In the fourth episode of Foundation Season 2, Poly and Brother Constant were somehow able to bring Hober Mallow to Terminus. They still had to ascertain why his name had appeared out of nowhere on the vault and neither he was a member of the Church of the Galactic Spirit, nor was he an important man in the administration. Meanwhile, Queen Sareth was trying to play her cards and find out some secret information for which she had actually made the visit to Trantor. So, let’s find out what happened in episode 4 and if there was some clarity achieved as to how the future is going to be.
Spoilers Alert
What did Queen Sareth want?
Since Queen Sareth’s character was introduced in Foundation Season 2, we realized that she didn’t have the best intentions for the Empire. It was quite evident that Queen Sareth was not as innocent and naive as she was pretending to be. Sareth pretended to be someone who had no clue how to govern an entire kingdom, and we had seen how she had told Brother Day in the earlier episodes that she didn’t get any time to get any formal training as she had expected her siblings to take upon that duty. But Sareth had lied, as Enjoiner Rue had made sure that she was prepared for the job. We got to know that Dusk and Enjoiner Rue had an affair back in the day, and even Queen Sareth was a bit surprised because Rue was not the kind of woman who indulged in these kinds of things.
Queen Sareth’s main intention behind coming to Trantor was to find out if Brother Day, i.e., Cleon the XVII, was responsible for killing her family. Queen Sareth went to meet Brother Dawn, and with him, she went on a walk in the hope of finding some information that would bring her closer to the truth. Queen Sareth had a way with words, and she was an extremely good manipulator. She also knew how to be poignant and portray her agony without saying or doing anything that could indict her. She talked to Dawn and asked him his opinions about what kind of man Brother Day was. Dawn said that though he didn’t see himself killing anybody in the future, he couldn’t vouch for Brother Day. It was quite surprising that Dawn very conveniently said that Day was capable of killing people, and Sareth realized that her suspicion was not baseless.
Lately, Dawn had started feeling that he was a bit different from the rest, and that he was not the ideal candidate to carry on the legacy of the genetic dynasty. Dawn was infatuated with Sareth, and she was shrewd enough to take full advantage of it and use him to steal information. After Dawn left, a man came who was ready to dig out information for Sareth in return for money. Sareth asked him if he knew anything about Brother Day’s involvement in the murder of her family, and though the man didn’t know anything about it in the present, he said that he knew where to begin his investigation. Sareth was more than happy to give him all the time in the world, and then she asked him to bring the visual records from the day when Brother Day was attacked by assassins. We came to know that it was probably Sareth who had hired the assassins and asked them to kill Brother Day, but after he miraculously survived, she was eager to know how that had happened. The blind angels were the best in the business, and she was just not ready to agree that all of them together failed to kill one man.
What Did Bel Rios Get To Know?
Bel Rios and Glawen went to Siwenna, and just minutes after reaching there, they met with a lot of hostilities. The native people attacked them, and Bel Rios gave in to his impulses and retaliated with full force. They met the informant of the Empire, Patrician Barr, after being able to locate him with much difficulty and asked him what information he had. Patrician said that there was a lot of activity happening in the outer reach. He had video footage of that time when Brother Constant and Poly had come down to spread the word of their prophet Hari Seldon.
Patrician told Bel Rios that the Foundation had these advanced whisper ships that were able to navigate without spacers, and it did feel like they had a mind of their own. Patrician said that he wouldn’t be surprised if one day they made the jump, came directly to Trantor’s door, and waged an all-out war. After Patrician was done, he asked Bel Rios to shoot him down, considering that he knew that the barbarians who were banging on his door wouldn’t leave him alive anyway. The entire population of Siwenna had gone rogue, and he was probably the only one there who was loyal to the Empire. Bel Rios shot Patrician down and, together with Glawen, escaped from Siwenna using the extraction packs.
What Mission Did Hari Seldon Send Hober Mallow On?
Hober Mallow was brought in front of the vault, and when he saw his name engraved there, he was a bit startled. He went inside the vault, and Poly, his brother Constant, and a reluctant director Sermak followed him. To their surprise, they met Hari Seldon inside, who told them that the vault and everything else they saw inside it were made by the manipulation of molecules. Brother Constant felt a bit overwhelmed when she saw Hari Seldon standing in front of her, and she felt extremely fortunate that she had the privilege to have a word with her prophet and get to take orders directly from him. Hari told Poly that they should go to Trantor as peace emissaries and try to avoid the upcoming war, telling the Empire that they didn’t mean any harm.
Hari was aware that the Foundation was being seen as a threat to the people, and he wanted the situation to be addressed before it was too late. Director Sermak was a bit disappointed when he heard that Hari had asked them to avoid the war at all costs. He told Hari that his troops were ready and that he had confidence that he would be able to overpower the Empire. But Hari told him that for peace to prevail, it is not always necessary to fight a war. Hari asked Hober Mallow to stay back, as he wanted to talk to him about something private. Poly, Constant, and director Sermak left the vault, and that’s when Hari told Hober that he didn’t believe that the Empire was going to accept the peace offering so easily. He said that Hober needed to be prepared in case something untoward happened, though he didn’t say what was expected of him.
In Foundation episode 4, Hober left for his mission, but before he left, Constant expressed her love for him. It was quite evident from her behavior that she liked Hober Mallow, and before he left, she made it more explicit. In the upcoming episodes, we will come to know what exactly Hober Mallow is going to do and if Queen Sareth and Bel Rios are successful in their respective endeavors.
