I haven't played any games in the series apart from mobile game Fallout Shelter, but the show had very good reviews, so I decided to give it a try. I'm not sold on it yet, though it may be because this is just the first episode that introduces all the main characters. I've watched it just after finishing The Last of Us, and after the first episode it seems to me that even though both shows are pretty brutal, Fallout concentrates more on action than human emotions and relationships like TLoU did.
I returned to the show after more than a year and found this episode quite engrossing. We watch Ellie's backstory: her life at school and her friendship with Riley, who as it turns out became one of the Fireflies, and wants to take Ellie for a trek to the mall as her goodbye gift. Since I knew that the girls were infected at the mall, I watched the episode on the edge of my seat, expecting the tragedy to strike any minute. The girls spend some time together in the most carefree way it is possible for them in the post-apocalyptic reality, so there is a contrast between them having fun as geeky girls and the danger we know lurks in the mall, hunting for them. They kill the infected, but they are both wounded, which looks like a death sentence for both of them, though we know that Ellie is immune and actually survives. Her caring about the wounded Joel creates a neat bracket as it starts and ends the episode, though the girls' story is left unfinished, as it is not explained what happened to Riley in the end. She wants to use all the time she has left, but I wonder how it works with the infected? Do they retain their human memories, emotions etc. and are human deep inside but cannot communicate with the outside world, just like e.g. people in coma, because the fungus controls all their movements? Or do they die the moment the infection takes over? I guess I would prefer to kill myself if I was infected, since later on it would be impossible to do so when the fungus took over the body? I definitely wouldn't like to spread the fungus further and be a danger to other people. What about friends? Should you stay with your infected friend since it is still your friend deep inside, or are they gone the moment the fungus takes over?
The episode is not as long as others in the show, and it feels a bit too short for a season finale, it was a bit rushed, and I would have appreciated more time with the characters. We get the backstory of Ellie's birth, and her mum Anna looks pretty badass as she kills an infected while giving birth to her daughter. Anna asks her best friend to take care of the baby - the friend in question turns out to be Marlene. Anna begs her to kill her as she got wounded while fighting the infected, and she will become infected herself. Marlene has her doubts, but eventually does as Anna asked her.
I liked the scenes with Joel and Ellie and their conversations together, bringing some hope to the post-apocalyptic world of Last of Us. The part with the giraffes was great, Ellie seems to have retained some childlike wonder in the world in spite of what has happened to her, though it was obvious she was traumatised by what David did to her. Wildlife seems to take over the world now that civilisation retreated, and this looks like one positive thing about the epidemic. Joel confessing to Ellie that he wanted to kill himself after Sarah's death and that it was Ellie who made him find sense in life again was quite moving, and set the scene for the events later, when both were taken by who turned out to be Marlene's people. This emphasises how much Joel cares for Ellie and how she in a way replaced Sarah in his heart.
When Joel learns that the surgery Ellie is about to undergo will kill her, he makes a bloodbath just to save her from being killed in the process of finding the cordyceps cure. There is an important moral dilemma involved, since the cure might save lots of people if it works, but to Joel it only means that the person he loves will die. I guess it is really hard to make such a decision, but it seems to me that most people would behave like Joel did if saving other people would equal the death of one person they love. You care more about that one person than hundreds of people you don't know.
The end is bittersweet as both Joel and Ellie are alive and escape together, though we as the audience know that there will probably be no cure for cordyceps and so no return to the normal world before the epidemic. Joel lies to Ellie about what really happened at the Fireflies hospital, and she pretends to believe him, but it looks like she guesses the truth and chooses to go along with it. I wonder whether their relationship would change because of it in the next season. We also learn that Ellie had to kill her best friend Riley after the fungus infection developed in her. Overall, the show ends on a sad and melancholic note, with a future where there is no much hope.
The episode was very suspenseful, even though I've read the summary of the game's plot, so I knew what to expect. The antagonist is a quite memorable character, he may join my list of TV show villains I hate the most, alongside Joffrey and Ramsey from Game of Thrones. I don't think the episode is anti-religious as some reviews mentioned, since David is not really Christian, but he uses religion to keep people subjugated to him while he is really a monster. Ellie shines in the episode and her strong bond with Joel is strongly emphasised, the scene in which they are reunited after Ellie's ordeal with David is very moving, Joel asks no questions but hugs her and shows how much he cares for her. No matter what happens to her, she is his little girl he needs to protect. Ellie is intelligent and capable of taking care of herself, but she is a realistic character and not a Mary Sue that is successful in everything she does. The thing I found a bit strange (maybe unrealistic is not a good word in context of a video game adaptation) was how quick Joel got better after the penicillin injections and was able to successfully fight two of David's men.
Overall, the show is a pessimistic comment on human nature, which reverts to violence after the downfall of civilization as if it was the only thing that was the reason why people followed moral rules. Though on the other hand, strong human relationships are still possible, as Joel and Ellie's example shows.
The film is visually stunning and the music helps to create the mood and atmosphere of each scene, though it is sometimes a bit disturbing too. Timothée Chalamet was born for this role and he really steals the show (I don't know whether he played Hamlet but when I was watching the early scenes with him still on his home planet, I couldn't help thinking how well he would have fit that Shakespearean role), though other characters are interesting too, his mother shows a lot of confidence but also vulnerability. The world-building is quite detailed though without any info dumping and characters explaining things which are obvious to them for the sake of the viewer. The plot is quite dense and the film keeps you on the edge of your seat but at the same time is quite thought-provoking. The only thing I didn't like is that the world of Dune is quite, brutal, depressing and hopeless in comparison to other fantasy or sci-fi universes.
