In Review: Foundation (S1 EP7) Mysteries and Martyrs

Synopsis: In Mysteries and Martyrs. The Anacreons and their hostages board the fabled Invictus warship. The bond between Brother Dawn and Azura intensifies.

The Story

Picking the story up from where last week left off. Brother Day is still having issues with Zephyr Halima but is further perturbed by the fact that Demerzel knelt before Halima during the ceremony. Halima is the world’s favorite to succeed its previous spiritual leader. Brother Day must do his best to try and prevent her ascension to power and plans to use the world’s religious mythology as his means to do so. 

Meanwhile, Salvor loses her best friend Hugo when she and the Anacreons board the legendary Ivictus warship, which in its glory days held the power to destroy entire planets. Salvor and her fellow colonists are hostages of value as only they can get around Empire’s security on the ships.

Back on Trantor Brother Dawn’s romance with Azura intensifies to the point where he is contemplating neglecting his regal responsibilities and running away. Azura presents him with a compelling argument to do just that. But brother Dusk is still suspicious.

Out in deep space onboard the Raven. Gaal is still trying to get around the ship’s security but is fast running out of time. She finally gets to reach out to the consciousness of Hari Seldon, which eventually takes over the Raven and reveals the truth about his plan to her. However, Seldon did not count on Gaal falling in love with his assistant, which is ultimately what put a spanner in the works. As Gaal and Seldon go around figuring out what happened. Gaal has a sudden realization that she can see and feel future events before they happen.

The Acting

Foundation goes into supernatural territory as Hari Seldon returns, which allows for Jared Harris to reprise the role. And he wastes very little time in catching us up on past events as he interrogates Gaal (Lou Llobell). This makes for a few pretty big scenes where we find out that Hari was always going to die as had an illness. The scene where Gaal has the realization that she feels the future was fantastic.

We also get some great performances from Lee Pace and  T’Nia Miller as Brother Day and Halima have words as they play political games.

Overall

Mysteries and Martyrs does a fantastic job of continuing the story and brings back Hari Seldon in a fantastic way. Furthermore, we get the real scoop as to what his plan truly was and how much it relied on him becoming a martyr to his cause. Hence why he is pissed that Gaal did not go down the path that he’d predicted for her.