[Dawn] "I'm sorry brother." [Dusk] "You are no brother to me nor to Cleon the first nor to
any other Cleon who walked these polished floors. You are a deformity and if I had my way you would
already be ash." Hey guys, Pete here. Today i'm going to explain the ending of Foundation
Season 1. The season just wrapped up with the release of Episode 10 "The Leap" and it provided
some answers to lingering questions while setting things up for the future of the series and season
2. Ii'm going to look at what happened to Hari Seldon. What does it all mean for the foundation?
What happened to Azura and Brother Dawn and the conspiracy there? What will happen to the
genetic dynasty and Demerzel? And what happened to Gaal and Salvor Hardin? Just a quick spoiler
warning. If you haven't watched the entire first season of Foundation on Apple TV+ including the
ending then this video won't be for you. And with that out of the way let's get into it. Episode
9 ended with the death of Phara in the midst of the conflict between the different factions of
the Outer Reach taking place on Terminus. Hari Seldon emerged from the Vault and he seemed
alright with what was happening. in the finale we get a better understanding of how he came to be
there and what it all means for Psychohistory and the Foundation. He's a projection and he
explains to Poly who asked him if he was the ghost that he took a pill that contained millions of
self-replicating molecular machines. those broke his body down inside the coffin that he had made
and it recycled that material transforming into the Vault on its way to Terminus. so the vault
is actually made of him but over those decades he wasn't awake, he wasn't sentient that whole time,
he explains that his reawakening was triggered by the Anacreon's arrival. he says that it takes time
to rebuild consciousness and when Salvor tries to connect things to the null field expanding
he explains that it's just part of the vault's natural defenses. Hari addresses the Anacreons and
Thespins saying that they've hated each other for so long that the origin of their feud is almost
irrelevant and he explains that the first clone Cleon II is responsible for setting things in
motion. the generations of hate between these two cultures that we saw was ongoing in episode 1 when
they came to Trantor all traces back to what's called the first betrayal where Cleon II had his
shadowmaster murder an Anacreon Grand Huntress and blame it on the Thespin king she just married. the
point was that this marriage was going to bring together these two emerging powers in the Outer
Reach and that would be a threat to the empire's power. so the emperor decided to undermine that
knowing that it would get them to fight each other and then he wouldn't have to deal with it.
now Hari says he needs them to put that behind them and come together he selected the original
colonists on Terminus to have the seeds of a future civilization and the others are survivors
they've been cast aside by the Empire and they're still there. under the genetic dynasty, there's only
room for one story and one voice and he believes that that stagnation guarantees that the empire
will fall and that will be followed by a dark age that lasts 30 000 years. it was always part of his plan
for these three cultures in the Outer Reach to come together. he explains that he found
the pattern in the jumps of the Invictus and that they're discovering it would be a potential step
ahead for the Foundation's development, he explains that the idea of them curating knowledge for the
encyclopedia was only a cover story the Foundation was never about that it was about curating people
and when one of the foundationers echoes what he says about them not being revolutionaries
he says that he may have lied about that point. there's still a problem in that the empire is
still going to come investigate what happened to dorwan's ship who was there in the first place to
investigate what happened to the coms buoy harry tells them that they won't come if they think
they're already dead and he tells them to use the invictus to create a false mega flare something
like that would wipe out all life in the system and therefore there would be no reason for them
to come into a situation where there might be a dangerous star and a bunch of dead planets even if
it did host the foundation at one time after that if they don't leave the outer reach they would be
invisible and more importantly they would be free they can bide their time build up their strengths
and become what they need to be to shorten that period of darkness according to psycho history
as he gets ready to return to the vault they ask if they'll see him again
he expects that to be the case because this isn't the foundation's first crisis
and it won't be the last they bought themselves some time but war with empire is inevitable
he tells them to remember this day remember what they're striving for and remember that
a thousand years can seem like a long time but it's only a blip on the history of civilization
and if they're not vigilant this opportunity that they have could slip right through their fingers
as he was talking he realized gail wasn't there and that she never made it to terminus
in that exchange he meets salvor but it's clear that he didn't anticipate her or know who she was
so as he's leaving she asks him about the visions that she's been having and he doesn't know what
she's talking about she explains that she used them to help her solve the crisis and he assures
her the divisions didn't come from him and then the projection goes back inside the vault and it
closes up and it looks like it did beforehand so what does it mean for the foundation we see
that the cultures are willing to work together there's an exchange where rowan gives the grand
huntress his boat to salvor in an act of peace and they plant a sapling from an acrion together
at the site of pharah's burial mari and the other foundationers are angry they feel betrayed and
