Wow, an hour and 16 minutes of rich storytelling in "For All Mankind," as it barely manages to escape the year 1974. This episode is a whirlwind of emotions, with astronauts adrift in space, grieving women on Earth, immigration issues, lingering worries about Soviet spies, and the classic Elvis vs. Sinatra debates. It's a lot to take in, but the screen time feels far from wasted.
The episode begins with Ellen regaining consciousness aboard Apollo 24. She and Deke are alone because, in the chaos of last week's disaster, it was hard to determine exactly what happened to their crewmate Harry. This week confirms that he was, in fact, pulled into the rocket blast. Harry's death was definitely shown on screen in "Bent Bird," but the drama got so caught up in trying to save Molly Cobb that it's only now that NASA (and by extension, the show) has the bandwidth to pay tribute to another fallen astronaut.
The mission now, of course, is to keep the body count from increasing. Ellen and Deke are in a tough jam: They're miles off course, very low on fuel, and stand a good chance of overshooting the moon and just drifting off into the unknown. It's one of those terrifying scenarios you might never expect to find yourself contemplating until, of course, the very worst happens. And Deke and Ellen seem to face it with some good humor.
But let's not forget that scene in the movie "Contact" when the guys give Jodie Foster a suicide pill and tell her they've been giving them to astronauts since the beginning. Whether this is true about the space program has never been confirmed, but Ellen makes a good point about how, in their case, all they'd have to do is just open the hatch. After all, when it comes to space, it's surviving that's hard to do, not dying.
Down on Earth, however, NASA has a plan to make that survival happen. The catch is they have to get some help from Ed – who is still not responding to their communication requests because he's busy interrogating the Russian cosmonaut he trapped in the airlock at the end of last week's episode. (Anyone else kind of relieved that Ed didn't murder the guy? "For All Mankind" has taken some dark turns, but that one might have been too much.)
"Ivan," as Ed calls him (the guy's real name is Mikhail) is tied up and turns out to speak English pretty well, especially when challenging Ed about the supposed "goodness" of America. Mikhail won't say anything about the Russian plans for the moon, except to note that "this is the moon, mister – it belongs to all of us. The moon belongs to the whole world." Also, while both the Americans and the Russians need the moon's ice for their colonies, "there is enough ice for everyone."
While this attempt to persuade Ed is not entirely convincing, neither is Mikhail's attempt to bond with his captor by engaging him in a conversation about Elvis. Mikhail's love for Elvis stems from the illegal bootlegs he heard when he was younger; Ed, however, prefers Sinatra, as Elvis has aged while Sinatra "just gets better with time." As they wait for Ed to make a decision, Ellen and Deke chat about their lives. Deke is in a critical condition after sustaining a serious puncture wound and internal bleeding. The conversation takes a nasty turn when Ellen confesses her true love for Pam to Deke, who reacts with extreme prejudice. Part of it is due to bigotry, part of it is anger that Ellen's being gay could affect the program, but all of it leads to Deke giving her one piece of advice: "Don't tell anyone else what you told me." Deke's death theoretically keeps her secret safe; if this was a test on Ellen's part to see if coming out of the closet would be a real possibility for her, it went pretty badly.
Finally, Houston manages to get Ed on the comm after it starts flickering the lights inside the Jamestown station, communicating a simple SOS with Morse code (everyone should go see Parasite, by the way), and there's no real mention of how Ed has basically gone space crazy for who knows how long - everyone's just grateful to get him onboard for the plan to save Apollo 24. Ellen and Deke were able to use the last of their fuel reserves to get within a matter of feet to their ideal trajectory, but if Ed launches off the surface in the lunar lander, he might be able to get them some additional fuel and bring them back down to the moon.
The only problem - one that Ed doesn't mention to NASA - is that getting the extra fuel from a used vehicle should be a two-man job. But it's something Mikhail knows, and he offers to help, if only because international law demands it. "We are on the dark ocean together," he says. "We have no choice but to trust each other." The episode skips past Ed and Mikhail's successful retrieval of the fuel, and Mikhail returns back to his base while Ed launches the lander. Unfortunately, he can't dock with the Osprey because it's spinning too much, so they land on a plan for Ed to literally toss the fuel tanks through space - the toss goes a little wide, and Ellen misses it on the first attempt but eventually manages to snag it. (If you shouted "Goddamn it!" when Ellen missed, know that you were not alone.)
The mission is successful, but there's no saving Deke. It's just Ellen and Ed on the surface of the moon now, and Ed is hesitant to return to Earth. Ellen manages to persuade him. It's clear that the temptation to stay behind and continue avoiding the grief he knows is waiting for him is real; it's a credit to him as a person that he does eventually accept that it's time to go home.
Ellen now stands as the sole American on the moon, and from her new home on the lunar surface, she delivers a grand, inspiring, and season-ending monologue during a televised press conference. She reminds us that "sacrifices are part of the journey." Pam watches as Ellen also takes the opportunity to say "I love you" to Larry. Earlier, Pam defied "the rules" thanks to an increasingly rebellious Karen and came to watch the rescue attempt from the viewing room at NASA headquarters. However, the future for both Pam and Ellen remains uncertain.
Meanwhile, on Earth, my prediction from last week about what would happen to Aleida and Octavio turned out to be completely off-base: Octavio is getting deported, and while Aleida did go to Margo asking for help, all she asked for was a place to stay. Unfortunately, Margo doesn't want to add caring for a teenager to her already full plate. When Aleida's original hosts disappear (either arrested or on the run), the girl is left alone in the world with a backpack full of clothes and a letter of acceptance to the Kennedy School that it's unclear she'll be able to use.
There are a lot of unfinished stories here—Karen in particular feels like a work-in-progress—so it's a relief to know that there's already a second season of this show in production. What's to come? Well, the non-period-appropriate use of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" as the credits roll, of course, leads into a post-credits flash-forward to the 1980s where America is launching one giant rocket to the moon, containing plutonium that will help expand the Jamestown colony.
And that's a wrap on season one of "For All Mankind," which has been uneven at times but, overall, a smart and intriguing exploration that has had its fun tweaking a certain time in American history. The balance between optimism and realism (or cynicism, depending on how full your glass looks) has kept the series from getting too saccharine. But as things continue to accelerate with the passing years, one can only hope that, in the long run, the fact that the Russians beat America to the moon all those years ago ended up being a good thing for... well, you know.