A great season finale with an epic battle and lots of magic from all the best chanellers ;) It is good that all the Two Rivers friends are reunited. Lan and Moiraine renew their bond as well. There is a lot of plotting among the Forsaken too, as Lanfear seems to be rather passive in this episode (apart from throwing Moiraine and Lan out of the Ways into the middle of the sea and contacting the antiquities dealer, she doesn't seem to be doing anything substantial here), but Ishamael decides to have Rand gentled and uses Sureth's army to have the shield on him. The ships are finally brought down by Moiraine, what allows Rand to attack Ishamael and kill him with his heron-hilted sword. I hope the baddie is gone for good but you can never know with these Forsaken especially if you haven't read the books. At the end of the episode, another Forsaken appears and it looks like they do bicker among themeselves. Maybe our heroes would take them down one by one.
The episode was visually stunning, especially the last scene with the figure of the dragon magicked by Moiraine, that appears all over the Tower where Rand is with his friends.
Quite an intense episode, though with a slow start. There is a conflict between Moiraine and her past lover, the Amyrlin Seat, as Siuan wants to follow the rules of the Aes Sedai of what to do with the Dragon Reborn and Moiraine and her party of Lan, Alanna and Verin do not want that and intend to leave the city via a Waygate. There is something good for Moiraine in the episode as Lan discovers, after questioning the False Dragon, that she has not been stilled by rather shielded from using the One Power and Rand manages to bring her back her magic, which might be useful in the future episode. However, Siuan wants to stop Moiraine from leaving the city with Rand, and they quarrel too long and Lanfear, whom Rand summoned to help him escape the shielding, attacks Siuan and goes with Rand through the Waygate, Lan and Moiraine elect to follow her, leaving the wounded Siuan behind.
There is a bit about Egwene as she starts her damane training and casts the best spell of all the damanes. Though she hasn't really stop hating her handler. The girls meet with Loial and capture a sul'dam in their plan to rescue Egwene.
Perrin and Aviendha travel further and meet with some other Aiel women, they reach Falme so all the friends are going to meet there in the finale. Mat is kidnapped by Lanfear and then Ishamael gives him magical tea, after drinking it Mat has some weird trip which is intended to get him on the side of the Dark.
According to the rules of Aes Sedai, Rand should be shielded and then used as the best weapon during the Last Battle. So he would be just a tool, which seems disturbingly similar to what damane are to the Seanchan.
The plot twist this episode is that Moiraine's nephew turns out to be a Darkfriend and Liandrin visits him to relay the order to kill Moiraine. However, his mum overhears the conversation and gets him locked up instead, which may be followed by his execution. He was so glib that I suspected that he might be a Darkfriend but then I thought that maybe it is a bit of an exeggeration.
A bit slower episode, concentrating more on Egwene's training as a damane. After some excruciating days in the cell and torture from her handler, Egwene is finally subjgated. The woman in the cell next to her turns out to be the Sitter of the Blue Ajah Rama mentioned to the girls. She tells them the story of how damane were created and they try to solve the mystery of how to remove the a'dam when Nynaeve channels too much power and they are detected, after a short but intense fight Rama is collared too after her warder is killed. The girls are on the own now and in terrible danger.
Rand is with Lanfear in her dream world and she convinces him Moiraine has been using him for her own purposes and lying to him, and he decides to leave Moiraine. Later Lanfear shows him the vision of Egwene in her damane prison and he decides to set off to rescue her, though this may be a trap prepared by the Forsaken. He goes to the false Dragon for some schooling in how to use the One Power but the lesson turns out to be quite short and boils down to embracing the power. Rand meets Mat and they decide to rescue Egwene together, but Min tells Mat about her vision and he eventually decides not to accompany his friend.
Alanna and her warders force Lan to reveal what he learnt from Moraine and together they set off to find the Amyrlin to inform her that the Dragon has been found. The Amyrlin comes to Cairhien to talk to Moiraine, while Rand is prevented from leaving by Lan and co. However, Liandrin is still in Amyrlin's train, so she can probably wreak some havoc there.
This episode was quite interesting too, with lots of happening here and explaining the events so far. There is a new character introduced, a feisty Aiel girl Aviendha, whom Perrin helps escape from a cage and stars a friendship with. She is quite an interesting and likeable character. Perrin leaves Elyas and decides to go looking for his friends when it turns out that Elyas led him back to the village where they were attacked by the Seanchan. It is overrun by the Whitecloaks now. The battle sequence against the Whitecloaks was quite enjoyable, too.
I turns out that Sureth is working with Ishamael and so is Liandrin, who according to her own explanation joined the dark side so that she could save her son, but maybe let's not believe her since she's evil? Sureth and Liadrin obviously hate each other as it is often the case with servants of evil. Apparently Liandrin's task was to deliver the girls to Ishamael, she takes them through the Ways and give them to Sureth and the Seanchan. Nynaeve and Elayne manage to escape and end up in Falme, when a yellow Aes Sedai finds them and rescues them. Egwene, however, is captured and made a damane. The chaining procedure looks quite painful and from what I learnt online damane are slaves who are treated worse than animals in the Seanchan culture so her fate is really tragic.