it's not so much that harry didn't tell them what was going to happen but that he lied to
them salvor's in a similar situation she grew up thinking that the ghost was talking to her
that harry selden was talking to her through the vault she started to believe that she was special
and now she has no idea where the visions were coming from there's a time lapse of the colony
growing over the next few months everyone has come together and they're taking harry's words to heart
setting aside their hatred in favor of strength and moving forward with the foundation they repair
the invictus and hugo becomes the captain he goes out and generates the mega flare allowing them to
be free and now that they have the technology we learn that it'll take them about 18 months until
they can start building new ships for her crucial role in the crisis salvor is set to become the
next mayor but she has another vision where she sees a young guy she goes to see her mother asking
her about who the girl from the water planet was this leads to the big reveal that gail and rach
were her biological parents and the visions were related to their memories rather than harry she
knows that gail escaped the slow ship in a cryopod and decides that she needs to leave terminus and
go look for her she decides she wants to leave right away because she's afraid that she'll
change her mind and her mother gives her her blessing and the prime radiant to take with her
she goes to the beggar and hugo finds her before she leaves they have their goodbye and we get an
understanding of where her head's at she thinks this is something that she needs to do alone and
when he asks where she's going she just says that she has a hunch and she leaves as has often been
the case in this first season where things get really interesting is on trantor and what happened
to azorra brother dawn and the conspiracy brother day has returned to the planet and his trip to the
maiden has changed his thinking brother dusk wants to destroy dawn and replace him and when dae goes
to talk to him he says you're not one of us your dna has been altered in a dozen ways he wants to
know how long he's known and this brings about a really interesting conversation about how they
aren't even really people they're just echoes of the first cleon and hasn't dey himself ever
wanted to leave this place be something more than just an installment in this ongoing story
when he goes to speak with azor ah he explains that he understands that people hate him but
says that his detachment from them is what makes it possible for him to rule effectively
it's a strange burden not being able to carry a burden the brothers care for each other they love
each other and they shift that burden between each other he views don as his son he rocked him as a
baby he cultivated him and azora took all of that away from him so he wants to take away her legacy
and they located every person family friends lovers and so on anyone that would remember
her after she was gone it's a total of 1551 people they have them all under surveillance and there's
a particle beam focused on their brain stem so that when he gives the signal they'll all be
killed and right after he explains this he gives the signal so they're all dead he then tells her
what her fate will be she'll be put into automated extreme isolation where she'll be sensory shrouded
but she'll still be aware and he's doing that so that she can remember what she took from him and
it's a brutal fate no matter how you look at it demerizel comes to dawn she tells them it's time
and on their walk to the throne room he says that she must hate him she assures him that's not the
case she actually loves him and when he says that it's only because she's programmed to she
explains that all love is programmed biological or otherwise saying that when a human mother looks
at her child their brain waves synchronize when he's brought before dusk and day it's clear that
dusk hasn't changed his mind at all but he has to default to the middle throne brother day explains
on his trip he had much time to reflect on their dynasty he talks about the pilgrims he met who
worked their whole lives just to walk a spiral of salt in hopes that they might be granted a vision
before they die he talks about the challenge from halima he brings up harry selden how he
prophesies something similar and declares that a bow and capable of bending will eventually break
he says it's time the dynasty bent just a little brother dusk is not willing to go along with this
and they start fighting he's convinced that it'll ruin their dynasty and he threatens to
decant another day rather than allowing the altar dawn to live as they continue to fight dawn goes
to demisel for protection and she holds him like a child stroking his hair brother dust shouts we are
empire history bends to us and as he's saying that demmerzell snaps brother dawn's neck killing him
instantly when brother day protests yelling no she tells him that she's loyal to the clionic dynasty
above all else after he disintegrates the body the shadow master comes to him to say that the rebels
plans to undermine the dynasty appear to be more extensive than they first believed they thought
the gene editing was limited entirely to brother dawn's person and that it was done after he was
incarnated which is what the other clone told him whenever he was in the scar after more testing
though they found out that the source itself was adulterated as were the replacements those are no
longer pure copies so the source material is gone brother dawn is dead and they can't replace him
with another pure clone even they himself could be altered they don't know that yet
as well as brother dusk who's being tested right at that moment he sends the shadowmaster away and
in a rage he smashes the glass case containing the original clion the first then demmerzelle
goes back to her room takes off her salt bracelet and looks in the mirror she looks troubled she
