RECAP: ‘The Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 8 — “Skin In The Game”

This recap features spoilers for Foundation Season 3 Episode 8, “Skin in the Game.”

Foundation Season 3 Episode 8, titled “Skin in the Game,” picks up where Episode 7 ended: with Vault Hari (Jared Harris) meeting the Mule (Pilou Asbæk). It’s an episode of confrontations, of pasts catching up with the present, of a thousand little choices that got us all here. Some of these confrontations are good. Some are bad. Some are surprising. But they’re all necessary, and we’ve been waiting for many of them for a long time. Let’s get into it.

Hari correctly guesses what planet the Mule claims to be from, and offers a story of his own childhood on an agricultural planet with quotes (his father beat him when the quotes were due), but the Mule isn’t interested. He wants to know what Hari knows about Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) and the Second Foundation.

When he realizes Vault Hari doesn’t know anything, he mocks his status as a copy and the so-called architect of the plan, and threatens to destroy the Vault… right up until Hari reminds him that the Mule can’t go digging in his brain. Then he turns the null field on as what you might call a vulgar display of power.

Foundation Season 3 Episode 8 pulls everyone’s decisions to the center, and Lee Pace’s Day is in trouble.

When he turns it off again, the Mule realizes Hari is letting him live, and when he asks why, Hari says because he might figure out a use for him before walking back into the Vault. The Mule is very powerful, but the scene serves as a reminder that Hari, even the ghost of Hari minus some knowledge, is no slouch. Everyone is playing his game.

Speaking of games, Stoner Brother Day (Lee Pace) is about to be put on trial by Sunmaster-18 (Blake Ritson) and the Inheritors for the crimes of his predecessors. After all, the Cleons aren’t people, right? Each one is the same as the last. And they’re desperate to hold someone accountable.

In the palace, though, that idea is being challenged. Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) learns that Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) is dead, and he is pretty distraught about the whole thing, calling Dawn the best of the. With his own mortality looming, everything feels like it’s collapsing.

Ambassador Quent (Cherry Jones) comforts him by saying people matter to one another, even if most of them never shape history. They’re interrupted when they’re informed that the Presider of the Galactic Council, the head of the Cloud Dominion, and Zephyr Vorellis (Rebecca Ineson) have requested an audience. Dusk takes Quent to join him, and she agrees.

Another audience is beginning with Mycogen. Song (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing) gets put on trial with Day. Oceanglass-49 (Laura Berlin) is chosen as their potential executioner. And Sunmaster tells Day to look into the eyes of God (his robot head on a stick) and be judged. When Day rightfully says something like “that’s a robot head on a stick,” the Inheritors wail, and the dead robot’s eyes glow. It’s a cool sequence, and one I didn’t see coming.

At the audience on Trantor, Vorellis and company try to convince Dusk to be the Conciliator one more time. They suggest giving Trantor to the Mule. They figure that it will take him so long to loot Trantor that the Empire might be preserved.

This enrages Dusks, and Demerzel (Lauta Birn) flat-out tells them no. The head of the Galactic Council tells them the meeting was just a courtesy, and Dusk has to be physically restrained from going after them. Mann is a great part of the Foundation, but we rarely get to see him play Dusk in an angry manner. He doesn’t disappoint here.

In Mycogen, the Inheritors tell the story of the death of the robots, and we learn that the one they worship is called Daneel, which is one of Demerzel’s old names. Taking a chance on Song’s advice, Day tells them the truth. After all, Oceanglass is calling for his death. The Inheritors naturally do not believe Day. He gives an impassioned speech arguing that freeing Demerzel is the only way to save the galaxy and personally atone for his past mistakes.

Sunmaster calls him a liar, but then the head makes a noise that triggers a memory in Day. He whistles Demerzel’s song, and the head reacts, finishing a melody and announcing that it is looking for a handshake signal. Remember that whole bit about the clasp? Yeah. Foundation Season 3 Episode 8 is still paying stuff off. Sunmaster proclaims him guilty and sentences him to Remediation (death).

In “Skin in the Game,” Dawn’s death is a valuable chess piece.

It’s been a hot second since we last checked in with the Second Foundation on Ignis, and Foundation Season 3, Episode 8, is leaving no stone unturned, so let’s visit Gaal’s family. Gaal tells Preem Palver (Troy Kotsur) to evacuate the Second Foundation because they don’t know where Pritcher (Brandon P. Bell) is, and if he is captured and converted, the Mule will know their location.

Preem refuses to lead without her. He worries about what would happen to Gaal if she were caught. She tells him she plans to kill the Mule first, gives him the Radiant, and that if she’s not back in 48 hours, he should run and keep running. It’s good to see Preem again, and I like how all the little threads Foundation has set up this season are starting to finally come together.

