August 25, 2025 • 39 mins
Jason and Abu recap and dive deep into the seventh episode of Foundation season three. We learn about the Mule’s childhood, he makes his move against Foundation, and Day has an acid trip.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning today's episode Today in spoilers for Foundation episode seven
of season three. Hello, my name is Jason Getupsion and
(00:24):
my name's a Boot and welcome back to x ray Vision,
the podcast where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies,
comics of pop culture. Company from my Heart podcast where
we're bring you episodes every Tuesday and Thursday and Friday,
Most News on.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Saturday, News on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
You don't forget Today, Jason, we are continuing our journey
into Foundation season three and talking all about episode seven.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're nearing the end.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh man, and it's getting very hot. Let's immediately jump
into it. Foundation episode seven of season three, Foundations ended.
It really looks like it. We open years ago on
the planet Rassam aka Big Spinach a Mother, where we
(01:12):
meet a young mother with her newborn baby and her
young son and they are walking this path between the
spinach of Big Spinach, and we learned that they live
on this kind of industrial agricultural planet where huge wheel
shaped tractors pull up the crops and we watch that
(01:34):
process happening. There's also a group called Assessors that will
land and occasionally make sure that take inventory of everything.
Apparently that these workers have and make sure that they
don't have anything they shouldn't and they sense that this
is about to occur, so they run back to their
homestead and one of the assessor ship's lands, and the
(01:55):
mother along with her husband, puts this newborn baby into
a hiding place, and the assessors arrive and they ask
a bunch of questions, and we learn immediately that these
assessors work for foundations. So uhh, the good guys that
you thought were good are kind of bad. Although I
should say that we kind of knew, and Harry always
(02:16):
kind of knew that Foundation one was going to go
astray in certain ways. And so we're seeing that now
the Foundation one rules this planet, and we should assume
other such planets with a authoritarian grip. There is a
(02:37):
one child policy. The assessors discover the second child, the
newborn child, and so they tell this family, okay, well
you live under a one child policy rule and we'll
be back in thirty days and you'll have one child.
See you later. Very alarming, very troubling.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Very troubling, very Nazi codd.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yes, we go to the present. Is causing Foundation to
tear itself apart, just as we saw at the end
of the previous episode, the space defenses are shooting at
it themselves. On the ground, soldiers are shooting at civilians. Meanwhile,
(03:17):
pritches down in a cell trying to warn Seth that
this is all the Mule. The Mule is doing is
let me out so I can deal with the Mule.
It's all in all a very bad day for Foundation.
And meanwhile Torren is trying to get Bita to safety
and she's basically knocked unconscious. We go to Trantor. Various
alarmed ministers are appealing to Dusk, who is currently the
(03:39):
only cleon available. They're telling him it's bad. The Empire
has lost much of its fleet around Kalgan. The Foundation
is about to fall, which means the Mule will then
have ships with which to attack the rest of Empire,
including the Imperial planet. We've got to do something. Dusk
then has a vision of a camel moving.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Through the back of the well.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Not the real camel, I mean, let's talk about that.
Because he sees this, he then snaps too and orders
He says, okay, send pro determined new terminus. Let's find
out what's happening there. All the armies in the galaxy
have them recalled to Trantor to defend the empire and
do something about these camels that are loose in the hall,
(04:27):
and then he'll just leaves. Yeah, what is this real
camel vision? What?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I think?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The camel not real, but the ferret later or at
least clearly real, because the ambassador also sees the ferret.
And I think, I mean, I think clearly we're supposed
to assume that with only three days left until his ascension,
Dusk is like deteriorating mentally, you know. And I think,
(04:57):
like he keeps repeating, like I have, I'm on a timeline,
the clock is ticking, and I think that might literally
be like a physical taking time bomb, and like maybe
dusks are just never meant to actually live longer than this.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, I thought that this was a I think it's
a vision one and I think it's gotta be an
allusion to the biblical metaphor about a camel moving through
the like it's easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than it is for a
(05:34):
rich man to enter heaven. And I think that's as
he enters the literally the last three days of his life.
I think Dusk is thinking, what happens to me after?
And have I lived a good life? I think that's
what's happening, but we will see. Maybe it's a real camel.
(05:54):
Dusk then goes to see the ambassador from Foundation and
she's a mess, of course, because she's watching like a
nine to eleven planetary level event happened too to her society,
and she just doesn't know what to do. Dusk comes
in with a million questions, Hey, do you know any
(06:15):
trantor is it falling yet? Or what's going on? She's like,
is that the only.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Reason you came to talk to me?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I care?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Why?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
How are you? I'm sorry?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Are you also? Baby?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
No? Sorry? Anyway, we go to New Trantor the Mule lands.
He's got all his acolytes with him, Scarlett is with him,
and Mayor Inbird goes to bend the knee foundation completely surrendering.
Anybody who doesn't want to surrender is immediately dealt with,
(06:56):
and the Mule is like, listen, you're gonna love serving me.
It's gonna be great. You're gonna love it. And Mayor
Inberg you're gonna have to learn to love blood because
There's gonna be a lot of it. There's gonna be
a lot of war, there be a lot of death.
Scarlet then paints his cheeks, Mayor Inber's cheeks with blood,
so he gets the picture, and we discover that it appears,
(07:19):
whether by his own volition or due to the influence
of the Mule, Inbur apparently sold out foundation and told
the mule to come here or lower the defenses or something.
And then as as I guess a price for their
somewhat of their freedom or to not die, he offers
(07:42):
a pritch, who the Mule clearly wants so he can
locate Gail Dornick. This is shocking. Do you think do
you think Mayor Inbert did this just on his own
I think he did.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I think he can. I think did.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I think he's enough of a coward to sell out
the planet for his own supposed safety. But I do
think this is such a fun storytelling device because every
time we cut back to Mule, you don't know whether
any of these characters are acting under under their own volitions.
Correct And obviously we say that see that play out
(08:14):
quite explicitly between Randu and Tourin later in the episode.
But I had a fun time in every scene on Foundation,
asking myself is this the mule or is this their
own choice?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Same we go to Micagen where things are getting very
very interesting. Now Day is apologizing to uh Song and
to gamer tag girlfriend about basically he's like, listen, it's
clearly like a misunderstand some of it. This was a
vast misunderstanding me coming here. But like, let me make
(08:47):
it up to you by telling you about the robot,
which I know you really care about because of this
religion you have. Look at this and he pulls out
like a crochet needle and he's like, this is one
of Demrzelle's tools. It comes from Earth. You can tell
by the markings. And is that like, come on, that's
a big deal. And they're like, you know what intriguing,
but we need to know more, right, how do we
(09:09):
figure out more? And Song and gamer tried girlfriend kind
of argue a little bit about well, you could put
the memory thing on and see if he said anything then,
and she's like, I really don't want to put the
memory thing on that will return the memories from the
Pleasure Palace to me, And yeah, you know, there's got
to be some other way that we can get him
(09:29):
to talk more and sun Master. Maybe we bring in
sun Master eighteen and we get his take on it.
