Speaker 1: Welcome to Spacing Out with BB and Jason this week
Speaker 1: covering Foundation Season two, Episode two, A Glimpse of Darkness.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Spacing Out.
Speaker 3: I'm BB and I'm Jason, and we are discussing Foundation
Speaker 3: one episode at a time, spoiler free and Foundation is
Speaker 3: currently available to stream on Apple TV.
Speaker 2: If you got it like that, watch it. There's other
Speaker 2: shows on Apple TV that I highly encourage you to watch,
Speaker 2: like Severance that's really good, yes, especially if you work in.
Speaker 3: A cubicle and you want to relive that in the
Speaker 3: evenings as well. This is our first time watching this series,
Speaker 3: so we're not watching a head or anything, so there's
Speaker 3: no spoilers, no spoiler section in our podcast reallyway.
Speaker 2: This episode is being released in two different podcasts, so
Speaker 2: if you are listening with us spacing Out with Foundation,
Speaker 2: I invite you to check out the main channel, Spacing
Speaker 2: Out with BB and Jason, where we have covered other
Speaker 2: shows and movies such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek Our
Speaker 2: Flag means Death am Alien, Yes.
Speaker 3: Indeed, But today we are talking about Foundation Season two,
Speaker 3: Episode two, A Glimpse of Darkness. This originally aired on
Speaker 3: July twenty first, twenty twenty three, written by David S.
Speaker 3: Goyer and Jane Espinson and directed by David S. Goyer.
Speaker 3: In this episode, Harry informs Salvor and Gale that establishing
Speaker 3: a second foundation is crucial for the survival of the
Speaker 3: first and for his plan to work, but that was
Speaker 3: interrupted when Gale fled the ship while en route to Helicon. Then,
Speaker 3: with Harry's help, they managed to jumpstart the Beggar and
Speaker 3: leave Sinax just in time before huge storm waves hit them.
Speaker 3: Over dinner, Queen Sarah discusses with Empire the particulars of
Speaker 3: their impending union while tactfully developed, delving into the assassination
Speaker 3: attempt on planets. Swenna poly Veresov, high cleric of the Foundation,
Speaker 3: and his junior novice cleric brother Constant, while spreading the
Speaker 3: Foundation's mission, learn that Selden's vault has reopened. Nicely jump
Speaker 3: back to Terminus to attend what will ensue. The warden
Speaker 3: approaches Selden's fault and gets incinerated before the name hober
Speaker 3: Mallow appears written on the vault, and then Gail appears
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty years into the future and is
Speaker 3: attacked by a telepath called the Mule who is the
Speaker 3: source of the impending darkness, just before she sees Selver
Speaker 3: dead beside her. After the encounter, Gail procurs from her
Speaker 3: future self the location of the second foundation on the
Speaker 3: planet Ignes.
Speaker 1: Five. Check. Did we like the episode overall?
Speaker 3: We are trying really hard to like this show, and
Speaker 3: did this episode move the needle for you.
Speaker 2: A little bit? It was better than the last episode,
Speaker 2: for sure, But they introduce new characters without establishing them
Speaker 2: at all, and that's confusing. Yeah, I'm frustrating. And how
Speaker 2: am I supposed to care about their futures? I guess
Speaker 2: the little the guy is that drunk guy needs to
Speaker 2: be the little brown boy the last episode, right, so
Speaker 2: he's like an old man now with problems.
Speaker 3: He doesn't get the respect that he wants. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I agree. It's it's better than the last episode. I
Speaker 3: think the last time we were spinning out because they
Speaker 3: just jumped forward in time and said like this is
Speaker 3: the new normal, and we're like, wait, how did we
Speaker 3: get here? What's going on? And now we're there's some
Speaker 3: of that with because we're bringing in new characters and
Speaker 3: we're touching base with the foundation, which we didn't do
Speaker 3: last time. But we are actually like moving forward with
Speaker 3: the storylines without rushing ahead. Yeah, so yeah, I think
Speaker 3: it was a step up, and I think it started
Speaker 3: really strong for me, like that whole action sequence on
Speaker 3: the ship and stuff.
Speaker 2: Where she was outside. I swear Gail doesn't do shit
Speaker 2: and her daughter like carries them speriously. Gail is such
Speaker 2: a passive bottom.
