Foundation season 3 ending explained: did The Mule win? Did Empire survive? And who were those mysterious figures at the end?

After ten episodes, epic sci-fi series Foundation season 3 has finally wrapped up, with the finale 'The Darkness' airing on Friday, September 12.

This third run for the Asimov-inspired science fiction series has seen the rise of The Mule, a psychic warlord whose powers could mean jeopardy for the troubled Foundation, stagnating Empire and fledgling Second Foundation.

Hopefully by now, you've seen the final episode (here's how to watch Foundation season 3 if you haven't). And if you have, you might be needing some help as to understanding what happened.

That's because the final episode brings some twists and turns, as well as one thing which isn't explained very well.

So let's dig into the Foundation season 3 ending to figure it out. For ease of explaining we'll look first at The Mule, and then at Empire.

The Mule

Through Foundation's third season we've see The Mule rise and then attack Foundation, finding victory by controlling the minds of Foundationers to attack their comrades.

In the final episode we see Gaal lead a group of Second Foundationers, and survivors of the original Foundation, onto their enemy's ship in order to neutralize him. After some physical and mental sparring, he's beaten.

However after he dies we're given a shocking revelation: the man we know as The Mule isn't actually The Mule after all. Instead that honor goes to Bayta Mallow, one of the Foundationers we've been following through the season who we met on Kalgan.

Everyone, including Bayta's husband Toran, is shocked by this revelation, and I'd wager that most of you at home were too. We also learn that Bayta has controlled Gaal's boyfriend and fellow Second Foundationer Han Pritcher, albeit only moments prior.

Bayta uses her upper hand to try to control Gaal's mind too, however Gaal had previously modified Magnifico's musical instrument to nullify The Mule's powers and it works just as well in distracting Bayta.

Things get a little confusing here: in one scene, Bayta is losing her mental battle with Gaal, but when we cut back later in the episode, Gaal is running away. She escapes the ship, jumps down to the planet's surface and is picked up, escaping the vicinity.

It's not clear what happened to Bayta, whether she won or lost the battle, or what happened to Gaal's many allies (including Toran, Magnifico, Brother Dawn and Han). Presumably we'll find out if there's a Foundation season 4.

As Gaal's ship prepares to jump, the version of Hari Seldon from The Vault appears in her ship, asking her to free him from the confines of The Vault and let him come along with her. She refuses and jumps into space.

Empire

It's been a busy season for Empire. Brother Day has been off on Mycogen contending with a robot-worshipping cult while Brother Dawn finds himself dragged into the conflict between Foundation and The Mule (we've already established where he ends season 3), Brother Dusk does everything he can to avoid getting disintergrated after the impending end of his rule, and Demerzel is struggling to decide where her loyalties lie.

By the end of the season, the absence of Dawn and Day and Demerzel's preoccupation has seen Dusk carry out a number of genocides, and in episode 10 he also destroys every back-up copy of himself and the other Cleon clones... all except one, a young baby which he keeps hostage.

Day returns from Mycogen with the skull of a former robot and presents it to Demerzel, telling her to commune with it. She refuses, knowing that it'll override her existing programming to protect Empire.

But when Dusk puts the sole surviving baby clone into the incinerator, Demerzel protects it by shielding it with her body, which sees her disintegrated and destroyed (the baby doesn't survive anyway). And when Day confronts Dusk about this, the fact that the younger man had his nanites removed when he snuck off to Mycogen means that Dusk can shoot him and kill him without him healing.

And the end of the episode Dusk is alone on the throne, having wiped out the two people who could stop him. As far as we can tell, Brother Day and Demerzel are now both gone from the show for good, having survived an admirable three seasons.

Maybe not all Dusk's threats are gone though, because we see Ambassador Quent in the library on Trantor, where she's introduced to a secret cell of Second Foundation. They've evidently got a plan in motion.

And wee see the hint of another threat. Despite not communing with Demerzel, the robot head was turned on, and it sends a signal through the galaxy. It reaches Kalle on a base on the Earth's moon, which she inhabits alongside robots which are clearly plotting a comeback.