Foundation Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: The Sighted and the Seen

Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’ finishes the first half of its second season by introducing some new characters while revealing or at least hinting at some secrets that had been buried for a long time. This episode focuses on the plotting in Trantor, where Dawn and Dusk feel alienated by Day and go down a rabbit hole that raises more questions than answers. Meanwhile, Hari Seldon settles down in his new body and arrives as Ignis, only to find more resistance than he might have expected. Considering that it’s Hari, it might not be so unexpected after all. The ending of this episode places another hurdle in the path of the Second Foundation while also paving the way for that fateful vision Gaal Dornick had. Here’s what it all means. SPOILERS AHEAD

Foundation Season 2 Episode 5 Recap

In the previous episode, Hari Seldon landed on Oona’s World as a part of his consciousness living inside the Prime Radiant and came out of it as a human with his body back to how it was before he died. While there is no explanation of how and why Kalle did that, the only logical reasoning behind this is that this is not actually Hari, but his clone, just like all the Cleons are the clones of the first of their name. While he becomes familiar with having a body again, they land on Ignis and immediately land themselves in trouble.

At Trantor, Sareth is still focused on getting confirmation of the true culprit for her family’s death and why the assassination attempt on Day failed. When she discovers that the assassination attempt happened in his bedroom, she finds a way into his bed chambers under the pretense of having sex with him. She gets her confirmation, but it makes her more curious about how Day survived it. She tries to get access to his memories of the day, but she cannot because he is Empire. So, she goes for the next best option. She gets the memories of the person who attended to him.

When Gaal, Salvor, and Hari land on Ignis, they realize they are not alone. Salvor leaves the ship to canvas the area and meets her long-lost lover, Hugo Crast. He says that he found out that Salvor was in cryosleep through his ship and timed himself into a cryosleep to wake up when she did. Happy to see a familiar face and reunite with the man she loved, Salvor takes Hugo back to the ship, but Hari suspects something is amiss.

Foundation Season 2 Episode 5 Ending: Who are the Mentallics? Why Don’t They Want the Second Foundation?

Hari’s suspicions about Hugo prove correct when it turns out that someone else is posing as him. These people are Mentallics, and they all have some degree of telepathic powers. They use this power to render Hari, Gaal, and Salvor unconscious and later pry about in their minds, reading their backstory without the trio ever uttering a word about it.

The leader of the Mentallics is a woman named Tellem Bond, who was the first to arrive on Ignis. Others like her followed soon, and they created a place for themselves on the planet. They sent out beacons for other telepaths, which Gaal and Salvor picked up on in the first episode. This confirms that they, too, have telepathic powers, though not quite like Tellem Bond’s. She agrees to have a conversation about what Hari’s plans are for Ignis, but once the trio leaves the room, she makes her intentions clear.

Tellem Bond doesn’t want the Second Foundation on Ignis and will do anything to stop it. She is also looking for the Prime Radiant, which Hari asked Gaal to hide when he saw Salvor bringing Hugo to the ship. This means that Hari has an inkling of what they are caught up in and is, once again, hiding the whole picture from Gaal. This time, however, his reasons are justified. He told Gaal to keep the location of the Prime Radiant to herself. This means he knew about the telepathic powers of the locals, and perhaps, this is why he chose Ignis.

Despite Tellem Bond’s refusal to give up Ignis for the Second Foundation, we know from Isaac Asimov’s books that the Second Foundation is almost entirely made up of Mentallics. So, even if Tellem Bond succeeds in her plan, some Mentallics might leave the planet with Hari and help build the Second Fondation elsewhere. The success of the Second Foundation is also ensured by the fact that it was mentioned in Gaol’s vision 150 years into the future. Interestingly, the villain, the Mule, is also a telepath, which means that the Mentallics are now a crucial part of the story.

Did Cleon I Tamper With the Memories of His Clones?

At Trantor, things get more complicated by Dawn and Dusk, who realize that Day has tampered with their memories. A conversation with Rue leads Dusk to realize that some of his memories might have been removed, and he wouldn’t even know about it. It also turns out that Day has taken away his and Dawn’s powers to remove their own memories. Dusk and Dawn present this concern to Cleon I, but it only raises more questions.

Instead of worrying that his clones are becoming distrustful of each other, Cleon I reminds Dawn and Dusk that they are basically the same person as Day, so they shouldn’t worry about anything. He assures them, though not in any assuring manner, that he took care of all these things. Dusk becomes suspicious of him and wonders if Cleon I was hiding something from them. He accesses the memories of all Cleons to date and realizes that the memory count of Cleon I is much more than all of his clones.

Dusk wonders if Cleon I got rid of some of his memories before creating his clones and kept them hidden so none of them would know about it. If so, what were those memories, and why did he need to hide them? While Dusk and Dawn open the Pandora’s box that might not necessarily give them what they were looking for, Day confronts Sareth about her intentions. He wonders if she tried to get him killed, and she wonders if he killed her family. The argument ends with them getting engaged, but none confesses to the crimes they clearly committed.

It turns out that Sareth was right, and Day did have her family killed, with the help of Demerzel, who buried anything that might link Day to the murder. Meanwhile, Sareth gets access to the memories of that day and discovers that Demerzel is a robot. It is pretty shocking for her, but for the audience, the only worrisome thing about Demerzel is that she doesn’t seem to be the same obedient and loyal to a fault robot she was programmed to be. It looks like she has her own agenda. Only time will tell what she wants.

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