opens her kit and grabs a tool before tossing it aside and then tears her face off as she screams
and with a lot of unanswered questions about the future the trantor storyline ends there so what
happened with gail and salvor hardin well we get one last scene that takes place 138 years later
we see gail arrive on cenex she's able to find her home there's no signs of life there anymore maybe
not any on the planet at all as we see that the water is much higher as she's mourning she sees
a light under the water and decides to go find out what it is it turns out to be the beggar and
inside she finds salvor in a cryopod she gets her out of the water and wakes her up and when
she asks her what happened she explains that she crashed landed she's been in cryosleep for more
than a century and says that she was there looking for someone which of course she was looking for
gail and she tells her i'm salvor hardin your daughter and then she hands her the prime radiant
and the episode ends there so in the end where are we at the foundation survived the first crisis and
came out of it with an alliance in the outer reach that will make them stronger one version of harry
selden's consciousness exist inside the vault to be a reassuring presence at the very least
the initial reason he got the encyclopedist exiled determinus was a lie but things appear to be on
course for the plan in psycho history should serve its purpose to shorten the dark age that will come
after the fall of the galactic empire periodic crises are baked into that and harry should
re-emerge accordingly gail and salvo are mother and daughter and they have these unique abilities
they don't quite understand they're together but their future is uncertain considering they have
the prime radiant i have some ideas based on what i know from reading the books but i won't go into
those here their being on cynix means that they're somewhat isolated but considering the foundation
has at least one jump ship now they could be reconnected without another prolonged period of
cryosleep either way enough time has passed that things are completely different on terminus and
it's gonna take time for that story to catch up to where they're at the clionic dynasty also has
an uncertain future the only thing that seems certain is that it won't be carrying on like
it has for the last 400 years they left things pretty wide open as far as whether brother dusk
and brother day were altered and there really wasn't any progress as far as finding out who's
behind the conspiracy demarzelle's final scene was fascinating and i think one of my next videos will
be talking about what i think's going on there for now it appears that cleon the first altered
her programming to be loyal to the clionic dynasty above all else and the things that she has to do
in relation to that or taking a toll on her it'll be interesting to see how she responds to the
dilemma of having no new clones or pure genetic material to continue the dynasty as they've
known it for a review this first season had its issues especially in the structure and pacing of
the early middle episodes overall the terminus storyline was noticeably weaker than the story
with the cleons and there were places where it just didn't work for me i'm sure some of that can
be chalked up to the pandemic but it also felt to me that they defaulted to try to do a cool action
thing in a lot of situations with mixed results i do give them credit for the effort though looking
back they did a lot of crazy things and i think generally speaking it's always good to see a show
that takes chances and i'm hoping that they'll be able to identify what worked and what didn't
and come back with a much stronger effort in the second season there was a lot of effort to develop
the characters and again i think this worked a whole lot better on the trantor side of things
but as far as the finales concerned it felt like a step up across the board in that department so
at least it feels like they're going in the right direction there even with having so many different
stories that all felt somewhat different to tie up in one hour-long episode from asimov they've got a
toolbox to pull from that includes some great twists and turns based on psycho history and
the part they introduced themselves the genetic dynasty has turned out to be a great addition
they managed to pull off some great sci-fi and character stuff at the same time there's
so much rolled up in that dynamic and i'd loved the progression of brother day through his trip
then coming back to his interactions with dusk and dawn and azora respectively only to be completely
invested in what was going on in his decision and then actually shocked at what demarzel did
the thought of brother day being on the verge of changing things only to have it snatched away by
a fail-safe that we have to assume was instituted by the original cleon that was the highlight of
the season the most powerful person in the galaxy is trapped in that cycle there's really nothing
they can do to change things and now there's no way to continue that so even with the issues it
had i'm pretty happy with where we're at i'm curious to see where they go from here and i'm
glad i watched it and i'm happy that they made it it was ambitious and sprawling and you can't take
that away from it this thing was huge in scope and budget it was a proper spectacle at times and
there's a lot to like there if you go looking for it and i think that's a good place to leave things
i do have a lot of questions though and i'll be following this up with a season two questions
video sometime during this week so let me know what questions you have for that in the comments
and let me know what you thought of the season what you thought of the finale and if you want
to talk book spoilers just make sure you mark them please like this video if you enjoyed it please
subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and thanks for watching i'll talk to you soon