I like how when he twisted fingers, nothing happened. No booms, no lights, no dramatic music, just the peaceful sounds of nature. But then it really hits you, he just killed almost 2000 people.
I was looking for that comment. Yeah, the earth didn't crumble, the sky didn't shatter. It left viewer in a sort of confusion. "Did it really happen?", "That's it?". But yeah, it did. Great move by the show runners
The birds and noises of nature in the garden stopped - if only for a few moments - after he twisted his fingers. So it *did* all happen - in my mind, those sounds of nature stopped as a the handful of gardeners mentioned dropped dead elsewhere on the grounds. We don't see it or hear it, but the birds tell us that it happened.
I thought he's bluffing. Like he's just doing it to get some information out of her on who's leading the rebellion and who's plan it was to replace Dawn. I mean, the point about history is written by the victor could mean that they have built this mythos that the emperor is this all powerful being capable of anything that by doing this bluff, people would believe that he's serious. Especially this was after he returns from the Maiden "bluffing" that he saw the vision in the womb to get him what he wants.
@@woodswalker88 i mean from her perspective she dosnt know so its as good as true, but given the show has indicated Cleons tend to brutality and ruthlessness,,, yeah i think he did, 2000 people in an empire measured in way more than trillions, trivial for the person who bombed two worlds from orbit, and also by taking out everyone she knows they absolutely got at least one set of her co-conspirators and immediate superiors, likely triggering a panic in the rest, likely exposing them, and its just the petty shit Day would do
The books were never going to work in a televisual/cinematic style. You need characters to carry you through the story, and that simply isn't the nature of the books. The Cleon storyline, different as it is from the books, does just that. It is easily the most compelling part of the show and an interesting sci-fi concept - what does life mean for a series of clones with absolute power. It's not Foundation, but I like it.
I have to give the writers credit… this is probably the worst fate I’ve ever heard of. Everyone you ever cared about wiped from existence and you get to live out your years as an isolated, insane person. Bravo. Am I the only one who find Empire and his cast mates far more interesting than anyone else?
The Cleons are without a doubt the best part of the show. I got so bored with the Terminus plotline I just wanted it to be over. I practically jumped for joy when the Huntress was finally killed. But because she was such a great villain, but because that plot was finally over.
That's because those bird been in contact with the plants she raised therefore were related to her and had to died too. The empire really didn't miss a single lifeforms in their vengeance.
This scene was something else. If you ever thought that death was the ultimate punishment, this here represents a convincing argument that it absolutely isn’t. Also Day calling the kid his son was touching.
Theoretically you could convince yourself he was bluffing. He only told her to create a huge sense of chaos in her mind. In sensory deprivation you tend to drift into a coma like state where you create your own world. If you convince yourself he was bluffing you could create your own kind of heaven-like dream state. If you believe him, it'll probably be some kinda hell.
@@calebblack1420 This is Empire. Empire does not bluff. No, seriously, it's just an impressive show of power that we, as the viewer do not even need to see the executions. We are fully aware that Day is willing and able to do such a horrendous thing. It happened and she knows it.
@@marvinamann4969 Yeah it is a really powerful scene. When he raised his hand I thought he was gonna give her some kind of proposal to avoid her constellation being executed, then he's like "whoosh" fuck you your whole family's dead. I love his performance lmao. It's perfect.
My take on why this scene is so powerful is that, unlike when his predecessor burned the two worlds in retaliation with all that fire and fury, Cleon doesn’t raise his voice during this entire scene. He’s clearly beyond angry - arguably moreso than after the Starbridge’s destruction, since this was a much more personal attack than that was - but there’s a few times where he has that little smile and it feels almost like he’s an educator teaching a lesson he loves to share with a favored pupil, all while describing the details of how he is committing this intensely personal atrocity. This is not a god-emperor dispensing uncaring consequences in the manner of a machine, this is an all-too-human being reveling in every little detail of the revenge he is able to take on this singular person who so hurt someone he loves. This is a father relishing his godhood and the opportunities it affords him to balance the scales as he sees it.
Well This Day was a child when the Skybridge fell. He is suffering the consequences and fallout of that decision. If The Cleon before him hadn't been so reckless, so focused on grand gestures of retaliation and instead had focused on snuffing out the actual perpetrators of that attack, none of this might have happened. But alas he did, and the wheel of history turns leaving this Cleon, the one that might have tried to be better with a dead son and a deadened heart.
He's the definition of an evil psychopath that you all seem to revel in bloviating over, every day RUclips shows us why ppl like Hitler were so successful
And he explains it. Even though, yes, they are clones, he was Dawn's father in every way that mattered. It sounds bad to boil down fatherhood into the simple concepts like work and commitment, but, as any foster parent, adoptive parent, or step parent taking the place of an absentee blood-parent knows, being there, putting in the work, and committing to it is what makes you 'dad' and not just some guy mummy knows.
This scene, and the throne room following it, show just how much this Day cares for this Dawn. Truly, like a father and son. "Whatever you do to him, I'll do to you 1000 times over." Brutal.
@@Kncperseus funny how the genetic attack offers a solution to harys predictions. He said,that the Cleons never chang eis the main reason for the empire to fall. and now we learn,they do change,bit by bit. would that mean the empire must not fall in all cases?
@@aikrichter5403 No, Hari only said that the Empire's fall could be prevented for three centuries if imperial cloning ended. I am thinking that in this series there is a "Third Foundation" - people who believe in Hari's psychohistorical predictions but take matters into their own hands and use violence to back up those predictions. The problem is that they're missing the full picture because Hari kept secret his real predictions and the true Seldon Plan behind the Foundation. Alternatively, this was all factored into the Seldon Plan and the real purpose of the terrorists is to prevent the Empire falling before Foundation gets up to spec. In the books it was necessary for Foundation to stay in the shadows of Empire in the first stage of its existence (Salvor's five mayoral terms) because a total and immediate collapse of civilization would have consumed Foundation in a wave of barbarism. It was only because the shadow of Empire loomed in the distance that the Four Nations balance was achievable. Alternatively. Demerzel (who isn't Daneel in this series) also read Hari's work and is secretly implementing whatever she needed to do to keep the Empire going while protecting the Genetic Dynasty, except she screwed up. Modifying the genetic makeup of the Cleons would technically "fix" the problem as you pointed out while keeping the dynasty viable at least outwardly. Unfortunately the modification caused a too-obvious flaw that forced her hand.
While you debate Asimov's universe perhaps you should consider our society; our empire; our justice. Do we truly strive for justice of do we demand revenge and retribution?
This scene was brilliantly acted. Golf clap for Lee Pace. The finest depiction of terrifying calm and cold malevolence put to screen since Christof Waltz's performance as Hans Landa.
Agreed, along with an even bigger golf clap for Amy Tyger (Azura) for her onset of realization of what Cleon might do when he started talking about her family tree.
@@pythonxz they didn't just change it, they pretty much abandoned it. Seldon recorded messages based on his predictions... He wasn't some uploaded consciousness. That's what made his achievement so amazing - his psychohistory breakthrough. The best part of the books is the foundation becoming complacent because Seldon's recorded messages would always guide them through major crises. Until it doesn't and all hell breaks loose. Now he's an uploaded thing in a bollocks vault with technology that noone understands.
This punishment really is on-brand with the Cleons: cruelty beyond excess, always involving the deaths of so many innocent people that had nothing to do with anything, and the one being punished gets to survive so that they can live the rest of their lives suffering from that punishment. And yet, I had to applaud this one. It's so creative in a messed-up way.
Think deeper. I only understood what Cleon did after a while, not immediately. I love this kind of complexity as it is rare in current TV, it reminds me of Dune. SO, there is a conspiracy that sabotages the genetics of the Cleons. The ONLY thread Day has to those who are attacking him is this girl. She is not talking. Day however does have a very capable intelligence network of the kind an advanced society that digitally records large parts of their citizens lives can make. He tracks back the girl's whole life and all those associated with her to 16 levels deep and eliminates all those people. In this way Day ensured with a high probability of success that he has eliminated the conspiracy because even though he did not know who they were, they had to be connected to the girl. Does this make sense? I think revenge was at most a minor part of what Day has done.