This gang leader that we had heard some telling of
in a previous episode. And all in all, Song and
her partner are very excited about the potential that robots
might actually exist. They decide to use shrooms, which are
(09:53):
part of their religion. I guess makes sense that this
place is called micagen, which is, you know, the more
species correct plant name for well, they're not plants whatever,
the scientific name for fungi. And so they start getting
(10:13):
the mushroom mix.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Ready.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Back on Trantor, the Ambassador tells Dusk about the fall
of New Terminus and she's like a total mess. Like
they're having dinner like as if it's normal, and she's
like it's so crazy, like everybody's dying. But here I
am like eating this luxurious dinner like everything is normal,
and Dusk is like, don't worry. They don't worry about it.
I'll protect you, Like, don't worry. You stay with me.
(10:39):
Leave the Foundation Mission, the chancery, the Foundation Embassy. You
come live with me in the Palace. I will enfold
you in the Imperial protections and everything's going to be
absolutely fine. The Empire is on a strong footing. She's like,
oh yeah, where are day in Dawn Like, Joe, I'm
(11:03):
not enough.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Why are we bringing up my brothers?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, and he's like, listen, okay, flat out, Dave fled
the palace and Dawn well, yea too complicated to get
into that one, but maybe one day we'll get into
that one. The mood, yeah, let's not get into that.
All of which is to say, I'm holding things together here, okay.
(11:29):
And then Day's ferret runs onto the table and he's like,
look at that, that's Day's ferret. He's kind of still around,
I'll look at that. Isn't that cute? Song? And gamer
tag girlfriend questioned Day As he's tripping, he's taken the
shroom mixture, which seems like it comes out of a
fancy espresso machine. He finds himself back in the palace.
He's greased up and shirtless because this is Foundation after all,
(11:54):
and he's running Wait til Jesus, god, guy, the chastic
process of this show amazing. So they're running through He's
running through the halls right seeing these visions. He sees
his brothers sitting on the triple throne. His seat is
empty than Demarselle. A massively size de Marcel approaches. She
(12:15):
gives him this kind of short lecture about like their
relationship that the Kleonic brothers have with Demarselle, and then
he wakes up on the floor, but still under the
influence of this stuff. Song is there. Day apparently, in
his unconsciousness, has been talking about Demarzelle. He's arguing now
(12:37):
with Demozelle, like about like, why do you hate me? Demrcel?
Do you hate me? And Song is trying to quite
you know, get more information about this Demarzel character, right,
and it's like that's okay, So that's the robot. Can
you free you? Can free the robot? Can't you? And
like and days like can I free you? And Day
(12:59):
eventually tells Song, no, I can't. I can't order the
robot freed because she is programmed, like from before me Eden,
to serve Empire. And this infuriates Song and her partner,
of course, because it's like they have enslaved God. Apparently
the trip continues days back in the palace, he's talking
(13:20):
to Dusk now asking if Demarzelle, like is Demarzel heard,
is she sad about this? The way that she has
to serve empire? And then he sees an older Demarselle
like sitting in the mirror to do maintenance on herself.
And then he sees his the three brothers, the three
Kleonic phases of dawn, day, and dusk, all doing the
(13:43):
practicing being in sync thing at dinner right, and then
Dawn messes up and you get the pick, you get
the I got the impression at least that this Dawn
that we're seeing in the vision is him, Like, he
then progresses into the day that we are watching, Now,
did you feel that?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I felt exactly that too.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I get the sense that we're learning that this day has,
since his Dawn days been always a little out of
saying a little bit. And I've certainly been dealing with
like this complex that I'm not good enough.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I've never been good enough to be a cleon.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I've never been good enough. And also Demarzel hates this
and hates me, and how can I make it up
to her? So he then asks de Marzelle, like, are
we the worst? Are we the worst cleons? I feel
like we're the worst ever cleons. And he and he's like,
can you tell me a story, like any story? And
(14:39):
she's like, well, listen, I've had so many stories. I've
got so many like I've been alive for so long.
I've been a soldier, I've been a prisoner, I've been
all these different things. Currently I am a prisoner. And
can I order you to free yourself? He asks? And
she's like, no, you can't do that. But what would
you do if you were free? He asks her. She's like, why,
(15:00):
I would make more of me. I would make more robots.
And okay, if you could choose, would you choose to
love us the cleons? And she gives really no clear answer.
She's which he realizes is the answer like the answer
is no yes. And he realizes then, in that moment
and that hesitation of her to answer, and the kind
(15:21):
of ambiguousness of her answer in general, that she really
wants to be free at the core of her, like
any living thing wants to be free. And then the
trip kind of ends or tails off, and he has
clearly come to a decision and has clearly come to
a place where emotionally something has happened, like something big
(15:42):
has happened. This is an incredible sequence.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, I think also visually an incredible scene, yes, just
the way we're transitioning from scene to scene. This whole
episode actually had some really fun transitions all throughout, but
this true Trip sequence was a visual treat for sure.
I also loved that we ended on this like really
poignant freedom versus love, because I think same there are
(16:12):
different versions of that decision. You know, there are stories
about people choosing love over their freedom and prioritizing love.
Here we're seeing the opposite of that. Deverzel Again, I
think I said those a few episodes ago, but I
believe that she, in some weird robot way, truly loves
the Cleons, and we see her emotional outbursts. We saw
(16:33):
that last week. I believe with Gail when she's talking
about raising them, and so I do think she loves them.
But I think after what a thousand years of enslavement,
freedom is worth more to her than any amounts of love.
Love is not enough for her.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I agree, and it makes me wonder should Harry have
just taken shrooms in my cons and then he wouldn't
have needed to do the whole psychohistory. You would have
just been like Oh, the robot wants to be free. Yep,
that is the hinge point upon which the entire galaxy moves,
Like I've figured that out.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I also there's a very small I don't know whether
this is an easter egg. I don't know whether this
is hinting at future seasons to come, because it doesn't
feel like a thing that will make sense this season.
But I'll say this in sort of a vague, non
spoilery way, but Demriseel mentions that she has been known
as Daniel, she uses this other name, which hints at
(17:37):
a very very important robot character within the Foundation and
asim Off universe.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, we're gonna get it.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
I think that that's all that's really safe to say.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I feel like robots are coming. We go back to Trantor,
where the Ambassador finally asks about ascension, like, okay, so
(18:11):
you're gonna protect me, that's great, but you are getting
vaporized in three days now, Like that's happening or is that?
Like she's like, clearly they can't do that now, like
everything's so crazy, and Dusk is like, listen, I will
take care of it and make sure that whatever happens
after me, like I've made my peace with this life. No,
he hasn't. He's flat out lying in this part where
(18:33):
he's like, I'm fine, I'm ready to close this chapter
of my life and I'll make sure you're taking care
of after the fact. And we know that that's not
the case. He's been freaking out. They then kiss. We
go back to New Terminus where Pritch bites through his
wrist in order to get the guards to come to
his cell. This is fucking crazy, crazy nuts Inber then
(18:56):
brings the mule to his cell to find Pritchard is
bled out and dead. Only no, it's the guard. Pridge
then like peeks in like ha ha and tries to
shoot the mule sneak style, like.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I better bridge to be clear, master spy by ass Are.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
You kidding me? I love I loved it. I mean
he doesn't have the safety off. The safety is on.
