Diksha Sundriyal
As Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’ Season 3 inches towards its finale, the Empire and Foundation lose their footing as the Mule continues to take over the galaxy. The previous episode ended with the villain showing up right on time as the Vault opens, and Hari Seldon’s digital form is caught off guard by the mention of the Mule. This episode focuses on the aftermath of the attack, and things don’t look any better for any of the characters. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Mule Takes Over New Terminus
The episode begins with a flashback. We are taken to Rossem, a planet on the Outer Reach, where a woman walks the fields with her baby and a young son. When they see the Foundation’s assessors approaching, they race back home, where the woman and her husband hide the baby in a space in the wall and put a candy in his mouth to keep him from crying. The assessors show up and end their visit with the declaration of an increase in their food supply. Right as they are about to leave, the baby cries. The couple tries to explain that the baby is the neighbour’s and they are simply babysitting him. However, the assessors are not too concerned about their lies, because with the food supply the family is receiving, they will have just one child by the time of the next monthly visit.
In the present timeline, the Mule’s forces have taken over New Terminus. The civilians run around looking for a safe place while there is blood and mayhem around. Han Pritcher helplessly looks at the Foundation’s ships firing at each other and is now allowed to leave, even when he tries to tell Sephone that this is what he was afraid of. Things calm down when the Mule lands on the planet, and not shockingly, Indbur immediately bends the knee. When a soldier objects to giving up, he is shot in the head, which serves as a statement that New Terminus has surrendered and is now under the Mule’s control, as he reiterates that they all will come to love him, too.
As the eclipse subsides and the sun shines on the Mule and his new victory, he asks Indbur to give him the gift that he promised when they last talked, and Indbur reveals that the gift is Han Pritcher. Realising that the Mule will most likely be headed for him, Pritcher bites into his own wrist, leading the guard to come inside. The Mule makes his way to the cell with Indbur and the others, including Sephone, in tow. By the time they reach the cell, they find Pritcher bleeding on the floor, but the Mule points out that the man is not Pritcher but the guard. It seems that he used his power to fool others and slip away in plain sight, but the Mule found him out. Pritcher tries to kill the Mule, but unfortunately, the gun doesn’t fire, forcing him to escape the scene on a ship.
Dusk and Quent Contemplate the Future in Trantor
While the Mule is busy conquering New Terminus, the Empire is still reeling from its losses in Kalgan. Dusk is the only one left of the three Cleons, and he is still processing the fact that Dawn might be dead, while Day has abandoned his post. At the same time, the officials also demand to know what he plans to do next. It is only after she notices Day’s camel wandering in the hallway that he is pulled out of his own thoughts. He relays a series of actions that must be followed immediately to contain the situation, and then he goes to the Foundation’s chancery to meet with Quent, who joins her people in a broadcast that shows New Terminus falling to the Mule.
Dusk tries to comfort Quent while also asking her if there is a Foundation left anymore. He also advises her to come to the palace, where he can guarantee her security, because the Foundation can’t anymore. Later, they have dinner, where Quent’s grief pours out as she talks about the horror of seeing everything unfold over the transmission. She is particularly disturbed about how all the commanders took no action, leading to the chaos that ended with the Foundation’s ships shooting each other down. And then she notices that Dusk’s brothers are nowhere to be seen, which is when he tells her about Day’s escape from the palace and the possibility of Dawn’s death. While Quent expresses her concern, Day’s ferret, Capillus, shows up on the table, looking for food. As Dusk and Quent feed the little creature, a moment of levity is shared by them.
Following the dinner, they go on a walk, where Quent wonders how long she can live in the protection of the Empire. Dusk doesn’t beat around the bush and tells her that he will be dead in three days. She wonders if the absence of her brothers and the worsening crisis of the Mule isn’t enough to put his ascension on the back burner, but he is convinced that Demerzel, who still hasn’t come back to Trantor, will not change her clock to give him more time to set things straight. Still, he convinces Quent that he has made arrangements for her and she will be safe even after her is gone. The walk ends with Quent kissing Dusk, something she says she had been wishing to do for the past thirty years. They spend the rest of the evening in bed, and when Dusk finally steps out of the room, he crosses paths with Capillus again. This time, however, he stomps the ferret to death.
Day Goes on a Mushroom Trip in Mycogen
In the previous episode, Day showed up at Song’s door, only to discover that she already has a partner and is not interested in getting her memories. He apologises to her because he didn’t know that she was spoken for, but he does assure her that she met with a robot. He shows her and her partner, Oceanglass, the proof in the form of the tool that he stole from Demerzel’s room. Because the confirmation of a robot’s presence is massive news for their people, the duo needs to confirm that Day is telling the truth. So, they make mushroom tea (more potent than any spores Day has been sniffing so far), which is supposed to make him spill the truth and meet his true self. As soon as Day has had the tea, Song starts asking him questions, and a few moments later, he begins to feel the effect of the tea.
