ShippersAreEvil

So, everyone of significance is now in play, even if they may not all be playing the same game.

While the - presumably - agent of the Second Foundation got his a boot up his rear, the less obvious move by the Galactic TikTok team seems to have yielded results, although I'd say to never look a gift Mule in the mouth.

Demerzel continues to play a long game, but I can't help but suspect she told a big fat fib to Brother Dude...er Day. Dawn got a lesson in Big Boy politics, but I reckon Dusk is the fly in the ointment. He's dangerous and not just because of the Death St...er Black Hole. And that's enough mixed metaphors.

The producers of Silo said they are deliberately messing with book readers - and I can't but help conclude that Foundation is using the same play book.

More strength to their arm. Great stuff.

All but one of the major players is now on the move, plus a revisit from Kalle to Hari, to whisk him off to....well, I have a hunch.

Bayta and Taron rock up and show us that it is not just Brother Day that is decadent and indifferent - so naturally they get press ganged to help suss out The Mule.

Whoever thought to cast Troy Kotsur as Preem deserves a pay raise, given that we know much earlier than in the books exactly who he is - and that's just fine, thanks to this inspired choice.

Gaal is all grown up now - not the callow youth lured from a doomed world, but a powerful mentalic and psychohistorian. I can't help but suspect that the Three Gaal Trick will prove significant at some point... (And nice to see Thalis given a break-neck maturation process as we are brought up to speed. Continuity FTW!).

Even the most dull-witted NTBer must grasp that this was never a show about brainy people discussing big things, while everything important happens somewhere else, and that it was the ideas and their implications Asimov was interested in.

Rich, complex storytelling that is so much more than a puzzled to be solved - if you have seen any SF with telepathy or telekinesis then it owes a debt to Asimov. And - just like he did with the Three Laws - he explored implications, never just using it as a plot device. What if someone, instead of being measured by the model, can *shape* the model - but more to the point, what might that mean for identity?

Every single character struggling with their identity - except *that* one, and if that doesn't end up being important I'll eat my hat.

Now, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

...the single most important line in the entire episode, right at the start and so throwaway that even us avid book readers could have missed it.

The Empire in decay, the hierarchy of Foundation in complacent "yeah, yeah, Hari's got a plan" mode, Demerzel's very *very* long game gets lampshaded (*that* law!).

It's almost as if the producers and writers have read and studied the books in detail and know what they are doing...

The look is outrageously beautiful, literally everybody is trying to out-snark everyone else and,..,.oh, yeah - the human race might be trundling towards its end.

And there is one last shocker to come for those who don't know the books. I sort of envy them.