Things are beginning to move now in Foundation with episode 7, ‘Mysteries and Martyrs’, and it feels a much more dynamic show than before. Warning! Some Spoilers Ahead!

There has been quite a lot of pontificating in a few of the recent episodes, especially when Brother Day (Lee Pace) has been to visit the followers of Luminism. Both he and the Zephyrs have delivered some grandstanding moments that have merit, but sometimes went on slightly too long. This is limited a bit here and has a more reasonable balance between moving things along and chin stroking.

The crux of the conflict for Brother Day and Zephyr Halima (T’Nia Miller) is her belief is that as a clone he is a soulless shell and he has no place at the head of the Empire. This prompts machinations from both sides, resulting in Brother Day taking an unprecedented step for a Cleon. Deciding that he will call her bluff in the most dramatic way possible, he pledges to walk the Spiral, the seriously arduous pilgrimage that devotees of Luminism take to speak with the three goddesses of Luminism themselves. It’s a bold strategy fraught with danger, but one which could work.

Equally dangerous to a Cleon’s health is how Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) is pursuing a relationship with Azura (Amy Tyger), the gardener at the palace. Not only does he go beyond even the briefest of interactions with her, which would be unusual enough for a Cleon, he decides to take her into his confidence. This includes telling her about all of his differences from the standard Cleon clone, and what it means if anyone finds out.

Brother Dawn is actually becoming one of the more interesting characters, potentially because we are getting some insights, rather than our interactions being relatively shallow. His flaws are giving us the mirror in which we can judge the other Brothers and adds colour to their bland, monolithic existence. How this plays out though will determine whether it has been ultimately successful, but whatever that result is, you can’t imagine it will be good for Azura.

Elsewhere in ‘Mysteries and Martyrs’, Phara (Kubbra Sait) is putting Salvor (Leah Harvey) and co through the ringer, as she forces them towards the Invictus. Boarding the ship is difficult enough, but then they discover further challenges once there. It also becomes clear to the non-Anacreons what the true state of affairs is, and that the ship is about to jump again to an unknown location. This whole scenario is a battle between fanaticism, desperation, and simple survival instinct. It’s also highlighting whether those elements are exclusive or not to the Anacreons, or the others. As we’ve seen before, not all of the Anacreons are as fixated on the suicide mission Phara has planned as much as she is.

This section of the show is giving us a real unknown element, as the impending jump could take them anywhere. This takes us out of the few constant locations we’ve had so far and makes this more of a show that takes into account its universe spanning point of view. It also adds some action grit to an approach that is based on more one on one interactions the majority of the time.

The real weak point in the episode involves Gaal (Lou Llobell) in the Raven, with the ghost of Hari (Jared Harris). Much of this is rehashing old events and her going over in her mind what has happened. Gaal and Hari also debate the ins and outs of psychohistory, the disrupted plan for Terminus, and what is next for both her and Hari. To a degree this gets a bit tedious, and they will have to take this somewhere interesting in future to stop it being an annoying pitstop from the other narrative sections.

So, ‘Mysteries and Martyrs’ has been a mixed episode with some elements that look set to go somewhere, while others are dragging it backwards. It has yet to be determined how Gaal will fit into the plot in the long term, or whether the character has just effectively wasted time. On the plus side, others have now become much more integral and filled the void, so the overall feeling is a positive one, with caveats.