Foundation Season 1 Episode 5 Breakdown | Recap & Review

Episode 5 of the Apple TV+ adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation started to answer some of the questions it put in viewers’ minds. There is a flashback to Gaal’s homeworld of Synnax where we learn more about the events that led to her solving the Abraxas Conjecture.

On Terminus, the Anacreons plan starts to take shape in the fifth episode. The Encyclopedists were right that the Empire would intervene, but that was exactly Phara’s plan. She wanted to lure the Imperial jump ship to the outer reach so that she could shoot it down. It’s not clear what her motivation is beyond that, but she explained to Salvor why the colonists on Terminus aren’t innocent. Hari Seldon’s prophecies led Cleon to make an example out of her planet after the Starbridge attack.

Gaal wakes up after 35 years in cryosleep in episode 5. She learns that the slow ship made it to Terminus and that she’s considered Raych’s accomplice in Hari’s murder. She can’t control the ship she’s on because it was expecting Raych, and she learns that he sacrificed himself so that she could make it out. She figures out it’s heading towards Hari’s homeworld of Helicon.

At the end of episode 5, we see Gaal Dornick discover some manifestation of Hari Seldon. This may be connected to the device Raych removed from behind his ear before he put Gaal on the cryosleep escape pod.

The official Foundation TV Logline from Apple:
When revolutionary Dr. Hari Seldon predicts the impending fall of the Empire, he and a band of loyal followers venture to the far reaches of the galaxy to establish The Foundation in an attempt to rebuild and preserve the future of civilization. Enraged by Hari's claims, the ruling Cleons – a long line of emperor clones – fear their grasp on the galaxy may be weakening as they’re forced to reckon with the potential reality of losing their legacy forever.

About Isaac Asimov:
Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He was known for his works of science fiction and popular science. Asimov was a prolific writer and wrote or edited more than 500 books.

Asimov wrote hard science fiction. Along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the "Foundation" series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966.

Foundation books:

I would recommend reading the series in order of publication as they’re listed here. I would advise against reading the prequels first.

This Foundation video explains everything you need to know about season 1 episode 5 of the new series and explains the ending. It discusses how it relates to Asimov’s work and draws from the source material. Episode 104 first aired on Apple TV+ on October15th, 2021.

Foundation TV series official summary:

0:00 Intro
0:48 Recap Episode 5 - Flashback to Synnax
4:10 Gaal Wakes Up
4:56 The Empire’s Jump Ship Arrives at Terminus
7:50 Gaal Learns What Happened to Hari & Raych
10:28 Review

#Foundation #IsaacAsimov #AppleTV

[lendial]

the cgi on the ship blowing up is so good

[rinehardt]

Thank you for doing these reviews. You're about one of the only one I see doing really good reviews on the foundation. I love the show I am very engaged with the story. And even though I haven't read the books which I'm kind of glad of it this point so I can concentrate on the show without comparing the two. I'm glad we got a break from trantor. I totally think that Harry set that whole thing in motion and that Ra's was supposed to kill him. I think Ra'swas very conflicted about it because he loved Harry but Harry I'm sure convinced them it was the only way. I like how the lines are blurred between good and bad. Because the people who attacked the Outpost come on if the Empire bombarded your whole world under sketchy evidence at best you would be pissed and feel with Rage . That still doesn't mean they should kill the colonists but as they said they blame Harry's predictions for being part of it. I think that the holo that we saw is where he's going to give a message to her.

[meteorman]

I’m curious why the imperial ship wouldn’t have its shields up.

[PanamaLane]

*book spoilers*

I'm really scratching my head about some of the tv show decisions here. Generally I've liked the changes, but they really seem to be completely whiffing on the first crisis. Salvor Hardin is supposed to be clever, he solves the first crisis entirely by outwitting his opponents (including the rebel kingdoms and the encyclopedists) and making negotiations with them. The throw away line about violence being the last refuge of the incompetent is the principal theme of the books. I just can't stand when they waste intelligent characters, dumb them down into action heroes.

Also, I could be remembering things incorrectly, but I think it is also a point that the "barbarian kingdoms" rebel against the Empire first and they do not send any ships to stop them. If anything, The Foundation ends up aiding the rebellion in a sense by becoming the place where they can buy lost technology (nuclear tech in the books). It's seems like a very key point, that the Empire couldn't care less about the entire periphery and lets it fall into chaos because it makes no difference to the lives of the interior worlds. This is the beginning of the fall, not major space battles, but with apathy and decadence. It's only like 200 years later when the Foundation has expanded into a serious competitor with the Empire that they think to confront them and even then, well, lets just say it never actually happens.

[PetePeppers]

Still a lot of mysteries kicking around but it's nice to start getting some answers. Although Hari's plan is feeling pretty mysterious based just on what we've seen on screen. The whole idea of him having a ship waiting after his murder and a special coffin already designed are both hinting towards a lot of planning before the exile. Let me know where you're at after episode 5.

[philipturner]

This is a gorgeously CGI and I real like some of the story. Very hard to get into the characters but that’s not surprising having read the books. However sadly what doesn’t help it’s titled Foundation but show has branched so far from the book of it’s name it’s a different universe.