Moiraine and Rand escape from Lanfear in a quite an emotional chase; Lanfear fixes herself quite quickly after being stabbed my Moiraine and we see her for the first time using her evil powers. Later on, she meets with Ishamael the fates of the friends from Two Rivers. Finally, Moiraine decides that Rand can be a sort of bait/spy so that they can find out what the Forsaken are planning and she encourages him to restart his relationship with Lanfear. According to history, Lanfear was in love with the original Dragon, so she wouldn't kill Rand though maybe she can hurt him in some other way as she's evil. From her conversation with Ishmael, it seems that the Forsaken intend to turn Rand to the dark and make him join them.
Quite an intense episode concentrating on Nynaeve's trial of the Arches, with rather a surprising outcome. In the first three trials she is expected to turn her back on her village and friends to find the way out, and in the subsequent vision she decides to leave the Tower and reconnects with Lan, they start a family and live quite a peaceful life with Mat and Perrin in the Two Rivers, until the trollock attack, which turns out to be the ultimate test. The Aes Sedai believe Nynaeve to be dead, and Liandrin has some pricks of conscience for encouraging Nynaeve to take the test too early for her. Egwene confronts her about Nynaeve and then plans to do everything she can to rescue her friend, though Elayne talks her out of it. She is really supportive of Egwene and a great friend to have about. Nynaeve comes back when the girls are holding vigil near the Arches. I really like the Tar Valon plot points.
Liandrin releases Mat, claiming that she does it out of grief for the lost sister (though she doesn't mention Nynaeve) and encourages him to go console Egwene, calling him a coward. Mat doesn't really go to the crying Egwene, even though he watches her for some time. Instead, he decides to do some prison break with Min, though it turns out Min has been working with Liandrin all the time and the whole escape was a part of Aes Seadai's plot.
The false Dragon recognises Rand and promises him to reveal the secret how to control the power in exchange for wine, which Selene helps him to get (and introduces him to the high society at the same time), though the only thing he learns from the false Dragon is that the power cannot be controlled. The same night, he sets his and Selene's house on fire with the One Power.
Perrin and others get captured by the Seanchan, but he is rescued by Elyas on their way to the capital. I still don't know why the Seanchan are working with Ishamael but it makes them look super evil.
It was quite an interesting episode, with lots of things happening. We learn more about Rand, who seems to be working at a sort of mental hospital and sleeping with his landlady to pay the rent. He uses his power to beat one of his co-workers who laughed at one of the patients, and in the end he gets promoted to his position, and now has to take care of the false Dragon. I wonder if he would recognise Rand?
Mat breaks the wall and discovers another cell holding Min, at first he befriends her but after Min has a vision of Mat murdering Rand, maybe she won't be so friendly towards him anymore.
Perrin and others continue their search for Padan Fain but no avail so far. In one of the villages, they discover the traces of the Darkfriends and it turns out that Perrin has a very useful skill to get a vision what really happened at a crime scene. When the whole Wheel of Time scheme fails him, he can surely get a job on one of the CSI shows, where it would be most useful. He turns out to be an average fighter when the village they stay is attacked by some soldiers. In the end, the army brings what looks like damane and there is also the big baddie there.
I liked the girls' and Moraine's plots the best. She decides to leave for Tar Valon and there is a nice scene with her and Lan reminiscing about their first meeting and how she chose him to be her Warder. However, it doesn't look like reconciliation since Moraine rejects him later on quite harshly, though she does reveal to him what danger the world is in now. Lan took the poem she bought from her saddlebags, I wonder what was in the poem and what consequences this is going to have.
Nynaeve follows Liandrin and discovers her secret, the Aes Sedai is taking care of a sick elderly man (Liandrin addresses him "my boy" so he could be her son since the Aes Sedai do not age), later she overhears Egwene venting her jealousy about her to her new friend, and is called for her trial of the Arches. Quite a stressful time for poor Nynaeve. I don't know the book and I am really curious about the trials.
Egwene befriends the new novice, princess Elayne. She is quite a likeable character and quite a perceptive one as she discovers Egwene's real feelings immediately. It's a great addition to the cast.
I haven't read the second volume of the series yet so I am on my own as far as the comparison with the books are concerned, and have absolutely no idea what is going to happen. Maybe it is for the best as the show is known to be unfaithful to its literary source so I may enjoy it more, being unfamiliar with the original.
The episode is quite slow and boring at times as we reconnect to the characters and find out what they've been up to since last season. The most interesting part was the girls' training at Tar Valon as we finally get some magic shown. I liked both Egwane and Nyaneave in the first season and it is nice to watch them trying and failing to learn the magic of Aes Sedai, Nyanaeve surely misses Lan since her powers seem to be blocked untin Liandrin provokes her by insulting Lan. Lan himself is always a great thing to watch. His relationship with Moraine is really strained as she lost her powers but didn't sever the bond between them so he yearns to reconnect with her. The friends they are both staying with give him advice how to mend their relationship. I liked the final skirmish with the local variety of Nazgul. Though I don't know what Moraine was thinking, leaving her shelter alone late at night without having the One Power to defend her. She was obviously asking for trouble.
The show didn't get good reviews but I actually liked it, the main character is quite likeable and I really rooted for her to be able to go to the convention. I think the main theme of the episode was what it means to be a fan, a part of a fandom you are crazy about, how it feels to be misunderstood by others who are not fans of anything and labelled as childish or immature. I'm not in Marvel fandom but I've been through all this. We fans gotta stick together.
