A location of season 3 of the Foundation is more important than you think

Warning! This article contains spoilers for “foundation” season 3, episode 10, “The Darkness”.

There were many important places in season 3 of the “Foundation” while the adaptive masterpiece of David S. Goyer continued to rely on his Spanning History in Galaxy. The new terminus has been revealed as the new flourishing planetary center of the Foundation. The mule (or I should say, his red herring puppet pirate) began his conquest on Kalgan’s pleasure planet. Mycogen held the secret mysteries of the past (Laura Birn) of Demerzel (and yeast – a lot of yeast). And, of course, the teaser at the end of the final revealed robots on the moon next to the earth – a critical link at the end of the history of the foundation.

While the season ended, however, there is a place that I noticed, I did not go with a blow, but with a groan. I’m talking about the imperial library. This important building has shown a handful of times throughout the show. This is where Gaal meets Hari for the first time in season 1. This is also where Brother Dawn is looking for psychohistoric knowledge in season 3, episode 3, “When a book finds you.” The building appears again in the penultimate and the last episodes of this season, and in these last two appearances, we are starting to explain why this apparently harmless and unpopular structure is so important for the greater history.

In season 3, episode 9, “The paths that choose us”, Demerzel discovers the first -rate radiant kept in the library and uses the discovery to connect with his compatriot Positronic Kalle (Rowena King). Together, they talk about how the library was the site of the last days of the Robots War. The last survivors of the robots fell back into the cabinets to hide from the inevitable – their ultimate destruction. At one point, Kalle says: “If he’s hidden now, it could be a safe place.” Demerzel agrees and forced that she wants to offer it to Seldon supporters as a refuge.

We see the library again in the last minutes of the final, when the representative Felice Quent (Cherry Jones) of the first foundation arrives and discovers the first Preem Palver speaker of the second foundation in his silent and brilliant rooms. (So ​​many “first” and “seconds” in this show!) At the end of the season, the imperial library has become a paradise for the second foundation – in the show, at least. However, if you read the books, this sacred location is actually much more important than an emergency safety net for the second foundation. It is the main seat of the group for centuries.

The imperial library is a late addition location for the “Foundation” series of Apple TV +. In books, however, it is the house of the second foundation of the first day. Before that, in fact. Hari Seldon uses it as a base of operations while he prepares the foundation, the radiant prime and his eponymous plan for decades before the start of the show or the series of main books. (This original story is covered in the two prequel books by Isaac Asimov, “Prelude to Foundation” and “Forward the Foundation”).

When the Seldon plan is set in motion, the imperial library is already the central center of the second foundation (which is established at the same time as the first foundation of the book). This is where the group develops its mental capacities, works to improve the Seldon plan and monitors the first foundation from afar. The imperial library survives the dismissal and destruction of Trantor (an event that has not yet occurred in the show), and the second foundations even hide its location in the mule when it comes to hunt for them without success in the ruins of the capital planet.

In the show, the imperial library has barely been a factor – so far. It is also interesting that Quent, of the first foundation, is the first person to see the second foundation there, because in books, it remains hidden at the first foundation. These groups should not cross the paths. But hey, it’s an adaptation, right? Anyway, I like that the imperial library has finally taken the story into account, and I am delighted to see how it is billed in season 4 of Greenlit now that Preem Palver and its second foundation gang have moved.

Season 3 of “Foundation” is now streaming, in its entirety, on Apple TV +.