Foundation recap: Everything that happened in first season of Apple TV+ sci-fi show

Apple TV+'s hit sci-fi series Foundation will soon return for its second season, which adapts Isaac Asimov's iconic novel series of the same name.

The show features an extensive cast of characters who are part of an elaborate plot told over multiple timelines, which means fans might need a reminder of what happened in the lead up to the new episodes.

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Here is everything that you need to know.

Foundation season 1: The key characters

Before elaborating on Foundation's season 1 plot, here are the characters that are the most important to the story and will continue to play a key role in season 2.

Gaal Dornick

The show opens with Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), a gifted mathematician from the water-planet of Synnax who earns an apprenticeship with the expert in the field, Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), on the planet Trantor.

Gaal is an important part of Hari's plan as she is able to understand Psychohistory at the same level as him, and she can also use the Prime Radiant which uses mathematics to predict the future.

Hari Seldon

The elusive leader of the Foundation, Hari Seldon is a genius in mathematics who fathered the field of Psychohistory and has predicted the fall of Empire and has made preparations to protect humanity by establishing the colony the show is named after.

The Cleon Dynasty

The Cleon dynasty, also known as Empire, are the three clones that rule over the galaxy. They are comprised of leader Brother Day (Lee Pace), his future successor Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) and his predecessor Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann).

All three are clones of Cleon I who ensured his succession by putting the pieces in place to keep the dynasty going. They are helped in this process by robot Demerzel (Laura Birn)

Salvor Hardin

The warden of Foundation, Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) helps lead the people of Foundation after it is established on the planet Terminus.

Foundation season 1 recap

Gaal Dornick earns an apprenticeship with Hari Seldon after solving a complex mathematics problem and arrives on the planet of Trantor, where the Cleon dynasty rule. Upon arriving she meets Hari's right-hand man Raych (Alfred Enoch) who takes her to meet Hari who teaches her how to use the Prime Radiant.

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The apprenticeship it turns out will be a short one because Hari has used Psychohistory to predict the Empire will fall and when it does an age of darkness will descend upon the galaxy. The pair are arrested and forced to face trial by Brother Day and it is there that Hari explains what will happen in the future.

He tells Empire that if he is allowed to continue working on Psychohistory then he will be able to shorten the dark ages from 30,000 years to a thousand.

As the three rulers contemplate what to do with Hari the planet's star bridge is destroyed by terrorists and millions of people die, as a result Brother Day exiles Harry, Gale and his followers to the planet of Terminus on the edge of the galaxy.

This is actually what Hari had predicted, and he has already got plans in place to establish the Foundation there, a colony that will survive the age of darkness and take Empire's place in future.

The journey to Terminus will take four years and on the way Gaal and Raych fall in love, and even prepare for having children when the Foundation is established. But things take a dark turn when Raych kills Hari on in order to keep Hari's plan from failing. Gaal finds them as Raych stabs Hari, and so Raych takes her and sends her off in a pod out into space.

Back on Trantor, Demerzel identifies that the terrorists involved in the attack on the star bridge were from the planets Anachreon and Thespis, leading Brother Day to kill those caught and later bombing both planets so they could serve as an example for the rest of the galaxy.

35 years later, the Foundation is up and running on Terminus and warden Salvor Hardin is called by the mysterious vault that was discovered on the planet. She begins to see visions of Gaal and decides to investigate, but during the process she is kidnapped by Anachreons.

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At the same time, Gaal is reawakened from her cryosleep and she discovers she has arrived at a ship that is bound for Hari's home planet. A hologram of Hari is also revealed to be on the ship as well.

On Terminus, the Anachreon leader Phara (Kubbra Sait) and her people attacks the Foundation, and Phara reveals she blames Hari's predictions for the destruction of her home planet.

Meanwhile, Brother Day visits the planet Maiden to meet with the people living there whose ruler recently died. The Cleons hope they can sway the election of their new leader.

Back at the Foundation, Salvor, her father Abbas (Clarke Peters) and boyfriend Hugo (Daniel Macpherson) attack the Anachreons. Abbas sacrifices himself to kill a group of them.

When Salvor and Hugo try to take his spaceship they are ambushed by Phara and her forces who make the couple take them into space where they can gain access to a dormant space ship, the Invictus. The spaceship is a planet killer, and Phara wants to use it to destroy Trantor.

On Maiden, Brother Day agrees to go on a pilgrimage to prove he, as a clone, has a soul so that he can influence who becomes the planet's leader.

He walks the Spiral and is able to reach its centre, but when he is there he does not have a vision which proves he doesn't have one. Despite this, Day makes up a vision and his schemes to sway the election works.

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Gaal, meanwhile, realises that she came across Raych killing Hari because she was able to feel the future. Hari reveals that he has plans to establish a second Foundation on his home planet, but Gaal decides she can't follow him anymore and uses her escape pod on a journey to her home planet, she will arrive 138 years in the future.

On Trantor, Brother Dawn embarks on a secret relationship and reveals to his lover Azura (Amy Dyer) that he is secretly colour-blind.

Later, he learns that Brother Dusk is aware of this and he tries to escape with Azura who reveals herself to be part of a spy organisation that plan to kill him and replace him with a copy that is loyal to their cause.

Brother Dusk thwarts the plan and kills the terrorists, but he takes Azura alive in order to face Brother Day upon his return from the Maiden. Day kills everyone who ever knew her or had a DNA connection to her while she is forced to live the rest of her days rotting in a prison cell.

On the other side of the galaxy, Salvor, Hugo and several Foundation members successfully take control of the Invictus, with Hugo calling for back-up from his fellow Thespins.

When they arrive back on Terminus, Salvor realises everyone has been rendered unconscious by the vault. Salvor uses the Prime Radiant to trigger the vault, and when everyone wakes up the Anachreons and Thespins face off as their rivalry is still strong after Brother Day pitted them against each other when he destroyed their planets.

Before the war can escalate, though, Salvor kills Phara and Hari appears from the vault and persuades the groups that they are not enemies, Empire is and the Foundation's First Crisis is resolved. Hari also explains that when he was killed by Rayche his body became the vault.

On Trantor, Brother Day and Dusk argue over what to do with Dawn as he is no longer a perfect copy of Cleon I. Demerzel kills Brother Dawn for them, and they learn that Cleon I's DNA was altered which means that all clones thereafter will not be exact copies.

Meanwhile, Salvor discovers that she is actually the daughter of Gaal and Raych and she decides to go out and find her mother.

She goes into cryosleep on the journey. When Gaal lands on Synnax she comes across Salvor and wakes her up, Salvor gives her the Prime Radiant from Terminus and reveals she is her daughter.

Foundation season 2 premiers on Friday, 14 July on Apple TV+.

Watch the trailer for Foundation season 2.