The Leap
Episode 10 of Foundation begins with Hari Seldon’s body floating through space, inexplicably changing from a coffin to The Vault. Now it becomes clear that The Vault seems to have housed Hari Seldon all these years. Anyway, we’re now back on Terminus with more pressing matters to deal with – a potential alliance.
What happened with the First Betrayal?
Tensions are high given The First Betrayal, a moment in time where a Thespian King was wed to an Anacreon Huntress. The two powers united but, as legend tells, the Thespian slit the Anacreon bride’s throat and severed their ties. The only witness happened to be an Anacreon handmaid at the time. As Hari reveals himself, he tells them all that the real killer in all this was actually Theon The Second – not the Anacreons or the Thespians as they were led to believe. In essence, both kingdoms have been falsely fighting one another, played by the Genetic Dynasty. Hari Seldon knew that the Invictus would be discovered too. Way back when, he found a pattern that predicted where the ship would show up. It would appear that the Outer Reach tribes banding together is the revolution Hari foresaw to overthrow the empire. Basically the Foundation was never about curating knowledge, it was about curating people and sowing the seeds for the future.
What is The Vault? And what happens with the alliance?
Hari Seldon decides the way to forge ahead is to set off a major flare that would destroy tens of thousands of worlds. In doing so, they could be invisible to the empire. As long as they stay within the outer reach and build up to “become what they need to become.” Hari still being here is explained by him swallowing nanobots. It’s always nanobots isn’t it? Anyway, they essentially broke down his body and turned him into The Vault, touching down on Terminus and waiting for the opportune time before returning him to how he was before. So basically the Vault is actually Hari Seldon, which came back into being when the Anacreons arrived on Terminus. That explains why the field has been increasing all this time. Seldon’s conscious mind has been coming back into being. However, the “messages” that Salvor has been receiving haven’t come from Seldon. It appears there’s another source responsible for this. Anyway, Hari soon leaves, heading back to The Vault and returning to his original state once more after this cryptic bit of exposition. Salvor begins to despair though, questioning her own part to play in this prophecy. First though, with this newly formed alliance about to take shape, Phara helps to plant a tree in her honour.
What happens with the Dynasty?
Brother Day returns to Trantor and sits down with Brother Dawn. He knows Azura has been conspiring against the Dynasty and heads out to the garden with her. He exerts his dominance, admitting that he has every single person that ever known or shared a memory with her and they’ve all been completely annihilated. As for Azura, she’s to be thrown in an automated cell and fed intravenously. She’s also going to be shrouded for the rest of her life, but aware of her hell, experiencing every moment. Now, it’s worth pointing out here too that the rebels have sabotaged the DNA of the original Cleon, which makes the prospect of replacing Dawn likely to throw up a serious spanner in the works, especially if the whole line is spoiled. Well, months pass and Hugo becomes the captain of the Invictus. Foundation continues to grow while he conducts the solar flare as expected, allowing the Outer Reach alliance to be free.
What is the origin of Salvor’s visions?
Salvor though is still haunted by her visions, heading out on her warden duties in the early morning light. She once more sees the same strange child from before, diving into a pool. Salvor eventually speaks to her mother, who reveals the truth. On the slow ship they had a Seed Bank program. It wasn’t safe to bring a child to time and space so the women banked their eggs. Salvor’s mother chose one from a controversial donor – Gaal. Salvor’s biological father is also Raych, which explains that Salvor is actually the child of both Gaal and Raych. Salvor has been living their memories and it explains why they’re so different. Salvor is convinced that Gaal is still alive and believes she’s behind all her instincts and the reason she’s been having all these memories. Could it be that Gaal is reaching out to her? Salvor believes this is the case and decides to leave immediately, determined to see if this holds weight. Meanwhile, the Genetic Dynasty continues to bicker, with Demerzel eventually killing Brother Dawn while Dusk and Day squabble over the best way to deal with him. Demerzel is tasked with cleaning up the child and bringing another clone up to scratch by lunchtime the following day. In the wake of one of their own being killed, Demerzel rips off her own flesh covering her robotic body, as it seems like she’s having a bit of an existential crisis.
How does Foundation Season 1 end?
We then cut forward 138 years later to The Blue Drift. This is, of course, where Gaal is heading and the liquid soon drains from the pod as she floats toward her home. She eventually touches down, surrounded by water as she looks out at the endless world before her. Conjuring a kayak beside her, she leaves the pod and shifts across to a boat, ready to find her home. The trouble is, it’s been completely destroyed. However, deep in the water she notices a strange pulsating light. Holding her breath for an impressive period of time, Gaal heads underwater and finds another cryo pod. Grabbing this unknown figure and pulling them to safety, Gaal looks upon the body of… Salvor. She crash-landed a century ago and now, the pair are now face to face. What a cliffhanger!
The Episode Review
Foundation bows out with a promise of bigger things to come, along with plenty of exposition from Hari Seldon, the ghost of exposition past. This whole plotline works reasonably well to set up an alliance, although the entire thing is a little too crowbarred together to feel completely natural. Still, it’s nice to see them all the tribes joined and uniting by the end of the season. The whole “violence” speech by Salvor’s father is pretty ironic in truth, given Salvor is a warden and uses a lot of violence in her role. Whether this was intentional or not is up for debate but actually this show could have benefited from not including that. Meanwhile, Brother Dawn’s whole plotline just ends with no pizzazz, with Demerzel snapping his neck and then going into an existential crisis. While that in itself is okay, it renders the intriguing parts of the Dynasty pointless, to some degree. We’re now back at square one, with Dusk and Day still the focal points of the dynasty and any interesting developments and ideas about breaking free from conformity gone. Then again, you could argue that Demerzel has taken that role now. The final episode to Foundation doesn’t really resolve anything, although with a second season already greenlit and confirmed, it’s not much of a surprise. The ending does hint that we’ve got lots more drama to come next season though, so we’ll have to wait and see what that has in store for us.