The episode was a bit chaotic, I didn't feel there was any progess in the plot at all. I watched the second season some time ago and it was hard to recognise some of the supporting characters like the guy Mando was meeting, I had difficulty remembering who he was. It is always nice to see Mando and the baby, but I didn't like the episode very much. The Mandalorian ceremony, sort of initiation, which was shown at the beginning, was quite an interesting look into the Mandalorian culture and it is a pity it was interrupted by the attack of the giant alligator. It is good that the smith lady is still alive and well, somehow she brings Tolkien's Eowyn to my mind maybe because of her helmet? Speaking of helmets, a young boy is given his helmet at the ceremony, I wonder what happens if he outgrows it since according to the Mandalorian creed he is not supposed to take it off? Mando really suffers by being considered the eponymous apostate, and will go to great lengths to be accepted into the fold, including going to the destroy home planet to bathe in the magical waters. I don't really get why he insists on fixing the old android first and finding the spare parts for him as this would undoubtely delay the whole trip to Mandalore and regaining his honour. Though in the last scene as he meets with Bo-Katan it looks like he intends to go to Mandalore next, so it seems that the whole android fixing thing was put aside. I'm also under the impression that he doesn't take Grogu's safety into consideration this time, as Mandalore is rumoured to be poisoned?
Epic finale to the show, most of the plot points are solved, and there are some sad endings as from among the Foundation characters, Hober and Salvor are dead, they both sacrificed their lives for the people they loved, so there is some parallel between them as Hober gives the only escape pod to Constant before the ship explodes, and Salvor saves Gaal's life when she is attacked by a boy possessed by Tellem.
At the beginning, it is explained how Gaal saved Hari using some telepathical link between them and then transforming the guard's body into Hari's so that Tellem would think he was dead. The telepaths claim that Hari and the girls freed them since they were forced to do Tellem's will and not their own. They are in friendship but on the other hand if Hari and the girls had flown away in the Beggar, Salvor would still be alive. I do not really get the idea behind both Hari and Gaal going into cryo sleep, since they would not teach the mentalics anything now they are asleep and they were supposed to prepare for the Mule.
The best positive thing is that as Constant floats through the universe, she comes upon the Vault floting in space as well, and it turns out that the thing is bigger on the inside like Doctor Who's blue box and Hari managed to save all the people from Terminus and transfered them into the Vault so that they are all alive now.
It was really fun when it turned out that Bel used Hober's device to switch bodies with Day and the Empire was thrown out of the spaceship to the destroyed planet. Though it is a pity they both died on the spaceship and I feel sorry for Constant for losing her boyfriend. Bel's partner was saved by the Vault so he is alive as well as people from Terminus.
Demerzel tells Dusk and Rue who are imprisoned in her previous quarters her story and declares her love for Cleon, though she has to kill them both to restore the status quo as she is slaved to serve the Empire. She also tries to eliminate Sareth by arresting her for high treason, but Dawn manages to escape with her. It is not clear whether Dawn and his pregnant lover finally escape or are remotely killed by Demerzel, but in the end she decants the new trio of Cleons, so that everything is back to square one.
The show was visually stunning and the characters rather interesting and complex. I know from some reviews lots of things were changed from the books but Asimov must have had a great imagination. I would definitely wait for next season. Lee Pace is absolutely great as Day, he was born for this role.
Another very emotional episode, with lots of bad things happening to the positive characters. On a lighter note, Hober and Constant are still alive, albeit in the imperial hands, and Salvor manages to save Gaal from the creepy ceremony, and they both escape to the Beggar, where the evil woman awaits them already, there is lot of fighting and finally Hari appears and kills Tellem, saving the girls. He looks very much alive and not a hologram.
I liked the backstory of Demerzel and of the first Cleon finding her when he was a boy, still disassembled. He gives her a sort of freedom (she is responsible for bringing up the Cleon clones so in this way shaping the future of the Empire), but at the same time programmes her to always serve him and be loyal to him (hence the clones who have the same DNA as the original Cleon to whom she was slaved by the programming), and it is not a real freedom as she said. But when Hari Seldon invites Day and Demerzel to his Vault, maybe he changes something in her programming since she abandons him and chooses to return to Trantor instead of accompanying him, so maybe Hari did something to override this programming and Demerzel would now be truly free?
The episode follows Day to Terminus, so there is nothing about Sareth, who is quite and interesting character so I missed her a bit in the ep. Day becomes more and more violent during this trip to Terminus and finally gives the order to destroy the whole planet and so kill all the people on it. The cosmic battle before that and the explosion itself are quite spectacular visually. I don't support LGBT agenda, but it was a bit sad when Bel had to follow the order which he knew would result in the death of the man he loved. Though I hoped that he would not go through with the order because it seemed to me he was only serving the Empire so that his partner was safe? and now that Bel couldn't save him, he would have no incentive in following the Empire anymore? I hoped he would rebel and work with Hober and Constant against the Empire though I guess it was a bit naive on my part.
