Episode 2 will be next, so I can hopefully get on track for publishing these before the next episode.

You remember how these work. These are Joseph’s reactions, reflections, and ruminations while watching the episode. Also some light summary. Beware. Here be spoilers.

Simultaneously published at Comics, The Universe, and Everything.

Watching Foundation S3E03

Book! I assume we’re talking about Foundation and Empire here. We’ll see.

Trantor, 3 years ago

Do you ever notice that on TV shows, nobody knows the Dewey decimal system? They just ask the librarian to find things for them.  No, not Noah Wyle.

Absolutely love the look of the reserved section.

Is that thing about the gloves true?  It’s nice that Dawn shows a certain amount of skepticism here. (Edit: I bought some nitrile gloves for handling old comics and then never used them. I must have come across this fact at some point.)

“The Empire has three heads. Do they all have room for thoughts like this?“

I’m pretty sure that this librarian would’ve been vaporized had this been season one.  Is that part of the cognitive decline?

Returning a library book from practically beyond the grave is above and beyond the call of duty.  And the librarian just implied that she has a connection to a power outside of the Empire.  These guys really are getting lax!

The Dawns collectively are getting better at sneaking out of the palace. This guy basically put on a raincoat and minimal, patchy facial hair.  That’s not going to fool anyone. Clark Kent’s glasses were a better disguise.

I thought this Dawn was more deliberative, but here we are again: Dawn + pretty girl = trouble. Possibly treason.

“Mathematics is the language of angels.”   It’s prettier, but it’s still too close to math is magic.

“Is it treason if you’re the one making the rules?”  Of course it is!  This is just Nixon‘s “If the president does it, it isn’t a crime” in fancy dress.  And don’t get me started on today’s newspaper.

“… just men who started to think for themselves.”  There’s a bit more to it than that. But the Dawns have shown this interesting spark since the little kid in S1E02.

That was a perfectly timed bit of static.

“Now,” whatever that means in a show set millennia in the future.

I like that the little texting device seems like something Asimov would have imagined 80 years ago. In fact, he did imagine it 80 years ago. This is from Foundation.

“The tiny, gleaming sphere changed hands, and Gorm added, “It’s confidential. Super-secret. Can’t be trusted to the sub-ether and all that. Or so I gather. At least, it’s a Personal Capsule, and won’t open for anyone but you.”

Ponyets regarded the capsule distastefully, “I can see that. And I never knew one of these to hold good news, either.”

It opened in his hand and the thin, transparent tape unrolled stiffly. His eyes swept the message quickly, for when the last of the tape had emerged, the first was already brown and crinkled. In a minute and a half it had turned black and, molecule by molecule, fallen apart.”

My current theory on the message? “Personal 210: The Vault is awake. We call.”

We were stuck on “Vault” for a while because I was stuck on “Mule.”

Nice!  Great shades of Mission Impossible! It’s nice to know that somebody is reading the books.

Once again, we get a perfect recreation of a scene from the previous episode that pins Gaal’s timeline to everything else.

Gaal wants Dawn to call for an “enclosure“ on Kalgan.  He doesn’t want to do it, and he evidently can’t do it without council approval. No hint about that in season one or two.

Dawn doesn’t think controlling people’s minds is possible; Gaal doesn’t answer.  I wonder if she is influencing his mind. I wonder if the librarian was from the Second Foundation. I wonder whether a lot of people are Second Foundation.

Kalgan

At the party, Pritcher is very serious.

And we finally see Magnifico with the visi-sonar.  “The mule brings him everywhere he goes, even into battle.”

Pritcher sees the Mule. “Now, I just have to get close to him.“  I wonder why that is sufficient.  He’s certainly 2F.  In a psychic attack from the Mule, we hear “you are like me,” and “Who is Gaal Dornik?”  Han flees with a bloodshot eye.

If he is 2F, maybe he won’t spend the rest of the book as a puppet.