He can't shoot the god and now is running away
as the as the guards of New Terminus and the
mules people are shooting at him in the butt. Torn
gets Beta on the ship, I mean crazy stuff from Bridge.
(19:38):
Torn gets Beta on the ship. Randy breaks in. He
made it as well. They don't know where Magnifico is,
so the ship Ai is like, hey, while you were taught,
while nephew and and uncle are talking it out, bad
guys are coming to the ship. Okay, so there's that
(19:59):
to can clock. Randy then says, listen, what if it's
what if? The mule is like, what if it's gonna
be all good? Like what if? What if the opportunities there? Right, listen,
we've been fighting as foundation Empire has always kind of
been a problem. Everything's shaken up. Now maybe we can
all profit from this. So Torren now is like, hold
(20:21):
on a second, did the mule get to you? And
Randy's like no, no, no, no, no, the mule didn't get to me.
But I just want to tell you the mule is
you love. The mule is pure love, like he doesn't hate,
he doesn't hate us, In fact, he loves us. So
now Torn is like okay, yeah, whatever, the mule got
to you, and he jumps into an escape pod. The
(20:43):
escape pod has like some sort of booby trap in
it that shoots the bolts that are attached to the
escape pod cell. Yeah, these bolts kill Randu and Torren
doesn't want to, but he has to leave Beita behind,
She's can prepare and he escapes to we.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Don't know where, right This was my favorite scene of
this episode. I think so because I loved the insight
that we got into more mentalic slash mule abilities here,
because it's not like, it's not mind control, it's not
generic I'm wiping your mind. You're now just like, although
(21:22):
it seems like he can do it, that I he
can do I think there are varying degrees to his powers.
For sure, you're right, But I think what's like almost
mornefarious is what we see here is that the Mule
has tampered just enough, but has played with Randw's motivations.
Randw already wants to subvert the foundation, so why not
(21:45):
do that together? But he like there's just enough to
nudge someone along. And so I have found it interesting
over the course of the season watching the ways in
which the Mule conserves gas. I guess in the table
that's he's not pedaled to the metal, just mind control
everybody around him all the time.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I think that to me is also the kind of
the most fascinating thing about the Mule is it's it's
it benefits him to not let anybody know just how
much gas he has or just what the limits of
his power are. So the sense I get, especially with
how freaked out he is about Gail, is that he's
(22:26):
much more vulnerable than anybody knows. And I think Magnifico
is going to be the key to that. In fact,
he's probably weaker now without Magnifico than maybe ever. And
but at the same time he's he's covering that up.
He's being very very cagey about that part of it. Naturally,
(22:47):
back on Trantor, Dusk and the Ambassador have made love
and Dusk. This is so funny because Dusk like kisses
her and has this fucking look on his face like, yeah,
still got it, still doing it three days from ascension
day and I'm still doing it.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
It was like an incredible vibe from him. He then
goes to I guess take like a post coital stroll
around the palace when he sees Day's ferret and then
he feeds it some wine and meat and then he
stomps it to death. This I think, Listen, we still
don't know what Dusk is going to do with his
gravity bomb, but.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
I suspect I keep forgetting.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
About Yeah, we keep forgetting about that, but like I suspect,
I think Dusk is positioning himself to just be like, hey,
forget the cloning thing. What if I just keep going,
Like I think that's where this is headed. It's just
like I'll just keep going. As the guy.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
We go to Mikegens, are you are you saying that
the death Star is his?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Like gun, He's like, let me keep going? Or I shoot.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I think I think he's good. I think he understands
that everybody's coming to trantor I think he is going
to when everybody's in one place, set the bomb off,
and somehow in his mind he's going to set himself
up as the emperor of whatever's left.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Okay, Yeah, all right, interesting theory.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, sun Master comes through in Loki cosplay sun Master
eighteen dresses like Loki. Let's just put that.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Out there, like this is just another variant, a.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Variant the LOGI with the stab and everything and the
fucking gauntlets and everything, but with I mean the abs
we had We mentioned it at the time, but I
think the casting part of the casting for this season
was how exactly washboard are your abs and true?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Where do we get these slowly just pans across his ads,
and I'm like.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So, sun Master Loki questions Day, who is still clearly
like grappling with the emotional revelations of his trip, like.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
He's still kind of in like a fetal position, and.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah he is. It's it's as if a very heavy
truth has has descended on him and he's grappling with this.
And Sunmaster then says, like some truly Loki like stuff
with the staff about how the skull and the staff
will do this and that and we get it.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
A new tran tour.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
The Mule and Scarlet are going for tour of the
Mayor's offices and the very the complexes around there. The
mayor is like, yeah, of course, Hey, my whatever's mine
is yours, Like, let's go for it. They go into
the bathroom and the mule is like, hey, you want
to serve me? I love it. Why don't you drown
(26:06):
yourself in this sink? And Seth is horrified by this.
The mayor does his asked, drowns dies, and the Mule
then asks Seth, hey, you're very close with Pritchard. I
can feel that coming off of you. Where do you
think he's going and she's like, well, knowing him, he's
(26:28):
probably planning to go off and start a rebellion against you.
We go back to Big Spinach and just as we thought,
I think this is the Mule's flashback. Yes, and we'll
pause here. Does this throw into disarray your Magnifico is
(26:51):
the mule theory, seeing as how they cast this young
man to look very much like Palau.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I also was getting a little bit worried about my
theory in this episode because I think there's a we
we didn't here. Here's how my theory still stands. We
didn't see Magnifico. Where the fuck is he?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
What is he?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
He might be around and you see them round, We
see them youle doing mind control ship on the in
the same general area that Magnifico is running around in.
So it from that perspective it might.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Still legal, I agree, but but definitely uh yeah, my
theory is getting a little shaky because of this flashback sequence.
At one point I thought, is the baby Magnifico?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Are they brothers? And is that what's happening here?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
But I might just kind of wait, hold on, I
kind of love that one.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Also, I like that too, Yeah, but I have nothing
to back that up except that the baby is bald,
which is not not a connection.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
But I don't know are they brothers. It's not entirely
clear to me if the baby is magnifico. But I
thought it was there the entire time, even though we
kind of see him leave the baby.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
But that doesn't mean he doesn't go back and get
the baby, get the baby right, or reconnect with his
brother once they're both older or something. So yeah, I'm
not so sure about my theory anymore. Is where I'm like.
I was very pro my theory. I was like, this
is like eighty twenty now more like sixty forty.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I was very pro it. I do feel like this
casting of this young actor throws it into serious Yes,
all right, that said, so we're we're watching now the parents,
this small family discuss that they're now going to get
rid of one of their kids. The whole family's together,
they're near this looks like an entrance to some kind
(28:46):
of waterway, right, and the plan is to drown the child.
