Hari Seldon returns this week on Foundation, and he’s fuming! [Apple TV+ recap]

Apple TV+’s epic science fiction series Foundation deals with the fallout from an assassination attempt, a potential marriage and the opening of a puzzle cube this week.

In the episode, entitled “A Glimpse of Darkness,” Salvor and Gaal have their overdue reunion with Hari Seldon. Plus, some new converts are betrayed by their faith. And Hari, like Schrodinger’s cat, may or may not be in a box. It’s a very good episode between major developments.

Foundation recap: ‘A Glimpse of Darkness’

Season 2, episode 7: Gaal Dornick (played by Lou Llobell) and Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) are in the middle of a hurricane in a ship that might not last another minute. But they may have an even worse problem than that: the sudden reappearance of Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) in the cockpit.

Hari’s furious because Gaal imprisoned him in a puzzle cube — or at least some of him. Salvor remembers him stepping out of a much different kind of box last season, setting what he called the Second Foundation into motion so people in the outer reaches of the galaxy can overthrow the Galactic Empire on the planet Trantor.

The trouble here is that there are two copies of Hari’s consciousness. The one in the ship with the two women has little understanding of what the other’s been up to. It just knows that he’s been awake inside his prison for what feels like an eternity. That Hari is furious with Gaal for putting him there, but Salvor reminds him they don’t have much time for that now. She gets Hari to help them fix the ship and escape the worst of the storm.

An assassination attempt and a murder

Meanwhile on Sivenna, another planet in the outer reach, two Foundation converts, Cleric (Kulvinder Ghir) and Brother Constant (Isabella Laughland) have received a disheartening signal. Someone’s killed one of their neighbors and left the charred body as a warning.

Could it have something to do with the attempt to assassinate Brother Day (Lee Pace)? Though his robot servant/concubine Demerzel (Laura Birn) tells him she’s nearly certain, he can’t prove it wasn’t the work of his fellow Empire clones, Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) and Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton). Nor can they prove it isn’t the lowliest outcast supplicants in the outer reaches of the galaxy. So everyone has good reason to be nervous, even Hari.

Hari thinks that every disparate part of the galaxy that could form the Second Foundation — the for-the-people-by-the-people government capable of overthrowing the Empire — needs constant watch and guidance. Otherwise, they could outgrow their benevolence and grow drunk with power. But they’re running out of time to make sure every faction is heading in the right direction. Day’s marriage to Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion (Ella-Rae Smith) would only strengthen the Empire as a foe.

That’s where we find a new path

Constant’s been trying to spread the word of the Foundation on Sivenna, but a hostile element of locals think she’s a blasphemer. (The locals are led by Noah Taylor! A welcome sight indeed, especially because he’s dressed like a space Crocodile Dundee.)

Now a lot of Constant and Cleric’s spiritual power is pure charlatanry and stage magic, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere. They get word that Hari has returned and flee Sevinna, but Cleric is worried. Hari walking amongst them means the Second Foundation is upon them, but also the feared “second crisis,” the war that determines whether Empire continues to rule the galaxy or something better takes its place.

Warden Jaegger Fount (Holt McCallany) has bad news for Cleric when he arrives, though. They don’t want him anywhere near Hari when he emerges. They think Cleric’s a drunk and a wastrel, and they don’t want him putting his more fantastical socialist version of Seldonism ahead of the cause of the Foundation.

A vision

When Gaal induces a vision by suffocating herself momentarily, she sees a mighty and vicious foe called The Mule (Mikael Persbrandt) working on behalf of Empire at the exact time that the Vault on Terminus opens, supposedly to make way for Hari’s return (the other Hari, the one not on a ship with Gaal and Salvor).

Of course, something much more gruesome happens. Fount is incinerated by the Vault, screaming for someone called “Hober Mallow,” whose name appears in ghastly cursive on the Vault’s door. Maybe Hari isn’t coming back after all.

… and a lack thereof

Show creator and head writer David S. Goyer directs this week’s episode of Foundation, and unfortunately he drops the ball. The thrilling and dimensionless direction that Alex Graves brought last week has been replaced with flat coverage.

No matter, though. This is still an exciting enough show without more eye-catching mise-en-scene. Certainly the pace remains breathtaking and the performances captivating. Not a lot happens this week, but even that on a show like Foundation can be gripping.

★★★☆☆

Watch Foundation on Apple TV+

New episodes of Foundation season two arrive Fridays on Apple TV+.

Rated: TV-MA

Watch on: Apple TV+

Scout Tafoya is a film and TV critic, director and creator of the long-running video essay series The Unloved for RogerEbert.com. He has written for The Village Voice, Film Comment, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Nylon Magazine. He is the author of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper and But God Made Him A Poet: Watching John Ford in the 21st Century, the director of 25 feature films, and the director and editor of more than 300 video essays, which can be found at Patreon.com/honorszombie.