@@robertlipka9541 honestly that's a brilliant bit of deduction - by killing everyone in "Azura's immediate orbit" - as Cleon put it - he was essentially killing a large number of members of whatever shady conspiracy was working behind the scenes against the Cleons. Although, I doubt it will work much. Azura at best was a field-operative - so I doubt the real mastermind of the plot is anywhere close to her "immediate or indirect orbit". So, killing all those people would, at best, come as a set-back to the conspiracy. That is, assuming the current Brother Day ACTUALLY did kill all those people and wasn't BLUFFING. If this was the former Bro Day (the current Dusk), there'd be no doubt he killed those folks. But the current Day is not as ruthless - especially following his recent trip to the Desert Planet and his pilgrimage. I mean, there's no doubt Cleon could actually kill that many people - the former Day openly displayed when he bombed the two planets. It's thus a possibility that the current Day actually bluffed - and that Azura's belief that he actually did kill hundreds of people to punish her, was the REAL punishment.
@@Kncperseus my impression of the scene was a little different. The way I understood it was that Day killed everyone she ever interacted with or was related to generations back. He then killed others connected to those and so on, several levels deep. I only thought that the numbers should have been larger... but perhaps Azura was a loner. So, if Day had a good intelligence network, and he would as Empire, he was close to 100% certain of killing off the conspiracy with this method. It did not matter if Azura was only a minor part of the conspiracy because should would have been connected right to the top through one or more links. The details here really depend on what level of connection Empire intelligence followed to establish this "constellation"... and we do not know. The only hint is that Day said that the universe will keep on going as if Azura never existed because everyone she has influenced no longer exists, suggesting that the connections followed were total. I really think Day killed those people. Let's see if this was an intentional plot point or writers established this by accident :)
@@darrellhughes812 Right?? This scene feels like the Universe got unbalanced for a second. His act was so sharp that broke time and space. Nature felt it.
Lee Pace can easily outshine any GoT character without even trying. Man is born to play leader characters. And GoT was literally called Game of THRONES.
@KnObi1…. uhhh… slow down there. GoT was a train wreck by the end but it had some absolutely amazing characters played by power house actors. Olenna Tyrell… Tywin Lannister… Tyrion Lannister… Oberyn Martell… just to name a few.
Not many things shock me but this scene, as brilliant as it was, left me traumatized for days. Probably the worst punishment you can ever hand to someone. You don’t need to see it being carried out, but you just can’t help thinking about it. That’s more than enough.
Traumatized for days from a scene in a TV show?? What kind of a person of weak mental faculty do have to be to be that affected? That or you're just talking some exagerated crap to try to get your point across because you lack the capability to put your impressions into words in a more normal way. Either way, you sound like a fool.
In all honesty the fact that he didn’t show her it happen makes me think it’s a bluff it would ti to hard to really track down that many people especially with space travel add to the fact that he tells her he locking away her senses leads me to think it was a bluff to fuck with her head
Lee Pace delivery on this scene is outstanding. He is greeat on the whole thing but this scene just gives you all the nuances of his character. He can be charming, kind, cruel and evil and loving in a space of 4 minutes.
Somehow I find this punishment far more terrifying than the orbital bombardment of Thespin and Anacrion. Like yeah the deaths of billions from that is horrifying but the idea that your friends, loved ones and everyone who has remotely heard of your name in your life could suddenly be erased from existence in the flick of a wrist scares me
@@Eagle_the_18th Not to mention more cruel, since all those people are dead, simply because they had known you or are related to you and you will have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your days, where you with be sensory shrouded, never able to move again, to touch, speak or hear another person or taste any food, or see anything again, forever alone locked in silence and darkness, with only your own thoughts that is a fate worse than death
The subtly loss of all background sounds, in the moments after Day gives the signal, before slowly returning to normal, is really good sound design. Evokes insects suddenly going quite, when the peace is broken, on an otherwise quiet night.
This was one of the most chilling moments I’ve seen in a show. And he did it so simply, just a simple flick of the wrist and 1,551 people died instantly, while Azura is left to live out her days going insane and being forced to continue living.
Brother Day was so powerful in this scene that a lot of people are overlooking how great an acting job Azura did. I watched it again and just focused on her, truly outstanding as her terror builds.
Especially when he talks about her losing virginity to a girl. She's more uneasy with each sentence though. Great acting in mediocre show in some moments. That's why I liked it those few good scenes are very memorable.
This was the most Badass Cold Blooded scene of the series so far!!! With Cleon telling Azura her punishment in an absolutely calm voice with no trace of emotion in it gave me chills!!!
Kim Jong Un does basically the same thing, only he does not have particle beams or so advanced survailance system... but does the job anyway. That is not badass... The scene is great ...masterfull even, the acting, setup, environment, writing..all.. dont get me wrong... but the deed, that is something so despicable, so vile and to imagine that 30000 years or so in the future people can still behave in the patterns of 21 century Earth perverse dictators makes you think. I dont say it isnt wrong prediction, i dont say it cant or wont happen in distant future... i just think that it should not happen, better for humanity to die off in next world war than leave a trail of blood, destruction, death and torture tens of thousands of years wide.
@@microbiote509 Actually I didn't see that. The characters of Gaal and Salvor are not 'Mary Sues'. They can be vulnerable, and they both have lovers - they are not men haters. The characters are well written, and well acted. They have women and POC who are also villains. Ironically this series actually manages to achieve what Disney failed at with Star Wars.
Just binged this show over the past week, and saw this very scene tonight. This is easily the most blood curdling fate for anybody I think I've ever come across in any form of media, whether it be books, tv, or film. It's so incredible cold and soulless a punishment that I just can't stop thinking about it no matter how uncomfortable it makes me. Loved this show from start to finish.
Kn0bi1 GonpAchiRo shows you how we are all shaped by our experiences. This Day heard Harry say the end was coming, saw the previous Day committee genouside and preformed a pilgrimage. All things that made him different from dusk and turned him in to someone who is capable of unconditional love.
@@jacobdenness8659 The pilgrimage played the biggest part, I think. The incumbent Day was disturbed at how he experienced no vision at the sacred pool - plus during the journey itself when his companion died, it profoundly affected him.
KnObi1 GonpAchiRo definitely, I think he was always on some level open to the idea of change because of what he saw as a child but Day was profoundly effected by what he went through. In fact I think it could be argued seeing nothing was in fact his vision, the God or whatever you want to call it challenged Day in that moment. Afterwards he did change, don't get me wrong he's still a murdering exstreamly spitful bastered but he's one who can show unconstitutional love and was willing to at least to try and change for the better.
I wonder when it will occur to Cleon that she's achieved an unprecedented memorial: The most powerful man in the empire will remember her to his dying day.
It's safe to assume he did make good on his threat, since he had the means & motivation. She would not turn states evidence against her co-conspirators, so Empire applied the ultimate process of elimination😉.
I personally think that he didn’t do it. It would raise too many questions amongst people when over a 1000 people go missing, whole families. It would make people aware of the plot, because the friends and families of those 1000+ people, would have known something… it would start rumors and ultimately could led to rebellion.
When this scene happened, I was completely flabbergasted. It was the most brutal and yet most perfect and poetic punishment imaginable. What a horrible thing to do and what a horrible way to die.
@Behemoth Halt & Catch Fire was the most tragically underappreciated show ever, IMO. The soundtrack was second to none, too. I'm glad AMC let them finish the story despite the low number of viewers.
Cleon essentially erased Azura's existence from the universe. Not only her, her entire bloodline. With no one there to know she ever existed, and being "Shrouded" (which blocks out any sensory info), she's basically gonna spend the rest of her life in Limbo. Like a ghost.
Except she impacted every person that pulled the trigger to 'erase' her, everyone that gave the order, spied on her and her family; Which more than doubled the number of people that she touched. She will be forgotten in time, but Cleon really did this in a messy way. He was emotional afterall.
@@daoistmoonlight1445 we’ve seen that the Cleons can erase peoples memories as seen with the prostitutes in the pleasure garden. Theoretically he could have erased the memory of every agent sent to spy or eliminate them. But even if he did all this he still couldn’t erase his own memory nor erase the impact her actions had on his dynasty. In a way Cleons “justice” is flawed and incomplete much how the Cleons rule of the galaxy is flawed and doomed to collapse. Idk, just something I pondered.
I loved the scene in the very first episode where he just towers over Gaal in the most intimidating way. It was such a tense moment, I had to remind myself to breathe.
The juxtaposition between Day leaving her to sit in that garden and her impending future is sublime. She's not escaping some horrid torture cell. You can imagine the warm sun on her skin, the soft buzzing of insects or flitter of birds, the sweet smell and riot of colours of the flowers, all being burned in as her last beautiful memory before being sensory shrouded from behind. Although I suppose all that might not matter since she's probably sobbing about how she's suffered name death long before physical death.
The idea of being isolated in a sensory deprivation device, fed through an IV tube. How long before someone goes absolutely and irrevocably insane? A week? A month? Ten years? Beyond chilling. I think great acting elicits a strong response in the audience. This was great. Congratulations.
