The crew of the Rocinante face their biggest challenge yet! Blue goo. SUPPORT US: patreon.com/yumyumpod EMAIL US: yumyumpod@gmail.com FOLLOW US: Twitter: @YumYumPodcast Facebook: @YumYumPodcast Instagram: @yumyumpod Reddit: r/YumYumPodcast Bluesky: @yumyumpodcast.bsky.social Tiktok: @yumyumpod Tumblr: @yumyumpod
We are just your average married couple who love watching and talking about science-fiction television. The Expanse is the series we’re talking about and one we’re watching through for the first time! Listen to us break down episodes of The Expanse and see if it’s as good as everyone says it is. Exploring The Expanse is released to our Patreon first and so if you want to hear more of our discussions then come over and support the podcast.
This week we’re exploring The Expanse episode “Salvage”
It’s time to unleash the blue goo!
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[Music]
hello Rachel hello Ryan how are you doing prettyy good how are you oh I'm doing pretty good to we just got back from traveling Oh Where did we travel to did we travel to the the the most beautiful place in the Galaxy oh you know it used to be the jewel of Victoria oh Victoria yay hey do you ever find it weird that we live in a state that's just a person's name yes just that that that's their name yep I mean Australian states are funny they're just super on the nose this is Queen land this is New South Wales this is Western Australia and then we've got and Tasmania too just you know Tasmania is proba the one that's like the most like yeah that's a bit you left out a few but you made your point yeah I didn't want to did you want me to play less list all the nor States and territories of Australia like you only left off three so I left off three yeah good for me so we are here to talk about Australian States and territories that one that that is technically a separate territory because it gives the ACT Australian Capital territory access to um oh Rachel I'm not here to talk about the Australian land you married a geography teacher [ __ ] you I did not marry a geography teacher I Married an English teacher who can teach me the ways of the the English language and even when we go to space and how it will change because we are exploring the expanse the television series not uh Australia Australian australiana australiana where hey do you think an Australian will appear in this show do you think we'll get an Australian coded character at least will there be a ky in here we've got some clearly South African based characters we've got Americans got an Indian lady we've got a number of Seasons ahead of us God I hope I hope the Secretary General is like Paul Hogan no no no no no no um I I I do not want that I do want Australia in a like wide shot of everybody in the UN yeah and and we're wearing a bigger cubra hat and the minister next to them is got like the like the the hat with all of the corks on them get away the Flies here we are here to talk about the expanse but we bring the Young yum yum perspective Ryan would you like to recap I think you're doing such a bang up job that you might want to tell everyone why we're called yum yum and where does it Spawn from no I want you to do it okay okay okay so many years ago Star Trek discovery which is a television series that does exist that isn't made up it is real it does exist you can watch it right now in its season 2 finale a character bizarrely said yum yum and it was very strange and obtuse and we loved it so much that Rachel and I agreed that we would name the podcast after it and we would reference yum yum talk about it yum yum in that moment also has a weirdly sexual connotation to it that doesn't make sense but it's there nonetheless and so we are here to talk about about the expans we're going through for the first time so no spoilers don't tell us things that we shouldn't know don't tell us what the blue goo is I want to find out what the blue goo is all by myself thank you very much and we release our discussions for the expans on our patreon first so if you're not over there on the patreon you're missing out on hearing uh uh further thoughts on the expans Because by the time this comes out on the Main feed there will be several episodes ahead on our p Pon so don't miss out don't be a fool don't get blue gooed okay you don't want to get blue gooed so if you join the patreon you avoid the goo we won't deprive you of the goo just make you wait for I hear that the goo is pretty yum yum and that's my thing that I licked my lips at today and said M yum yum that sexy blue goo it lit up near Holden which is the only person to lighted up near him in this show since his girlfriend died isn't it weird that we met Holden while he was [ __ ] and then since then he's been the least sexual person in the show like he he I'm surprised that's how we met him honestly yeah I I I do feel the need to mention Miller what about him in terms of Y he was pretty sexy he's feeling himself literally and figuratively he's feeling himself yeah yeah um he was in his ele way that he like sort of fundles his own stubble before he breaks down that door is there a correlation between him being sexy without the hat and him not being sexy with the hat I'm not a scientist I'm just a podcaster and where's my damn hat IMDb describes this as such a derelict vessel holds a potentially devastating secret Holden and crew cross paths with Miller on Aeros avasara receives bad news that's one of the two the other one is a bit longer and it's just the same thing but uh with longer words instead of she receives bad news it's she receives some devastating news the second one Rachel you're a teacher so you can understand this the second one is very much trying to reach the word limit like a kid in an assignment no no sounding fancy oh that's said that it just has longer words so that doesn't add to the word count oh you're well well you're right you you you but they also added a few more like some was in there instead of received bad news it's now receiv some devastating news no more over more more so and moreover uh you always say moreover when it's uh when it's the DVD descriptions for babyon 5 and uh you get you don't get more over on there you get and and uh you know you get more so and uh you know however and whole bunch but we're not doing Bon 5 today what did you think not reviewing connective conjunctions oh okay do you want to just keep not talking about Salvage because I get a feeling that you may not have loved this episode if you want to keep going on these random detours because no no and I I think I said the wrong term about that word but everyone please write in your email to Rachel that's at yum yamot gmail.com WR into Rachel for using the wrong terms she's the professional here I'm just the student how did you feel about this episode Ryan I enjoyed it um I was more satisfied than I liked it if you know what I mean I was happy to get a bunch of the things answered and to see the writing come together to have the characters meet up to have this element fulfill itself or this one uh tying into this other one I wasn't as