Another very emotional episode, with lots of things happening, not all of them good for the principal characters. A lot happens on the imperial court, with Rue telling Dawn about Dominion's ability to restore deleted memories and tempting him to cooperate with him so that he can recover them. The attack on the Empire was quite spectacular and impressive visually, also quite surprising as I didn't expect anything like that to happen. Hober manages to hit at the centre of the Empire and save Constant from execution, though Poly is taken by the Empire. It was really great to see the Empire have its comeuppance and watch Day fear for his life after he sentenced so many people to death and had them killed. Hober and Constant finally consumate their relationship but at the end, their ship is apprehended by Bel and his crew, though judging from what he talked about in the previous episode, maybe they won't kill Constant and Hober but try to overthrow the Empire together. I would be so sad to see Constant go after she's been saved in such a spectacular fashion. I really like this character and she's my favourite this season. Sareth, who was present for the execution of Poly and Constant, seemed like a person who did a lot of crying prior to this sad celebration, she knows she's trapped as well as Constant and Poly were. After the attack, Day decides to leave for Terminus and talk to the Foundation, and Sareth and Dawn use the opportunity to consumate the relationship as well as Constant and Hober did. Dusk and Rue discover a secret passage leading to the first Cleon, who is going to tell them about Demerzel's true purpose. I guess she is really the one who is in control of everything that happens and she really rules the Empire, this may be her revenge on the Empire having all the robots killed. I've read in some spoilers that Demerzel kills someone and I guess it might be Day since he decided to end the genetic dynasty and now she's on her own with him as they travel to Terminus.
A good thing is that Salvor wasn't killed but imprisoned in a cave which damps her psychic abilities. It turns out that she saved the Radiant and uses it to contact Hari in the Vault, who helps her to reprogramm the damping devices so that they destroy her prison. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Tellum's a negative character, as she wants to steal Gaal's body and transfer her consciousness to Gaal's organism, what would eventually kill Gaal. She's already done it a couple of times and she's a power hungry person who cares nothing about other people. As a Tolkien fan, I had some Tolkien association with it, namely evil houseless elves who don't have a body and possess somebody else's so that they can survive. This woman is just the same.
Another quite emotionally intense episode. Things seem to go really bad for all the likeable characters.
Sareth learns from Demerzel (who seems to enjoy watching Sareth's fertility examination and verbally fencing with her) that she killed Sareth's family on Day's orders and later on realises that she actually is Day's prisoner now since he can kill her as well whenever he feels like it. Sareth intends to have a baby with Dawn as she thinks he is kinder than the older copy; this is probably high treason and if they wouldn't be executed, I guess Demerzel would kill them.
Hober talks with the Spacers (they are really interesting since they are genetically modified humans who can travel in space, but they are enslaved to the Empire and have to give their children to the Empire's service as a tithe; the words used to describe them such as swarm are usually used to talk about animals so the Spacers are probably looked upon as worse than humans?) but they reject his proposals, fearing the Empire's retailiation, and actually give him up to the Empire's spaceship captained by Bel. Hober manages to narrowly escape thanks to Constant's bishop claw.
Constant and Poly are brought in front of the Empire, and it turns out that Constant was sort of possessed by Hari Seldon, who gives his speech to Day. The whole thing ends badly as Day orders to attack Foundation, and Constant and Poly remain in custody. When I read the title of the episode, I though that the eponymous necessary death means that Constant and Poly would be executed, but they are not so far.
The term from the title actually refers to Salvor, who thinks something is fishy about the mentalics and their leader, and discovers Hari Seldon's body. Tellem finds out about it and kills her. Earlier on, Gaal gives a pep talk to the mentalics about the Mule and the need to unite in the face of danger, she definitely wants to be their leader. I wonder how would she react when she discovers she actually lost the daughter she wanted to protect?
It was quite an engrossing episode, lots of things happening, but most of the time was devoted to Hari Seldon's backstory about his relationship with Yanna, we learn how they met, fell in love and constructed the Prime Radiant together (so the thingy is not just an important piece of his research to Hari but also a memorial of Yanna) and how he killed the Empire agent who murdered Yanna in order to get hold of the Radiant. His backstory emphasises also that Empire is quite a totalitarian state (compassing galaxies in this case) and we have to bear it in mind. The telepathy woman turns out to be a very manipulative person, driving a wedge between Gaal and Hari, Gaal believes her as she is promised she'll be able to save her daughter. The manipulative telepath woman can understand Gaal's and Salvor's feelings about their strange relationship better than they do themselves. It looks like she was really an enemy as I suspected in the previous episode. Things are going badly for other characters too, as Hober enters some kind of birthing place of the spacers and they are very angry about it, whereas Poly and Constant are arrested almost immediately after their arrival on Trantor. They will probably be executed, which is a pity as they are really interesting and likeable characters, I quite enjoy Constant's banter. Day and Sareth announce their engagement publicly, and Demerzel looks like she can hardly contain herself when he mentions ending the genetic dynasty, she is really seething with rage. Sareth gives a talk on wanting to serve the citizens, which is likely to be completely at odds with Day's plans, as he does not feel like serving anyone but himself. On the whole, the episode was very intense and emotional, I couldn't stop watching.
I have very mixed feelings about this episode, the first part of it was a total flop, it as if it was some blue movie instead of a solid science-fiction, things got interesting when the storyline turned to Gaal, Salvor and Hari, and the part of the Empire subplot about the memory banks was also quite intriguing. It turns out it is possible to alter someone's memory so that they won't even know something's been changed, but apparently it is also possible to retrieve the memory from the Memorium. Day's been changing his brothers memories without their knowledge, but when they contact the original Cleon for help (a new element - they can "wake up" the original Cleon and ask him some questions), but he is not very supportive of Dawn and Dusk. As for Gaal, Salvor and Hari, their subplot is also fun to watch, as they are kidnapped by some people, one of whom impersonates Salvor's boyfriend Hugo. I must confess that at first I believed him just as Salvor did, his story about going into cryo just as Salvor did seemed plausible, and it would be nice to have the reunion of lovers. After they regain consciousness, it turns out that they are in some haven for people with telepathic abilities, and it seems like they finally found their own people among whom they would be understood as accepted; except at the end the leader of the telepaths claims she intends to prevent the Second Foundation from ever happening. So they are enemies after all?
