Foundation Season 3 Full Recap: Story So Far

Principles of Psychohistory denies much importance to individuals in the grand cosmic scheme of multi-millennia-spanning intergalactic human civilization, according greater emphasis to the collective consciousness instead. However, the third crisis is nigh in the third season of Apple TV+’s sci-fi epic, Foundation, and ironically enough, for better or worse, the actions, decisions, and worldview of a few individuals—the Mule, Gaal Dornick, the Cleons, and Demerzel—will shape the future course of humankind. The conflict between two outliers—Gaal and the Mule, whose mere existence defies the complex analytics of psychohistory—takes center stage in the third season. The fate of the Cleonic dynasty gets sealed by the end through a series of shocking events, and the impending crisis takes shape in a way no one would have ever expected.

Spoilers Ahead

Two Foundations and Empire

The present timeline of the third season is set one hundred and fifty-two years after the second crisis. Following the botched attack on the Foundation, the Empire has lost much of its former influence, and as the Spacers have liberated themselves, the Empire has been forced to use jump gates to access interstellar travel. The Galactic Council, set up on a giant O’Neill Cylinder where millions of representatives of every state sector live, has gained more power over the Empire’s actions thanks to the dwindling influence of the Cleonic dynasty. Eto Demerzel is trying to hold the dynasty together by using the Prime Radiant, and she notices an inflection point in its predictions, which could hasten the prophesied thirty thousand years of darkness Seldon had warned about. The present Brother Dusk—Cleon XXIII, who is soon to ascend following the coronation of his youngest brother, Dawn—is caught up in the fear of his own mortality and loss of power. The present Brother Day, Cleon XXIV, is all too aware of the futility of the dynasty’s actions and his own identity as a clone with no agency over his fate, and hence, he has kept himself busy living a carefree vagabond lifestyle with his consort, Songbird-17. Brother Dawn, Cleon XXV, is determined to prove himself as the one who will help humanity avert its doom. He is trying to sway the Galactic Council’s growing power to strengthen the Empire’s position.

On the other hand, Seldon’s Vault brought the citizens of Terminus to the planet New Terminus, where Foundation flourished for a century and a half. Following the end of the period of religious outreach, the Foundation is expanding through its trade relations in the outer reaches. However, a civil war of sorts is raging between the Alliance of Traders led by Hober Mallow’s descendant, Randu Mallow, and the seedy governing body of New Terminus represented by the inept Mayor Indbur. To weaken the Foundation, the Empire is exploiting this infighting by supplying arms to the traders in their stronghold, the planet Haven. Viewers meet Han Pritcher, the Foundation’s ace intelligence agent who, along with his accomplice, Sephone, tries to gather proof of the Empire’s involvement in arming traders in Haven but fails as the duo has to run for their lives upon being chased by Randu and his trader crew. 

On the other hand, under the guidance of Hari and Gaal, who emerged for weeks from their yearlong cryosleep to teach their loyal army of Mentalics about psychohistory, the Second Foundation in Ignis has established a spy network across the galaxy. Gaal continues to experience premonitions of the rogue Mentalic/outlier, the Mule, and the threat that he poses to the existence of intergalactic civilization. Knowing that she has to be there to confront Mule to protect the Second Foundation from his evil gaze, Hari implored Gaal to remain in cryosleep longer while volunteering to remain awake to train the Mentalics. Hari trained a mute/deaf elderly Mentalic, Preem Palver, who is the present First Speaker to Gaal. At present, Gaal wakes up from her cryosleep after a long time and meets with a much older Hari, who has spent much more time awakened. Creating effigies of Salvor, Raych, and Yaana—all the people who were important in his and Gaal’s life—Hari is holding on to his memories in his final days. Hari provides the intel he has on all eight crises that will befall the intergalactic civilization, and warns her about a crisis involving Invictus, which he says will be the most important of them all—if they survive the Mule’s era, that is. Hari takes his leave  to spend his final moments in solitude. Unbeknownst to Gaal, Kalle—the genius mathematician friend of Hari—appears in Hari’s chamber to take him somewhere unknown using a portal. More on that later.

