All through Foundation season 2 we've seen Empire, the ruler of the majority of the galaxy in this sci-fi Apple TV Plus epic, get perilously close to falling. However in episode 8, entitled 'The Last Empress', we find out that unseen forces may be at play.
This episode, which aired on Friday, September 1, is a very busy one, showing every major character in the season, albeit some only fleetingly. This is a notable change from the mid-season episodes, that tended to focus on select characters.
As a result, it's easy to miss details from Foundation season 2 episode 8, hence this recap filling you in with all the important plot points (ordered for convenience, not in the order of the episode). And how to watch Foundation season 2 if you haven't seen the episodes yet, as spoilers abound!
So here's our Foundation season 2 episode 8 recap, and there are only two more episodes after this!
Heads will roll for Empire
It's execution day for Brother Constant (Isabella Laughland) and Poly Verisof (Kulvinder Ghir), and people from around the galaxy are tuning in to watch it, including settlers on Foundation as well as Bel Rios.
Brother Day (Lee Pace) prepares the crowd, and asks his betrothed Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith) to pick which of the two gets executed first. She doesn't, so he picks Constant, but just before he's about to execute her a spaceship appears on their platform. Day only gets out of the way thanks to Demerzel (Laura Birn), while Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) rushes to save Enjoiner Rue (Sandra Yi Sendcindiver, more on this couple later) and Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) is the one who rushes to Sareth's side (again, more on these two later).
This ship is a 'whisper ship' piloted by Hober Mallow (Dimitri Leonidas), who's here to save the duo. The space-dog-thing Becky is there too, taking out guards to help, and it almost kills Brother Day too until his soldiers shoot it and it does. Eventually Mallow and Constant get away but Verisof is left behind.
Afterward, Brother Dusk urges for war with the Foundation after this public spectacle, but Day wants to visit the place to negotiate. His queen backs him up, and so he leaves, bringing Verisof with him.
While escaping, Mallow and Constant have to turn off their spaceship to avoid detection. While waiting, they sleep together, but afterward they're captured by Bel Rios in his warship.
The real ruler of Empire
Brother Dusk finds Enjoiner Rue poking around in Demerzel's quarters, as she thinks the Android had a hand in the assassination attempt in the first episode. She admits that her faction, the Cloud Dominion, has tech that can reverse Empire's mind wiping, and she in fact does remember their past. Rue also questions what Dusk knows about Demerzel, and they find that he's had words implanted in his mind to defend her.
Dusk notices the pattern on Demerzel's chest, which corresponds with a pattern in the wall he painted which depicts the human and robot wars. Rue asks to restore Dusk's memories. He also notices that something is off with his painting, as it's meant to move, but isn't, however before they can investigate they have to attend the aforementioned execution.
Later, Rue tells Sareth not to get too close to Brother Day, having seen her help her at the execution, but she points out that her handmaiden is getting just as close to Dusk. However, later, Day comes to Sareth, and agrees to her plan from the past episode. She reverses his infertility and they sleep together.
Rue and Dusk return to the painting from before and find hidden behind it a secret passage. They follow it to a stairwell and descend to a chamber where a hologram of Cleon 1 (that all the Brothers are clones of, remember), greets them. At the end of the episode, they figure out that Demerzel isn't a secret agent trying to bring back robot control, but Cleon's secret empress, continuing his orders over the years.
Igniting a feud on Ignis
On a beach in Ignis, Gaal (Lou Llobell) asks Tellem Bond (Rachel House) where her companions are. The Mentalic leader admits to killing Hari, which Gaal picked up on psychically, but says Hardin is being held captive. But it turns out Gaal isn't on a beach at all, but in a hole in the ground in a psychic prison, where brain wave devices are trying to get her to lower her guard.
In a different prison, Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) is also being held captive — turns out she didn't die after all! A boy she's been befriending throws her food, and tells her that Gaal is being prepared 'for the table', which sounds ominous.
Hardin has a trick up her sleeves though, and uses the Prime Radiant to visit the Vault on Terminus, where this monolith's version of Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) is surprised to see her. By her apparition, he figures out that he's just one version of Seldon, and extrapolates to figure out the existence of the Second Foundation.
Hari returns with Hardin to Ignis, and gives her an idea on how to remove the psychic blocking plates. Then he returns to Terminus, but before he leaves, Hardin mentions the importance of Hober Mallow to him.
When back, Hari decides to tell the Foundation about Hober Mallow, as we saw right at the beginning of the series. So it turns out that the storylines throughout Foundation season 2 haven't been playing out in the order we've been watching them.
Hardin removes the plates in her prison and turns them into a device that blows the roof off her prison, literally.
However, at the same time, the Mentalics are preparing a ritual on Gaal. Bond reveals that she's really old, and survives by psychically transferring her consciousness every couple of decades; Gaal is to be her next host. The ritual begins.
