We have officially hit the second half of Apple TV’s first season of Foundation. In the previous episode, we got a look at what led Gaal (Lou Llobel) down her current path and things on Terminus definitely took a turn for the worst. In the sixth episode, Death of the Maiden, Brother Day (Lee Pace) meets Zephyr Halima (T’Nia Miller) – a would-be leader who opposes the Empire. Brother Dusk (Terrance Mann) grows suspicious of Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton).
DISCLAIMER: This is a recap and, by definition, will be full of spoilers for Apple TV’s Foundation. I highly suggest going and watching it first and then coming back!
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Death of a Maiden opens as Gaal monologues about how the people on Synnax believed that the people of Trantor follow a false prophet. This prophet was the Empire, Brother Dawn, Day and Dusk. She wasn’t sure what to think until she finally met the men and understood what her people meant. As she shares this information, we see Brother Day jumping through space, similar to how Gaal did in episode one.
Brother Day is given some time to prepare before they land, while Gaal continues to share that the Empire never knew doubt until they met Hari Seldon (Jared Harris). Seldon’s prophecy really shocked the Empire and it appears it has only been strengthened by the events that have been happening since. Brother Day finds Demerzel (Laura Birn), who is preparing herself for their landing.
This interaction between Brother Day and Demerzel brings back memories of the two when Brother Day was still Brother Dawn. She is still sharing a piece of herself with him and educating him. Almost like she has this special connection with this clone over the others. We haven’t seen her be so close with the current Brother Dawn or Brother Dusk. We learn a few things while Brother Day and Demerzel have their meal. One is that Demerzel is a believer in the faith and that Zephyr Halima is a savior to her people.
When they land on Maiden, Demerzel tries to tell Brother Day that she will stay aboard the ship, but he won’t let her. We can see just how much he needs her to help guide him through this. While Brother Day thinks they are going to be faced by a horde of people, it is just Zeyphr Halima waiting for them outside the temple. She felt that it would better suit him if he didn’t have a glorious entrance and made their meeting more intimate. By Brother Day’s facial expressions, I think he was really expecting a crowd.
Zephyr Halima attempts to share a custom drink with Brother Day, which is said to strip the drinker of their impurities, but Demerzel doesn’t allow it. I would say that Halima is right when she guesses that Brother Day likes to keep his impurities hidden. There is a brief moment where we can see that Brother Day might actually like Halima, but he is cautious of her intentions.
Death of a Maiden jumps to Terminus, where Phara’s (Kubbra Sait) people search for survivors from the Empire’s ship. They are able to find Commander Dorwin (Christian Contreras) and take him as a hostage. The colony itself is still under attack, but some of the children manage to hide themselves. Phara still has Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) alive against her people’s wishes, but she knows that the Vault is a mystery they need to unlock and Salvor is the key.
Phara lays out her plan but doesn’t realize that the children have heard everything inside the vents. We don’t know if they understood what was being said, but surely her tone gave them a good understanding that it isn’t good. Phara also has Mari (Sasha Behar) and Lewis (Elliot Cowan) still locked up. She is forcing them to go through the crew’s manifest to find the specific people she needs for her mission to create a jump ship.
While Phara addresses the people of Terminus, the children break Salvor out. Phara isn’t willing to let any of her needed crewmembers deny her request. She is even willing to go as far as shooting a woman’s husband in the leg to get her to understand how serious she is.
On Trantor, Brother Dawn pays a visit to Azura (Amy Tyger) in the gardens. Surprisingly for the Empire, he apologizes to Azura for doubting her intentions and how he spoke to her. You can really feel the chemistry between the two and knowing how this show is going, that doesn’t look good for Azura. But their conversation is cut short when Brother Dusk summons him for a hunting trip. He is trying to teach him a few lessons, but it seems Brother Dawn has an independent streak.
We jump back to Terminus, where the kids have successfully dragged Salvor out of the Brig. We learn that the only word the kids understood was “Invictus,” which Salvor knows to be a legendary ship that disappeared centuries ago. It is now sort of a ghost ship like The Black Pearl, but this ghost ship seems to have been found without a crew of dead pirates.
Salvor meets back up with Abbas (Clarke Peters) and Hugo (Daniel MacPherson), who survived the attack (Yes!) but are stuck on the outside (not so yes…). They have been searching for a way back into the colony, but Salvor warns them not to. She shares with them that she feels like Hari put her on this planet to stop the Anacreon, the first struggle of the Foundation. He is guiding her instincts. She is being told they need to destroy the corvettes instead of getting back into the colony.
Death of a Maiden takes us back to Brother Day for a quick moment, who finally gets his proper welcome and meets with Zeyphr Gilat (Julia Farino). It looks like Gilat is a sure shoo-in for the next Proxima, but there is still a chance that Halima may steal it from under her. To ensure this doesn’t happen, Brother Day makes a grand speech about how when she is elected; the Empire will make sure their people are never without clean water and even drinks from the salt cup, unlike before.
Back on Terminus, Salvor, Abbas and Hugo make their way towards the Anacreon corvettes. When Abbas struggles against the wind, Salvor heads Hugo ahead. Hugo shares some childhood memories from Trantor with Salvor but knows that those memories are built on lies. We also learn that Abbas joined the Foundation because Mari so enthralled him. How sweet!
