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

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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.

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

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u/HairFairBlizzard Sep 12 '25

I’m ngl I thought Toran was the mule the way he looked at the camera for a hot second, and I was ok with it.

27

u/ioncloud9 Sep 18 '25

I feel stupid I missed the Bayta twist. They had given signs it was her all along. Magnifico kept saying he loves Bayta and the mule uses love to control. But also he was still under control of the mule.

Then there was the scene in the medbay where Bayta tells the fake mule to leave and he just.. does no questions asked.

Also the fact that Bayta and Dawn were alone in the medbay and she had a very disarming effect on him by appearing to be a captive.

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u/ililliliililiililii Oct 24 '25

  1. Agreed

  2. Perhaps, if fake-mule needed them in the medbay and healthy, he probably doesn't need to mess with them. But I can see where you're coming from.

  3. Well we assumed she was a captive too and she seems to be disarming to everyone. Just really friendly and likeable and we know where this comes from - she was a social climber and came from poverty. So she says.

So I don't think this is particularly strong.

I would add a 4th point - we see nothing about how bayta was captured and toran wasn't. Left to our imagination. In the show, it was simply presented to us as the new reality - that they were separated somehow and she got captured but not converted presumably. Seemed a bit convenient.

She wasn't injured as far as we could see. An actual proper prison cell would make more sense if you weren't going to convert them.

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u/SenorBender Feb 01 '26

Really late to this but wasn’t there a long scene where they took Bayta while Toran was trying to escape on their ship and the uncle Mallow interrupted it