Warning! This post contains major spoilers for the season 3 finale of Foundation, “The Darkness.”
Whew!
There were A LOT of shocking things that happened in the season three finale of Foundation. (A LOT!)
We’re not going to get into all of them here; this post will focus on what happened with The Mule.
Viewers of the Apple TV+ show who’ve read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series might have felt a bit smug this season. From the books, we knew that the person called The Mule (who is compellingly played in the series by Pilou Asbæk) was in fact a ruse, a puppet controlled by the real Mule. The real Mule was Magnifico (Tómas Lemarquis), the balladeer apparently rescued from The Mule’s clutches by Bayta and Toran (Synnove Karlsen and Cody Fern).
The series, however, kept the twist but changed who the actual Mule was. About two-thirds into the episode, we see Gaal (Lou Llobell) kill Asbæk’s character and realize The Mule was still out there. The camera sneakily pans to all the characters in the room, suggesting that anyone there might be the powerful Mentallic. We soon pan to someone’s bare feet, however, and realize that The Mule has been Bayta all along.
Bayta! I admit the clues were there. When Asbæk’s “Mule” was idly torturing a wounded Dawn (Cassian Bilton), Bayta called him off by simply saying, “That’s enough now.” If I rewatch the season, I’m sure I’ll spot more hints (I want to rewatch the conversation she has with Toran’s uncle, for example), but that was the instance where I first went, “Hmmm.”
Gaal, of course, manages to get away from Bayta/Mule; she had Magnifico’s musical instrument altered to augment her psychic abilities and incapacitate Bayta. We see Gaal running out of that room (the instrument’s weird aura vibe is still going on behind her) and leaving all of her colleagues behind. She then jumps out of a window and freefalls, Marvel Cinematic Universe-style, into a moving spaceship, ready to fight for psychohistory another day.
How things were left, it appears that Bayta/Mule is still alive, although currently incapacitated. She’ll likely come around and convert the rest of Gaal’s team. When the show continues (and if it doesn’t take a big time jump, something that I think is likely for its recently announced fourth season), she’ll likely go after Gaal and the Second Foundation and what is left of Empire after Dusk’s (Terrence Mann) murderous rampage against Demerzel(!) and the other Cleons, including Lee Pace’s now-deceased Day.
And what about the wounded Dawn? Will he also be converted by Bayta? If there is any time jump, which actor will play him? The introduction of other robots also opens up a whole new avenue of possibilities! I’m so glad that Apple greenlit season four, so we’ll get to see how the saga unfolds.
