Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’ is a sci-fi series that spans space and time to tell the story of a Galactic Empire and its impending fall. It begins with the prophecy of Hari Seldon, who develops psychohistory, which predicts the patterns in the future, essentially laying out the events that are bound to happen. He sees the fall of the Empire and comes up with an elaborate solution to the problem. At first, it looks like Seldon just wants to help preserve the knowledge that can be used by mankind to rebuild itself thousands of years later.
Soon, however, we discover that Seldon’s plan is much more complex, and using his pattern prediction, he seems to have factored in everything, things that most people can’t even think of. With every action, Seldon proves that he still knows much more than anyone else, and while some things might come as a surprise to others, it was all foreseen by him. Is his death on Ignis one of those events? Is Hari Seldon dead? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD
Foundation’s Twist: Debating Hari Seldon’s Death
When Hari Seldon talked about creating a backup, which he called the Foundation, he considered the possibility of the Foundation falling through. For this, he needed to create a backup of the backup, which no one else could know about. While the First Foundation would be under the Empire’s eye, he would create a Second Foundation in secret, which would be much more powerful than his first plan. For this, he, Salvor, and Gaal arrive on Ignis. However, the planet they thought would be uninhabited turns out to be the home to the Mentallics.
In the sixth episode of Season 2, Hari tries to convince Tellem, the leader of the Mentallics, why they need the Second Foundation. He particularly emphasizes a Mentallic called the Mule, whom Gaal saw in her vision a hundred and fifty years into the future. Tellem is unconcerned with Hari’s arguments and reveals that she has her own plans for Gaal, who turns out to be a much more powerful Mentallic than any she’s seen before.
Tellem is dying, and once she is gone, she wants Gaal to take over the leadership position and lead the Mentallics. At least, that’s what she tells Gaal, hoping to get her to stay at Ignis. However, Tellem also knows that Hari would distract Gaal from her true purpose. She looked into Hari’s mind and discovered how he has always put his plan ahead of the people in his life, resulting in their deaths. He doesn’t care about the Mentallics, and his actions would only attract the Empire’s attention and jeopardize the lives of her people.
Tellem also knew that Hari wouldn’t simply leave Gaal and Salvor at Ignis, so she made it look like he’d abandoned them. Gaal and Salvor saw Hari flying away in their spaceship. In reality, he was being held in a different part of Ignis, where Tellem intended to let him drown, making it easier to frame a story around his death. At the end of the sixth episode, Hari was still struggling to breathe. In the seventh episode, when Salvor finds him, he seems dead. Does this mean Hari is gone for good?
Knowing how things have been with Hari Seldon so far, it would be unwise to guess anything about him. He has died at least once before, and still, he managed to be around because not only did he predict his death, but he timed it in a way that would suit his plan the best. With each step the Foundation takes, no matter what they do and how things turn out, Hari seems to have foreseen everything. He has a plan for everyone and knows all the possibilities of how things might turn out. This is exhibited by the fact that when he sent Constant and Poly Verisof to Trantor, he knew they would most likely be arrested, guaranteeing them an audience with Day.
The same goes for Hober Mallow, who was sent to befriend the Spacers but failed. Maybe, Seldon knew that Spacers wouldn’t give up their arrangement with the Empire so easily and knew that Mallow would fail. Yet, he sent the man on the mission. Considering all this, it feels foolish to believe that Hari Seldon is dead for good. It’s not clear even now how his consciousness was put into a breathing, working human body in Oona’s World. Is it even a human body or something else? Even if Seldon is dead on Ignis, this doesn’t mean he won’t come back somehow. For all we know, he had a backup even before they landed on Ignis.
Read More: What Happened to Raych? Did Alfred Enoch Leave Foundation?
