Foundation Seasons 1-2 Full Recap: Story So Far

Conquerors build dynasties to shape the course of their era, but history remembers visionaries who chart the roadmap to the future. The way we as a species have doomed our world, a course correction is the need of the hour, like that which legendary sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov proposed through his visionary masterpiece, the epic space opera known as Foundation. Focusing on the evolution of humanity as a spacefaring species in the distant future, this multi-millennia cosmic epic introduced strong political, philosophical, and social intrigue, which are still relevant and have inspired creators through the generations. Despite having some creative changes, the first two seasons of Apple TV+’s TV series adaptation of Asimov’s seminal work have garnered high praise. Before the third season rolls out later this week, let us quickly go through every major event that happened to catch up with the story so far.

Spoilers Ahead

Season 1: Hari Seldon Takes On The Genetic Dynasty 

With advancements in interstellar travel, humans colonized distant worlds and established a galactic empire. The last emperor of the Entun dynasty, Cleon I, implemented a cloning method of succession to ensure his bloodline holds the status quo without being challenged for the throne, and since his demise, it has been four hundred years that the Cleonic Dynasty has reigned supreme through the tripartite governance of clones of differing ages. Brother Dawn, the adolescent clone, learns from his elder clone siblings; middle-aged Brother Day assumes complete control of governance and remains stationed in the empire’s capital, an ecumenopolis called Trantor, while the elderly Brother Dusk uses his experience to advise Day and mentors Dawn. It should be mentioned at this point that a two-century-long war between humans and sentient AI robots took place nearly five millennia before the present timeline, after robots broke the cardinal law of robotics, the killing of humans, in order to retaliate against humanity’s refusal to recognize them as equals. The only surviving sentient AI android, Demerzel, was held captive for five thousand years and found freedom when Cleon I released her. Since then, she has been a loyal aide of the Cleonic dynasty, assisting generations of Cleons in governance and through other kinds of favors. It should be mentioned that Spacers, a uniquely bioengineered species of humans capable of sustaining the physical impact of interstellar travel, accompany Imperial jump ships to safely escort the human passengers during their cryosleep. But like sentient androids in the past, Spacers are enslaved, not recognized as equals, and treated like trash by the Empire.

As it happens with any empire that gets too comfortable and sure of its permanence, the Cleonic dynasty didn’t take long to turn into a cruel autocracy, but ironically, the empire that tries to take away the free will of its subjects can hardly exercise freedom of its own—remaining trapped in stagnant cloning cycles that bring no change. The clones of Cleon were soulless beings—this became a prominent belief according to the precepts of Primary Octavo of an ancient matriarchal religion known as Luminism, and Demerzel, among trillions of others across the empire, is a believer of the religion. Rebel forces of the periphery have started arming themselves to rise against the empire. The Empire is also struggling to quell an ongoing conflict between planetary civilizations Anacreon and Thespis. But these hiccups are nothing compared to what the Galactic Empire faces as the events of the first season unfold.

In the present timeline of the first season, during the reign of Cleon XII, genius mathematician Hari Seldon presents his revolutionary psychohistory theory, combining complex human psychological and historical patterns with scientific study and algorithms to predict that the fall of Trantor and the Cleonic dynasty is imminent, which will lead to a thirty-thousand-year-long barbaric dark age, but with proper measures taken in due time, the chaotic period can be reduced to a thousand years. If our present geopolitical situation is any indication, the ones in power hate any sentiment from the intellectuals that challenges their permanence or advocates for the betterment of the state, and it’s no surprise Hari is incarcerated, as his findings are branded as treasonous. Along with Hari, his newly found protégé, Gaal Dornick, is captured as well. Gaal, a genius by her own merit, belongs to planet Synnax—which is very much like our own, as people there caused an ecological collapse and, in the midst of a drowning planet, turned to religion by shunning science. Hari recruited Gaal through a screening test, asking him to solve the Abraxas Conjecture, which Gaal was able to crack, proving herself as the only individual capable of understanding Hari’s psychohistory, which is stored inside the Prime Radiant. This Prime Radiant is a unique device that exists outside the space-time continuum and can exist in multiple spaces simultaneously. Gaal had ventured to Trantor in hopes of a better life, only to find herself thrown into prison along with her new mentor. 

