Please be aware of spoilers!

2024/09/13

In the 3^rd season of “For All Mankind” we go to Mars! It is the early-to-mid nighties when preparations are underway for a trip to Mars! This I was really looking forward to, and let me tell you, like the first 2 seasons, this season doesn’t disappoint.

It all begins with episode “Polaris” in 1992 where Karen and Sam, who was Tracey’s husband, have created a hotel in space so to say. Space station is called Polaris Orbital Hotel. It is essentially for space tourism. Danny is going to marry on that space station. Ed, his new wife, Danielle with her new husband and son are also invited. Meanwhile we see Margo has contact with Sergey, it becomes clear that in those 9 years they helped each other regarding space flight. Meanwhile debris hits the station which makes the station spinning faster, pressure becomes higher and higher. Ed has broken his leg, he is immobile. Two astronauts already have been killed to try and solve it. Danny is the only one left who has a chance to solve it and he does, the station is saved but Sam, Karen’s new husband, dies. Danny’s choice of a song for his first dance with his new wife is rather peculiar because it was the different version of Don’t be cruel which Karen was so fond of!

In “Game Changer” Karen sells the Polaris to Dev, a man who wants to go to Mars with a civilian organization. Ed Baldwin is selected by Molly to be the new commander for the first Mars mission. She does this while Margo is away for business. But when Margo returns, she reverses that selection and fires Molly and gives the 1^st command to Dani! While he is married, Danny tells Karen he still loves her, he only thinks about her. Karen goes to Dev and convinces him and the rest of the company to hire Ed as commander. Dev asks her to come work for him, she declines at first but is persuaded. Ellen picks her vice-president candidate, someone with different idea’s but he is honored to serve to a hero and yes, Ellen was an astronaut. Dev’s presentation of Ed makes the people at NASA annoyed and even worse when they learn that Polaris is planning to go two years earlier before NASA and the Russians, in 1994. Guest starring: Randy Oglesby as Governor Jim Bragg. Note – I have to admit, I’ve been annoyed by Danny this whole season, the way he acts and such. Other than that, fantastic episode!

In “All in” Ed gets the tour of the ship, when he speaks out his concerns about the automated system, Dev agrees with him. Danny is drinking and his head is not in the game, Danielle takes him off flight status, which means he is of the mission. Kelly wants to join the NASA mission, instead of going with her dad because NASA is more focused on the science. Karen asks Aleida to come work for them, but she declines, Bill Strausser does take the job. Sergei and Margo are going to this UK conference in London for years, always there is some tension, they also helped each other in terms of space exploration as long it is not able to be used for the military. Now the Russians blackmail Margo because they have problems to get ready for the 94 launch. They make an example of Sergei, if she doesn’t cooperate. Ed asks Danny to come on his team, he accepts, Karen is not happy, Danni tries to convince him Danny has problems but Ed wouldn’t listen to Danni. Aleida becomes the flight controller in 1994 at NASA. Note – Rather strange that Ed choses to not see the problems Danny has.

In “Happy Valley” the race is nearing its end, Ed believes he has won but NASA has an ace up their sleeve, with solar sails they can get there 8 days before Ed. The president is thinking of NASA and goes back to visit there, simpler times for her. The Russians, who still want to win, break their ship, they need rescuing. Ed says he will do it, which means he cannot go to Mars because he has not enough fuel. Dev however, manipulates the vote, which result that most of them think NASA should do the rescue. He sends a software update which locks out Ed. So NASA indeed has to do the rescue, meaning that only Ed’s hotel gets to land on Mars. While the rescue in underway, something happens, the Russian ships hull breaches and moved toward the NASA ship. I rams the NASA vessel and kills two NASA crewmembers and one Cosmonaut.

In “7 Minutes of Terror” the Russian and NASA crew say goodbye to the ones who got killed during the accident. Karen Baldwin is resigning, she thinks Dev manipulated the votes to help the Russians. Ed is first at Mars but because of storms he cannot land. Danny has a lot of trouble with Ed, he is jealous of him, he even breaks into the system to see/hear Karen’s message to Ed. Margo is again being blackmailed, this time by her opposite, she agrees only if she can work with Sergey again, he was in a KGB prison. The Sojourner arrives at Mars, NASA/Russians and a Helios team are heading down, even though there still is a storm, the NASA/ Russians are their first, in part because Ed is scared while Danny wants to go through.

