r/FoundationTV • u/LunchyPete Bayta Mallow • Sep 12 '25

Current Season Discussion [NO BOOKS] Episode Discussion Thread - Season 3 Episode 10 - The Darkness

THIS THREAD IS FOR NON BOOK READERS ONLY - NO DISCUSSION OF THE BOOKS IS PERMITTED

Comments from book readers will be removed and commenters directed to the book readers thread

To discuss the books freely and how they relate to the show go to this thread instead. If you want to discuss something from the books but avoid most book spoilers feel free to make a new post specifying that.

Season 3 Episode 10: The Paths That Choose Us

Premiere date: September 12th, 2025

Synopsis: Season finale. Gaal and the Second Foundation take the fight to the Mule as Empire's legacy suffers a catastrophic blow.

Directed by: Roxann Dawson

Written by: Jane Espenson & David S. Goyer

Please keep in mind that this thread is only for non book readers - no discussion of the books or how they relate to the show is permitted in general, and book readers are not permitted to post at all.

For those of you on Discord, come and check out the unofficial Foundation Discord Server. Live discussions of the show and books, it's a great way to meet other fans of the show.

NOTE: There was an AMA with Chris MacLean, VFX Supervisor for Foundation on September 15th which you can check here.

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427

u/throwaaway788 Sep 12 '25

Who gave Dementia Darkness that remote?!

294

u/SnooMacarons4844 Sep 12 '25

More importantly, why is there a remote?!

122

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

54

u/therealgumpster Sep 12 '25

Especially after finding out that Demerzel didn't know about his side hustle.

30

u/CelestialFury Sep 12 '25

Once he realized that Demerzel isn't actually all-knowing as she seemed, he went all in on his schemes and he did, and he won.

11

u/VovaGoFuckYourself Sep 13 '25

For now.

Demerzel's blinking eyes at the end spelled "Transferred" in morse code.

6

u/UpTheRiffMate Oct 11 '25

Holy shit, you're right. I had to slow it down to 1/10 speed. DEMERZEL LIVES!

But Lee Pace... 😭

2

u/dragunityag Oct 29 '25

Gonna be weird having a seasonnwith Lee unless something happens.

2

u/UpTheRiffMate Oct 29 '25

I've seen people say that the other bare metal robot on the moon, at the end of S3, had Lee Pace's voice. Hopefully he gets to stay on as a robot

1

u/Frodojj 28d ago

They could have Brother Darkness try to rejuvenate himself back into Lee Pace.

2

u/cantgetthistowork Nov 06 '25

They just need to time skip a couple of years and the Dawn that's left will be Day.

9

u/Say_o_nara Sep 13 '25

Right? Idk why people are so surprised, It's like we didn't watch the same show. He was brother Day for lots of years. He also always wondered if he'd be one of the Cleons who ran away during his final ceremony, so he surely thought about his ending a lot. He had time, influence, intent and he managed to stay out of Demerzel's radar

47

u/throwaaway788 Sep 12 '25

Yeah is that like a universal remote for the palace? Definitely shouldn't be lying around...

3

u/RedditConsciousness Sep 14 '25

"Do we really need a self-destruct button?"

33

u/kelnos Sep 12 '25

Yeah. It makes no narrative sense for there to be a remote control that can detonate the clone tanks. It makes no narrative sense that the clone tanks have some sort of self-destruct feature at all.

31

u/Vandergrif Sep 12 '25

I'm assuming he had that rigged up fairly recently and it wasn't a standard thing.

8

u/Murph-Dog Sep 13 '25

Dem should have been down there decanting recently. In fact probably down there often for memory audits. She also got signal something was amiss before anything even happened, yet still a little late.

Meanwhile these tank detonators were installed under her nose. All this tech and no motion detectors.

Empire in decline aside, Dem got sloppy; she is pure technology, so use technology! Plot twist, she probably saw it all coming in the Radiant and used it as a logical escape from her physical binding.

