Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’ brings the Second Crisis predicted by Hari Seldon’s psychohistory. While Terminus is left to handle this crisis, Gaal Dornick, Salvor Hardin, and a version of Hari Seldon go out into the galaxy to find a home for the Second Foundation, essential for the survival of the human race. However, their path is full of many hurdles and unexpected enemies. Some dangers they face are imminent, while others are far in the future.
Salvor Hardin’s fate is sealed when Gaal reveals that she saw Salvor dead 150 years into the future. While the others, including Salvor and Hari, are convinced that the future is set in stone and cannot be changed, Gaal is not ready to give up so easily. She tries to find a way to save Salvor in the future. However, tragedy strikes much earlier than expected. What does this mean for Salvor? Is she gone for good? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD
Gaal’s Vision About Salvor Comes True
At the beginning of Season 2, Gaal Dornick takes a peek into the future and sees Salvor lying dead as the battle rages against the Mule. The vision shakes Gaal, who has only recently met her daughter and doesn’t want to lose her. While Gaal is disturbed by this revelation, Salvor accepts it as her destiny. At least she won’t die for another 150 years, she says, believing that, for once, seeing the future is a good thing. But that’s if you believe the future cannot be changed.
In the final episode of ‘Foundation,’ the future arrives 150 years too early for Salvor. After fighting off Tellem, who was hell-bent on borrowing her way into Gaal’s mind and taking over her body, Salvor takes a break. She and Gaal would have been killed, but Hari shows up just in time, revealing that he had been alive all this while, all thanks to his psychic connection with Gaal. With Tellem gone, the residents of Ignis reveal that they’d all been under their leader’s spell, and their thoughts and actions weren’t exactly their own.
Now that Ignis has become a more amicable place for them, Gaal, Salvor, and Hari decide to stay there and build the Second Foundation. They drop their guard, and that’s what Tellem had been waiting for. It turns out that before dying, she transferred her consciousness into the mind of a young boy. Using his body, she attacks Gaal, but Salvor anticipates it. To save her mother, Salvor throws herself in front of Gaal while killing the boy and Tellem at the same time. Salvor takes a hit so severe that there is no way for her to recover from that. She bleeds to death in front of Gaal, but not before asserting that her death means the future is not set in stone. It can be changed.
Salvor Hardin’s Arc on Foundation is Done
Salvor Hardin was introduced as a main character in the first season of ‘Foundation’ and remained a crucial one in the second season. This is why her sudden death in the show is so hard to digest. While this isn’t the first time a central character has died in the show, it is the first time they have died without any possibility of returning. Death doesn’t mean anything for people like Salvor Hardin, the Cleons, and Demerzel. They always come back when it looks like they are gone for good. For Salvor, however, death is just as permanent as any other character.
It isn’t confirmed whether actor Leah Harvey chose to leave ‘Foundation,’ but their character’s death is most likely a creative decision made by the show’s creators to push the plot forward. Her death is also not some meaningless twist brought on for shock value. It opens a new path for the journey of Gaal Dornick and Hari Seldon as they prepare to fight the Mule.
As for Harvey, the future is full of possibilities. The actor, who appeared in minor roles in films and TV shows like ‘Fighting with My Family’ and ‘Les Misérables,’ found their breakout role in ‘Foundation,’ and is ready to move on from it with more projects lined up in the future. They are set to appear as Marina in the adaptation of Amor Towles’ ‘A Gentleman in Moscow,’ starring Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Read More: Do Bel Riose and Hober Mallow Die? Did Ben Daniels and Dimitri Leonidas Leave Foundation?
