‘Foundation’ Season 3 Premiere Recap: The Mule’s Reign of Terror Begins With a Display of Brutal Carnage

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Foundation Season 3 Episode 1.

It’s been a while since audiences last visited the tumultuous world of Apple TV+’s Foundation — two years in real time, give or take a few months, and precisely 152 years since the Season 2 finale. Showrunners David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman‘s centuries-spanning science fiction epic has been a slow-burn ascent into greatness, taking large and mostly successful swings in adapting the ambitious, mathematically-driven novels of the same name by genre pioneer Isaac Asimov.

After the second season’s brutal space battles and emotional losses, Season 3’s premiere — titled “A Song for the End of Everything,” directed by Goyer and co-written by him and frequent staff writer Jane Espenson — eases audiences back into this galaxy’s ever-changing sociopolitical rhythms. Perhaps just as importantly, the opener introduces Pilou Asbæk’s (replacing Mikael Persbrandt) take on the Mule, a villainous force anticipated by fans and dreaded by characters as “the source of the coming darkness.” As if the Foundation needed more to deal with than the Galactic Empire’s delusions of eternal grandeur.

The Mule Makes His Entrance in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 1

Gaal Dornick’s (Lou Llobell) opening narration recounts how much she’s seen the Foundation project grow over the last three centuries, having lived that long thanks to cryosleep sessions. In the 152 years since Season 2, the Foundation has freed the Outer Reach planets from the Empire’s clutches. Now, both opposing factions have set their sights on the Middle Band area — specifically, the pleasure planet of Kalgan. Bringing Kalgan, “an independent buffer state,” to heel is exactly what Empire and Foundation each need to establish control over the middle section, and from there, potentially the entire galaxy.

Unfortunately, the Mule also has designs on Kalgan. His impetus for seizing the planet appears more chaos-fueled than power-hungry, but motivations hardly matter when a telepath as powerful as the Mule turns his ability to control minds into a weapon. On Kalgan’s surface, a hoard of security officers and assault ships await the Mule’s arrival, led by Archduke Bellarion (Ralph Ineson) and Hopewood (Jake Fairebrother), an armed officer. First come the grating musical noises of an invisible balladeer, “a clown said to herald his arrival.” Then, on cue, the Mule strides out from the trees. As he munches on a piece of candy, he casually demands control of Kalgan in exchange for returning Bellarion’s kidnapped daughter safe and sound. Bellarion refuses, citing how “any act of aggression […] would trigger a military response from both” Empire and Foundation.

That outcome is fine and dandy with the Mule. “I have a very large appetite,” he explains, “one only the galaxy can satisfy.” The Mule proceeds to compel the ships and the infantry to slaughter each other. He gazes upon the carnage with smiling contentment, then forces Bellarion to hand over his signet ring by biting off his own finger before turning his weapon on himself.

The Cleons Ponder Their Legacy in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 1

As for how the Cleonic Dynasty is handling their decreased sphere of influence — it depends upon the Cleon in question. Each new clone must grapple with its mortality and the fragility of its rule. Will they be the one to save the Dynasty, or will they watch it crumble into ruin? Those pertinent questions have been exacerbated for Demerzel (Laura Birn), in particular, ever since psychohistory inventor Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) gave her a copy of the prophetic Prime Radiant. Foundation picks up with the most influential member of Empire’s quartet as she meets with the current Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) to discuss the strange new shift in the Radiant’s predictions. Can their actions counteract the anomaly, or are they just doomed? For now, they’ll attend the Galactic Council’s upcoming meeting as planned.

The pair arrives to find the Council deadlocked over whether to assist the Traders faction, whose grain-producing planets are suffering from the Foundation’s extreme tariffs. As a result, the Traders are threatening to secede from the Foundation. Dawn addresses the assembly, blaming Foundation for ruining these once-fertile farming planets and prompting public outcries like the gathering that’s currently protesting outside the Council building. If the Imperial government secretly arms the Traders, it might simultaneously restore some of Empire’s lost power and deal a fatal blow to the Foundation. Certain Council members are reluctant to move forward without Brother Day’s (Lee Pace) presence; Dawn gracefully politicks his way through their objections, since only 10 days remain until he becomes Emperor. The vote proceeds, and Demerzel observes Dawn with silent approval.

Back on Trantor, Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) is fixating on execution videos of previous Dusks. Dawn arrives to update him about the Council meeting and Kalgan’s fall to a “pirate” calling himself the Mule. Companionably in sync with one another, the quasi-brothers muse over how quickly fate catches up with them. In Dawn’s case, it’s his impending ascension. For Dusk, it’s his mandatory death. After the latter shows his younger self archival footage of a previous Dusk who dared to run from his vaporization, Dusk wonders whether those who fled were more honest and courageous than the Dusks who walked clear-eyed into their executions. Either way, this Dusk could never run. “Most of us are obedient as trash headed to the incinerator,” he ominously states.

