Apple TV+’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation is back with its fourth episode. Where the Stars Are Scattered Thinly takes a dive into the new characters’ journies, focusing on building up to the eventual war ahead. This episode is packed tight, from the Empire spreading itself back into the Outer Reaches to the new religious group growing within the Foundation itself to a new Queen in search of answers. Let’s not waste any more time and dive right in.
DISCLAIMER: This is a recap and, by definition, will contain spoilers. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the latest episode, do so first and then come back.
RELATED: Keep up on Foundation with our recaps!
Where the Stars Are Scattered Thinly opens as Constant (Isabella Laughland), Poly (Kulvinder Ghir) and Mallow (Dimitri Leonidas) reawaken after their small jump back to Terminus. Mallow shares a bit about himself with Constant, showing her how optimistic he is, even though he tries to hide it. He is either trying hard to charm and use that against her, or chemistry is brewing between them. They return to Terminus, where Mallow is reintroduced to the Director (Oliver Chris) and learns of his familiar connection to Constant. The Director gets everyone up to speed on The Vault, which is that nothing has happened, and they all head off to see exactly what it wants with Mallow.
We shift to Trantor, where Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith) and Rue (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) discuss their ultimate plans, which are still vague. Empire might know something about what happened to Sareth’s family, and she intends to uncover their secret. And it seems like Rue has taught her everything she knows, having been a concubine to the current Brother Dusk (Terrance Mann). Sareth uses these tricks while spending time with Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) in the gardens.
Dawn jumps right to his worries and asks Sareth if she is responsible for the assassination attempt. She denies it and then uses this moment to persuade him to open up. Sareth wants to know if Day (Lee Pace) was responsible for the death of her family. It seems too convenient that every member in the line of succession was killed except for her, essentially giving Day someone willing to accept his proposal without having anything else to support her. Dawn doesn’t believe that is the case and feels that, at this moment, he wouldn’t be able to do it (they are the same man), but time does change people. But even after meeting her, he doesn’t believe he could do such a thing.
RELATED: 7 Great Star Trek Sequel Stories
Elsewhere in the palace, Rue and Dusk meet to discuss the past and present. It seems that no one outside of Day and herself is happy about this possible arrangement. We get the impression that Rue needs this alliance to happen to keep her status, seeing as Sareth is running a dying Empire herself. Dusk and Rue strike an agreement to “discuss” things further, and it looks like Rue will lean into her old tricks to ensure she has more people on her team.
Where the Stars Are Scattered Thinly shifts to Bel Riose (Ben Daniels) and his crew. They have arrived at an Outer Reach planet searching for an informer. Bel and Glawen (Dino Fetscher) head down alone so as not to announce to the entire planet that Empire is back. They find the group of scavengers, and Glawen attempts to take a more peaceful route before Bel breaks the one’s nose, and a blood bath ensues. They manage to make it out alive, but one of the scavengers gets away, and Glawen knows it will be trouble. He also worries that Bel isn’t the man he used to be and even tries to warn him about it.
Back on Terminus, Mallow learns precisely what happened at the Vault and isn’t too keen on becoming the next human sacrifice. But before he can leave, the Vault sucks him in. Constant follows to help with Poly trailing behind, but the Director stays behind to, you know, direct. Inside, Poly and Constant find Mallow, who has been wandering the Vault for two days looking for a way out. It seems time is different inside, or Mallow is just being dramatic. A few moments later, the Director joins them in the Vault, claiming he left someone other people in charge of the Foundation in his absence.
RELATED: Here’s Why We Must Save Star Trek: Prodigy
The four head off into the unknown when Poly hears music playing. When in doubt – follow the music because, this time, it leads them right to a library and Seldon (Jared Harris). He introduces himself, knows bits and pieces of everyone, and confirms the time-slipping issue Mallow claimed. Seldon finally gets around to sharing why he asked for Mallow. He needs him to prevent a war. But not just him. He needs all four of them to help accomplish this task.
We flip back to Bel and Glawen, who have arrived at the informer, Ducem Barr’s (Jesper Christensen) home. Initially, he is wary of letting them in, but a quick code phrase gets them safe passage. Ducem shares that he has been alone since the Empire receded from the Outer Reaches but has kept up with sending messages just in case. Ducem shows off some of his old books (which makes me sad that someday someone will have this exact reaction to the written word) and then dives into what he knows about the “magicians.”
Before they can get into too much more, a group of people demands Bel and Glawen. Ducem shows them an exit to the roof, gives Glawen the book he was admiring and asks that Bel kill him before they leave. He has no intention of being tortured by his old friends and thinks it will be more dignified if he is shot rather than dying of the poison he gave himself. Bel agrees to his terms and kills him before safely retreating to the ship.
RELATED: Keep up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with our recaps!
Where the Stars Are Scattered Thinly shifts back into the Vault as Seldon continues his chat. They must prevent this war and keep what the Foundation has created hidden from the Empire. Seldon plans to send them there to sell Trantor on the religious church and gain followers for his cause. Constant and Poly are entirely on board with this, but Seldon has something else he needs to discuss with Mallow alone. Before Poly heads out, he asks Seldon about what happened with the Warden, and we learn it was simply – divine judgment. Now for Mallow’s job. Seldon knows that some people they will need to convince won’t take to the spiritual pull, and Mallow will need to use his skills to be more forceful.
On Trantor, Sareth and Rue meet with a guard of the Empire named Markley (Afolabi Alli) to find out more information. It seems she wasn’t satisfied with Dawn’s response and wants to do more digging. She also wants to know how Day was able to survive the assassination. Is she just curious, or did she have something to do with it after all?
Foundation’s fourth episode ends as Mallow informs Poly and Constant that they are going separate ways on this journey. Is this the truth? Or is Mallow using Constant’s optimism to his advantage? We also get confirmation that she has quite a crush on him. Would this draw them back together in the future? Or make him feel bad enough to drop his possible escape plan and help the cause?
RELATED: 5 Questions We Need to be Answered in Season Two of Foundation
While we missed Gaal (Lou Llobell) and Salvor (Leah Harvey) in this episode, we enjoyed how much more exposure the season two cast is getting. Mallow might just be one of our favorite characters (that is, until he hurts Constant), and we have high hopes for his role in this upcoming season. It’s also interesting to see how Sareth uses all her tricks to uncover the truth about what happened. But what is her end game? Is she upset that this happened? Or would she thank him? We don’t know much about her relationship with her family yet, but with everything else happening, we are leaning toward her not being too happy if Empire had anything to do with this. We are sure episode five will bring on more questions and some answers.
Foundation airs Fridays on Apple TV+.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/wcw-gaal-dornick-foundation/
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.
- Meredith Moriarty Talks THIRD SHIFT SOCIETY and What Lies Ahead - October 5, 2024
- Saturday Morning Webtoons: FOREST OF HUMANS and DISTANT SKY - October 5, 2024
- Tavern Talk Thursday: Spooky TTRPG Adventures for Halloween - October 3, 2024