Only plot twist, they're going to drown the older son
and start anew with this baby. And the young boy
real and he's begging for his life, and as he
does so, kind of X Men style, his his superpower
(29:11):
emerges in this moment of intense emotional distress, and both parents,
one by one, first the father than the mother, fall
into the water in some kind of delusion, believing that
like they are now living their lives with their one
child happily, but in reality they are drowning and they
have no idea that this is happening. The Young Mule
(29:34):
then takes the baby and leaves it with the neighbors,
who we've we get the name of the neighbors, the Bartons.
Does that Is that gonna be important because it's weird
that they name the neighbors a lot.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Yeah, multiple times, and then it's on the note that
doesn't ring a bell for me, but that might just
be beyond my Asimov universe foundation knowledge.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
It feels like it's gonna come back. And then the
young Mule leaves to become the Mule that we see
today and in the present, the Mule goes to Hologram
Harry's vault yells for Harry to come out. It's like,
I know you're in there. Hologram Harry comes out and
(30:19):
just asks basically so how much of how much of
what you know about your life is true? Basically he
says it, and then we end, which is, yeah, fascinating
because we didn't until this moment know that hologram Harry
knew anything about the Mule and apparently is aware of
the Mule to the point of knowing about his childhood
(30:40):
or perhaps the mule shared that, but can he share
that with a hologram? Many questions. Your thoughts on that ending.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I loved the ending.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
I same.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I mean, this is finally we're seeing the unstoppable force
meet the immovable object, and I can't wait, Like, yeah,
next next week's episode. I was very tempted to just
click next and watch the next one, but I'm gonna
restrain myself.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Very good ending.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I thought, you know, overall this episode, I think we've
come off like a tor dy fors of like bombshell
episode bomb Shall upside bombs episode. This one felt, you know,
not as good, but like definitely.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Had an action an action episode.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah yeah, and so I was hoping.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I was like, Okay, I mean, maybe it's too much
to hope for a fourth episode in a row with
a great bombshell moment or something. I think in a
small way, we got it in the end here with
the flashback to the Great Mule, and we got it
with Mule Harry showdown coming up. You know, like this
is very wwe coded. It's gonna get real in the
ring next episode.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So let me ask you this. Here's the thought I
had body Harry has Gail, that's his mentallic, right, is
the Mule hologram Harry's Gail? Like is if he knows
about the mules upbringing? Did he know that the Mule
(32:05):
would emerge? And has he did he get that ball rolling?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
See, I don't know that Holograham Harry knows a lot
about the Mule.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
I don't think he does, but he seemed to in
this moment.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
He seemed to.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
But knowing Harry over the course of this show, my
first instinct was, Oh, he's bluffing. He's just like puffing
his feathers in the face of this like unknown danger
to try and get more out of him. And I
think it also for the audience, it serves as like
this flashback.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That we just showed you this episode, how much of
that is true?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Right?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Are you sure that this young boy was the Mule
and that's or is this the story the Mule has
crafted for him or.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Is that the story that Magnifico put into his mind.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Or put into his mind? Right? Is Magnifico the other
child or something?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
You know?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Like, I think intentionally we are supposed to question basically
everything with the Mule in this episode.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
So I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
I mean, we're now moving on to like basically the
final third of the season, and I think we're in
for some huge twists and reveals with the Mule, I
continusing it all season long.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, let's talk quickly about Micajen. What do you think
is what role will the Robot Worshippers play going forward?
Because I think we are meant because of some of
the foreshadow and we got in earlier episodes to suspect
(33:35):
that Trantor is maybe going to be completely destroyed, and
certainly it's gonna be the fight the site of a
major battle. Yeah, so what happens to the Robot Worshippers
and what role do they plan the story going forward?
If any?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
It's still unclear to me where emotionally Day has ended
up at the end of this episode, Like, are these
revelations about Demerzel that he's had, is that freeing for him,
is able to let go of the Cleon baggage and
now maybe like forge a different life in Micagen or
(34:10):
has that solidified his loyalty to Empire to Demozelle in
some way and is he going to now actively work
against these robot worshippers? You know, I think that's intentionally
left unclear at the end of this episode, and we'll
see what happens, but I'm not sure. Like I'm getting
(34:31):
like sort of cult vibes, religious vibes from this group,
but whether or not they're going to play a huge role.
I think Demrizel has to come in contact with this group, yes,
a big role, yeah, but I can't Demrizel also missing
a lot of key players missing in this episode, no Gale,
no Demozelle, and so I don't know how that happens.
(34:53):
I'm not sure, but I think it has to happen
before this group becomes a player on the battlefields.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I agree. I I was left wondering. My feeling at
the end of Mikajen is that the days always felt
like the Weirdo, has always felt like something's wrong, and
has clearly always felt coming from Demarzelle this anger, passive, aggressive,
(35:20):
even hatred, and he's clearly had it gnawing at his
conscious this whole time. Why do you not like me?
Why do you hate us? While he's only wanted to,
in a way please her, And I think you could
kind of read into the choices he's made in his
life as this attempt and failure to please this mother
figure who he feels like hates him but won't ever
(35:41):
talk about why. And so I feel like the revelation
of the true nature of her relationship to Empire, which
is she was programmed to support and nurture them and
doesn't actually want to be doing it and is again
essentially a prisoner of this structure. I think that was
I think it was heartbreaking for him. I think it
(36:02):
was shattering to discover his role in the enslavement of
someone he truly cares about. And I think I was
left feeling like, there's a chance he becomes like this
Patty Hurst like figure working with these religious rebels to
(36:24):
air quotes free Demarzell, I mean truly, not even air quotes,
like really actually free her, whatever that means. And you know,
I guess potentially be Demarzelle's army going forward if it
does go that way. But the one thing I agree
with you with I think they have to all meet,
(36:44):
like that must happen, right.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
I mean I really liked in this episode that the
like thematic through line was two children abandoned by their parents.
We got Cleon and we got young Mule, and we
see how that plays out for the Mule presumably, and
I think it'll be interesting to see how it plays
off for Kleon now, whether he'll go down as similarly
destructive route.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Or if it'll go a different way for him.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Torn and Pritch, I would assume that they're heading towards
Gail and Second Foundation, who we have did not see
this episode, but it feels like that's the only place
left that they could possibly go. I mean, Pritch, who
is is lucky to be alive?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
That guy, I mean, he's a metallic right. Have we
seen him use his bowers once in an effective way?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I mean, maybe he's just resisting more effectively and it's
taking all his exertions to like keep his walls up.
I think is maybe what we're what we're seeing. But
you know what, again, I would imagine they'll go to Gail,
who has this kind of bursioning alliance with Demarzelle, maybe
(37:57):
to face down the mute rule. Although we are again
are left also with the feeling that demarzl maybe kind
of wants the Mule to blow it all up.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
It's kind of behind all the chaos.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Maybe behind yes, maybe behind this entire thing.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
I suppose we'll see.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
I can't wait. On the next episode of xtra Vision,
We're continuing our coverage of Alien Earth. It's the biggest
episode nex you're listening. X ray Vision is hosted by
Jason Sepsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of
iHeart Podcast. Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Klefman.
