There exists a well-worn literary tradition of mysterious religious zealots and charismatic fanatics found in the annals of science fiction lore, but few so captivating and worthy of further dissection as the strange android-loving sect in Apple TV+’s “Foundation” Season 3 known as The Inheritance.
Identified to each other by a two-finger tap near the top of the forearm, followers of this clandestine cyborg-friendly club must live in absolute secrecy for fear of death after the Galactic Empire outlawed robots in the wake of the calamitous Robot Wars millennia ago.
Besides devising the idea of the cloned Cleonic Dynasty to bridge the massive time leaps in Isaac Asimov’s original “Foundation Trilogy” from the 1950s, creator and executive producer David S. Goyer (“The Crow,” “Blade,” “The Dark Knight Trilogy”) and his talented crew engineered a brilliant stroke of storytelling genius by adding the robo-centric followers.
Who are The Inheritance in Foundation?
Songbird-17 (Song), Brother Day’s Mycogen courtesan, is found to be one of the illegal religion’s devotees who face certain execution if ever exposed.
Day reveals to Song that Demerzel is a robot, to which the high-end prostitute reacts with equal measure of shock and spiritual epiphany. Her agreement to flee the palace with him takes a 180-degree spin, and Song inexplicably changes her enthusiasm for flight, wanting to remain in the presence of what she considers to be the prophetic deliverer she prays to.
In “Foundation’s” universe, artificial beings were denounced thousands of years ago before Empire. Demerzel, the last of her kind and some 18,000 years old, recognizes this clandestine blessing and immediately erases Song’s (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing) memories of hedonistic times inhaling psychedelic spores with Brother Day and whisks her away back to Mycogen after identifying her as a member of that banned robot cult.
Demerzel later tells Day that she had believed that forbidden religion to be extinct, and only learned of Song’s devotion to that sect after witnessing that special arm tap blessing when she interrupted them in their love shack.
The Inheritance was not specifically mentioned in Asimov’s original books, but its inclusion here in Apple TV+’s adaptation adds a significant amount of philosophical weight by providing modern readers with some heavy issues, like the inevitable rise of artificial intelligence, synthetic beings’ roles in society, theological implications, and the nature of robotic ethics and rights.
It also allows the series’ writers to delve into Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, which he established in the 1942 short story “Runaround” and were formulated prior to the Galactic Empire’s reign within his mythology.
As shown in “Foundation” Season 3, The Inheritance’s core can be found in Trantor’s Mycogen Sector, where Brother Day bolts off to in his search for Song to try and retrieve his romantic partner. But folks in the microfood production center aren’t very hospitable to outsiders, even those of the royal lineage, after Cleon 1 ordered a mass slaughter hundreds of years ago while trying to retrieve robot tools for Demerzel. Acolytes of The Inheritance are convinced that salvation would return with the resurrection of the robots, who would some day “remove all cruelty, injustice, and misery.”
It’s also revealed that Song’s domestic partner, Oceanglass-49, is also a believer with ties to The Inheritance, and she brings in some heavy enforcement in the guise of High Priest Sunmaster-18 (Blake Ritson). This leader of The Inheritance in Mycogen wields the ominous Brazen Head staff topped with a gleaming robot skull. Sunmaster will no doubt be judging Brother Day in a kangaroo court trial and deciding his fate in the unfolding conflict between The Mule, the Foundation, and the crumbling Empire.
It should be fascinating to see just how far the show takes the robot-worshippers and what role Demerzel will play in returning her kind to prominence in the galaxy after being defeated by humans ages ago. Is she the true savior The Inheritance has been yearning for all these millennia? And will Sunmaster’s “Brazen Head of God” really scream Day’s fate aloud?
“Foundation” Season 3 streams exclusively on Apple TV+ each Friday through Sept. 12, 2025.