The attention to detail in the entire show, particularly this scene, is spectacular. The contained anger, the cruelty, even the startled twitch of the girl as he flipped his fingers. And then the girl being left a few moments to contemplate just how screwed she is, an expression of which was beginning to show on her face as the camera began to pan out. Brilliant!
“whatever ripples you’ve made have been cancelled out.” that really is what happened. even those tangentially related to her carry a kind of inkling of her effect on the world. to destroy a person you must destroy everyone who remembers them, and anyone who remembers anyone who’s affected by them
I mean, he did raise him since he was an infant. I have no problem accepting that the Cleons viewed their younger and elder Cleons as son, grandson, father and grandfather while still calling eachother brothers.
What I loved SO MUCH about this scene was that Day decided to take Azura to the place that she feverishly cultivated over the years into the visual perfection that is the Garden where she lured Dawn into her trap. It is here, amid the splendor, beauty, and grandeur of that Garden that Day unveils his brutally cruel and ruthless punishment. Day would erase every aspect of Azura's existence. Everyone she ever met, and those whom they met were likewise purged from existence. Interestingly though, the Garden of perfection where Azura toiled would remain, so some evidence of her impact in the world, her legacy would endure!
unless someone else would destroy it for something else without a thought what happen'd because no one knows. hell this is on paar with something the 40k emperor would do . (yeah i know GW probably was "inspired" of the foundation /galactic empire books at some point) but i cant shake the feeling the writers of the show know some lore .
Honestly, this show is perfect. And the actors, they are nailing it. Everyone already talked about Brother Day, but honestly, Azura also nailed it. Like, you can feel how terrified she was, briliant. Also, irrelevent to this scene but, Jared Harris, you are the goat. Perfect casting, and excellent writing.
The best part of this scene was I was expecting her to die, and I guess the character was also thinking "Im going to be killed very soon", and then the twist ... far worse than death.
@@VictoryAviation God, yes! Imagine what that even means, "sensory shrouded". The closest equivalent I can think of is being locked into a dark, sound-proof coffin, unable to move. I couldn't endure that for 5 minutes, let alone the rest of my life. Compared to that, death would be a gift.
This scene is the definition of "vengeance". Day is just as evil as Azura. But I think Azura failed to understand the depths of Empire's capacity and willingness to exact revenge. That he does it in a soft spoken calm voice was perfect.
This scene is such a standout in the series. The amount of wrath that's under Day's calm demeanor is staggering. To create such a horrific means of punishment. I'm in awe of the acting and writing here, I'm so glad they chose the actors they did for the Cleons, especially Lee Pace. He is carrying this show on his back.
Foundation has been fantastic but this scene was something else. Perfectly delivered as an absolutely brutal punishment that, in its excess, is strangely fitting for what the Clions would do for revenge. Absolutely brutal.
I loved this scene too. Gave me chills when you realize what he's doing and done. Her fate sounds horrific too. The detail was great, even to the point that looking at Brother Day you can still see the sunburn from the Desert world has still not faded completely. ha ha. Great detailing. Loved this series. It dragged a little around Episode 3, but picked up and has been great all the way to the finale.
This is the single most terrifying scene I've seen in scifi, and I've seen a lot. And there's just one person talking without ever raising his voice once, there's birds singing and the gentle sound of water. And yet, it leaves you frozen in horror and you cannot forget the terrible beauty of this scene.
The idea of having anyone that may have even heard about you, whether they actually knew you or not. Along with friends, family, acquaintances, even enemies. All wiped out. Then being forced to live with it, in a virtual state of disembodiment. Having no sensory input from any of your physical senses. Just your own thoughts being the only reminder that you're alive at all. And you're drowning in guilt, despair, and horror by what has happened. That is the worst way to make someone burn in hell in my opinion. Taking out, or making them believe that you wiped out their entire social circle, then denying them any environment where a mind can mourn, leaving them only with this knowledge of being the only person left alive they knew as the only thing they could process as well as not being able to process anything else. That wouldn't just shattered a mind. That would quickly grind it down to powder. Completely unrecoverable probably within less than a month.
What I found more shocking in Day's calmed speech is how he underlines that she will be aware for the years to come, remembering what Azura has taken from him. This is what makes her future even more terrifying: the fact that she will be aware for all those years. It's clear to me that the intravenous feed includes some sort of medicine so that she won't be insane in a pair of months. In a universe with this kind of technology and biotechnology, that is perfectly possible
How long do you think a person can last in total sensory deprivation before their mind totally erases itself? From what I hear people get major psychological problems within days. I think within months or years without new stimulus the mind would erase itself, forget everything old and have nothing new. Azura has been killed, there will be nothing left in her brain that makes her. She will end up as a blob of flesh with a blank brain.
@@robertlipka9541 Not in this universe she won't. If they can build ships that fold space they can do anything. They'll prolong her life & ensure that her mind is as alert & vivid as possible so she can experience the absolute mental torture that comes with this form of punishment.
@@robertlipka9541 she will probably marvel over how dumb the dude is for killing everyone connected to her but himself. . .spend her years reveling in her victory.
@@thrawn-ys9hf I said elsewhere, this is not about philosophical total erasure, it is about removing a threat and perhaps in minor part about setting up an example and deterring others (the rational revenge). It make no sense towards any of these goals for Day to off himself... so there. I am not sure how much consolation Azura will get from knowing Day is still around or that her grocer or the hotel help she said something to are still around (not everyone she ever interacted with was killed or the number would be much greater than around 1,500... only those she could have had meaningful influence on or who could have had influence on her).
It wasn't until this moment when I thought he was truly evil. When he needlessly tortured someone for no gain but his own personal satisfaction. Even the burning of the planets could be somehow justified, but this was needless cruelty.
It's the little pause, the silence, and then the hand moves, quickly yet quietly, that makes this scene utterly terrifying, and they don't show anything, you just believe that what he told has indeed happened because he's just that powerful. Brilliant writing and acting.
The Galactic Empire is truly the Space version of Rome, as wiping out the entire family line of a enemy was a well known tactic of the ancient Roman empeors, though Cleon (aka Brother Day) took it to an extreme level
Not Rome. Imperial China was where the Extermination of Nine Familial Relations was actually a punishment recorded in the law books. IIRC their record was something like 5000 executions tied to one man's rebellion.
He took it to an extreme level because he had the capacity to do so. Had the Roman Emperors possessed the same level of power and tech as Cleons do, they'd have done the same.
You die twice. The first time when you stop breathing and a second time, some time after, when somebody says your name for the last time. This is the second death without the initial release from your biology and mind. Absolute horror.
Phenomenal acting by Lee Pace and this young actress. Azura harmed Brother Dawn whom he regards as his own son and he punished her in a way only a Cleon could AND combined with Papa Bear instincts, by targeting all the people in her immediate and extended family, as well as friends and lovers. But the cruelest punishment was saved for her, by depriving her of all her senses except her awareness, a fate far worse than death.
I was glued to the screen during this scene. I was rooting for that iteration of Brother Dawn to be able to start a new life….but she baited him. She got absolutely owned, possibly more than anyone has ever been owned. Lee Pace is such a great actor. In an alternate reality, we could have had him playing Sauron/Annatar in a better Rings of Power show.
Absolutly the BEST example of revenge and retribution I have EVER seen. Truly the most horrific fate I could possibly imagine. To know that your individual actions have resulted in the deaths of so many people whose only sin is to have simply known you in some way is delightfully horrible. Then, like the cherry on top of the perfect ice cream sundae, he ensures that Azura that she will face a very long lifetime with no possible distraction from what she did. By the time Azura is finally released from this fate, she may very well be unable to make the distinction between being alive and being dead.
I keep coming back to this scene. I really hope this show does better so this can become a more recognized moment in TV history, because it fucking deserves it.
Thought experiment: The Nazi Regime manages to last for some decades now. Hitler has a son. An heir. A housekeeper manages to get under his skin, and plant the seed to destroy this Regime from within. .... would you blame te housekeeper? Do you dare to say "oh but Cleon is not as bad as Hitler"?
@@softan It's extreme, but this is how it was in ancient civilizations. When an attempt on an emperor was planned, part of the plan was all family members related to that assassin would commit suicide ahead of time since they'd be marked for retribution anyways.
I gotta say, this was truly chilling. And probably the most horrifying thing that happened, even toppling genocide that was wreaked in response to the spacelift terror attack. Even with that mass murdering there's always hope someone survives. In this case it's a complete wipeout of EVERYONE. This was extremely disturbing and heartbreaking.
