For All Mankind Review: Don’t Be Cruel (Season 2 Episode 7)
Tensions with the Soviets escalate to heretofore unseen levels on For All Mankind Season 2 Episode 7, “Don’t Be Cruel”. From the sudden death of Tom Pain during the KAL 007 disaster to Dani essentially becoming a Russian prisoner and Ellen’s rapid promotion to NASA head, there’s a lot to take in this week.
Which is…fine. I’m just not sure why For All Mankind forced us all to wait 2/3rds of the season for the plot to finally start happening?
Your mileage may vary of course, but it’s been obvious to me from jump — heck, from the season’s promotional materials — that Season 2 was always going to be about militarizing the space program and what that says about both America specifically and humanity in general.
I guess I’m glad we’ve crossed the Rubicon on this particular plot point, but I’m oddly baffled about why it had to take so long. Most of this season has been so meandering, and I’m just not sure I believe there’ll be a payoff worth all of it later on.
Ellen, who’s dealing with a serious case of survivor’s guilt since she was supposed to be on that plane with Tom, grabs the reins of NASA with both hands, suddenly becoming a cheerleader not just for guns on the moon, but for an accelerated timeline for taking back the mining site the U.S. astronauts lost to the Soviets.
I think this is supposed to be proof that Ellen truly believes sucking up to Ronald Reagan is the only way she’ll ever get the program to Mars, but “Don’t Be Cruel” does a poor job of justifying her abrupt heel turn and utter abandonment of everything she’d previously believed on the subject.
Or the fact that like an hour ago she was ready to leave it all behind her for the sake of the love of her life. I mean, now she’s now suddenly fine with the idea of arming Pathfinder? What?
This episode also doesn’t really deal with the status of her relationship with Pam. It seems as though we’re meant to assume there’s no way they can be together now that Ellen’s more firmly in the closet than ever, and the way Pam is kept firmly visible in the background as she discusses strategy with a man who basically ignored the AIDS crisis (assuming that still happens in this reality) is jarring as heck.
Though I’m excited at Ellen finally getting a storyline this season — I didn’t really want it like this?
Elsewhere, I’m not sure how to feel about Karen selling The Outpost. I’m intrigued by the idea that she suddenly wants to be something more than an astronaut’s wife, but I also question whether this show will be able to truly keep her part of the narrative without the excuse of the bar setting.
Which is, I suppose where her sudden makeout session with Danny came from? I mean, I do think the show telegraphed that moment — I was getting extreme The Graduate vibes between them two episodes ago — but that’s not the same thing as it being a story that actually feels earned.
I mean, Karen saw this kid in diapers. You have to work a lot harder for me to believe in this choice, show. Do I believe she’s unhappy? That seems glaringly apparent. Do I think that this is how Karen Baldwin would act out? Not for a second.
The stealth MVP of “Don’t Be Cruel” is far and away Margo Madison, who not only pushes back against General Bradford, but manages to use the relationship she’s forged with Sergei to get a call through to the imprisoned astronauts in Star City. She also manages to tell him about the dangerous flaw in the original Buran shuttle design (the version she knows the Russians stole.)
Wrenn Schmidt has always done a great job at portraying Margo as a woman with a distinct moral compass, and she does a great job here too. Of course, she’s not going to let innocent people die in the name of slowing down the Soviet space program or making them pay for spying.
One of the best aspects of the past couple of episodes has been the unexpected camaraderie that’s sprung up between the U.S. and Soviet space folks. At the end of the day they’re still all scientists and pilots with the same interests and similar experiences — of course they’re going to gravitate to being friends instead of enemies.
Until they can’t.
Additional Thoughts and Observations
- RIP, Tom. Truly one of the most underrated characters on the show.
- I know this is the central point and question of this season, but I despise the idea that the U.S. would force its astronauts to arm themselves in space. I know it’s probably exactly what would actually happen, but I hate it all the same.
- Astronauts lining up with those glaringly white machine guns is a truly disturbing visual, made even worse by their impromptu performance of “Ride of the Valkyries”.
- In all honesty, the musical choices in this episode are just straight up bizarre. “I Fought the Law” while the Americans take back the mining site? What?
- The weirdest thing about “Don’t Be Cruel” is that it offers precisely zero explanation as to why the Soviets shot down a Korean passenger jet. There’s a vague hint that they claim it’s an accident, but other than that…not much.
- The engineer that goes to visit Dani is definitely this timeline’s version of Sergei Korolev is all I’m saying.
- I also love the imagery of Dani claiming her place among other space pioneers by literally writing it on the wall.
- The 1980s kid in me loves the confirmation that the Challenger disaster didn’t happen in For All Mankind’s timeline, because the team caught the O-ring issue in time. (It’s the same problem she describes to Sergei.)
What did you think of this episode of For All Mankind? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.
2 comments
As to your confusion on the shooting down of the Korean airliner, the reason they didn’t explain the why’s was because this was an actual incident in 1983 that came close to bringing us to war with the Soviets. All those televised scenes at the UN and such really happened. The probably expected you to know.
A lot off the mark in that review/recap.
As to Ellen, she was never the hippie kind, she has always been tough, making tough decision as a commander and choosing ambition and duty before personal issues. So this episode is very consistent.
“Astronauts lining up with those glaringly white machine guns is a truly disturbing visual, made even worse by their impromptu performance of “Ride of the Valkyries”.
“Machine guns”, seriously? Clearly you are not personally familiar with arms. Disturbing? These are tools of self defense, in this case defending Americans from Communist tyrants. Rather than disturbing, it’s beautiful to see that Americans are standing tall against oppression, setting a great example for good people everywhere. The Ride of the Valkyries is clearly a homage to Apocalypse now, in which soldiers transported by helicopter are fighting back on the communist tyrants. Highly appropriate for this scene. Even more so as in this episode the craft is piloted by a woman and another woman is part of the security team.
What does “the AIDS crisis” have anything to do with this episode?! Social justice much?
Other thoughts:
* While the Commies stole the shuttle design to a large extend, they did not use the idiotic solid booster design at all, they fixed that in real history. And I highly doubt in an alternate history with more pressure to perform, NASA would have used that idiotic design either, it was driven by pork barrel spending politics, spreading space money across as many states as possible. Highly unlikely they would have chosen that path in a history with an expensive moon base and a heated cold war in space. The Soviets backed down after America got the moon, so America was able to afford acting stupidly throughout the 70s when the shuttle was designed.
* I have to agree on the Karen Baldwin kiss sideline, total BS.
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