For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 5 Review: Seven Minutes of Terror

Despite its more overtly dramatic title, For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 4; “Seven Minutes of Terror,” is quite a bit less intense than last week’s installment. 

It’s weird that humans reaching Mars—and the fact that it happened in just the fifth episode of the season—should feel so strangely anticlimactic. And yet, with much of the episode focused on interpersonal relationships and problems back on Earth, the Mars landing somehow seems like the least important thing happening in this hour. And that sucks.

Part of the problem is that we see virtually no fallout from the disaster that closed last week’s episode. Sure there’s a funeral to honor the dead and a reference to using the leftover Russian fuel to burn for Mars, but little explanation of how the Sojourner somehow didn’t sustain any lasting damage or how the crew plans to feed and support multiple extra mouths on the trip. 

There’s also the Ed Baldwin of it all—I’m not sure that I find it terribly compelling at this point to watch Ed come so close (again!) only miss out on his dreams for what feels like the half-dozenth time. 

(The flashback to Apollo 10 was a particular gut punch.)

I mean, I know Ed’s not exactly a candidate for Coworker or Father or Husband of the Year. Heck, I’m not even sure he’s a good person at the end of the day. But I know that he loves space–the joy of exploration and all the adventure that comes with it—and I just kind of hate that this is just another example of how close he’s come to something only to lose it anyway.

And maybe his ultimate decision to abort the landing is because somehow he can’t bring himself to risk Gordo’s kid on his dream. But it’s rough, and while I haven’t always like Ed, I still kind of wanted this for him. 

Back on earth, Margo’s getting blackmailed by the Soviets (again!), who want her to allow the Mars cosmonauts to use American resources to conduct various “mission objectives” they aren’t inclined to describe. She tries to argue that they were done after the whole “threatening to kill Sergei” in London thing, but the head of Russian NASA is basically like shrug you thought. 

Margo refuses to cooperate until they produce Sergei who she hasn’t been able to get in touch with for some time. They do and he looks terrible—it is clear he’s been tortured and likely imprisoned. Margo wants to help him defect but Sergei fears for the family he still has in Russia. 

The two sort of make up after their reunion, although Margo insists she’s still angry. They’re so darn tragic. Unfortunately for Margo, however, this isn’t her only problem: Almeida has figured out that the Russian engine on Mars-94 is freakishly similar to the US version. Freakishly similar in facts so much so that she’s convinced someone had to make their plans to the Soviet’s years ahi, in order for the program to have met the 1994 launch window. 

I have had more than my fair share of misgivings about literally everything to do with the Danny Stevens/Karen Baldwin situation, but truly, I need to just say loudly and clearly, I hate it. 

I hate that the show went there last season, but more than that—I hate that it can’t let go of it, that it in fact made the fallout from it such a huge part of this season, even though nobody seems to want to look too closely at how disturbing it is that a decade has passed and Danny still can’t move on. 

Not only can’t Danny move on, but he is so jealous that he hacks into the video messages Karen sends Ed and seems to fantasize at some length about telling Ed that he slept with his wife several years prior. What is the point of all this??! I get the sense that we’re supposed to assume Danny’s been troubled and struggling for some time—but since we haven’t really seen any of that (beyond that time he got drunk and broke into his childhood pool), it’s hard to feel a ton of sympathy for his feelings.

I don’t want to dislike Tracy and Gordo’s kid, show! Stop making me feel like I’m supposed to! 

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• While I think this episode had more important things to do than show us Kelly and the kind Russian cosmonaut flirting onboard the Sojourner, they’re adorable and I am not made of stone.
• If this show kills off Sergei before he and Margo ever admit how they feel about each other out loud I will not be well.
• Danielle Poole is a better person than I am, I would have jettisoned half these people off my ship.

What did you think of this episode of For All Mankind? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of For All Mankind stream Fridays on Apple TV+.

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