Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Foundation Season 3 Episode 2.

A lot happened during Foundation‘s Season 3 premiere — understandably, since last week had 152 years’ worth of events to cover on top of keeping up with current events. Those current events, like the Mule (Pilou Asbæk) emerging from the shadows, threaten to doom the entire galaxy. No big deal, right? This week’s episode, “Shadows in the Math,” written by Leigh Dana Jackson and Caitlin Parrish and directed by Tim Southam, slows down the pace somewhat. Episode 2 gives its ensemble a chance to breathe, even though most of them don’t find any rest or solace. Instead, they calculate strategies against an unknowable enemy and wrestle with their mortality. It’s grim but gripping, and no less urgent — or surprising — for sitting with the quieter character moments.

Episode 1 ends with Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) waking from her cryosleep, all too aware that the dreaded “herald of darkness” has finally arrived. Before Foundation advances that cliffhanger, “Shadows in the Math” fills in some blanks by flashing back 151 years earlier to Gaal and Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) establishing the Second Foundation on the planet of Ignis. Mentor and protégée have a lot of damage control to do in order to shift the galaxy back onto the Plan, so they keep themselves suspended in cryosleep except for a few weeks each year. When they’re conscious, Hari teaches psychohistory to the Mentalics while Gaal demonstrates how they can harness their psychic abilities against the Mule. Their preparations extend past Ignis, too, recruiting more Mentalics from across the galaxy and enhancing both the First and the Second Foundation’s strength. Unfortunately, time has morphed into an enemy rather than an ally. They need more of it for humanity to stand a chance of surviving past the Third Crisis. Hari volunteers to stay awake, a choice Gaal detests but understands, given her future date with the Mule.

The next time Gaal exits cryosleep, 148 years have passed. Hari, now visibly elderly with his white hair, age lines, and slow movements, stayed alive virtually uninterrupted. When Gaal finds him in the forest, he muses how, despite his best-laid plans, the future keeps shaping itself around Gaal; her importance surpasses his own. Hari entrusts Gaal with a Radiant containing his accumulated data about the Eight different Crisis. What he neglects to tell her, however, is how close he is to drawing his last breath. During the night, he and the Prime Radiant’s physical embodiment (Rowena King) leave for Oona’s World through a portal — and, for now, the great Hari Seldon seems to have finally embraced death instead of cheating it. The next morning, Gaal quietly grieves her teacher and surrogate father, a man she’s fiercely admired, resented, and adored. She wants to create a statue of Hari like the three he hand-carved, one each to honor the loved ones they lost: Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), Yanna Seldon (Nimrat Kaur), and Raych Foss (Alfred Enoch). Turns out, Hari already memorialized his image through a statue, because, of course, he did.

The Mule’s Influence Spreads in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 2

With that loss, we return to the present timeline. As the Mentalics’ leader, Preem Palver (Troy Kotsur), shows Gaal the same disruption in the Radiant that Demerzel (Laura Birn) noticed, the robot majordomo and the Cleons continue their discussion from last week. Brother Dawn’s (Cassian Bilton) strategic mind wants to fix the problem. Unfortunately, psychohistory can’t repair a disaster this expansive, especially since, according to Demerzel, “something has been casting shadows in the math for years.” Resigned to their collective doom, Day (Lee Pace) sprawls on the floor, takes a hit from a spore drug, and points out the irony that spending a century following the Radiant’s guidance has gotten them nowhere. Dusk (Terrence Mann), already struggling with his swiftly approaching death, takes issue with the fact that an unanticipated cataclysm has rendered his and Demerzel’s lives (his brief, hers infinite) “pointless.” As Demerzel turns away, Dusk argues that this disaster warrants a stay of execution, as it were; rather than killing him in 10 days, concurrent with Dawn’s ascendancy to the throne, Demerzel needs a partner for the upcoming battle. She denies Dusk’s plea with her own frosty barb: “I am the clock for every Cleon’s life. And the time I keep is exact.”