uh Blown Away by the nitty-gritty and the scenes and the character beats like in some other episodes but more so I was just left there with a full belly because they've given me a nice meal here where I've been watching them set up and cook this for a while and here they gave me some and I was very just just full with it but yeah I wasn't uh this isn't a absolute favorite of mine but I'm happy to see them put the pieces together what about yourself yeah I'm in a similar bite where it went down easy but it was a lot of feeling the strings for me because it's we're bringing these things together and we're leading up to the finale I'm interested and invested now that was the main thing that I was feeling throughout and the main thing I didn't like was the music in this one oh the score and the sound editing sort of throughout I just felt it was a bit heavy handed at various points where I'm like uh I I find I'm finding this distracting because the music is telling me how to feel okay um like I was sort of comparing when they're investigating the Anubis compared to when they're at the blue Lounge because one uses non diagetic music and one doesn't and I really liked the blue Lounge scene much better because even not like like the whole point of not having that music and the way that the sound was edited and pulled together and um effects and a bit of Foley and all of that stuff was making you aware of the growing tension I my big complaint with the expanse when it comes to its music is it doesn't have much of a character to it I never remember whenever you you have said this to me off mik I don't this is the first real time you've talked about the music and the diagetic non-tic on the Pod main like for this long and I I always look at you going oh I never noticed because it it does not have much of a presence to me and whatever the case may be I don't know I don't know if this is the because we're watching this on Blu-ray I don't know if this is because we're watching this on Blu-ray or if this is just season one but there is no opening credits properly in the first episode we had like a full opening credit scene and then every other episode it's just been the title card with a little bit of music and that's it and I think that's actually detrimental to the music in the expanse because the the opening credits and end credits to a show can read really help the viewer understand the the the type of music and the character it brings and that is mood and setting the mood and I I you say it's hampering you and getting in the way and getting into your emotions the thing is I never have that sensation myself and or on the positive end of it I never had a moment where oh yeah and the music kicked in there and I really felt like [ __ ] yeah it's it's not really an aspect of the show that I'm not like it's not one that I'm paying attention to because it's not really drawing me in like for me it is more the way that it's mixed rather than the qualities of the music itself because the music itself is so standard that I don't have any particular feelings about it it's just the fact that it's in the I find that it's in the foreground a bit too much like that's really really just a personal preference thing it's not like they did this wrong and of course not that well versed in audio to know if it was or it wasn't but for me I often find it a bit distracting see some's acting up
today what the last time I was here this machine did not
work let's pick away the the smaller parts of the episode first we have Fred Johnson is here he's on Tao station and he is deciphering the Chip he's deciphering the Chip he got from Lopez and they're making sure to be cautious about it cuz it's super high priority and whilst that is happening they're learning that the UN is on their way yes and they're pretending that they're not but they clearly are and so there's this impending doom and the the thing I adored about the Fred Johnson plot uh was we got to see more of the Mormons [ __ ] going on and we got this glorious shot I laughed so I laughed oh my God obsessed with this you were like that's not not necessary NE not necessary and I'm like but I'm sure that there's a scripture somewhere that says well how about you tell describes this thing how about you tell everyone what it is sorry sorry I didn't mean to step on your thing you can explain the glory shot that we got we we we see on the ship or just outside of the station they have this big humongous golden statue of um who is it again I can't remember it's a figure blowing the trumpet right and that's often an image used with Mormons I often have seen that in religion and so uh I [ __ ] lost my mind at the the goriness of it but also gold all over the rest of it the ship as well and it's just so decadent and opulent and it's so Mormon and and it was a great counterpart to a very humanizing conversation we had with one of the Mormons and we'll get to him later in the podcast but it was a great counterpart to that and I just laughed and laughed and laughed and I and I'm thinking back to me earlier in this podcast being very pissy and dismissive about Mormon showing up for that one episode and now I'm I'm you're waiting for them you're gagging all I'm gagging for Mormons I I lo I love them so much in this show every time they've shown them they've they they given us a new layer of just how [ __ ] weird they are and how weird it is that they're building a spaceship to fly away and leave us behind I oh my God but that was just a small detail in the uh uh in the Johnson plot and so he is hacking away at this chip worried about the UN coming so he Gathering forces for that and we find out that what was on the chip was a very detailed look at the battle that happened against Adonna Jo with these stealth ships and so they have high res resolution pictures they have these trails that they can follow and they determined that uh this uh also had information about feeb station on there I do believe that was also found out so Johnson has this that's helping him figure out the stuff that the other characters are learning throughout this story as well piece of the puzzle but what he has that the others don't and we don't know yet is potentially who built this thing because uh that is still unknown but he has a reaction to know something of horror at this knowledge and so we're left not knowing who is behind it but we know somebody knows and that means soon hopefully we will and or will the UN quickly learn about it too if they successfully board Tao and and get yeah Fred or get this chip if it's not already them behind him I I like the uh woman who's doing the hacking for him I I like I liked her little bit of character stuff that was thrown into the way that that like the actor was speaking and interacting with Fred um I thought that that was a nice attention to detail like there's not a lot there but it's one of those times where even though she's somebody that we haven't met and we aren't introduced to I get a feel for who she is and what her relationship with him is like the episode's really good those very minor characters