For All Mankind season 5, Episode 6, "No Sudden Moves," really makes full use of the show's lack of enforced episode lengths, allowing the installment to thrive in its nail-biting tension. While many network TV shows are still beholden to a pre-established episode runtime, this isn't something that streaming projects generally need to deal with. As a result, each episode is often just as long as it needs to be to tell the story.
Although For All Mankind episodes usually clock in at around the 60-minute mark, "No Sudden Moves" expires after just 49. Although Episode 2, "The Hard Six," was a couple of minutes shorter than that, this week's effort is still a notable shortfall of what's generally expected from the Apple TV series. However, just like "The Hard Six," "No Sudden Moves" doesn't suffer due to its reduced runtime. In fact, it's a big part of what makes the episode so effective.
The shortage of action in "No Sudden Moves" is sort of the entire point
With the previous episode concluding during the throes of a violent riot at Happy Valley, it would have been completely reasonable for the audience to expect that action to spill over into "No Sudden Moves." After all, Happy Valley's mission control was just on the cusp of a hostile takeover. All-out violence isn't what we got this week, though. For All Mankind opted to throw on the brakes and bring almost everything to a grinding halt. Rather than this resulting in a boring 49 minutes, the tension was almost palpable.
The entire episode boils down to one question: "What now?" Everyone knows it, and the base-wide holding pattern looks unbreakable while also incredibly fragile. The rebels' insistance that the hostages won't be freed until the automation is stopped is such an abstract mission statement that it really highlights how much they acted out of sheer emotion rather than coming up with a viable strategy to stop Mars from being slowly evacuated in favor of corporate profit.
Even the episode's title is quite clearly informing the audience in advance that high-octane action won't be the order of the day in "No Sudden Moves." Every word and each action feels intentional, calculated, and loaded with the potential to send things spiralling back into the chaos we saw at the end of the previous installment. The stand-off is brilliantly written, performed, and directed by everyone involved.
"No Sudden Moves" does a great job of making it difficult to know who to root for
For All Mankind did not make it easy this week when it came to choosing a side. There are characters both with and against the rebels who would, traditionally, be the figures treated as protagonists in most other episodes. Regardless, the way they act in "No Sudden Moves," as well as some of their actions in recent weeks, means it's tough to really get behind their desire for the Mars rebellion just sort of coming to an end. For instance, Edi Gathegi's Dev Ayesa appears to be one of the biggest champions of automating Mars. On paper, this should make him the enemy, but seeing him attacked is one of the most upsetting parts of "No Sudden Moves."
"Feels like maybe you shouldn't have unsupervised fusion reactors."Aleida in "No Sudden Moves." Great line.
Similarly, it's completely understandable that the Mars residents and workers have reacted the way they have to the news that they're going to be torn from their homes and jobs and sent back to Earth, replaced by robots and software. Still, seeing them act as they do, using the threat of violence to get what they want, also creates a powerful sense of moral ambiguity. Meanwhile, characters like Miles (Tobey Kebbell), Boyd (Mireille Enos), and Aleida (Coral Peña) are the living embodiment of dealing with a thoroughly undesirable scenario in the most level-headed, cerebral way that the circumstances allow. This is all despite their having clear motivations to take a firm stance one way or the other.
Despite its largely static nature, "No Sudden Moves" creates a thrilling future
High-value hostages, a divide in the MPK, a Martian arms race, and a rejected ransom video. All of this, and yet no out-and-out action. So how does "No Sudden Moves" contribute to the larger storyline? Expertly, that's how. Even just addressing the episode's core storyline, the rejection of the rebels' terms becomes an even bigger problem when it's revealed that the M-6 Alliance is refusing to send any more supplies to Mars until a surrender takes place. But it would be awful storytelling if everyone just downed weapons, so expect even more unrest and desperation before this is all over.
Other subplots scattered throughout "No Sudden Moves" come with equal promise. The unavoidable deployment of AJ (Ines Asserson) to the planet that made her late father so infamous has now been officially set up, and the mission to Titan now feels unusually secondary to everything else that's going on. Still, the latter turn is definitely intentional, as finding life elsewhere implies the relative unimportance of the life that's currently on Mars.
Perhaps the most minor revelation is the budding romance between Lily (Ruby Cruz) and Alex (Sean Kaufman), each the descendant of two Mars legends. Finally, the unexpected return of Lee Jung-Gil (C.S. Lee) plants the seed of another way forward for the Mars rebels. Although it certainly won't be easy, or even certain, the "good guys" will have a very entertaining journey ahead as For All Mankind continues — entertaining for the audience, at least.
Episode Rating: A+
For All Mankind is streaming now on Apple TV.
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