WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Foundation Season 1, Episode 9, "The First Crisis,” streaming now on AppleTV+.
Our trusty voiceover companion Gaal starts the penultimate episode of the first season of Foundation by arguing that history itself is mankind’s greatest invention. “History isn’t fact, it’s narrative,” she adds, while making the point that that narrative can be carefully curated and shaped. It all depends on who’s telling the story.
We then see a teenage Salvor asking her father where people come from. Because that’s an easy question, with an easy answer. Ironically, Abbas mentions as a theory the notion that, once, humans existed on only one planet – with Earth being mentioned a possible beginning. The conversation turns more profound as teenage Salvor wonders how people can hate each other if they all come from the same place.
There isn’t a simple answer to this, of course. But Abbas tries to explain that people are not just brains, but feelings, and those feelings aren’t always the best advisors. Then he drops one of my favorite Asimov quotes of all times, like nothing. “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent,” before the conversation turns to how everything that came before is just proof that the fall of the Empire is, indeed, coming.
Back to present Salvor, she wakes up, incredibly disoriented. It takes her a moment to find her bearings, but when she does, she realizes the ship has jumped …back to Terminus, and that it was all because of Lewis. She tries to call home, but no one’s answering – and there doesn’t seem to be a way out.
We then move to Brother Dawn and Azura, as she tries to explain to him what he’s seen, what he’s been missing while coped up inside the palace. They make plans for an escape that seems doomed before it’s even started and say goodbye with a kiss. Brother Dawn heads to meet Brother Dusk, and tries to make excuses for his lateness, but Brother Dusk seems more interested in teaching him a lesson than anything. Or threatening him, it’s hard to tell. Either way it’s all very ominous.
The lesson that’s really a test is discovered by Brother Dawn as he makes use of the gadget Azura gave him, which allows him to see color. Once he can, he realizes Brother Dusk knows he beat him at the hunt – and that he couldn’t truly see the mural, which means he must run. Not that Brother Dusk is going to give him time to do so.
He tries, though. He really tries to follow Azura’s directions. It doesn’t really go all that well, but at least he’s alive for now. The problem, of course, is that he’s got a very recognizable face. He makes it to what looks like a refugee camp and is quick to trade his Imperial aura for a jacket, so at least he’s got that going for him.
Salvor, meanwhile, is trying to get out of the Invictus and back home. She’s full-on astronaut suit, let’s jump off this ship and get onto mine – or Hugo’s – and surprisingly enough, it works. But she can’t reach anyone on Terminus from there, either. Just when she’s about to lose hope, however, Hugo returns and we’re about as happy to see him as Salvor is, and she’s pretty happy.
Whatever’s happening on Terminus has to do with the null field, Salvor says. And she’s got to stop it. “What if there is no solution to this crisis?” Hugo asks her, but Salvor won’t give up. She’s got to see it through. Meanwhile, she wants the rest of the Thespins Hugo made contact to help him disable the drives in the Invictus. She can’t explain now, she just has a feeling.
Hugo looks like he truly wishes he didn’t trust her as much as he does, didn’t love her as much as he does, but he can’t help himself, so he does what Salvor asks. They exchange I love yous before he departs, and though they’ve separated a few times before, somehow this one feels final.
Brother Dawn, meanwhile, is experiencing life. He seems amazed by everything he encounters. He apparently remembers Azura’s instructions well enough to get to her place, where she enthusiastically embraces him. He has a predictable breakdown, and she comforts him before she tries to kill him, as you would. He tries to run away, but he doesn’t get too far. Then there’s another Cleon standing over him, who looks just like him.
Hugo and the Thespins are on the Invictus, but once the get to the bridge Phara’s no longer tied up. Hugo knows enough to understand how that’s a problem.
Salvor lands on Terminus as Gaal’s voiceover once again muses about history and how unreliable it can be at times. Shockingly, Gaal also takes this moment to confirm that this is her story, and she gets to decide what gets told and what doesn’t, while Salvor gets to town and finds that the null field expansion has apparently taken out everyone.
This, predictably, makes Salvor mad, though being mad at the Vault doesn’t exactly feel like a productive way of going about business. Once she gets closer, she finds her mother and the same artifact that houses Hari Seldon’s prediction. Answers aren’t forthcoming right away, but when Salvor concentrates, she once again finds herself in Gaal’s place, in front of Hari, that very first, fateful night they met, and then in her jail cell.
“History is the ultimate weapon, because it harnesses time itself,” Gaal says, as Salvor figures out how to trigger the prime radiant. Once she does the vault opens at last and everyone she thought was dead comes back. Salvor reunites with her mother, and together they notice the vault leads to a door.
Back with Hugo, problems are afoot, as they haven’t been able to find Phara. The reason why they haven’t becomes obvious really soon. She’s taken over another one of the Thespis ships.
We return to Brother Dawn, the one we know and the one that’s set to take his place. Except it’s not the Empire who got him, and this Cleon isn’t …taking his place in the way Brother Dusk would probably want. This is all part of a revolutionary plan, one Azura is part of. And this new Cleon is going to take Brother Dawn’s place, and one day bring the Empire down from within. That’s been the plan all along. That’s the reason Brother Dawn was different in the first place.
“You had no choice in any of this,” Azura tells him. “But thank you, just the same.”
It would have been a very interesting idea, except the Empire’s soldiers arrive and kill everyone, including the new Brother Dawn. Afterwards, as Brother Dusk and Brother Dawn discuss the only unforgivable thing – his differences – Brother Dusk seems anything but inclined to forgive and forget that which Brother Dawn cannot help. But it’s not up to him, it’s up to Brother Day.
On Terminus, everyone converges around the vault. The Anacreons soldiers are there, but as they try to engage with Salvor, the Thespin ships finally land – and they’ve got more firepower. At least until Phara lands, on the ship she took over.
Salvor has a plan, though, once she tries to sell to Phara. The Invictus is too powerful to destroy it, she says. Instead, they should use it as leverage, and band together, all of them, against the Empire. Phara doesn’t seem to want to listen to reason, but even Rowan is on Salvor’s side. “The hunt is over, Phara,” he says. That would be a good way to end the episode, except, Phara has to take her frustrations out on the vault, which leads Salvor to finally kill Phara with one of her own arrows.
Proving he’s the best boyfriend ever, Hugo literally stands between Salvor and a gun, but something bigger is happening. Out of the vault comes …Hari Seldon? “Well, this is encouraging, he says. Anacreons, Thespins and Termini. Seeing you all gathered here gives me hope we might actually pull this off.”
To see everyone come together against the Empire, nine episodes of Foundation are available on Apple TV+.