‘For All Mankind’ Recap: ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season three finale of ‘For All Mankind’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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One would think that offering up episodes of television, where the audience has some understanding of what’s to come… would be a bad thing for any particular show. For that should hint at potential rut since that would be making the show predictable in nature. Which is why a great deal of shows work to keep their stories from falling into that particular realm. But it just so happens that there is one particular series out there… that actually embraces a hint of familiarity. Because the Apple TV+ series, For All Mankind always opens and closes its seasons in a similar manner. For instance, during a season premiere, we catch up on a time jump from the previous season and see how the world changed thanks to America’s losing of the Space Race. 
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On the flip side of that, we always know that this series is going to offer up an epic finale. One that raises the stakes, bids farewell to characters and often jumps the timeline forward to show us a world we simply don’t know. But what makes this work and keeps it from being predictable, or a detriment to the show… is that the series always makes such episodes as compelling and as powerful as possible. Because the stakes are always incredible, the exits are heartbreaking and the time jumps do indeed fascinate and well, the season three finale was no exception to those rules. Because ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ featured one breathtaking moment after another, a bevy of which came about from the situation on Mars.

Because Kelly was in dire straits and ready to give birth. Something that no one wanted to happen on Mars, for the sake of the baby and well, that brought forth a bold plan to ensure the safety of her little one… one that required a great deal from the first people on Mars. For the launcher only had enough fuel to skirt near Phoenix, meaning that if Kelly were to make it off Mars and have her baby in a safe space, sacrifice would be required. The kind that would see this international crew, stay behind and do their best to survive and well… it doesn’t get much more epic than that. Well, unless you count the act of actually getting Kelly back to the ship. Since it required a bit of free space flight on her part to cover the distance the ship would not. But the plan was a success, and it was perhaps, the only bright spot in this tale.

For back on Earth, the combined chaos of the world and the mission to save Kelly and her baby, brought all the rhetoric and anger to a head through Jimmy’ supremely gross friends. For they opted to load up a news van filled to the brim with explosives, and their plan was to broadcast a message to the world before detonating it in front of JSC. The latter part of that plan, thankfully failed, courtesy of Jimmy and Karen Baldwin’s brave actions in the moment, but homegrown acts of terror are rarely stopped and sadly… that was the case here. For the bomb did indeed go off, and a great deal of people lost their lives. Such as Karen, and even Molly who kept going back into the blast zone to save lives… and it also appeared that Margo was in the litany of the dead. Saving her from the forthcoming inquiry and arrest she was facing.

But therein lies yet another surprise, courtesy of the traditional time jump. One that took us to 2003, wherein we came to learn that Margo Madison survived the blast and used it as cover to run and hide inside the borders of the Soviet Union. Another surprise that let us know the USSR is alive and well in 2003, and well… in the end, this was just an incredible finale. One that lived up to our usual expectations for the show to go big and stun us and send us into the future, and once again… the landscape of this series has vastly changed. Since Karen was indeed a fixture in this tale and Margo not being at NASA is about as strange and it gets and the good news is, this won’t be an eternal cliffhanger. For season four of this series is a go, and we merely have to wait patiently to see what an alternate ’03 looks like after mankind has landed on Mars. Until next year.

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