Swooping over to Kalgan, the source of all this trouble, the Mule struts into one of the palace’s massive, ornate rooms. A table is laid out for a feast, while a line of servants stand waiting. Skirlet (Isla Gie), the late Archduke Bellarion’s (Ralph Ineson) young daughter, attests to loving the Mule — her father’s murderer — “more than anything.” Striding past the assembled servants, the Mule explains that although he can coerce people into adoring him, his gift is like a muscle, and muscles grow tired from overuse. “Fortunately,” he declares, just this side of giddy, “I can convert some by way of demonstration.” He orders Skirlet to put her father’s gun to her temple and pull the trigger. She happily complies. Thankfully, for her sake, the gun is empty. His point made, the Mule settles down for a delicious meal.

The Cleons Grapple With Death, Destiny, and Defiance in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 2

Meanwhile, two new characters debut as a pair. Toran Mallow (Cody Fern) has zero interest in upholding either the business or political legacy of his famed ancestor, Hober (Dimitri Leonidas). Toran does, however, enjoy the benefits of his generational wealth (provided by the Alliance of Traders), as does his newlywed wife, Bayta (Synnøve Karlsen). The two are enjoying their honeymoon until the shadow of the Mule’s ship, the Blacktongue, disrupts their sunbathing. Aside from losing their light, the happy couple aren’t worried about the Mule’s coup — they’re “too complicit” in the safe cocoon of their privilege to worry about a would-be tyrant terrorizing Kalgan’s innocent civilians. Neither are they intimidated by Captain Han Pritcher (Brandon P. Bell) dropping by unannounced. The pair is young, blithe, and selfish, but they’re not fools, quickly realizing the Foundation intelligence officer wants to recruit them as spies. Their name recognition means they received an invitation to an upcoming party celebrating the Mule’s takeover, and Pritcher intends to be their plus one.

Back on Trantor, Day deals with humanity’s downfall by gambling with soldiers. This must be an established routine, since a bar full of officers respects the Emperor without fearing him. To be fair, Day doesn’t cut an intimidating figure when he’s leaning against people’s shoulders and discussing their sick children with familiarity and compassion. Later, Day warns Song (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing), his lover, that everything is about to go up in smoke. He’d prefer to flee before it happens, and Song’s home planet is his ideal destination. Dusk interrupts his younger self’s romantic impulses. Since Demerzel denied Dusk even a few more months of life, he asks Day to reverse the decree that shortened their life cycles, under the guise of letting Dusk assume Day’s unwanted “burdens.” Day sees through his intentions without a second thought. “We’re ragdolls dressed up as kings,” the reluctant ruler states. “Monsters.” To underscore his point, he slices open his entire forearm. The nanobots inside his body race to heal the wound, as both brothers knew they would. Day flicks his blood onto Dusk in a final spiteful gesture — leaving Song, who witnessed the exchange, distinctly unsettled.

Deadly Threats and Surprising Alliances Emerge in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 2

Finally, Dusk completes his rounds by rendezvousing with Dawn. This time, however, Dusk doesn’t plead his case. Instead, he promises to stand in for an absent Day at the robe transfer ceremony and smooth the way for Dawn’s leadership. Dusk’s plans to help the future Empire involve a secret gift Dusk managed to keep under Demerzel’s radar. What kind of gift, you ask? Cut to an engineer assuring Dusk that the Novacula, a “black hole bomb,” works as promised. A demonstration ensues: a single ray of blue light bursts from the circular-shaped device and melts an entire planet, leaving a cluster of stars behind. Unlike, say, the Death Star, the planet still exists — but its matter has been permanently rearranged. Dusk, although thrilled with the results, insists the Novacula is an emergency deterrent for Day to keep in reserve. The engineer disagrees: “People will know I put death in your hands,” he says, proud of his work.

One mind-bending game-changer follows another during a dinner with Dusk, Dawn, and Ambassador Quent (Cherry Jones), whom Dusk considers a good friend despite her devotion to the Foundation (or more than a good friend; they sit close enough to snuggle). The civil conversation circles its way to the pirate who seized Kalgan. Dawn prefers to “be prepared” to face the Mule, not because a dictator has usurped law and order, but in case the Mule poses a direct threat to the Empire; he doesn’t like people capable of disrupting Hari’s predictions. With that, Dawn excuses himself to his room. He activates a private messaging system and greets a holographic image of none other than Gaal Dornick. “The Mule,” he says, all smiles. “I expected your call as soon as I heard the name.” No-nonsense, Gaal replies, “Time to make yourself useful, Empire.”

