Diksha Sundriyal
The sixth episode of Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’ Season 2 dives into the past of Hari Seldon while preparing a path for the future and all the conflicts its holds. In the previous episode, Hari, Gaal, and Salvor landed on Ignis and discovered that it was inhabited by the people who call themselves the Mentallics. They have the power of telepathy on mind control of varying strengths, which is why they know what Hari has in mind for them, especially concerning the Second Foundation. They aren’t open to giving up their home and bringing all the attention to them when they can live in peace with no one paying attention to them. In this episode, titled ‘Why The Gods Made Wine,’ Tellem, their leader, makes her move, throwing Hari into a very sketchy situation. Here’s where he lands by the end of this episode. SPOILERS AHEAD
Foundation Season 2 Episode 6 Recap
Salvor Hardin experiences the power of telepathy when several Mentallics show her their life story, all of which are about how Tellem saved them from a horrible fate. This is why Tellem says she doesn’t want Ignis to become the Second Foundation. People like her have a history of being hunted and killed. The Second Foundation would bring too much attention to them. Hari asserts that her refusal will not change the future, which has a powerful Mentallic, called the Mule, destroying everything, including Ignis.
When Gaal shows her the future, Tellem is forced to reconsider her stance. Gaal’s powers convince her that she can be the next leader of the Mentallics. Tellem offers to help Gaal learn how to harness the true extent of her powers. In return, Gaal has to stay on Ignis and become the leader, but without Hari Seldon. Tellem believes that Ignis is only safe if it is under the control of a Mentallic, which includes Gaal.
Meanwhile, Brother Constant and Poly Verisof land on Trantor. They are flagged during their entry and are later arrested. Their stay is extended indefinitely, meaning they’ll be imprisoned and not immediately killed. The Empire would want to know more about Terminus and why they were sent to Trantor. For now, however, the Empire is busy celebrating the engagement of Cleon and Sareth. Around the same time, Hober Mallow lands in Home Swarm, the house of the Spacers.
Foundation Season 2 Episode 6 Ending: What Happened to Yanna?
Being in Ignis among the Mentallics, Hari Seldon feels his mind under constant scrutiny, especially from Tellem. This gives us flashbacks of his life, and we get a sense of his journey before the events of Season 1, especially the origins of psychohistory. When Hari was a young boy on his home planet of Helicon, he was interested in identifying patterns. This interest takes hold of him during his time at the university, and he publishes a paper about psychohistory and the possible fall of the Empire.
This is around the same time he meets Yanna, who compliments his life and work. Together, they refine his theory and devise a practical way to store and use it. With Yanna’s help, Hari creates the prototype of the Prime Radiant. His work invites the attention of the Empire, and he is asked to continue his work in Trantor at the Streeling University. Hari refuses the offer because he knows this is the Empire’s way of keeping an eye on him and his theory.
Despite Yanna’s advice to take the offer, Hari refuses it. This leads Dr. Tadj at the university to take a drastic step. The Empire asked her to hand over the Prime Radiant to them. For this, she kidnaps Yanna, believing that Hari would give the Radiant in return for his wife. She didn’t know that Yanna was pregnant, and she was wearing a locket attached to Hari’s locket through which he could track the heartbeats of his wife and their unborn child. When the heartbeats stop, Hari realizes that Yanna is dead.
Dr. Tadj confesses that she killed Yanna but asserts it was a mistake. She says that Yanna fought back, that she provoked her. However, Hari is not convinced. His wife was tied to a chair, meaning it was no accident that Dr. Tadj shot at her and killed her. To exact revenge, Hari takes Dr. Tadj to Macoda Mesa on the field, where a horde of moonshrikes tramples her to death. Hari also blames the Empire for his wife’s death. So, he goes to Trantor, where he plans to use their resources to find the path to their destruction.
Will Hari Seldon Die?
Hari arrives at Ignis with the idea of a second Foundation. However, Tellem makes it clear that she doesn’t want him there. She also knows that Gaal and Salvor won’t let Hari leave alone. So, she creates conflict between them by targeting Gaal, who is more focused on finding a way to prevent Salvor’s death at the hands of the Mule. She asks Hari to leave, but he knows what game Tellem is playing. Still, he isn’t able to do anything about it.
Tellem makes it look like an angry Hari is leaving on Beggar, leaving behind Gaal and Salvor. In reality, Hari is slowly drowned to death so that Tellem can create a story around how his spaceship crashed over the ocean, and he died. Meanwhile, her people will scour through the spacecraft to find and destroy the Prime Radiant because Tellem doesn’t care about psychohistory and Hari’s plans.
In the final scene, we see Hari losing his strength and going underwater. Does this mean he is dead? We wouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet. Hari Seldon has a track record of dying and returning to life, so even if he drowns, we expect him to return in one form or another. It was established in the previous episode that Hari’s new body is courtesy of his getting cloned. If this clone dies, will another clone appear to take its place? Even if there is no other clone and this Hari dies, there is another version of Hari inside the Vault, which means that Hari Seldon will not disappear from ‘Foundation’ anytime soon.
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