‘Foundation’ Season 2 Ending Explained: Who Really Dies? Who Comes Back from the Dead?

Foundation Season 2 was a glorious gift for science fiction fans. Between the show’s truly dazzling visuals, incendiary cast performances, and sophisticated scripts that kept even the most studied genre fan on their toes, the second season of Apple TV+‘s Isaac Asimov adaptation was a huge step forward from the just fine first season. So it should come as no surprise that the Foundation Season 2 finale juggled triumph and tragedy with the show’s trademark flare. Of course, that doesn’t mean that everything in the heady drama made total sense to casual Foundation viewers. Which characters truly died? Which fan favorites managed a surprising way to come back from the dead? And is it possible that Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) is secretly responsible for creating the dystopian future villain The Mule (Mikael Persbrandt) in the first place?

Apple TV+’s Foundation is inspired by the works of sci-fi titan Isaac Asmiov. The first season ended with the revelation that Emperor Cleon’s “genetic dynasty” had been infected by imperfections and that Terminus’s brave warden Salvor Hardin was the biological daughter of Gaal Dornick and her lover Raych Seldon (Alfred Enoch). Foundation Season 2 followed the messy rule of Cleon XVII (Lee Pace), whose solution to Empire’s projected fall was to diversify the bloodline by wedding Queen Sareth (Ella-Rae Smith) and a reincarnated Hari Seldon’s (Jared Harris) journey with Gaal and Salvor to Ignis, where the hope was to found a Second Foundation using the psychically powered mentallics. Adding to the drama were a swash-buckling conman named Hober Mallow (Dimitri Leonidas), the earnest cleric Brother Constant (Isabella Laughland) and her drunk mentor High Cleric Poly Verisof (Kulvinder Ghir), and a married couple of brilliant military men who loathed the Emperor they served, Bel Riose (Ben Daniels) and Glawen Curr (Dino Fetscher).

The penultimate episode of Foundation Season 2 left our heroes in tragic positions. We learn that Empire’s loyal android advisor Demerzel (Laura Birn) was freed from prison by the first Cleon only to be forever bound in service to the genetic dynasty. And, in fact, Demerzel is the one who secretly ruled Empire according to Cleon I’s will. The current reigning Brother Day successfully orders the apocalyptic destruction of Terminus, murdering everyone on the planet, including Poly and Glawen. And on Ignis, Salvor Hardin manages to save Gaal Dornick from becoming the latest vessel for the mentallics’ cruel leader Tellem Bond (Rachel House)…with the help of an undead Hari???

So how does Foundation Season 2 end? Who dies valiantly and who shockingly comes back from the dead? Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of Foundation Season 2 on Apple TV+…

Foundation Season 2 Ending Explained: How Do Hari Seldon and the First Foundation Survive?

While it seemed that the physical reincarnation of Hari Seldon was murdered by Tellem Bond weeks ago on Foundation, we now learn that Gaal Dornick used her mentallic power to save him. She persuaded the mentallic standing watch over his execution to free Hari and the two swapped places. Whenever Tellem Bond or anyone else visited the site of Hari’s death, Gaal projected his face on the other man’s corpse. They shielded this plan from Tellem by reciting primes. Reunited, the trio are finally able to kill Tellem Bond, freeing the mentallics from her control, and ensuring that Gaal is their new leader.

Hari isn’t the only character to make a seemingly miraculous resurrection in Foundation Season 2. After Bel Riose and Hober Mallow connive with the Spacers to destroy the Imperial fleet — which we’ll get to — Brother Constant’s cramped life shuttle is picked up by the ark. The ark was able to copy the consciousnesses of every citizen on Terminus, keeping them safe and forever alive in the Foundation’s database like Hari. This means that Brother Constant is reunited with her loved ones and Glawen also managed to live on.

Back on Trantor, Demerzel arrives in time to confront Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) and Enjoiner Rue (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) in her former secret prison cell. She kills them both to protect Cleon I’s directives. Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) and Queen Sareth declare their love in a public broadcast and manage to escape Trantor, with their unborn child safe in Sareth’s womb. Because of these crises — and the fact that Bel Riose manages to off Brother Day — Demerzel is forced to decant new versions of Brother Dawn, Day, and Dusk to start over. The one silver lining to this setback? Hari Seldon gave her a version of the Prime Radiant which they can use to plot the future.

So that’s who lives, but who dies? And stays dead?

Who Dies in Foundation Season 2 (and Stays Dead)?

Not everyone makes a miraculous come back in Foundation Season 2. As we mentioned, the current iteration of Brother Dusk and his lover Enjoiner Rue are killed by Demerzel. Demerzel decants new versions of all three Cleons to replace the now dead Dusk and Day and AWOL Dawn. The loose canon who was Cleon XVII dies a most brutal death when Bel Riose uses Hober Mallow’s body-switching device to trick Cleon into kicking him into an airlock, only to swap their bodies as the door rips open.

Bel Riose then decides with the Spacers’ help — because as it happens Hober Mallow did convince the Spacers to join the side of Foundation — to let the Imperial fleet destroy itself. Bel and Hober bond in the final moments before their doom, but they both wind up dead. (Brother Contstant was put on the only possible escape pod to safety, remember?)

Finally, even though Gaal was haunted by the knowledge that her daughter would die in their future encounter with the Mule, Salvor Hardin actually dies in the present timeline. Although Gaal was saved from Tellem’s takeover, the pernicious mentallic snuck her consciousness into the mind of a sweet and trusted boy on Ignus. Just as our heroes think they’re safe, Tellum uses the boy to hurl a knife at Gaal. Salvor takes the blade and kills the child in a defensive maneuver. Salvor dies rather happily. That’s because if she dies here and now, that means the future can still be changed.

Of course it could be that Gaal has been changing the future from the jump…

Did Gaal Dornick Create Her Own Nightmare in The Mule?

At the very end of Foundation Season 2, we jump 152 years in the future where the man known as the Mule is suffering because of the psychic presence of Gaal Dornick. He says she’s visited him in a thousand dreams and now she’s here. He has to find her before she finds him and he swears he’ll do whatever it takes to destroy her — even if that means burning everything.

As we’ve already seen with the Hober Mallow storyline, time is a bit elastic in Foundation. Gaal used her abilities of foresight to witness a future ruined by the villainous Mule. It’s a vision that put her on the path to create the Second Foundation on Ignus so she could destroy this man. However, this coda suggests that by focusing all her energy on the Mule, she has created a being so paranoid of her that he becomes a villain to protect himself. In short, Gaal might have created the Mule.

So will we see them face off in Foundation Season 3? Is there even going to be a Foundation Season 3?

Will There Be a Foundation Season 3 on Apple TV+?

As of right now, Apple TV+ has no official plans to make a third season of Foundation, but there have been rumors that Foundation Season 3 was already secretly in production earlier this year. On June 9, 2023, the Prague Reporter ran a story claiming that Foundation Season 3 had started filming in the Czech city in May 2023. Again, Apple TV+ has not confirmed the validity of this report. Also, production would have been shut down in July because of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Meaning, Foundation Season 3 is still very much in the air, even if it’s been greenlit.

The short answer is we don’t know if there will be a Foundation Season 3, but we sure hope there is. Season 2 freaking ruled.