“Foundation” wrapped up a surprisingly enthralling season with the thirtieth episode in the series, titled “The Darkness”. The episode was full of twists and turns and tied off most of the loose ends that have been hanging, while setting up an uncertain but exciting future. The series creator David S. Goyer has always maintained that show needs four seasons to tell the story of the original trilogy. Beyond that, the book series that the show is based on also had 2 sequels and 2 prequels that could extend the life of the show beyond a season 4 and even end up creating some type of spin-offs to explore the prequels. The subsequent sequels and prequels were written from 1982 – 1993, 3 to 4 decades after the original trilogy. It;s a testament to Isaac Asimov that we’re still discussing his work from almost 75 years ago, today.
The finale after a free-fall ride all season, with multiple Cleon’s in the wind and Demerzel (Laura Birn) having an existential crisis due to psychohistory being essentially broken after a certain date. There were so many surprises in season 3’s closer, nobody could have predicted how things ended up turning out. Warning, beyond this point there are major spoilers for people who are not up to date with “Foundation” from Apple TV+, including the show’s season 3 finale.
…David S. Goyer has always maintained that show needs four seasons to tell the story of the original trilogy. Beyond that, the book series that the show is based on also had 2 sequels and 2 prequels that could extend the life of the show.”
The episode stats with the current Dusk (Terrence Mann), aka Cleon the Consequential, as he wakes up for what is set to be his last day. Throughout the season we have felts his subtle attempts to manipulate and subverts the process of destroying every Cleon when he reaches a certain age, but this Dusk seems to be built a bit different. Cleon the XXIII goes through all of the motions and seems to have accepted his fate… Which makes his genocidal (?) master plan later that much more surprising. Fans of the books know that the TV series is vastly different than the show, although some major tent poles are still part of both, but the Cleon storyline completely came out of left field. The next scene shows Brother Day (Lee Pace) return home after he was assumed dead by his robot handler. Demerzel seems joyed to see Day and has been off-kilter most of the season with 2 of her 3 Cleon’s scattered about and Dusk planning to make his very own DeathStar.
Gaal (Lou Lovell) is the next character we check in on, as she prepares for her confrontation with the space pirate Mentalic mutant only known as “The Mule” (Pilot Asbæk). Gaal seems ready, but the Mule is also very confident in his chances as he knows that the second foundation will be coming to him on New Terminus. The AI version of Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) is on board to help Gaal Congo the the Mule and easily distracts the pirates brainwashed army while Gaal and her second foundation team sneak towards the Mule to assassinate him.
Before the action cuts away from the Mule and Gaal, we find out that Bayta (Synnove Karlsen) and a crippled Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) have been left alone in the med bay. The two hear the shooting outside and fear it’s the end Bayta leaves Dusk behind, and we don’t see him again, but we’ll talk more about his possible fate later. The action then cuts back to Trantor, where we see. Day reveal the Android head to Demerzel, which poses a possibility of freedom for the longtime servant of the Cleon dynasty. Demerzel revels against this with logic that humanizes her more than anything. The robot seems stuck in a toxic relationship here, but it would soon be coming to an end if psychohistory was right about the future.
While this soul-searching debate was happening, Dusk takes it upon himself to go an destroy every single clone in the entire palace… Except for one final baby Cleon. This plan is diabolical and the dude is literally covered in the blood of his brothers and smiling about it. This whole twist came out of let field and when Demerzel said “He played it perfectly.”, there was no denying it was the end of the genetic dynasty,. The 23rd Cleon could not accept his own demise and used his resources to kill Demerzel while she protected the last baby Cleon. After Dusk used his DeathStar to kill multiple planets for going against him and killing all his genetic replacements shows how dangerous absolute power can be. We were not surprised when Dusk shot Day, but we had secretly hoped that Demerzel restored the Emperor’s nanites off-screen and we could’ve seen more of a fight between the two.
The big wild card in the Emperor’s storyline is Dawn, who Dusk loved. Will he accept his crippled brother back with open arms? Or view the Cleon who would technically now be Day and the rightful emperor as a threat to Dusk’s life and eliminate him? With Cleon’s now being an endangered species, he might be a little lenient with his little bro but the Consequential doesn’t seem to have many real limits as to what he won’t do to survive. Gaal and the Mule’s confrontation doesn’t disappoint, with the Mule seemingly in control until Gaal turned the tides and completely ended him. The thing is, the Mule wasn’t really the mule. Gaal realized after the pirate was dead and there was still an invader in her mind. In the book series, the real mule ended up being Magnifico, (played by Tómas Lemarquis in the TV series) but the series came out of left field with the surprise news that Bayta was in fact the Mule.
Gaal seemed to have lost as everyone was now being controlled by Bayta, but Gaal had made a contingency by changing Magnifico’s music and she was. Able to push Gaal out of her head. Although Bayta was revealed to be the Mule for now, it is possible that we ultimately find out the character is Magnifico, but a double bait and switch seems a bit repetitive. Gaal’s action packed escape from New Terminus shows that the Mule storyline Is not completely finished and that there still may be interested parties looking into finding the second foundation. With the genetic dynasty essentially over and a mad emperor in charge, season 4 has a lot of possibilities.
The last scene with enigmatic character Kalle (Rowena King) and her blinged out android homie, where the two are watching humanity from a secret base – on Earth’s moon! It’s gives a little but of human pride to see Earth as a player in this sprawling intergalactic spaces opera and the sky is literally the limit in season 4.
What do you think? What is Gaal’s next directive with the second foundation? Will Hari’s depressed AI avatar find a way to clone another Seldon? Will “Foundation” capitalize on the series’ popularity and high RT scores and keep adapting the book trilogy’s sequels and prequels? Will Dusk kill Dawn? Is Magnifico the true Mule? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
