For All Mankind (spoilers)

[David Selig]

I wish we have had some negative reactions from the other astronauts about the Kelly's utter idiocy to get pregnant on freaking Mars. But no, everyone is happy for her as far as we know, and readily volunteers to remain stranded on Mars for years because of her.

[Ran]

Re: Molly,

 

The newspaper notes she died when going back in to rescue people. I thought it was pretty clear that our last glimpse of her going back into the dark alone with a survivor watching her was an echo of similar stories of rescuers at 9/11 (like Rick Rescorla).

I think this show has just about jumped the shark, sadly.

 

[DaveSumm]

32 minutes ago, Ran said:

The newspaper notes she died when going back in to rescue people. I thought it was pretty clear that our last glimpse of her going back into the dark alone with a survivor watching her was an echo of similar stories of rescuers at 9/11 (like Rick Rescorla).

I didn’t pick up on that reference. Did we have time to read the paper in any detail? What did she die of exactly?

[Ran]

7 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

I didn’t pick up on that reference. Did we have time to read the paper in any detail? What did she die of exactly?

The first paragraph of the paper just says she died rescuing others after the bombing. Did not manage to see if there were any other details.

[Werthead]

It's possible the building collapsed, or just collapsed further due to fires, after we saw it last.

I wasn't impressed by how they handled the time jump either. Using Radiohead is a reasonable choice for an early 2000s song but just showing Margo in a Soviet city was a bit underwhelming. Season 2's iconic ending is something they're probably never going to match.

Also, if they are doing seven seasons they are going to be zooming into our future for the final season, which will make it interesting to see what they do then about the music.

[SpaceChampion]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

The first paragraph of the paper just says she died rescuing others after the bombing. Did not manage to see if there were any other details.

Only additional detail said her body was recovered 7 days later.  Then it goes into her biography and career.

[Mindwalker]

OMG, I just realized that the next season is practically writing itself: There's a superficially buried gun close to someone's new quarters!

I'm sure both Dany and the Russian commander completely forgot about it because everyone has to be dumbed down to make his plotlines work.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Mindwalker

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

39 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

OMG, I just realized that the next season is practically writing itself: There's a superficially buried gun close to someone's new quarters!

I'm sure both Dany and the Russian commander completely forgot about it because everyone has to be dumbed down to make his plotlines work.

Marked too.

[Maia]

That was stupid and disappointing down the whole line, despite nice visuals. Why couldn't the doc perform a  Caesarian on Mars, when he had good enough equipement to save Ed from that metal splinter in his guts?  How is it that Kelly didn't burn up on the ascent, but there were all these pretty flames on the descent? The Korean mission had to be one-way to begin with - there was zero equipement to lift off again, so all the pathos seemed really overdone and felt like a re-hash of Ed's Johnstown arc. If Danny is remorseful, why didn't he do the right thing to save supplies for the rest of them? Did he purposefully try to kill Ed? It sure looked that way to me, but he/the showrunners were too spineless to admit it. Critics of the Mars program are shown to be completely right - nothing was achieved except for endless drama. Oh and now the 8(+1) guys who remained for the sake of a fetus have to somehow survive with insufficient supplies and without a biologist. And without the space center, but I guess that this brings Helios back into the game.

Why was Elen dropping in on Pam whilst in the middle of national emergency?! Or did she fail in everything and resign? Why would Margo have run to Russia instead of facing the music, this is completely out of character. She was willing to go to jail in 1992 and only gave in due to the threat to Sergei, now he is safe. NASA was her life and she managed to keep most sensitive information back even as a spy, now she'd have no choice but to give  Russia everything. All for the sake of some more BS "never the twain shall meet" drama. At least Molly got a good exit.

Time jump to 2003 is really ill-advised, IMHO, since the way  things ended in this season it makes no sense for Mars programs to continue, whereas there is a potential for interest in the struggle for survival of the stranded group and them finally doing/finding something worthwhile there. Maybe it will turn out that they'd still be there 8 years later somehow, since political will on all sides will stretch only to funding supply runs but not a mission capable of bringing them back? Kelly and the Stevens boys need to go, though, they are all 3  parade examples of the evils of nepotism.

[DaveSumm]

5 hours ago, Mindwalker said:

Dany

Why did the show give us two characters called Dani and Danny in the same location? Really weird and unnecessary choice.