When they reach the corvettes, they realize things are a lot worse off. Abbas offers to head down and at least take one of the corvettes out, but Salvor stops him. It reminds him that he is too old, too fat and too blind. How sweet of her. She leaves Hugo with Abbas and heads down on her own, knowing she needs to take out all three of them.
Back on Trantor, the hunt continues with Brother Dawn and Brother Dusk. It turns out that Brother Dawn has broken Brother Dusk’s record on his first attempt. But instead of throwing it in his face, he tells his helper to toss the other three into the bush and lie. Brother Dawn and Dusk share a celebratory drink and Brother Dawn shares that he doesn’t know if he really feels like a man yet. So how do they fix that? By taking him to a very promiscuous part of court!
Brother Dawn picks a lady who looks a lot like Azura and questions her on why she isn’t more upset that her memories will be erased. After a few moments, he sends the girl away and tells her that he will lie and says she did well. But, it turns out that before her memory can be erased, she tells Brother Dusk that nothing happened between the two of them and that they just talked.
We are taken back to Terminus, where Salvor is getting into position. However, she starts to have her mind slips again. This time she is on her own and dressed a lot like Gaal was. Abbas sends Hugo down to get Salvor while he heads off to take care of the corvettes. And in the next moment, Foundation has shocked me again for the umpteenth time. During Salvor’s mind slip, we see a conversation between Raych (Alfred Enoch) and Hari.
It appears that Hari knew about Raych’s secret ship and the need to leave the Foundation, but the only way for him to do it was to kill Hari. And Hari even hands him the knife! If Raych stays with Gaal, everything collapses. He needs to make the sacrifice for everyone else to survive. And it seems that Salvor is playing the part of Gaal in this memory and arrives to find Raych over Hari’s bloody body. It was such an emotional moment between Raych and Hari and I needed to take a moment to collect myself before going on.
Before the memory can continue, Hugo wakes Salvor up, but the two are spotted. Against all odds, Abbas is able to get down below and sneak behind enemy lines while Hugo and Salvor keep the others busy. But in the end, Abbas sacrifices himself in order to take out the three corvettes. Two very emotional scenes back to back is bound to break my heart one of these days.
Death of a Maiden returns us to Trantor, where Brother Dawn invites Azura up to his room to see the view. She realizes that she shouldn’t be there, but Brother Dawn doesn’t seem to care. He invites her to stand on the ledge with him and when Azura reminds him that she doesn’t have a forcefield, he gives her his. But she doesn’t take it and says that she won’t if he won’t be wearing it. While out on the ledge, Azura gives him a lesson on flowers.
She realizes that Brother Dawn is colorblind and apologizes for not being aware that the Empire was. However, it turns out that this Brother Dawn is the only one. Another thing that separates him from his fellow clones. Azura tries to make him feel better about it, but he won’t have it. This is his secret and now she knows too. She tells him that to ensure his secret; he could push her off. But instead, the two share a kiss.
For a brief moment out in the woods, we see Shadow Master Obrecht (Mido Hamada) pick up the three beasts that Brother Dawn had his help hide from Brother Dusk.
Back on Terminus, Hugo is trying to comfort Salvor, who is struggling with her actions. She just lost her father because she blacked out and even blamed other events on herself. Salvor’s only goal now is to make Phara pay and stranding them on Terminus is her first goal. This is a heavy burden for one person and we can see the toll it is taking on Salvor.
We are shifted to Maiden, where Brother Day and the others are saying goodbye to Proxima Opal. Halima takes this moment to swing the crowd in her direction and her moving speech brings everyone, including Demerzel, to their knees. It is clear that Halima is a threat to the Empire and their ways and if she comes to power, there is a chance she could sway more than just her people.
Death of a Maiden comes to a close as Salvor and Hugo try to sneak back into the colony. Upon capture, Hugo quickly transfers control of his ship to Salvor to keep her alive. Phara decides to take the two of them plus their crew to leave the planet. Before they depart, Salvor is able to tell her mother that she wasn’t able to save Abbas but nothing else. The sixth episode of Foundation cuts to black as the ship sets off for space.
RELATED: Keep up with Foundation by checking out our recaps!
Well, this was a very emotional episode. Just when I thought the last episode of Foundation was pulling at my heartstrings with Gaal’s backstory, this episode rips my heart out and stomps all over it. I love Clarke Peters and his character as Abbas was fantastic. I am not a fan of killing off a character to drive another character’s story and this feels exactly like that. He didn’t need to die for Salvor to fight still to protect the colony, but if he didn’t die, there is a chance they wouldn’t have been able to take out the corvettes.
On the Empire side of the story, we are starting to see the divide between Dawn, Day and Dusk. Brother Day is off-planet trying to keep things in order and that isn’t going well at all. Plus, Brother Dawn is trying to figure things out since he is clearly different from the rest and Brother Dusk is quietly keeping tabs on him. Like I said in the recap, I really like the dynamic between Brother Dawn and Azura, but knowing how Foundation has been going, she isn’t going to have a good end and I’m not here for it!
Foundation’s seventh episode will be released on October 29, 2021, on Apple TV.
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Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
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