allow like having a character to them they're not just function she could easily just be hacker girl function girl who makes McGuffin open but you're right they have the actor giving a bit of grit to the character same with when we're on Aeros station and we're meeting all of these new faces including the people who work at this hotel you just get a sense of the people who live in these spaces and work with these other characters and or facing off against them that's one of the things that has made the expans uh really go down well on this on this watch because when we cover something like uh space above and beyond we would complain often that there were many times a character would flick into an episode they would die or do something and the show treated it like it was earned far more than it was there were many moments especially early in that show where they will have a funeral for a character and it doesn't mean anything while here we we we see say that hotel guy he got shot and I actually had a reaction of oh no a because he had a he had a gimmick he had a thing and we discussed this also with starchuck Discovery a lot where they forget to do that and then when they remember that they should do that they do it in a really hand fisted way especially with the Ensemble on the bridge and yet in season 4 of Discovery there was that one lady who worked on the pleasure barge who was cashing in their chips and she had more of a character than any of the Ensemble of bridge charact bridge crew people and she was in that one scene and so that's something just to point out that you you're you're getting at which is the experence have done has done that the whole the whole season yeah H and it's not an easy thing to do because it takes some time and energy to do you have to care enough to to do that and it's not just that actor doing their thing it's the actor the crew the director and the world that you've built up around this interaction and what comes before and after it's so contextual to get those kind of things and they feel like they work but they were able to collect highly detailed Drive signatures well they did fly closest to those ships than anyone else in the system unfortunately for them you're going to want to see this for yourself there needs to be some level of characters that are there for sort of trans actional purposes and we met this un the the the general of the Armed Forces for the UN in a previous episode and here he is again following up on the same belief system we saw in that last one where he's hesitant to do military acts he's condition he's trying to put his conditions across to the UN about how this will come across and the ramifications of such actions he is the most intelligent logical and even empathetic person in the room and in the first episode he was listened to he was he was he was validated and in this one we see he is not it's too late move on we're doing this Aon Wright has already sent them out there everyone's already aware of what we're going to be doing so suck it up mister and I I really like seeing that character again I I like that performance as well but it really hammers in on what we're talking about here where these smaller players even though this guy has a a big role in the universe he's still a small player in this story I completely understand where he's coming from and where he's come from in other episodes so it's a logical progression here and he I felt bad for him during this episode I I had feelings towards a guy who as you said could be very transactional in their function they serve as Exposition or they serve as a body for the other characters to talk to but this this this uh this world and how this Series has constructed it doesn't for the most part outside of a character like havlock and his sex worker girlfriend uh the the people that inhabit it don't feel like they're just characters written on a page by writers who are prodding your emotions and pushing you in directions that they want you to go down as a viewer uh instead I I thought of this guy as a real person same with that computer lady with Johnson and and same with the guy who works at the hotel and same with Miller's old friend with who gave him the Hat who like it's such a tricky thing to balance all of all all of the things right all of the things that you want to do to make a show good and we are big character focused people we will stick around even if the plots [ __ ] uh if we like the characters me more so even than you right so it's very high praise and I think you'll agree with this that almost every single character in this show feels like they've lived a life before and if they survive they'll live a life after like if like if we ever go back to Series right I can imagine us slipping back into the life of the head cup lady he's corrupt Chief yeah his corrupt CH Chief or heaven forbid even have no he's useless uh never bring him back again no but if like he's one of the exceptions for me that's why I wanted he really he he goes against the Green doesn't he yeah uh but I can also Imagine him like he's currently like back on the station in recovery maybe still seeing Wiggy maybe not Wiki uh but but to to your point if not those things characters have that have a nuanced insights that's why the Mormon that we meet in this EP contrast that they give to the other characters but also I'm like yeah I believe that you're a devout Mormon living out in space doing these things to test yourself and expand your horizons and but even you have selfawareness yeah and you're really looking forward to it but and not establishing that um at least this [ __ ] and and I think the idea is that he's a representation of maybe more the more average ones right not the not the exact people building the gold statues on their sh but the people who were going on it anyway some level of practicality and awareness that they they have about it and establishing that it's not blind Faith which I think is a very important thing to establish in such a gritty world because I wouldn't buy it if they were just all blind blindly following the doctrine of the church right like he wasn't just he wasn't just spouting Bible verses he wasn't going through rhetoric and on the other end it wasn't the writers using him as a straw man to show us how stupid Mormons are we see that in other ways with their ship or the Elder in the previous episode but he we still find it ridiculous in a way but here is an honesty as well where there are good people or there are PE sensible people in these religions even scary cultish ones if you will because people are people and you can't all just label them as that one thing and I find it very disingenuous when especially science fiction has this hand waving of religion and it's stupid and because I don't think that's true I don't I'm not personally religious but religion has served a function in society and it would most likely and it will most likely continue to serve various functions in the future and we we see here when Miller is talking to this Mormon we we see that through his Mormonism and through his