Welcome to Spacing Out with BB and Jason this week covering Foundation season three, episode one, a song for the end of Everything.
Welcome to Spacey Now, I'm BB, and the ice cream Man is here with them too. Right when we start recording.
Let's pause, get ice cream?
You want to start again?
Sure?
Okay, Welcome to Spacey Now.
I'm BB and I'm Jason, and we are discussing the Apple TV sci fi series Foundation, one episode at a time, and the plan is to cover season three as it releases. So I think the episode has come out on Thursday evenings, and our episodes will hopefully be in your feeds Tuesday mornings.
Nice.
You know, this first episode is a little bit late, but we'll get it together.
We're going to be on schedule later.
And you may be listening to this on our Foundation podcast, but I do invite you to check out our main channel, spacing Alphoebe and Jason. We've covered a lot of different stuff over there. But in this episode, a mysterious new pirate with terrifying abilities known as the Mule, catches the attention of the Foundation and Empire.
Vibe check. Did we like the episode overall?
All right? It's a new season send some things up. How do we feel about it? Oh?
Anxious?
I'm just like, oh no, there's a bad guy now, a real bad guy. Before it was just like Empire arrogant bastard with big ego.
We can deal with that, I can. We got one of those at home. But this guy, Oh no, he's awful. He's scary.
Oh I'm really I'm really excited to kind of see my teeth into like a good versus evil and kind of having like different factions of like Foundation and Empire working together potentially to kind of combat this new evil.
Yeah, because it does kind of feel like that this is bigger than anything else that's soon to be happening, and so I mean we'll dig into that in the moment. But yeah, I mean I feel like there's a lot of scene setting. You know, we've jumped forward in time, so there's new characters kind of laying out what the new dynamics are of all the politics and stuff. So that was kind of to be expected, and I feel like the episode did it fairly well.
Yeah. I wasn't like, oh my god, who's this? Oh my god, why do I care? Oh my god?
Yeah, And I think they're I mean credit to season two, because when season two started, it was like we were being introduced to so many people and we just didn't really know what was going on. And a few episodes in it started to really gel. But I feel like they really threaded in and you know, stuff with the Mule and stuff last season, so like we kind of have some of our footing already going into this. So yeah, I think as a decent opener.
Trivia time, what facts for news could we uncover? For a song for the end of everything?
So this was foundation season three, episode one, a song for the end of Everything. I mean there's a character named Song. This originally aired on I guess it doesn't air it streams. For three streamed on July eleventh, twenty twenty five. Written by David S. Goyer and Jane Esmondson
and directed by David Skoyer was also the showrunner. So for season three, Alexander Sadig and Troy Kotzer were cast in the roles of Doctor Ebling me, a self taught psychohistorian, and Preem Palver, a leader of a planet of psychics, respectively. Those are both book characters that are getting brought to the screen and Alexander Sadig previously appeared and See One as a guest role as a different character, which I was kind of surprised that they actually reference that in
the show. He's a descendant of that character, I guess. Season three began filming in late May twenty twenty three in Prague. Filming was in halted and July fourteenth due to the twenty twenty three Hollywood labor disputes. Production on the third season was expected to resume in Prague in February twenty twenty four, but then once again disbanded due to budgetary issues, and then resuming again in March of twenty twenty four in Prague and Poland. So kind of
a rough go at getting the season done. Also, creator and show runner David es Goyer appears to have left the show now, in part due to the budget disputes. Season four has not been officially confirmed, but the writer's room is said to have been assembled with a new showrunner, Ian Goldberg, who is responsible for some really terrible TV. I'm not excited about that.
Oh no, he's responsible. That's give us one.
So the show Fear the Walking Dead switched showrunners to Ian Goldberg and this other guy, and the show just went like really downhill, really bad writing. Oh no, so.
So he has a reputation of running shows into the ground.
Yeah, oh no, so we'll see I guess. But he wasn't there for season three, so we got this to look forward to. And then the three rows of three Laws of Robotics I mentioned in this episode, and that comes from the Isaac Asimam's robot stories which get intertwined with the Foundation series. So they go through it pretty well in the episode. So I won't go through them, but that is trivia.
Grivia deep space dive. Let's break down some of our thoughts on the episode. You can share your thoughts with us through email or social media. We may use your comments on an upcoming episode.
