Certain sufficient, final week’s hints of looming unrest blossom this week in a full-scale coup towards Mikhail Gorbachev in alt-history drama collection For All Mankind, season 4, episode 3, “The Bear Hug.” And who’s in the midst of all of it? Why, the previous head of NASA, after all — Margo Madison.
Within the span of 1 episode — launched Wednesday as a substitute of Friday for the lengthy Thanksgiving vacation weekend — she will get horribly tortured and finds herself in a giant new space-agency job. But it surely ain’t NASA this time. I’d say you’ll be able to’t make these things up, however somebody did. In the meantime, one other coup unfolds at personal space-exploration firm Helios Aerospace.
How do you say For All Mankind in Russian? Margo Madison would know. Season 4’s ‘The Bear Hug’ reveals 2 totally different tried coups.
The episode opens with a period-accurate CNN report on a brand new Soviet disaster by anchor Bernard Shaw, who retired in 2001 in actual life. In For All Mankind‘s world, a Soviet hardliner named Korzhenko is attempting to unseat “corrupt” Gorbachev and restore the Soviet Union to Marxist-Leninist ideas.
Seems Moscow police assist the upstart and need to make an instance of “those that ask questions,” as a fellow detainee tells Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) at the back of the police van, the place they ended up on the shut of final week’s episode after Margo ended up on the flawed finish of a baton. At police HQ, the detainees are herded out of the van, ordered up towards the wall and … frisked.
At Joyful Valley on Mars, Ed (Joel Kinnaman), Danielle (Krys Marshall) and their cosmonaut colleague Svetlana Efremova (Irina Morozova) hear from the NASA director that comms with Star Metropolis, the Russian house company, have dropped. Svetlana confirms she has not heard from them both, nor from her father together with his common Saturday message. Yup, one thing may be very flawed in Russia.
Coups in Russia and at Helios
Photograph: Apple TV+
Whereas the episode focuses greater than the previous couple have on Margo and her odd plight as a former NASA director exiled to Moscow after an investigation discovered she shared secrets and techniques with the Soviets, it jumps round, as standard. It flips between Moscow, the US, the place Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña) and Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu) are attempting to pitch their robotic Mars explorer to non-public firms, and Mars, the place Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell) tries to make ends meet and Ed reveals his hand tremor and marijuana cache to Svetlana.
So it is probably not a lot of a shock that enigmatic Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi), ousted as head of Helios Aerospace, is again. The episode reintroduces him as a wealthy man berating a surfer lady trespassing on his personal seashore, oddly sufficient. It’s kind of a “whats up, I’ll be on this episode in a extra significant approach as a wealthy and highly effective man later.” And he’s.
Aleida and Kelly do an exquisite job of pitching their new robotic explorer enterprise to Northrup Grumman and different firms. However they get rejected in every single place. Aleida cryptically refers to “another person,” a wealthy potential investor who simply may be Dev. And it’s.
After they go to his mansion and pitch him, he blows them off, nonetheless — at first. He and Kelly combine it up a bit, along with her implying he’s not the visionary explorer he claimed to be, simply one other wealthy man counting his cash. He insults her mom, the late Karen Baldwin (Shantel VanSanten), ex-wife of Ed, who left NASA and joined Dev at Helios effectively earlier than Ed did.
Aleida and Kelly go away Dev in a huff, but it surely’s not over. As a massively wealthy particular person, he takes his personal jet and flies to a different scene later within the episode, intercepting them at their subsequent cease with apologies and a proposition. Lengthy story quick, he needs their assist in reclaiming management of Helios. They only must persuade sufficient board members to go alongside.
So Alieda goes and visits outdated good friend and colleague Invoice Strausser (Noah Harvester), now wheelchair-bound, shaggy and grey. She will get him to go alongside, however not with out a struggle the place he berates her for leaving NASA they usually remind viewers about extra of the present’s previous.
