Foundation Season 3’s ending brings the reveal book fans had been eagerly waiting for. The identity of the real Mule. And spoiler alert, it’s not Magnifico Giganticus. It’s been Bayta all along. I guess most of us had already figured this out when, in episode 8 of season 3, Bayta asked the tyrannical warlord to stop hurting Dawn, and Pilou Asbæk’s character let go of him almost instantly. But even though we now know the Mule’s real identity, it might still be bothering you how Bayta rose up from the dust to become one of the most powerful leaders of the galaxy. Often such massive revelations make you question the events that have happened in the past, so I’ll take a deeper look into Bayta’s journey as the Mule and theorize what we can expect next from her character.
The Death of Love
The Mule’s obsessive pursuit for love and validation stems from her traumatic childhood, where her own parents tried to drown her. Some years ago, a teenage Bayta lived a decent life with her parents, Hennet and Orvi, on Rossem, one of the Foundation’s jump-past planets. It was a farming colony where the Foundation had imposed a strict one-child policy as a part of their mass-deleter solution. Things were fine so long as Bayta was a single child, but then came her baby brother, whom her parents tried to hide from the Foundation. But unfortunately, during the inspection, one of the assessors heard the baby cry and gave the parents a month’s time to get rid of the extra child. Hennet and Orvi didn’t want to part with their son, and therefore chose to kill Bayta instead. This was the moment of betrayal Bayta couldn’t erase from her memories. She always believed that her parents “loved her,” but she was wrong. They were about to drown her when she realized she had psychic abilities with which she could bend people to her will. She used her mental powers to drown her parents in the very same lake where they had dug her grave. And before leaving the planet, she left her baby brother with the Bartons. The gender discrimination is quite evident in Bayta’s story. In the flashback sequence, when she asked her mother to give her to the Bartons, Hennet told her that it’s not “her” they want.
The Mule’s backstory, especially the one written for the show, explains the reason behind her cruelty and oppression. She wants everyone in the galaxy to love her, to shower her with the love even her parents failed to provide, and for that she’s willing to go to any lengths.
A New Walk With The Pirates
After leaving her baby brother with the Bartons, Bayta left Rossem to embark on a new chapter of her life. She joined the pirates who often raided her planet. She started to believe that these mercenaries were still better than the corrupt governance of the Foundation, which, through their imperial quotas, had pushed people to their deaths. Now, I don’t think Bayta had any experience with the pirates, mostly because she had recognized her psychic powers and could have easily avoided conflict by controlling people’s emotions. Most likely it was during her adventures with the pirates that she encountered the warlord, played by Pilou Asbæk, and used her psychic abilities to convert him to her cause. Also, I don’t think that Pilou Asbæk’s warlord or Tomas Lemarquis’ Magnifico are Bayta’s brother, because both these male characters are older than her, and as per the flashback sequence, her brother should be younger than her. This makes me believe that Bayta never went back for her baby brother, and he might still be out there, somewhere.
Furthermore, a small but important detail that I want to mention here is that Bayta’s eyes don’t glow when she uses her powers. I think this helped her camouflage her true identity from the people around her. She’ll bend people to her will, but no one will ever figure out that she’s the one pulling the strings. But this theory opens another can of worms. If Bayta’s eyes don’t glow, but Gaal’s do, and the warlord’s do too, then does that mean Asbæk’s warlord was a mentalic too? We know that Bayta can convert even the mentalics because she took over Captain Han Pritcher’s mind at the end of season 3 and was going to do the same with Gaal. But what we don’t know is if these converted mentalics could still use their psychic abilities. Because if they could, then Bayta wouldn’t have to be around to do the “brain” work for the warlord, and he could have used his own powers to further the Mule’s objectives. And if that’s true, then it would explain why it took the Mule such a long time to come out of the shadows. All this while, Bayta had been looking for the right person to use to camouflage her true identity, and when she finally found him, she converted him to begin her conquest. However, this still doesn’t explain why Gaal had the vision of the warlord, and not the real Mule, because Bayta isn’t powerful enough to change someone’s vision from the future.
Someone Who Really Loves The Mule
We still don’t know the exact timeline of when Bayta met Toran Mallow. Did she meet him before she discovered Asbæk’s warlord or after? Well, maybe we’ll find out more in season 4, but for now, let’s just assume that she left pirating for a while to make better use of her powers and become an “influencer.” In episode 3 of season 3, she told Magnifico that “they were good at making people love them,” which is your clue as to how she became a famous influencer, and while climbing up the social ladder, came across Toran. He’s one of the few people in the Foundation universe who loves Bayta from the bottom of his heart. She didn’t convert him because she wanted to feel what true love feels like. Yet, her relationship with Toran is quite complicated, in my opinion. Toran loved the girl in front of him, not the identity she had been hiding. Hence, the question here: will he have the same feelings when he finds out that she’s the real Mule? But whatever the case might be, Toran had been an integral part of the Mule’s intricate plan. She came to Kalgan to spend their honeymoon, at the same time that Asbæk’s warlord usurped the throne of Kalgan and introduced himself to the world as the Mule. He wouldn’t have been able to defeat Archduke Bellarion and his forces without Bayta’s powers; hence, it could be assumed that Asbæk’s warlord had already been converted when he laid siege on the planet without spilling any blood. It was the beginning of the Mule’s galactic conquest.
