Things are getting more and more complicated in Foundation season 2, with the epic Apple TV Plus sci-fi show throwing more characters, more concepts and more plots into the mix, and that's why this episode 4 recap article is so important.
So far the show has introduced us to the next crisis facing the titular Foundation, as well as royals who want to bring down the Empire and the brewing war between the two factions.
It's getting so busy, in fact, that in episode 4 we don't even have time to meet some of our most important characters. Gaal (Lou Llobell), Salvo (Leah Harvey) and Brother Day (Lee Pace) are all conspicuously absent this time around, and so it
You're going to need to be pretty caught up with the show to have any kind of foundation for this episodic recap, and you can use your guide on how to watch Foundation season 2 to see new or older episodes. Our guide to the best Apple TV Plus free trials might be of use too.
So here are all the important beats from Foundation season 2 episode 4, ordered for your convenience.
Queen Sareth begins her investigation
The soon-to-be first lady of the empire, Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith) has a moment of bonding with Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton), though she's trying to wheedle information out of him. She asks him if he thinks Brother Day orchestrated the plot to kill her parents, but he says he doesn't believe he did.
Sareth also asks Dawn why the powers that be have set her up with Day, when she and Dawn work better together — she's trying to sow the seeds of doubt, as she did in the past episodes.
Later Sareth and her entourage find a guard who's willing to investigate for them, and she asks him to find out whether Day killed her family. In addition, she asks him to find out how Day managed to survive the assassination attempt, implying that she was behind it.
Bel Rios begins a different investigation
We catch up with Bel Rios (Ben Daniels) as his ship arrives at Sivenna (remember, from the second episode). He and his husband jump down to the planet, to investigate reports of the 'magicians' (again, from the second episode).
The duo need to pick up an extraction pack and find an informant, but a local group of scavengers has found the latter. The two soldiers end up fighting the group to reclaim the package, and Rios' husband criticizes how quick he is to jump to violence, unlike how he acted before his captivity.
They move to the informant, a local wine-maker and book collector who shows Rios footage from the 'magicians'. Rios learns that the Foundation has begun to develop and use many types of tech that Empire outlawed, including jump ships, however another gang of scavengers comes to the vintner's house, out for blood.
The informant makes Rios shoot him so that he isn't tortured by the scavengers, and the general begrudgingly complies, before escaping and return to the ship.
Hari Seldon issues a message to his followers
Poly Verisof, Brother Constant and Hobor Mallow (Kulvinder Ghir, Isabella Laughland and Dimitri Leonidas) return to Terminus, and as they do so Constant gets well acquainted with Mallow, much to Verisof's concern.
Mallow isn't keen to step into the Vault but it pulls him in anyway, and the other two, as well as the director of the Foundation, follow him in. They get lost in a maze inside the construct, but eventually find an office showing one of the versions of Hari Seldon. He has a quest for them.
Seldon recognizes that the Foundation has reached the religious phase of its development, and says he needs the four to stop a war. This war is with Empire, and Seldon asks Verisof and Constant to act as a peace envoy to put it off as long as possible. He has a different plan for Mallow, and it's to act as a 'blade' in case peace doesn't last, though we don't hear the exact mission that's issued.
Constant tells Mallow that she's sad that their paths diverge, and it's clear that she wanted something to happen between them.