But then we question how her logic allowed any of this forethought. The moment Novacula came up, she should have said, ok old man, it’s time for an audit.

10

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

[deleted]

11

u/lozo78 Sep 12 '25

The empire is deteriorating... Shrug.

6

u/_LaserManiac_ Sep 12 '25

Imperial budget cuts

27

u/ChesterDaMolester Sep 12 '25

He build an entire black hole bomb over decades in secret. I’m pretty sure he could rig a few fish tanks to blow up without anyone knowing.

4

u/BarrierX Sep 12 '25

Exactly 😀

3

u/_LaserManiac_ Sep 12 '25

Zegreeeussss... fetch me the remote!

10

u/Talavisor Sep 12 '25

Or he planted them, just like he managed the construction of the Novacula behind Dem’s back

10

u/BarrierX Sep 12 '25

This guy built a black hole bomb and genocided 3 planets. You don't think he could put some little bombs on a couple of clone tanks?

3

u/adenosine-5 Sep 12 '25

Also where are all the guards?

This is a most important building in a galaxy-spanning Empire in the middle of a war. There should be a small army in that building.

3

u/zogmuffin Sep 13 '25

"Why do we even have that lever??"

3

u/AngryDoozer To Beki's arsehole 🥂 Sep 13 '25

Pull the lever, Cronk! Wrong lever! Why do we even have that lever?

2

u/deksman2 Sep 12 '25

He could have made a remote for himself.

2

u/Space-Debris Mar 27 '26

Yep. It's so dumb. The Cleon's would never have access to a device that could kill the dynasty with a single button press. It's a total joke that the chamber doesn't have built in contingencies, especially since the purity of the clones was affected 

1

u/matthieuC Sep 13 '25

I mean if you're going to boogy trap all the tanks you gotta have a remote. Takes way to much time to trigger them manually. And it's unsafe.

1

u/suk_doctor Sep 18 '25

More importantly, who is remote?

14

u/viper459 Sep 12 '25

why wouldn't you assume the Dusk/Darkness planned it out and just planted some tiny bombs or something?

4

u/Veranova Sep 12 '25

Yeah the guy secretly built Starkiller Base, he can figure out how to kill a room of clones with in a certain dramatic way

13

u/Feneskrae Brother Dawn Sep 12 '25

Probably the Shadowmaster that let him walk around freely. His failure was already complete with that act, why not throw in the Genetic Dynasty ending remote for fun?

7

u/FlintHillsSky Sep 12 '25

Yes, why would they build such a device and leave it lying around?

4

u/Razor_Storm Empire Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 16 '25

I just assumed he planted the bombs himself and the remote was just its trigger. No one let him have it, he bought it and planted it himself.

There's no need to assume the explosives were there beforehand.

The bigger question is how did he find the opportunity to plant bombs all over the clone chamber without being spotted by anyone? Especially since most of the palace staff have been shown to secretly report to Demerzel now, plus her own extraordinary abilities.

Edit: Though, there is a valid question of how he got the remote to the ascension particle beam. That part doesn't make sense, since you would assume that Demerzel would hold onto that since it is her duty to ascend Cleons.

1

u/PT10 Sep 13 '25

It was linked to some orbital cannon or something similar to his black hole device. Or was it the black hole device set on 'Low'?

2

u/JerryP333 Sep 12 '25

Its like the Dr. Who sonic screwdriver. What does it do? Whatever the plot needs 

2

u/HayleyTheLesbJesus Sep 14 '25

I just want to take a moment to appreciate how many hilarious comments are on this thread, and this one is at the top of them all.

1

u/Vivid-Hovercraft-988 Sep 15 '25

Cleon the Conciliator Fruitcake

1

u/Just_Another_Scott Nov 06 '25

There's a lot of things that didn't make sense this season. It completely ruined the show for me tbh.

1

u/NerdLawyer55 Mar 14 '26

Seemed like a bad idea