Mule’s Rise to Power

Meanwhile, the Mule, the ruthless, sadistic Mentalic/space pirate whose megalomaniac tendencies know no bounds, has already started making his mark by taking over Kalgan, an independent planet that controls the middle band. Taking Skirlet, the daughter of Kalgan’s Archduke, Bellarion, as a hostage, Mule forces Bellarion to approach him—only to turn his army against itself by using his extremely strong psychic manipulation powers. Keeping Skirlet captive, Mule corrupts the little girl’s innocence by exposing her to violence. Han Pritcher, a Mentalic, is secretly serving the Second Foundation and is in a relationship with Gaal Dornick. Like other Mentalics on Ignis, Han has prepared for the Mule’s impending threat under Gaal and Hari’s tutelage, and upon learning about the Kalgan crisis, he tries to convince Mayor Indbur to look into the Mule’s activities. However, Indbur refuses to allow any such investigation, and demotes Han for insubordination. Han ends up stealing his ship and takes it upon himself to gather intel on Mule. Han reaches Kalgan to approach Randu’s estranged, socialite nephew, Toran Mallow, and his newlywed wife, Bayta—to gain access to a party hosted by Mule. However, at the party, Mule briefly established a psychic link with Pritcher and learned about his connection with Gaal, and a terrified Pritcher escaped Kalgan in a rush before the Mule got to know anything more. Just like Gaal, Mule too has experienced nightmares and visions about their impending battle, and now, learning about her presence, he becomes eager to find her. In Pritcher’s absence, Bayta tries to fish for intel about the Mule from his abused, simpleton balladeer, Magnifico Giganticus, who plays his Visi-sonor to amplify the Mule’s psychic powers. Toran tries to keep the Mule distracted but gets horrified after Mule starts torturing him. Toran and Bayta somehow manage to flee the Mule’s clutches and escape from Kalgan, taking Magnificus with them. However, as their ship sustains damage before jumping into interstellar speed, they end up on Haven, where the Trader Alliance shoots down their ship. Randu is reunited with his nephew, and Bayta is able to convince Randu to agree to a truce with the Foundation, using Magnifico as leverage against their common enemy—the Mule. 

On the other hand, it is revealed that three years ago, present Brother Dawn, Cleon XXV, became secretly acquainted with Gaal Dornick while looking for Kalle’s Ninth Proof of Folding in the Imperial Library. Apparently, the librarian, Nee Tallamarus, who arranged his meeting with Gaal, is one of her accomplices. Unlike his predecessors, Dawn was much more open to collaborating with the supposed enemy if it served the greater good by averting a third crisis. During his meeting with Gaal’s holographic projection, Dawn mentioned a Prime Radiant in Demerzel’s possession, and Gaal foretold the threat posed by the Mule’s uprising, which they assume to be the crisis in question. At present, learning about the Kalgan crisis from Pritcher, Gaal advises Dawn to call for an enclosure on Kalgan to box the Mule in. However, he fails to convince his brothers to agree to call an emergency meeting with the Galactic Council to enforce an enclosure on Kalgan. As Dawn meets with Gaal once again, this time in person, she convinces him to leave Trantor with her. She evades the pursuing Imperial army using her psychic powers and shows her trust by revealing to Dawn the secretive existence of a Second Foundation. The duo reach the high seat of the Galactic Council, Clarion Station, where, working under Gaal’s command, Dawn blackmails a key member of the council, Vynod Tarisk, to vote in favor of an enclosure on Kalgan. With Tarisk’s vote going in his favor, Dawn’s proposal is approved, and he launches a large-scale enclosure on Kalgan. However, the Mule addresses the Galactic Council through a holographic projection to reveal that he isn’t on Kalgan to begin with and only took over the planet to access the Imperial jump gate. Mule destroys the Imperial forces sent to enforce the enclosure by creating a solar flare in Kalgan’s sun using a cobalt spike, which also destroys the entire planet in the process. As a panic ensues in the Galactic Council, Gaal helps Dawn to escape, and reveals it was part of her plan to bait the Mule and weaken the Empire even further. To strengthen the Foundation in order to stop the Mule, such a horrid sacrifice was necessary, as Gaal plans to let the Mule take Trantor and then organize the real enclosure on him using the Foundation. Feeling betrayed, Dawn tries to escape on his own when Travisk, who lost his family during the destruction of Kalgan, confronts him. Travisk shoots the airlock of the space station, sending himself and Dawn out into deep space, and it is assumed that Dawn has perished. 