faith and and and and his Ingenuity as a person and like devout nature he has managed to overcome so many obstacles and hurdles in life in this dark gritty universe that wants to kill you he has managed to do it and yet he still has this self-awareness to understand that this holy cause that he's going to go on could end up being nothing but that isn't a failure in itself no it just means that we have to keep means we have to keep trying harder and honestly that there that that that conversation between Miller and this Mormon was one of the best scenes we've had in the show I thought it was fantastic for me a real difference between what it's like to encounter somebody who Zealot is the word coming to mind but I don't think it's exactly what I mean but the the people who make it their identity and they outwardly project the idea of Holiness and uh their religion MH and this the type of people who I find to be quite different which is The Devout people where it like you get the feeling that like when he's like why do I get the feeling that you haven't accepted Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior into your heart he says that a joking inflection moment of like yeah I know that this is a line from the church but also I get the sense that you don't have that and I hope that you find that peace because I have that in my heart and it makes me feel better and it makes my life better and I hope that you have that too and we find during the end of the sequence that Miller does have that both of them are going on a quest that could possibly be doomed but they're going to do it anyway because it is in their nature and it is what they believe they must do it a very nice building block of Faith from both of them but if that is the case God has just revealed to us that we haven't finished our search yet doesn't that scare the [ __ ] out of you yeah of course it does but I put myself in the hands of God true faith is a risk you know and with great risk coming from yeah yeah I know the rest another character that we got attached to and very early on in this show was uh Fred the Martian not Fred Frank sorry uh the Martian Ambassador for the UN called him Fred damn it and uh he was Chris Jen's friend until she screwed him over and we learned during the The Briefing scene with the general he killed himself that he killed himself and that he's dead and you can see it's very much gotten to Chris Jen but she is in politician mode and so we must keep moving forward hard cut after she's like let's finish this now yeah like there's a darker Edge to her character she's in it and she's in it to win it she she's very much wounded in this back half of the show in the beginning she she's top [ __ ] but after that in inent yes but after that incident with with the Martian Ambassador she she's been far more of a vulnerable character but still hiding it behind the snark and the up I'm a I'm a noons politician and you can tell that's happening here where it does obviously rattle her and she may feel some personal responsibility for it but she's here right now doing the job and so it's going to make her double down on that in the previous episode she she wanted to save Holden and in this episode she's still wanting to do that but at the same time well we're here now like no we've locked in that EXE tion and she just has to take it and it's upsetting and that's all we get from her in the story we know that the UN is on their way to deal with Johnson and she's unable to do anything about it other than sit there and smile like the politician she is and I mean to start out the show where she's this uh vibrant decadent character who was in charge and calling things and to see her the course of the Season be whittel down and have to take it and be told off every time she tries to do something uh I think is a really great way to handle her because you could make the mistake especially in your first season of having her be the most powerful character and she's just full of snark and what I'm saying is you could make her Empress Geor Al from Star Trek Discovery and you make that mistake and you and and and you can just go down a road of ab ruin but I trying to make her so strong that she's imperious to everything that she's the best of the best and there's never a moment where you can see her Flinch or she's just a bad guy uh at the beginning you would have thought she was the bad guy there's more dimensionality there's more there and since she is in this position where she is now where she's caught between a rock and a hard place I feel for her I feel bad for her she's also LED herself down this road exactly she she's made this for herself she deserves it but it doesn't mean that I don't feel for the character and that's the thing that I'm really coming away with from this episode although this episode I didn't feel that's skill that's skill right there that's what I mean by satisfied this episode individually on its own didn't give me a great amount of detailed character work but as a part of the large story it is grabbing all of these threads and tying them neatly where I am compelled I am feeling things while in the beginning I felt for Chris Jen in terms of what a cool badass character and now I'm beyond just she's a cool badass character and I'm actually looking at her as a person and her choices have consequences and we see how that has finally come to roost here uh crew on the Rossy is uh has finally arrived at that dly asteroid mhm where Fred Johnson said the signal from their contact was yes where liol was Last heard from uhhuh mhm and and they go in and investigate we see the ship and we were also stupidly uh reminded extra that remember this from the pilot cuz there was a previously on oh yeah we try and fast forward through it but you still can't avoid the previously ons on the DVD yeah um so we get there they investigate it thank God they don't touch the blue goo no blue goo was touched blue goo was touched that doesn't mean that the goo tou didn't touch them or that they didn't breathe it in they didn't stick their face in it they didn't do I'll never foret I'll never forget this swipe the finger oh my God I'll never forget this in one of the short tracks for Star Trek Tilly finds some like like glowing orange goo on the ground and she sticks a finger in it yes she doesn't know what it is it could be literally poison and she sticks her finger in it she's a scientist these guys aren't scientists and they [ __ ] know let's do the procedure of quarantine and lockdown and throw our suits away if we need to as soon as they get anywhere close to an understanding of oh my God we've got like some biohazard these guys miners these these [ __ ] blue color scrap people understand better than a [ __ ] ship full of scientists and Discovery it's [ __ ] hilarious to me hilarious but I I cheered so much when that happened because I really was expecting some [ __ ] cuz I get on this ship and we slowly learn oh it's a stealth ship that we've been running from and oh it's the ship that Julie was on in the very first scene and oh it's got the blue goo stuff