‘For All Mankind’ Recap: ‘Every Little Thing’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season two premiere of ‘For All Mankind’.
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One particular gambit that is quite risky is storytelling, is the time jump. Because this is a move that can become quite the disaster if the writing doesn’t handle it quite right. After all, the passage of time means that the audience is missing out on pivotal moments of growth for the characters they know and love, and if those moments are glossed over in the slightest, the audience won’t be happy. Plus, this particular move also requires a little world-building, since the time period the characters now live within is vastly different than the one, they left behind, and not being able to understand the changes to their world and their environment can also alienate the audience.
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If anything, all of this is top of mind today, simply because a massive time jump came into play for the second season premiere of For All Mankind, since ‘Every Little Thing’ plunged us into the heart of an alternate 1983. Which is a storytelling move that could have indeed been disastrous, for all of the reasons that we discussed a moment ago. But thankfully, Ronald D. Moore and his writing staff made sure to ease the audience into this bold new world by dedicating this entire episode to world-building and by doing a wonderful job of catching us up on well… everything. Since this particular tale took the time to explore all the alternate historical events that happened in between seasons one and two, before allowing for us to catch up with these titular characters and everything that’s changed in their lives as well.

Such as the fact that Margo is now the director of NASA, which is simply amazing. Because it means she is finally where she belongs and that she has truly come into her own and she’s not the only one to have grown and seen her career advance. For Captain Edward Baldwin is now in charge of all the astronauts and who is assigned to the incredible new fleet that NASA boasts and as an added bonus, he and Karen have done their best to heal from the loss of their son. To the point where they adopted a daughter a named Kelly and to top it off, Karen is now running The Outpost and enjoying life as a small business owner. But while it was nice to see that everyone has found a way forward, the show was also quick to point out that not everyone is enjoying wonderful times after all these years. For Gordo is still haunted by what happened on the moon and he and Tracy are now divorced, and she in turn, has become a celebrity and may or may not be as happy as she appears to be.

But while it was quite delightful to catch up and be gently eased into a new world and all of the incredible changes that come with the passage of time, this is a show that thrives on drama and exploring the dangers that come with space travel and that was present here too. Because a massive solar flare put every astronaut in space in grave danger with the high yield radiation it was sending into the void. Which motivated now Captain Ellen Wilson, the head of an expanded Jamestown base, to scramble her team into the base’s bunker for safety and it also put Molly Cobb at serious risk. Since she was on the exposed surface of the moon and well… her fate in this matter is one of grave concern. Because a fellow astronaut didn’t make it to the lava tube she was planning to shelter in, thanks to an accident with his rover, and that motivated Molly to be the hero and drag him to safety as the invisible solar storm arrived. A move that showered her in dangerous radiation and well… that’s scary for certain.

Because that could mean a slow death and heartbreak for the audience, since she is a beloved character. But alas, we must wait to determine Molly’s fate, and while we do that… we can reflect upon one fine premiere. One that really did a flawless job of guiding the audience into a new era for this show, and it was also quite amazing that this episode took the time to explore some of the accelerated technological advancements that would have come about from a more aggressive space race and also, let’s be honest, learning about the shuttle roster was definitely a grand geek out moment. Because the fact that Enterprise is an active shuttle in the fleet, is just too cool for its own good and well, in the end, all this episode does is leave us hungry for more. Because this one really was a wonderful set up for an engrossing year of storytelling. One that will likely show us, what it is like to live in a world… where space travel has been around for generations. Until next time.

‘For All Mankind’ is streaming now on AppleTV+.

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