‘Foundation’ Season 1 Episodes 5 And 6: Recap/Ending, Explained

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In Foundation Episode 2, Hari Seldon’s foster son, Raych Foss, stabbed him and convinced his lady love, Gaal Dornick, to leave the Deliverance. Gaal’s escape pod reached an unknown spaceship at the beginning of Episode 5, while in her deep sleep, she recalled her childhood memories. Let’s follow further.


‘Foundation’ Episode 5: Recap – Gaal Dornick’s Past

Gaal Dornick was born on a planet, Synnax, that was sinking under its own sins. Much like planet Earth, Synnax faced adverse global warming due to which the planet’s water levels rose to alarming heights. The vegetation was destroyed, and living settlements had to rely on “green algae” for food.

Synnax was ruled by a religious cult group called The Sleeper. Like the Orthodox Church, the seers condemned maths and science and were waiting for an Awakening to save them from rising water levels and food scarcity.

Gaal didn’t really believe in the Awakening, yet under her parents’ pressure and blind faith, she became an acolyte, a member of the Sleeper Church. One night, a well-read teacher, Instructor Sion, broke into a public library, a place condemned by the Seers. Gaal located Sion and requested her teacher to leave the building, but Sion argued. He was hurt that his brilliant Gaal Dornick became an acolyte and stepped into the blind madness. Revolting against the Seers, Sion showed Gaal Kalle’s Book of Folding, an anthology of her theories that revolutionized analytical thinking. Sion told Gaal that all the destruction on their planet was caused by humans, and the Awakening wouldn’t help them. Only knowledge will do. Kalle’s numbers predicted that and Gaal should pursue knowledge instead of blind faith.

The following day, Sion was drowned in the floodwater, along with the books from the library. After his death, Gaal brought up the books from the ocean bed and solved the Abraxas Conjecture with the help of Kalle’s Book of Folding. For her novel solution, Hari Seldon from the Steerling University invited Gaal to Trantor. Leaving behind her parents, Gaal left Synnax forever for a future carved out of knowledge.


The Unknown Space Ship

Gaal’s escape pod entered an unknown ship headed towards an unknown destination. Gaal came out of the pod and placed Raych’s dagger on the door that initiated his protocol. With the help of the AI, Gaal tried to send a message to the Deliverance but found out that it had been decommissioned. The AI informed Gaal that she had been in her cryo-session for 34 years, and during this time, Deliverance had already colonized Terminus.

Through an intensive search, Gaal discovered that Raych was accused of Hari’s murder and thus was prosecuted for his crimes. But a memory storage video highlighted that Raych didn’t kill Hari willingly. Hari compelled Raych to stab him because of his prediction. He wanted to separate Raych and Gaal as their association was deemed fatal for the future of the Foundation. In short, Hari orchestrated his own death. The escape pod in the Deliverance ship was there for Raych to escape, but he changed Hari’s prescribed course of action and sent Gaal into it. The unknown spaceship was there to shelter Raych, and that was why the AI didn’t authorize access to Gaal.

Gaal found out that the ship was headed to Hari’s homeworld, Helicon. Hari might have planned to send Raych to his home planet, but Gaal didn’t know it. She panicked as everyone in the universe believed that Gaal and Raych planned Hari’s murder, and thus the residents of Helicon would kill Gaal as soon as the ship landed there. Gaal tried to change the ship’s course but failed to surpass the authorized access. The outcome of her endeavors will further be explored in Foundation Episode 7.


The Anacreon Attack

Anacreon’s Grand Huntress, Phara Keaen, attacked the Foundation on Terminus. The Anacreon bandits surrounded the foundation colonies outside the fence and were waiting for a moment to destabilize the defense shield.

An Imperial ship entered Terminus’ orbit for the Foundation’s aid and found Anacreon corvettes near the geothermal cell. Before landing, the ship commander, Kray Dorwin, contacted Foundation director Lewis Pirenne to inquire about the ground details. Lewis reported the Anacreon attack and requested immediate aid. Kray commanded the foundation officials to bring Phara to the tower for proper scrutiny. However, Salvor Hardin, the warden of Terminus, ordered not to move Phara to the towers as field relays of the fence were situated in the same building. Salvor understood Anacreon’s plan and quickly ran towards the colony to stop Lewis.

Phara hid a field detonator bomb in her fake eyeball and detonated the bomb as soon as she entered the tower. She destroyed the field relays and brought down the energy fences, thereby helping her men to attack the colonies.

Salvor confronted Phara, but she overpowered the warden and took her hostage. The Anacreon bandits raided the foundation colony and butchered innocent men. The imperial ship tried to land on Terminus, but a hidden canon destroyed the fleet.