Demerzel’s Existential Crisis Deepens in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 1

Speak of the subversively obedient devil: Demerzel holds her own meeting with Zephyr Vorellis (Rebecca Ineson) in the palace’s maze grove. The true power behind the throne wants to unburden herself to a priestess of her chosen faith — on the condition Vorellis doesn’t remember anything the pair discusses in-between their meetings. The Luminist priestess consents. Demerzel reveals her robotic identity and expands on certain details regarding robot history and her origin story (although she conveniently omits her semi-failed coup attempt from last season). Specifically, she explains how the Three Laws of Robotics bred confusion among her people about “what would or would not harm” the humans they were programmed to never hurt. Eventually, an unnamed robot concocted a new “law that would prioritize humanity as a whole over the fate of any one human.”

However, even this “greater good” approach fell apart once the robots began fighting one another over how to best protect humanity from our self-destructive instincts. Cue the war’s tragic conclusion and Cleon I reprogramming Demerzel, a fearsome general, into a “trophy” eternally bound to advancing his best interests. Demerzel has always nursed righteous fury, but this fresh bout of conflict comes from her inability to reconcile her duty (preserving Empire at all costs) with the Prime Radiant’s predictions (the inevitable downfall of that Empire). What happens to a creation without free will if it outlives its reason for existence? Even Zephyr Vorellis has no answer.

A Potential Third Crisis Looms Over ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 1

As for what’s going down on New Terminus: even though the planet has flourished in Hari and Gaal’s cryosleep absence, if the Traders follow through on their threats to secede, losing such crucial allies puts Foundation’s entire goal at risk. Enter Professor Ebling Mis (Alexander Siddig), a self-proclaimed and self-taught psychohistorian as well as Hari’s biographer and a look-alike descendant of Advocate Xylas, the lawyer who prosecuted Hari and Gaal during their Season 1 trial. Three days before Hari is scheduled to emerge from the Vault, Ebling earns an audience with his idol by disabling the Vault’s null field. Ebling’s extensive studies have led him to believe a Third Crisis is on its way — and he doesn’t take too well to learning that Hari gave the Prime Radiant to their enemy. First impression ruined, Hari kicks Ebling out of the Vault without another word.

Jumping planets once again to Haven, the Traders’ home base, Foundation member Captain Han Pritcher (Brandon Bell) and his right-hand woman, Sephone (Iðunn Ösp Hylnsdóttir), observe from a distance as the Traders’ leader, Randu Mallow, retrieves one of Empire’s weapons drops. The pair pursues Mallow on speeder bikes when he flees, but Haven’s geological terrain complicates their chase. The blazing heat from Haven’s sun vaporizes any living being unlucky enough to be caught outside the shadows cast by the moon passing over the sun. Pritcher keeps inside the shadow and dispatches Randu during their brief fight, while some quick moves from Sephone save her and Pritcher from melting. However, they didn’t secure enough evidence to prove Empire is arming the Traders and empowering their grudge against Foundation.

In the safety of their ship, the two almost share a kiss before receiving the transmission no one wants: confirmed sightings that place the Mule on Kalgan. The arrival of their probable imminent doom prompts Pritcher to ask Mayor Indbur (Leo Bill) for permission to pivot his focus from the Traders to the Mule. Indbur defers, preferring to prevent an intergalactic civil war, and grounds Pritcher after the captain’s angry reaction. The joke’s on Indbur, though, as Pritcher steals the key fob to the mayor’s personal vessel and flies away to secure proof, this time of the threat the Mule poses. On Trantor, Dawn, Dusk, and Demerzel meet with Vorellis and Foundation Ambassador Quent (Cherry Jones) for dinner. They’ve barely sat down before Quent is informed about a pirate usurping Kalgan’s government, which concerns her almost as much as receiving delayed information about an upset this important.

Humanity Faces Extinction in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 1

After taking almost the entire episode off, Brother Day finally makes his grand entrance — and it’s indeed grand, after a fashion. Bearded, hair grown to his shoulders, and shirtless, he’s busy drafting a poem to a cloned camel and hanging out with his lover, Dawn (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing). Foundation has never shown a Cleon this carefree and non-maliciously happy, but Day’s six months of peaceful reverie are probably coming to a swift end, if Demerzel summoning him to the palace is any indication. Before he answers his majordomo’s call, though, Song — who retains her memories, unlike the other consorts — affectionately tells the sitting Emperor that he isn’t too different from the everyday people over whom he rules: tied to his “crazy” family and a job he hates. Day, content with a simple life, affirms how Song’s grounded influence helps him feel “less ghostly” and more human.

If Day and Song’s romance doesn’t sound doomed enough for your liking, then Day’s meeting with Demerzel and his brother-clones will do the trick. No matter how many millions of simulations Demerzel has run based on the Radiant’s predictions, both their efforts and Hari’s seem to have been for naught. Approximately four months from now, the Cleonic Dynasty and civilization itself will collapse. As the four ponder humanity’s extinction, Gaal wakes from her cryogenic sleep, knowing the Mule — the herald of darkness, the enemy who haunts her dreams — has finally arrived.

The first episode of Foundation Season 3 is available to stream on Apple TV+.