‘For All Mankind’ Recap: ‘Leningrad’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Svetlana Efremova, Coral Peña, and Daniel Stern as Irina Morozova, Aleida Rosales, and Eli Hobson in Episode 406 of ‘For All Mankind’ – ‘Leningrad’. (Photo Courtesy of Apple.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 406 of ‘For All Mankind’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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It is definitely safe to say that there is a great deal of unfortunate factors that have kept humanity from exploring the stars. Some of them… relate to developmental technology. Since ideally, we cannot traverse the cosmos quickly or even remotely near the speed of light because of technological limitations, not to mention… we don’t even have a viable engine to explore our own solar system in a timely manner. Plus, there are a lot of geopolitical factors at play, since earthbound ideologies and ideas tends to get in the way of humanity’s scientific progress. But there is one that we don’t talk about enough and should… for it is the biggest reason we are just now talking about going back to the moon fifty-plus years after the last Apollo landing. Specifically, money.

For it requires cash to fund a space program, cash that not all nations are willing to spend. For we live in a world ruled by economy and returns on investment and what space travel offers, takes time to pay back what was put in and that… has truly stunted this industry and well… that problem is top of mind today, simply because the creative team behind the Apple TV+ series, For All Mankind, wanted to know if this is a roadblock that could exist in a world where space travel has in fact, received funding. As it turns out, ‘Leningrad’ posed the possibility that yes… it could. Courtesy of the M-7 meeting that took place in this tale. For while the nations were assembled, it became clear that a two trillion-dollar investment would be needed to properly mine the asteroid over Mars and well, that prompted both the United States and the Soviet Union to ponder upon, just forgetting about the mission to begin with.

Which of course, horrified Aleida and Margot as well. Since they both understood… this asteroid could be transformative for all of mankind and set up generations for success. Which meant, it had to be mined, and that sense of urgency gave Aleida quite the idea. In that, perhaps the asteroid could come to Earth instead and be mined in orbit and well… in order to figure out the logistics of that… Margot had to make a critical choice. Either hope Aleida could do it on her own, and quickly, or step in and be in the public light again and leave a different mark upon history. So, she chose the latter and took her lumps from well, the world. But what mattered most here, is that this proved how socio-economic nonsense and political dances hurt space travel and offered some observation on what mindset we need to get past that. 

However, while that alone could have carried this tale, it still had more to say about how money can complicate space travel, courtesy of some surprises at Happy Valley. Such as the fact that Miles made a power play when Ilya cut him out of the business, because he wanted to make his fortune and he dismantled the old business to get it. Not to mention, Admiral Ed Baldwin spent a lot of time around base personnel in this story and was able to see how hard they worked and how hard they were struggling, when he was sober of course, and that prompted him to make an amazing decision when he was asked to handle some Helios business. For he saw that the company was going to slash wages and bonuses in lieu of the asteroid heading to Earth, and well… that prompted him to stir the pot and add fire to the union labor movement that was growing in the lower decks.

Which of course, would not exist if livable and solid wages weren’t being pulled away from Helios’ employees. A move that spoke deeply to the labor movement in our world and how the show is going to continue to inject parallels from our world into this one, and well… that is bringing forth some fascinating tales. The kind that are calling our world and its issues to the carpet. Since this episode made it clear that we must stop prioritizing profits and returns on investments over investing in humanity’s future and safety, period. And that includes offering up wages that reward and don’t stress out employees that put themselves on the line in the name of a brand and well… it will be interesting to see what other commentary and big surprises await us in the weeks to come. As this bold series prepares to challenge this incredible world like never before, with a real chance to do something incredible for all of mankind. Until next time.

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