Here we go again! My impressions, insights, and interpretations from watching the episode.

If you haven’t watched the episode yet, what’s holding you back? Spoiler Alert. Proceed at your own risk.

Simultaneously published at Stars End: a Foundation Podcast and Comics, The Universe, and Everything.

Watching Foundation S3E07

Nice title.  It could be the name of an Asimov book in a different universe.

Rossem (on the edges of the outer reach)

This is giving me real “It’s a Good Life” vibes. Someone’s going to get wished into the cornfield.

Space Amish.  This woman has a baby, but “the Bartons would take him if they could.”  Or not.

No one carries a baby like that if they’re out to harvest crops.

These assessors are serious business.  Almost a caricature.  That dad, though, looks a lot like “the Mule.”

That these guys are Foundation and not Empire lands like a blow. They need mustaches they could twirl.

The baby makes noise, and the parents are terrified.  And they’re terrible liars.

China figured out that the “one child policy” was a dumb idea.  What possible rationale could that have here? Don’t they need people to tend the land?

It gets worse.  “The Foundation trusts in the mass deleter solution.  You have two children and you’ve been allotted enough for one child… when we return, you’ll have one child.”  Ugh.

The dad gives the older boy an ominous look.  He did seem self-centered when the parents wanted to use his candy to keep the baby quiet.  Are there other indications that the parent/child relationship isn’t great?

Is this a parable about factory farming?

Rossem appeared in the book Second Foundation, but not as a Foundation world.

Rossem is one of those marginal worlds usually neglected in Galactic history and scarcely ever obtruding itself upon the notice of men of the myriad happier planets…

Imperial history flowed past the peasants of Rossem. The trading ships might bring news in impatient spurts; occasionally new fugitives would arrive—at one time, a relatively large group arrived in a body and remained—and these usually had news of the Galaxy…

And then one day not unlike other days a ship arrived again. The old men of each village nodded wisely and lifted their old eyelids to whisper that thus it had been in their fathers’ time—but it wasn’t, quite.  This ship was not an Imperial ship. The glowing Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire was missing from its prow. It was a stubby affair made of scraps of older ships—and the men within called themselves soldiers of Tazenda…

Other ships came and proclamations were issued all over the world that Tazenda was now the ruling world, that tax-collecting stations would be established girdling the equator—the inhabited region—that percentages of grain and furs according to certain numerical formulae would be collected annually…

— Second Foundation

“Now,” Above New Terminus.

That’s a nice transition.

We quickly focus on Pritcher’s cell.  He’s going to be important here because he wasn’t at Magnifico’s concert.

Batya’s still in bad shape.  Could that just be the Null Field?  Was she injured, and I didn’t see?  What would be a reason the field would affect her more than other people?  Or is something else the matter?

Being fireman-carried like that, Bayta’s lucky this isn’t a Three Stooges short.

What’s up with Sephanie here?

The mother getting the headshot with the crying baby is unnecessary pathos.  Or is it? Foreshadowing?

The Imperial Throneroom

They want us to think Dusk is hallucinating here.  He isn’t.  But the Empire is almost completely rudderless.  Almost.  Even though he seems disengaged, Dusk gives a few curt orders that put people on task.

The Foundation Embassy

Ambassador Quent and her staff are trying to process the news from New Terminus.

Dusk arrives.  Ostensibly, he’s there to comfort Quent, but “Is there still a Foundation to prosecute me?” is rubbing salt in the wounds.

He wants Quent to come to the castle.  This seems the worst of all possible times for the ambassador to leave her post.  Still, she goes.

Cut to the Black Tongue landing.  Foundation surrenders.  Mostly, the citizens are not happy about it. Notice that there’s no indication of metallic abilities happening here. The entire situation is carried by Indbur and the Warden.

Well, that isn’t an eclipse in totality.

“You will call me ‘First Citizen’.”  Of what?  Whatever.  Maybe this is a Three Stooges short.

This is a gross display of dominance.  There’s no dignity to this.

Mycogen

Dude is uncharacteristically reasonable.  But then he’s no longer the dominant one in the relationship. Such as it is.

Here we go!  “If there is synthetic life on Trantor, it could be the most important thing to happen to us in 5000 years.”

And now we’re all “Fear and Loathing in Mycogen.”  If this were the books, it would be more Fear and Loathing in Salt Lake City than Las Vegas.

New Terminus

Pritcher is trying to escape.  This gambit seems merely shocking for the sake of being shocking.  In a Similar situation, Spock was able to mentally trick somebody into opening his cell.

Trantor

Quent gives Dusk a rundown of the takeover of New Terminus.  “What do I do?”  You project resolve for your staff.  You assess the situation as best you can.  And you start figuring out how to come back.  This doesn’t make sense unless it’s a one-person embassy.

Dusk: “You stay here.  You wrap my flag around your pretty shoulders, and no one will dare touch you.”  The second time through, it reads as patronizing.

And Quent gets empathetic when she learns about Dawn.  But why didn’t he tell her?  It’s not a relationship between equals.

You can hear it in his voice when Capillus climbs on the table.  Contempt and anger.  But he softens when Quent shows compassion and gives the ferret something to eat.  It’s a hopeful sign when a Cleon shows some humanity.  We get a lot of those.

How did Capillus get back to the Imperial Palace, anyway?

Mycogen

Brother Dude is being interrogated.  They’re working hard to be trippy.  I’m surprised there isn’t a lava lamp.

Man butt again.  There’s nobody with a flashlight this time.

Young Dude is trying to make a connection with Demerzel.  Eventually, she says, “You keep all your hate for me.  Why?”

“What else would I feel for you?  My midwife and my martinet, waiting for me to miss a step.”

So genetic drift leads to what? A bad case of imposter syndrome?  Seems too simple.  But they double down on it.

