TL;DR – The crisis climbs to a crescendo as cracks cascade over a crumbling continuum of chance and causality.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this episode.

Foundation Review –

Well, we have come to the end of the second season, and what a fascinating season it was. Adapting novels to work in a visual medium is no small feat, let alone one of the founding icons of Science Fiction. Taking a selection of interconnected short stories and making them work as a whole and in a framework that will work with a modern audience is a tightrope to pull off, and today, we will see just how well they have managed this task.  

So to set the scene, we open in the moments after Long Ago, Not Far Away ended by discovering just how Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) survived being very dead, so dead that even Salvor (Leah Harvey) believed he had passed. A trick from Gaal (Lou Llobell) so powerful that not even Tellem Bond (Rachel House) sees through the deception. As Terminus lays there as a flaming ruin, with Brother Day’s (Lee Pace) fleet in orbit, the question becomes, how can psychohistory’s plan continue from here? When all we know has been left in ruins. But when a sensor is tripped, Demerzel (Laura Birn) soon discovers that secrets can escape no matter how much you try to control them. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

There were several big moments in this episode, but I want to first look at three goodbyes that typify how good the writing can be. The first is the opening monologue of Demerzel in her chamber. In Long Ago, Not Far Away, we discovered what Cleon I (Terrence Mann) had done to her. There is an understanding as to just how much of a tragic character she is, and then the realisation today as to just how much of a conflict that makes for her. She loves all the Cleons and will do anything in her power to protect them, but she also knows deep down that the main drive for that is a forced code. She is being manipulated by a puppet that has been dead for centuries, and they all dance to her strings. There was a sadness when Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) announced they were doomed the moment they walked in because everyone knew it to be true. The mechanisms of duty trapping everyone in a task they don’t want to do. It had tragedy written all over it, and not everyone’s body has a clone you can decant if something goes wrong.

Meanwhile, as the ruined world of Terminus lies destroyed in the background, and all hope is lost, we discover that more plans were in motion than anyone realised. Brother Constant (Isabella Laughland) and Hober Mallow (Dimitri Leonidas) were the two most interesting characters for me this season. They have the energy of that couple that you know that you don’t understand on any level how they got together but also that they are perfect for each other. He brought her back down to earth, and she let him find the faith he always had hidden away. As the fleet starts tearing itself apart, there is only room for one person to escape, and their goodbye is heartbreaking. It also spoke to one of the themes permeating throughout the season: individual decisions don’t matter to psychohistory right up until they do. What are the ripples of saving Constant over Mallow? He is the scoundrel with a heart of gold, and she is the world-wise priest who can unlock people’s purpose. Who do you choose?       

The final goodbye I want to talk about here is the one between enemies who are now comrades in arms in those final moments. Bel Riose (Ben Daniels) always knew that his time was limited and that he would never be allowed to live. Everything he has been doing this season has been based on him knowing that he and his husband are doomed, but they should try to make those final moments last. Little does Riose know that everything he did allowed Glawen Curr (Dino Fetscher) a chance to survive. But then, that is life. Sometimes, we might not know the people that we have helped. But do you rail against the one who signed your death warrant in those final moments? Or raise a glass of awful wine with the man who helped you boot Brother Day out of an airlock? You try to find the good humour in the moment even as you know the final stroke is moments away. In a show that can take on a grand view, it is these smaller human moments that ground the emotion.

Looking at the season as a whole, we get an oscillating work between the competing drives of the adapted narrative. From the perspective of the novels, it looks like this season has adapted elements of The Mayors, The Traders, The Merchant Princes and The General. Sadly, we only get one season with Hober Mallow, my favourite character from the books. But ultimately, I think they succeeded in taking four ideas from the series and crafting them into this one season. It also means we have caught up to when the Cleons appear in the books. It also means they can jump straight into dealing with The Mule (Mikael Persbrandt) in season three.