Speaker 3: No, she can hold her breath. Yeah, I think it
Speaker 3: started strong. It got boring at times. There's like a
Speaker 3: boardroom scene and stuff like. Yeah, but yeah, I think
Speaker 3: it's definitely an improvement. So I liked it overall, but
Speaker 3: still a little little down on it.
Speaker 1: Trivia time, What facts or news could we uncover for
Speaker 1: a glimpse of darkness? All right?
Speaker 3: So, speaking of new characters, there are several minor characters
Speaker 3: from the books that are introduced in this episode. In
Speaker 3: the Foundation Government, there's directors Sairmac, Councilor Sutt and Brigadier Manilow.
Speaker 3: I don't remember who was who in the episode because
Speaker 3: they didn't spend a lot of time explaining these people,
Speaker 3: but they're all book characters and the directors Smyrnacks director Sahirmac.
Speaker 3: In the books, he was a political opponent of Salver Harden.
Speaker 3: I don't think that storyline's happening since they're not in
Speaker 3: the same place, and those characters in the books also
Speaker 3: were separated by a lot of years, so they've evidenced
Speaker 3: that they've kind of condensed a lot of the timelines
Speaker 3: and are combining things to give us some more streamlined
Speaker 3: story instead of jumping forward all the time. They also
Speaker 3: mentioned the name bel Rios and hober Mallow, and those
Speaker 3: are also book characters. And then the Mule is a
Speaker 3: little bit of a minor spoiler from the books. I
Speaker 3: don't think it's that big a deal, though, there's if
Speaker 3: you care about that, skip ahead like twenty seconds. The
Speaker 3: Mule is the villain of the books. I would say
Speaker 3: it takes a while for him to come on the scene,
Speaker 3: but then it really becomes like the foundation versus a
Speaker 3: mule because he was someone with the they call it
Speaker 3: telepathic abilities in this I think he had more like
Speaker 3: emotional manipulation powers. Oh, and that was unforeseen by Harry
Speaker 3: Seldyn and like it really throws the whole plan off course.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 3: So a little information on our writing and directing crew here.
Speaker 3: Writer Dane Espenson is well known in science fiction. She
Speaker 3: was involved in a lot of Joss Whedon product projects,
Speaker 3: including Buffy, which she wrote twenty three episodes of Damn
Speaker 3: Girl was executive story editor starting with season three. She
Speaker 3: also worked on Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse and The Nevers Road,
Speaker 3: number episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Kaprica, one episode of
Speaker 3: Deep Space nine, which we've been watching. I was also
Speaker 3: highly involved in the show Once Upon a Time, and
Speaker 3: she also resolved in gil Mar Girls, Ellen and Jessica Jones,
Speaker 3: Torchwood and her resume goes on Out and.
Speaker 2: A Woman Aft for my Own Heart. Yes, I love
Speaker 2: all those shows. I haven't gotten into Torchwood. It's a
Speaker 2: spin off of Doctor Who. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So when I saw her name show up in
Speaker 3: this season, I was kind of excited because she is
Speaker 3: like a fixture of science fiction television and fantasy television
Speaker 3: over the last like twenty five years or something thirty years.
Speaker 3: Directed director David Skoyer also the creator. He did a
Speaker 3: lot of superhero stuff, the Dark Knight trilogy, the Blade Trilogy,
Speaker 3: Terminator Dark Fate, which I think is an underrated Terminator movie,
Speaker 3: the Constantine TV series, and the Sandman series.
Speaker 1: Deep Space Dive let's break down some of our thoughts
Speaker 1: on the episode. You can share your thoughts with us
Speaker 1: through email or social media. We may use your comments
Speaker 1: on an upcoming episode.
Speaker 2: How about that young lady that's patrol to the Empire.
Speaker 3: I like her attitude. I do too.
Speaker 2: I like that she seems more interested in dawn than day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and seems closer and age them too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so maybe I don't know, maybe a love
Speaker 2: triangle is developing here, and I love a love triangle.
Speaker 3: And they're like, hey, we're all the same man, so
Speaker 3: it's not cheating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ew. And then she's like, I want to see
Speaker 2: your She she like manipulated the shit out of him.