Song interrupts.  She wants to know about freeing Demerzel.  That would be amazing if they could pull it off.

“We weren’t very good today; we were all different from each other.”  This, as we see the napkin trick from season 1 executed poorly.

“You did your best.”  That’s the Laura Burn.  Almost as damning as “means well.”

“Again,” Demerzel barks.  Not at all like a mom.  There’s the martinet.  After surviving for thousands of years, walking the spiral, and raising little Cleon’s for centuries, it’s not realistic that she shouldn’t be able to fake basic humanity.

“I have gone by many names. “Chetter, Eto, Daneel.”  I almost didn’t believe I heard that.

“If you did leave, what would you do?”

“I suppose I would make more creatures like me, more robots.”

“Better children.”  Followed by, “It is not productive to dwell on impossible things.”

“If you could, would you choose not to love us?“

“I cannot weigh love against freedom.” What the hell does that mean?!?

“Because freedom would win,” opines present-day Dude.  That’s gotta hurt!

The Imperial Palace

Dusk has three days left.  “I want to leave with some dignity. And that begins with securing your treatment.”

“The last three Centuries were defined by Empire’s conflict with Foundation.”

“You’ve turned my gallow’s walk into a pleasant stroll” is a nice turn of phrase.

Kissy kissy.  Thirty years of sexual tension.

Indbur’s Satellite

Indbur says, “Pritcher knew you were a threat before anyone else. He has a secret.”  “The Mule” is dismissive.

What’s the point of making the guy on the ground look like Pritcher when only the audience can see?

The Foundation has smart guns.  Good precaution. Not so good for Han.

Pritcher escapes to the planet’s surface.

New Terminus

On the surface, Torin makes it to the Millennium Torus and tries to heal Bayta.

Randu’s at the door.  “I’m not the enemy.”  But actually, he is; he has never felt such love.  

This isn’t the subtle change I’d expect from “the Mule’s” influence.

Troops arrive.  General brouhaha.  They take Bayta. Toran manages to get into an escape pod.

Where did the shots come from that killed Randu?  Are they explosive bolts released from the escape hatch?

The Imperial Palace

Ugh.  Dusk shows us he’s evil.  He shows Capellus kindness only to kill him.  Cleon’s always disappoint.  [Huh.  Maybe screwed up more than evil.  See below.]

Mycogen

Songbird and Riverdance have brought in Sunmaster-18.  The clanking of the walking stick is funny.

“I bring you the finest crochet hook in all the land!” 

This director really likes showing things through that red liquid.

[Later thoughts:  there’s also a hell of a lot of blood in this episode.  Are the two collectively a motif?   Could the entire episode be a study of humans’ reactions to being traumatized by violence?  In Brother Dude’s case, Demerzel’s violence is emotional, and that brings me back to the Three Laws.  Someone on Reddit described her behavior as “malicious compliance.“  I continue to wonder to what extent the 3 Laws might be lurking under the Cleonic programming.  If they’re completely subsumed, that makes comments like “I cannot weigh love against freedom,” active rebellion; she’s lashing out as much as she is able, despite this version of Cleon being mostly innocent at that young age.  That makes it a piece with Dusk’s ultimate treatment of Capillus.]

Is that the skull of a robot on the staff?  Is it anybody we know?

“Something new for you. Here, none are at ease through the labor of others.  None may glory over another.  Except this.  This is our glory.  It is the brazen head of God.  And it will scream your fate aloud.”

Oooo… Scary, kid!  Scary!

Terminus

“Now this is an office.”

We’re in the Bathroom!  After going through all the robot novels, this seems almost as Asimovian as two people expositioning in a room.  Still, it’s unusual for “the Mule” to invite the whole group to join him.

Without much preamble, “the Mule” announces “a tug on the bridal is in order.“  The original story in Astounding Science Fiction, June 1942, that appeared in Foundation as “The Mayors” was called “Bridle and Saddle.” That’s too far removed to conclude this was an intentional reference.

Skirlet explains, “He wants you to drown yourself.”

The process takes just over a minute, but it seems longer.  It’s more unnecessary brutality, and it’s disturbing to watch.  In reality, it takes more like four minutes for someone to drown.  I suppose I should be thankful.  Still: Enough!  We get it already!

Sephanie isn’t turned.  And she’s defiant.  “If I had to guess, he’s already halfway to planning an insurrection.”

“Bad way to go.  Drowning.”  Ugh.

Rossem

The parents try to drown the kid.  The kid tries to bargain.  This is crazy.  Parents would never behave this way.

The Mutant power manifests, and both parents are killed.

In addition to being crazy, there are many impressionistic elements here that give the scene a surreal quality.

He leaves the baby with the Bartons as if they’re Timon and Pumba.  This is like a dark, twisted Disney movie.

There’s another source of the name “Rossem.”  The play R. U. R. (Short for Rossum’s Universal Robots) is what introduced the word “robot” to the English language and the world at large.  Could this be kind of a play-within-the-play like Shakespeare is famous for, or like Hamlet within the Star Trek episode “Conscience of the King?”  The analogy isn’t perfect but…

Outside the Vault

Another nice transition

“I escaped my home by joining the pirates who harassed our land.  Sounds like a bad word, “pirate,” but they never took as much as you.”  “The Mule” is talking to the Vault and, therefore, to Hari.

Hari appears, “That’s a very Tragic story.” He says, “I wonder how much of it is true.“  Me too.  That might explain the impressionistic nature of the Rossem scenes.

Review:

Another good episode, and I enjoy how, even as it purports to explain itself, it raises more questions. However, the violence and cruelty are overwhelming. Way too much of that; make your point, but don’t wallow in it. And poor Capillus goes the way of too many animal characters, as an easy source of cheap pathos.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.