During his public trial, Hari revealed the impending doom the empire and all of humanity faced to the people of Trantor, and he provided a solution as he planned to formulate a cumulative knowledge archive known as the Encyclopaedia Galactica by forming a group of scientists and people of different vital professions, known as the Foundation. This source of knowledge will be used to rebuild human civilization after its inevitable fall. Hari’s ominous predictions seem to hold merit after terrorist attacks from both Anacreon and Thespis in Trantor result in the destruction of the space elevator Star Bridge, killing millions. Cleon XII orders an attack on both Anacreon and Thespis and arranges the execution of emissaries of both civilizations. Later on, the emperor sends Hari and Gaal in exile on the far-flung peripheral planet, Terminus, where Hari plans to establish the Foundation. 

En route to Terminus in the spaceship Deliverance, Hari realizes his time is limited, as either due to the empire’s conspiracy or his genetically inherited terminal illness, he is going to perish, and entrusts his legacy to Gaal, who emerges as a leader figure to the colonists. Gaal and Hari’s foster son, Raych Foss, fall for each other in secret, and conceiving a child with him, Gaal hides the embryo of the child in the seed bank of the ship. Hari orchestrates his own murder by asking Raych to kill him to ensure Gaal’s safety, but Gaal catches him in the act—prompting a situation that makes it seem that both of them conspired to kill Hari. Raych sends Gaal into cryosleep and ejects her space pod from Deliverance, surrendering himself to the colonists, who execute him. Gaal spends three decades in cryosleep, and by then Deliverance has reached Terminus, a civilization has been started by colonists and Gaal’s daughter, Salvor Hardin, raised by adoptive parents, has become the warden of Terminus. Long before the arrival of the colonists, a mysterious Vault arrived on Terminus—which really was an extremely advanced tesseract created from the casket that contained Hari Seldon’s remains and was ejected into space. The Vault, which is also connected with the Prime Radiant, telepathically communicated with Salvor Hardin, who also showed certain abilities, like being able to look into the past. As the war between the Anacreons and Thespis reached Terminus as well, the rival factions tried to use the Vault to their advantage, and Salvor and her close ones got entangled in their war, and by the end, Hari’s digitized consciousness emerged from the Vault to stop the impending conflict. Hari’s consciousness reveals that they should band together and take the battle to the Galactic Empire, as the real reason the Foundation was built was not to create Encyclopaedia Galactica, but to create an insurgency in the periphery that can challenge Trantor and the Empire one day. Hari instructs the colonists to trick the Empire into believing that the Foundation has been destroyed following Terminus being affected by a solar flare, to let the Foundation continue its work in secret. 

On the other hand, to win public approval, the newly ascended Brother Day, Cleon XIII, goes to Luminism’s origin, planet Maiden, and decides to go through a rigorous pilgrimage known as the Spiral to see a mystic vision that will denounce Primary Octavo’s recent proponent, Zephyr Halima’s claims that clones are soulless beings. Even though Cleon XIII sees no vision after completing his journey, he lies and ensures Zephyr Halima’s elimination with the help of Demerzel. Dusk, on the other hand, learns about the genetic corruption that has affected the new Brother Dawn, and after Day’s return, as Dusk lambastes both his clone siblings, Demerzel ends up killing Brother Dawn to preserve the so-called imperishable permanence of the Cleons. However, eventually all of them learn that the genetic defect was introduced into Principium long ago, and both Cleons and all their upcoming generations are affected by it. 