that's been a running little thread and we learned about more so in the previous episode and I really was expecting oh the they're going to walk off thinking they've got rid of it but it's on one of their boots like you're going to get that ominous shot on amos's boot it's going to have a little blue goo crawling into a crevice and then when they get on the ship it crawls onto their ship and oh we're going to have an ongoing thing for the next few no no they they they seemingly managed to avoid it and they were very pragmatic logical wise I was so heck Alex is left on the ship and he's he comes up with the brilliant idea of I'm going to send one of these drones in that will help things as well I was clapping at how efficient this was your assets it was also use your assets it was also great to see that they've grown up so much since that first episode where they went on the scop and they just went in Boots on the ground torches walk in they learned from their mistakes there was far more technical expertise and tactile and like tactics to it even using the newly acquired acquired spy guy to be the bird flying down for them to see if there's anything deadly and he he doesn't like it but I like that happening to him yeah I'm like yeah human shield makes sense in this show Yep they're Canary um and they go on that ship and I I must admit because of the way that they looked at it from afar I did not realize until they confirmed it that that was the stealth ship I thought it was one of its little Fighters uh because of how small it was from when they were looking at it on their computers and monitors and stuff I didn't recognize it as the stealth ship didn't appreciate the scale of the asteroid so it was hard to appreciate the size of the ship itself and they didn't do a glory shot of the stealth ship being like see it's the stealth ship they they did it very nonchalant and so I didn't appreciate that uh reveal until like way late into the episode when they were discussing elements and I went oh okay and they learn the name and that's a name that Miller knows from previous episodes and overall I enjoyed this uh we talked about this in the first episode I'm a bit more of a fan of the let's walk around on a spooky ship finding out what happened on the spooky spooky ship than you are in shows but I I mean they made sure not to repeat the same beats and elements from the first episode and they made sure to give us some fun character stuff along the way Amos being teamed up with the spy guy was great their back and forths were pretty funny I got some laughs wanting to get to know Naomi yeah Holden being all chatty and trying to figure out her past and then reflecting and joking around about their old boss who had all the glass cats and sharing stories uh it's a classic case of they're on a spooky ship and clearly they're afraid so they're talking to one another to alleviate the tension while Amos is just having the time of his life being told not to hurt this guy and you can tell throughout the whole entire storyline with them too he's contemplating hurting this guy he wants the excuse he wants it so bad so bad and Alex is just on the ship enjoying not being on the spooky ship so getting explore his new baby oh my God he's fiddling with so many buttons in this episod he's so happy there's so many shots of him stroking buttons and fiddling with them and giving them these longing loving God yeah like that that's really fun it helps him feel like a person not just a a character building out that those dimensions you guys need more eyes over there let me see what I can give you all right sweetheart what do you got for me uh a moment of again characters being intelligent Amos is on I assume like the bridge of this ship and he phones up Naomi to ask her if it's wise to turn on power to do these things you could tell he was just going to fiddle with some buttons but then he stopped himself and said I'm going to phone up see if they can turn on Star and if we can sort this out and if it's a wise idea he didn't phone up saying turn this on and then they did they had a discussion about it they they weighed the risks and said from what we've gathered it should be fine and then when it wasn't they turned it off and they then she explained to him why they did that and he agreed and this reminds me of a Event Horizon there's a brilliant scene in Event Horizon where Lawrence Fishburn and the crew look at the footage of what happened to the crew of The Event Horizon and then Lawrence Fishman closes the screen and says we're leaving that was this episode as soon youve referenced that a lot lately and I really like it I I swear that was what this was because they encounter some spooky blue goo and they all agree we're leaving we're not we're blowing it up we're blowing it up not one character said we should analyze it not one character said maybe we should do a testan it no spy was like it's a bargaining chip and they're like no oh yeah that's the ship you're talking about I'm talking about the blue goo nobody was interested in even looking at the blue they were like what is this but no one said oh let's touch it and get a piece of it and scan it and do all of this now her pet theory of what it is but as soon as it did anything Shifty they're like screw the blue goo we're leaving survival first I mean I mean they piece together as do we what has happened here I mean how did you feel about that we we we had the um Julie Ma on this ship as the very opening of this show we've had Miller getting the name of this ship and how its uh how its like little shuttle has flown off to Aeros and now we have Holden and all of his crew physically on the stealth ship that they faced off against and now they're seeing all of this stuff that we've been getting all of these pieces and breadcrumbs for it's all coming together what did you think of just that because that's what my main takeaway was of the ship Shenanigans more than the blue goo being a thing obviously that's a thing to worry about I was just really impressed with okay this Series has had multiple story lines all circling around this one area and now here we are getting to stand and and have a look at what we've been building towards I think the thing that I'm Amazed by is that I care more now that we've gotten an explanation because that that again is is getting my hopes up about about this show because it is sort of putting um a a book end on the central
question of the season so far which is what happened to
