While last week's episode, "Into the Abyss," was primarily 30 minutes of narrative bookended by two tense sequences, the newest episode of "For All Mankind" presents a relatively slow-burn, yet a strikingly significant one for several reasons, including a twist that unexpectedly intertwines two seemingly unrelated plot threads in a shocking manner. That is, of course, after the longer-than-usual cold open, which has me regretting the use of the phrase "slow burn" now. It's 1974, and we're on the cusp of the launch of Apollo 23, with a crew that includes Michael Collins from Apollo 11 and our trusty companion Molly Cobb.
The minutes leading up to the launch seem relatively serene, and Gene Kranz even comes out to the launch platform to offer the astronauts his best wishes. However, as he walks away, a massive explosion engulfs him and 11 other men. They all perish in the blast, which Houston witnesses in silent horror through the video feed, while the astronauts onboard manage to escape via emergency launch but not without injuries.
This is a monumental setback for NASA, which promptly launches an investigation into what transpired. Meanwhile, the three astronauts residing in the Jamestown homestead on the moon – Gordo, Danielle, and Ed – are stranded there until a new mission can be dispatched to relieve them (as Apollo 23 was intended to do), subsisting on supplies sent by unmanned rockets.
NASA's investigation heavily focuses on the possibility that Russian sabotage caused the explosion, leading them to probe the backgrounds of everyone involved. This investigation results in an FBI agent interrogating Larry about whether he frequently visits gay "dance halls" in Houston's Montrose district. (The smart money was always on Larry being gay, making his relationship with Ellen mutually beneficial, but here we have our official confirmation of that.) Ellen must confront the fact that to continue working at NASA, she'll have to commit a felony and lie to the FBI; she also has to accept that her relationship with Pam can't continue despite their mutual love for each other.
On Earth, while their fathers are stuck on the moon, Tracy and Karen's sons are acting out at school, committing minor acts of vandalism like detonating cherry bombs in toilets – ostensibly due to their missing fathers, though this connection isn't well-established. Tracy is busy with her work in the space program, leaving Karen to shoulder most of the responsibility for her children. This has led to Karen accepting Tracy's role over the years despite her initial resentment when the program began. However, this doesn't come without consequences, particularly Tracy's growing distance from her son.
All of this unfolds amidst a particularly awkward night for Margo, who is reluctantly asked to fulfill a task she truly doesn't wish to do: Visit her former mentor, Wernher von Braun, who has penned a report detailing the missteps in the launch of Apollo 23. However, the only way she can retrieve it is from his residence, a transparent attempt to reestablish contact after she severed ties with him due to his involvement in Nazi Germany. But as he explains to her, he had promised her father before his demise that he would try to elucidate the reason behind her father's unloving nature. It emerges that Margo's father, during the war, was recruited for the Manhattan project and was directly involved in the development of the bomb that devastated Nagasaki and contributed to ending World War II - something that haunted him for the rest of his life.
Margo listens intently and appears to comprehend, but it doesn't change her reluctance to spend time with Wernher. She demands the report so that she can leave, but Wernher has one more surprise in store for her. At the start of the episode, before the explosion, American history seemed to have taken a positive turn as the Illinois state government cast the decisive votes necessary to make the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) a part of the United States Constitution. (This is something that, in reality, has yet to occur.) The ERA was apparently a major campaign issue for then-President Ted Kennedy (sorry about that, Nixon), and Wernher reveals one of Kennedy's methods to achieve this: By awarding NASA manufacturing contracts to key political districts like Illinois, which subsequently secured Kennedy a political victory. So while it wasn't the Russians but equipment failure that caused the explosion, the equipment was manufactured by a company chosen not for quality but for political considerations - a revelation that Wernher knows full well will be classified as top secret by NASA as soon as Margo delivers it.
Wernher is exactly right about this, which is why Margo, frustrated with being overlooked for the position of flight director due to the perception that she's not a team player, makes a copy of the report before turning it in to her superiors and threatens to reveal it to the world unless she's made flight director of an upcoming mission. Blackmailing one's way into a leadership position isn't exactly something "team players" do, but hopefully Margo's confidence and competence make up for it.
All of this is capped off by Gordo, still stuck on the moon and dejected over the fact that once he returns to Earth, he and Tracy are headed towards divorce. On a walk outside, they spot red lights in the distance - just like much of the plot of this week's episode, another setup for future developments.
Perhaps the smartest choice "Home Again" makes is its very first one. After "Into the Abyss" jumped forward in time by two years, I fully anticipated that this week's episode would explore what happened during those years between 1971 and 1974. Instead, For All Mankind continues to rocket forward into the future, and finding out just how far the first season will be able to go before its conclusion is one of the series' most exhilarating elements.