So Don is in charge.
We have a competent Don thinking the lead, not like those old Don's falling in love and stuff.
Giving away state secret. It's running away. Whatever happened to that Dawn anyway? I really wanted to follow up on that.
Yeah, I'm really curious about that, Like I really that could be the end of the story, but it could be that, you know, they have the sentants out there.
Right, A dynasty, A real dynasty. Yeah, that's what I thought we were going. So I was a little disappointed that they didn't give us a little a little something something with the Dawn and that got away.
Yeah, but they could be holding onto that nugget.
That's true.
And it seems like the Merzil's like really into the.
Down Yeah, she really likes him. She likes the go getter. Yeah. And he's into the foundation stuff too. He's into that weird thing she keeps in her chest. I don't know what.
It's called, the Prime Radiant.
No, what's a taser?
Rak?
Okay, okay, the prime Radiant. He's really into the I'm Radiant, Like he keeps track of it with her and shit like that.
Yeah. So she was given that by Harry Selvyn in the last season, and you know, I'm the show was asking the question that I'm asking. He's like, why did you do that?
Yeah, And she's asking it herself. She's like, why would he give me the answer to my prime to my like primary function that whatever I do, no matter how hard I try to save empire, it is going to end, it is going to end. And what does that mean for me and my purpose and my programming. I love that she you know, she's a religious robot and she sought religious counsel. So I thought that was an interesting,
like kind of interaction. I thought I liked that they did that, like two women talking about like the future and their belief system. And I don't think personally, I don't think that the cleric or whatever she was did much to help her. She just kind of answered questions or with questions. It's almost I don't know, it just didn't feel give more about like kind of hashing it out, like giving us a window into her psyche, which I like. I do like that because she's such a complicated character.
Yeah, and especially like now that we know her backstory, Yeah, I got all that out last season, And like she's a really interesting character and she is really like the main power in the Empire.
Yeah, she's the power. She's the one pulling the strings to the puppets that are Empire. And I don't know, I think that's a really interesting conundrum that she's kind of in, Like what happens with my when the one thing that I'm supposed to do is inevitably going to fail? What does that leave you with when you know that failure is going to happen, like there is. It's unavoidable. Like humans, you know, we we we thrive off of failure. In most cases if we fail, we pivot. We were
able to change course. But she's programmed in a certain way. And it's interesting that her programming that she said that, like when she talked about like the fourth or the the Axonon, I don't remember what she called the last law that they added where they're like, uh, the needs of the many outweigh the few.
Oh yeah, basically they can interpret like not harming humans as not individual humans, but all of human humanity.
Yeah, So to me, that breaking the first law robotics there should that law shouldn't exist, like they can't. That's not a good law for the robots.
Yeah, because it becomes the ends justify the means.
Yeah, and that's evil. But that's literally evil. That's literally the Holocaust. That's literally like genocide. That's literally like, oh, well, you know these people over here, they're bad because they use plastic straws, so we got to kill them.
Yeah, And it draws into question like well she's hinted at before. They're like she talked about the laws in the past tense, like they didn't apply to her anymore. So it's like, what is she capable of? Is can she harm a person?
Right?
And if as she pleases that she needs to justify it in a way.
Well, we've seen her harm empire, We've seen her execute many of them. So it's like she's the one who put the hit out on Day that one time where he was like fucking her, and she she's the one who orchestrated that whole interaction.
So well, I guess because her new programming from cleon the first is to carry out carry forward his vision or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, so, and so when his VI is over, I think she's going to default to that end, justify the means, like sweeping motions where the little guy might die because the need of the many is greater than the need of the few. And that's kind of concerning. I don't know. I kind of want her to die so she can rest in peace. She's like if I ever die, Like she's so hopeful for it, you.
Know, I want her to be free and see what she does.
You want to see what happens, how it pans out. Well, they got four months. That's a crazy timeline.
Bro.
Yeah, this episode kind of gave us a ticking clock at the end. Yeah, and you know, it kind of goes into what you were speculating about that like they're may be the reason she has the prime radio and can foresee all this stuff coming. Is that everyone's doing need to act against the Mule.
Yeah, yeah, it's all hands on deck with that freak. What a freak. Holy shit, that was scary.
Oh my god. I like that we start this episode we go straight to the fucking mule, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that really just one guy.