We’re not done on Trantor yet, either. Demerzel wants to decant new Cleons, but Dusk argues they don’t have enough time. He thinks they need the Novacula, the black hole bomb. He shows it to Demerzel, who is unaware of it. When Dusk reveals that he built it for Dawn as a deterrent, Demerzel reveals that Dawn is dead, betrayed by Gaal. Dusk is devastated, but the hits keep coming.

Demerzel also reveals the existence of the Second Foundation. Dusk argues that his backup plan is better, and it’s just the two of them now. It’s intriguing given that Dusk will be dead in 49 hours, but maybe this is another plot to live a little longer. This dude did stomp an innocent little ferret to death. I wouldn’t put it past him.

Then Foundation Season 3 Episode 8 pivots. It turns out Dawn isn’t actually dead. His legs are basically destroyed, but he isn’t dead—a prisoner of the Mule. Bayta (Synnøve Karlsen) is there, still pretty messed up from the mull field. It turns out the Mule found him in space. His suit kept him alive by harvesting heat and energy from his legs. Ouch. That said, I’m glad this Dawn isn’t dead. He’s the most interesting one we’ve had, and Bilton does great work every time he’s on screen. It’s good to have him back.

From Dawn to the seat of the Empire. On Trantor, Zephyr Vorellis talks to Demerzel in the orchard. She invites Demerzel to come home to join her and the Luminists, but Demerzel refuses, believing it was foolish to think the Luminists might ever accept her.

Demerzel shakes the stage by revealing the second Foundation. 

Demerzel has one last confession – not for something she’s done, but for something she’s about to do – and admits their relationship has been like a friendship, but we don’t get to hear it. Vorellis has her memory wiped and asks why she was crying when she sees Demerzel as she exits the orchard. Whatever is about to happen – whatever Demerzel is about to do – must be horrific. My money’s on the Novacula, but it could be something else. You never know with Demerzel.

Cut to the Mule, in Indbur’s old office. He’s talking to Skirlet about how Gaal will come for Pritcher, and then she’ll be his. It’s kind of an odd—and very short—scene given how tight Foundation Season 3 Episode 8 is otherwise, but hey, everyone gets one, I suppose. Speaking of Gaal, she’s talking to Hari at his grave, and lamenting Salvor’s death. She regrets not telling Salvor she loved her, and then tells Haro that she loves him and is sorry she never said so.

Preem shows up shortly thereafter and reminds Gaal that the Mentalics she helped train essentially live in each other’s heads, share their thoughts and feelings. The Mule has never had that. He’ll be limited. And, in a surprise, he brings other Mentalics to Gaal. They’re not going to let her go alone. Gaal’s spent a lot of Foundation losing the people she cares about. But unlike the Mule, she doesn’t have to force people to love her. Unlike the Mule, she’s not alone.

The Mule may not possess what Gaal has, but he excels at torture and invading other people’s minds. He tries to pull everything Dawn knows about Gaal out of his head, but Dawn doesn’t have the information he wants. So he throws Gaal’s betrayal in Dawn’s face while squeezing one of his legs until Bayta, dead-eyed, stares right at him and tells him it’s time for him to leave. And the Mule does. After all, Gaal Dornick’s finally here. Who cares about the rest of them?

Gaal and crew land on New Terminus, and Gaal stares meaningfully at the Vault before rushing off to face her destiny: a heavyweight title fight with the Mule. No pressure, girl. But as that long look at the Vailt, and the folks who showed up to help her proved, she’s not alone.

You know who is? Day. As he’s held down by the inheritors and staring at Song and Ocean, who look like they’re trying to decide what to do, Sunmaster comes up and tells him he knows Day’s right. He’s looked at Song’s memories. Day doesn’t understand why he won’t mean it to the Inheritors, but Sunmaster reveals it’s not in his interest for them to know that a god walks among them.

Dawn is diminished, but his life changes the game as Gaal and The Mule barrel toward each other.

So it’s Remediation for Day, which essentially means they’re going to drop him into a pit where microorganisms will eat him alive. Fun. Sunmaster gives the signal, and the floor beneath Day opens, and he falls. Down, down, down. Roll credits.

I didn’t think it was possible given the way this season started, but Foundation Season 3 Episode 8 makes two significant episodes in a row. This one is lighter on the spectacle, but it’s bigger on the human moments, and that’s just as good.

We’re still barreling toward a knock-down, drag-out fight between Gaal and the Mule. Day is in real trouble. Dawn’s alive, but substantially diminished, and the Empire and what’s left of the original Foundation are hanging by a thread. But it’s always darkest before dawn. I don’t know how this is going to shake out, but it ain’t over ‘till it’s over, and I’m ready to see how this ride ends. See you next week.

Foundation Season 3 Episode 6 is streaming now on Apple TV+ with new episodes every Friday.

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