Bayta Didn’t Harm Skirlet
Asbæk’s warlord, on Bayta’s orders, killed Bellarion in cold blood, but he didn’t harm his daughter, Skirlet. Instead, Bayta converted her to her cause. I think Bayta saw a reflection of herself in Skirlet, and unlike her parents, she didn’t want to take the life of a girl child, which was why she kept her alive. One could have argued that Bayta wanted to put her on her father’s throne so she could control Kalgan through a puppet ruler, but it was the Mule herself who brought about the destruction of Kalgan and blew up the entire planet. Additionally, when Gaal and her mentalics attacked the Foundation’s space station, the warlord immediately asked for Skirlet, likely because Bayta didn’t want any harm to befall her. I think Bayta had developed a soft spot for Skirlet, maybe because she herself couldn’t become a mother? I mean, it’s a distinct possibility if we are still going by the theory that the Mule got her moniker as the Mule only because she was sterile. So Skirlet’s the child the Mule will never have, and maybe she’ll put her on the throne after she’s dead and gone.
Reaching New Terminus
Even though Bayta’s prime target had always been Trantor, she couldn’t have defeated the Empire’s Galactic forces without the Foundation’s whisper ships. Hence, she wanted an excuse to enter the Foundation’s stronghold, the New Terminus, and Pritcher just handed it to her. He arrived on Kalgan looking for intel on the usurper and enlisted Toran and Bayta’s help to infiltrate his party, unaware of the fact that the woman who was with him had been the Mule all along. It’s interesting that Bayta waited for just the right moment to use her powers on Pritcher, as she didn’t want to blow her cover, and it was during the party that she eventually found out about Gaal Dornick, the only person who could stop her from establishing her dominion over the galaxy. However, I want to point out one thing here. Remember how I said I don’t exactly know if Bayta has the same feelings for Toran as he has for her? In the same scene when Toran approached the Mule, he tried to peel the skin of his palm, and Bayta, standing at a distance, could have stopped the warlord from hurting her husband, but she didn’t. That’s complicated. I mean, it tells you that Bayta won’t let her own feelings for Toran come in the way of her dreams to take over the galaxy. It’s a cause she lives by, and maybe she believes Toran will understand? Well, he won’t, and that’s where the lovers are going to part ways. Bayta will let Toran leave, and he’ll fly away, never to be heard from again. Or maybe he’ll become the reason for the Mule’s downfall.
The Fall Of New Terminus
With Pritcher leaving the planet abruptly, Bayta concocted another plan: to bring a barterable token with her so she could gain entry into New Terminus. She stole her own balladeer, Magnifico, to trade him with the Foundation. Now the reason why Bayta took Magnifico was not because she sympathized with him, but because she needed his music to mass convert people to her will. Magnifico was the perfect bait. When she finally reached New Terminus with Toran and his uncle, Randu, they convinced Mayor Indbur to hear him play, and that was the moment Bayta used her psychic powers to convert everyone in the room without them even knowing. When Asbæk’s warlord later arrived on the planet, Indbur and Warden Greer submitted to him. These two people, along with several important people of the Foundation, were present on the space station when Magnifico played his Visi-Sonor. But if you remember, only a handful of people were converted, and there were still rebels on the planets. That was because Bayta needed to be close to take control of someone. This was explained by Pritcher in the penultimate episode of season 3. Furthermore, Asbæk’s warlord had told the generals of Kalgan that it is difficult for the Mule to coerce everyone, which was why he came up with a different method to convert some by way of demonstration, by “influencing” them with fear.
A Meeting With The Great Seldon
It seemed like, before kicking off her conquest to take over the galaxy, Bayta had been busy learning who her enemies were and what were their weaknesses and strengths. She knew that the Foundation’s greatest strength lay in the vault and the man inside it. It is to be noted that she didn’t know about Gaal Dornick and only learned about her when she infiltrated Pritcher’s mind. It could be assumed that Bayta didn’t want any surprises before launching an attack on New Terminus, which could be the reason why she was so keen to meet the great Hariton Seldon. Remember, the Mule knew Hari’s full name, which suggests “someone” did their homework before meeting the man whose followers destroyed Bayta’s life. However, when Bayta figured out that Hari was as clueless about the Mule as anyone else, she quickly sent a signal to her mercenaries to launch an attack. After the fall of New Terminus, Asbæk’s warlord came to the vault’s location to explain to Hari the reason behind his ruthless oppression. He wanted him to know that it was his Foundation that was responsible for such death and destruction, but Hari, being a digital consciousness, showed no remorse. Instead of sympathizing with the Mule’s story, he started comparing it with his own. Well, that’s some classic narcissistic behavior, but we all know how Hari was, so that’s no surprise. The worst thing here is that Hari knew that the First Foundation wasn’t without its flaws, yet he didn’t do anything to show them the right path, because he had become more interested in “getting some skin in the game” instead of saving the galaxy from the darkness.
