For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Stranger in a Strange Land
For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 10, “Stranger in a Strange Land,” is a gut punch of a season finale, an hour-plus installment that simultaneously shows us the very best and the very worst that humanity is capable of.
From the episode’s opening, which gives us a breakneck recap of the arrival of the North Korean manned mission that beat both NASA and Helios to Mars, to its game-changing final moments, which see the very foundations of the series shaken and several key characters killed, there’s a sense that we never quite know what’s coming next.
But on Mars at least, we witness the gamut of human possibility—from heroism and sacrifice, to love, loyalty and teamwork. It’s a testament to this show that For All Mankind has so seemly integrated this motley crew of people and forged them together into something that’s greater than it’s parts.
As per tradition, For All Mankind’s season finale seems as though it’s required to include an absolutely ridiculous and generally implausible rescue attempt of some kind, and “Stranger in a Strange Land” is no different. In order to save the lives of both Kelly and her unborn baby, the Mars residents and Earth scientists must work together to come up with a way to get her back to Phoenix, which has better medical facilities. (Meaning: any at all.)
This plan ultimately involves the bulk of the Mars crews, including Ed, Dani, Will, Rolan, and Kusnetzov volunteering en masse to stay behind on the Red Planet for an extra year and a half on limited rations to give Kelly her best chance at getting to safety.
Ed steps up to drive the suddenly lighter Popeye despite the fact that it will have almost no fuel left to attempt a reentry or landing and Kelly herself will have to be suited up and strapped to the outside of the vehicle so that she can literally catapult herself off and use a personal propulsion device to (hopefully) navigate the remaining distance to Phoenix.
It’s a bonkers plan and—in true For All Mankind fashion—it absolutely should not work at all. But, thankfully it does (even Ed survives!) and, in pulling it off, the show highlights how far all of our space crew has come since the end of last season, which saw astronauts and cosmonauts at deadly odds with one another in Jamestown. Here, they’ve become an offbeat family.
One of the most fascinating elements of For All Mankind’s alternate timeline is the way that its version of history often rhymes with our real one. The imagery of the explosion at the Johnson Space Center eerily echoes the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City which, not for nothing, occurred right about at the same point in our timeline.
And, look, I’m not super inclined to ever wish for more time with either of the Stevens children, but I do think that if Season 3 has a weak point, it’s that Jimmy’s story didn’t get enough time to fully make his (albeit accidental) participation in a massive act of domestic terrorism feel believable.
Whether we needed more time with Poor Man’s Timothy McVeigh and friends so that we might have a clearer understanding of what they were trying to accomplish or whether For All Mankind simply spent too much time on Danny being terrible and not enough on Jimmy being so broken that he was essentially a willing (and idiotic) target for some bad people, I’m not sure. Maybe both.
But because we only see the fake friends from Jimmy’s POV—and he clearly doesn’t suspect them of planting a bomb, the fact that they are kind of feels like the twist came out of nowhere.
For All Mankind ends its season as it always has—looking to the future. The episode’s coda leaps to 2003, and finds Margo very much alive and living in the Soviet Union. (Almeida discovers her destroyed office post-bombing and it seems fairly obvious she’s been presumed dead in the blast.)
While I’m obviously glad to see that Margo is ok, the bittersweet realization that she finally got Sergei to America just as she was forced to leave it is a blow. These kids cannot catch a break.
The exile of Margo, as well as the deaths of Karen and Molly, are uncomfortable reminders that, as For All Mankind marches on, the necessity of time means we’re going to have to say goodbye to a lot of the series’ original characters. And while I realize that, I am also assuming that Ed and Dani will live forever. Just saying.
Stray Thoughts and Observations
- Ed calling the North Korean astronaut “my good dumpling” has got to be one of the best lines in the series. Fight me.
- Given that Molly Cobb has been in all of a single episode this season, I should have guessed that For All Mankind brought her back to kill her off, but I’m so so glad that this character, who is so essential to what this show has become, got to go out on her own terms, as the most essential version of herself. That’s the woman who risked her life and lost her sight to save Wubbo on the moon, and I’m devastated by her death but so happy it was like this if that makes sense.
- Kelly wearing Alexei’s space suit to get launched at the Phoenix! My heart!
- I never thought I would be so happy to see Ed Baldwin alive, and man if Joel Kinnaman didn’t break my heart with his nonverbal response to finding out about Karen’s death.
- Look, I’m glad someone knows that Danny is The Absolute Worst, but I feel robbed in that we only got to see Ed unload on him the way he deserved. The idea that the Mars Crew banded together to exile him in the wake of his behavior is extremely satisfying, but ugh I just wanted to see more people yell at him I guess.
- Ed will be in his 70s in the 2000s, but John Glenn went into space when he was 77. No way is he done.
- I hope we check in with Ellen and Pam’s relationship next season, if only to see how the fight for LGBTQ rights played out with a lesbian president in the White House. (I’m assuming Ellen, like Bill Clinton, will survive her inevitable impeachment.)
What did you think of the season finale of For All Mankind? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Seasons 1-3 of For All Mankind are streaming on Apple TV+
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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.
One thought on “For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Stranger in a Strange Land”
Was preposterous. Our writer at the AVClub wrote that he/she just loves the science in this science fiction, except we live in a nuclear world and so more than a few know close to immediately whenever something like a missile or rocket is launched. Exceeded earth’s escape velocity, since did not land on earth. Also did not land on the moon, since bases there. And those transmissions, from and back to earth between the DPRK and its space vehicle (before the crash)…
For the cherry on top, no, the math does not work. But, hey, in today’s insanely woke world, thanks, writers, for informing us that men and women should not be on joint space missions unless somewhere rather more close to home, say, the space station or even the moon. Why go anywhere near the questions, given the distance and time, what the reaction of humans on the show if the only option is mandatory, and if need be, forced abortion… Maybe some on the show advocating mandatory sterilization in order to be an astronaut (both female and male) before that type of mission. Questions, questions, questions…and did I mention ionizing radiation? Specifically the ionizing radiation that is galactic cosmic radiation? Given Moore, won’t be long now until we have the Final Five and mitochondrial Eve.
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