He came out roll chill and he's like, oh and he had these awful goggles. Awful goggles like some fucking steampunk fantasy bullshit.
Yeah, and he has been recast from last season. I didn't known he kept the goggles to help transit. Yeah, I couldn't tell the same white guy, didn't. I thought it was interesting that, like they made a point to explain why doctor Bashir looks like the other guy, but this guy just looks different.
Well, you only saw him once in that one dream and it didn't even come true because that was a dream. Mule. Yeah yeah, but uh, holy shit, that guy was. It shook me a little bit, Like I was like, holy shit, because like, you know, you can fight fire with fire, you can you can fight you know, you can try to strategize against somebody if they you don't have to be smarter than them to defeat them in battle in
some cases. But this guy can get in your soldier's heads and makes them kill themselves or kill each other. The part where he's like, I'm gonna need that ring and he couldn't get it off and he makes him bite his finger off, I was like, that's fucked up, dude, Yep, that's fucked up. That's super fucked up. And then he shoots himself in the head. That was brutal, Like brutal. I feel like, you know, those people that like bad guys, they're gonna have such a heart on for the mule.
Those people that like bad guys.
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Those fucking creeps. They got a boner right now.
Not seeing just how powerful he is is like why does he even need four months to recavic?
Like why is he taking over one planet? Why why stop at one planet? And and and he said it, he said, look, I'm a man who needs a whole galaxy and that is terrifying. And he started with the pleasure planet, which nobody cares about. Apparently everybody's like, oh, well,
big deal. Do you know the kind of hell that would be raised in the Star Trek Enterprise if Risa fell, If John Luke Picard and fucking Riker can't go and wear short shorts on their leave, they're fucking that Wars over in ten minutes bro one episode.
Yeah, Riker would retirement. Do you want to see a next generation reunion? Maybe not war.
Because he didn't play with us shit.
Anyway, But I guess they they talk a lot about like, oh.
It's just one pirate, no big deal.
Well yeah, they're not quite seeing the threat because they haven't seen it for themselves. But they're also talk a lot about the current state of politics and how it's all in balance, and like no one wants to move on that planet.
It's like the neutral zone. Then they don't touch it.
Yeah. I don't think they have like a treaty or anything, but it seems like they know if they cross that line then there's going to be battles that they're not ready for something.
Yeah yeah, yeah, who was that ambassador? I didn't get that.
I guess the Empire and the Foundation are talking on some level.
But not to the point where they're telling their homegirl that that planet fell twenty days ago. Like she's like, wait what And they're like, oh, yeah, girl, we've been new, we don't we don't already know that, are intel? We already knew we were going to have dinner with you and not even talk about it. Rude, rude. She didn't even stay for dinner. She's like, fuck, these guys and the main guy didn't even have the courtesy of coming to join me for dinner. How fucking rude.
Yeah, let's talk about the old Brother Day.
Oh god, he's you know what, it reminds me of like a mixture of like the dude from The Big Lebowski and that's it. That's it, just the dude from The Big Lebowski. He's just that's that's him.
Yeah. I like that they gave us like a total opposite Brother Day than what we were dealing with last season. You know.
He also kind of has like a Jesus look to him with the beard and the hair.
Yeah, and he's got that you know, care free dude energy.
Yeah, the Devil May Care attitude where he's.
Out there cloning camels, Yeah, camels and Serret's boats.
For was that a sheep? That was a sheep or a lamb? Lamb? I don't know what the difference is. I know there's a goat, I know goats are different, But are sheeps and lambs the same thing? Are lamb's baby sheep?
Yes?
Okay, okay, sorry, I was just working that out. I'm not very familiar with farm animals. Well, why is he cloning them? Why does he have these animals around? Who's cleaning up after them? Well?
He did.
He did say welcome to my stink, right, Yeah, so it probably smelled like camel shit.
And sounds like he's been hanging out there for like six months with that.
And then he called Drumazol a thing. Yeah, rude, that's his mom, girlfriend, wife, stepmom. What does she She's like, they're everything, and he's like, who invirite of that thing?
She has always been and always will be or whatever? They say. Yeah, well, if he's you know, he's not sleeping with her, then he's dehumanizing her.
Typical man.
But yeah, he seems to have completely just stepped away from the role of empire and is living in his own little world there.
I would like to see the backstory to that.
