Foundation star reacts to bombshell season 3 revelation as seasons-long mystery is answered

The first season of the show kicked off in a brutal manner, with the Star Bridge attack – and the subsequent death of millions on Trantor, but also on Anacreon and Thespis, after both worlds were blamed for the attack.

In chilling scenes, Demerzel (Laura Birn) has now admitted that she was behind the attack the whole time.

Making a confession to Zephyr Vorellis (Rebecca Ineson) - who has her memories wiped after their conversations - Demerzel says: "I have held this secret for more than three centuries. There were two cat's-paws. One from Anacreon, one from Thespis. They died in the act."

She added: "I told them to sing songs as they carried out my orders. To cry for freedom. I gave them bombs and waited."

When asked why she brought down the Star Bridge, Demerzel explains: "For Foundation. In the near term, I judged that Foundation's success could extend Empire's reign. The Cleons feared Seldon's influence. They would have executed him had I not intervened."

Demerzel goes on to reason that, with the fall of the Star Bridge, the Cleons began to believe their fall was coming - and they let Foundation live because of it.

When faced with the millions that died, Demerzel hits back: "I have eyesight which far outstrips your own. I am built to watch and, worse, to remember."

While some fans have suspected that it was Demerzel behind the attack on the Star Bridge, it's a huge revelation that will force viewers to look back on the past two season with a new perspective.

Exclusively speaking to RadioTimes.com about that bombshell, actress Birn revealed that showrunner David Goyer told her about the twist when season 2 was being filmed.

"I was like [gasp]! That's what I love about this show, when you find out some important information, you can go back and see the little hints and really understand that, 'Oh my god, of course - they were working around that the whole time,'" she pointed out.

"What I find so fascinating about her character is that she carries everything with her - everything she's done, that she's seen, stays with her. She's built to remember so she doesn't forget anything. And she's developed this capacity to to feel remorse or feel regret, and at the same time, she know that she did it for a reason that was guided by her programming.

"So it's these forces that really tear her apart. Also she's so lonely in the galaxy. There's no one that she can actually talk to, and nobody empathises with her. She's always an outcast. So then bringing one character [Zephyr Vorellis] inside that will never remember anything that she said, and have her to have those moments where she can just let go of that...

"It's wild, the things that she has to do to keep the boys going. They're not easy decisions!"

"I bet they're not - for everyone else!" co-star Lee Pace (Brother Day) joked.

As for where Demerzel will go from here?

"I feel like she's very conflicted," Birn said of Demerzel's season 3 journey as a whole. "And I think her having the hold of Prime Radiant, which happens in the end of season 2, kind of opens her world, but it doesn't give answers - it gives many more questions."

She added: "For the first time in the history of the Cleonic Dynasty, she kind of lets the Cleons drift away further from her, which also opens maybe a tiny possibility of another kind of path. Who knows? Maybe some kind of freedom.

"But would that freedom bring any joy to her? Her programming still demands her to defend the dynasty."

New episodes of Foundation season 3 are released weekly on Fridays on Apple TV+.

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