He hallucinates himself back in the palace as he runs around its halls naked, while hearing someone say, “Did you hurt yourself?” Then he sees the moving mural of the three Cleons, and as Demerzel steps forward, she talks about the Genetic Dynasty, stating that Day plays a small role in the plan that was created by the man who was born centuries before him. When Day points out that he wasn’t born but made, she asks him if that’s what would make him feel whole, leading him to experience pain in his abdomen. The false sensation of the pain gives Day a moment of clarity as he finds himself back on Song’s couch. He tells her about the sign she made to Demerzel, which was the only reason she was made to leave the palace. As he drops back into the haze, where Demerzel asks him why he hates her so much, he tells Song that the robot’s programming makes her loyal only to the Cleons, and she will kill anyone who tries to free her.
This leads Song to lash out at him about how they have enslaved Demerzel. As Day falls back in this hallucination, he sees his younger self walking after Demerzel, asking her if she is hurt. She remarks that her tears are because she is sad. He also thinks back to the fact that Cleons have fallen out of sync, due to the tampering in their DNA from years back, and that’s the failure she is sad and disappointed at. Later, Day sees his young self in bed, while he asks Demerzel to tell him a story. She talks about how she has had different names and professions, including when she was held prisoner. When he asks her when that happened, she doesn’t reply, indicating that she sees her current situation as imprisonment.
He asks her if she would leave the palace if she were free, and if so, what would she do. She talks about making more robots like her, and when Day remarks that they would be her perfect children, she tells him not to dwell on the impossible. She says that she cannot “weigh love up against freedom,” and, back to his real situation, Day realizes that if she did weigh the two things, she would prefer freedom. Day’s trip leads to several revelations, and while Song was processing that, her partner called for their leader, Sunmaster-18. It is on him now to decide what to do with Day. The man confirms that the tool Day offered is the one that was stolen from their people many years ago. He introduces himself to a confused Day and reveals that his staff, which has a small skull on the top, is a “brazen head of God” that will scream his fate aloud.
Randu Mallow and Indbur Meet a Tragic Fate
While New Terminus falls to the Mule, Toran carries Bayta through all the chaos and violence back to their ship. Despite her efforts to wake her, she is still unconscious. His plan is to leave the planet, but then his uncle shows up, and he is soon followed by a group of soldiers. Toran realises that the Mule has burrowed his way into his uncle’s head, who now sees the Mule as the way to get rid of Foundation. As the soldiers arrive and take away Bayta, a scuffle ensues between Toran and Randu, where the latter seems to have an upper hand. Unable to save his wife from being taken to the Mule and with no sign of Magnifico, Toran decides to flee the scene. As he fires up his escape pod, his uncle is too close and gets killed while Toran screams and leaves the ship.
Meanwhile, the Mule tries to track down where Pritcher fled to on his ship, but it seems that he is on the other side of the planet. His next stop is Indbur’s office, which he claims for himself, and while he may seem to be in a calm mood, he still has violence on his mind as he makes Indbur drown himself, who happily does so by filling up a glass container and putting his face into it while the others watch in horror. Once Indbur is dead, the Mule zeroes in on Sephone, remarking how she seemed relieved when Pritcher escaped. He asks her why he is still on the planet, and she points out that it is nature not to run from things, and he is most likely planning an insurrection as they speak. The Mule is not scared by this, and as he looks back at Indbur, he remarks how drowning is a terrible way to go.
The Origin of Mule’s Powers is Revealed
The scene shifts to the flashback from the beginning of the episode, where the young boy watches his parents argue outside their house. Then, the four of them go to a water reservoir where they have a lot of happy memories. The boy, however, knows that his parents have brought him here to kill him. He pleads with them to let him live, to give the baby to the neighbours, or that he would himself go away. But the parents know that the neighbours won’t return the baby if it was given to them, and they see no other way but to kill their eldest.
Being so close to death brings out the boy’s Mentallic abilities, using which he forces both of his parents to drown. He leaves his infant sibling outside the neighbors’ door with a candy in his hand. In the present day, we see the Mule repeat the story in front of the Vault, daring Hari Seldon to show himself. He almost gives up and turns around to leave, when Seldon materialises and comments on the tragic nature of the story, while also questioning how much of it is true. The Mule replies smilingly that the truth has come “banging on [Seldon’s] door.”
Read More: Is Dawn Dead? Did Cassian Bilton Leave Foundation?