Quite an interesting episode, probably the best in the second season so far. I enjoyed the conversations of Constant and Hober and their flirting, later on it turns out that Constant was in fact in love with Hober, though it didn't look like it to me at the beginning of the episode when she is only teasing him in a friendly way, not like someone who is in love.
We follow three sets of characters, namely the Empire, the captain Bel and his partner, and Poly with Constant. Their subplot was quite interesting as when Hober gets sucked into the Vault, they follow him inside and actually meet Seldon, who has a mission for each of them. Constant actually goes inside the Vault first, which I guess is because of her feelings for Hober, though as I mentioned before was not really emphasised earlier in the episode and I was a bit surprised by her insisting that they sleep together (maybe because I assumed the Magicians have to live in chastity?) as there was no build-up to their romance. Seldon sends Poly and Constant to the Empire with a peace mission, and Hober goes on a completely different mission to a different place and it is implied they will never meet again. I guess the empire will kill Poly and Constant as they hate the Foundation and the gay couple is sent to search for the Foundation. They are told (and shown) the whole story of Constant's visit on Siwenna, apparently there was a guy loyal to the Empire on this planet, who is also a likable book collector, and gives them all this intel. The gay boys may break up since after his imprisonment Bel assumed some more aggressive attitude, which is not appreciated by his more peace-loving partner. The Empire subplot focuses on the Queen and Rue, apparently Sareth intends to discover whether the Empire was behind her family's death. She seems to get along with Dawn, and they are honest with each other (though maybe they are just pretending). It turns out that Rue was the woman whom the current Dusk bedded, but later on Sareth explains that the Dominium found out means to tamper with memory and retrieve memories deleted by the Empire and the other way round (or maybe she is bluffing to make the Empire soldier cooperate with her?) so maybe the Dominion has some dirt on the Cleon brothers after all?
I liked the plot of Gaal and Salvor the best, it was quite exciting when they were chased by the mining machines, and earlier when Gaal and Hari went to the Mines of Moria (I couldn't resist a Tolkien reference).
The place where Poly and his disciple find the guy Hober Mallow brings to mind Star Wars, especially the Forcer ladies who resemble the women from Darth Vader's army. And when Bel Riose goes into the ship as its general, it had some Star Trek feel, it would be nice to watch adventures of a crew of a spaceship again. Though I guess the subplot with Bel's husband felt an unnecessary addition to include some LGBT agenda, which is a sad thing in today's shows and movies, when these things are forced into the story whether they are needed for the plot or not. Bel's partner was his pressure point the Empire could force him into obedience so this could have been a woman as well and not necessarily a male partner.
I liked this episode better than the first one of the second season, though it still seems to me that the first season was much more interesting and engaging than this one is. I still like the characters of Gaal and Salvor and their scenes together, there was another emotional one with the ship's engine, and together with the final revelation, it shows how Gaal gradually starts to care about Salvor and treat her in a protective way.
There were some new characters, the Queen Sareth is rather an interesting one, sassy and not afraid of talking back to the Empire (though maybe Demerzel would love to see her dead?). Apparently the Foundation (or some part of it) turned into a religious cult, and the Magicians mentioned in the previous episodes are some kind of "apostles" of Hari Seldon and his Foundation, who go to "preach" to some more technologically backward planets, as it turns out to gain more followers and soldiers for the Foundation. One of the "apostles" who turns out to be Poly, treats Seldon almost as a god.
Gaal had a vision of the future in which she is threatened by a guy called the Mule to reveal the location of the Second Foundation (which, as Gaal and Salvor learn was intended to create a counterpoint to the first Foundation and was supposed to know the whole plan), and it looks like what happens at the Vault on Terminus is related to that vision.
It felt a bit strange to start watching the show again after a break, I missed the characters though the episode itself was a bit disappointing. Apparently Gaal imprisoned Hari in the Prime Radiant, thanks to what we get some glances into his past. Salvor tells Gaal she's her daughter but obviously their relationship may be more of friends than mother and daughter, as they try to find connection but it is not easy for either of them. The scene in which they have to dive to recover Salvor's ship and are risking the lives was quite emotional, it was the first episode so perhaps one of them at least was supposed to survive but you may never know. They only have themselves now since everyone they knew and loved is long dead as they spent over a century in cryo-sleep, in the meantime the situation in the world has gone south and it looks like the future of mankind will turn out much worse than predicted by Hari (who escapes from the Prime Radiant at the end of the episode, obviously furious at Gaal).
The situation in the Empire is strange since Day apparently wants to get married, a plan not accepted by his bros, but at the same time he is sleeping with Demerzel, so it is quite complicated. The marriage plot wasn't mentioned in the previous season so it is not clear how it actually arose. I wonder whether he destroyed the original copy of the first Cleon as he was shown trying to break through the protective glass in the previous season. Maybe there will be no more Cleons and that's why he needs to marry? The Empire discovers that the Foundation survived after all and that the flare was just a fluke, but decide (on Demerzel's advice) not to show the Foundation that they know as yet.