Julie and like what and all it sort of spirals out from there as you were alluding to before but the fact that I care more even now knowing that she's dead the blue goo got her makes me even more keen to keep watching like when we got to the final shot of this episode I was just like we got a bit of time this weekend yeah do we want to wait or are we got to watch another this I I think I think I think we can do this but then we've got to finish the season Rachel if you're going to do that I know I know I know but the DVDs have nine and 10 together yeah but we have to watch it individually for the Pod I I was very happy the scopuli stuff and what happened of the crew they were taken aboard the stealth ship and you can very much get that the idea of this blue goose stuff was some bio weapon that the the the people got from the Phoebe station now whether they went to the Phoebe station to explicitly take it or it was just something that happened as a byproduct of going to the phoe station because the stealth ship is there to cover up this blue goo phenomenon and so it is hilarious that this massive killer of Warships got taken out by some some biochemical shenanigans on the ship and they all got vented out into space and they all died and Julie was the Lone Survivor cuz she was locked in cuz she was uh obviously a person of value and then she breaks free as we saw in the very first scene of this episode and now she's flown off to AOS and to hang out at the Blue Falcon and and oh yeah go on what what are your what are your thoughts no I just have a question and it's it's probably just me oh and the blue goo is hungry for energy that's also why the ship is turned off yeah um and that's why it's mainly focused in on the core cuz it went to where it's F days and it went no it went yum yum come on come on where the Yum Yum podcast I where the num nom podcast was setting it up for and then it's it does goes nom nom nom and then it says yum yum yum that's three yum yums no I was going to say two but you throw me off uh but what were you going towards so oh okay okay but you are saying that this is the stealth ship mhm how did Julie pocket get off go then so what my understanding is is my understanding they boarded the ship the stealth ship went on scopuli took all the crew and Julie onto the stealth ship flew off left the little distress Beacon thing to bring in someone and bomb that and then they flew off and we got the shenanigans we saw so that first scene we witnessed was I think coinciding with the events we've seen in the first few so what my gathering is Julie must be so important probably because she's the daughter of the guy who is behind all of this because I think he's behind it we haven't seen him again
they've locked up but the stealth ship was doing all the stealth ship we saw but after that they got infected by this thing vented out into space turned off the power and Julie was left on the ship by herself because she was locked into a room where she couldn't be vented out into space and then she kicked herself free realized blue goo was about and flew off but probably got infected and died I know that that makes sense mhm and but the my thing is I don't remember um in the pilot like cuz that's the first chunk of the episode if I remember correctly the first scene is Jew breaking out yeah breaking out does it say anything about it's skipping back in time no I think there's showing us that now I think we are going oh that was later in the timeline they screwed with us yeah that wasn't what set it up that was the part that I was just like okay I get that all of these events should happen in this order but because I was shown that first in my head and we haven't been told anything I was left a bit questioning of wait how did this play out yeah I'm sure they'll give us we got two more episodes and that's probably my prediction is the next episode we deal with what happened to Julie yeah but uh in more of a concrete maybe even go back in time and spend an episode with her but cuz we did have that precedent established with Anderson station mm uh what do you think of the blue goo because we weren't too hot on it in the first episode we're like oh no have we got ghouly monster crap and now it's back and we get more of an understanding of what it does and what it is not fully but enough to to chew on what are you thinking a parasite of sorts I think okay so you think it's a parasite well I in terms of it uses energy to grow so then it can have more energy like it's yeah I get what you're saying it's weird kind thing we see at the end SPO alert Julie dies we see that it's grown out of her like a mushroom and a fungus so it's using her body sort of as energy as as fuel yeah um but it does that leads to a lot of questions and I don't know how many of them will get answers to before the end of the season because I feel like that mystery is going to going to take take a bit longer to solve like who made it what is it why is it anybody object to us turning that ship into scrap hell no anybody except you do it look you control that ship you have a bargaining ship why would you destroy something you control because that ship is a weapon and that thing on it felt like a weapon too and I don't think Fred Johnson or Earth or Mars or anybody should have it they steal the safe before they blow it up what do you think is going to be in the safe oh I hope that it's some kind of uh paper trail to who created the blue goo or where perhaps they even found it because it does have a organic thing to it and we know that this is a universe where there's many different posts on different planets and and moons so this could be uh information relating to either how this got created who created it or where they even found it because this could be something that they found yeah but we get the S sense that they the scci scientists created it or at least manipulated manipulated it because uh so I'm hoping it relates to something like that uh no twist is it's Miller's hat somehow it got in there talking about Miller's hat Miller arrives on Aeros station and he bumps into his old detective friend who got kicked off The Force oh I mean he beats up a lot of people to bump into his old friend a guy playing bailed out of jail uh can we talk about the weird nature how this episode has aged where am I crazy to say this is that a they had a Candy Crush reference in this yes the guy's playing a futuristic Candy Crush Candy Crush slots sort of thing it looked like Candy Crush which by the way when this show came out I mean how big was Candy Crush still in the general ether I guess I don't know like yeah may be but it was very funny to me that that we had that it made me think about whenever we watch a show uh from the past you get comments like oh this is so '90s oh this is so 2000s and obviously it's hard to feel that sometimes when you're watching something a little bit more current but that was one of those I'm like oh this is so 2010s oh we're having a Candy Crush thing that was so like I I rolled my eyes at that that was just one of those and I didn't even think it added much to the scene other than I mean element a clear distraction now I'm just going to say this where was this version of Miller for the rest of the Seas he was great I loved his character I loved it he was funny he was s so much better without the Hat oh my God the Hat's like Kryptonite so much better without the Hat I I don't want him to go back to series and get the Hat again I don't likeed him for leaving a metaphor for him losing his head I don't want him to find it again at this stage I like this Miller he was just so much more like when they gave him a dark Ed he was Dynamic he was funny he