Season three’s second episode, ‘Shadows in the Math,’ introduced a whole new character class to the sci-fi series.
Foundation is generally a pretty serious show. Season three in particular is charting humanity’s march toward certain doom—unless those with the power to reshape the future can figure out an alternative path before it’s too late. But levity creeps into the Apple TV+ Isaac Asimov adaptation when you least expect it, with season three continuing the humorous legacy of a character we said good-bye to back in season two.
That dearly departed character is Hober Mallow, of course—the heroic scoundrel who used his con artist skills to aid the Foundation in its explosive standoff with Empire. He was the first Foundation player that came close to being comic relief, and he injected a shot of energy into the show’s heavier themes of power, destiny, and complex mathematics. He didn’t survive the events of season two; we’re still laughing/crying over his fiery farewell scene opposite his unlikely ally General Riose, involving a well-meaning toast made with some repugnant wine.
But even if he’d made it to New Terminus with the rest of the Foundation, he’d be dead by the time season three picks up 152 years later. His legacy lives on in another form: his descendants, including Randu Mallow, head of the Alliance of Traders—a rebellious faction within Foundation that’s been accepting weapons from Empire ahead of a brewing civil war. Randu is missing an arm but hasn’t let that hold him back; in the season three premiere, “A Song for the End of Everything,” he battles Pritcher, the Foundation’s top intelligence operative, to keep ahold of his clandestinely acquired firepower.
Having been brought into the story in a memorable way, Randu doesn’t appear in episode two, “Shadows in the Math.” But we do meet two other Mallow relations: Toran and Bayta Mallow. Their status as newlyweds is a novelty in Foundation’s world; marriage is no longer a traditional practice, though if anyone can bring it back into fashion, it’s these two.
