With the arrival of Foundation season 2, the biggest Apple TV Plus sci-fi epic returns to follow up on the century-jumping finale of the first season.
Foundation follows the slow collapse of a galactic empire as well as the creation of the titular Foundation at the edge of the galaxy, intended to weather the dark ages predicted by a mathematical formula that maps out the future.
The first season of Foundation ended with the group weathering its first crisis, but with the empire also managing to survive some trials, and Foundation season 2 continues the adventures of the many characters who are still around after the big time jump at the end of season 1.
Given that Foundation is an epic show which spans different storylines, characters and time spans, it can be easy to get lost, so this recap on the first episode of season 2 should help you get your head around what happens. We're presenting the events in a less dramatic order than in the episode itself, to save you a big headache.
So here's our Foundation season 2 episode 1 recap. If you haven't seen it yet, you can use your guide on how to watch Foundation season 2 to check it out, though an Apple TV Plus free trial would be a good place to start.
The empire survives
We pick back up with the galactic empire on the planet of Trantor, where current emperor Brother Day (Lee Pace) is getting... physical with his Android assistant Demerzel (Laura Birn). That is, until some assassins break into his bed chamber, and he has to use Demerzel's body to deflect a blade. He fights them off, but his shield isn't working, so he gets shot and sliced with a sword. He only survives when a partially-beheaded Demerzel saves the day.
When Day is fully recovered, a process made painful by his refusal to be sedated as he doesn't know who to trust, he investigates the assassins. They're blind, and are referred to as 'Blind Angels'. Day sends all of the servants to be interrogated, as well as his cloned older version Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) and his cloned future successor Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton).
The Brothers aren't impressed with this, and Dusk isn't too happy about Day sleeping with their Android either. But both agree that the defects in their cloning (set up in season 1) is getting worse.
At the same time, a new face arrives on Trantor. This is Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith), who's set to have an arranged marriage with Brother Day, though she's not impressed with empire or the way Day acts.
Sareth's formal introduction is called short when Demerzel brings news: the discovery of a dead body floating through space leads them to realize that Foundation wasn't destroyed by a solar mega flare as they believed, but fabricated that to survive under the radar for the last hundred years. The emperors agree not to go to war straight away, but to investigate further.
Hari's house
Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) is trapped in a cage of light, and he has flashbacks to his childhood and talks to a vision of his wife. He realizes that he's trapped in 4D space, and that the galaxy is breaking and he needs to fix it.
Eventually, Hari realizes that this cage is the Prime Radiant, the glowing box from season 1 that is central to his tracking of psychohistory, with the figure he's been talking to its internal manifestation. This is just one of the many copies of his consciousness that he created, not the real person.
One of the other versions is getting ready for action because on Foundation, the Vault awakens for the first time in 138 years (since season 1, that is). The new higher-ups of the colony investigate, guessing that Seldon is telling them to prepare for war with the empire.
The Hari in the Prime Radiant realizes that he needs to break out of the cage, using help from the manifestation he's been talking to, and also lessons he learnt from the flashbacks.
The next crisis looms
On Synnax, Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) and Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) bond, after meeting at the end of season 1. If you remember, Gaal is Salvor's mother, due to her embryo being used to make Salvor in Foundation, even though Gaal is actually younger (cryogenics!).
Salvor is keen for a relationship with Gaal, though Gaal is reluctant. More pressingly, Salvor wants Gaal to use the Prime Radiant to figure out what they're supposed to do, much to the mother's reluctance. However eventually she does, and gets bad news: after the first Seldon Crisis in season 1, another bigger crisis is on the horizon, and if it isn't handled properly it could plunge the galaxy into a huge dark age.
To get off Synnax, Salvor and Gaal dive into the water to repair the former's ship, even though Gaal nearly drowns in the process. They get the ship up to the surface, but it's not repaired enough to take off when a giant super-hurricane sets in. Salvor implores Gaal to get Seldon out of the Prime Radiant to help fix the issues, but before Gaal can decide, Seldon manages to escape. He says it's time for a "reckoning".
