‘For All Mankind’ Recap: ‘The Weight’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 205 of ‘For All Mankind’.
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If there is one universal life lesson that all of us come to understand at some point during our travels, it would have to be that chasing your dreams is quite the difficult affair. For going after what makes you genuinely happy, requires a great deal of sacrifice and effort and failure quite frankly. But all of that is of course, worth our while. For when we obtain said dream, we are happy and content and at peace and that is why so many stories show us the chase and its spoils, so we too are motivated to go out there and get what we want. But while that does indeed make for some quality storytelling, the kind that lifts our spirts up and leaves us ready to take on the world, there is one particular aspect about chasing our dreams that we don’t talk about enough.
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In that, once we grab hold of our dream, life isn’t quite easy as we think it will be. Because our dream requires work to maintain, especially if it relates to a competitive career field, one that could bump us out if we grow complacent. Which means that our dreams will always be a hustle, one that will have its highs and its lows like anything else in life, but even then, the constant work to maintain them is worthwhile. Since the fight reminds us daily that we got this, and we are the expert, and we can handle any challenge to our standing, no problem. If anything, this is relevant to our discussion today, simply because the grind that comes with maintaining one’s dream served as the focal point of the next episode of For All Mankind. Since ‘The Weight’ saw Tracy and Gordo Stevens, fighting hard to keep the wonder of their dream jobs as astronauts, alive.

Because Gordo was still having some serious panic attacks every single time he put on that helmet, and that motivated him to do anything and everything, to confront his fears about space travel. To the point where he threw on his own helmet and hid in his closet to try and simulate what that will be like in space, and he even hung out at the bottom of his pool to try and shake this… and sadly he believed he was making minimal progress in reclaiming his mojo. But what Gordo failed to notice, is that this push to shake his fear, was actually allowing for some healthy things to take place. Such as the fact that he lost all that excess beer weight, he quit drinking and he even started to deal with this sorted past with Tracy, and by handling his other baggage; it is only a matter of time before he deals with the fear. All because he opted to dig deep and fight for what he knew was his, making this quite the positive thread in regard to the episode’s overall theme.

As for Tracy, well her journey was a touch more bitter. Since her arrival on the Moon and her superstar status on Earth, made it inherently clear to her that she had grown quite complacent as an astronaut, and let fame and glory become her focus in life. Which in turn brought about some serious struggles at Jamestown, to the point where she finally needed a talking to from her boss to understand that these missions aren’t a vacation or a getaway, they are real work, the kind being done by dedicated astronauts that would kill to have her history. And eventually, those words and the realization that she could be drummed out of the program and lose her dream, by letting her ego get in the way, motivated her to buckle down and fight for what she wanted as well and that made this segment of the story quite satisfying for certain, since Tracy now seems quite focused and hungry to reclaim her status as one of NASAs finest.

In fact, it really is best to just call this episode satisfying in general. Because it was quite lovely to see two fractured characters start to put their heads down and work to grow and reclaim their fire, and it is equally as magnificent to see them come to understand what exactly goes into maintaining one’s dreams and to top it all off, this episode also had more to offer than a mere character study. Since this particular tale also saw the arrival of Marines on the moon, complete with weapons and rules of engagement in reclaiming the lost mining site. And it should be quite interesting to not only see what this particular move will do for American/Russian relations in the weeks to come, but to also discover how our favorite characters will continue to grow, as this incredible series continues to explore a brave new world where mankind has established colonies on the surface of the moon. Until next time.  
‘For All Mankind’ is streaming now on AppleTV+.

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