Review: Foundation – The Leap s01e10

After last week’s little burst of action, we get some fudging in Foundation’s season finale, with episode 10: ‘The Leap’.  *Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*

Mostly this occurs with Hari (Jared Harris) strutting around ruining everyone’s version of history and then effectively telling the people of Terminus that most of their lives have been built on a lie.  He does at least offer a rationale for the manipulation, and a way forward that may be beneficial for all.  How much that will placate people is another matter, but we’ll have to wait until next season to see if we get any closure on that.

The main problem with ‘The Leap’ is that it feels quite ‘bitty’ and just seems to be concerned with tying up some loose ends, rather than delivering some solid development.  The rush to finish off the hurried conspiracy plot on Trantor for instance leaves Azura (Amy Tyger) with a quick, and ominous send-off, along with the surprise dispatch of Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton).  These two were some of the more interesting characters, so it looks like Foundation has shot itself in the foot once again.  At the very least though, we do learn that the Cleon DNA has been compromised, so the genetic dynasty won’t continue exactly as they originally intended.

What we do get, which is a departure, is some much more aggressive dissension between the Brothers, which does mean that there might be some good drama to come from them yet.  Getting rid of the interesting parts of the dynamic threatens to make this whole section dull, so anything that keeps it disjointed will surely help.

Back on Terminus, the three groups do converge into one after the stand-off, and the plan to distract the Empire is enacted.  They also make Hugh (Daniel MacPherson) the Captain of the Invictus, which is an interesting move and you begin to think that maybe storylines will now get more combined as they have a character that can move about the universe.

Sadly, they then sort of undermine that by having the big reveal at the end of the episode, where Salvor (Leah Harvey) arrives at Synnax and finds Gaal (Lou Llobell).  As this is over 100 years in the future, and probably now the main thrust of the narrative, who knows what they’re going to do about all the good work they’ve just established.

It’s a bit of a disappointing end to this first season, but also indicative of how it has gone.  There have been flashes of brilliance, but all too often it has wandered off into a cul-de-sac instead of becoming more interesting.  This isn’t to say that it hasn’t been enjoyable, but it has definitely suffered from the episodic release schedule, so they will need to look at that for the next season.  Either make each episode more compelling, or release more at once.  Even that might be a leap though.