Foundation Season 3 is available to stream on Apple TV+.

Long before joining Apple TV+ series Foundation as the Mule—season three‘s ruthless, flamboyant, and deeply complicated villain—Pilou Asbæk already had a fan base of genre TV watchers. He played Euron Greyjoy (a ruthless, flamboyant, deeply complicated villain) on HBO’s Game of Thrones. There’s a connection there, but to hear the Danish actor tell it, the similar characters are not a reflection of his actual personality whatsoever.

“I’m the most boring guy alive,” Asbæk told io9 at a recent Foundation press day. “I wouldn’t hurt a fly. I don’t do anything out of line. I’m just a simple guy who likes to eat pizza, drink beer, and watch sports. But that said, I think the reason why I got the role was that David [Goyer, Foundation creator and executive producer] had seen my portrayal of Euron Greyjoy on Game of Thrones, and he thought that would be the element he wanted to bring—that unpredictableness, that craziness—to Foundation, because that is what the mule is: he’s chaos. This whole show is about predicting the future, knowing what’s going to happen, will Foundation and Empire be able to collaborate, et cetera. And then all of a sudden you have this character who is just like a menace, who brings violence. Disaster!”

Being cast on Foundation offered Asbæk’s first introduction not only to the show and its story, but also to author Isaac Asimov. “I didn’t know anything about the books. Honestly, I didn’t know anything about the show. I don’t watch a lot of TV,” he said. “So when I got the call from David Goyer asking me if I wanted to read the scripts and portray the Mule in season three, he opened a door I didn’t know existed into a world I didn’t know existed. And I got introduced to Asimov. And then I found out that all the sci-fi I’ve ever seen in my life is inspired by his books, and it was such a revelation. I’m super thankful to be part of Foundation, but I’m mostly thankful for the introduction to Asimov, to be honest.”

The Mule has been teased in the story so far—he actually appeared in season two, very briefly, portrayed by Mikael Persbrandt. But season three sees the character go full-throttle, right from the very first scene of the very first episode.

“I knew they wanted to have him very masculine, because that’s also the reason why they had Mikael Persbrandt to [play] him in season two; [he’s] a very masculine actor,” Asbæk said. “So I knew that they wanted him to have swag, they wanted him to have this brutality. But what I thought was most interesting about the Mule was honestly the exact opposite. Him being frozen in time, him being a child, him not knowing how to have a relationship, how to feel love, because he has never really experienced it.”

He continued. “That inspiration came from a book called The Little Prince by [Antoine de] Saint-Exupéry; that’s the reason why he’s wearing the red cape. That’s the reason he [acts like] a child in some of the scenes. And [as the show goes on], you’ll understand even more why I do these weird shifts throughout the season, as if he’s like, ‘What is wrong with him?’ He’s a bit off. He’s out of sync with the world. And that’s… I don’t want to spoil anything.”

Noted! And Foundation fans already know they’re rewarded by paying close attention to the show’s many nuances. But it’s not a spoiler to say that Foundation, the series, takes a different approach to the character than the source material does.

“The reason why we made him very different from the books is that the way the Mule is in the books, he’s the fool, he is the trickster, he has this very weak, insecure character you wouldn’t consider being one of the greatest villains ever written,” Asbæk said. “We didn’t have time to do that. We had this, [and] maybe next season, where we have to go 2,000 miles per hour, introduce the character, he’s a threat, he can kill everyone, he could rule the world, and now Foundation and Empire need to figure out: are we going to collaborate, or are we going to die?”

Foundation hasn’t yet been renewed for a fourth season yet (Asbæk has high hopes, joking, “I just bought a house!”), but season three is almost here: the first episode hits Apple TV+ July 11.

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