Full spoilers follow for For All Mankind Season 5, Episode 5, which is streaming on Apple TV now.
For whatever reason, this season of For All Mankind can’t seem to stop kneecapping itself right when it’s on the verge of being good, and Episode 5 has, sadly, done exactly that once again. We’re right off the heels of wildfire news spreading about the Mars automation agreement leak, and yet we kick things off with… Irina Morozova (Svetlana Efremova), Margo’s old Roscosmos boss and high-ranking KGB handler, getting locked up in a Soviet labor/reeducation camp for 19 months.
It’s not even that this is unimportant. The show needed to reintroduce Irina after she was arrested toward the end of Season 4, especially since we knew (from a picture in the last episode) that she would be part of the Kuragin delegation heading to Mars. But this montage in the Gulag feels stuffed at the front of the episode because there was no other good place to put it, and it just so happens to kick off an episode full of major revelations that mostly land with a thud because of rickety dialogue, wooden performances, or the unfortunate combination of both.
The bright spots are the naive defensive maneuvers Alex (Sean Kaufman) and Lily (Ruby Cruz) pull in light of their whistleblowing. Dev (Edi Gathegi), who sidestepped Aleida for the automation agreement, confronts Alex, calling his behavior the “actions of a fucking child.” In their spat, Alex quits Helios, claiming Dev never understood the long-term vision his grandfather had for Mars and that his plans for building Meru through extensive automation would result in a community that “only a chosen few get to be a part of.” He’s probably not wrong, but turning in his badge as a data-entry specialist — and then complaining to his mom about how he was “finally doing something meaningful” with his life (lol, you’re like 17, kid!) — is ineffectual dissent but spot-on for the character.
Lily, on the other hand, barely seems to comprehend how deep she’s in and the potential very real consequences of her easily trackable actions… beyond losing her acceptance to Tulane, that is. (Nooo!) She gleefully protests with the Marsies against the automation, wondering aloud, “They’re not looking for us, right?” up until her dad tells her she could be looking at 20 years in prison. She’s been talking about being a part of the resistance all season, and she’s finally seeing why Miles (Toby Kebbell) has been the strict parent this whole time.
The clunker of Episode 5 is Celia Boyd’s (Mireille Enos) plot, which is a real shame since she’s finally uncovered the truth behind Yoon Tae-min’s murder and how it’s connected to the automation plans. I will hand it to the show: It’s a fun juxtaposition having Boyd digging around the same conspiracy as Alex and Lily, two rogue outsiders, while working within the system that’s trying to keep it all covered up. But oh my God, the big scene between Boyd and her partner Fred (Tyler Labine), Yoon’s real murderer and Palmer’s puppet, did not have the kind of hissing ire or fear it needed to make the revelation feel like a major betrayal. Putting all that aside, though, the question still becomes: What does Boyd do with this information now? Lee is innocent! The cops are corrupt!
The answer is: Nothing — at least right now. The MPK have been called out to enforce the new curfew on Happy Valley to stop the “Mars is ours” protesters from getting too rowdy. Of course, the police presence only makes things worse and the gathering escalates to full-blown violence, with the protesters about to storm the control center where Governor Polivanov (Costa Ronin) is holed up. Once again, the episode has some motion; it just took 40-or-so minutes to get there. Let’s hope Episode 6 keeps it rolling!
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