Foundation Review: The Mathematician’s Ghost (Season 1 Episode 3)
Foundation Season 1 Episode 3, “The Mathematician’s Ghost,” does the unexpected thing by not picking up immediately after the events of Foundation Season 1 Episode 2, “Preparing to Live.” In fact, there really aren’t any mentions of Hari’s murder or Gaal’s disappearance at all.
It’s frustrating that Foundation glosses right over it, and takes us to something completely different. We don’t get any more information on what happened, and you’ve got to force your mind to accept that and pay attention to the story that “The Mathematician’s Ghost” decides to tell instead.
However, this is not to say that the events of “The Mathematician’s Ghost” aren’t compelling because they are.
There’s this undercurrent of mystery pulling you through the storylines on Trantor and Terminus. You want to keep watching to find out what’s going on in both places, and in the back of your mind, you’re hoping for some clues about the whereabouts of Gaal and Raych.
This is the first time that it’s made absolutely clear that Dawn, Day, and Dusk are clones. Yes, we’ve been told they are clones, but we get to really see it during this episode. It’s a bit trippy to realize that the person we know as Day from the first two episodes now looks like Dusk.
The decision to obliterate — there’s really no nicer word for it — Darkness instead of letting him die peacefully before doing it is a violent choice and says a lot about how the empire views each clone. They’re only there to serve a purpose, not to live any kind of full or meaningful life outside of serving the empire.
If one thing could be changed about Foundation Season 1 Episode 3 it would be making the time jumps a bit clearer to follow, specifically when we shift our focus from the empire to the foundation.
Following the timeline of Dusk’s death (or well, Darkness’ death) and Dawn growing up is easy, but jumping to the arrival of the foundation to “now” is a little more complicated. Is “now” around the same time that Dawn is asking for the mural to be destroyed, or does that line up with when the foundation initially arrives in Terminus?
The timeline being a bit fuzzy when you compare the empire storylines to the foundation’s isn’t episode ruining because they are completely different, contained storylines. It’s just a little annoying.
Normally, voiceovers on TV shows aren’t my thing. They are usually a cheap method to tell us about a character instead of showing us, but Gaal’s voiceovers work on Foundation.
This is because the show makes the smart decision to have the voiceovers help set the mood for the hour. Gaal is philosophizing about ghosts, and her words help set a melancholy and haunting tone over both Dusk’s final hours and the events on Terminus.
What did you think of this episode of Foundation? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).
One thought on “Foundation Review: The Mathematician’s Ghost (Season 1 Episode 3)”
“Now” in Terminus is around the time Dawn is a teenager, removing the painting, ’cause the first episode showed Salvor and the Vault already and then it went back 35 years into the past (around the 19 + 17 showed in the Empire in the third episode).
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