Demerzel’s Dilemma and Day’s Atonement

On the other hand, the dialectical clash of free will and determinism involving Eto Demerzel’s existential dread gains major importance in the third season. As a sentient robot, she starts facing a major moral crisis. In the service of the Cleonic dynasty, she has strayed from her path an honorable general during the robot wars, and has turned into a glorified slave who can’t betray her programming despite trying to break free. From the zeroth law of robotics to being programmed by Cleon I and her role in destroying Starbridge to initiate Seldon’s plan for the Empire’s survival, Demerzel confesses everything to Luminist priest Zephyr Vorellis. Demerzel ensures that her truth remains hidden by wiping Vorellis’ memories of their conversation after each session, restoring them briefly during their next sessions. Vorellis is sympathetic towards Demerzel and tries to convince her to seek her own life beyond the constraints of servitude; unfortunately, Demerzel’s programming is her biggest hindrance in doing so. 

Brother Day, who is planning to leave Trantor to begin a new life with his beloved, Songbird-17, in her home district, Mycogen, ends up revealing Demerzel’s true identity as a robot. Learning of this situation, Demerzel sends Songbird-17 back to Mycogen, much to Day’s dismay. From Demerzel, he further learns that Songbird is a member of the faith of Inheritance, a supposedly extinct cult that worships robots and believes in the second coming of their savior to get rid of the injustice and cruelty of the humans. Upon asking Cleon I’s consciousness about Mycogen, Day learns that the first Cleon stole Mycogenic robot tools to gift them to Demerzel, which are the holy relics for the members of the faith of Inheritance, and nearly exterminated the order. Day steals one of the tools from Demerzel, kills his backstabbing aide, Claviger Mavon, after escaping from the Imperial quarters, and reaches Mycogen to find Songbird. Day offers to restore Songbird’s memories, but she refuses in fear of the repercussions, which prompts Day to reveal Demerzel’s identity to her once again. Songbird and her lover, Oceanglass, make Day undergo a terrifying acid trip by making him consume a sacred spore concoction to bring out the truth of his statement. In an intoxicated state, Day sees the past unfurl in all its beauty and terror, showing the extent of Demerzel’s sacrifices for the rotten Cleonic dynasty. As his statements are validated, Oceanglass summons Inheritance’s high priest, Sunmaster. Learning the malicious legacy of the Cleons—the abuser/enslaver of their deity—the priest drags Day to face judgment in front of their idol, a still-alive skull of a sentient robot, Brazen Head. Day accepts the punishment to pay for his family’s sins. He recognizes the robot communication ritual of ‘Clasping’ by identifying the tunes emanating from Brazen Head’s skull as the lullaby Demerzel hummed to the Cleons. Day, determined to make up for the sins of Cleons, reveals everything about Demerzel, aka Daneel, their prophesized savior. However, Sunmaster still orders Day’s execution, and Songbird saves him in time. Day confronts Sunmaster and kills him, taking the skull of Brazen Head with him, with the intention of freeing Demerzel using it.

Demerzel, who went after Dawn after he left Trantor, confronts Gaal and decides to spare her life after nearly killing her upon learning she has a role to play in mending Hari’s psychohistory to avert the Mule crisis. Gaal is surprised to learn that Demerzel is a robot, and as it turns out, Hari sought help from Demerzel to formulate the principles of psychohistory. Demerzel peeks at Gaal’s visions and learns that her final conflict with the Mule will take place in the Imperial Library. From the neural link she establishes with Gaal, Demerzel also learns that, within months, the prophesized crisis will put Gaal in the proximity of the ergosphere of a black hole.

