Foundation: Mysteries and Martyrs

 "The Empire must be protected from mistakes. Like me."

This is an extraprdinary episode, full of revelation and, as good dramas do, wrapping up all the copious exposition in character development and drama.

Hari, it seems, uploaded himself to an AI afterlife at the point of death. Raych knew everything and was in on it; his execution is truly tragic. And Gaal was supposed to lead the Foundation on Terminus... the "First" Foundation. Those of us who have read the novels realise the implications of this.

It's a great scene, with a furious clash between the two geniuses and a realisation that Gaal is... different. With precognitive instincts. This is huge. 

Meanwhile, we learn more of Brother Dawn's horrible gilded cage. It's not the colour blindness; there are other differences. And he must expend effort to hide them every waking second, or he will be killed and replaced with one of many spare Cleons, grown in a vat. It's the perfect metaphor for monarchy- a monarch cannot be an individual and is not free. They all live in gilded cages. They live lives of luxury, but all of them are slaves.

And then we have Salvor and her ever-decreasing number of friends- she mourned her father lastvepisode, now she loses Hugo too, who had such faith in her- as the Anacreonians force them to repair the legendary ghost ship Invictus, with its randomised jump drive. The concept is blilliant.

And then there's Brother Day, concerned by Demerzel's conflicted loyalties with her religion, and with a problem of religious politics to solve, of a type Seldon predicted. So he, the Emperor, resolves to undertake the most arduous pilgrimage possible...

This is superb, the best episode yet, however much it may diverge.