With one episode remaining, Foundation becomes needlessly messy

Photo: Apple TV

Title sequences have long since reached a level of sophistication that allows them to stand on their own as a legitimate creative companion to the shows they introduce. In some instances, they even manage to express the dominant themes and emotional notes better than the show itself. Foundation’s title sequence by Imaginary Forces studio, with score by Bear McCreary, isn’t better than the show, but it does capture a feeling of grandeur and scale the show does not. The depiction of great shrouded monuments haloed in perfect geometry, intricate mathematical puzzles held like exalted relics, and the iconography of an over-extended empire dissolving into the sands of time manifests a collage of profound cosmic events. It’s graceful and succinct.

Anyways, “The First Crisis” is kind of a mess. A lot of stuff happens; too much stuff. Brother Dawn’s personal crisis introduced a massive subplot that seemed to build towards a fundamental shift in the direction of the show, only to be snipped off completely here. Salvor and Phara’s ongoing dynamic of taking turns capturing and escaping each other—which began as a tense battle of wills between two seasoned hunters—has escalated to cartoon levels of two characters chasing each other back and forth off-screen, only to return brandishing increasingly larger weapons.

All of this frenetic activity is meant to feel like a deft navigation of the characters to guide them in place for the triumphant return of Hari Seldon and the vindication of his psychohistory model—like a narrative sharpened to the point of a spear. But instead it just feels like a whole lot of noise leading to Hari’s smug ghost informing the gathered crowd, “I meant to do that.” Adding Gaal’s redundant narration to the episode, and hopefully, “The First Crisis” got all of the show’s worst tendencies out of the way before next week’s final episode.

The episode culminates the crisis Brother Dawn faced within the palace. Unlike his predecessor, Brother Dusk has not grown more introspective or understanding in his old age, and defiantly remains the same bastard he was when he bombed two planets into oblivion in his youth. Not all of us have the resources to lay a trap for our unsuspecting clone siblings in the form of an elaborate fresco, but that’s exactly what Dusk does when baiting Dawn with an intricate portrayal of the pair’s hunting expedition.

Dawn only sees the three birds he claimed as his kills and only when alone, wearing color-correcting enhancers, does he see that Dusk painted the full number of the kills, rendering the extra in a palette and pattern invisible to Dawn’s naked eye. Knowing he’s been discovered, Dawn is led through an intimidating hallway lined with digital renderings of Cleon that pivot to watch you pass. Deciding it’s his only chance; Dawn attacks Shadow Master Obrecht (Mido Hamada) and escapes into The Scar.

I assume The Scar is supposed to read as some kind of overpopulated favela; all stacked high and full of Trantor’s forgotten masses. But it seems awfully pleasant. The population looks well-fed, their smudged, dirty faces artful. There’s even a grassy courtyard with some trippy ’70s glowing domes you can gather around and quietly criticize the entrenched aristocracy.

Dawn makes his way to Azura’s (Amy Tyger) home where he learns all her affection has been a ruse, and she was setting him up to be captured. This is where it could have gotten interesting, but got very dumb instead. It seemed unavoidable from the beginning of their mismatched courtship that Azura was setting Dawn up, or at least terribly naïve about what it would mean to try and abscond into hiding with one of the central pillars of the galactic dynasty. But as Cleon sees his own face looking down on him as he’s about to get knocked unconscious, we learn it’s something much more convoluted instead.

As it turns out, our Dawn isn’t just a random genetic errata, but the product of a long-in-the-works guerrilla movement to taint the bloodline and incept the idea into the imperfect Dawn’s head that he chose to escape with the help of the random palace gardener he happened to fall in love with in order to be captured so his nanobots could be given to the clone of the emperor who rebels have also managed to make on their own in order to switch the two and place an agent who will bring down the Empire from the inside.

As absurd as that is, even more so seeing it written out in a string of escalating improbability, the idea of a rebel Empire on the throne has worthwhile story potential. Granted, the same thing could have been, and may possibly yet be accomplished with the Dawn we know choosing of his own volition to rebel. But why make something graceful and character-driven when you can make it a tangled bolus of a plan worthy of the Robot Devil? But whatever. Regardless, it wasn’t meant to be. As soon as rebel Dawn’s plan is all laid out bare, he gets his throat slit and his companions are executed. What an unnecessarily complicated bit of nonsense to introduce just to die off. Azura is left alive, so this story isn’t over. But it’s already exhausted.

Thanks to the sacrifice of the last of the Terminus scientists, the Invictus’ next jump takes it back to Terminus. Salvor, the first to awaken, attempts to make contact with the surface, but it appears the nul-field has grown to encompass the entire settlement. She’s able to make it planet-side where her still undefined psychic connection to Gaal gives her the insight to unlock Hari’s giant d20 Die of Galactic Math.

The Vault sheds its outer skin and splits apart, revealing a crystalline beacon shining with light and, presumably, knowledge. While the remaining Anacreons are growing weary of their suicide mission, Phara is not. She escapes her bonds, steals a Thespin warship, blows up the other Thespin warships and begins to fire on the Vault. After escaping capture and death a truly absurd number of times, this last act is finally too far and Salvor shoots the huntress in the neck with her own bow. Not to make a highlight of the show someone getting killed, but Phara being brought down by her own instrument of war is about as poetic as anything the show has done. Now leaderless, the Anacreons are adrift. Salvor recommends the three peoples band together and take the Invictus as a very dangerous symbol of this new coalition. Then some version of Hari steps out of the Vault and tells everyone that it’s all happening just as he planned!

And now, only one episode remains. I dearly hope this was a plate-cleaning episode and the finale can be uncluttered, thoughtful, and engaging. This season has been a mixed bag of good and bad qualities, but this episode is uniquely head-shaking. Just remember, there’s a plan! Brighter days are ahead.

Stray Observations

• I didn’t go into how Hugo’s suggestion he and Salvor cut and run prompts her big monologue about embracing the plan and her role as an agent therein. It was a clumsy mission statement and felt too broad and tacked on. Again, I mostly like this show, but it’s about as subtle as a John Phillip Sousa march.
• Apparently, nanobots are only good enough to repair wounds you get from receiving nanobots.
• Instead of just one little clone of Dawn, what if there was a whole community taking refuge in the Scar? Every one of the Empire’s aberrations, defectors, mutants, and outcasts living in one place. How great if there were just a bunch of lumpy-headed Brother Days looking to Dawn to lead the rebellion?
• Speaking of which, if you’re trading your force field for a jacket to wear as a disguise, try and get your money’s worth and put the hood up.
• I’m assuming this version of Hari is similar to the archived hologram that engaged with Gaal on the ship. He was making little puffs of dust as he walked through the sand, but for obvious reasons the show has never made an effort to make the hologram projections look like anything other than just a regular person in the room.
• Brother Dusk’s hunting scene was very cool, though.