So later, in a vastly unrealistic scene that nonetheless makes for good TV, this all culminates with Dev and the ladies storming a Helios board assembly and taking up. Dev fires individuals left and proper as he cites bylaws and in any other case justifies this ludicrous circus act, declaring a brand new period. This doesn’t occur with dramatic confrontations a lot in the actual world, but it surely does on TV.
Aspect hustle and hints of scorching instances forward on Mars
In the meantime, on the crimson planet, Miles is attempting to make ends meet. A vid-mail from his spouse reveals her gravely involved about his low pay. Samantha (Tyner Speeding) enters, overhearing a bit. She says he’s fortunate even to get vid-mail. She mentions her quickie divorce proper earlier than coming to Mars. “Lets go drown our sorrows, lets,” she says, they usually head to the lair of Ilya, the Russian upkeep man established as the bottom’s black-market supplier of illicit items.
Seems it’s a raucous occasion down there. Miles sees Ilia making financial institution and wonders how he can get in on it. He chats up Ilia whereas ordering extra drinks, however Ilia says he works alone. After he got here to Mars for Helios, the man who took over his racket on the Moon obtained busted for tax evasion. So he’s cautious.
It’s Samantha who swoops in and saves the day for Miles. She factors out he has an all-access badge as a result of he fixes environmental programs, so he can get locations on base Ilia can’t. Ilia suggests a “take a look at run.”
Then we see him begin to practice up Miles on “the Russian approach” — nothing is free — and we see Ilia’s complete illicit-goods operation. Miles is in at that time, and as he delivers items to astronauts and scientists on the higher flooring, his deposits headed residence get greater. And all it took was a pair minutes of TV montage.
And by the best way, for those who suppose nothing romantic or sexual goes to occur between Miles and Samantha, you could be oxygen-deprived.
Shaky-hands Ed consorts with cosmonaut
Photograph: Apple TV+
Typically the present will get again to the enterprise of house exploration, however solely briefly. Ed and Svetlana pilot a ship in an asteroid-capture coaching train. Baldwin’s tremor retains him from dealing with the controller effectively as he tries to lock on the fake asteroid. He says the controller’s a bit sluggish. Then he provides up and provides the job to copilot Svetlana, like a plum task for a trainee. She’s thrilled. She docks completely and he praises her, clearly happy with himself.
Afterward, as they put gear away, he can see she’s in ache from a again harm. He invitations her to his backyard that evening. She wonders why, and he’s coy. “As a result of I requested,” he says. She smiles. “How can I refuse,” she says. It’s not clear if she will get it’s about marijuana — we’ve seen him smoking his homegrown — or thinks it may be one thing else.
Later, Svetlana visits as deliberate. She and Ed share a touching second as he talks about gardening makes him really feel near his useless ex-wife, Karen. Svetlana talks about her father, out of contact. Then Ed reveals her his secret pot-growing operation and offers her some for her again ache. Like every straight-arrow cosmonaut would do, she coughs it out. As they preserve speaking, he finally ends up revealing he smokes pot for his tremor, although he doesn’t know what it’s. She tenderly takes his hand. Their eyes meet. And … scene. So now we’re all questioning if this get-together could also be about greater than Maryjane in any case.
Moscow, now we have an issue
Again in Russia, Margo is dropped at a scary cell for interrogation. The officer refers to her as “Margaret Reynolds.” She tries to elucidate she was solely on the newsstand to purchase a newspaper, however he’s not . He describes her as collaborating in an unlawful political demonstration and interfering with a police officer conducting his duties. However that’s not even the principle factor. He overturns her bag and kinds via her issues. He finds the cardboard with a cellphone quantity that the lady within the park gave her. “Who provides you this?” He asks.
However he already is aware of it entails the KGB, even when she doesn’t. He tells her how a lot hassle she could possibly be in for working with the Gorbachev towards the motherland. She might face “as little as” 10 years in a piece camp and as a lot as a demise penalty.