Bayta Saved Brother Dawn
One of the things that I am not very certain about is why Bayta saved Brother Dawn from dying in space. As of now, he serves no real purpose in her grand schemes. She attacked the Foundation so she could capture their whisper ships and conquer Trantor. But maybe Bayta has some other plans. Maybe she wanted to use a converted Dawn to negotiate terms with the Empire. To force Dusk to hand over the throne to her, thereby putting an end to Cleon’s Genetic Dynasty (which, by the way, was already on its last legs). Hence, she can use Dawn to enact a bloodless takeover of Trantor, because I see no other use for him.
A Search for Second Foundation
In Foundation Season 3’s ending, Bayta finally converted Pritcher, which means she now knows the exact location of the Second Foundation; however, in the penultimate episode, Gaal had asked Preem Palver to shift bases, as she feared that if the Mule had invaded Pritcher’s mind, her bandits would already be planning an attack on Ignis. I think in season 4, Bayta will send Pritcher, along with a few other mercenaries, to Ignis to destroy the Second Foundation, but to their surprise, they won’t find a single soul there, because Preem will have already relocated all the mentalics to Trantor.
The Mule Is Not Immune
When the Mule finally walked out of the shadows, she asked her balladeer to play his instrument so she could amplify her powers to convert Gaal, the only person who could put an end to her ambitious dream. However, this was the moment when Gaal revealed that she had toyed with Magnifico, and he now plays her song. Remember, in one of the previous episodes, Gaal, in her voiceover, told us that Magnifico’s music is going to play an important role in the resolution of the Third Crisis. But even though she had modified her balladeer, it wasn’t enough for the almighty Mule. The distraction only gave Gaal the opportunity to escape the space station so she could chalk out the next plan of action against the real Mule. However, this brief scene does imply that the Mule isn’t completely immune to Gaal’s powers, and she will sooner or later find a way to plunder Bayta’s mind and kill her, just like she killed her puppet warlord. And it goes without saying that Gaal hasn’t yet stopped the Third Crisis, and therefore Magnifico and his music can still play a role in the next season, where she will use it to defeat the Mule.
The End Of The Empire
With everything falling into place, Bayta would eventually launch a full-fledged attack against Trantor and put an end to the Empire. Bayta now has whisper ships in her possession, which means even Brother Darkness’ black hole cannon won’t be much use to him against the Mule’s invasion. However, Brother Darkness, in his stupid pride, had made a demonstration of the galaxy’s most powerful weapon, and from what we know of the Mule, she wouldn’t mind exploiting its power to establish her reign of terror. Now the only hope is Gaal and the members of the Second Foundation, who will be hiding in plain sight on Trantor, waiting for the right moment to foment an insurgency.
I believe, after coming to Trantor, Bayta will order Dr. Ebling Mis to go to the Imperial Library to locate the Second Foundation. This is when she’ll find out that Pritcher’s mission was a failure, and they didn’t find anything on Ignis. Inside the library, Ebling will eventually cross paths with the mentalics, who have been hiding there for a long time, but before Ebling can expose them to Bayta, someone in her close circle will kill Ebling so that the location of the Second Foundation will remain a mystery until they are ready to take out the Mule. As per Gaal’s vision, the final battle between her and the Mule takes place on Trantor, near the Imperial Library, but no one really knows what’s going to happen next. It’s likely someone is going to trigger Dusk’s Novacula, which will expose the black hole at its core, and maybe that will swallow the galaxy whole. The question here: Will Gaal be able to stop this apocalyptic event and save the galaxy from eternal darkness? Well, we have to wait for the fourth season to find the answer.
So, with all that said, there’s still one thing that I don’t completely understand. If Pilou Asbæk’s character wasn’t the real Mule, then how come Gaal saw him in her vision? How come he was inside the mind of everyone the Mule had converted? Was it Bayta who left the warlord’s image on each mind she had touched? For a moment, we can believe that she did so to protect her identity, but the question that still bothers me is that she cannot influence Gaal’s vision, right? That’s a big “how” that I cannot figure out. If you know anything about it, please let me know in the comments below. Additionally, I would love to know your thoughts on this big reveal of the show.