was in charge he had an ace up his sleeve he was all the things I want Thomas Jane to be in the show like as an actor I've seen him do these things so well other things yeah and it's like they unlocked the the Miller code finally uh we've been seeing it slowly emerge but here I was I'm just scratching my head going where was this guy like where is this [ __ ] guy he I appreciate this even more than I would have maybe if he was like this from the start I like the attitude that he has now that he's like well I used to be a cop no I'm not he had a great relationship with this guy who gave him the infamous hat in the first place they shared some dialogue that I found to be again good nothing groundbreaking but it was was good and it just all of this episode made Miller look like an absolute badass and when when we're following him and he's kicking ass and he's taking names and he's just nonchalantly sitting in the jail cell knowing that his buddy will get him out and they hug and they talk and him demanding that he just gets coffee and then getting the thing then he's saying ah I want it this way just so much Swagger where was this because in the days of the show when he had Swagger there was always this level of um awkwardness to it from from him like I would always Des was fully embracing himself there's always something to Miller that I would use as a descriptor which is he's he was always a little little freak in the first half of the show like like I always found him to be like a freak flag fly well in a different way like in the first few episodes I found to be a I don't know kind of just a weird little guy but not in the most uh interesting way to watch but now he's off the chain I'm here for when he finds out the location and he immediately goes I was I was cheering I was like yes yes no no no sit down and get have your coffee and then go right now right now [ __ ] you're on a mission and then we cut away from him arriving on the station and then the crew arriving on AOS and how they go about it they're far more casual discreet which is very very ironic because they are trying to be discreet they're trying to be quiet and they're the ones that get into the loud shootout gunfight where their cover is blown the spy guy obviously turned them in with his technology and he ran away like a little worm and then came trying to assassinate Holden yes and and now the police are aware Holden is here now everyone's aware Holden is here and yet Miller since he is this Enigma since he is this figure that nobody really cares about or knows about yet he knows so much he can come in and just punch out a bunch of people get arrested and then he can go to the Blue Falcon and save the day because he's inconspicuous even though he's coming in guns blazing coming in declaring that he's here and that he's going to do a job I just thought it was a great way of uh of showing us the differences between these two groups who are on the same Mission and so we we we see our crew they they go to the hotel the the Spy guys already alarmed the people and you get this brilliant brilliant sequence of just awkward silence as they're waiting in line to talk to the hotel owner that's what I was referring to earlier because there's no um no real music playing there's like the atmosphere louy sort of Music people using the soda machine yeah and the Clank of it falling and Aus going more more suspicious as people walk in the loud sound of people's clothes rustling and zippers undoing yeah that was brilliantly done I I love that it was funny and then it turned into genuine intention and you had a uh a standoff happen and I I I I I had a good laugh at some of the stuff during it as well with uh with Holden in the episode trying to be a tough guy we've made a lot of fun about Holden but I think the show is a little bit more aware because in this episode every time he tries to be a tough guy tries to be the badass leader he always gets undermined by somebody like Amos at the beginning when he when uh he does the whole hey Amos if the guy even breaks a toenail you'll be hitchhiking from this rock and then Amos just rolls his eyes and said okay Skipper uh I I I mean even in this big standoff scene where they're after hold and and they're going to shoot him in the [ __ ] face it's still treated lesser than by everyone I just I I just had a good smile about that James Holden should just follow you around don't it Kidd Miller what on in super excited he's not phased at all he's just like yeah this makes sense but I'm not stopping and I loved his interactions with Holden he hates him he thinks he's a stupid little man and he just puts him in his place in every every single line they have together Holden just can't help but bow down to the alpha male and the room which is Miller of all people I've been saying I want to see Miller interact with these folk and I I I honestly didn't expect it to happen like this because let's be real let's be real for a second and I don't I don't know if this is criticism or not but it is something to just chew on if we hadn't seen Miller in the show and this was his introduction and then that was a great lead in of like oh how did this guy get to here and or we we theorize about like what his cool story was that led him to this epic moment it would have been more compelling and more fascinating than what we actually watched in the episodes leading to this yeah his charactere like that introduction of his character to them and how he acts for the rest of the episode was a better character to me than the previous seven episodes of Miller's character again it all has been building and it all is something you can track but that was one of my first thoughts did you have that in your brain at all because it was right there at the front of mine of man this is how you could have introduced Miller and then we the audience would want to know how who this guy is and what his deal is and how he got to here because there are many Char like Fred Johnson Fred Johnson rocks up in this show fully formed with a full backstory that we slowly learn learned throughout the course of the series I know why we don't have it this way with Miller but man I was so happy you pointed out you really like this but when Miller does the hey if you touch me again there's going to be another body here uh you really liked a certain character's reactions to that Amos Amos is even more like Holden subdues Tam Miller mhm Amos is in awe I really thought Amos and him were going to hate each other and get into into a punch up but Amos is looking at him like finally another guy like me a friend somebody who gets it oh it was and it wasn't even and like it wasn't even drawn attention to they didn't have a a closeup or an insert shot of Amos he was just in the layering layering of The Blocking you just have to note down that actor and make sure you're paying attention to how he's reacting and I must my eye my eyes were on the other characters oh Alex losing his [ __ ] and freaking out at being shot at and him pointing a gun at innocent people and Amos calming him down because Amos is