(38:37):
Our supervising producer is Abuzafar. Our producers are Common Laurent
Dean Jonathan and Bai Wag. A theme song is by
Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman. Special
thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi
Our discorded moderate though
Warning today's episode Today in spoilers for Foundation episode seven
of season three. Hello, my name is Jason Getupsion and
(00:24):
my name's a Boot and welcome back to x ray Vision,
the podcast where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies,
comics of pop culture. Company from my Heart podcast where
we're bring you episodes every Tuesday and Thursday and Friday,
Most News on.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Saturday, News on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
You don't forget Today, Jason, we are continuing our journey
into Foundation season three and talking all about episode seven.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We're nearing the end.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh man, and it's getting very hot. Let's immediately jump
into it. Foundation episode seven of season three, Foundations ended.
It really looks like it. We open years ago on
the planet Rassam aka Big Spinach a Mother, where we
(01:12):
meet a young mother with her newborn baby and her
young son and they are walking this path between the
spinach of Big Spinach, and we learned that they live
on this kind of industrial agricultural planet where huge wheel
shaped tractors pull up the crops and we watch that
(01:34):
process happening. There's also a group called Assessors that will
land and occasionally make sure that take inventory of everything.
Apparently that these workers have and make sure that they
don't have anything they shouldn't and they sense that this
is about to occur, so they run back to their
homestead and one of the assessor ship's lands, and the
(01:55):
mother along with her husband, puts this newborn baby into
a hiding place, and the assessors arrive and they ask
a bunch of questions, and we learn immediately that these
assessors work for foundations. So uhh, the good guys that
you thought were good are kind of bad. Although I
should say that we kind of knew, and Harry always
(02:16):
kind of knew that Foundation one was going to go
astray in certain ways. And so we're seeing that now
the Foundation one rules this planet, and we should assume
other such planets with a authoritarian grip. There is a
(02:37):
one child policy. The assessors discover the second child, the
newborn child, and so they tell this family, okay, well
you live under a one child policy rule and we'll
be back in thirty days and you'll have one child.
See you later. Very alarming, very troubling.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Very troubling, very Nazi codd.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yes, we go to the present. Is causing Foundation to
tear itself apart, just as we saw at the end
of the previous episode, the space defenses are shooting at
it themselves. On the ground, soldiers are shooting at civilians. Meanwhile,
(03:17):
pritches down in a cell trying to warn Seth that
this is all the Mule. The Mule is doing is
let me out so I can deal with the Mule.
It's all in all a very bad day for Foundation.
And meanwhile Torren is trying to get Bita to safety
and she's basically knocked unconscious. We go to Trantor. Various
alarmed ministers are appealing to Dusk, who is currently the
(03:39):
only cleon available. They're telling him it's bad. The Empire
has lost much of its fleet around Kalgan. The Foundation
is about to fall, which means the Mule will then
have ships with which to attack the rest of Empire,
including the Imperial planet. We've got to do something. Dusk
then has a vision of a camel moving.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Through the back of the well.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Not the real camel, I mean, let's talk about that.
Because he sees this, he then snaps too and orders
He says, okay, send pro determined new terminus. Let's find
out what's happening there. All the armies in the galaxy
have them recalled to Trantor to defend the empire and
do something about these camels that are loose in the hall,
(04:27):
and then he'll just leaves. Yeah, what is this real
camel vision? What?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I think?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The camel not real, but the ferret later or at
least clearly real, because the ambassador also sees the ferret.
And I think, I mean, I think clearly we're supposed
to assume that with only three days left until his ascension,
Dusk is like deteriorating mentally, you know. And I think,
(04:57):
like he keeps repeating, like I have, I'm on a timeline,
the clock is ticking, and I think that might literally
be like a physical taking time bomb, and like maybe
dusks are just never meant to actually live longer than this.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, I thought that this was a I think it's
a vision one and I think it's gotta be an
allusion to the biblical metaphor about a camel moving through
the like it's easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than it is for a
(05:34):
rich man to enter heaven. And I think that's as
he enters the literally the last three days of his life.
I think Dusk is thinking, what happens to me after?
And have I lived a good life? I think that's
what's happening, but we will see. Maybe it's a real camel.
(05:54):
Dusk then goes to see the ambassador from Foundation and
she's a mess, of course, because she's watching like a
nine to eleven planetary level event happened too to her society,
and she just doesn't know what to do. Dusk comes
in with a million questions, Hey, do you know any
(06:15):
trantor is it falling yet? Or what's going on? She's like,
is that the only.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Reason you came to talk to me?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I care?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Why?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
How are you? I'm sorry?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Are you also? Baby?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
No? Sorry? Anyway, we go to New Trantor the Mule lands.
He's got all his acolytes with him, Scarlett is with him,
and Mayor Inbird goes to bend the knee foundation completely surrendering.
Anybody who doesn't want to surrender is immediately dealt with,
(06:56):
and the Mule is like, listen, you're gonna love serving me.
It's gonna be great. You're gonna love it. And Mayor
Inberg you're gonna have to learn to love blood because
There's gonna be a lot of it. There's gonna be
a lot of war, there be a lot of death.
Scarlet then paints his cheeks, Mayor Inber's cheeks with blood,
so he gets the picture, and we discover that it appears,
(07:19):
whether by his own volition or due to the influence
of the Mule, Inbur apparently sold out foundation and told
the mule to come here or lower the defenses or something.
And then as as I guess a price for their
somewhat of their freedom or to not die, he offers
(07:42):
a pritch, who the Mule clearly wants so he can
locate Gail Dornick. This is shocking. Do you think do
you think Mayor Inbert did this just on his own
I think he did.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I think he can. I think did.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I think he's enough of a coward to sell out
the planet for his own supposed safety. But I do
think this is such a fun storytelling device because every
time we cut back to Mule, you don't know whether
any of these characters are acting under under their own volitions.
Correct And obviously we say that see that play out
(08:14):
quite explicitly between Randu and Tourin later in the episode.
But I had a fun time in every scene on Foundation,
asking myself is this the mule or is this their
own choice?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Same we go to Micagen where things are getting very
very interesting. Now Day is apologizing to uh Song and
to gamer tag girlfriend about basically he's like, listen, it's
clearly like a misunderstand some of it. This was a
vast misunderstanding me coming here. But like, let me make
(08:47):
it up to you by telling you about the robot,
which I know you really care about because of this
religion you have. Look at this and he pulls out
like a crochet needle and he's like, this is one
of Demrzelle's tools. It comes from Earth. You can tell
by the markings. And is that like, come on, that's
a big deal. And they're like, you know what intriguing,
but we need to know more, right, how do we
(09:09):
figure out more? And Song and gamer tried girlfriend kind
of argue a little bit about well, you could put
the memory thing on and see if he said anything then,
and she's like, I really don't want to put the
memory thing on that will return the memories from the
Pleasure Palace to me, And yeah, you know, there's got
to be some other way that we can get him
(09:29):
to talk more and sun Master. Maybe we bring in
sun Master eighteen and we get his take on it.
