Diksha Sundriyal
The third season of Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’ focuses on the unfolding of the Third Crisis as the Empire, the First Foundation, and the Second Foundation prepare for it. Each character has to play their part to ensure that things go as they are supposed to, especially when it comes to defeating the biggest threat as of now: the Mule. The fifth episode, ‘Where Tyrants Spend Eternity,’ focuses on Gaal and Dawn’s attempts to put an Enclosure on Kalgan in the hopes of defeating and killing the Mule. However, not only does the plan backfire, but it also ends rather unceremoniously for Dawn. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Dawn Makes a Severe Mistake in Trusting Gaal
In an early episode of the season, it is revealed that Dawn and Gaal got in touch with each other when he went around looking for Seldon’s original work on psychohistory. Over the years, she recruited him to her side, leading him to make decisions that she labelled as being for the good of the galaxy. She uses this same tactic to convince Dawn that an Enclosure is absolutely necessary to trap the Mule before he ventures further into the galaxy and conquers other planets. Every single person, from the other two Cleons, Demerzel, and even the members of the Galactic Council, is against the Enclosure. The last time a Cleon decided to go forward with things didn’t end well for the Empire either, so now, everyone is, understandably, a little cautious.
Knowing that he will never get enough votes on his own, it is decided that they need to find someone influential enough to sway the votes in favor of the Enclosure. This is where Vynod Tarisk comes into the picture. He is framed to have been working with the Mule, and despite the fact that his wife and daughters are still trapped in Kalgan, he is forced to go forward with Dawn’s plans. As the Enclosure is approved and put into place, he rushes to call his wife and tries to assure her that everything will be okay. But then, the plan backfires, as it turns out that the Mule left Kalgan, which he wanted for its jump gate, and he made sure that when the forces of the Empire came, they were all destroyed along with Kalgan.
Watching his family die in front of his eyes does not sit well with Tarisk. The desire for revenge blinds him, and Dawn is his target. If it weren’t for the youngest Cleon, Tarisk wouldn’t have lost everything he ever loved. So, he follows the Cleon and finds him at an airlock from where he is supposed to escape. By this point, Tarisk has no concern for his own life, which is why, when Dawn points out that the air lock door will be destroyed and both of them will die if Tarisk shoots, the grieving man does not listen. He shoots, and the airlock door is destroyed. Tarisk is the first to fly out of it and dies immediately. Dawn, on the other hand, was wearing a spacesuit, but it isn’t much help as one drifts endlessly in space. Considering how everything goes down, there is little to no chance that Dawn would have survived this turn of events. Even with the spacesuit, his chances of survival are slim to none.
Dawn Isn’t Entirely Out of the Picture Yet
One thing that has become clearer with each season of ‘Foundation’ is that death is not permanent for all characters. While a lot of people do die for good, there are a few who seem to have surpassed the laws of life and death, and the Cleons are one of them. Their genetic dynasty was created such that Dawn, Dusk, and Day would remain the same over thousands of years. Moreover, there is a contingency plan in place in case something untoward happens to one of the Cleons. This is not the first time a Dawn, or a Cleon, for that matter, has been shockingly killed. In such circumstances, there are backup copies which are ready to take over the role without a hitch.
This means that even if Dawn never received any help and died when he was thrown out of the airlock, the character is not out of the picture yet. This is not the first Dawn, and it won’t be the last. The genetic dynasty is defined by the loop that sustains it such that it remains the same forever, which is, at the end of the day, the very problem. In any case, it means that Demerzel will soon pull out a new Dawn and he will go back to doing her bidding without any questions or doubts. Still, it would be interesting to see what new trouble he stirs, because so far, Dawn’s track record in the show has painted him as an unpredictable element of the Cleons. And it most likely will remain so in the future.
Read More: Who is Preem Palver? Who Plays Him in Foundation Season 3?