cool as a cucumber during all of this and then we finally get it they go to Julie's room Miller Kicks Down the door and they're like ooh stinky oh it stinks and and uh Amos with the background he has that we know he can detect that the smell is not like a dead body necessarily but it it's sickness it's sweat it's it's all these other bodily functions and so we are looking at this room that's dark and it's nightmarish and it's full of sickness and we've already seen some of the security footage of Julie looking sick and we know the blue goo exists so we could put together she's been infected by Blue Goo as do the characters because they note down that at first they think she had a shootout but then they realized no she was turn she was destroying all of the sources of energy in here and then we get her body they go to the bathroom and there's Julie naked dead and sprouting weird crap out of pretty much every orifice it was gross but kind of cool and you know that Miller wanted to touch it uh to really see that it's real like that's the thing it wasn't because he's an idiot it's he's so in disbelief of this that he it's that I want to touch it to see if I'm dreaming in love with Julie of like you're finally here and you're gone and not only are you gone I can't I can't reach out that idea of coming so close and being so far and during all of this they're annoyed that Miller has all of these answers to things they don't know about but here they have answers to things that he has no clue when when they're like who's Julie yeah um I really I really liked I liked that note um that moment of sort of letting information breathe a little bit I I really liked that it wasn't like on their way up they were like I know this thing and do you know this thing and oh we know this thing and exchanging information which would be like a super easy thing to do it would be very convenient but is not what the show is interested in doing and I appreciate the show so much for not making that choice if you had to rate this on our scale of yum being bad and yum yum being good no half yums we don't do half yums on this podcast what would you rate this um I don't know where I come down with it in terms of yum and yum yum because on its own it's a serviceable episode but because of where it is within the season and all of the things that it's doing I think I would be really disingenuous if I didn't give it a yum yum so that's where I land yum yum from me yum yum we had that Mormon conversation that was yum yum alone yes but the episode goes beyond just having that one good scene and has multitudes of greatness within it this isn't one I'm going to be thinking about in my top three of the season but it is that Snowball Effect we've been seeing it bigger and bigger and bigger during the show and yes this is an episode made up of Great Moments Like It won't be when I'm thinking of the Season I'll be like oh that moment and that moment and that moment and oh yeah they were all in Salvage like that's not the best episode overall but it has moments that I'm likely going to remember and that are going to stick out to me like um Miller and Holden meaning and interacting for first time finding Julie's body finding Julie's body the cat figurine story yeah so I I land on the side of Yum Yum Yum Yum the next episode is called critical mass episode nine which is a part one of part two we know this because the DVD gets out part one of part two part one of two parter sorry we know this of the DVD uh has the last two episodes as as one thing even though it says like episodes 9 and 10 yeah I don't know why it's like that but either way we will just be watching critical mass now I've already said what I think it will be I think it will be logical if we take a moment to step back and look at things from Julie's side of the story framing things and maybe have it interspersed with what's happening now like we did with the episode back to the butcher with the Anderson station thing being this framing device I think we could do a similar thing here or on the opposite end where the main story is this flashback and the framing device is the characters scrambling from having found her body that would be interesting too it could also go with the structure of the uh rock hopper episode oh yeah are they going to find that guy we haven't seen him in like three episodes is he still in space it would be really funny if the UN found him yeah I don't know I don't know um I completely forgot about that guy think that it's going to be still bringing those things together I think probably towards the end of the episode the UN will get to the station yeah I I think that that's going to be something that they milk for the finale we have to learn who made the stealth ship and the blue goo and I think we've figured it out but we need the show to tell me that I'm right and or tell me that I'm wrong and uh that is it that is all we have to say about Salvage a fairly decent episode of the expanse and one that is uh key to how this show has evolved over time and so I thank you all so much for tuning in and listening to us it means the world to me and it means the world to you as well doesn't it Rachel that people are enjoying our content enjoying our views having a good time and even pulling their hair hair out at what we have to say about the expans again this is our first time watching through it and so no spoilers no none of that please but feel free to contact us during uh your time listening you can reach out to us at our email yum yumod gmail.com if you are on our patreon where we release these episodes first for our patrons you can interact on the group Discord let us know your thoughts and opinions and we're on all of those social media hubs under yum yum pod or yum yum podcast follow us on there share us around to all of your friends you be the blue goo for yum yum podcast you infect all of your friends with this podcast saying hey this couple they go through science fiction TV they've covered Star Trek they've covered Babylon 5 they've covered space above and beyond and now they're doing the expans isn't that crazy that they're doing the expanse a series where Brian George occasionally appears and I hope I and I and they hope they see him again by the end of the season oh if Brian George is the final shot of the Season I'll cheer the gor Belta didn't show up in this episode no nor did Brian George and so how did I give this a positive rating if he's the gor Belta isn't here to say dust we got the Mormon we you know what we did get the Mormon gardy statue oh if we go in oh I'm in the [ __ ] oh no I know we got that but I'm also wanting to bring back the Mormon golden statues worth of yum yum if we go inside the Mormon ship and it's as DEC it has to be even more decadent on the inside they have to have [ __ ] paintings and but I really want I really want it to be all white because that's what like the inside of their temples yeah is like and oh my God there's going to be so many white jesuses fingers crossed fingers crossed
see you then well
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