Speaker 2: She's like, well, I thought that, you know, that assassination
Speaker 2: tempt was interesting And he's like.
Speaker 3: How do you know about that?
Speaker 2: And she's like I didn't, but you confirmed it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. She is in total control of like their whole interaction.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I love it. I love when the woman
Speaker 2: is in charge. And it made the robot lady so uneasy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I still feel like she is tarboring feelings for.
Speaker 2: Him, yeah, stepmom feelings.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sorry, you probably don't want to hear that in your
Speaker 2: throat in your canal.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so.
Speaker 2: She's great and her her eyeshadow like in the middle
Speaker 2: of her face so interesting, very future, very of the moment.
Speaker 3: I love it. Yeah, she has all the power in
Speaker 3: this arrangement because he is basically like courting her to
Speaker 3: get her to agree to this arrangement, and you can
Speaker 3: feel every moment, like in any normal circumstance, like she
Speaker 3: would be pushing too far, but he kind of has
Speaker 3: to go along with her, like, yeah, I'll show you
Speaker 3: all the clones, I'll show you this, so I will
Speaker 3: bend at your tell you this information. And yeah, so
Speaker 3: it's is just really interesting to see the empire kind
Speaker 3: of have to foul. Yeah. Yeah, Basically she's really concerned
Speaker 3: about that assassination attempt though, like she doesn't let that go.
Speaker 2: Well, I think she doesn't want him to forget that
Speaker 2: his life is over regardless, Like I don't. I think
Speaker 2: she was probably like a supporter of it, even like
Speaker 2: if he would have been assassinated, then she would definitely
Speaker 2: be betrothed to brother Dawn. But she's like, well, you
Speaker 2: would just be replaced. How would I know? Right, you
Speaker 2: wouldn't even know, And that's crazy that you wouldn't even
Speaker 2: know that you were a victim of murder. You're just
Speaker 2: some clone? What a life? What did you think about
Speaker 2: the people in the red robes?
Speaker 3: I wasn't expecting such like a missionary spreading the good news.
Speaker 3: Have you heard that good? Yeah? I mean they haven't
Speaker 3: given us enough time with the foundation and what's going
Speaker 3: on with them now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no investment into their plight whatever it may be.
Speaker 2: We still don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So yeah, I don't know what to make of
Speaker 3: their old thing right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like they're supposed to evoke some sort
Speaker 2: of like you're supposed to feel like they're doing good
Speaker 2: work or something because they're being persecuted by the locals
Speaker 2: and called heretics and all this. But I don't feel
Speaker 2: anything for them because I don't know that. But I
Speaker 2: am really interested in that shot she gave that guy
Speaker 2: that sobered him up in like ten seconds? What is that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So we do learn. So they're going around basically
Speaker 3: to recruit other planets in the surrounding area that the
Speaker 3: Empire is pulled away from, and they're stepping in and
Speaker 3: they have superior technology to offer them, but they're going
Speaker 3: about it as like this is like magic, this is
Speaker 3: of faith and spirits and stuff.
Speaker 1: M m.
Speaker 3: And we kind of get a sense that what they
Speaker 3: call that guy, the director Cermak, is thinking more of
Speaker 3: a military and economic sense about bringing all these planets in. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he wants to establish outpost and get resources and things
Speaker 3: like that. There's an interesting line I think from Harry
Speaker 3: Seldon over in the other storyline that like the foundation
Speaker 3: without like with power unchecked, basically becomes the empire again.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, I mean there is some interesting aspects going on
Speaker 3: to that, I do think, but some of it was
Speaker 3: just delivered in such a boring way, like that meeting
Speaker 3: room was not an interesting way to establish all this.
Speaker 2: No, and like they said, it's starting to look like
Speaker 2: Tarmac or whatever. I don't know what the name of
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 3: Trantor Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of names to keep
Speaker 3: track of.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel like that guy he wanted
Speaker 2: a bigger role, and I think he got off really easy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because that other motherfucker was burned to ash. So I
Speaker 2: don't know. No, Harry seldom for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know why he couldn't come out and
Speaker 3: just say.
Speaker 2: That because he had to emphasize his point.
