All episodes of any given TV show, no matter what genre or what story they are telling, revolve around a single theme that changes every week but is still relevant to the overall message. And that’s exactly what happens in “The Stress of Her Regard,” the fourth episode of Foundation’s third season—it’s all about escaping. This includes the desire to escape, both physically and metaphorically, and the plans to do so, whether they are successful or not.
The episode actually starts with a dream of escaping, even though the character who dreams it hasn’t realized it yet—or better yet, doesn’t allow herself to. Demerzel is shown in the opening scene of “The Stress of Her Regard” deep in conversation with the Luminist Zephyr she has called to Trantor specifically to hear her confessions and her woes. She goes through all the interventions she did during the history of the Empire, all the times she stepped in to adjust things to its favor. A long, long life of servitude in which she feels lost and trapped.
It’s hard to choose a favorite character in Foundation, I think, because they’re all incredibly compelling and fascinating—the type of fascinating that makes you want to pick apart their psyche brain cell by brain cell.
Sure, I might be partial to Hari Seldon because of Jared Harris-related motives, but Demerzel is also truly an incredible character to watch in action. Not just physically, with the stiffness that immediately marks her as something other, but also mentally. She feels like she’s always the same, and yet, as the Zephyr points out, she has changed over the course of her existence. She’s terrified of what is going to happen to her and her purpose should the Empire fall, but it’s clear a part of her also longs for it, because it could mean her freedom. Her escape.
Over on the Second Foundation, there’s someone who doesn’t want to escape, which is still relevant to the overall theme of the episode—Gaal. She knows her confrontation with the Mule is coming one way or another and that there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.
Pritcher, who we find out has been a double agent for the Second Foundation all this time and is also Gaal’s lover, is not entirely convinced, but Gaal moves forward with that kind of certainty only the main character of a story has. She knows what her destiny is, so much so that she even tries to distance herself from Pritcher because she is absolutely certain of its inevitability—even though Pritcher is just as stubborn as she is, so he has no intentions of letting her fight on her own.
I particularly love the callback to Gaal’s habit of calming themselves with numbers—either by counting primes or simply turning everything around her into numbers, something she understands like no one else. It shows that even after the literal decades she lived through and the growth she did there’s still a well of fear in her, which makes her human and therefore that much more compelling as a leading character.
That, and the fact that she does insane things like going around and essentially kidnapping important people like Brother Dawn. The two are discovered at their usual meeting place and are left with no choice but to run away on Gaal’s ship, presumably back to the safety of the Second Foundation—and I for one can’t wait to see just what will happen once Empire physically sets foot there.
Another key element to remember from this episode is that the original Foundation’s ambassador is told the Empire actually has the first Prime Radiant—and Brother Dusk shows it to her, eventually, showing her the Third Crisis and the terrible menace it poses to everything.
And then there’s Brother Day. Again, always the show-stealer, always the one with some of the most iconic scenes and the rawest lines. We learn that he has not let go of the idea of Song, and that he intends to follow up with his plan to escape the palace—except that this time he’s going to do it so that he can descend into the bowels of Trantor to look for the Mycogen sector and Song’s people.
Earlier in the episode, we saw him seeking an audience with the very first Cleon when he wore Brother Day’s face—to ask him for more information about the Mycogen sector and its cult. And we learned, alongside Day, that Cleon has descended there to steal something the cult considered a sacred relic. A set of robot tools, the very same ones Demerzel uses for her upkeep and maintenance. And now Day intends to return there, one of those tools a homage that he hopes will buy him entry into one of the most dangerous areas of Trantor.
Before, though, he has to actually leave the palace. He does so with the help of the guard he had won to his cause in the very first episode of this season. And of course, that guard has a very short life beyond the moment he brings Day outside the palace—because he was always going to betray him. Just as Day was always going to betray him in return, probably. That’s just who Day is, even in this new iteration of his character. There will probably always be something very brutal at the core of him, replicated time and time again across the centuries from the very first Cleon.
And he leaves with what has to be the best line of the entire episode, worth half a grade all by itself. “No one can escape Empire. Not even Empire.” And how right that statement is. Demerzel can’t escape Empire. Day and Dawn have tried, but we can be sure people will be hot on their heels as soon as the next episode starts playing. And Dusk is escaping too—from the inevitability of becoming Brother Darkness and following the fixed rhythms of life of the entire Genetic Dynasty.
Overall, “The Stress of Her Regard” is a really good episode, enjoyable like all Foundation episodes ultimately are. The pacing still feels slow, as if all the chess pieces are slotting into their proper place, and it might raise some concerns over just how long it will take to reach some sort of narrative climax—if it will be satisfying when it comes, or rushed. But then again, the preparation of it is so well done, well written, and well acted that it remains an incredible story to experience.
Episode grade: B+
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