[waynerogers]

we, ve been told several times that Gaal is afraid of the event horizon. She is heading towards a planet in proximity to just that sort of galactic feature. What if Gaal from time to time travels close to the event horizon.She would experience time at a much slower rate than the rest of the people in the galaxy. Gaal could be around for centuries implementing Seldon's plan without aging but a few years or even decades. Would work well for a tv show that wants to keep a character around a millennium or so.

[PriscilaTV]

Heads up, the showrunner did a AMA at foundation tv reddit. He clarified Hardin storyline, Demerzel and the Laws and spoke about the Asimov estate and what he knows going forward from what Asimov planned...

[patrickgardner]

[BOOK SPOILER HERE, minor Game of Thrones TV show spoiler] I came away from this episode wondering if they're setting Gaal up to found the Second Foundation, with the help of a "recording" of Hari's consciousness. That could support why she is the narrator/throughline of the whole show. Overall, I'm into this show, as a 51 year old who as a teen was a big fan of the books, though the pacing of these episodes does sometimes feel like season 2 of Game of Thrones (Jamie's travelling... he's travelling.... we get one tiny piece of plot development... he's travelling...) I'm definitely willing to follow and see where this plot leads.

[steriopticon]

As a book reader watching the show, I feel like someone who actually survived the siege of Troy reading the Iliad. It's important to me, and I'm glad Homer wrote it up, but dang I don't think Priam went to Achille's tent, let alone escorted by Hermes (for gods' sake); not to mention the whole Aphrodite angle, and furthermore...

[bbbl]

So when you're asking about what a "dark star" is, it's just another term for a black hole. In Asimov's day, the term "black hole" didn't exist yet, though the concept of it was already around since Carl Schwarzchild came up with the equations of General Relativity that predicted black holes. The term black hole was coined by physicist John Wheeler in the 1960's. In fact there was an early episode of Star Trek TOS, where the Enterprise got flung back to the 1960's after encountering a "dark star", so they were still calling them dark stars rather than black holes in the first season of Trek. So it seems Helicon may be a world orbiting a black hole, and it likely gets its energy from the accretion disk of matter falling into the black hole, from just outside the event horizon.

[TeodorAngelov]

When the showrunner says he doesn't get math you know you are in a tough spot..

[thomaswayne]

“The knife is the key” is the key. And that’s all I think I wanna contribute.

[MossyMozart]

"[Hari's] return was a genuine shock". Well, not really. As soon as they stated that Hari was buried at space in a coffin of his OWN DESIGN, it confirmed our suspicions that Hari's death was staged.

[BillACK]

Enjoying the show. It's passable tv sci-fi. Still waiting for it to have anything in common with Asimov's Foundations other than a few character and place names...

[phillipyao]

The Cleons are the most interesting aspect of the series.

[mesharoid]

As a book reader, the show started off well, but is now veering “terminally” off course without a clear endgame in sight.

It was off to a really good start. The foreshadowing of Gaal Dornick possibly becoming the progenitor of a second foundation (eg, taking the place of Wanda Seldon) - okay, sure. The transformation of the emperors into intergenerational genetic clones - interesting as a plot device. Even the tie-in with Hari’s premonitions with the Starbridge incident and seeding the beginnings of imperial decline with the unnecessarily heavy handed violence in response - great, the start to a compelling arc.

But they really messed up with Terminus, and to some extent, Hari’s story. In the books, Hari was a far more prominent and respected character in the Empire, even becoming an imperial advisor. The original group of encyclopedists started off with 100, 000 people, enough to truly be a force to reckon with even as they were hardly a big number in an empire of trillions. Salvor Hardin was a cunning and resourceful leader who won without any violence. And the Foundation’s beginnings were in getting and vastly improving on imperial technology to start a trading power.

They are setting the Terminus settlement up for failure with so many limitations that make no sense. How will they trade as a bunch of library bound pointy heads debating what to preserve, rather than people continuing actual scientific advancement? How will a tiny group of no more than a few hundred that can barely eke out an existence ever become a new empire in even a thousand years? And - most “foundationally” - with the entire settlement basically killed off in Episode 5, how will the Foundation even get off the ground??

The plot is getting harder and harder to follow with any plausible believability. I sure hope the showrunners know what they’re doing - and won’t just pull off a silly deus ex machina like a sudden expansion of the null field to get things back on track….

[maldavis]

I had a feeling that the death of Hari was set up between him and Raych. Hari said he didn't expect to live through the trial and I think he through his death and him being a martyr would be best for the foundation. It looks like Hari and Raych planned his death to make Hari that martyr but Raych only has an escape set up for one person and when Gaal walked in on the murder, he panicked and sent her off (although I still don't get that part as it just implicated her). As I suspect this was all a setup and Raych had a plan when programing his escape ship's destination, I'd hope that whomever meets the ship Gaal is on (that Raych was supposed to be on) knows the plan and will help her.

[salmanjets]

Well.. finally caught up to u guys. best episode so far. A few things answered. But I feel like next episode will about cleons and slow again. Things got a little exciting tho.

[troysweeney]

Worst “gun fight” war seen I’ve seen in quite sometime. I guess Napoleononic tactics are back in vogue 10, 000 years into the future, makes since….