Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Foundation Season 3 Episode 5.Episode 5 of the hit AppleTV+ sci-fi show Foundation just dropped, and it showed what has become a glaring weakness in Season 3 and the show overall. For everything ‘Foundation’ gets right — from the brilliant world building, awe-inspiring special effects, and taut storytelling — it is failing one of its most integral characters — Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell). After almost three full seasons, we don’t know much more about Gaal than when she left Synnax as a young girl.

Twenty-five episodes in and sitting halfway into the sweeping story’s third season, it feels like there is so much more to this character that we have watched travel to Trantor, grow up on Terminus, and become Dr. Hari Seldon’s (Jared Harris) trusted, brilliant protégé and confidante whom he trusts with the fate of the galaxy. And with cryostasis, she spans several centuries. For a young woman who has lived through hundreds of years and is so vital as the main protagonist on the show, Gaal feels like a character who has only just begun to become semi-interesting. Remember, this is a young woman who has lost everything to the Cleonic dynasty and Empire. There is a lot to work with on Gaal, but the show isn’t taking advantage of her layered and rich backstory.

It’s Hard To Get Invested in Gaal Dornick’s Storyline

Gaal has so much to offer, having been through so many time jumps and cryostases, but it feels like we only know her as a surface-level functionary. Her character is destined to face off with the vaunted Mule (Pilou Asbæk) in a climax to determine the outcome of the third crisis, but she is depicted as little more than a minion of Hari Seldon carrying out a predetermined fate of his studies and the Prime Radiant. There hasn’t been any depth added to her character since Season 1, and her love affair with Raych Foss (Alfred Enoch) that ended so tragically and abruptly. She hasn’t even begun to grieve the loss of her daughter, Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey).

Even after it is revealed that she has been in cahoots with Empire and Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton), as he is about to ascend into Day (Lee Pace) and the middle throne, their transactional relationship and surreptitious planning against The Mule isn’t packing the punch that it should because Gaal’s character hasn’t been properly developed and explored regarding how she reacts to certain situations and a complex range of emotions. And the shame of it is that it is too late to go back and establish the great personal losses her homeworld, Raych, and Salvor have had on her.

Gaal Has Her Most Exciting Episode Yet, But it Feels Hollow Somehow

In Episode 5, “Where Tyrants Spend Eternity”, in particular, she finally has an exciting role in the Second Foundation’s clandestine incursion on Kalgan, trying to set a trap for The Mule, but it feels facile because she has no layering as a character. After two and a half seasons of being taught and preparing for the events that are unfolding now on the show, there is a noticeable disconnect between Gaal and the audience. Almost as if without Hari, she is not a fully formed character and more of a cardboard cutout of an interesting heroine that the viewer can fully invest in her outcome. Instead, as has been the case for Gaal’s character through the majority of Foundation, she is sitting back and giving directives while the audience is supposed to root for a Cleon to be successful in navigating the dangerous and seedy underbelly of Kalgan. Even when she is featured, she is still a background, supporting player.

She is the first character we were introduced to in the very first scenes of Season 1, and set up as an unmatched genius and analyst of psychohistory. Still, David S. Goyer and Jane Espenson, along with multiple showrunners, writers, and producers over the last several seasons, haven’t taken the time to give the audience a reason to root for her other than being a potential foil to The Mule, Demerzel (Laura Birn), and Empire. As the final episodes of Season 3 play out, she is going to be a huge player, and, unfortunately, the audience won’t be as invested in Gaal as they should be.

Foundation Season 3 is currently available to stream on AppleTV+ in the U.S.

Foundation

Release Date

September 23, 2021

Network

Apple TV+

Showrunner

David S. Goyer

Directors

Alex Graves, Roxann Dawson, Jennifer Phang, Mark Tonderai, Andrew Bernstein

Writers

Jane Espenson, Leigh Dana Jackson, Liz Phang, Eric Carrasco, David Kob, Addie Manis, Marcus Gardley, Lauren Bello, Olivia Purnell