The Expanse season 6, episode 3 "Force Projection" featured the returns of two characters from previous seasons in brief cameo appearances. Pastor Anna Volovodov (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Prax Meng (Terry Chen), who were major characters in seasons 2 and 3, appeared virtually in the episode in references to their involvement in the show's source novel Babylon's Ashes. Although their appearances hardly amounted to longer than a minute of screen time, Anna's and Prax's cameos were a welcome surprise in The Expanse season 6.
Anna first appeared in season 2 as a pastor and speech-writer. She later assumed a major role aboard the Behemoth in season 3 during its trip to the ring gate and the subsequent crisis. Prax emerged in The Expanse's main plot in season 2 when his daughter Mei was abducted on Ganymede by Dr. Lawrence Strickland for his deeply unethical testing of the protomolecule on children. Prax then coordinated with Holden and the Roci crew to rescue her and end Jules-Pierre Mao's protomolecule research facility.
In The Expanse season 6, episode 3, Anna appears on a news feed that Drummer's family members Michio and Josep are watching aboard the Tynan. Minutes later on the Rocinante, Amos, and Bobbie are idling in the ship's armory when Amos receives a message from an unknown sender. Upon opening and playing the feed, the two listen to Prax talk of his groundbreaking research on synthetic food production. These short sequences may not do justice for Anna's and Prax's full storylines in the book, but considering The Expanse season 6's shortened length, their addition is impressive.
Anna's storyline in book 6, Babylon's Ashes, details her experience living on Earth with her wife and daughter in the fallout of Marco's asteroid attacks. Her family struggles to survive on the limited resources provided by the UN, and they eventually leave Earth on a colony ship. In The Expanse season 6, Anna's presence correlates with Monica's commissioned project of broadcasting the human side of Earthers and Belters. In her short scene, Anna expresses a message of hope about the hardship the people of Earth have endured due to the war.
Babylon's Ashes sees Prax become one of the series' unsung heroes. He lives on Ganymede — which is under Free Navy control — and develops a modified strain of yeast that could allow for food production using only carbon dioxide and waste energy. In The Expanse season 6, he messages Amos with the data because one of his fellow researchers was accused of being a spy for Earth and killed as a result. He intends for Amos to pass on the data to someone important. Accordingly, after viewing the message with Bobbie, Amos sends Prax’s research to Avasarala.
The writers of The Expanse have said they planned bigger roles for Anna and Prax in season 6 to better portray their minor roles from the book, but due to the condensed length of six episodes, they had to trim the characters' involvement to cameos. It's unfortunate that viewers won't get to see the full extent of Anna's and Prax's Babylon's Ashes storylines portrayed on screen in The Expanse season 6, but its a still a small pleasure to see their faces again after three seasons of absence.
The Expanse releases new episodes Fridays on Prime Video.