In Review: Foundation (S2 – EP9) – Long Ago, Not Far Away

Synopsis: In Long Ago, Not Far Away, Dusk and Enjoiner Rue learn Demerzel’s origin and true purpose. Tellem’s plans for Gaal take a dark turn. On Terminus, Day confronts Dr. Seldon.

The Story

Picking the story up from last week. Dusk and Enjoiner Rue have found a secret room within the royal palace and triggered a hologram of Cleon the 1st who tells them the origin of Demerzel’s role in the Cleon Dynasty. In a flashback sequence, we see a very young Cleon the 1st find Demerzel in the secret room where over the decades she regales him with stories of past royal families and the robot wars. Until we see an older Cleon the 1st Free Demerzel from her prison change her programming and implement the clones of himself through her.

On Ignus Salvor takes measures to rescue Gaal from Tellem Bond’s scheme and gets some surprise help as they put an end to Bond’s Mentalics.

Meanwhile, on Terminus, Day confronts Dr. Seldon and launches his attack on the first Foundation. In a surprising turn, Demerzel leaves Day’s side to attend to other matters back home.

The Acting

Laura Birn puts in a solid performance as Demerzel in this week’s episode. The opening 10 or 15 minutes gives us a look at her origin story and how she gained a certain degree of trust from Cleon the 1st by telling him stories. Lee Pace also brings his best acting to the show as we see Brother Day become more and more unhinged during his visit to Terminus when he is shown around the church.

Overall

Long Ago, Not Far Away delivers a lot of action as everything that the season has been building starts to kick off. For me, the best part of this episode was learning about Demerzel’s backstory and how she wound up becoming the permanent Empress of Tranter. That said the action scenes that come shortly after Day’s outburst on Terminus are pretty impressive. Especially when we see the Empires Capital ship take down and destroy The Invictus. 

Quite what will happen in next week’s season finale is anyone’s guess. Especially when it comes to what Demerzel will do now that Brother Day’s agenda is no longer working in the best interest of the Cleon Dynasty.