‘For All Mankind’ Recap: ‘Home Again’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 106 of ‘For All Mankind’.
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What’s fascinating about our modern society, is that we often believe that big moments and big developments will instantly change the world. Which is understandable. Because when something revolutionary happens, one truly expects people to see the meaning of what’s happening around them and react and change their mindsets accordingly. But the fact of the matter is, the world just doesn’t work that way. And unless we’re talking about a major disaster or something that happens in a matter of seconds, change comes slowly in our society. For it takes time for big things to sink in and for people to start to move in a different direction and it just so happens that this slow march toward tomorrow is explored in the next episode of For All Mankind.

Because after setting up Jamestown Base in the last episode, one would think that America would be radically changing. For they finally had a leg up in the Space Race and that would motivate everyone to keep pushing toward bigger and better things. But as it turns out, ‘Home Again’ saw the nation settling back into routine, to the point where political moments were of interest again. Take for example the country’s focus upon the Equal Rights Amendment in this episode, which actually managed to pass in this alternate reality. Which meant that the world was more or less seeing space travel as a regular everyday thing now and well, as is often the case in life, once routine becomes a thing, disaster strikes. For while the next Apollo capsule was preparing to head to the Moon and relive the astronauts at Jamestown Base, a fault in the Saturn V rocket destroyed the capsule and all of the souls on the launch tower, leaving America and NASA stunned. 

For this kind of disaster was devastating for certain and of course the fallout from it was strong. To the point where the FBI was starting to investigate whether or not the Russians were involved in this explosion. But in the end, the error came from a defect in parts and in order to put this mess to bed, Margo needed to pick up a report indicating so. Something she wasn’t inclined to do, simply because it was a touch offensive to be asked to handle errand related tasks, especially after she was passed over for Flight Director, and to complicate matters further, the person with the report in hand wasn’t exactly someone that she wanted to see. But alas, von Braun would only hand the report over to her and that led to another fascinating exploration in regard to routine, since Margo came to learn that some old American habits were making quite the comeback. 

Because not only did Wernher try his best to repair the damage between he and Margo, he stunned her and the audience with quite the revelation regarding the Saturn V accident. In that, the whole reason the rocket failed in the first place, was because a sub-standard manufacturer was building that respective part. One that was awarded the contract by President Ted Kennedy, in the hopes of getting the ERA passed. A revelation that would cause all kinds of political trouble if it ever escaped to the masses. Something that Margo agreed not to do, provided of course NASA did her a favor for a change and promoted her to Flight Director after all. Which are surprises that make this story seem as though it is suddenly heading into new territory storytelling wise and transforming into a political drama rather than something space related. 

But in reality, injecting this particular 'twist' into the story, is a sneaky way to center the story and remind us what this series is all about. Because a question posed in the series premiere more or less comes around full circle here, in that, can space travel and a push to reach its depths; finally inspire mankind to be more than what we currently are? Which means, Margo’s power play and Kennedy using NASA as a political pawn speaks volumes to the fact that mankind isn’t quite there just yet. Because the right inspiring moment just hasn’t arrived. Something that makes sense since the push to beat the Russians to a lunar base was done out of spite instead of inspiration. If anything, bringing this notion back, hopefully this means that the final four episodes in this fascinating first season, are going to focus upon what it will take to inspire us to rise above the petty stuff we handle here on Earth. So that we can accomplish wonders amongst the stars. Until next time.

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