Another powerful aspect of this scene is the way it doesn't show her arrest or any attempt to restrain or keep an eye on her....he just pronounces sentence and then casually wanders off, leaving her to enjoy the garden for a bit lol.
One of the things Azura says, but Cleon dismisses, is the root reason why the Empire will eventually fall. When referring to Brother Dawn as "his son", Azura responds saying "He's not your son". "Of course he is", Day replies, "He's another Cleon" Which is the single most erroneous ideology a father can have. Cleon believes that a son should be a clone of himself - as opposed to being someone of their own.
The saga of the cleons is the reason I loved watching this first season. Especially the current day, the contrast between this devastating punishment to his love for dawn shown only minutes later.
Revenge... this has got to be the best revenge scene ever written for film!!! 🔥 Above all, I appreciate how #Foundation doesn't underestimate its audience. Brilliant script and story makes it a rewarding watch.
I just finished season 1 of this show for the first time yesterday, and this scene has jumped to one of my all time favorites. There's no doubt Lee Pace is a force to be reckoned with, and he was perfectly cast, imo. But I think people are sleeping on Amy Tyger's performance as well. She's got, what, only 2 lines of dialogue in this scene, but she knocks it out of the park. With almost no words, you can feel her emotions. From wary, to worried, to the horrible realization of what he's about to do, the fury, the hopelessness, and at the end of it all...just the overwhelming knowledge that it's all over for her. Absolutely brilliant work, I'm actually sad I won't be seeing her again, lol.
Keep coming back to this scene. There's something about it that just makes me feel. I don't know what it makes me feel, but it just makes me. To the point, I could explain in great detail why this scene is so magnificent, but many people already have. Instead I will just say that while this is truly horrible, and unexpectedly cruel, the acting of Lee Pace is so subtle and extraordinary, that it makes this scene, my favourite in all of cinema and tv. I would even go so far as to say it is one of the greatest scenes in all of cinema and tv period.
When I saw this on the final episode for the season it really left an impression. This form of punishment is on another level altogether and a fate worse than death. This is just about the most painful & brutal kind of retribution anyone could think of. This series is brilliant and I cannot wait for season 2. It can't come around fast enough.
i think the worst part about this punishment is having no way to know if cleon actually went through with his plan. of course he has the resources but azura will never have any way to confirm or deny him following through. the idea of it happening is a mental prison in itself.
I like how when he twisted fingers, nothing happened. No booms, no lights, no dramatic music, just the peaceful sounds of nature. But then it really hits you, he just killed almost 2000 people.
I was looking for that comment. Yeah, the earth didn't crumble, the sky didn't shatter. It left viewer in a sort of confusion. "Did it really happen?", "That's it?". But yeah, it did. Great move by the show runners
The birds and noises of nature in the garden stopped - if only for a few moments - after he twisted his fingers. So it *did* all happen - in my mind, those sounds of nature stopped as a the handful of gardeners mentioned dropped dead elsewhere on the grounds. We don't see it or hear it, but the birds tell us that it happened.
I thought he's bluffing. Like he's just doing it to get some information out of her on who's leading the rebellion and who's plan it was to replace Dawn. I mean, the point about history is written by the victor could mean that they have built this mythos that the emperor is this all powerful being capable of anything that by doing this bluff, people would believe that he's serious. Especially this was after he returns from the Maiden "bluffing" that he saw the vision in the womb to get him what he wants.
I wonder if he was bullshitting.
@@woodswalker88 i mean from her perspective she dosnt know so its as good as true, but given the show has indicated Cleons tend to brutality and ruthlessness,,, yeah i think he did, 2000 people in an empire measured in way more than trillions, trivial for the person who bombed two worlds from orbit, and also by taking out everyone she knows they absolutely got at least one set of her co-conspirators and immediate superiors, likely triggering a panic in the rest, likely exposing them, and its just the petty shit Day would do
Honestly, the Cleons are the best part of this show to-date, and it’s an artificial construct not in the books. Love it.
Well, to be fair - this is the story the show runners were interested in telling. They sure as hell weren't interested in the books :)
The books were never going to work in a televisual/cinematic style. You need characters to carry you through the story, and that simply isn't the nature of the books.
The Cleon storyline, different as it is from the books, does just that. It is easily the most compelling part of the show and an interesting sci-fi concept - what does life mean for a series of clones with absolute power.
It's not Foundation, but I like it.
Lee pace is an incredible actor. He steal every scene in everything he is in.
I was truly surprised a studio would allow such a good idea to grace the pages of Asimov's classic...
But it was implied in the books in the prequels
Lee pace single-handedly carried the entire show
He does. Pace makes this show, just as Adam Driver carried the Star Wars sequels.
Jared Harris is amazing too in this show, they both carry it honestly
@@janesgems7 lol
@@habitatofficechair True. I only watched the show for these two actors
I have to give the writers credit… this is probably the worst fate I’ve ever heard of. Everyone you ever cared about wiped from existence and you get to live out your years as an isolated, insane person. Bravo.
Am I the only one who find Empire and his cast mates far more interesting than anyone else?
The Cleons are without a doubt the best part of the show. I got so bored with the Terminus plotline I just wanted it to be over. I practically jumped for joy when the Huntress was finally killed. But because she was such a great villain, but because that plot was finally over.
They could all have been tortured.
The worst fate would be "The Spartan Hell" - a simple thought provoking phrase : May you live forever.
Yeah Empire is the best
nop, they are the only interesting characters in that "show" everyone else is flat and boring
I like how even birds gone quiet the moment he twisted his fingers
I didn't even notice that. Thank you for pointing it out for me. Its appreciated.
That's because those bird been in contact with the plants she raised therefore were related to her and had to died too. The empire really didn't miss a single lifeforms in their vengeance.
You got a sharp ear. I was just staring at his 2 fingers.
@@kawingchan his delivery in this scene was perfect, he kept the audience locked onto him
The water abruptly stops babbling too.
This scene was something else. If you ever thought that death was the ultimate punishment, this here represents a convincing argument that it absolutely isn’t.
Also Day calling the kid his son was touching.
Theoretically you could convince yourself he was bluffing. He only told her to create a huge sense of chaos in her mind. In sensory deprivation you tend to drift into a coma like state where you create your own world. If you convince yourself he was bluffing you could create your own kind of heaven-like dream state. If you believe him, it'll probably be some kinda hell.
@@calebblack1420 This is Empire. Empire does not bluff.
No, seriously, it's just an impressive show of power that we, as the viewer do not even need to see the executions.
We are fully aware that Day is willing and able to do such a horrendous thing. It happened and she knows it.
Caleb black that was defiantly a miss step, he should have had one of them there so she could see them drop dead
@@marvinamann4969 Yeah it is a really powerful scene. When he raised his hand I thought he was gonna give her some kind of proposal to avoid her constellation being executed, then he's like "whoosh" fuck you your whole family's dead. I love his performance lmao. It's perfect.
I doubt I'd enjoy this half enough if it wasn't for Empire, Lee pa ce is amazing
My take on why this scene is so powerful is that, unlike when his predecessor burned the two worlds in retaliation with all that fire and fury, Cleon doesn’t raise his voice during this entire scene.
He’s clearly beyond angry - arguably moreso than after the Starbridge’s destruction, since this was a much more personal attack than that was - but there’s a few times where he has that little smile and it feels almost like he’s an educator teaching a lesson he loves to share with a favored pupil, all while describing the details of how he is committing this intensely personal atrocity.
This is not a god-emperor dispensing uncaring consequences in the manner of a machine, this is an all-too-human being reveling in every little detail of the revenge he is able to take on this singular person who so hurt someone he loves. This is a father relishing his godhood and the opportunities it affords him to balance the scales as he sees it.
A man slow to anger is more dangerous than one with a hair trigger temper.
Well This Day was a child when the Skybridge fell. He is suffering the consequences and fallout of that decision. If The Cleon before him hadn't been so reckless, so focused on grand gestures of retaliation and instead had focused on snuffing out the actual perpetrators of that attack, none of this might have happened. But alas he did, and the wheel of history turns leaving this Cleon, the one that might have tried to be better with a dead son and a deadened heart.
He's the definition of an evil psychopath that you all seem to revel in bloviating over, every day RUclips shows us why ppl like Hitler were so successful
And he explains it. Even though, yes, they are clones, he was Dawn's father in every way that mattered. It sounds bad to boil down fatherhood into the simple concepts like work and commitment, but, as any foster parent, adoptive parent, or step parent taking the place of an absentee blood-parent knows, being there, putting in the work, and committing to it is what makes you 'dad' and not just some guy mummy knows.
