It’s been a while since I read the books, but if memory serves right the reveal of the second foundation was a big surprise. As well as the identity of the mule. But the show seems to have deviated from those ideas.

Also the empire and dem story makes me think of the empire books, but I dont recall much about them.

From what I remember Asimov decided way late to combine all his series together almost like an after thought. Robot empire and foundation.

Anyways I like the mentalics shown off in this episode. But I worry showing them off so soon is gunna cause problems when we get to the mule era stories.