In the 6th episode of Foundation Season 3, Gaal and Demerzel had an extensive meeting about the Mule, the Cleonic Dynasty, and the future of humanity. Using an interrogation method, Demerzel actually saw the vision of the Mule that Gaal kept seeing and pinpointed the location where it was going to happen: the Imperial Library on Trantor. Realizing that Gaal had sacrificed Kalgan because it was a part of her and Seldon’s plan to defeat the Mule, Demerzel let Gaal live with the aim of meeting again. On a parting note, Demerzel told Gaal that the Mule had taken over New Terminus. Gaal tried to get in touch with Pritcher, but she didn’t get a response because Pritcher had been imprisoned by Indbur, and the Mule had turned New Terminus into a warzone by manipulating the planet’s defense forces to attack each other. The invasion interrupted Digital Seldon’s emergence from the Vault, while also proving that he was nothing more than a glorified encyclopedia. In addition to all that, Day showed up at Songbird’s doorstep, demanding that she restore her memories so that they could go back to being lovebirds again. But Songbird revealed that she was in a relationship with Oceanglass, and she didn’t want to remember anything that she had done with or for Day. How were these plot threads furthered in the 7th episode of Foundation Season 3? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
The Mule Invades New Terminus
The mind-control-induced civil war on New Terminus rages on as Pritcher requests Seph to let him out so that he can help in some way. Seph chooses to follow Indbur’s orders in this situation and let him rot in that cell. Toran is seen carrying Bayta on his shoulders all throughout this episode. From a character-based point-of-view as well as an acting point-of-view, this is pretty impressive. So far, Toran has been portrayed as this pretty boy whose physique is built for aesthetically pleasing social media posts and not for anything functional. And here he is lugging Bayta’s body from the Vault to the main city and then to their ship on his shoulders. Yes, you can say that having the female character be carried around for the entirety of an episode is a bit sexist. But since I can actually see the actor, Cody Fern, doing this stunt hopefully without injuring himself or Synnove Karlsen, I will acknowledge the awesomeness of that feat. Anyway, as soon as the Mule sets foot on New Terminus, Indbur and almost everyone working under him bend the knee. Shrike tries to protest, but he is shot in the head by Warden Greer. Then the Mule approaches Indbur and asks him for the gift he promised him, probably in exchange for a ceasefire, and Indbur promptly takes him to his headquarters, located in New Terminus’ stratosphere, where Pritcher is being held.
Indbur Is Dead
Unbeknownst to Indbur, Pritcher has already escaped from his cell by swapping places with the guard—quite literally because he uses his Mentalic powers to appear as the security guard—and is prepared to kill the Mule. Unfortunately, that plan flops pretty hard because the gun jams right when Pritcher has the Mule in his crosshairs, thereby prompting Pritcher to go on the run. He hijacks a Whisper-ship, and, instead of jumping to another part of the galaxy, he seeks shelter in some secluded part of New Terminus, which is something that the Mule finds really interesting. Meanwhile, Toran reaches his ship, and after putting Bayta in the med bay, he prepares to leave New Terminus. However, he is stopped in his tracks by Randu, who seems to have been “turned to the Dark Side” by the Mule. Toran is livid that his own uncle is giving him and his wife up to the Mule’s minions. While he tries to fight Randu off, Bayta is kidnapped. That’s when Toran realizes that his survival is more important than partaking in a fight where he has clearly been outnumbered. So, he boards an escape pod and leaves, hoping to return to save the love of his life one day. While the escape pod fires up, one of the rivets on its body explodes and goes through Randu’s skull like a bullet. I thought that he had died on Haven, and I was wrong. This time, I am pretty sure that Randu is gone for good. I suppose in order to vent his frustration about these two significant losses, because Pritcher was a Mentalic and Randu was the face of the Traders, the Mule forces Indbur to kill himself. Indbur, who has so far defied everyone, obliges with a smile on his face. Then the Mule turns to Seph and asks why Pritcher is still on New Terminus, and Seph predicts that he is planning an insurrection.
