The Expanse - Finding Home: Miller and Julie's Story (Early Access)!

Omg, im gonna eat this with potatoes tonight when I get home,... niceeeeeee

A great choice of clips to highlight your points . Once again, an excellent review. There's an old noir film called Laura with which I found some similarities in the early part of Season 1. A detective becomes obsessed with a murder victim. It's creepier since the woman is presumed dead, but the way her life was uncovered through the detective's investigation reminded me of Miller. He was also a cynic who found meaning through Laura's life. There is a twist, but of course the stakes were no where near the extinction of an entire planet. :)

I love that you used Dawes' scene where he foreshadows Miller arriving "home". I hoped it was not too much of a spoiler that I had mentioned that a while back. I even love the music in that bar scene which is naturally eclipsed by the incredible score they have written for this episode. The swell of the cellos when Miller hesitates for just a moment as the bomb threatens to run out of time, thinking, should I just let it blow us up? but his belief in her is too certain, too strong. Any of us would want that kind of belief in ourselves, that we could find the inner strength to save an entire planet, the cradle of humanity as Naomi calls it. When Julie set out to help the Belt, I am sure it never crossed her mind she would end up saving billions. And that surely is worth it and why I never felt sorry for her. She truly achieved greatness! Great review and thanks!!!

That was a clear and well reasoned analysis, and I tend to agree. Even the most disillusioned of minds, Miller starting the story off as such and Julie arriving there after a hard disappointment, is susceptible to purpose. I think it is the default position of the human mind to want to believe in something more profound than the menial or mundane, whether that be love or justice or some other ideal. And when the possibility arises to bring that ideal into a perceived reality, that's when the susceptible mind creates purpose and strives to do so. The individual mind also creates importance, though. For Miller to value Julie beyond a rich kid he was being hired to abduct and return to Earth, he needed to be open to the idea that Julie was not purely acting in her own self-interest. And that means he was not truly a cynic, merely disillusioned to the point where he thought that perspective was the better one to have, though it wasn't bringing him any satisfaction to have it. I think what he saw in Julie was someone who was honestly, and maybe even naively, interested in righteousness. I don't believe he thought he had ever seen that before, probably would have scoffed at the notion, but once he perceived it in her and thought it was True in her, I think it meant more to him than anything, something worth risking a lot in order to save. For him, everything, in fact. Why this girl over any other activist? Maybe it was because materially, she would have been set in a seat of comfort for the rest of her life, and yet she still chose to do what she did. Her living situation was not one that was desperate, she wasn't forced into this action. She did it because she honestly believed in the righteousness of it. I think it was that idea he fell in love with, which saved the life of every person living on Earth. Perhaps its not so sad though, that Miller found purpose to his life after all, and died seeking to fulfill it, if they are in fact dead. I think he'd say it was worth it. And seeing the results, I don't think I'd begrudge him that. The person I'm sad for here is Julie. This was not the end she sought, her ideal and purpose being thwarted, being abandoned to suffer a horrific transformation, and being left, in the end, to seek comfort in a complete stranger, never to return home again. Is that the price of trying to achieve a righteous ideal in this story's universe? Maybe, I guess we'll see how it turns out in the end. But I don't think it can be denied that was the price she paid, and that is tragic.

Tom Jane and Florence in a blue room for 3 hrs, produced this amazing end to their stories. This is perfect. A beautiful tribute to Miller, Julie, this ep and The Expanse. The clip at the end is really a fantastic touch. Prolly my my favorite ep of tv. Thanks Molly :)