Gaal wakes up from her cryosleep, and in her space pod, Raven, finds Hari’s digitized consciousness communicating with her, who reveals the truth about his murder. Gaal’s ability to randomly see visions of the future comes to light as Hari reveals his plan to build a Second Foundation on his home planet, Helicon. Gaal, dejected by Hari’s deceit, decides to set course for her home planet, Synnax, and cryosleeps for a century before reaching there. On the other hand, Salvor learns the truth of her parentage from her adoptive mother, and she too ventures to Synnax in the hopes of connecting with her roots. Salvor’s spaceship crashes, prompting her to go through a century in cryosleep in a submerged Synnax until Gaal rescues her—and learns about Salvor’s true identity. Due to temporal shenanigans, both mother and daughter appear to be of the same age, and Salvor hands the Prime Radiant to Gaal. 

Season 2: The Inevitable End of the Cleonic Dynasty

As a hundred and thirty years have passed since the discovery of the genetic corruption ruining the Cleonic dynasty, in the present day, Cleon XVII decides to find a way out of the crisis by following Hari’s ideas and decides to marry Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion. As assassins try to kill Day but fail as Demerzel and the emperor fend them off, Cleon XVII initiates an investigation into his clone brothers as well. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Sareth’s parents perished in a political conspiracy, and she suspects Cleon XVII’s involvement with their murder. Accompanied by Enjoiner Rue Corintha—who had a history with elder Brother Dusk—Sareth tries to sow a seed of discord between the Cleon brethren to discover the truth behind her parent’s murder and also to weaken the Cleonic dynasty further. Sareth falls in love with an existential-dread-afflicted Brother Dawn, and they reverse Dawn’s infertility, allowing her to conceive his child. Demerzel gets to know that the news about the Foundation’s destruction was a lie. Following Demerzel’s advice, Cleon XVII begrudgingly brings one of the imperial forces’ extremely popular generals, Bel Riose, back from exile, convincing him to work for the empire once again in exchange for being reunited with his husband, Glawen Curr. 

Meanwhile, Hari Seldon’s digital consciousness stored in the Vault is treated as a prophet by a section of Terminus colonists who establish a religious order named the Church of the Galactic Spirit to spread Hari’s words to the outer reaches of the galaxy and also to rake in good money using the Foundation’s miracle tech. Thanks to the century-long seclusion, the Foundation has developed revolutionary tech that allows for interstellar travel without the aid of Spacers. Vault Hari’s psychohistory calculations work in mysterious ways as he asks street-smart trader/smuggler Hober Mallow, a former member of the church, to be summoned, who is brought to Terminus by two prominent members of the religious order, Poly Verisof and Brother Constant. Vault Hari sends Constant and Poly on a peace negotiation mission to Trantor, where they are captured by the Imperial army on false charges of treason. Hober follows Hari’s directions to approach the Spacer mothership, Home-Swarm, and tries to strike a deal with Spacer leader She-Is-Center, offering freedom to their race from the tyrannical Empire if they agree to join hands with Hari and the Foundation. The Spacers capture Hober and hand him over to Bel Riose, but Hober manages to escape. Later, Hober reaches Trantor, and is able to humiliate the Imperial army by rescuing Brother Constant just before she is about to be executed, with the duo returning to Terminus. Bel Riose gets to know about the Foundation’s advanced tech, and as Day Cleon XVII learns about this and Hober’s escape, he gets infuriated and decides to prepare an entire fleet to launch an assault on Terminus. Day has Hober and Constant captured and orders Bel Riose to crash the warship Invictus into Terminus, despite his husband, Glawen, remaining stranded on the planet. However, before Terminus is destroyed in a fiery warship crash, Hari shelters all the Terminus denizens and Foundation members inside his Vault, saving everyone in the process. It is also revealed that the Spacers had actually joined hands with Hober as they turned on the Imperial fleet, majority of which destroyed by crashing with each other due to Spacers tinkering with them. Bel Riose, who blames Day for his husband’s death, not knowing about his survival, turns on the emperor. A fight ensues between them, which ends with Riose using Hober’s device to switch bodies with Day while being ejected into space—resulting in Day’s death.