Capillus Is Dead
News of the Mule’s attack on Kalgan as well as New Terminus reaches Trantor, and it seems like every single Imperial advisor has lost their cool. That chaos gets to Dusk as well because, usually, he handles these situations with Dawn and Demerzel. But with both of them gone, Dusk is feeling the heat. So, he hastily announces his decision to send probes to New Terminus to see what’s actually going on there, to tap the siege reserves so as to weather this calamity, and to recall every ship that went to Kalgan back to Trantor. He also makes a passing mention of “animals being on the loose.” I thought he was referring to the Mule and his army, but I guess he is just talking about Day’s ferret, Capillus, which indicates that he has started to lose his mind, because how can that be a priority in this situation? On that note, he leaves and rushes to Ambassador Quent, who is understandably upset about this turn of events, and requests that she come to the palace to calm her nerves. At the dinner table, Quent recounts the moments leading up to the death of New Terminus. They talk about the fact that Day, Dawn, and Demerzel are not around. Then they get busy feeding Capillus. And in doing so, they forget to address the Empire’s decision to play things on the back foot while the Mule expands his dominion. I mean, the Empire doesn’t have a Galactic Council to answer to anymore, I suppose, because it’s in a state of disarray. And what about his Death Star? The Invictus? Is that Dusk’s last option? Well, I don’t know yet, because Dusk is too busy fornicating with Quent. What he did after that really irked me. He killed Capillus! That cute little guy just wanted treats and cuddles. What the hell, man? After this, I fully support the destruction of the Empire. I wanted them to die before as well, but yeah, enough is enough. I don’t care if any future versions of the Cleonic Dynasty have the capability to be empathetic; I want them all gone. I want their DNA to be erased from existence. That’s the punishment for killing little Capillus.
Day Gets Drugged
In the Mycogen district, it seems like things between Songbird, Oceanglass, and Day have calmed down, because we see Day apologizing to Songbird for assuming that she is single, and for invading her privacy in such an idiotic fashion. Then the topic of their conversation shifts to Demerzel and the fact that she is a robot, because that’s the last thing that Day uttered before Oceanglass blasted him with her gun. If Songbird restores her memories, then she can confirm that Day is telling the truth, thereby giving the Inheritance a much-needed boost. But she doesn’t want to, because she doesn’t want to remember her time with Day. Day pulls out the make-up tool that he had stolen from Demerzel to prove that he is telling the truth, but Oceanglass doesn’t buy it, or at least pretends to not buy it so that Day stays on the back foot and doesn’t go “full Empire” on them. After a private conversation, Oceanglass and Songbird decide to inform Sunmaster—who is probably a prominent member of the Inheritance—about this development and also test whether or not Day is telling the truth about a robot’s existence by making him consume a concoction made of spores. Now, the things that Day sees and experiences are a little hard to describe. Day runs around naked. Demerzel comes out of a mural and grants him a belly button, thereby making him a human being that was born and not made in a giant test tube. It’s a lot. The visual effects, CGI, performances, cinematography, editing, and sound design really come together to create one of the most impactful sequences that emulate drug use. You truly have to see it to believe it.
Demerzel Yearns for Freedom
Now, allow me to get to the point of this whole drug-induced exercise and understand what Oceanglass and Songbird are trying to extract from Day’s mind. For starters, they are trying to make sure that Day is telling the truth about Demerzel, which is confirmed when he flashes the sign of the Inheritance that Songbird flashed to Demerzel before her memories were erased. Then, I suppose, through Day’s hatred for Demerzel, Songbird and Oceanglass learn about what Demerzel would like to do if she is freed. While talking about the ending of Foundation Season 3, episode 3, I had predicted that, after centuries of servitude to a bunch of men with fragile egos and horrible social skills, Demerzel would like to be loved for what she is, and she’d eventually go to the Inheritance and become their goddess. Well, I guess I wasn’t too off-base, because she did tell Day that if she does achieve true freedom, she will make more robots like her. And what’s the best place to make more robots? Where clankers are worshipped. Does this mean that the Inheritance is going to rise again to free Demerzel when the Mule plunges Trantor into chaos? Yes, I think so. But will Demerzel be able to go against her programming and accept that freedom? I don’t know about that, and I think Songbird is unsure as well. Before they can discuss this matter any further, Sunmaster shows up in the apartment; well, we see his staff (no pun intended) and his washboard abs before his face. He acknowledges the gift—the makeup tool, which probably has a greater purpose—that Day has brought for them, but it’s not actually a gift because it was stolen from the Mycogen district by the first Day, and the current Day is merely returning it. It’s unclear what Sunmaster has in store for Day, but I suspect that it’s not anything good.