Then noises within the corridor distract them. The cop exits and Margo is left to marvel what’s occurring. Photographs ring out and it appears like greater than only a jail riot, as heavy mechanized sounds come from above. Is the entire complicated below assault?
After scenes elsewhere, the following one who comes into the interrogation room the place Margo has been sitting, handcuffed to a desk, is a Russian military colonel. With out a phrase, he unlocks her handcuffs. He apologizes about her getting combined up of their politics. He politely asks for her indulgence as he knocks on a door.
The cop who interrogated her is introduced in, bloody. The colonel interrogates him in entrance of Margo. He begins breaking fingers. The colonel reveals that the cellphone quantity on the cardboard reaches KGB counterintelligence, the watcher over the watchers. He says they’re those in favor of Korzhenko, backing the coup try.
Then the colonel shoots the cop within the head, spattering blood throughout Margo. However that’s not all. He then hangs her by the palms from a pipe alongside the ceiling. She screams. He needs to know concerning the girl who gave her the cardboard, and torture seems to be on the menu.
Begin operation ‘Worldwide Incident’
Photograph: Apple TV+
Miles need to assist Ilya, his side-hustle boss, so he installs a brand new converter on the gradual and glitchy nonetheless they use to make booze. It seems to be promising at first, however then it fries the nonetheless’s thermostat, placing it out of fee. Ilya is enraged and Miles is out of a gig.
Miles’ work colleague figures on the market’s one other thermostat of that sort on the bottom for a attainable quick-fix. But it surely’s within the Korean part, utterly off limits. Nobody’s going to the touch that.
So begin operation worldwide incident. Miles levels a methane leak within the North Korean module and prompts an evacuation so he can go in to “take a look at air high quality,” in any other case often called stealing a thermostat out of the fridge.
It’s laborious to imagine Miles might truly pull this off by himself. However that’s additionally how you understand it’s going to be a catastrophe not directly.
The Korean astronaut Lee surprises him. He had crept again in and noticed Miles put one thing in his case. Miles instantly confesses all and the Lee, who is aware of about Ilia and his smuggling. Miles provides to return the thermostat, however now he’s in too deep. Lee needs him to maintain it, however he should be of assist to Lee.
So after Miles delights Ilia with a working nonetheless, he introduces Lee as their new buyer. Ilia is cautious however welcoming.
However Lee doesn’t want a Playboy journal or foot cream. He reveals Ilia a photograph. He needs Ilia to deliver him his spouse from North Korea. Ilia stares at Miles like he can’t imagine what a curse the American represents.
Welcome aboard, Comrade Madison
Photograph: Apple TV+
Again within the hellish Russian interrogation room, the colonel resumes questioning a puffy and beat-down trying Margo. However a high-ranking officer interrupts. Margo is then put in a hood and brought away.
After scenes elsewhere, the present returns to hooded Margo. She is taken from a van within the woods. Might they be concerning the merely execute her? No, the lady who gave her a cellphone quantity on the bench after admonishing her complaining concerning the house company is there and places Margo’s damaged glasses again on her face.
With all that’s occurred, Margo is overwhelmed. She merely follows the lady, who identifies herself as Irina. They arrive as much as the saluting cosmonaut in entrance of the Russian house company, a visible reference dropped quite a few instances in the course of the collection.
Irina tells Margo Korzhenko and Gorbachev have negotiation a brand new authorities, and she’s going to lead the house company. She needs Margo to work for her. Margo, nonetheless in a daze — in all probability stemming from when the actress enjoying Margo learn this nutty script — slowly picks her approach up the icy driveway behind Irina, strolling towards the distant constructing. Seems like Margo is headed for Soviet house glory now.
Watch For All Mankind on Apple TV+
You’ll be able to meet up with the primary three seasons of the alternative-history collection, plus the brand new season, on Apple TV+. It’s out there by subscription for $6.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can too get it through any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. For a restricted time, prospects who buy and activate a brand new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod contact can get pleasure from three months of Apple TV+ without cost.
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