Is this a hint of the revelation in the finale (SPOILERS AHEAD) that the Cleons are no longer all alike?
This scene, and the throne room following it, show just how much this Day cares for this Dawn. Truly, like a father and son. "Whatever you do to him, I'll do to you 1000 times over." Brutal.
The current Day, yes. The previous one? A genocidal maniac.
That's unconditional love for you
@@Kncperseus funny how the genetic attack offers a solution to harys predictions. He said,that the Cleons never chang eis the main reason for the empire to fall. and now we learn,they do change,bit by bit. would that mean the empire must not fall in all cases?
@@aikrichter5403 No, Hari only said that the Empire's fall could be prevented for three centuries if imperial cloning ended. I am thinking that in this series there is a "Third Foundation" - people who believe in Hari's psychohistorical predictions but take matters into their own hands and use violence to back up those predictions. The problem is that they're missing the full picture because Hari kept secret his real predictions and the true Seldon Plan behind the Foundation.
Alternatively, this was all factored into the Seldon Plan and the real purpose of the terrorists is to prevent the Empire falling before Foundation gets up to spec. In the books it was necessary for Foundation to stay in the shadows of Empire in the first stage of its existence (Salvor's five mayoral terms) because a total and immediate collapse of civilization would have consumed Foundation in a wave of barbarism. It was only because the shadow of Empire loomed in the distance that the Four Nations balance was achievable.
Alternatively. Demerzel (who isn't Daneel in this series) also read Hari's work and is secretly implementing whatever she needed to do to keep the Empire going while protecting the Genetic Dynasty, except she screwed up. Modifying the genetic makeup of the Cleons would technically "fix" the problem as you pointed out while keeping the dynasty viable at least outwardly. Unfortunately the modification caused a too-obvious flaw that forced her hand.
While you debate Asimov's universe perhaps you should consider our society; our empire; our justice. Do we truly strive for justice of do we demand revenge and retribution?
This scene was brilliantly acted. Golf clap for Lee Pace. The finest depiction of terrifying calm and cold malevolence put to screen since Christof Waltz's performance as Hans Landa.
Agreed. Well put.
Agreed, along with an even bigger golf clap for Amy Tyger (Azura) for her onset of realization of what Cleon might do when he started talking about her family tree.
@@gwzipper1 That slow realization was terrifying.
He absolutely makes the show. Just found out that he played the Elven King in The Hobbit too… who was also a great character.
He is enjoying the shit out of it. He definitely read the books as a youth.
I absolutely love watching all the Cleon storyline scenes; don't care much for the rest which is pretty standard melodrama.
I hope we see more in season 2.
@Aung Ramen It doesn't help that they changed the story quite a bit.
@@pythonxz they didn't just change it, they pretty much abandoned it. Seldon recorded messages based on his predictions... He wasn't some uploaded consciousness. That's what made his achievement so amazing - his psychohistory breakthrough. The best part of the books is the foundation becoming complacent because Seldon's recorded messages would always guide them through major crises. Until it doesn't and all hell breaks loose. Now he's an uploaded thing in a bollocks vault with technology that noone understands.
Lee Pace is carrying this show without him it is just nothing
@@chaobanh5003blablabla
This punishment really is on-brand with the Cleons: cruelty beyond excess, always involving the deaths of so many innocent people that had nothing to do with anything, and the one being punished gets to survive so that they can live the rest of their lives suffering from that punishment. And yet, I had to applaud this one. It's so creative in a messed-up way.
Think deeper. I only understood what Cleon did after a while, not immediately. I love this kind of complexity as it is rare in current TV, it reminds me of Dune. SO, there is a conspiracy that sabotages the genetics of the Cleons. The ONLY thread Day has to those who are attacking him is this girl. She is not talking. Day however does have a very capable intelligence network of the kind an advanced society that digitally records large parts of their citizens lives can make. He tracks back the girl's whole life and all those associated with her to 16 levels deep and eliminates all those people. In this way Day ensured with a high probability of success that he has eliminated the conspiracy because even though he did not know who they were, they had to be connected to the girl. Does this make sense? I think revenge was at most a minor part of what Day has done.
@@robertlipka9541 think deeper lmao ok
@@benarmstrong6904 sure, because quips are cheap LOL
@@robertlipka9541 honestly that's a brilliant bit of deduction - by killing everyone in "Azura's immediate orbit" - as Cleon put it - he was essentially killing a large number of members of whatever shady conspiracy was working behind the scenes against the Cleons.
Although, I doubt it will work much. Azura at best was a field-operative - so I doubt the real mastermind of the plot is anywhere close to her "immediate or indirect orbit". So, killing all those people would, at best, come as a set-back to the conspiracy.
That is, assuming the current Brother Day ACTUALLY did kill all those people and wasn't BLUFFING. If this was the former Bro Day (the current Dusk), there'd be no doubt he killed those folks. But the current Day is not as ruthless - especially following his recent trip to the Desert Planet and his pilgrimage.
I mean, there's no doubt Cleon could actually kill that many people - the former Day openly displayed when he bombed the two planets. It's thus a possibility that the current Day actually bluffed - and that Azura's belief that he actually did kill hundreds of people to punish her, was the REAL punishment.
@@Kncperseus my impression of the scene was a little different. The way I understood it was that Day killed everyone she ever interacted with or was related to generations back. He then killed others connected to those and so on, several levels deep. I only thought that the numbers should have been larger... but perhaps Azura was a loner. So, if Day had a good intelligence network, and he would as Empire, he was close to 100% certain of killing off the conspiracy with this method. It did not matter if Azura was only a minor part of the conspiracy because should would have been connected right to the top through one or more links. The details here really depend on what level of connection Empire intelligence followed to establish this "constellation"... and we do not know. The only hint is that Day said that the universe will keep on going as if Azura never existed because everyone she has influenced no longer exists, suggesting that the connections followed were total. I really think Day killed those people. Let's see if this was an intentional plot point or writers established this by accident :)
When he moves his fingers at 3:07 and even the birds stop singing... that moment, right there, this scene became legendary.
I was so emotionally shaken by the scene.. that I hadn't even noticed that!
Our boi went all out BIBLICAL on that bitch...
@@darrellhughes812 Right?? This scene feels like the Universe got unbalanced for a second. His act was so sharp that broke time and space. Nature felt it.
oh, subtle, and bril
@@doxielain2231 its also, almost certainly the birds reacting to a bunch of gardners suddenly, silently, falling over dead
This is just a poor edit before uploading to RUclips. In the original, nothing changed in terms of audio.
And we thought Games of Thrones had cruel surprises! This was so personal it felt beyond rational thinking.
Lee Pace can easily outshine any GoT character without even trying. Man is born to play leader characters. And GoT was literally called Game of THRONES.
Cersei would love it
@KnObi1…. uhhh… slow down there. GoT was a train wreck by the end but it had some absolutely amazing characters played by power house actors. Olenna Tyrell… Tywin Lannister… Tyrion Lannister… Oberyn Martell… just to name a few.
In North Korea if you commit a crime against the state not only do you go to jail but 3 generations of your family.
IMO GoT was childs play compared to this. Cruel and excessiv punishment beyond anything in GoT
That is an absolute punishment. Not Death, but Life without Living. That is terror, that is Hell.
But what if he missed someone, then her legacy would live on
Not many things shock me but this scene, as brilliant as it was, left me traumatized for days. Probably the worst punishment you can ever hand to someone. You don’t need to see it being carried out, but you just can’t help thinking about it. That’s more than enough.
Traumatized for days from a scene in a TV show?? What kind of a person of weak mental faculty do have to be to be that affected? That or you're just talking some exagerated crap to try to get your point across because you lack the capability to put your impressions into words in a more normal way. Either way, you sound like a fool.
I'm going to try saying that to my ex and see what she thinks.
In all honesty the fact that he didn’t show her it happen makes me think it’s a bluff it would ti to hard to really track down that many people especially with space travel add to the fact that he tells her he locking away her senses leads me to think it was a bluff to fuck with her head
I like the fact that this series made more use of Lee Pace's talent as an actor than when he was with MCU
Lee Pace is underutilized and underrated. It's good to see this series really squeeze the juice out of him!
Halt & Catch Fire
Agreed. Lee Pace is frickin awesome
Lee Pace delivery on this scene is outstanding. He is greeat on the whole thing but this scene just gives you all the nuances of his character. He can be charming, kind, cruel and evil and loving in a space of 4 minutes.
Thank you for that kind response.
Thranduil, isn't cutting such a splendid figure here.
It's such a shock if you're used to him in Pushing Daisies!