The Mule’s Backstory
Several years ago, a family of four used to live on the edges of the Outer Reach, on a planet called Rossem. It was a farming planet and was being ravaged for resources by the Foundation. On top of that, the people were being threatened with extermination for having more than one child. So, as soon as the mother saw the assessors heading towards her home, she asked her husband to help her hide the baby while compelling her teenage son to cooperate by giving away his toys so that the baby was busy enough to not cry out loud during the house inspection. Sadly that didn’t work, and the baby did end up making some sounds, which alerted the assessors to its presence. The chief (?) assessor casually told the parents that they have thirty days to decide which kid they were going to kill, or else, as per the Foundation’s mass deletion policy, either they were going to make that decision for them, or maybe “delete” the entire family. At the end of Foundation Season 3, episode 7, we see that 30 days have passed and the family of four has decided to take a trip to the local reservoir. It seemed like they were doing so in order to take their mind off the state of Rossem, but the truth of the matter was that the parents wanted to drown the teenager there in order to adhere to their one-child policy. The teenager tried to fight back physically as his father forcefully submerged his body into the water. When he was at the brink of death, the teen’s Mentalic powers got activated, and he convinced his own parents to drown themselves. He let his sibling live because the baby was innocent. He left the child at the doorstep of his neighbors, the Bartons, and escaped.
Digital Seldon Meets The Mule
In the present day, we see the Mule standing in front of the Vault and narrating his backstory, thereby making that whole sequence a diegetic flashback. He says that, after escaping his home planet, he joined the pirate group that was harassing his people because at least they were better than the Foundation. And now he has come to torture the Foundation and everything that comes under its purview so that they can feel what his family and Rossem felt. That said, when Digital Seldon appears from his Vault, the first thing he does is question the authenticity of this backstory. So, I must address a bunch of things. Firstly, the entire Rossem sequence reminded me of the Mina-Rau subplot from Andor Season 2, which was in turn a nod to A New Hope, which in turn was an homage to Seven Samurai. However, the main difference between all those stories and the one in Foundation is that, in the case of the latter, the villains are the ones who were supposed to be the heroes. In simpler terms, it’s like the New Republic acting like the Galactic Empire, thereby underscoring the philosophy that power and corruption always go hand in hand. Secondly, it makes sense for the Mule to see the Foundation as his enemy, because they are the ones responsible for his parents’ death. Yes, he is the one who killed them, but he was forced to do so because of the rules imposed upon his parents by the Foundation. That said, he is fighting fascism with fascism and taking innocent lives. So, I don’t think we can fully support his cause. And lastly, why did Digital Seldon question the Mule’s tragic backstory? There is a popular theory that the Mule isn’t actually the Mule, but the puppet of the actual Mule, which is Magnifico. Sure, the teenager in the flashback looks like a younger version of Pilou Asbæk. But if this guy’s mind has been tampered with by the real Mule, it’s possible that he has merely planted Asbaek’s character’s younger version in his memories, which is why Asbaek relates Indbur’s drowning with that of the Mule’s parents’ drowning. That’s what’s making him believe that his childhood memories are authentic. Will Digital Seldon force the fake Mule to realize that, or will the real Mule destroy Digital Seldon before he cleanses the fake Mule’s mind? We’ll have to wait till next week, or maybe longer, to find out. Till then, feel free to share your thoughts on Foundation Season 3, episode 7, in the comments section below.
