Diksha Sundriyal
The penultimate episode of Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’ Season 3 puts all the major characters in survival mode. It’s do or die for them, especially for Day, who faces a new reality that will change the course of his life, whatever remains of it. While Gaal Dornick tries to find a way to beat the Mule, and Demerezel and Dusk try to keep Trantor alive in the aftermath of their atrocious decision to destroy planets, Day fights for his own life in the rotting depths of Mycogen. By the end, it becomes clear that for him to survive, the leader of the Inheritance must die. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Sunmaster-18 Meets a Shocking End
A couple of episodes back, when Day entered Mycogen, he only wanted to reunite with Song and live the rest of his life with her in blissful happiness. But not only does he discover that she is already in a relationship, but the trial in front of the Inheritors leads him to realise the terrible mistake he made by hating Demerzel all this time. He thought she was controlling them, but in fact, she has been chained to the Cleons, against her will. Now, he has a way to free her. He thought that when the Inheritors found out about Demerzel being a robot and being the Daneel that they worship, they would help him free her. Instead, he meets the selfishness of Sunmaster-18, their leader, who doesn’t give two cents about Demerzel. He enjoys the power of being a leader, and he knows that the moment their god becomes real, he will lose his position and go back to being inconsequential.
This is why, despite knowing that Day is telling the truth, he has the Cleon executed by throwing him into the underground system where spores grow and the surroundings are so toxic that a person is bound to die a painful death, decay, and become a part of the spores. Luckily, Song decides to believe Day, and she helps him escape the place he would never have been able to escape on his own. Song thinks he will use this opportunity to flee to Trantor, but he has other plans. He goes back to the main hall, where he had been held on trial and sentenced to be executed a short while ago. His heart is set on the robot skull of Sunmaster-18’s staff because this is the only way he can help Demerzel. When Sunmaster-18 sees him, he immediately knows what Day wants to do, so he fights and then tries to run.
If Sunmaster-18 cared about the Inheritance and its beliefs, he would have given the skull to Day. But he knows that the moment the skull and the staff are gone, his own position as the leader of the Inheritors will be gone. He tries to stop Day, but Empire is not so easily held back. Day chases after Sunmaster-18 and eventually catches up with him. When it becomes clear that he cannot overpower Day physically, the Inheritor tries to get inside his enemy’s head. He calls Day out for being a clone and mocks him for not being a real man. However, whatever he says is nothing compared to what Day hasn’t thought about himself and his existence. He is unmoved by the man’s taunts, and in a way to mock him, he calls Sunmaster-18 “dead man” and throws him off the balcony. The Inheritance leader falls from quite a height, which means that there is no chance of his survival. Meanwhile, Day has the staff and, more importantly, the skull with which he makes his journey back to the palace.
Blake Ritson’s Short Role Has a Definitive Impact on Foundation’s Storyline
Sunmaster-18 is introduced in the seventh episode of ‘Foundation’ Season 3 and dies in the ninth episode. One could say that the short span of his presence in the storyline makes him a fairly minor character. However, in these three episodes, Blake Ritson’s character establishes himself as a major plot point, which has changed Demerzel’s story in a way that no other character has done before. It is through him that the presence of another robot (or at least the robot’s skull) is revealed, and once Day takes it back to the palace, it will have major repercussions for Empire and Demerzel, with the latter already considering her choices and whether it would be acceptable for her to act upon it without compromising the foundation of her code, and none of this would have happened without Sunmaster-18.
The relevance of the character can also be imagined from the fact that his death is going to be a major event for the Inheritors as well. Despite being their leader, he had been holding them back from the information that could have done wonders for them. Now, with him gone, the stuntedness of the Inheritance will pass and a new leader’s dawn may change the religion and its people forever. As for Sunmaster-18, his death is a permanent affair, and he is not coming back from this. This means that Blake Ritson has also bidden goodbye to ‘Foundation’ and will not be returning in the finale or the following seasons.
Read More: Who is Preem Palver? Who Plays Him in Foundation Season 3?
