Chrisjen Avasarala calls back to her The Expanse season 1 arrival, proving how drastically Earth's most fashion-forward politician - and The Expanse as a show - have changed since her debut. Were you to pluck any character - Earther, Martian, or Belter - from The Expanse season 1, then tell them about the galaxy-shifting events that awaited, even the most drunken bar-crawler would have a tough time believing the story. In The Expanse season 1, Belters were a minor annoyance to a UN government focused squarely on Mars, but season 6 finds the Inner planets united against a Belter army in full control of the Sol system. Said Belter army also occupies an alien-made gateway to hundreds of other habitable worlds that popped up just outside Uranus. Better pass that Firehawk whisky...
Yet nothing in The Expanse has transformed as drastically as its main characters, and Chrisjen Avasarala exemplifies this truth in season 6's "Why We Fight." Played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, Avasarala has seen it all from her position as Earth's political force of nature. In The Expanse season 6, Avasarala is effectively commanding the Consolidated Fleet of Earth and Mars, striking back against the Belter Free Navy after Marco Inaros' mob brought Earth to the brink of collapse. Left with little alternative, Avasarala strikes an unprecedented allegiance with Camina Drummer's faction of Belter rebels.
Before the fateful handshake, Avasarala takes a moment to appreciate her evolution. She tells James Holden, "I once put a Belter up on hooks to suffocate him... I did it because I could. The Belt sees me that way because that is who I was. It is not who I am now." This line directly references events from The Expanse's very first episode ("Dulcinea"), namely the sequence where Avasarala debuts, leaving her loving family home behind to torture a Belter at a UN black site in New York.
Avasarala's season 1 callback serves two major purposes for The Expanse's present day - the most obvious being to explain her darkest moment. Entering The Expanse with no prior knowledge of the books or the various characters within, one could easily come away from season 1's premiere believing Chrisjen Avasarala occupies the villainous end of James S.A. Corey's character spectrum. Across 6 whole seasons, Avasarala has never experienced a darker low than callously torturing a Belter while quipping, "If he survives, call me." Until now, The Expanse has never addressed Avasarala's shameful past - despite her evolution into one of the show's biggest protagonists. The Expanse season 6's "Why We Fight" not only reveals Avasarala's regret over torturing Belters, but also explains her motivation for doing so - because she could, and because her perception of Belters back then was narrowed and prejudiced. When Avasarala admits she deserves the hatred of the Belt, that's as close to an apology as she's capable of giving.
The second purpose of The Expanse season 6's Avasarala throwback is bringing Shohreh Aghdashloo's character full circle as the final episode looms. Avasarala has transitioned from torturing OPA members in search of intelligence to forging peaceful relations with the less militant Belters, and now, finally, creating a proper alliance between Earth, Mars and the Belt to combat a new force that arose out of the pain and hardship folk like Avasarala subjected Belters to for many years. As Drummer duly points out, Avasarala's actions made Marco Inaros inevitable. By acknowledging that and striving to change, Chrisjen Avasarala's character arc is complete in The Expanse season 6's penultimate episode.