Speaker 3: I do think it would be helpful if in some
Speaker 3: way they just helped this like visualize the galaxy and
Speaker 3: like wherever around them like a map.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like every other fucking science fiction fantasy show gives you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, some sort of establishing thing to like here's where
Speaker 3: the foundation is, and here's kind of their alliance is now,
Speaker 3: and here's where these other places that they're talking about,
Speaker 3: because it's it's not always clear, and it's when they're
Speaker 3: trying to tell you that, like, you know, the Foundation
Speaker 3: has grown a lot, but they're just they're telling, not showing.
Speaker 2: Show show not tell. It's called a television show.
Speaker 3: Give me a quick power point somewhere in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it could have been cool if they if they
Speaker 2: had like a strategic plan at the table, showing like, Okay,
Speaker 2: these are the colonies that we have invested, and here
Speaker 2: are the ones that are still on the fence. This
Speaker 2: is the one you just came from. How did it go?
Speaker 2: Did anything else happen in the show? I feel like
Speaker 2: not a lot happened.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned earlier, there was that action scene at
Speaker 3: the beginning that I thought was really well done and
Speaker 3: was the most exciting part of the episode was a
Speaker 3: little downhill from there.
Speaker 2: It isn't that weird that you start with like your climax.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I liked that scene. I like, I mean,
Speaker 3: the action was good. I was wondering, like, so Salvor
Speaker 3: goes out on top of the ship to like bang
Speaker 3: on that vent or whatever.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: She couldn't have brought like a hammer or something to.
Speaker 2: Like she had her knife and then she lost it.
Speaker 3: Well, she was just like punching a lot.
Speaker 2: Well, she lost her knife. So she had a punch.
Speaker 2: It showed that she's tough, and you know, she thinks
Speaker 2: on her heat. What would a gale done. She would
Speaker 2: have held her breath. Oh she would have yeah, counted
Speaker 2: exponents or whatever she does.
Speaker 3: And I feel like we got more emotion out of
Speaker 3: them than we did last episode.
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure. When they hugged, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: That was really good. One hug was like more than
Speaker 3: we got all last episode when they were learning that
Speaker 3: they're related and everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I did enjoy their hug.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So they genuinely care for each other and that's
Speaker 3: nice to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's sad that she had to see her dead. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's scary. But I don't think like anything set
Speaker 2: in stone in terms of the future, so that's kind
Speaker 2: of nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they just they don't know if they're changing things
Speaker 3: or if they're playing into it, and it's kind of
Speaker 3: this mind game that they're in.
Speaker 2: Now. I love the Mule. It was that very brief
Speaker 2: moment I saw of him, him with his blazing blue
Speaker 2: eyes looking into her soul and saying, what's this a
Speaker 2: younger Gale looking at me from the past. Ah, that's
Speaker 2: so iconic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm excited, like not. I wasn't expecting to see
Speaker 3: the Mule at disappoint the storyline, yeah, because yeah, so
Speaker 3: they found an interesting way to thread that in.
Speaker 2: Like jumping into the future.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so it sounds like Gail and Salvor and
Speaker 3: that version of Fairy Selman. I guess they're going to
Speaker 3: be establishing the second Foundation, yeah joy. Oh, yes, and they'll
Speaker 3: have to change the show to Foundations.
Speaker 2: Maybe foundation is just like the name of their cult,
Speaker 2: and it's very much a cult.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I didn't like that.
Speaker 3: I don't like that they steered hard into that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they really did. And honestly, I bet Harry would
Speaker 2: love it. I bet he'd be really into that. Whole
Speaker 2: statue of him and them waiting for him, and the
Speaker 2: pump and circumstance and all that. I think he'd be
Speaker 2: really into that. Even though he's supposed to be a
Speaker 2: man of science and maths and all that. He was
Speaker 2: like a I don't know that. The last season, I
Speaker 2: can think of him framing Gail to bring come into
Speaker 2: the fold with him, and him like presenting his ideas
Speaker 2: in the court of the Empire. All this like very dramatic,
Speaker 2: very showbody kind of personality. But it was interesting to
Speaker 2: see him so humble in that version of himself where
Speaker 2: he's meeting Gail and them. He seemed less sure of
Speaker 2: himself because he was trapped for like one hundred years
Speaker 2: oh by himself. He's like, you didn't think what would
Speaker 2: happen to me?