This gang leader that we had heard some telling of
in a previous episode. And all in all, Song and
her partner are very excited about the potential that robots
might actually exist. They decide to use shrooms, which are
(09:53):
part of their religion. I guess makes sense that this
place is called micagen, which is, you know, the more
species correct plant name for well, they're not plants whatever,
the scientific name for fungi. And so they start getting
(10:13):
the mushroom mix.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Ready.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Back on Trantor, the Ambassador tells Dusk about the fall
of New Terminus and she's like a total mess. Like
they're having dinner like as if it's normal, and she's
like it's so crazy, like everybody's dying. But here I
am like eating this luxurious dinner like everything is normal,
and Dusk is like, don't worry. They don't worry about it.
I'll protect you, Like, don't worry. You stay with me.
(10:39):
Leave the Foundation Mission, the chancery, the Foundation Embassy. You
come live with me in the Palace. I will enfold
you in the Imperial protections and everything's going to be
absolutely fine. The Empire is on a strong footing. She's like,
oh yeah, where are day in Dawn Like, Joe, I'm
(11:03):
not enough.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Why are we bringing up my brothers?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, and he's like, listen, okay, flat out, Dave fled
the palace and Dawn well, yea too complicated to get
into that one, but maybe one day we'll get into
that one. The mood, yeah, let's not get into that.
All of which is to say, I'm holding things together here, okay.
(11:29):
And then Day's ferret runs onto the table and he's like,
look at that, that's Day's ferret. He's kind of still around,
I'll look at that. Isn't that cute? Song? And gamer
tag girlfriend questioned Day As he's tripping, he's taken the
shroom mixture, which seems like it comes out of a
fancy espresso machine. He finds himself back in the palace.
He's greased up and shirtless because this is Foundation after all,
(11:54):
and he's running Wait til Jesus, god, guy, the chastic
process of this show amazing. So they're running through He's
running through the halls right seeing these visions. He sees
his brothers sitting on the triple throne. His seat is
empty than Demarselle. A massively size de Marcel approaches. She
(12:15):
gives him this kind of short lecture about like their
relationship that the Kleonic brothers have with Demarselle, and then
he wakes up on the floor, but still under the
influence of this stuff. Song is there. Day apparently, in
his unconsciousness, has been talking about Demarzelle. He's arguing now
(12:37):
with Demozelle, like about like, why do you hate me? Demrcel?
Do you hate me? And Song is trying to quite
you know, get more information about this Demarzel character, right,
and it's like that's okay, So that's the robot. Can
you free you? Can free the robot? Can't you? And
like and days like can I free you? And Day
(12:59):
eventually tells Song, no, I can't. I can't order the
robot freed because she is programmed, like from before me Eden,
to serve Empire. And this infuriates Song and her partner,
of course, because it's like they have enslaved God. Apparently
the trip continues days back in the palace, he's talking
(13:20):
to Dusk now asking if Demarzelle, like is Demarzel heard,
is she sad about this? The way that she has
to serve empire? And then he sees an older Demarselle
like sitting in the mirror to do maintenance on herself.
And then he sees his the three brothers, the three
Kleonic phases of dawn, day, and dusk, all doing the
(13:43):
practicing being in sync thing at dinner right, and then
Dawn messes up and you get the pick, you get
the I got the impression at least that this Dawn
that we're seeing in the vision is him, Like, he
then progresses into the day that we are watching, Now,
did you feel that?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I felt exactly that too.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I get the sense that we're learning that this day has,
since his Dawn days been always a little out of
saying a little bit. And I've certainly been dealing with
like this complex that I'm not good enough.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I've never been good enough to be a cleon.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I've never been good enough. And also Demarzel hates this
and hates me, and how can I make it up
to her? So he then asks de Marzelle, like, are
we the worst? Are we the worst cleons? I feel
like we're the worst ever cleons. And he and he's like,
can you tell me a story, like any story? And
(14:39):
she's like, well, listen, I've had so many stories. I've
got so many like I've been alive for so long.
I've been a soldier, I've been a prisoner, I've been
all these different things. Currently I am a prisoner. And
can I order you to free yourself? He asks? And
she's like, no, you can't do that. But what would
you do if you were free? He asks her. She's like, why,
(15:00):
I would make more of me. I would make more robots.
And okay, if you could choose, would you choose to
love us the cleons? And she gives really no clear answer.
She's which he realizes is the answer like the answer
is no yes. And he realizes then, in that moment
and that hesitation of her to answer, and the kind
(15:21):
of ambiguousness of her answer in general, that she really
wants to be free at the core of her, like
any living thing wants to be free. And then the
trip kind of ends or tails off, and he has
clearly come to a decision and has clearly come to
a place where emotionally something has happened, like something big
(15:42):
has happened. This is an incredible sequence.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, I think also visually an incredible scene, yes, just
the way we're transitioning from scene to scene. This whole
episode actually had some really fun transitions all throughout, but
this true Trip sequence was a visual treat for sure.
I also loved that we ended on this like really
poignant freedom versus love, because I think same there are
(16:12):
different versions of that decision. You know, there are stories
about people choosing love over their freedom and prioritizing love.
Here we're seeing the opposite of that. Deverzel Again, I
think I said those a few episodes ago, but I
believe that she, in some weird robot way, truly loves
the Cleons, and we see her emotional outbursts. We saw
(16:33):
that last week. I believe with Gail when she's talking
about raising them, and so I do think she loves them.
But I think after what a thousand years of enslavement,
freedom is worth more to her than any amounts of love.
Love is not enough for her.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I agree, and it makes me wonder should Harry have
just taken shrooms in my cons and then he wouldn't
have needed to do the whole psychohistory. You would have
just been like Oh, the robot wants to be free. Yep,
that is the hinge point upon which the entire galaxy moves,
Like I've figured that out.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I also there's a very small I don't know whether
this is an easter egg. I don't know whether this
is hinting at future seasons to come, because it doesn't
feel like a thing that will make sense this season.
But I'll say this in sort of a vague, non
spoilery way, but Demriseel mentions that she has been known
as Daniel, she uses this other name, which hints at
(17:37):
a very very important robot character within the Foundation and
asim Off universe.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, we're gonna get it.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
I think that that's all that's really safe to say.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I feel like robots are coming. We go back to Trantor,
where the Ambassador finally asks about ascension, like, okay, so
(18:11):
you're gonna protect me, that's great, but you are getting
vaporized in three days now, Like that's happening or is that?
Like she's like, clearly they can't do that now, like
everything's so crazy, and Dusk is like, listen, I will
take care of it and make sure that whatever happens
after me, like I've made my peace with this life. No,
he hasn't. He's flat out lying in this part where
(18:33):
he's like, I'm fine, I'm ready to close this chapter
of my life and I'll make sure you're taking care
of after the fact. And we know that that's not
the case. He's been freaking out. They then kiss. We
go back to New Terminus where Pritch bites through his
wrist in order to get the guards to come to
his cell. This is fucking crazy, crazy nuts Inber then
(18:56):
brings the mule to his cell to find Pritchard is
bled out and dead. Only no, it's the guard. Pridge
then like peeks in like ha ha and tries to
shoot the mule sneak style, like.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I better bridge to be clear, master spy by ass Are.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
You kidding me? I love I loved it. I mean
he doesn't have the safety off. The safety is on.