Yeah, because they do talk about like like he gave Brother Dawn various advice and Brother Donna first, so like you know how much wisdom he has, So it seems like he was fulfilling that role effectively until recently. And then I guess this uh pending ascension as they call it.
Right, and then the home the old homeboy has been watching clips of all the other old homeboys that have been dying.
Yeah, he's like, how do I want to do it? Do I want to run? Do you want to do a little dance? That's should I pretend to say something? You're like, oh yeah, one more thing and then dissolve.
Is that what you would do? Keep them anticipations, leave them wanting more out.
I'll be like, and don't forget the secret to life, and then I just sleeporize, or maybe I do like a Thanos, snap my fingers before I disintegrate.
I wouldn't want to do it. I'd be crying the whole time. I'd like, I don't want to. I'm still healthy. Let me live out my days and maybe when I get Dementshall just walk into the beam. That would suck to be like euthanized. Basically, that's crazy. I wouldn't sign up for that.
So with the Foundation, you know, it seems like they made a big point at the end of last season that you know, certain people survived because they were inside of the vault. But I guess that didn't really matter because the vault went back to Terminus and they resettled, and those people are dead now anyway because time is passed.
Yeah, but they they lived, man, Yeah, and they I don't get how the Foundation, I don't I don't get are we like, is the Foundation a model of human humanity where we go through our religious phase and then we have our phase where we're really into trade and what's after that? I want to know what's after the trade because I think we're still stuck in that. I'm just curious what's after are capitalist phase? It seems like it's destruction.
Yeah, four months left.
Yeah, we're gonna We're gonna disappear into the ether. That's crazy. I don't know. I'm just like, I guess it is, like, you know, science fiction is always looking around, It's always looking at society and the earth and the world. And it's always talking about what we're going through. So this was originally written in the forties, yes, during probably after World War Two, because nobody was having fun and working
on their book during during the war. So uh. And I think in art specifically, like I studied painting and art history and all that, the post war art was very like nihilist. After World War two, art took a
very dark turn. Artists were painting things like Picasso did that one very large, very dark painting called Guarnica where it's just like people like devastated from the war and what happened to Spain during that era, and it's very interesting paintings and art that comes out from I think it's technically the Silent generation, right, Yes.
I think so. Yeah, Silent came after Greatest Yeah, and then Bloomers.
Yeah. So I'm I'm interested to see like the parallels of this modern interpretation of this novel that was written post World War two, post the most devastating war that the world has ever seen, with like tragic, tragic events where you would think that that was the end of humanity as we speak to to try to save it somehow, to try to prevent some of those things from happening. Imagine what would have happened if Hitler would have just stayed in art school, right, And now we're in our
own era of potential World War three? And and what what is the catalyst here? What? What? What is the event that we should have prevented four months ago to put us somewhere anyway? Uh, I don't know, it's very interesting. I think this, Uh, the concept of this show is very of its time. But it's also like I like that the source material is something that we can recognize as it's as a as a moment in history that
was impactful, you know what I mean? Like like it was it was a good book that came out that was to saying something about humanity and its ability to save itself potentially through science the knowledge. But then you said that they added the religious stuff and it looks like they're kind of walking away from that now.
They added some elements of it is definitely part of the books as well, but but yeah, I think they basically said this is a different era for the Foundation, and it's yea all about expansion and trade. Yeah, trade, and so then the traders are seeming like they're going to be a big part of the conflict between Foundation and Empire.
M Yeah, with the weapons thing that they were working on and that planet that blistered them up. Those two people on.
Bikes, Yeah, and one of those named Han Pretcher, the guy that a dresses like Consolo.
Is he related to? No, wait, the other guy, the guy with the one arm, was Mallow.
I did not catch that, but I do did see that there are some characters named Mallow listed in the Yeah.
That was the one armed guy that they like. I think he got away too. I think they got a notice that said he got away or he's still on the planet or something. So very interesting, very interesting.
Okay, so we could have some descendants of old Hobo Mallow and I'm guessing Brother Constant. Yeah, Han Pritcher, he's a book character. I didn't mention that earlier, but yeah, they're trying to get evidence that the Empire is arming the Traders, which I don't know why they needed to. I guess physically get the guns.
Because they have like a barcode that says made by Empire.
Yeah, all of them are signed by brother Don.
Yeah, they got his fingerprint on him.