Speaker 3: And she's like, my bad, oops, I thought I turned
Speaker 3: you off.
Speaker 2: You weren't in sleep mode. My bad.
Speaker 3: I think we touched on everything, Yeah.
Speaker 2: As much as I want to, because I really I'm
Speaker 2: still waiting for the show to start, Like it feels
Speaker 2: like it's preheating right now. I'm ready to cook some
Speaker 2: buns in the oven or something.
Speaker 3: Come on, guys, you ready for the mule?
Speaker 2: Will I want something to happen because the Empire is
Speaker 2: not a good bad guy.
Speaker 3: No, I mean right now, like the Empire is not
Speaker 3: even really opposing the foundation. Then we're gonna wait, foundations
Speaker 3: still exists. I gotta focus on this other stuff.
Speaker 2: Let me put that on the back burner.
Speaker 3: I've got my hopefully future wife, I've got my stepmom situation.
Speaker 3: I got my brother's raising down my neck. Like there's
Speaker 3: a lot going on at home.
Speaker 2: We're gonna circle back, We're gonna put a pin in it.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Interesting he doesn't. He reveals a lot to the queen,
Speaker 3: but not that. Uh Demerzal is the robot. Yeah, she's
Speaker 3: got her own arrangements. So man, it's interesting that keeps
Speaker 3: that closer to the chest than hisses. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Astral Queen, who was the stand out character in the episode.
Speaker 3: Do you have an Astral queen for this episode?
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give it to the Cloud Queen her again. Yeah.
Speaker 2: She's just a sassy bitch and I love her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she is really good.
Speaker 2: She's like got the best quips. She's she's sharp as
Speaker 2: the tack.
Speaker 3: Doesn't let him like bullshit through anything. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So and she's not. She even like was very honest.
Speaker 2: She's like, I wasn't trained in leadership. I'm not a leader.
Speaker 2: I studied art and music and dance and all this shit,
Speaker 2: Like I was never meant to be in this position.
Speaker 2: But now that I am, I'm not gonna shut the
Speaker 2: fuck up.
Speaker 3: And I love that. Yeah, I'm really curious what her
Speaker 3: role is in the future of the show, Like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what will become of them?
Speaker 3: Like even just assuming that they do get married, try
Speaker 3: to consummate, consummate like.
Speaker 2: Well, no, they're not even gonna They're gonna do it
Speaker 2: in a Petri dish.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he doesn't want to reverse set vasectony. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know. She's so interesting and like, what how's
Speaker 3: this relationship? How does her role in the Empire play out?
Speaker 3: I'm so to pick someone too, aren't they?
Speaker 2: Yeah you should. Uh, you can pick her too. I
Speaker 2: do like her, But you also liked what's her name
Speaker 2: with a knife and the punching right like sal.
Speaker 3: I liked to Gail too. I liked her journey into
Speaker 3: the future, So a lot of options this time, we're
Speaker 3: not scrounding. I've picked Salver a couple of times now,
Speaker 3: but I shouldn't let that impact it. I think I
Speaker 3: am going to pick Queen Sarah as well. She just
Speaker 3: brought a lot to that whole storyline. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 3: she's two times the astral Queen of this episode. You
Speaker 3: want to know why we call it the astral Queen.
Speaker 3: That goes way back to our Battlestar Galactica podcast. So
Speaker 3: that wraps up our coverage for season two, episode two,
Speaker 3: A Glimpse of Darkness, and we'll see you the next
Speaker 3: time when we cover episode three called King and Commoner.
Speaker 2: I like that. I like that. I hope somebody gets usurped.
Speaker 3: And that is it for us. So thank you for
Speaker 3: spacing out. Amen, Amen, so say we all you and
Speaker 3: what is it?
Speaker 2: Prospect and enjoy the peace, bitch.
Speaker 1: Thank you for spacing out with BB and Jason. You
Speaker 1: can help us out by subscribing and leaving a positive
Speaker 1: rating or review. Remember you can contact us through email
Speaker 1: or social media. Next time we will cover Foundation season
Speaker 1: two episode three, King and Commoner