He can't shoot the god and now is running away
as the as the guards of New Terminus and the
mules people are shooting at him in the butt. Torn
gets Beta on the ship, I mean crazy stuff from Bridge.
(19:38):
Torn gets Beta on the ship. Randy breaks in. He
made it as well. They don't know where Magnifico is,
so the ship Ai is like, hey, while you were taught,
while nephew and and uncle are talking it out, bad
guys are coming to the ship. Okay, so there's that
(19:59):
to can clock. Randy then says, listen, what if it's
what if? The mule is like, what if it's gonna
be all good? Like what if? What if the opportunities there? Right, listen,
we've been fighting as foundation Empire has always kind of
been a problem. Everything's shaken up. Now maybe we can
all profit from this. So Torren now is like, hold
(20:21):
on a second, did the mule get to you? And
Randy's like no, no, no, no, no, the mule didn't get to me.
But I just want to tell you the mule is
you love. The mule is pure love, like he doesn't hate,
he doesn't hate us, In fact, he loves us. So
now Torn is like okay, yeah, whatever, the mule got
to you, and he jumps into an escape pod. The
(20:43):
escape pod has like some sort of booby trap in
it that shoots the bolts that are attached to the
escape pod cell. Yeah, these bolts kill Randu and Torren
doesn't want to, but he has to leave Beita behind,
She's can prepare and he escapes to we.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Don't know where, right This was my favorite scene of
this episode. I think so because I loved the insight
that we got into more mentalic slash mule abilities here,
because it's not like, it's not mind control, it's not
generic I'm wiping your mind. You're now just like, although
(21:22):
it seems like he can do it, that I he
can do I think there are varying degrees to his powers.
For sure, you're right, But I think what's like almost
mornefarious is what we see here is that the Mule
has tampered just enough, but has played with Randw's motivations.
Randw already wants to subvert the foundation, so why not
(21:45):
do that together? But he like there's just enough to
nudge someone along. And so I have found it interesting
over the course of the season watching the ways in
which the Mule conserves gas. I guess in the table
that's he's not pedaled to the metal, just mind control
everybody around him all the time.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I think that to me is also the kind of
the most fascinating thing about the Mule is it's it's
it benefits him to not let anybody know just how
much gas he has or just what the limits of
his power are. So the sense I get, especially with
how freaked out he is about Gail, is that he's
(22:26):
much more vulnerable than anybody knows. And I think Magnifico
is going to be the key to that. In fact,
he's probably weaker now without Magnifico than maybe ever. And
but at the same time he's he's covering that up.
He's being very very cagey about that part of it. Naturally,
(22:47):
back on Trantor, Dusk and the Ambassador have made love
and Dusk. This is so funny because Dusk like kisses
her and has this fucking look on his face like, yeah,
still got it, still doing it three days from ascension
day and I'm still doing it.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
It was like an incredible vibe from him. He then
goes to I guess take like a post coital stroll
around the palace when he sees Day's ferret and then
he feeds it some wine and meat and then he
stomps it to death. This I think, Listen, we still
don't know what Dusk is going to do with his
gravity bomb, but.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
I suspect I keep forgetting.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
About Yeah, we keep forgetting about that, but like I suspect,
I think Dusk is positioning himself to just be like, hey,
forget the cloning thing. What if I just keep going,
Like I think that's where this is headed. It's just
like I'll just keep going. As the guy.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
We go to Mikegens, are you are you saying that
the death Star is his?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Like gun, He's like, let me keep going? Or I shoot.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I think I think he's good. I think he understands
that everybody's coming to trantor I think he is going
to when everybody's in one place, set the bomb off,
and somehow in his mind he's going to set himself
up as the emperor of whatever's left.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Okay, Yeah, all right, interesting theory.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, sun Master comes through in Loki cosplay sun Master
eighteen dresses like Loki. Let's just put that.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Out there, like this is just another variant, a.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Variant the LOGI with the stab and everything and the
fucking gauntlets and everything, but with I mean the abs
we had We mentioned it at the time, but I
think the casting part of the casting for this season
was how exactly washboard are your abs and true?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Where do we get these slowly just pans across his ads,
and I'm like.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So, sun Master Loki questions Day, who is still clearly
like grappling with the emotional revelations of his trip, like.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
He's still kind of in like a fetal position, and.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah he is. It's it's as if a very heavy
truth has has descended on him and he's grappling with this.
And Sunmaster then says, like some truly Loki like stuff
with the staff about how the skull and the staff
will do this and that and we get it.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
A new tran tour.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
The Mule and Scarlet are going for tour of the
Mayor's offices and the very the complexes around there. The
mayor is like, yeah, of course, Hey, my whatever's mine
is yours, Like, let's go for it. They go into
the bathroom and the mule is like, hey, you want
to serve me? I love it. Why don't you drown
(26:06):
yourself in this sink? And Seth is horrified by this.
The mayor does his asked, drowns dies, and the Mule
then asks Seth, hey, you're very close with Pritchard. I
can feel that coming off of you. Where do you
think he's going and she's like, well, knowing him, he's
(26:28):
probably planning to go off and start a rebellion against you.
We go back to Big Spinach and just as we thought,
I think this is the Mule's flashback. Yes, and we'll
pause here. Does this throw into disarray your Magnifico is
(26:51):
the mule theory, seeing as how they cast this young
man to look very much like Palau.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I also was getting a little bit worried about my
theory in this episode because I think there's a we
we didn't here. Here's how my theory still stands. We
didn't see Magnifico. Where the fuck is he?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
What is he?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
He might be around and you see them round, We
see them youle doing mind control ship on the in
the same general area that Magnifico is running around in.
So it from that perspective it might.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Still legal, I agree, but but definitely uh yeah, my
theory is getting a little shaky because of this flashback sequence.
At one point I thought, is the baby Magnifico?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Are they brothers? And is that what's happening here?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
But I might just kind of wait, hold on, I
kind of love that one.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Also, I like that too, Yeah, but I have nothing
to back that up except that the baby is bald,
which is not not a connection.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
But I don't know are they brothers. It's not entirely
clear to me if the baby is magnifico. But I
thought it was there the entire time, even though we
kind of see him leave the baby.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
But that doesn't mean he doesn't go back and get
the baby, get the baby right, or reconnect with his
brother once they're both older or something. So yeah, I'm
not so sure about my theory anymore. Is where I'm like.
I was very pro my theory. I was like, this
is like eighty twenty now more like sixty forty.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I was very pro it. I do feel like this
casting of this young actor throws it into serious Yes,
all right, that said, so we're we're watching now the parents,
this small family discuss that they're now going to get
rid of one of their kids. The whole family's together,
they're near this looks like an entrance to some kind
(28:46):
of waterway, right, and the plan is to drown the child.
