For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 9 Review: Coming Home
In spite of some really solid dramatic moments, For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 8, “Coming Home,” kind of can’t help but feel like a little bit of a letdown after last week’s insanely tense installment. (I mean, people were buried alive! And it was all Danny’s fault!)
Part of the reason for that is that this episode skips ahead five months, so we miss out on seeing a lot of really important fallout—such as Kelly and Ed finding out she’s pregnant with poor dead Alexei’s baby or Danny learning that his drugged-up mistake killed several of his crewmates, including Nick—happen in real-time. And that feels like a pretty significant omission.
Instead, we’re left to play catch up: The damaged MSAM means all three crews are trapped on Mars’ surface until they can come up with a way to fix it. They’re not sure they’ll be able to manufacture enough fuel for Phoenix’s return trip to Earth. And everyone (including all the folks back on Earth) now knows about Kelly’s pregnancy.
And then, once again, there’s the Danny of it all. Not only—somehow—has no one managed to figure out what caused the mining accident or who was involved in it, but Danny continues to display zero remorse or even basic simple awareness about anything that happened.
But the thing that kills me is that—and, truly, props to Casey W. Johnson who is doing tremendous here through quick glances and body language—is that it’s so darn apparent that Danny has a full understanding of what happened and his role in it. He just doesn’t care. Or, rather, he cares only in the sense that he doesn’t want to be caught.
He even has the nerve to get performatively angry over an incorrect liability report that blames Nick Carrado for the accident and the deaths it caused. I mean, yes, obviously, that report is wrong. It wasn’t Nick’s fault.
But the fact that Danny’s out here being surly and shady about the report when he knows he’s the reason this all happened in the first place is just infuriating.
If we get through the finale next week without anyone finding out what Danny did I’m going to lose my mind.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Aleida goes full It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia conspiracy theory board with Bill, explaining in great detail (including post-its and a web of interconnecting lines) how she came to the conclusion that it’s got to be Margo who gave the Soviets their engine plans. She’s so thorough that she makes a believer out of him, but is taken aback when he tells her that they have to take what she’s learned and go to the FBI.
Aleida balks because… somehow she thought she could out her boss and friend as a literal traitor and everything would just… be fine?
I don’t know. I mean, I get it, she has the show’s most complicated relationship with the U.S. government out of anyone on the show, and she’s basically never going to trust an agency goon after watching her father get deported as a child.
But what did she think all this meant? Where did she think this investigation was going?
I’m not sure whether we’re supposed to assume Aleida simply wanted to prove she was clever enough to figure out or whether this is just another weird sort of approval-seeking thing from Margo, but it looks like things may well be out of her hands now.
As Congress seeks to cut NASA funding—in the name of helping out-of-work coal and oil workers who’ve lost their jobs in the name of nuclear energy—Ellen finds herself hamstrung by Larry’s lies.
Her political enemies know he probably lied to Congress and the Democrats (it still blows my mind that Ellen is meant to be a Republican??) are eager to threaten her with scandal and subpoenas until they get their way.
Larry volunteers to fall on his sword and take responsibility for his affair, outing himself in the process. I mean, fair, I guess, since all of this is basically his fault to begin with (though I hold them both to blame for not realizing anything they say in the Oval Office is obviously being recorded duh!). But Ellen is tired of living a lie, and tired of making compromises between bad and worse choices.
So Ellen comes out herself.
It’s an incredibly moving and beautiful moment—one in which she admits that the whole Uniforms First policy is garbage and that Will Tyler’s a hero and they should have treated him like one.
That she’s lied about who she is, she blames herself for not standing up for the most marginalized among our society and she regrets not trusting that the American people are big-hearted enough to accept her for who she is.
I desperately want to believe that in this version of reality, she just might be right.
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- Did I gasp out loud when a North Korean astronaut popped up on Mars? Yes, yes I did. How long have they been there? How has no one noticed this until right now?!
- I don’t know if it’s because Ed Baldwin is somehow mellowing with age or if he’s just looking increasingly awesome by being near Danny, but he’s hands-down one of the best parts of Season 3. And Joel Kinnaman is just killing it.
- Related: Grandpa!Ed is truly adorable.
- Speaking of children, how did I somehow only manage to realize in this episode that Ellen has a son??
- Margo’s look of pride after Ellen’s speech! Will crying on Mars! My heart!
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.