The Mule Takes Over New Terminus

Pritcher goes to New Terminus and meets Indbur to once again warn him about the Mule, only to get himself thrown in prison. Indbur blames him for the fiasco at the Mule’s party, and assumes the Galactic Council will blame the Foundation for provoking conflict. Randu arrives at New Terminus with Toran, Bayta, and Magnifico. Bayta manages to convince Indbur to join hands against the Mule, as Magnifico’s tunes move him. Previously, New Terminus’ renowned psychohistorian, Ebling Mis, was able to breach the null field of Hari’s Vault to communicate with Hari and learned he had given a Prime Radiant to the Empire as well. This was confirmed when Foundation Ambassador Quent questions Dusk about it, and Dusk, who shares a great rapport with Quent, shows her the Prime Radiant and the inflection point. 

Vault Hari emerges as he is about to share knowledge before the commencement of the third crisis, when the united factions of the First Foundation approach him together to ask about the Mule crisis. However, given the Mule is an outlier, and Vault Hari didn’t meet Gaal after real Hari staged his accident, Vault Hari appears dumbfounded. At this point, the Mule reaches New Terminus using the Imperial jump gate, takes control of the Foundation’s Whisper fleet, and converts the majority of the forces. Vault Hari simply abandons the members of the united factions and activates the null field, which knocks out Bayta. Pritcher escapes after faking his death, Bayta and Magnifico are taken captive, and Toran manages to escape while Randu Mallow is killed by the Mule’s crew. The Mule uses his powers to force Indbur to drown himself, and tries to meet Vault Hari. 

Vault Hari learns about the Mule’s tragic backstory of being wronged by greedy tax collectors of the Foundation, whose forceful implementation of the one-child policy prompted Mule’s parents to turn on him to save his brother. A young Mule unlocked his psychic powers in the most horrific moment of his life, and left his brother on the doorstep of a neighbor after killing his own parents through psychic control. Mule tries to coerce Vault Hari to assist him, but almost gets killed after Hari activates the null field. Vault Hari spares the Mule’s life with the intention of studying him later. Upon learning that New Terminus has been captured by the Mule, Gaal’s planning for a long game is foiled, and she decides to confront him by directly going to New Terminus. Gaal asks Preem to lead the Second Foundation in her absence. It is revealed that Dawn had survived being thrown into space, at the cost of losing the use of his legs—and Mule’s crew have held him and Bayta captive.

The True Identity of Mule

Gaal reaches New Terminus, and following a tragic encounter with converted Warden Greer, she reunites with Pritcher, who has fortunately been able to stay hidden from the Mule’s psychic detection. Gaal and her team, consisting of survivors from New Terminus, prepare to take on the Mule. She convinces Vault Hari to help by promising to give him a corporeal body like Hari was able to obtain, but keeps it a secret that Hari has passed away. 

With Vault Hari providing a distraction, Gaal and her team enter the Mule’s pirate ship, Black Tongue. Pritcher rescues Bayta, who has to leave Day behind, as he is unable to leave on his own. Gaal confronts Mule in a final showdown in psychic space, where she is able to overpower and kill him. However, as it turns out, Bayta was the real Mule all along, and the one Gaal faced was just a decoy. A converted Pritcher turns on Gaal, but she is able to knock him out. Bayta tries to assert control over Gaal by asking Magnifico to play his tune to amplify her powers, but as she finds herself depowered, Gaal reveals that she was able to modify Magnifico’s Visi-sonor to sabotage Mule’s psychic control. Gaal escapes from Bayta’s clutches, leaving her with Magnifico—and escapes from Black Tongue with Rasik’s help. Vault Hari confronts Gaal about holding her end of the bargain, only to feel betrayed after Gaal reveals Hari’s demise moments before traversing through a jump gate and leaving Vault Hari. 

