For All Mankind's version of the Moon landing in 1969 replaces the U.S. with the Soviet Union as the winners of the Space Race. From there, the Apple TV show's timeline has become very different from our own. Although certain events have remained broadly the same, humanity's accelerated journey to other planets has taken up most of the Earth's attention. Therefore, many of the biggest occurrences that have come to define our reality, for better or worse, simply didn't happen at all.
FULL SPOILERS for For All Mankind season 5, Episode 6, "No Sudden Moves."
While For All Mankind has had more than its fair share of show-specific tragedies, the generational space opera's alternate version of events has prevented one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in human history: 9/11.
In the world of For All Mankind, the butterfly effect set in motion in 1969 never led to the fall of the Twin Towers in New York City in 2001. Until very recently, there had been no direct acknowledgement of this, because...well, how is the series supposed to reference something that never happened? Season 5 just answered that very question.
How "No Sudden Moves" just replaced 9/11 with a major (but fictional) historical event
As mentioned above, For All Mankind hasn't been able to directly address 9/11, as it's tricky to do so when it didn't actually happen within the show's universe. However, season 5, Episode 6, "No Sudden Moves," finally allows the showrunners to give the most direct nod to 9/11 that the show possibly can.
When the Sons & Daughters of Mars rise up and take over the Red Planet, taking hostages and making demands, the reaction of President Bragg (Randy Oglesby) is presented as a direct parallel to when George W. Bush heard about the attack on New York City in 2001.
When President Bush was informed about the events of 9/11, he was visiting a school in Sarasota, Florida, and spending some time with some second-grade students. Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered the news in the President's ear, and Bush offered a very muted reaction, even staying in the classroom for a short while so as not to worry the children. In "No Sudden Moves," For All Mankind creates an almost beat-for-beat recreation of that moment, but with Oglesby's character in the place of President Bush.
President Bragg, while in attendance at a school, also in Sarasota, Florida, is informed about the takeover on Mars, and he reacts in much the same way as Bush did in 2001. Of course, For All Mankind is season in 2013, so this season 5 scene makes place more than a decade later than its real-world counterpart. Furthermore, Bush never even became the President of the U.S. in the world of For All Mankind, with Al Gore winning out instead So, there are some key differences between the two moments, but it's obviously an intentional homage.
For All Mankind's 9/11 reference reframes season 5's supposed good guys
The 9/11 terror attacks understandably made it easy to identify who the U.S. viewed as the enemy. It was a pretty straightforward situation in that respect. Inversely, For All Mankind season 5 has made things intentionally difficult when it comes to figuring out who to root for. The automation of Mars is made out to be an inherently evil plan because of the characters whose points of view are being focused on. The scheme is set to uproot almost the entire Martian community in the name of profit and convenience.
So, the Apple TV show presents the rebellion as somewhat of a favorable turn when it takes place in season 5, Episode 5, "Svoboda." Then, when "No Sudden Moves" shows President Bragg referring to the Sons and Daughters of Mars as terrorists, it's easy to get lost in the moral ambiguity of the situation. After all, the rebels are indeed taking hostages and threatening violence to try to have their demands met. Calling them terrorists is not an entirely unfair development, and it makes the rest of For All Mankind season 5 wonderfully unpredictable as it surges onward.
For All Mankind season 5 is streaming now on Apple TV.
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