In “New Eden” Will Tyler, on the NASA Mars crew, tells the world he is gay, which causes a lot of hysteria back home but also on Mars. Karin comes back to Helios, she has been contacted by the Russians who found liquid water but have no means to gets there and Helios does. NASA doesn’t know what this mission entails at first. Danny is going of the deep end even further, keeps watching Ed’s transmissions to Karen. Kelly has a relationship with a Russian Cosmonaut, Alexei. The president has to make a tough decision regarding gay men and women in the army which frustrates both sides. Wilson’s boyfriend has taken a guy into confidence by telling his relationship with Wilson. This is about to come out. Kelly wants to join Ed’s secret mission with the Russians. NASA finds out after an encrypted message on a record by Sergey.

In “Bring it Down” Sergey is going back to Russia, Margo is not able to help him stay. Wilson lies for congress about his relationship which is a felony. Aleida is accusing Margo’s secretary, which angers Margo. Jimmy, son of Tracy and Gordo, is being manipulated by ‘friends’. They steal the statue of his parents and bring it to him. Danny is getting worse and worse, Ed gets really angry at him for fucking up constantly! Note - He was warned… Aleida now believes Margo is the source to the Russians. Danny again fucks up when they are drilling for the water, he is to monitor the situation and when things go awry he does not act which causes casualties, among them Ed. An explosion happens at the drilling site, which causes major dust storms. Danny is able to save Ed but others are not so lucky.

In “The Sands of Ares” It also on earth becomes clear what happened and they are mobilizing the NASA crew on Mars to come and search for survivors. Few are dead, Alexei survives but is complaining about heavy headaches. Meanwhile Ed and Danny are locked up together, 20meters of Sand and debris on top of them with little air left. Dev comes up with an interesting idea how to get to them. Alexei dies, Kelly is devastated and the Russian doctor also finds out she’s pregnant. Ed and Danny have been found alive. Jimmy tells Karen that he knows she and Danny been together.

In “Coming Home” it is 5 months after the landslide, crew is about to go home, but something has been damaged, which they need to get of the ground. Apparently this item, a Kurs system is apparently on other probes that landed on Mars, Danielle and Kuznetsov are to fetch it, a 9 hour drive and same back. Dev has big plans for Mars but the board says no to his plans, they even strip him from his CEO rank. Karen is to become the new CEO. She had an idea to sell Phoenix to NASA, to gain money, Dev was against it, but board wants it done. Ellen is being blackmailed to sign a bill which will eventually stop space travel. Her husbands affair is threatened to be released. Larry wants to come clean, spin it, that his wife did not know about it but Ellen decides herself to come clean, about her being Gay, about hiding it, about not helping another gays, like the one on Mars, not getting a medal because he is gay. Kelly is found unconscious. Aleida tells Bill about her suspicions of Margo, he gets the FBI in this, Aleida is desperate. In the final moments we see that there is another person on Mars, from North Korea.

The season finale “Stranger in a Strange Land” really delivers! What an episode! We, the viewers, learn that the North Koreans have had a manned mission to Mars also, they even were there before the others. Danielle and Kuznetsov find the North Korean astronaut an take him with them to Happy Valley. The Vice President is no longer loyal to the President after her confession. Dev cannot cope that Karen has been asked and taken his job. Margo is informed by the Russian counterpart that she is being investigated. She tells Alieda that she knows and she bears no grudge towards Aleida. The pregnant Kelly must go to the phoenix asap but the ship is too heavy, it needs to loose a 1000 pounds, that’s about the entire crew. Ed brings her up and hopes he won’t die on impact. Danny wants to do it and tells Ed that he was responsible for the accidents killing so many people on Mars. Ed is outraged and says that there will be consequences. Ed makes it back and banishes Danny to the North Korean vessel. Karen goes back to NASA to see if Ed and Kelly succeed when she sees Jimmy. He is in with bad guys and they blow up the a big part of the NASA building, killing Karen. Molly dies while saving NASA personnel. Ellen goes to Pam, her first lover. Margo is presumed dead but in 2003 we see her, presumably, in Russia.

Final Word:

A strong season, in my opinion. I’ve read other things here and there about the 3^rd season but I really enjoyed it, good story telling, great acting, excitement, you name it. The one thing that does bug me is that these people have aged quite a bit, but especially the women still look like models! Yes, I know it’s TV so I won’t complain too much about it. Now season 4, will take a while before I will write that one.

Screencaps taken from IMdB & Google Search