting to hear, say, Amos Burton's (Wes Chatham) version.