In Review: Foundation (S2 – EP1) – In Seldon’s Shadow

Synopsis: On In Seldon’s Shadow, Hari finds himself trapped in a mysterious prison. An assassination attempt leaves Day shaken. Gaal and Salvor devise an escape plan.

The Story

The episode begins with Hari Seldon trapped in some sort of date prison. He’s rambling to himself claiming that it is not his fault. The screen flickers to black and white. Gael’s narration overlaps, and says it takes a madman to be a success. We then get hit with some flashbacks to Seldon’s childhood where he gets praised for his intelligence by his mother but chastized for it by his father.

This builds up to the cliffhanger from the last series in which Gaal and Salver meet. Salver reveals their family ties. The pair have been in cryosleep all this time and have only just met up after being separated for so much time.

As the story moves forward we learn that Salver has the power to look into the past whereas her mother Gaal has the ability to see into the future. This makes them one and whole.

Meanwhile on Trantor Day is bumping uglies with his android Demerzel. Their intimate moments are suddenly disturbed when a group of assassins attack. In order to protect himself. Day throws Demerzel at one of the attackers who slices part of her head off.

Brother Day fights off his attackers but takes a nasty gash to his chest for his trouble. With all the attackers subdued Demerzel who has half of her dead missing carries the wounded Brother Day to a regenerative pod. She then goes off on her own to repair her head.

It has been 173 years since the powers that be on Trantor sent Foundation to Terminus. In that time the planet has become a bustling Metropolis. Suddenly all the lights go out and a siren wails. This is the first time that this has happened in over a century. It’s the Vault. The warden believes it is the prophet allowing them time to prepare to fight The Empire.

In reality. Hari Seldon or a copy of his consciousness is in the prime radiant over with Gaal and Salvar. Gaal doesn’t trust Hari, which is why she has transferred his consciousness into data storage. Gaal and Salver between them work out that another crisis is looming. It was Salver that prevented the last crisis. But now it looks like they will have to figure out a way to prevent another one as Gaal does not trust Hari. By the end of the episode a pissed-off Hari has escaped data Storage and has a bone or two to pick with Gaal.

The Acting

Lee Pace proves to be as arrogant as ever as Brother Day who makes no bones about his superior status over all those who serve under him. There’s a great scene where he rather coldly shoots the Shadow Master because he believes he was in on the plot to kill him.

We also get strong performances from Lou Llobell and Leah Harvey as Gaal and Salver who have an interesting relationship developing as they get to know each other. However, at present its a mother and daughter relationship where they are on good terms with each other. But am pretty sure some conflict is coming. As it seems that Salvar is starting to question some of Gaal’s actions.

Jared Harris puts in a solid performance as a frustrated Hari Seldon who is trapped in data storage. The flashback scenes as well as the scenes where Hari is talking to an avatar who is helping him think the problem through are quite compelling.

Overall

This episode does a fairly solid job of setting things up for the next crisis. We get a telling scene toward the end where the ruling house on Trantor learns that the Foundation project on Terminus had succeeded and is indeed thriving. To say that Brother Dawn, Brother Day, and Brother Dusk are concerned would be a massive overstatement. A war almost seems inevitable. It will be interesting to see what alliances will be made between The Foundation and neighboring worlds in their war against Trantor and the royal house.