Foundation season 3 has come to an end – and what an ending it was. Its cast told us to expect the unexpected with this season's "exciting" final episode, but I don't think anyone expected it to play out the way it did.
So, how does Foundation's third season come to a close? And what does it tease about a potential fourth season? Below, I'll do my best to answer your biggest queries about the show's latest finale, titled 'The Darkness'.
Full spoilers immediately follow for Foundation season 3 episode 10. Turn back now if you haven't seen it yet.
Does The Mule win in Foundation season 3?
No, but the answer to this query is also 'TBC'. Confused? Allow me to explain.
Let's start with the "no" portion of that answer. With The Mule set up as season 3's primary antagonist in the final episode of Foundation season 2, this season has been building to a showdown between the incredibly powerful Mentalic, portrayed by Pilou Asbaek, and Lou Llobell's similarly psychic Gaal Dornick.
'The Darkness' throws a couple of curveballs at us concerning this climactic duel. Gaal's vision of the pair's battle suggested it would take place amid the ruins of a planet that looks like the Galactic Empire's stronghold of Trantor, but it actually plays out elsewhere. The location ends up being the space station, where Mayor Indbur resided before his death, that orbits New Terminus – i.e. the home world of the now-defunct First Foundation.
The other narrative deviation from Gaal's vision is that she doesn't actually lose her fight with The Mule and/or die at his hands. Her premonition showed her being badly beaten when she refuses to reveal the location of The Second Foundation to The Mule, who's desperate to find it because it's home to numerous other Mentalics he can bend to his will and use to conquer the rest of the galaxy.
Reading between the lines, I believe Gaal would've died to protect this secret, too. That doesn't come to pass, though, because Gaal not only defeats The Mule but also seemingly kills them (more on why I've used 'them' instead of 'him' in a moment). As The Mule strangles Gaal to try and draw an answer out of her, Gaal, who's spent the last 152 years (in and out of cryosleep) preparing for his arrival, turns the tables on him. Invading The Mule's mind, Gaal mentally subdues him before physically slitting his throat. The day is saved! Or so Gaal thinks...
Who is the real Mule and why could this reveal prove to be controversial?
As it happens, The Mule isn't who we thought they were. Moments after Gaal appears to end her all-consuming, 150-year-plus mission to stop The Mule, she says she can still feel The Mule's presence before a blinding pain inside her head overwhelms her. In a shocking twist that'll blindside Apple TV+ viewers and long-time fans of Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' novels, Bayta Mallow is revealed to be The Mule.
It's a major and potentially controversial deviation from the source material. As I outlined in my article about season 3's most important new character, Magnifico Giganticus, this character is eventually revealed to be The Mule in Asimov's book series. The first person to work this out in the novels is none other than Bayta, which adds an even greater layer of intrigue to the revelation that she's The Mule in Foundation's TV adaptation.
That said, I still believe Magnifico will be revealed as the real Mule if a fourth season is announced (more on that later). If Asbaek's character wasn't The Mule, he must have been mind-controlled by someone else and led to believe he was The Mule. That means that, if Magnifico is The Mule, he might be possessing Bayta in the same way. It's possible, then, that Foundation's creative team is using Bayta as a misdirect to ensure Magnifico's actual unveiling as The Mule can work as another huge plot twist down the line.
Of course, that raises another question: if Magnifico is The Mule, how was Gaal able to mind-control Magnifico and use his music to amplify her own abilities to inflict mental harm on Bayta, giving Gaal enough time to escape? Maybe Magnifico allowed Gaal to do so to hide the fact that he's the true threat to the galaxy. I guess we'll find out one way or another if and when season 4 arrives.
Does Demerzel die in Foundation season 3 episode 10?
It certainly appears so. Laura Birn, who plays the Empire's enslaved robot, previously told me that things might not end well for Demerzel in Foundation season 3, and that's proved to be the case.
Brother Dusk, who's slowly been mentally unraveling as his Ascension (read: death) draws near – and amid Empire's apparently imminent destruction – enters his full-blown mad tyrant era in this season's finale.
After being enrobed in his black, funeral-like clothing and given his new title Brother Darkness (a reference to 'The Darkness', perhaps?), he covertly heads to the lab where new clones of the Galactic Empire's first autocrat, Cleon I, are made. Long story short: he destroys the facility, including all other clones of Dawn, Day, and Dusk apart from one baby.
Meanwhile, Brother Day, who's returned from his excursion to Mycogen with the robot head, aka the Brazen Head, reunites with Demerzel. He tries to convince an emotionally torn Demerzel to use the Brazen Head to undergo the process of clasping – i.e. creating a bridge between their minds that would free Demerzel of the programming that makes her serve only Empire – and initially fails.
Day does start to sway her into showing him how to activate the Brazen Head to create a connection between it and Demerzel (she can't do it herself because of her Empire-based directives), but Demerzel is distracted by a sense of what Brother Darkness is doing in the cloning lab. Reaching the room and realizing what Darkness is doing, she heads to the Ascension Chamber, where she's greeted by Darkness and the baby Cleon in his possession.
Goading her for her inability to fight against her programming, Darkness places the baby on the floor in the path of the Ascension Chamber's light beam. Day, who arrives on the scene moments later, tries to stop Demerzel and reason with Darkness by saying he'll delay his ascension. Unmoved, Darkness activates the beam, which is used to vaporize Cleon's clones when they come to the end of their lifecycle. Darkness forces Demerzel to dive onto the baby to protect it.
Unfortunately, the light beam is so powerful that it vaporizes the newborn clone. Locking eyes with a stunned Day, Demerzel cries out in pain as she's also vaporized. All that remains is her own robot head and a puddle of metal on the floor. A devastated Day looks on as Darkness leaves with the Prime Radiant that Demerzel kept hidden inside her throughout this season, which somehow survives the blast.