“The Mule” is kind of a dick to Magnifico.

“Roughing my flanks?”

Bayta and Toran decide to investigate “the Mule” themselves.  They’re more serious than when we first met them, but they are very overconfident.

Toran’s encounter with “The Mule” is ugly, and Toran runs away, licking his wounds.  It’s notable, though, that, although “The Mule” threatens to toy with T’s mind, he does not follow through (maybe).

Bayta approaches Magnifico with concern, but the condescending baby talk is annoying.  Does she sense that Torin is in trouble?

“That’s not information!” Is funny.

Their ship is definitely an homage to the Millennium Falcon, even though they aren’t topologically equivalent.  

More letters, consistent with the message tape.

“Things have a way of working out how they’re meant to.”  Seems an out-of-character reaction (unless?).

Trantor

Brother Dude is back at the Claviger Barracks.  He wants to escape the palace and get to Mycogen with both Song and her memory.  We learn the clavigers’ families are all held hostage.  Dude claims he will bring the first claviger’s family along and will reward him generously for his help.

Song presses Dude for information, especially why he refers to Demerzel as “it.”  He tells her Demerzel’s a robot.

Why isn’t that an “open” secret?  Hasn’t she been in the public eye for centuries?  I suppose the official story is that she was also being cloned.  I guess that could work.

Dawn is contacting “The Mule.”  Dawn = Cleon XXV by the way.  

He’s trying to bring Kalgan back into the Empire and offers “The Mule” protection and some other things.

“ You already failed to protect Kalgan.  I am the proof.”  It goes downhill from there.

Some Jump Gate Somewhere

“The Mule” and his men captured a jump gate.  They’re keeping it quiet.  But he says something interesting as he dispatches the final guard.  “Normally, I would let you enjoy it at least.  But someone took my balladeer from me.”  He called Gigantigo “it” multiple times.

Maybe this is the Mule, but he is not the one with the mind control powers.  Could Magnifico be Giskard?  “Do you ever feel like your life is not your own?”  “It’s sort of a transcendent feeling you have to kill your way out of.“

The Palace Garden

Dude and Song are planning their escape.  Song’s affect is wildly different.  She’s now introspective and judgmental about how Dude talks about Demerzel, and she wants to stay near Demerzel.  Dude replies with a verse of Pulp’s “Common People.” 

Demerzel arrives, and Song makes an odd gesture for Demerzel to see.  Could she have been a plant all along?

The Imperial Palace

Dawn is worried about “The Mule.”  “He took Kalgan in a day… yada, yada, yada.”  He is trying to create the enclosure that Gaal recommended.

Dude and Dusk want none of it, and Demerzel is more worried about the council than about “The Mule.”

“The middle thrown says, no.”  

The tone changes dramatically when the Cleons start to discuss Dawn‘s robing ceremony.  The bit about strength, wisdom, and fortitude is the Cleon’s at their most human.

…A Bit Later

The first clavager seems to be on board.  He brings a plan to Dude.

But when Dude returns to the garden, Demerzel awaits.  She explains Song’s strange gesture.  It’s from an ancient religion in Mycogen where they worship robots called the Inheritance.  The sect believes the robots will return and remove all cruelty, injustice, and misery from the world.

Demerzel sends Song back to Mycogen with her memory wiped.  She would have killed her but for Dude.  He doesn’t appreciate the gesture. Also, it’s worth considering whether Demerzel is lying or not.

I’m hoping that the first clavager and his daughter aren’t just collateral damage here.

This Mycogenian religion will play a huge role in the rest of the season, I bet.  That would explain the prominence of Song’s name in the title of episode one.

(Edit: Song could be a major player in what’s coming if Demerzel didn’t actually wipe her memory.)

Review:

Slightly stronger than the first two episodes. We’re hanging some meat on the bones of some of the plotlines already introduced, with some nice character moments.

All Images from Foundation on Apple TV+.