More mediative and focused on the relationships between characters than the previous episodes. I liked all the mother-daughter talks between Mari and Salvor, her peace-making with the Anacreon leader when they plant together a tree native to Anacreon planet also had some Tolkienian vibes.
The digital Hari Seldon continues his pep talk and reveals that the murder of the Anacreon huntress on her wedding day to the Thespian prince, which started the long-lasting enmity between these planets, was in fact orchestrated by the Empire, afraid of the unity of these planets. It is a bit surprising that both nations quickly believe this new story and are open to the suggestion of peace Hari presents to them, urging them to unite against the Empire, do the very thing the Empire was scared of. This is of course good that they choose peace but I don't think very realistic psychologially after long centuries of strife between nations. Hari also advises them to use the Invictus to create a cosmic flare so that the Empire thinks they are all dead, which is promptly followed under the command of Hugo, who now has the captaincy of the Invictus. It is only a pity the actual flare is never shown in the show. After learning that Hari never sent her her visions, Salvor continues to have them and in one of them sees a young girl whom we viewers know to be Gaal. Salvor's mum confirms that Gaal and Raych are really Sal's biological parents, and she want to immediately set off to search of Gaal, without saying goodbye to Hugo. Hugo catches up with her, however, and they say their goodbyes. I guess they never see each other again. Later on, Gaal is shown to arrive on her home planet where everything looks flooded. She notices a little red light under water and plays a bit of Witcher 3 here, diving to find the blinking red point ;) it turns out to be Sal's casket, and in this way biological mother and her daugher meet for the first time. I guess travelling in cryo pods makes one immortal in some sense, since one doesn't age while in the pod and so can survive centuries being still young? Poor Hugo is probably long dead by now.
Things go west for the clone brothers and their situation is more serious than they thought before. Day releases the youngest brother and then takes the gardener girl for a walk, explaining to her that the thing he wants the most is for all the clones to be identical and she destroyed it all. He claimes to have tracked all people that ever had anything to do with her and informs her that they are all killed on his order so that nobody would remember her. She is to be kept in some sort of sensory deprivation tank till he dies. As for Dawn, Day is inclined to show clemency, whereas Dusk would prefer to kill him straightaway, and the brothers begin to fight, which seems to something new among them. The robot woman kills the youngest clone, in what looks like her own decision, taken according to her to protect the dynasty as itself and not as an individual clone. Though maybe she feels sorry about it later on as removes all her fake skin so that she looks like a metal robot. Day definitely looks sorry for Dawn being dead. Though it turns out that the underground managed to contaminate the original clone, so that all new clones, including Day, are corrupted. I wonder whether they would now be killed by the robot lady (her name is still hard to spell for me).
So much happens in the episode that it feels as if it lasted two hours instead of one. Things are looking up for Salvor since she wakes up alive at the Invictus, it turns out that Lewis sacrificed himself to get them to Terminus, and soon after she boards her boyfriend's ship, she is reunited with Hugo, whose fleet apparently jumped together with the Invictus. I supposed that they would end up in totally different corners of the universe. However, when Salvor discovers that there is no communication with the surface of Terminus and the null field enveloped the entire planet, she decides to go down and try and fix the situation. She manages to use the prime radiant on the basis of Gaal's memories to who Salvor seems telepatically linked, and deactivates the field. It turns out that all the people that were knocked out come to, I thought that it someone is under the influence of the null field for too long, they may die but apparently this is not the case, though these people might have been lying unconscious for some time. After some skirmish between Hugo's army and newly escaped Phara, Salvor kills her with Phara's own bow as Phara begins to shoot at the null field thingy. It seems a bit strange since it was perhaps the first time Salvor used a bow and she shot Phara at the first try (she was good with guns and had a good aim though, so maybe it wasn't that hard to transfer her skills to a bow). At the end, a probably digital Hari Seldon walks out of the null field thingy and gives a pep talk to all people gathered here. It sound a bit as if he was behind the conflict and sort of orchestrated it.
The youngest Cleon clone falls pray to double conspiracy. He finally escapes from the palace after discovering that Dusk has known his secret about killing six creatures during the hunt, and believes that it has been discovered that he is different. He manages to reach his gardener girlfriend's flat but after being friendly, she turns against him. It turns out that he was only used by the underground which wanted him to get his nanobots for a Cleon clone they have created. The underground also confesses to polluting his genes and making him different. However, Dusk also knew everything from the beginning and the imperial troops with him come and "save" Dawn at the last moment when the underground want to kill him. However, Dusk implies to him that he will be eventually killed by the Empire as a faulty clone. So things don't look bright for him as he will be killed anyway.
Quite an interesting episode, focusing more on the Day brother and his participation in the pilgrimage of the Luminists, which entails walking in the heat of the dessert without any water or food. For a brief time, he sort of befriends an elderly pilgrim, who gives him advice along the road and then dies. Day manages to finish the pilgrimage and reaches the cave, then he annouces he had a vision which legitimises the clone dynasty by linking it to the triple godesses and thus enabling the Empire's favourite to win the position of the next Proxima. Though it looks like the pilgrimage did not change Day's arrogant nature one bit as he did not undertake it for religious reasons but to prove his point. It is quite surprising that the robot is quite religious, and the scene when she is supposed to assassinate the Proxima-wannabe on Day's orders in spite of her beliefs but cannot override her programming is quite moving, especially as the priestess is consoling her even though she knows the robot is about to kill her. It looks like the robot indeed has more soul than the clones do. In the end of the episode it is explained that there was no vision, Day only wanted political leverage.