Even in death, though, it seems Demerzel has one final trick up her sleeve.
Following her confrontation with Gaal in Foundation season 3 episode 6, Demerzel implied she wouldn't aid The Second Foundation's cause until she was convinced that any actions she takes wouldn't harm the Cleonic Dynasty.
Fast-forward four chapters, and it seems she concluded that wouldn't be the case. Indeed, before she confronts Darkness in the Ascension Chamber, she tells Ambassador Quent to grab a triangular book – the one containing Seldon's original psychohistory texts, no less – from Demerzel's quarters and take it to Trantor's head librarian. All of this, Demerzel claims, is "the best path to the future."
Quent does as she's told, which leads the head librarian to introduce Quent to Preem Palver, First Speaker for The Second Foundation, at the library. Clearly, Demerzel had set this up as a contingency plan in the event of something going horribly wrong. It's just a huge shame she didn't live to see this plan come to fruition.
Does Brother Day also die in Foundation season 3 finale?
Yes, he's shot by Brother Darkness after Day tries to beat Darkness to death for murdering Demerzel.
As Day is reminded by Darkness, though, he can't be killed. When they're born, every clone of Cleon I is injected with nanites. Alongside each Cleon's wrist-based aura shield, these prevent the clones from being injured and/or killed.
However, in Foundation season 3 episode 4, Day removed his nanites as part of a deal he made with First Claviger Mavon. If Mavon helped Day get to Mycogen to track down his lover Song, Day would give his Imperial nanotechnology to Mavon to heal his sick daughter. But Day kills Mavon to stop him returning to the palace and informing Demerzel of Day's desertion. By removing his nanites and aura, Day makes it far more difficult for Demerzel to find him.
This backfires on Day in the season 3 finale. Darkness reveals Demerzel told him Day doesn't have his nanites anymore, so when Darkness shoots him, Day does what any other human does without medical intervention – bleeding out and dying.
With no clone to replace him, this is the last we'll likely see of any iteration of Brother Day and, by proxy, Lee Pace in the show, too. So much for that brotherly love between Empire's three leaders, eh...
Is Kalle a robot in Foundation season 3?
'The Darkness' doesn't outright confirm this, but based on the evidence we've been presented with up to this point, this is the most likely scenario.
Kalle is one of the most mysterious characters who operates in the Foundation universe. She was first mentioned during the show's debut season, with her work being key to Gaal solving the Abraxas Conjecture and landing a position as Hari Seldon's protege.
Kalle has physically appeared in Foundation seasons 2 and 3, the enigmatic individual being portrayed by Rowena King. However, outside of her brief interactions with Hari and Demerzel, which suggest she's of huge importance to the overarching plot, we still don't know anything about her.
That was the case until the last sequence of this season's finale. Indeed, the Brazen Head suddenly activates; its eyes glowing as it says, "handshake signal received and negotiated". Initiating a clasp with... someone, it transmits a signal to another part of the galaxy.
It's here that we're reunited with Kalle. Expressing interest in a potential clasp request coming from Trantor (i.e. where the Brazen Head is now based), we see Kalle and what appears to be another android observing a star map, which shows the Brazen Head's signal being received on whatever world Kalle and her subordinate are based on. The pair discuss the prospect of someone calling on them to become involved in "the struggle" and that all of the pieces have now fallen into place, before the camera pans over them to reveal where they're based (more on this in a moment).
So, is Kalle a robot or some form of sentient artificial intelligence? As I said earlier, this seems to be the case. It's that or, like Gaal, she's a human who utilizes cryosleep to oversee whatever grand plan she and her robot assistants or allies are puppeteering from the shadows.
Hang on, is that Earth in the Foundation season 3 finale?
Yep, your eyes aren't deceiving you – that is planet Earth in the final scene of this season's 10th episode. As the camera flies past Kalle and her android companion, it's revealed they're based on a, well, base situated on Earth's moon. The camera soon pans over our world's sole orbiting object to reveal planet Earth in all its glory.
Apple hasn't made our world canon in this sprawling universe for the sake of it. The third rock from our sun is featured in Asimov's literary works, and becomes a key location in 1982's 'Foundation's Edge' and 1986's 'Foundation and Earth', aka the series' fourth and fifth novels. So, there's already previous form for its inclusion in Apple's live-action retelling.
With Foundation's story deviating from its literary counterpart, it's difficult to say how much of the narrative in those books will be directly adapted for one of the best Apple TV+ shows. I'm hesitant to spoil anything significant about what happens in those novels, either, so you'll just have to wait for season 4 to arrive to find out more. Speaking of which...
Will there be a Foundation season 4?
At the time of this article's initial publication (September 12), Apple hadn't officially confirmed if a fourth season is in development.
Nobody attached to the show has publicly said whether Foundation season 4 is in the works, either. Speaking to me in late June, some of Foundation's cast admitted they'd be "the last to find out" that it's been renewed for season 4. Three months later, Lou Llobell and Tomas Lemarquis told me they're none the wiser about Foundation season 4's status.
That's a worrying sign, right? Not necessarily. In February, reports emerged that Apple had secretly greenlit Foundation season 4. It'll seemingly be held by a new showrunner, with former showrunner David S. Goyer stepping back creatively amid numerous reported issues that plagued season 3's development.
With the second half of 'Second Foundation' – the final novel in the 'Foundation' book trilogy – plus 'Foundation's Edge' and 'Foundation and Earth', which expand on the universe created by Asimov, still to be adapted, there's more story left to tell in Apple's live-action reimagining. Hopefully, we'll know sooner rather than later if Foundation will return for a fourth season.
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