For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 8 Review: The Sands of Ares

For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 8, “The Sands of Ares,” makes a pretty compelling case that this is the 100% the most anxiety-inducing show on television, teeing up a high stakes race against the clock rescue that involves almost everyone on Earth and on Mars

The landslide caused by the drilling accident buries most of the Helios and Soviet teams. Kuznetsov and several others dig themselves out of the red dirt, looking for all the world like characters in a horror film as they do so. They wonder if they’re the only survivors and it feels for a truly awful moment as though that might be true

They discover the bodies of several of their colleagues: Castillo and Corrado are both dead on the surface, their helmets cracked open and their faces frozen in the agony that comes from all their oxygen suddenly disappearing. (Poor Nick, you and PJ did not deserve to go out like this, RIP.)

Good news: Danny manages to drag a badly injured Ed back to Hab 1 before the landslide hits, but they’re now buried under an unknown amount of the fine Martian regolith that covers the planet’s surface. Bad news: They’ve got limited oxygen left, Ed’s bleeding profusely (despite the horrifying application of something called “instant clot”), and they’ve got no idea whether their distress beacon will be able to reach the surface

This show is always at its best when it focuses on these big, moving, dangerous space set pieces, and “The Sands of Ares” is no different. This is a thrilling hour from start to finish (though we really could have done this Ellen subplot on another week IMO), as the Helios, NASA and Soviet teams all come together to try and rescue the folks that are missing. 

It’s a lovely reminder of what humanity is supposed to be about, and it warms my heart that every sort of issue that any of these folks were having with one another was instantly tabled long enough to make this rescue happen.

Because this is For All Mankind, the ultimate solution is pretty nuts, involving setting off an explosion in a lava tube under the trapped Hab, in the hopes that the Martian dirt will drain out beneath it. It’s not quite Tracy and Gordo make a mad dash to try and save the day in clothes made of duct tape, but it’s also not that far off.

Unfortunately, the problem with this episode and, if we’re honest, most of the season is the same as it ever was: Danny Stevens.

From a narrative perspective, we’re somehow supposed to believe that Danny is so strung out on drugs that he single-handedly causes the mining accident that triggers the landslide, but is also capable enough to not only get Ed to safety before the first Hab is buried and spend the next half dozen hours treating his wounds. What?

Plus, there’s the small fact that Danny doesn’t even seem sorry that he’s the reason people are dead and he’s buried twenty meters under the Martian surface with a man whose life-threatening abdominal injury is his fault. Like sure, maybe he’s not eager to tell Ed he caused the accident, but one would think he at least might look regretful about it.

Instead, he’s as resentful and rude as ever, blaming Ed, Karen, and weirdly even poor dead Shane for the mess he’s made of his own life. Like…is this your king, show? Are we supposed to be feeling bad for Danny? Actively hoping he doesn’t die?

To be fair, For All Mankind did finally remember to give Danny something like real character depth this week, making his behavior much more about a lifetime of self-loathing over the wrongs he did a dead boy than his seemingly life-long obsession with Ed’s ex-wife.

(Though somehow all the Shane stuff feels even weirder now, knowing that Danny went on to bang his mom. I mean. Ew.)

Anyway, for me, it all feels too little too late. Any chance I had of feeling bad for him or hope for a redemption arc sailed several weeks ago and I’m hard pressed to think of an ending to this season that doesn’t necessarily involve Danny getting a big sacrificial chance to die. I mean, he could get eaten by an alien, I guess, but I’m trying to keep my expectations in check.

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• Not all hope is lost for everyone though—this episode does some real work on Helios founder Dev, giving us not only a look at his past, but a much-needed exploration of the things that drive him now. (And all through one convo with Margo!)
• The “these are engineering problems, my friends, and we are engineers” line…whew, that one got me.
• Pregnant Kelly!! I feel like having a baby in space has to be….a bad idea.
• I know I can’t be the only person who got emotional once I realized the double meaning of Alexei’s last line: “I’m gonna share a blood type with a Baldwin”. 
• Ed is, I think, probably a bad dad, but man he loves the crap out of his kids.
• The idea that people don’t already know exactly where Ellen went and who she saw is laughable.
• Props to Pam for calling her ex out on what a disappointment she’s become. Way to make all the sacrifices of these other people worth nothing, girl.

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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