Gaal continues to quarrel with the digital copy of Seldon, he explains that his plan was to create a second Foundation without the first knowing anything about it, but she wants to have none of this and forces him to let her escape in the pod. She chooses the direction of her home planet, the journey takes over a hundred years so we probably won't see her anytime soon. It's a pity she didn't wanted to know anything about the second Foundation because now we don't know anything about it either.
It looks like Hugo did not die in space but rather escaped on purpose to use the communication devices on the nearby planet. He calls to his home planet of Thespis to alert them about the Anacreon plans. Salvor's storyline follows the long trek though the Invictus ship, it only her and Lewis who reach the cockpit but apparently only specially engineered humans can steer the spaceship, if Salvor tries it, she may die. She intends to return to Terminus, but as Hugo's spaceships attack them at the last moment, a skrimish with the Anacreons ensues and it is too late to stop Invictus from jumping in space to some random location. Definitely not the best year for Salvor.
Another intense, action-packed episode. Patch of bad luck for poor Salvor, who in addition to losing her dad and being taken prisoner, watches her boyfriend Hugo drift into outer space as well. She and other people from the Foundation are forced to help the Anacreons steer the legendary spaceship Invictus, which is very resilient to intruders, so far without much success.
There is a lot of focus on the Cleon brothers, with Day spending time on the Maiden, where a lot of surprises meet him, as he is for the first time opposed by his android assistant, who shows more adherence to her religion than to him, and next by the sassy wannabe Proxima, who gives him a dressing down, perhaps it's the first time in his life when somebody opposed him. The youngest Cleon clone is now romantically involved with the gardener girl, he reveals to her the truth he discovered about himself that he is not the identical copy of his brothers and would be killed if this is discovered, whereas she encourages him to escape. Apparently, the gardener has a lot of contacts in the underground for a person who works directly with the Empire. Dawn is indeed different in character as he lacks the arrogance and cruelty typical of the Cleon brothers.
There is more about Gaal as she starts to interact with the digital copy of Seldon and learns about his original plan in which he intended to separate her and Raych and never cared about their feelings. She also reveals that she is capable of predicting the future or rather sensing what is going to happen very soon, not in the distant future. She sort of knows what is about to happen but cannot do anything to prevent it.
Another rather intense episode, this time with the plot of the Empire brothers but nothing more about Gaal. The parts with the Empire have some "Game of Thrones" feel with the large scale politics and intrigues centering on the choice of the new leader of the Luminism religion, as the woman opposed to cloned people seems to win a lot of support from other priestesses. It is a bit surprising that the robot handmaiden of the Empire is also a believer in this religion, which resembles some ancient pagan cults. The plot of the youngest brother also gives some "GoT" vibes as the oldest brother invites Dawn to a hunt and then to some kind of luxury brothel. Dawn discovers that he is different than the previous copies of Cleon as he can hunt better and is also colur-blind so it follows he cannot be their identical clone. He also seems more sensitive towards ordinary people than it is usual for an Empire, it looks like his relationship with the gardener girl develops.
Salvor's plot is rather tragic, as she loses her dad in the episode. First things look good as she is sprung from prison by the kids and then reunites with dad and Hugo, and they set off to destroy the corvettes, however the plan sort of misfires when Salvor has one of her visions during this action, i the vision she is watching Hari instructing Raych to kill him and escape in the pod (so the pod Gaal ended up in was really for him and he sacrificed himself to save her, letting her escape in his pod). I quite liked the scene in which Salvor's dad tells her how he met her mother and that he actually joined the Foundation for her, which makes his death later in the episode more sad. He manages to set off the explosion that destroys the corvettes but is killed in the process, whereas Salvor blames herself for his death. When they reach Hugo's ship, they are overrun by the Anacreans, but Hugo manages to transfer the ship controls to Salvor to save her life, so that the ship cannot leave without her, and she does the same for him, saying she needs him as she knows nothing about piloting a ship.
Quite an intense and exiting episode, focusing entirely on Gaal and Salvor. I liked Gaal in the first two episodes so it was really nice to see her backstory and discovered how she won the math contest. Having to participate in the execution of her former mentor must have taken an emotional toll on Gaal and made her turn away from the Sleeper religion (though she did not seem very much convinced about the reliion from the get-go). It is great the show finally explains what happened to Gaal, she wakes from the cryo sleep after more than 34 years (apparently she did not age during this time since she looks just the same) and is devastated after learning about Raych's fate and even tries to committ suicide, but it is interesting to see her transition from complete despair to her old logical self as she tries to command the ship (which seems to me made for Raych and not her) using her knowledge. She quickly gets control over her emotions back. Hari Seldon is also back, somehow recreated from the murder weapon Raych threw into Gaal's pod.
Things are not going so well for Salvor since the Anacreons soon get the upper hand over the Foundation settlers. This time the huntress manages to outwit Salvor and destroys the force field protecting the colony, while her second-in-command shoots down the Empire spaceship that came to help the settlers. Then she forces Salvor to watch how her soldiers destroy the colony and everything the settlers have built so far. The Anacreon attack was very well-prepared, and now it seems that the whole Foundation went down in flames with all the artifacts the scientists have gathered for the future generations. Phara claims her main motive is revenge on the Empire but maybe she has some more complex endgame. She is definitely an interesting antagonist