He is brilliant as well in Halt and catch fire. The sheer spectrum of Lee is right up there with Anthony Hopkins or Ian MacKellen or Robert DeNiro.
@@PostSasso
He walked a very impressive line between sympathetic and horrific.
You can see it even in this scene.
This is one of the greatest threats in tv history
It not really a threat, when he actually does it
Absolutely happened. He had no reason to bluff. It’s an insanely sinister living execution since she will die a terribly emotionally painful death
Somehow I find this punishment far more terrifying than the orbital bombardment of Thespin and Anacrion. Like yeah the deaths of billions from that is horrifying but the idea that your friends, loved ones and everyone who has remotely heard of your name in your life could suddenly be erased from existence in the flick of a wrist scares me
@@Eagle_the_18th Not to mention more cruel, since all those people are dead, simply because they had known you or are related to you and you will have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your days, where you with be sensory shrouded, never able to move again, to touch, speak or hear another person or taste any food, or see anything again, forever alone locked in silence and darkness, with only your own thoughts that is a fate worse than death
More a statement of fact than a threat.
One of the most brutal scenes in TV history. All on a beautiful day in the garden, birds chirping in the background. Genius.
The subtly loss of all background sounds, in the moments after Day gives the signal, before slowly returning to normal, is really good sound design. Evokes insects suddenly going quite, when the peace is broken, on an otherwise quiet night.
This was one of the most chilling moments I’ve seen in a show. And he did it so simply, just a simple flick of the wrist and 1,551 people died instantly, while Azura is left to live out her days going insane and being forced to continue living.
Brother Day was so powerful in this scene that a lot of people are overlooking how great an acting job Azura did. I watched it again and just focused on her, truly outstanding as her terror builds.
Especially when he talks about her losing virginity to a girl. She's more uneasy with each sentence though. Great acting in mediocre show in some moments. That's why I liked it those few good scenes are very memorable.
This was the most Badass Cold Blooded scene of the series so far!!! With Cleon telling Azura her punishment in an absolutely calm voice with no trace of emotion in it gave me chills!!!
Like Hitler!! Or Kim Jung Un!!! Sooo Badass!!
Based
Kim Jong Un does basically the same thing, only he does not have particle beams or so advanced survailance system... but does the job anyway. That is not badass...
The scene is great ...masterfull even, the acting, setup, environment, writing..all.. dont get me wrong... but the deed, that is something so despicable, so vile and to imagine that 30000 years or so in the future people can still behave in the patterns of 21 century Earth perverse dictators makes you think. I dont say it isnt wrong prediction, i dont say it cant or wont happen in distant future... i just think that it should not happen, better for humanity to die off in next world war than leave a trail of blood, destruction, death and torture tens of thousands of years wide.
@@jonothandoeser Exactly lmao. I see why this bozo is loveless
@@DreamskyDance DPRK does *not* generationally punish people. That is CIA propaganda.
This is criminal this show not become popular. This is the best series i have watch in my whole time.
I totally agree with you!
Apple Tv exclusive destroyed that hope.
TBH it is filled with SJW garbage and "muh strong womyn" moment. It has some gems (such as this) but it definitely has flaws too.
@@microbiote509 yeah its real, personally Jared Harris and the Cleon actors carried this series for me, other scenes/plotlines were really forgettable
@@microbiote509 Actually I didn't see that. The characters of Gaal and Salvor are not 'Mary Sues'. They can be vulnerable, and they both have lovers - they are not men haters. The characters are well written, and well acted.
They have women and POC who are also villains.
Ironically this series actually manages to achieve what Disney failed at with Star Wars.
Just binged this show over the past week, and saw this very scene tonight. This is easily the most blood curdling fate for anybody I think I've ever come across in any form of media, whether it be books, tv, or film. It's so incredible cold and soulless a punishment that I just can't stop thinking about it no matter how uncomfortable it makes me. Loved this show from start to finish.
@@kimloy8019
A true waking nightmare
Isaac Asimov born in Russia. The Soviet Union purge a lot of people so it can be done its just the insane amount of effort to punish someone
@@TheStickman17 they have unlimited resources and endless time.
To kill not only the legacy of being remembered, but also to block all sensation, and yet still be alive is like being a living ghost.
@@akashshetty5112 and just when i think I've gotten over it, you bring it back up! Lol
Blood chilling
It really move my heart when day called brother dawn as his son.
The current Brother Day is far kinder than the previous one (or the one who's the current Dusk)
Lee Pace is doing a great job of portraying the subtle differences between the two Cleons. Kudos to the writers too for great character writing.
Kn0bi1 GonpAchiRo shows you how we are all shaped by our experiences. This Day heard Harry say the end was coming, saw the previous Day committee genouside and preformed a pilgrimage. All things that made him different from dusk and turned him in to someone who is capable of unconditional love.
@@jacobdenness8659 The pilgrimage played the biggest part, I think. The incumbent Day was disturbed at how he experienced no vision at the sacred pool - plus during the journey itself when his companion died, it profoundly affected him.
KnObi1 GonpAchiRo definitely, I think he was always on some level open to the idea of change because of what he saw as a child but Day was profoundly effected by what he went through. In fact I think it could be argued seeing nothing was in fact his vision, the God or whatever you want to call it challenged Day in that moment. Afterwards he did change, don't get me wrong he's still a murdering exstreamly spitful bastered but he's one who can show unconstitutional love and was willing to at least to try and change for the better.
I wonder when it will occur to Cleon that she's achieved an unprecedented memorial: The most powerful man in the empire will remember her to his dying day.
Assuming he really carried out the executions, imagine dying because you kissed the wrong girl lol
Assuming ? You don’t know the empire man
It's safe to assume he did make good on his threat, since he had the means & motivation. She would not turn states evidence against her co-conspirators, so Empire applied the ultimate process of elimination😉.
@@MrSidney9 oh I'm 99% sure he did execute everyone, after all he is a cleon, but he might have gone a little more merciful after the maiden.
@@snibit432 Brother dusk killed Millions attacking those two worlds, 1k+ deaths is nothing to them.
I personally think that he didn’t do it. It would raise too many questions amongst people when over a 1000 people go missing, whole families. It would make people aware of the plot, because the friends and families of those 1000+ people, would have known something… it would start rumors and ultimately could led to rebellion.
When this scene happened, I was completely flabbergasted. It was the most brutal and yet most perfect and poetic punishment imaginable. What a horrible thing to do and what a horrible way to die.
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it!
Imagine having to live like another 80+ years in complete sensory deprivation isolation after this. Absolutely horrifying.
@@DBCOOPER888 right?! I couldn't even fathom
Note to self ... do not follow this lady on any social media ... 😬. This scene is absolutely brilliant.
good thing she didn't have a popular gardening channel with 15 million followers
Watching this show made me discover the brilliance of Lee Pace. Wonderful performance.
@Behemoth Halt & Catch Fire was the most tragically underappreciated show ever, IMO. The soundtrack was second to none, too. I'm glad AMC let them finish the story despite the low number of viewers.
Still find it hard to believe he was Ronan the Accuser!
Cleon essentially erased Azura's existence from the universe. Not only her, her entire bloodline.
With no one there to know she ever existed, and being "Shrouded" (which blocks out any sensory info), she's basically gonna spend the rest of her life in Limbo. Like a ghost.
Except she impacted every person that pulled the trigger to 'erase' her, everyone that gave the order, spied on her and her family; Which more than doubled the number of people that she touched. She will be forgotten in time, but Cleon really did this in a messy way. He was emotional afterall.
This was one of the most chilling scenes I’ve seen in a long time. The rest of her life is as close to a living hell as it gets.
@Daoist Moonlight and he will never forget her and it will impact upon him and his descendants forever.
@@daoistmoonlight1445 we’ve seen that the Cleons can erase peoples memories as seen with the prostitutes in the pleasure garden. Theoretically he could have erased the memory of every agent sent to spy or eliminate them. But even if he did all this he still couldn’t erase his own memory nor erase the impact her actions had on his dynasty. In a way Cleons “justice” is flawed and incomplete much how the Cleons rule of the galaxy is flawed and doomed to collapse. Idk, just something I pondered.
@@c4ble472 ironic isnt it coz she will live on in his memory forever
The garden scene reminded me that Lee Pace is actually 6’5”.
I loved the scene in the very first episode where he just towers over Gaal in the most intimidating way. It was such a tense moment, I had to remind myself to breathe.
The genius of this scene is the running water and birds providing back ground noise that stops when Day gives the signal. Chilling.
Good observation there! Thank you for commenting!