Molly: a good exit? Really? I get what Ran was saying, but really they seemed to just run out of budget to show what that explosion had actually done. It seemed to just generically ruffle up all the rooms, but we had no sense of where things were in relation to the press (other than the one shot of Aleida in Margo’s office). But I don’t see how ‘a good exit’ and ‘maybe the rooms just collapsed later and we didn’t see it’ are compatible.

[Werthead]

4 hours ago, Maia said:

That was stupid and disappointing down the whole line, despite nice visuals. Why couldn't the doc perform a  Caesarian on Mars, when he had good enough equipement to save Ed from that metal splinter in his guts?

I was confused about that. The role of gravity in a baby's development is an issue, but it's an issue for the whole gestation period. If the foetus has gestated on Mars for the entire pregnancy, I'm not sure rocketing it up to Earth-normal gravity is a good idea (there is a very strong chance that, in real life, any babies born on Mars would simply never be able to visit Earth, the gravity would be too punishing and might injure them).

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Presumably the Soviets have H3 fusion too, correct?  As such why is the tech in Moscow in 2003 (represented by the crappy old style alarm clock on margo’s bedside table) so crappy and retro.  H3 Fusion would provide almost unlimited clean power for production of… whatever… wouldn’t that facilitate and further the mechanisms of the Soviet command style economic system?

[Mindwalker]

8 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Presumably the Soviets have H3 fusion too, correct?  As such why is the tech in Moscow in 2003 (represented by the crappy old style alarm clock on margo’s bedside table) so crappy and retro.  H3 Fusion would provide almost unlimited clean power for production of… whatever… wouldn’t that facilitate and further the mechanisms of the Soviet command style economic system?

Because it's communist H3 fusion. Duh.

[Slurktan]

On 8/13/2022 at 10:42 AM, Maia said:

Why would Margo have run to Russia instead of facing the music, this is completely out of character. She was willing to go to jail in 1992 and only gave in due to the threat to Sergei, now he is safe. NASA was her life and she managed to keep most sensitive information back even as a spy, now she'd have no choice but to give  Russia everything. All for the sake of some more BS "never the twain shall meet" drama. At least Molly got a good exit.

I thought it was fairly obvious Margo traded herself for Sergei plus family.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Slurktan said:

I thought it was fairly obvious Margo traded herself for Sergei plus family.

Margo arraigned for the US Military to get Sergei and family out of the USSR.

[Spockydog]

8 hours ago, Slurktan said:

I thought it was fairly obvious Margo traded herself for Sergei plus family.

I didn't think it was obvious at all.

Margo is presumed dead in the bomb blast.

 

[Werthead]

On 8/17/2022 at 10:56 AM, Spockydog said:

I didn't think it was obvious at all.

Margo is presumed dead in the bomb blast.

The Soviet Union in both Stranger Things and For All Mankind is exceptionally powerful, as it clearly has access to a fully-functioning teleporter.

I'm looking forward to the next season exploring in full the ramifications of the Soviets having such a device in their power.

[Slurktan]

On 8/16/2022 at 11:00 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Margo arraigned for the US Military to get Sergei and family out of the USSR.

She asked them to.  Did they? I would guess not because you know.... why would they?  Especially when they know shes a spy.  She very obviously knew she was going to Russia in her phone call with Sergei in America.  

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

18 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

She asked them to.  Did they? I would guess not because you know.... why would they?  Especially when they know shes a spy.  She very obviously knew she was going to Russia in her phone call with Sergei in America.  

No.  The AF General Margo worked with at NASA seemed excited by the prospect of an extraction mission.  This wasn’t a deal… as how the hell did the Soviets know the “Oklahoma City Bombing” was being moved to JSC?

[Slurktan]

On 8/19/2022 at 8:23 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

No.  The AF General Margo worked with at NASA seemed excited by the prospect of an extraction mission.  This wasn’t a deal… as how the hell did the Soviets know the “Oklahoma City Bombing” was being moved to JSC?

Seemed excited yes.  Was there any follow up on that from the show?  Nope.  We just get Margo sadly congratulating Sergei a few episodes later and then she is in Russia.  I'm just trying to connect the dots.

As for the connection to the bombing, I think none, merely cooincidence which is of course pretty ludicrous but also normal for a tv show.