The True Harbinger of Crisis

With both his brothers missing from Trantor, Dusk, who is days away from ascension, finds himself singlehandedly representing the empire. He provides refuge to Ambassador Quent after New Terminus is seized by the Mule. Presider Kinn of the Galactic Council brings Enjoined Baryl of Cloud Dominion and Zephyr Vorellis from Maiden along with him to force Dusk to give up Trantor to the Mule as a part of appeasement tactics to stop him from taking over the Empire. The Mule appears in a holographic projection and accepts the proposition, but Dusk refuses to bow down to such demands, considering them a gross insult to the Empire’s pride. In secret, he has commissioned the creation of a black hole bomb, the superweapon Novacula—essentially a Death Star—as a failsafe option. Taking Demerzel by his side, Dusk absolutely plumbs the harrowing depths of his brutality as he uses Novacula to exterminate the Galactic Council, the Cloud Dominion, and the Maiden, annihilating billions of souls with three attacks. This gesture of power even causes concern for the Mule, who realizes that the limited range of Novacula is the only reason New Terminus got spared. 

Demerzel goes to the Imperial Library and seeks Kalle’s counsel by seeking an audience through the Prime Radiant. She is torn between her predestined duty of helping the Second Foundation to sustain the existence of humanity and following her directive of ensuring the Empire’s survival. The library is an important setting in this context, as Demerzel remembers it as the place where the last surviving robots of the robot war sought refuge. She wonders whether history will repeat itself, but with her directive making her choose the wrong side. As Hari has mentioned to Gaal, this is the paradox bomb Hari handed over to Demerzel by giving her the Prime Radiant. Kalle comforts her by emphasizing her freedom of choice, there is much time to ponder her decision without choosing a definite side. 

Ambassador Quent is disgusted with Dusk’s maniacal genocide, and she approaches Demerzel to decide the future course of action. Realizing it won’t be long until the Empire’s inevitable annihilation, Demerzel asks her to go to the Imperial Library and seek out the librarian. In the meantime, Day returns to Trantor and shows the Brazen Head to Demerzel, and she confirms his assumption that clasping with another robot will free her from the restraints of Cleon I’s programming. Caught in a conflict yet again, Demerzel refuses, but Day, determined to show his gratitude to his sole caregiver, convinces her to stay as he tries to use the robotic tools to awaken the Brazen Head. 

However, Demerzel never gets the chance to free herself, as she rushes to the clone room upon realizing that, on his day of ascension, giving into his worst instincts, a senile Dusk has destroyed all the Cleon clones and is holding the only surviving infant Cleon hostage. Faced with his mortality, Dusk desperately wanted to extend his lease on life, which was denied by Demerzel, and now he exacts his cruel revenge by leaving the infant in the incinerator beam, knowing full well that Demerzel will try to protect him with her life. Day watches in horror as Demerzel sacrifices her life, only to see the infant Cleon die as well. Dusk takes the Prime Radiant Demerzel had protected within herself. An infuriated Day chases after Dusk and beats him to a pulp, only sparing his life out of the brotherly connection they share. However, Dusk shoots Day, and given the fact he no longer has the protective nanite transplants in his body, Day can’t heal as he succumbs to his death. Dusk sits as the sole emperor, with no one to share his throne with and no advisor to meddle in his affairs. Hari’s prophesied ‘darkness’ has manifested in a very literal sense, as Cleons ascend to become Brother Darkness in the final stage of their life. 

Ambassador Quent arrives in the Imperial Library, and the librarian introduces her to Preem, who has followed Gaal’s commands to rebuild the Second Foundation there. As the season comes to an end, the Brazen Head wakes up and attempts clasping. This establishes a connection with Kalle and another of her robot associates, who seem surprised to learn that someone other than Demerzel is attempting Clasping from Trantor. They apparently have set a plan in motion, as Kalle’s hideout is revealed to be Earth’s moon. 

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