The juxtaposition between Day leaving her to sit in that garden and her impending future is sublime. She's not escaping some horrid torture cell. You can imagine the warm sun on her skin, the soft buzzing of insects or flitter of birds, the sweet smell and riot of colours of the flowers, all being burned in as her last beautiful memory before being sensory shrouded from behind. Although I suppose all that might not matter since she's probably sobbing about how she's suffered name death long before physical death.
The idea of being isolated in a sensory deprivation device, fed through an IV tube. How long before someone goes absolutely and irrevocably insane? A week? A month? Ten years? Beyond chilling. I think great acting elicits a strong response in the audience. This was great. Congratulations.
Thank you for your kind comment. Have a wonderful day!
This scene and Lee Pace's dialogue will now live rent free in my mind. Absolutely epic.
Thank you so much for your kind comment!
The attention to detail in the entire show, particularly this scene, is spectacular. The contained anger, the cruelty, even the startled twitch of the girl as he flipped his fingers. And then the girl being left a few moments to contemplate just how screwed she is, an expression of which was beginning to show on her face as the camera began to pan out. Brilliant!
did you notice all music and sound effects stop.. while he judges her
@@Perfectblue33 Indeed I did.
“whatever ripples you’ve made have been cancelled out.”
that really is what happened. even those tangentially related to her carry a kind of inkling of her effect on the world. to destroy a person you must destroy everyone who remembers them, and anyone who remembers anyone who’s affected by them
Except there's still someone alive that remembers her. Emperor Cleon will remember her.
@@softan and so his plan fails
"He is my brother...he is also my son."
(Sweet Home Alabama starts playing)
He ain't heavy. He is my brother.
I mean, he did raise him since he was an infant. I have no problem accepting that the Cleons viewed their younger and elder Cleons as son, grandson, father and grandfather while still calling eachother brothers.
What I loved SO MUCH about this scene was that Day decided to take Azura to the place that she feverishly cultivated over the years into the visual perfection that is the Garden where she lured Dawn into her trap. It is here, amid the splendor, beauty, and grandeur of that Garden that Day unveils his brutally cruel and ruthless punishment. Day would erase every aspect of Azura's existence. Everyone she ever met, and those whom they met were likewise purged from existence. Interestingly though, the Garden of perfection where Azura toiled would remain, so some evidence of her impact in the world, her legacy would endure!
well said Victor.
A beautiful trap, disguised as a garden. Is now a mausoleum, disguised as a garden.
The deceit remaining. The meaning, clarified.
And she will live on on his memory forever.
unless someone else would destroy it for something else without a thought what happen'd because no one knows. hell this is on paar with something the 40k emperor would do . (yeah i know GW probably was "inspired" of the foundation /galactic empire books at some point) but i cant shake the feeling the writers of the show know some lore .
I doubt she was the only one working as a gardener.
Honestly, this show is perfect. And the actors, they are nailing it. Everyone already talked about Brother Day, but honestly, Azura also nailed it. Like, you can feel how terrified she was, briliant.
Also, irrelevent to this scene but, Jared Harris, you are the goat.
Perfect casting, and excellent writing.
Thank you for your nice comment. Have a wonderful day!
I wouldn't say the show is perfect. I found it to be pretty mid, overall. But the Cleons and in particular Pace's Brother Day is utter prefection.
Thank you for your nice comment. I agree with you. Have a wonderful day!@@cameraman502
The best part of this scene was I was expecting her to die, and I guess the character was also thinking "Im going to be killed very soon", and then the twist ... far worse than death.
Same. My jaw dropped when he explained her fate. I rewound to make sure I heard him right.
That fate is worse than death by far.
@@VictoryAviation God, yes! Imagine what that even means, "sensory shrouded". The closest equivalent I can think of is being locked into a dark, sound-proof coffin, unable to move. I couldn't endure that for 5 minutes, let alone the rest of my life. Compared to that, death would be a gift.
@@antred11yeah right? I'm glad it's not real and only a series/book I don't wish that on anyone
@@antred11 Being in a coma might be similar.
@@softan A coma would be better, since you're unconscious.
This scene is the definition of "vengeance". Day is just as evil as Azura. But I think Azura failed to understand the depths of Empire's capacity and willingness to exact revenge. That he does it in a soft spoken calm voice was perfect.
This scene is such a standout in the series. The amount of wrath that's under Day's calm demeanor is staggering. To create such a horrific means of punishment. I'm in awe of the acting and writing here, I'm so glad they chose the actors they did for the Cleons, especially Lee Pace. He is carrying this show on his back.
That was brutal. Lee Pace delivered perfectly, calmly but with controlled anger. You can see that he is savouring Azura's terror. Goddamn
This was one of the most cruel and sadistic punishments I've ever seen and heard.
Absolutely loved it. Props to the writers.
Edit: typo
Thanks for your nice comment. Have a wonderful day!
Foundation has been fantastic but this scene was something else. Perfectly delivered as an absolutely brutal punishment that, in its excess, is strangely fitting for what the Clions would do for revenge.
Absolutely brutal.
I loved this scene too. Gave me chills when you realize what he's doing and done. Her fate sounds horrific too. The detail was great, even to the point that looking at Brother Day you can still see the sunburn from the Desert world has still not faded completely. ha ha. Great detailing. Loved this series. It dragged a little around Episode 3, but picked up and has been great all the way to the finale.
This is the single most terrifying scene I've seen in scifi, and I've seen a lot. And there's just one person talking without ever raising his voice once, there's birds singing and the gentle sound of water. And yet, it leaves you frozen in horror and you cannot forget the terrible beauty of this scene.
The idea of having anyone that may have even heard about you, whether they actually knew you or not. Along with friends, family, acquaintances, even enemies. All wiped out.
Then being forced to live with it, in a virtual state of disembodiment. Having no sensory input from any of your physical senses. Just your own thoughts being the only reminder that you're alive at all. And you're drowning in guilt, despair, and horror by what has happened.
That is the worst way to make someone burn in hell in my opinion. Taking out, or making them believe that you wiped out their entire social circle, then denying them any environment where a mind can mourn, leaving them only with this knowledge of being the only person left alive they knew as the only thing they could process as well as not being able to process anything else.
That wouldn't just shattered a mind. That would quickly grind it down to powder. Completely unrecoverable probably within less than a month.
What I found more shocking in Day's calmed speech is how he underlines that she will be aware for the years to come, remembering what Azura has taken from him. This is what makes her future even more terrifying: the fact that she will be aware for all those years. It's clear to me that the intravenous feed includes some sort of medicine so that she won't be insane in a pair of months. In a universe with this kind of technology and biotechnology, that is perfectly possible
How long do you think a person can last in total sensory deprivation before their mind totally erases itself? From what I hear people get major psychological problems within days. I think within months or years without new stimulus the mind would erase itself, forget everything old and have nothing new. Azura has been killed, there will be nothing left in her brain that makes her. She will end up as a blob of flesh with a blank brain.
@@robertlipka9541 yes, unless a nanobot in the automated cell prevents that from happening
@@robertlipka9541 Not in this universe she won't. If they can build ships that fold space they can do anything. They'll prolong her life & ensure that her mind is as alert & vivid as possible so she can experience the absolute mental torture that comes with this form of punishment.
@@robertlipka9541 she will probably marvel over how dumb the dude is for killing everyone connected to her but himself. . .spend her years reveling in her victory.
@@thrawn-ys9hf I said elsewhere, this is not about philosophical total erasure, it is about removing a threat and perhaps in minor part about setting up an example and deterring others (the rational revenge). It make no sense towards any of these goals for Day to off himself... so there. I am not sure how much consolation Azura will get from knowing Day is still around or that her grocer or the hotel help she said something to are still around (not everyone she ever interacted with was killed or the number would be much greater than around 1,500... only those she could have had meaningful influence on or who could have had influence on her).
That was a powerful scene. Very cold blooded.
I couldn't believe that a scene with two people walking and talking in a beautiful garden would give me nightmares but it did, absolutely terrifying.
It wasn't until this moment when I thought he was truly evil. When he needlessly tortured someone for no gain but his own personal satisfaction. Even the burning of the planets could be somehow justified, but this was needless cruelty.
Really an amazing scene. Because you don't even question it. You just know he did it. No blood. No physical pain. No torture. But so harmful.
It's the little pause, the silence, and then the hand moves, quickly yet quietly, that makes this scene utterly terrifying, and they don't show anything, you just believe that what he told has indeed happened because he's just that powerful. Brilliant writing and acting.
This scene is my new "to meet my maker" moment. I keep coming back for the acting and script and it's very satisfying.
I am glad you like the scene. Thank you for commenting!
