The Big Picture
- Demerzel’s power grab has eliminated the Cleonic dynasty, but the fate of the Cleons and the prime radiant remains uncertain.
- Brother Dawn and Empress Sareth have escaped with a potential heir to the Cleonic throne. Where will they go, and who will support them in their bid to reclaim the Empire from Demerzel?
- Dr. Hari Seldon and Gaal remain in cryosleep — where they will awake and who will protect them from the mentalic called the Mule remain big questions for Foundation Season 3.
Season 2 of the AppleTV+ science fiction epic Foundation ended with a bang recently, and a handful of twists blew our minds. But now that the second batch of 10 episodes has come and gone, we still have some unanswered questions about almost all the main characters as we get ready for a third installment. What will Demerzel (Laura Birn) do now that she has come so close to overthrowing the Cleonic genetic dynasty and possesses the precious prime radiant on Trantor? To where will Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) and Sareth (Issa-Rae Smith) flee now that they have escaped Demerzel and she carries a potential heir to the Cleonic throne? Where and when will Gaal (Lou Llobell) and Dr. Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) emerge from a long cryo-stasis sleep? And how will they combat an eagerly awaiting character known only as “The Mule” who wants to kill Gael? All of these questions will undoubtedly be addressed in the upcoming season of the sweeping show based on Isaac Asimov‘s series of novels.
What Will Demerzel Do With the Cleons and the Prime Radiant?
After undertaking a paradigm-shifting power grab with an unprecedented coup attempt of the Cleonic genetic dynasty, Demerzel now sits in a pretty good position. Although she was gutted to hear that Brother Dawn and Sareth had made it off-world and preserved an heir to the Cleonic line, she did eliminate all the Cleons and Empire from power on Trantor for the time being. She also has the prime radiant, which contains much of the precious research and information put together by psychohistorian Hari Seldon. In another power move, Demerzel decanted all three of the Cleons simultaneously — something that had never been done before. They appear sluggish and subservient, so it begs the question, will they be easily tractable and manipulated by their former slave and curator? The genetic mutation has already made them far different from the earlier iterations. How will Demerzel continue leading her potential robot uprising into Season 3, and what form will a new order on Trantor look like? Will there be more robots that come forward out of hiding, with Demerzel now calling the shots in the capital city and “Eye of the Empire”? Will there be another war between robots and humans? Demerzel’s is an interesting storyline to keep an eye on moving forward.
Where Will Brother Dawn and Empress Sareth Go Now That the Cleonic Dynasty Is in Jeopardy?
The one loose end that Demerzel wasn’t able to tie up was when she underestimated the moxie and will to survive of both Brother Dawn and Empress Sareth. They pulled a fast one by using image-cloaking devices to facilitate their escape from Trantor before Demerzel could frame Sareth for the attack on Brother Day’s (Lee Pace) life in the first episode of the season, and fled the capital city. Sareth has also told Dawn that she is pregnant with his baby and a natural heir to the Cleonic throne. Where will they go? How long will they stay in hiding? Who will back them in their bid to reclaim Empire from Demerzel and the new order that will take power? These are all things that we need to see resolved in the new season. Now that the Cleonic line is in jeopardy of being eliminated, who will take them in? Especially considering how cruel they have been to their subjects throughout the galaxy during their thousands of years of reign. We’d like to know where they will be able to hide.
When and Where Will Dr. Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick Wake From Cryosleep?
At the end of this season, we had to witness the unfortunate loss of Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), but it was key in showing that the future can be changed and that their fates are not predetermined. Knowing this, Hari and Gaal go into cryosleep pods, and the mentalics on Ignis worship them as gods. How long will they be asleep, and where will they appear when they do awaken? Will it be exactly 152 years like we saw at the very end of the season finale where Gaal will be in danger from a deranged and sadistic character known as “The Mule”? Is the Second Foundation already in place, and if so, who is running it? Gaal and Hari are academics, so now that Salvor is gone, who will protect them from the diabolical mentalic the Mule that awaits them in the future world? They certainly don’t seem long for a post-apocalyptic type world that we got a glimpse of in one of Gaal’s visions earlier in the season. But now that Salvor’s death has proven that destinies can be altered, maybe the war-torn, decimated civilization that she saw will no longer exist or exist in a different form. This is definitely something we’d like for showrunners David S. Goyer and Robyn Asimov to address in Season 3.
What Will Become of Constant and the Foundation Members?
One of the most rewarding reveals of the finale was that Poly and the rest of the surviving Foundation colonists had made it safely into the vault and escaped the blast that ended up destroying their home planet of Terminus. But where will they go now? They are led by the conscious-base holographic version of Hari Seldon, but not the physical embodiment who is with Gael on Ignis. And now that Demerzel is in possession of the prime radiant, will she ultimately hold the key to their future and fate? Constant (Isabella Laughland) has shown that despite her tearful parting with the brave Hober Mallow (Dimitri Leonidas) she is a strong, smart, and capable leader, so it would make sense if she continued on that trajectory with the guidance of Hari in the vault. Just another of the many questions that were deftly left unanswered, and gives us the perfect reason to watch the Foundation Season 3.
#Foundation #Season #Biggest #Unanswered #Questions