{"id":406,"date":"2025-08-15T19:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/406\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T19:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:07:09","slug":"foundation-just-smashed-the-past-into-the-present-and-the-present-into-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/406\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Foundation’ Just Smashed the Past Into the Present, and the Present Into the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

You knew it wasn\u2019t going to be a pleasant exchange when\u2014at the very end of last week\u2019s Foundation episode<\/a>\u2014Demerzel barged her way aboard Gaal\u2019s spaceship. Gaal may be a psychic warrior who\u2019s lived for over 300 years, but Demerzel is an ancient robot<\/a>. They aren\u2019t strangers, having met at the very beginning of season one<\/a>. But times have changed since then, to put it mildly, and they really don\u2019t know much about each other. That evolves in a big way in season three, episode six, \u201cThe Shape of Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Io9spoiler\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shape of Time\u201d is a turning point episode in many ways; we don\u2019t spend much time in the palace, but the other storylines all take big leaps forward. The Mule continues his cruel galactic takeover. The Foundation elite strike a tentative truce with the Alliance of Traders to witness Hari Seldon\u2019s promised return\u2014a brief, confusing, emotionally brittle sequence with Holo-Hari that the Mule gleefully crashes. Brother Day continues his quest through Trantor\u2019s most mushroomy sub-region in search of his beloved Song.<\/p>\n

But no encounter strikes a chord more than the one between Gaal and Demerzel. The robot\u2019s first instinct is violence: it\u2019s because of Gaal that Brother Dawn turned his back on Empire. Not only did his subsequent actions result in an entire planet and the Imperial fleet being laid to waste, but the youngest Cleon was last seen being blown out of an airlock.<\/p>\n

Demerzel is furious at first, and her instinct to choke the life out of Gaal is very strong. Truths come out quickly: Gaal had no idea that Empire\u2019s majordomo was an immortal robot, but now that she\u2019s in on the secret, she realizes Hari (who did know) made his pitch about Foundation all those centuries ago to Demerzel, not the Cleons. Demerzel reveals that Hari used her memories to help complete his data set, which means\u2026 she\u2019s actually the co-creator of psychohistory.<\/p>\n

Gaal points out, while gasping for breath, that she herself is part of Seldon\u2019s plan and that Dawn was helping her in direct service of that. She explains the Second Foundation in succinct terms Demerzel can understand: \u201cThe Cleons have back-ups. Why wouldn\u2019t the Foundation?\u201d<\/p>\n

This makes sense, especially since Demerzel herself has noticed \u201cshadows in the math\u201d clouding the Prime Radiant\u2019s ability to predict the future. She hadn\u2019t considered another Foundation, nor the fact that it would be powered by psychics\u2014including Gaal, the most gifted among them\u2014who are uniquely suited to battle the Mule. He has similar abilities, Gaal explains, but he uses them for sinister purposes.<\/p>\n

Gaal admits, as she did last week to a shocked Brother Day, that she wanted that planet and the fleet to be destroyed. With Empire now in a perilously weak state, the Mule will attack, thereby setting up the ultimate battle with the Foundation. Later in the episode, we see the Mule attack the Foundation first, meaning Gaal\u2019s strategy may need some readjusting. But for now, Demerzel is intrigued by Gaal\u2019s most unique talent: \u201cI can project my consciousness forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Muledream\"The Mule wakes up. \u00a9 Apple TV+ <\/p>\n

Demerzel insists that \u201cinformation cannot travel backwards on the timeline,\u201d but Gaal pleads with her to expand her logical definition of what \u201ctime\u201d can be. She predicted the Mule\u2019s arrival 152 years ago, and she knows that four months in the future, there\u2019ll be a battle where she and the Mule will face off for the first and probably last time.<\/p>\n

Realizing that lines up with the Prime Radiant\u2019s fraying ends, suggesting humanity itself might end in about four months, Demerzel sets her jaw. \u201cShow me,\u201d she orders. Though she\u2019s not human, she has a mechanical way to read minds\u2014a holdover from, it\u2019s implied, her Robot Wars era interrogating human prisoners. It involves injecting filaments into Gaal\u2019s brain, and it looks as painful as you\u2019d expect.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s effective, though, and it allows Demerzel to glimpse a vision Foundation viewers will recognize: the Mule, executing a very Demerzel-like chokehold on Gaal, demanding to know the location of the Second Foundation as war rages around them. She recognizes the battlefield as Trantor\u2014the Imperial Library, to be exact\u2014and asks Gaal if she\u2019s ever \u201cgone further.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second mind-reading session transpires, so intense Demerzel has to hard-reboot and Gaal requires resuscitation afterwards. Beyond the Mule, beyond that familiar and seemingly fated battle, there is blackness. Nothingness. But there\u2019s also a sound so far below the range of human hearing that only a robot could detect it: \u201cGravitational waves emanating from a black hole.\u201d That means, four months from now, Gaal will be\u2026 orbiting a black hole.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly ominous, and Foundation viewers will immediately think of that black hole-powered superweapon Brother Dusk has been gleefully developing on Trantor behind Demerzel\u2019s back. But there are suddenly more pressing concerns. Just as Demerzel and Gaal are striking an understanding (Demerzel won\u2019t accept Gaal\u2019s visions as \u201cpremonitions\u201d until the events actually take place, but she\u2019s going to give her the benefit of the doubt by not killing her), they learn the news about the Mule attacking the Foundation\u2019s home, New Terminus.<\/p>\n

As Demerzel hurries back to Trantor, knowing the Mule will now have control of the Foundation\u2019s fleet, Gaal tries to send a message to her partner, Pritcher, currently being held in a prison cell orbiting New Terminus. Chaos, everywhere!<\/p>\n

While Gaal\u2019s black hole drift is certainly the eeriest takeaway from \u201cThe Shape of Time,\u201d the episode is not without its amusements. Let us now appreciate Brother Day\u2019s \u201cmid-1990s Lollapalooza dude\u201d glasses, hair, and bucket hat combination\u2014his stoner disguise of choice while creeping through Trantor\u2019s underbelly.<\/p>\n

\"Daydisguise\"\u00a9 Apple TV+ <\/p>\n

New episodes of Foundation arrive Fridays on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You knew it wasn\u2019t going to be a pleasant exchange when\u2014at the very end of last week\u2019s Foundation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[593,18,117,594,19,17,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-apple-tv","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-foundation","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}