One of the most terrifying monologues in television.
The Galactic Empire is truly the Space version of Rome, as wiping out the entire family line of a enemy was a well known tactic of the ancient Roman empeors, though Cleon (aka Brother Day) took it to an extreme level
Not Rome. Imperial China was where the Extermination of Nine Familial Relations was actually a punishment recorded in the law books. IIRC their record was something like 5000 executions tied to one man's rebellion.
He took it to an extreme level because he had the capacity to do so.
Had the Roman Emperors possessed the same level of power and tech as Cleons do, they'd have done the same.
@@andrewsuryali8540 Rome did it as well
@@andrewsuryali8540 It's actually is Rome. Asimov wrote this from the inspiration of the collapse of Rome books.
@@90najay This part doesn't have anything to do with the books. The Genetic Dynasty was invented for the show.
You die twice. The first time when you stop breathing and a second time, some time after, when somebody says your name for the last time.
This is the second death without the initial release from your biology and mind. Absolute horror.
This scene is just so brilliant. Flawless by Lee Pace, the chillingly smooth vengeance and rage is just immaculate.
Phenomenal acting by Lee Pace and this young actress. Azura harmed Brother Dawn whom he regards as his own son and he punished her in a way only a Cleon could AND combined with Papa Bear instincts, by targeting all the people in her immediate and extended family, as well as friends and lovers. But the cruelest punishment was saved for her, by depriving her of all her senses except her awareness, a fate far worse than death.
It's very Cersei.
@@alanpennie8013 Cleon is a competent Cersei.
@@alanpennie8013 Or John Doe from 7even
Amazing acting here from Lee yet again! One of my favorite scenes of this episode!!
Ruthless and effective. No wonder the dynasty has stood for so long even if the rulers are basically the same person.
This was my favorite scene in the entire show thus far - it’s gonna be hard to beat this drama lol
It was really good, but I think Day in the salt cave realizing he would not have a vision because he has no soul was the best.
As everyone said, this scene was absolutely one of the most well done and positively brutal scenes... So well written and acted. Bravo
I was glued to the screen during this scene. I was rooting for that iteration of Brother Dawn to be able to start a new life….but she baited him.
She got absolutely owned, possibly more than anyone has ever been owned.
Lee Pace is such a great actor. In an alternate reality, we could have had him playing Sauron/Annatar in a better Rings of Power show.
Absolutly the BEST example of revenge and retribution I have EVER seen. Truly the most horrific fate I could possibly imagine. To know that your individual actions have resulted in the deaths of so many people whose only sin is to have simply known you in some way is delightfully horrible. Then, like the cherry on top of the perfect ice cream sundae, he ensures that Azura that she will face a very long lifetime with no possible distraction from what she did. By the time Azura is finally released from this fate, she may very well be unable to make the distinction between being alive and being dead.
Awful what people do when they are in pain
I keep coming back to this scene. I really hope this show does better so this can become a more recognized moment in TV history, because it fucking deserves it.
Amen Brother!
She so coldly manipulated Dawn and was ready to execute him. She had it coming.
Thought experiment: The Nazi Regime manages to last for some decades now. Hitler has a son. An heir. A housekeeper manages to get under his skin, and plant the seed to destroy this Regime from within.
.... would you blame te housekeeper?
Do you dare to say "oh but Cleon is not as bad as Hitler"?
@@BritneyLaZonga nah she definitely had it coming fella
@@BritneyLaZonga To many, Azura is a patriot. To some, allegiant to a brutal autocrat and despot, she's a terrorist!
@@softan It's extreme, but this is how it was in ancient civilizations. When an attempt on an emperor was planned, part of the plan was all family members related to that assassin would commit suicide ahead of time since they'd be marked for retribution anyways.
Agreed
what a scene
lee pace is knocking it outta the park
Imho he does indeed. Thank you for commenting.
Now this is how you do revenge and punishment.
The most powerful scene ever…yet simple, yet calm, yet devastating!
Thank you for the comment. I am happy you liked it.
I gotta say, this was truly chilling. And probably the most horrifying thing that happened, even toppling genocide that was wreaked in response to the spacelift terror attack. Even with that mass murdering there's always hope someone survives. In this case it's a complete wipeout of EVERYONE. This was extremely disturbing and heartbreaking.
This was such a great scene. Lee Pace’s acting was perfect.
I felt like that when I deleted my Facebook account.
Erased from metaverse for eternity.
That was so cold it frosted every plant in that garden, inadvertently adding to the destruction of her legacy.
Still the coldest bit of dialogue to ever be uttered.
SO SIMPLE BUT ALSO DEVASTATINGLY EFFECTIVE! SUCH A AMAZING BEAUTIFUL SCENE!
this was the scene that burned into my mind. I've been thinking about it for days.
That guard on the path be thinking, "wait a minute, I just saw her too."
When you play the game of thrones, you either win or end up in a sensory-deprivation shroud for all time with everyone you've ever known dead.
Sensory shrouded for the rest of my life? Sweet Jesus.... I would tear out my neck vein, just right there, at that moment.
I was thinking that if there was anything whatsoever to jump off right then, it was the time to do it.
@@VictoryAviation lmao
So would I.
Another powerful aspect of this scene is the way it doesn't show her arrest or any attempt to restrain or keep an eye on her....he just pronounces sentence and then casually wanders off, leaving her to enjoy the garden for a bit lol.
This is probably one of my favorite scenes in any show….ever!
Thank you for your nice comment. I and many Agree with you. Stay tuned for season 2 trailers and updates!
One of the things Azura says, but Cleon dismisses, is the root reason why the Empire will eventually fall.
When referring to Brother Dawn as "his son", Azura responds saying "He's not your son". "Of course he is", Day replies, "He's another Cleon"
Which is the single most erroneous ideology a father can have. Cleon believes that a son should be a clone of himself - as opposed to being someone of their own.
Lee pace does a great job acting in this scene.
The saga of the cleons is the reason I loved watching this first season. Especially the current day, the contrast between this devastating punishment to his love for dawn shown only minutes later.
Revenge... this has got to be the best revenge scene ever written for film!!! 🔥
Above all, I appreciate how #Foundation doesn't underestimate its audience. Brilliant script and story makes it a rewarding watch.
Stay tuned for season 2!
Honestly, I think that I enjoyed the cosmic revenge that they discover later. That the DNA was already corrupted. So pointlessly pointless.
I just finished season 1 of this show for the first time yesterday, and this scene has jumped to one of my all time favorites.
There's no doubt Lee Pace is a force to be reckoned with, and he was perfectly cast, imo.
But I think people are sleeping on Amy Tyger's performance as well. She's got, what, only 2 lines of dialogue in this scene, but she knocks it out of the park. With almost no words, you can feel her emotions. From wary, to worried, to the horrible realization of what he's about to do, the fury, the hopelessness, and at the end of it all...just the overwhelming knowledge that it's all over for her. Absolutely brilliant work, I'm actually sad I won't be seeing her again, lol.
this scene got me shaking ..cleon´s rage is pure ..she deserved all of it
Keep coming back to this scene. There's something about it that just makes me feel. I don't know what it makes me feel, but it just makes me.
To the point, I could explain in great detail why this scene is so magnificent, but many people already have. Instead I will just say that while this is truly horrible, and unexpectedly cruel, the acting of Lee Pace is so subtle and extraordinary, that it makes this scene, my favourite in all of cinema and tv.
I would even go so far as to say it is one of the greatest scenes in all of cinema and tv period.
It's one of the best SF series in the latest years. Thanks for your comment. It is appricated.
I'll be upset if Lee Pace isn't at least nominated for a Golden Globe or Emmy for his performance as Brother Day.
When I saw this on the final episode for the season it really left an impression. This form of punishment is on another level altogether and a fate worse than death. This is just about the most painful & brutal kind of retribution anyone could think of. This series is brilliant and I cannot wait for season 2. It can't come around fast enough.
A brilliant scene. The setup, the obliteration of her legacy and the absolute hell she’s about to endure for decades to come. Lee Pace, what an actor.
i think the worst part about this punishment is having no way to know if cleon actually went through with his plan. of course he has the resources but azura will never have any way to confirm or deny him following through. the idea of it happening is a mental prison in itself.
There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that Day was making this up. The Cleon's are brutal and only know how to rule in extremes.
Analyzing the situation, we can pretty figure he did it for real
He wiped half of two planets, killing 2k people is nothing for him
He acts and judges as if he is like a god.
Lee Pace is a Beast. Without the Cleon plot this series would be done after first episode.
The level of creativity and cruelty is unmatched
Lee Pace is so amazing