I think we've covered most everything.
I'm excited to see Gail.
Yeah, that was the one thing that's kind of missing, is like, what's what are Gail and Harry doing, Because that's another piece of this whole dynamic, is that the second they have a second foundation over there with some psychic powers on side, and no one else really knows about them, right, Yeah, And they've been prepping that for two hundred and fifty years now.
Right, slipping in their goog getting up every once in a while having visions of the Mule, having visions.
Of the Mule.
What a terrible existence to be asleep for like fifty sixty years at a time, dreaming of that guy, and then waking up to some fucking kids that are like fifty years older now, and you're like, oh man, you have cancer. Nows. That's crazy. I don't know. I don't think i'd sign up for that. It'd be cool if like their civilization like expanded and moved forward to if they have like levels or you know, if they built
cities in that little planet that they stopped at. I'm sure they have like a monument to sell war.
Yeah. I'm sad she's not part of the show now.
I know she was just asking for too much money. I don't know most she's worth a lot, though I'm sure they probably couldn't.
I'm trying to think about my astral queen here. Ready to move on to it?
Yeah, yeah, we're doing it.
Astral queen? Who was the standout character in the episode.
And it was such like a setting the stage episode, like who really stood out?
I'm gonna pick Julian Or I don't know his real name.
In the show. That's doctor Ebling.
Mee, Yeah, that's who I pick. I'm picking the doctor who's like, you gave the bad guys our fucking recipe and you weren't gonna tell us and then he gets kicked out.
Yeah, so I guess he's said he was an independent psycho psychohistorian. So yeah, he's like studying all this on his own.
Yeah, he's just a big nerd.
So he was like a few days ahead of the game there. I like that.
He also like booby trapped his foundation. I don't know what it is, the vault, the vault, I always want to say taser. Anyway, the vault, he like neutralized it and approached it, and Harry Selton's like, no one's ever done that? How darey? And he was like geeking out in Selden's office. I liked him. I'm excited to see this character and his knowledge be put to the test by his Uh. I don't know what it was. It's not his his his his mentor kind of not really because they've never met.
I'm sure he's like he probably idolizes him there. It is the idol yeah yeah, or role model, role model, that's it. That's it. Yeah, I'm thinking about Like Brother Dawn was really interesting in this episode is how he has was.
He was taking charge. He's like even like when that lady got offended, He's like, please chill, it's not our intent to be rude, but we're rude as hell.
Yeah, And I have a feeling I'm not gonna like him in the long run.
Yeah, so you better give him one now. So he's a little kiss ass.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna him. I also found Brother Day to be interesting.
Brother Day was fun, but I thought his soliloquies and his poems were stupid. I'm boring, but I'm not. I'm not a fan of white men doing poetry. They've had their time.
I feel like the woman there with him song, Yeah, it was just like humoring them when he gives his poetry and stuff. Yeah, it's like, yeah, that's a great line. Empire.
Good job, guys.
Yeah, I'm picking brother don real. He's stepping up to the plate.
Okay, do we have any spoilers? Oh? No, you have to do the next episode name right.
Yeah, I mean I really don't have any spoilers. Could like speculate a little bit on book stuff, but I don't think it's really interesting. Maybe more so as stuff comes up in the season and we have a sense of direction. But other than like the mule, you know, really messes up the Harry Selden's plan.
Oh that's fun.
I like that.
So that little that little Tezera, the Prime Radiant, the Prime Radiant is useless, Yeah, so I think, But the sorry, I get excited. So if the Prime Radiant is useless because the Mule puts everything out of order, But we have Gail, a living human who can do Harry Selden's math, probably better than him, who could rebuild it and restructure it and reformulate it and fix everything. Maybe I have
a lot of hope for Gail in this. I'm team Gaylee. Yeah, but you know, there's some bad some people who are really into bad guys cream in their pants for the mule. I'm ready for him to win.
Yep. So the next episode will be obviously Season three episode two title is Shadows in the Math, So everyone do your math homework for this next one. I think that's it. So thanks for spacing out with us, and remember you live long enough, time can become a weapon.
Thank you for spacing out with BB and Jason. You can help us out by subscribing and leaving a positive rating or review. Remember you can contact us through email or social media. Next time we will cover Foundation season three episode two, Shadows in the Math. We hope you will join us