Salvor told Phara that even if her people didn’t destroy the space bridge, their actions on Terminus were barbaric and inhumane. Phara laid down her hatred towards Hari Seldon, because of whose predictions, the Empire waged war on Anacreon and Thespis and burnt down its people.


‘Foundation’ Episode 6: Recap

Cleon XIII’s arrived on Moon Maiden to attend the funeral of its Proxima Opal and assign a new ruler to their lands. While the Imperial Conclave had decided for Zephyr Gilat to take over the throne, another leader, Zephyr Halima, challenged the Emperor’s decision. Zephyr Halima hailed from Mirrus Twelve and was born into the faith. During the earthquake on Maiden, she became a savior and helped in spreading the recovery effort. For her efforts, Zephyr Halima had been gaining the support of the masses and thus became a threat to the Empire’s sovereignty.

As soon as Cleon XIII arrived at Salt Palace, he tried to win the support of the masses. He publicly supported Zephyr Gilat, and in honor of her rising as the next Proxima, Cleon XIII promised to build a moon-wide desalination system. The project would help the Maiden’s residents to get clean drinking water.

Foundation Episode 5 6 Recap & Ending Explained
Apple TV+

However, at the Proxima Opal’s funeral, Zephyr Halima charmingly took charge of the ceremony. She influenced a new wave of change among the believers and explained that a soul should always be moving in the circle of rebirth. Her long speech on change and stagnation was an indirect insult to the Empire ruled by clones of Cleons. Hari, among others, believed that these clones followed a pattern and were just a new vessel with no soul inside them. They were the greatest failure of humanity because these clones were stagnant and corrupt from within. Zephyr Halima demanded individual sentience, which meant a leader should be chosen based on his capabilities rather than his royal blood. As the followers bowed their heads on Halima’s words, Cleon XIII sensed the arrival of the end.

In Episode 4, Cleon XIV tries to jump off his room. He became the first clone with colorblindness and emotional turmoil. He even fell in love with a gardener that broke the rules of the Imperium. Cleon XIV could sense the crack in the pattern of the clones, and probably that was the end Hari had predicted. Consciously, Cleon XIV tried to hide his flaws and individualistic actions that broke the pattern from Cleon XII.


‘Foundation’ Episode 6: Ending Explained

In Terminus, the Anacreon took Salvor Hardin hostage, and Phara commanded her men not to kill her. She knew that only Salvor could go near the vault, and she could use Salvor to get the secret hidden inside it.

Anacreon stole the details of all astro engineers working on the Foundation to create their jump ship crew. Phara was probably planning something, but Salvor failed to understand.

Phara threatened the foundation engineers to help the Anacreon with repairing a starship. In return, she promised to leave the Terminus, and they could go back to their mundane lives.

In the meantime, the kids from the colony rescued Salvor and brought her to the geothermal tunnels. The children informed Salvor of the term “Invictus,” which they heard from Phara. Salvor connected the links and explained that Invictus was a legendary destroyer that disappeared centuries ago. Phara and her men probably found it and thus came to Terminus to find a crew to operate Invictus.

Salvor teamed up with her father Hardin and lover Hugo to attack the Anacreon corvettes positioned near the geothermal field. She told them that Phara was after a warship and would probably leave Terminus in their corvettes, taking the engineers of the Foundation to operate the ship. Salvor feared that if Phara captured Invictus, the whole universe would fall into conflict, and she would start an eternal war. To stop them, Salvor, Hardin, and Hugo raided their geothermal field and destroyed corvettes. However, in the mission, Mayor Hardin lost his life, and Salvor and Hugo were captured.

Hugo’s spaceship, Beggar, was the only vessel left on Terminus. He cunningly transferred the lock protocols to Salvor so that Phara wouldn’t harm her. And only Hugo knew how to operate it. Thus Phara couldn’t touch both of them. Phara threatened to kill the colonizers and compelled Salvor to take them to the Anthor Belt. Probably, the Invictus ghost ship was floating near the Anthor Belt, and Phara wanted Foundation engineers to operate it for her.

Foundation Episode 5 6 Recap & Ending Explained
Apple TV+

Will Salvor be able to stop Phara and save the world from the Black Ages? Will Gaal Dornick be able to reach Terminus and save Hari’s dream? The upcoming episodes of Foundation will be narrated better.


Foundation is a 2021 space science fiction series based on the sci-fi novel series written by Isaac Asimov.

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Shikhar Agrawal
Shikhar Agrawal
I am an Onstage Dramatist and a Screenwriter. I have been working in the Indian Film Industry for the past 12 years, writing dialogues for various films and television shows.

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