Hello and welcome back to coverage on Apple TV’s For All Mankind. This week’s episode focuses more on the moon base and how things are going up there with the crew and their extended stay. So let’s not waste any time and get right into, “Hi Bob.”
1. About Two Weeks
Not only is NASA being investigated for what went wrong with the Apollo 23 launch, but it also means that the team on the moon, Gordo Stevens, Edwin Baldwin, & Danielle Poole, are stuck up there. NASA gives them unfortunate updates about all the mishaps that continuously delay the relief teams and finish with “about another two weeks.” This is the slow catalyst for the episode by testing the crew’s sanity into how much longer they can survive in an isolated state.
2. Larry & Ellen
Despite the conclusion of what happened on Apollo 23, the FBI agent at NASA has made it his new mission to out Larry Wilson to everyone, even if it means squeezing the truth out of his “girlfriend,” astronaut Ellen Waverly. The agent starts to question her and becomes puzzled when he looks into her family’s finances and past job choices and is just asking how she ended up with a guy like Larry. This storyline feels odd due to this agent not having any real purpose to outing this man other than he can. The president’s administrator talks with Ellen and warns her that NASA cannot afford a sex scandal at the same time as President Kennedy’s rumored affair. Although it seems like he knows and personally doesn’t care, he does offer her a solution to help out with the case; the two of them have been together for a long time and should get married to help rid some suspicions. Neither wants to give up the careers they’ve worked so hard for, but for Ellen, it will be at the cost of her actual relationship with the bartender she’s been with since the show started.
3. Stir-Crazy
From the beginning of this episode, Gordo is shown as the one in the crew slowly starting to lose his mind while stuck on the base. He mentions seeing little red lights that Ed initially thinks may be connected to the Russians on the other side of the crater, but Danielle can see otherwise. Ed continuously tries to give him the benefit of the doubt by relieving him of duties to ease his mind, but after they lose a tape with the only source of television entertainment, it’s the final straw for poor Gordo. It’s less awkward and sadder when Gordo awakens the others to re-enact the episode in the middle of the night to bond with them but mainly help himself. I think the mix of his internal motivation to discover and move around rather than sit and wait for things to happen and the issues with his marriage drives him to a rough mental state. Ed finally makes the tough call to reach out to Houston in the morning to send Gordo and Danielle back due to his mental break.
4. Changing The Battery
Later that night, Danielle has an accident while changing a battery in the base and ends up breaking her arm. She purposely does this so Ed can call the medical emergency for her in the morning rather than for Gordo. They both know that if it were going to be for him, he’d end up going to a shrink and losing his full license to fly into space or any planes. Danielle knows this firsthand because her husband has PTSD after returning from combat and cannot find work he can be proud of. Despite the times she and Gordo butted heads, she wouldn’t wish that on him and decides to take the blame for being sent back home. Ed gets promoted for his willingness to stay behind on base by himself, but he, and the audience, know it will come at an even heavier price being cooped up all alone.
5. Trouble On The Home Front
The other storyline for the Baldwin household got some shine in this episode as Karen is dealing with their son Shane’s antics regarding school and getting into trouble. The moments are brief in the episode, but it draws the attention of the school principal to point out that Shane and Danny Stevens that Shane is the leader and creates the bad ideas while Danny follows. Harsh truth for Karen to hear out loud but something I’m sure she’s been aware of at home. In the final moments of the episode, after getting yelled at by Ed via video chat, Karen grounds Shane and tries to keep him from his basketball game. He sneaks out once she leaves for a PTA meeting, and we find out that there was an accident involving him. It’s not said whether it is fatal, but either way, Karen is dealing with this situation while her husband is on an entirely different planet. This isn’t exactly the test we wanted for Karen to show some true colors, but hopefully, we will get more than surface-level emotions from her.