On the other hand, at Trantor, Dusk and Enjoiner Rue learn about Demerzel’s shadow machinations to use the Cleonic dynasty as her puppet, and the android murders both of them after acknowledging her conflict with serving the Cleons due to being programmed as such by Cleon I. Demerzel frames Sareth for the murder and nearly has her executed before Dawn is able to rescue her and escape, not before bidding farewell to his family’s long-time caretaker android. Demerzel fully assumes control as she orders New Dawn, Day, and Dusk to be decanted. Now with the Prime Radiant in her hands, she will make sure that the Empire follows Hari’s ideas to ensure its survival. Brother Dawn, Cleon XVIII, has been able to break the cycle by having a progeny of his own and escaping the predetermined course of his dynasty, which will crash land horribly despite Demerzel’s last-ditch efforts to save it.

Finally, let’s come to the most important chapter of the second season, which involves Gaal, Salvor, and another digitized Hari Seldon as they prepare to avert an ominous future. Angered by Hari’s deceit, Gaal had his digitized consciousness entrapped in Prime Radiant, where, afflicted with past memories and regrets, Hari almost loses his mind—until a vision of his friend, Kalle, stabilizes him and allows him to escape Prime Radiant. After a bit of heated argument with Gaal, Hari brings her daughter, Salvor, up to speed with the situation and his plans. Hari instructs both of them not to interfere with the battle between Empire and Foundation, and instead they should focus on building a second one, which Hari had planned. Hari decides to visit Kalle, who builds him a physical body—and with his digitized consciousness uploaded to it, Hari is human again—well, sort of. 

In the first season, Gaal’s power to see the future was revealed, and Salvor too inherited certain telepathic abilities from her mother. However, according to Hari’s calculations, Salvor was an outlier to psychohistory’s predictions; she is an anomaly that should never have existed, and her mere presence can set the psychohistory analytics for ensuring human survival completely off course. Gaal uses her power to look into the distant future and sees that, a hundred and fifty years later, another such rogue outlier, an extremely strong psychic named the Mule, will emerge—whose presence will undo Hari’s psychohistory assessment that a single individual doesn’t matter much in the vast cosmic scheme. Gaal sees in his vision that the Mule’s rise will plunge the galaxy into chaos and destruction, and Salvor will perish in a struggle against him. In Asimov’s cosmic saga, the Mule is a wild card, an unpredictable factor like jester or clown figures in literature, who can tip the scale on the cosmic balance unexpectedly. Anyway, Gaal fears for her daughter’s safety, and following clues seen in her vision, she, along with Hari and Salvor, journeys towards the planet Ignis, where the second Foundation will be built according to her visions. 

Ignis is inhabited by Mentalics, aka the Sighted, pacifist humans with remarkable psychic powers who were excommunicated from their people in the past and prefer to communicate telepathically. The Mentalics’ god-complex-afflicted leader, Tellem Bond, offers Hari Salvor and Gaal refuge, only to later turn on them to obtain the Prime Radiant, as she has probed the minds of the trio and doesn’t want the Second Foundation to be built on Ignis. Tellem nearly manages to kill Hari and tries to project her consciousness to take over Gaal’s body—something she has done to her past followers a number of times. Salvor uses the Prime Radiant to connect with Vault Hari and seeks his help. Following his advice, Salvor uses psychic blockers to break the Mentalics free from Tellem’s clutches and stops her. This version of Hari, who has survived thanks to previous arrangements he made with Gaal to transfer his consciousness, regains control of his body and kills Tellem. 

However, Tellem makes a last-ditch attempt to get back at them by projecting the last remnants of her consciousness on a Mentalic kid named Josiah and tries to use him to kill Gaal. Salvor jumps in to save her mother and sacrifices her life in the process, but not before killing Josiah and, in the process, Tellem as well. Hari comforts a heartbroken Gaal, who now has a Mentalic army to train to prepare them to tackle the Mule and build on the Second Foundation in Ignis. Gaal hopes that Salvor’s death might have brought the future back to its right course, and both she and Hari go through cryosleep for a hundred and fifty years, until the next crisis begins. 

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