What's the real punchline here? ... Hari's creating a 2nd Foundation, the psychic one, on Helicon vs some secret location on Trantor, as in the books.
And then, he realizes that Gaal's got "psychic" abilities and could help the 2nd Foundation. Hello?! Who was he recruiting to begin with?! People with extraordinary gymnastic abilities? Sure, add another psychic to Wanda's club (assuming that Wanda from the book is around) but now, the Mule doesn't even have to search very hard. Look no further than Hari's home planet for the psychic clubhouse.
As far as the Emperor goes, I'm suppose to be believe that a walk through a desert w/o food and water is suppose to conjure 'galaxy shattering' visions. Guess what? That happens to people, when they're mildly sleep deprived nevermind the whole desert visionquest which is as old as the times before the Old Testamount on our own earth. Almost anyone on a desert trip gets lightheaded and delusional, esp in face of the heat and dehydration.
And having visions or hallucinations doesn't say anything about the condition of one's soul given the fact that stories about 'Trinities' call it Osiris, Isis, and Horus in ancient Eqypt, Brahma, Atma, Vishnu in ancient & present-day India/Hinduism, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit in Christianity. It's called a universal archetype, if you're into Jung et al. Any signs of the symbol of 3 or even better, 7, which encompasses the deadly sins, the etheric bodies, the chakras, etc. If the Emperor saw three dancing elephants wrapped around seven gorillas then as far as I'm concerned, he's explained the essence of Kundalini Yoga through a metaphor. Congrats, he's now Guru Cleon the 13! Eat your heart out Dalai Lama, there's a new Bodhisattva in town!
If this is the religion of 10000 years from now, then I'll stick with earth's denominations.
And the jump ship piece was just dragged out from the prior episode. Nothing new here except that I think Farra and Salvor won't be becoming friends in the future.
It looks like in the series Hari Seldon wasn't aware of the particular kind of psychic abilities that Gaal has till now. A good question is whether Salvor has the same kind of psychic abilities. I'm inclined to think not, just because it would make most sense to me if Gaal's abilities are tied to her math talent, and Salvor doesn't seem to be maths-inclined.
As for the Second Foundation being in Helicon, and Helicon being a dark star, that's interesting, and from a certain point of view, not that surprising. The weird thing about psychohistory, it officially does not exist, but you can find lots of people believe in it. (How many conspiracy theories talk about the great globalist planners?) Stranger yet, every time somebody comes close to anything that looks a bit like the grand idea of psychohistory, it gets really weird. Malthus. Marx. The "Limits to Growth" book model associated with the Club of Rome. (I have personally looked into this particular model and experienced first-hand some of the inexplicable strangeness attached to it.) So, I sort of get it. Hari Seldon is sort of not allowed to ever come into existence.
I agree with your point about the archetypes being as basic as they get, but then, that's how I gather that religion works (but then, my knowledge of religion is pretty basic, so take that into account). What I mean is that the easiest, most basic stuff is also the most powerful. Much like the most basic concepts in any discipline are also the most powerful. If you can introduce any change in a basic concept, and most people agree with you, then you've done something really impressive.
Which is, again, why I guess people don't allow Hari Seldon into existence. It would make the guy too powerful to handle.
As for the Emperor's lack of vision, well, he's the Emperor, so that makes things a little different, I think. A naked Emperor without any vision of the future is not the leader you'd wish on anyone.