The Missing Piece
Phara is a young woman who was born on the forest world of Anacreon. When her world is destroyed, thanks to the Invictus blinking into the atmosphere, she sees this as a blessing. This brief flashback cuts us back to the present, as a scarred and bitter Phara is dead-set on using this as a weapon against the empire.
Phara reminds Salvor why she’s with them, with plans to navigate the ship straight into Trantor. If she doesn’t? Well, the hunters will kill everyone left on Terminus – starting with her mother.
Meanwhile, Gaal continues to reel over her “chosen one” prophecy. She can predict the future, and is able to “feel” the future. She’s been haunted by visions of a wave washing over her since early in the season, but she’s been trying to find mathematical equations to explain all of this. Hari claims that it’s actually a premonition and her visions are beyond the science she wields. ..
Gaal has had enough of the Foundation’s secrecy and lies. She believes her story was supposed to end on Foundation but with Hari refusing to speak up about what’s really going on, she decides to leave.
Gaal decides to obliterate everything in her wake first, redistributing the heat signatures. That way, the information onboard will be completely fried. Eventually Hari lets her go, as Gaal gets back in her pod and deciding to head home. It will take 138 imperial years to get there, which is enough time for those on the planet to forget she’s a wanted woman. ..
Just before Gaal left, Hari claims that a sister organization needs to be set up alongside Foundation in order to prevent everything from slipping into oblivion.
We then jump ahead to the Outpost, where Hugo is working on a project. He’s been working on this project for a while and it’s going well. However, he gets a call from someone important and he has to go back to his office.
Salvor is informed of the jump’s timer and its 29 minutes before it jumps. Before that, there’s a machine gun to contend with; a rogue defence mechanism in the form of a solid metal gun. This is worth remembering because Phara takes it out with her bow and arrow.
Salvor slips into the bridge, turning a gun on Phara momentarily to shut the door and bide themselves some time away from the Anacreons. With time running out before the jump, Salvor learns the previous captain of the Invictus killed themselves, leaving behind a bloodstained smear of “exo” on the white globe in the middle of the room.
The captain may have been betrayed by someone or be a reference to someone outside the galaxy. However, the most important part here comes from rerouting the ship to make sure it doesn’t smash into Trantor. Salvor scrambles for control, determined to re-route the ship back to Terminus in order to save her people.
Brother Day is preparing to travel through the spiral. First, he has to step through the difficult pathway and make sure he doesn’t drop to both knees. Once that’s completed, he’ll arrive at a cave, with instructions to immerse himself in a special pool of water that will give him a vision. Every vision is personal and unique, allowing a panel of Zephyrs to then interpret what he’s seen to see if Day is really worthy.
As Day continues down the spiral, he is helped by another wanderer, who gives him advice and even stops him from dropping to both knees.
As the road becomes more and more treacherous, this wanderer gives up, losing strength to continue on as Day proceeds by himself. He makes his way through the sand and with his knees buckling and skulls mocking every which way, Day eventually descends into the cave. With feet wobbling, he plunges into the water just as foretold. ..
After making it through the spiral and returning to the Zephyrs, he speaks of a vision involving dust circling around him, forming a stem with three large petals. As he speaks this story to The Mother, The Maiden and the Crow, it seems the three petals may be tied to the mythology of the birthroot flower. Now, this is a holy vision of three (Day, Dusk and Dawn) who appear to be tied to this prophetic vision. ..
The Zephyrs have proven themselves and declared that no one will stand in their way, leaving Day free to prevent a possible coup from Halima on Maiden. ..
Halima is packing her things to leave after her chances of becoming the next ruler of the galaxy are extinguished. Demerzel, an android who has been following Halima’s story, sits with her and tries to convince her to change course. Halima reveals that she is an AI and was programmed to follow Demerzel’s commands. ..
The most recent command is to assassinate Halima, with a poisoned method. Given the pair’s holding hands all this time, Halima pulls away, realizing her time is at an end.
Savor the moment as you read this story, as Salvor uses her luck to move the ship and avoid being shot by Phara. She believes that everything has been foretold and is just going to try and hope for the best. However, just before she prepares to launch, Lewis is shot dead by Phara, who manages to make it into the room. It’s too late though and Invictus jumps.
Meanwhile, Demerzel speaks to Day and tells him the deed has been done. She also reveals that she had a vision too, which Day mocks “a robot had a vision?” he quizzes. For her, it changed everything. She heavily implies that Day has just lied his way through his visions, given Brother Day was aware of the significance surrounding the ancient flower. As Demerzel leaves, we’re left with the realization that Day has tricked everyone on Maiden.
The Episode Review
The day’s journey around the spiral are backdropped by Gaal, who learns a little more about her “chosen one” status before deciding to head back home to see her folks. 132 years in the future. Despite being wanted and essentially smuggled out because it was dangerous of her to stay. So why is she just heading back home again? Gaal’s part in all this seems a little inconsequential at this point but we’ll have to wait and see where that goes.
The Hugo Awards are a yearly award given to the best science fiction and fantasy writing in the United States. This year’s award went to the show “Hugo,” which was blasted out of space without mentioning that it could have had rockets attached to its suit. The plot line involving the Invictus is pretty silly, and it just reinforces the scripting and plot issues this show has. This same show, as a reminder, that’s spent 45 million dollars on production.
The plot of this show is slowly deteriorating, as the characters are not that likable and the political intrigue is taking up most of the show.
The foundation has been a disappointment and given the show is aiming to blast through 80 episodes in total, it’ll be interesting to see how many passengers are left aboard when it reaches that illustrious number.