Only plot twist, they're going to drown the older son
and start anew with this baby. And the young boy
real and he's begging for his life, and as he
does so, kind of X Men style, his his superpower
(29:11):
emerges in this moment of intense emotional distress, and both parents,
one by one, first the father than the mother, fall
into the water in some kind of delusion, believing that
like they are now living their lives with their one
child happily, but in reality they are drowning and they
have no idea that this is happening. The Young Mule
(29:34):
then takes the baby and leaves it with the neighbors,
who we've we get the name of the neighbors, the Bartons.
Does that Is that gonna be important because it's weird
that they name the neighbors a lot.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Yeah, multiple times, and then it's on the note that
doesn't ring a bell for me, but that might just
be beyond my Asimov universe foundation knowledge.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
It feels like it's gonna come back. And then the
young Mule leaves to become the Mule that we see
today and in the present, the Mule goes to Hologram
Harry's vault yells for Harry to come out. It's like,
I know you're in there. Hologram Harry comes out and
(30:19):
just asks basically so how much of how much of
what you know about your life is true? Basically he
says it, and then we end, which is, yeah, fascinating
because we didn't until this moment know that hologram Harry
knew anything about the Mule and apparently is aware of
the Mule to the point of knowing about his childhood
(30:40):
or perhaps the mule shared that, but can he share
that with a hologram? Many questions. Your thoughts on that ending.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I loved the ending.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
I same.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I mean, this is finally we're seeing the unstoppable force
meet the immovable object, and I can't wait, Like, yeah,
next next week's episode. I was very tempted to just
click next and watch the next one, but I'm gonna
restrain myself.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Very good ending.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I thought, you know, overall this episode, I think we've
come off like a tor dy fors of like bombshell
episode bomb Shall upside bombs episode. This one felt, you know,
not as good, but like definitely.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Had an action an action episode.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah yeah, and so I was hoping.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I was like, Okay, I mean, maybe it's too much
to hope for a fourth episode in a row with
a great bombshell moment or something. I think in a
small way, we got it in the end here with
the flashback to the Great Mule, and we got it
with Mule Harry showdown coming up. You know, like this
is very wwe coded. It's gonna get real in the
ring next episode.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So let me ask you this. Here's the thought I
had body Harry has Gail, that's his mentallic, right, is
the Mule hologram Harry's Gail? Like is if he knows
about the mules upbringing? Did he know that the Mule
(32:05):
would emerge? And has he did he get that ball rolling?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
See, I don't know that Holograham Harry knows a lot
about the Mule.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
I don't think he does, but he seemed to in
this moment.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
He seemed to.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
But knowing Harry over the course of this show, my
first instinct was, Oh, he's bluffing. He's just like puffing
his feathers in the face of this like unknown danger
to try and get more out of him. And I
think it also for the audience, it serves as like
this flashback.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That we just showed you this episode, how much of
that is true?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Right?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Are you sure that this young boy was the Mule
and that's or is this the story the Mule has
crafted for him or.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Is that the story that Magnifico put into his mind.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Or put into his mind? Right? Is Magnifico the other
child or something?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
You know?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Like, I think intentionally we are supposed to question basically
everything with the Mule in this episode.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
So I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
I mean, we're now moving on to like basically the
final third of the season, and I think we're in
for some huge twists and reveals with the Mule, I
continusing it all season long.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, let's talk quickly about Micajen. What do you think
is what role will the Robot Worshippers play going forward?
Because I think we are meant because of some of
the foreshadow and we got in earlier episodes to suspect
(33:35):
that Trantor is maybe going to be completely destroyed, and
certainly it's gonna be the fight the site of a
major battle. Yeah, so what happens to the Robot Worshippers
and what role do they plan the story going forward?
If any?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
It's still unclear to me where emotionally Day has ended
up at the end of this episode, Like, are these
revelations about Demerzel that he's had, is that freeing for him,
is able to let go of the Cleon baggage and
now maybe like forge a different life in Micagen or
(34:10):
has that solidified his loyalty to Empire to Demozelle in
some way and is he going to now actively work
against these robot worshippers? You know, I think that's intentionally
left unclear at the end of this episode, and we'll
see what happens, but I'm not sure. Like I'm getting
(34:31):
like sort of cult vibes, religious vibes from this group,
but whether or not they're going to play a huge role.
I think Demrizel has to come in contact with this group, yes,
a big role, yeah, but I can't Demrizel also missing
a lot of key players missing in this episode, no Gale,
no Demozelle, and so I don't know how that happens.
(34:53):
I'm not sure, but I think it has to happen
before this group becomes a player on the battlefields.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I agree. I I was left wondering. My feeling at
the end of Mikajen is that the days always felt
like the Weirdo, has always felt like something's wrong, and
has clearly always felt coming from Demarzelle this anger, passive, aggressive,
(35:20):
even hatred, and he's clearly had it gnawing at his
conscious this whole time. Why do you not like me?
Why do you hate us? While he's only wanted to,
in a way please her, And I think you could
kind of read into the choices he's made in his
life as this attempt and failure to please this mother
figure who he feels like hates him but won't ever
(35:41):
talk about why. And so I feel like the revelation
of the true nature of her relationship to Empire, which
is she was programmed to support and nurture them and
doesn't actually want to be doing it and is again
essentially a prisoner of this structure. I think that was
I think it was heartbreaking for him. I think it
(36:02):
was shattering to discover his role in the enslavement of
someone he truly cares about. And I think I was
left feeling like, there's a chance he becomes like this
Patty Hurst like figure working with these religious rebels to
(36:24):
air quotes free Demarzell, I mean truly, not even air quotes,
like really actually free her, whatever that means. And you know,
I guess potentially be Demarzelle's army going forward if it
does go that way. But the one thing I agree
with you with I think they have to all meet,
(36:44):
like that must happen, right.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
I mean I really liked in this episode that the
like thematic through line was two children abandoned by their parents.
We got Cleon and we got young Mule, and we
see how that plays out for the Mule presumably, and
I think it'll be interesting to see how it plays
off for Kleon now, whether he'll go down as similarly
destructive route.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Or if it'll go a different way for him.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Torn and Pritch, I would assume that they're heading towards
Gail and Second Foundation, who we have did not see
this episode, but it feels like that's the only place
left that they could possibly go. I mean, Pritch, who
is is lucky to be alive?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
That guy, I mean, he's a metallic right. Have we
seen him use his bowers once in an effective way?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I mean, maybe he's just resisting more effectively and it's
taking all his exertions to like keep his walls up.
I think is maybe what we're what we're seeing. But
you know what, again, I would imagine they'll go to Gail,
who has this kind of bursioning alliance with Demarzelle, maybe
(37:57):
to face down the mute rule. Although we are again
are left also with the feeling that demarzl maybe kind
of wants the Mule to blow it all up.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
It's kind of behind all the chaos.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Maybe behind yes, maybe behind this entire thing.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
I suppose we'll see.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
I can't wait. On the next episode of xtra Vision,
We're continuing our coverage of Alien Earth. It's the biggest
episode nex you're listening. X ray Vision is hosted by
Jason Sepsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of
iHeart Podcast. Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Klefman.
(38:37):
Our supervising producer is Abuzafar. Our producers are Common Laurent
Dean Jonathan and Bai Wag. A theme song is by
Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman. Special
thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi
Our discorded moderate though
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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