Sometimes, you see someone adapt a novel and then start racing through crucial plot points, and you lament. They have missed the core part of what made the book work. Thankfully, even though we move through so much content, the themes and interplay of characters still ring true. Part of that is that the writers have the completed works to draw from, so they know what parts are unnecessary or need to be highlighted earlier. Or, indeed, ways of modifying the narrative, like the genetic dynasty, which don’t appear in the original but work in the universe and can be used to tell unique stories. We learn so much more about some of the foundational aspects of this universe this season, with hints of Earth and more. It also helps that the cast is there to make some of the more goofier aspects land because they put gumption into every moment.

However, did every part of this season work? I am sorry to say, no, it didn’t. If you have already read my reviews for The Last Empress & Long Ago, Not Far Away, then I think you already know where I am heading here, but there was one storyline that unfortunately never worked. One of the choices the show made at the end of Season One was to bring the characters of Gaal Dornick and Salvor Hardin into the future. Gaal disappears very early in the books, and Salvor Hardin has been dead for decades. This season chose to keep them alive to show the Second Foundation’s beginning and hint at The Mule’s rise. This and Gaal’s continued role as the series’s narrator makes them the show’s heart, which is why it is so frustrating that theirs is the weakest element of the season.

I am not sure what went wrong. The cast is good, we have already seen that. Bringing in Rachel House as the antagonist was a fantastic casting choice. However, at best, it felt like this storyline was a contained bubble that you could have removed from the show, and nothing would have been missed. Worse still, at times, it actively took away from the far more interesting stories happening on Terminus and Trantor. The death of Salvor in the final episode felt at least somewhat interesting, but even there, we had to dig through a well of murk in how they represented Mentalics on both a visual and narrative level. I wish this section had worked, I do, but frustratingly it didn’t.

In the end, do we recommend Foundation: Creation Myths & Season 2? Yes, we do. Now, clearly, not every part of the season worked. However, the sections that made up most of the season were fascinating. There were enough changes from the books that I was never wholly confident about where they would go next. While also being true to the heart of what made the Foundation the touchstone it was. I believe we will be getting at least one more season, and I hope they can nail it because I would love to see more of this universe.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Foundation yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Foundation
Directed by – Alex Graves, David S. Goyer, Mark Tonderai & Roxanne Dawson
Written by – David S. Goyer, Leigh Dana Jackson, David Kob, Liz Phang, Addie Manis, Bob Oltra, Jane Espenson & Eric Carrasco
Created by – David S. Goyer & Josh Friedman
Based On – Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Production/Distribution Companies – Skydance TV & Apple+
Starring – Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey, Laura Birn, Cassian Bilton & Terrence Mann with Ben Daniels, Isabella Laughland, Dimitri Leonidas, Ella-Rae Smith, Daniel MacPherson, Sandra Yi Sencindiver, Rachel House, Dino Fetscher, Oliver Chris, Kulvinder Ghir, Nimrat Kaur, Alfred Enoch, Rowena King & Holt McCallany and Mikael Persbrandt, Cobhan O’Brien, Chris Jarman, Eva Bradley Williams, Judi Shekoni, Luis Torrecilla, Wade Briggs, Anthony Barclay, Orla O’Rourke, Brendan Sheehan, Ephraim Goldin, Mahmoud Aldachan, Sandra Guldberg Kampp, Rachel Lascar, Kubbra Sait, Jairaj Varsani, Elsie Bennett, Sean Rigby, Isaac Highams, Emily Stott, Jim High, James Beaumont, Jesper Christensen, Philip Genister, May Lieschitz, Jesper Christensen, Afolabi Alli, Amelia Minto, Callina Liang, Ed Birtch, Evelyn Miller, Brucella Newman-Persaud, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Reece Shearsmith, Brian Caspe, Haqi Ali, Kit Rakusen, Michael Akinsulire, Isabel Adomakoh Young, Petra van der Voort, Noah Taylor, Jordan Stephens, Michael S. Siegel, Emily Stott, Alejandro Marote, Alex Montyro & Ella McDonald
Episodes Covered – In Seldon’s Shadow, A Glimpse of Darkness, King and Commander, Where the Stars are Scattered Thinly, The Sighted and the Seen, Why the Gods Made Wine, A Necessary Death, The Last Empress, Long Ago, Not Far Away & Creation Myths.