Review: For All Mankind, Episode 409, "Brazil"

The fourth season of For All Mankind approaches its end, and while the show is as sturdily made as ever, I can't help but feel a little deflated. The finale is a week away and I should be on the edge of my seat, but there's something missing.

I think part of is that, however careful the show has been about setting up the mechanics of its central conflict -- in this case, whether the world's superpowers will succeed in getting the Goldilocks asteroid to Earth or whether a band of rebels will sabotage their plans and keep it in orbit around Mars -- I still don't have a great idea of what it means. I know who's on what side of the line. Ed and Dev want to keep the asteroid orbiting Mars so they can stay on the Red Planet indefinitely; while Margo, Aleida and Danielle all want to bring it back to Earth, although you get the sense that that they want to do this simply because it's their job, not because they have strong convictions about it. (We don't know what side Kelly will take; the episode ends before Ed explains the situation to her.) We're told that bringing the asteroid to Earth will improve the lives of billions of people, full as it is of sweet sweet iridium. But is that true? The show hasn't shown us. And without that information, I feel like it's hard for me to take a side. And if I can't take a side, it's hard for me to get invested. And if I get invested, what are we doing here?

It's very possible that the show's strategy could become clear in next week's season finale, but right now it all seems a bit muddled. "Brazil" is mostly concerned with moving more pieces into place. Dev, Ed, and their merry band of saboteurs continue their plan to make sure the asteroid stays in orbit around Mars, but they hit snags. They draft Lee, the North Korean astronaut who's trying to smuggle his wife onto the Red Planet, to help them spy on the base, but that goes south really quickly as Lee's superiors find the device he was using to hijack the North Korean spy network, assume the Americans put it there, and start some s*it. By the end of the episode, Danielle are her team are wise to the fact that someone is working against them, a pair of undercover goons from the CIA and KGB rough up Miles for information, and Lee kills his commander officer to keep him from exposing the plot.

Everything falls apart really quickly; in fact, it falls apart so quickly I wonder if For All Mankind isn't readying some kind of twist. The show usually takes its time setting up every little element well ahead of time, so for it to introduce Lee's role in the plot only for that to expose the team to disaster just a couple of scenes later feels off.

Ed's tearful confession to Kelly about why he wants to stay on Mars -- he fears age, frailty and an undignified death -- also feel a touch off, although Joel Kinnaman gives an powerful performance. We've known that Ed's had hangups about going back to Earth for a while, but I wasn't expecting him to have a big tearful confession about it before the climax; I wonder what's left for him now.

And the whole thing ends with Sergei getting shot in the head right after a strange montage of he and Margo eating burgers in their separate hotel rooms. It was probably Soviet operatives who did it, although it amuses me to think that Sergei's American wife hired a hitman after she found about him emotionally cheating on her with Margo.

So I'm feeling a little confused over who to root for and against heading into the For All Mankind season 4 finale. But a good finale can do wonders for the cohesion of a story, so we'll check back in one more time in a week.

For All Bullet Points

• This is going to be extremely nerdy bullet point: When Danielle is recording a message for her step-son, she says that she's going to watch "all three" Star Trek series with her unborn granddaughter, turning her into a hardcore Trekkie. This season of For All Mankind is set in the early 2000s, so there were four Trek series in existence at this point, not three: the original show, The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine. So either one of those shows doesn't exist in this alternate reality, or Danielle ISN'T A REAL FAN! (Watch me gatekeep, mom.)
• The title of the episode, "Brazil," refers to Sergei's suggestion that he and Margo make a run for it and beg for political protection in Brazil, which they'll help turn into the next interplanetary superpower. No word on whether he was planning to bring his wife on that trip. Smart money's on no.

Episode Grade: C+

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