Review: For All Mankind is on a roll with the emotional “Leningrad”

For All Mankind moves slow. The first half of season 4 introduced us to new characters like Miles and transitioned familiar characters into new roles, like Kelly and Aleida getting hired on at Helios or Margo Madison getting involved with the Soviet space program.

Those episodes were watchable but lacked propulsion. But the benefit of this slow-but-steady approach is that when things take off, they blast off. Last week, we finally found out what happened to Danny Stevens, whose fate had been left hanging since the end of season 3. I don’t know if the emotional blowup between Ed and Danielle was quite worth the wait on that one, but at least there was resolution. This week, in “Leningrad,” we get something even better: the reunion between Margo and Aleida, and this time the wait is definitely worth it.

That’s so even though we knew it was coming. Of course all the great space-faring powers of the world are going to meet in Russia to discuss what to do about the asteroid passing by Mars. Of course Aleida was going to the meeting to represent Helios. Of course Margo would be there, helping her boss Irina sound like she knows what she’s talking about. Of course Margo suggests that the only way for the world to solve the asteroid problem in time is for she and Aleida to put their heads together, and of course Irina agrees. The season was always leading up to this.

But here’s another benefit of For All Mankind’s measured approach to storytelling: because the show has taken its time slotting these pieces into place, none of this feels contrived. It feels like the show earned it, so when Margo and Aleida are finally in the same room, we aren’t rolling our eyes; we’re paying rapt attention.

I feel like I don’t single out the acting on this show for praise very often, maybe because the actors don’t get enough to work with. But I thought Wrenn Schmidt, as Margo, was marvelous in this scene. Margo is the kind of character we don’t usually see given this big a spotlight; she’s an intellectual bureaucrat who who keeps people at a distance not because the plot demands it but because people honestly aren’t the most important thing in her life; her most important thing is work.

And yet Margo isn’t a heartless monster. She has a real emotional bond with Aleida, in addition to being her intellectual soulmate. This scene finally lets Margo express some of the emotions she usually keeps bottled up inside; her fear of prison, her respect for Aleida, and her deep regret over everything that happened in season 3; the moment she said she wishes she’d been at her desk during the bombing at NASA got me. And Schmidt keeps up, relishing the opportunity to finally crack open this character.

Coral Peña also does a fine job as Aleida — who is overjoyed to see Margo alive and then furious over her defection, whatever her reasons — but we’ve seen Aleida emotional before, so it doesn’t hit quite as hard as Margo finally letting down her walls. In the end, these two end up working together just as Margo knew they would. Margo used her heart long enough to get back to using her head.

For All Mankind review, Episode 406: “Leningrad”

The Margo-Aleida reunion is the reason that “Leningrad” is the best episode of For All Mankind season 4 so far, but other things do happen. Up on Mars. Miles continues his transition from aw-shucks laborer to alien crime lord, using his North Korean connections to take over Ilya’s black market operation after Ilya cuts him out.

I don’t see this ending well for Miles, but he can probably get away with it for a while, because things are getting more and more chaotic on the Red Planet. After teasing unrest among the blue collar workers at Happy Valley since the beginning of the season (there’s that slow-and-steady approach again), they finally act, declaring a strike after a disgruntled Ed Baldwin reveals that Helios plans to screw with their pay scale right as they stand to make a ton of money mining the asteroid. If the governments of the world want the iridium inside this asteroid, and they do, they’re going to have to pay up. Strike! Strike! Strike!

All of this adds up to an exciting, eventful hour of For All Mankind. If this momentum carries forward, the back half of the season could be spectacular.

For All Bullet Points

• So who at Helios is making the call to screw over the employees on Mars? Dev and Kelly are traveling to Mars, so I imagine they’re busy. It’s hard to see Aleida doing that. Is it just some suit we don’t know much about?
• Everyone is talking about the asteroid because it’s full of iridium, a chemical compound that could vastly improve life on Earth if utilized correctly. Call me stupid, but I had to check to make sure iridium was a real thing and not some made-up substance like “unobtanium” from the Avatar movies. It’s real.
• At the end of the episode, Margo announces that she’s alive to the world, and that’s now managing the Soviet space program. During her press conference, she was lying about having left the U.S. for philosophical and political reasons, I’m guessing because that was the script the Soviet government provided to her. That could blow up in her face, but like she said, as long as she gets to work, she doesn’t care. I can’t see this ending well, though. Margo will be without a country soon enough.
• I’ve been picking on Ed all seasons, accurately calling him a bully and a baby. He’s more fun here, where he embraces chaos and intentionally tries to screw with Danielle and the rest of the management on Mars.

Episode Grade: A-

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