For All Mankind 4.06
Dec. 16th, 2023 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which a much longed for event takes place, while elsewhere Miles thinks he‘s Walter White and Ed thinks retirement means behaving even more dickish.
The Margo and Aleida reunion, including the lead up and aftermath, was of course my favourite of this episode‘s storyline, and was everything I‘d hoped for in its complexity. But before I get into gushing about this, first some comments on events on Mars: I‘d seen other reviewers assume Miles might try to take over Ilya‘s operation, which I couldn‘t see, because frankly, he didn‘t strike me as having the strategic brains, just an endless desire for get rich quick schemes. So when Miles in response to Ilya (deservedly) freezing him out responds by enlisting Lee‘s and another Koreans‘ help, and it turns out North Korean intimidation beats Russian intimidation by sheer willingness to immediately go for physical brutality, well - I was just a bit stunned. Not least because a) I didn‘t think Miles had this much of a vicious streak in him, and b) I also didn‘t think Lee would do this. I mean, the show has presented him (Lee) sympathetic so far. Now yes, North Korea in our world is the all time winner in the brutal dictatorship stakes as well, which means Lee has made it through the ranks in this society, and also learning that Ilya never intended to honour his promise would have embittered him, but still.
(Mind you: this whole idea that Ilya or anyone else could smuggle someone from North Korea all the way to Mars is insane - both that Lee would think it, and that the show so far has treated it as at least remotely possible - but leaving that aside.)
Miles, with typical lack of foresight, doesn‘t seem to have considered Lee will treat him exactly the same way if he can‘t deliver on the smuggle Lee‘s wife out of North Korea and to Mars front, which he definitely won‘t be able to, but given what he‘s just done, my sympathies for him currently are below zero.
I‘m not feeling well disposed towards Ed right now, either. Given his „don‘t do something you‘ll regret“ to Danielle last week, it was to be expected he wouldn‘t react well to being put off flight status, but the fact he NOW rebrands himself as the people‘s man and informs the workers Helios is about to screw them over even more among other things shows Ed has always been aware just how badly the situation of the workers on Mars was, he just couldn‘t be bothered to do anything about it. And now he‘s not doing it for the workers, either, but to stick it to Danielle because she much deservedly relieved him of duty - which Sam immediately sees though, thank you, Sam, for pointing it out, even though the others don‘t seem to notice. (Sam doing her damned best to organize a union and only getting there by incriments until Ed swans in is infuriating in its own right, but strikes me as realistic. Even in the somewhat better timeline, people tend to listen to the old white man over the woman perceived as pushy, go figure.) Anyway, this is probably the lowest and pettiest thing we‘ve ever seen Ed do, and he‘s going to have to do a lot to redeem himself for that one - and not through a convenient hero‘s death, show, something he‘s been yearning for for several seasons now. Currently, I‘m hoping that Kelly - no fool she and very familiar with her Dad - will arrive, realise the truth of the situation and inform him in no uncertain terms of how disgustihng he‘s become, which will finally snap Ed out of his selfishness, but as to what he could do to be sympathtic again…
„We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad“, the Scorpions sang in a better time when we had all such hopes. Like I said, I loved everything about this storyline. Including the fact Irina at first plays this safe and doesn‘t have Margo anywhere near the American delegation (or any other nation), but stashed away in a safe room where she can observe the goings on and feed Irina intel via radio. That makes sense. As does the show letting Margo come alive when (via Irina) bouncing ideas with Aleida long distance, because this kind of engineer problem solving is what she lives for. (And what, btw, got her into trouble back in the day - bouncing ideas off with Sergeii was how it started.)
Via this season‘s big MacGuffin, Golidlocks the iridium asteroid capable of changing the world, being available to catch only for a very short while, Margo convinces Irina to let her out herself as alive so she can talk to Aleida directly and thus find a solution - but ata a price. Again, here the show played it just right - Irina does warn Margo that she‘ll become the most hated woman ever in the US (and to her old friends) if she does this, and by the end of the episode, when Margo does pay for the privilege of talking to Aleida with a propaganda broadcast about her defection, we see this coming true, the fact she and Aleida had their engineering breakthrough doesn‘t change that. And the reunion with Aleida itself - it starts in an echo of their first reunion with Aleida as an adult woman and Margo showing up in her van, with Aleida ihn the bath/restroom in both cases and not realizing who Margo is until she sees her face. And then Aleida‘s immediate reaction after shock is just pure joy and happiness, because Margo is alive, and Margo meant/means the world to her. I loved that the show gave them this moment, and THEN, after Aleida has time to get her bearings and think through the full implications of Margo being alive, and to finally hear from Margo what happened back in the s3 day with her forwarding tech intel to the Soviets, let Aleida show the sense of betrayal, the resentment, and the incredulity when Margo still insists on not having done anything wrong, not really.
The Margo/Wernher von Braun => Aleida/Margo parallels continue, as this also echoes WvB‘s absolute refusal to admit real responsibility when confronted by a young Margo who has just gotten disillusioned about her mentor. Again, with of course the important difference Margo hasn‘t committed war crimes involving slave labor. But I stand by my guess this parallizing will continue to the point where Margo WILL be in a situation where she‘ll have to choose between getting what she wants but also being responsible for a crime against humanity, and being ready for prison.
„She‘s an engineer‘s engineer“ Margo says about Aleida to Irina in her attempt to convince Irina that Aleida might react with hate to the news about Margo but will still work with her to solve the Goldilocks problem. And when Aleida asks her why she didn‘t stay to face her responsibility a decade ago Margo says she considered it, but the idea of prison and never being able to work again was too much. Living for what she can do best has always been Margo‘s way - and this has been true for both Aleida and this show‘s version of WvB. But we‘ve also seen the dark side of this focus and drive that enabled great breakthroughs, and I don‘t just mean the glaringly obvious, i.e. WvB‘s war crimes. Right now, you could say we get yet another illustration in Ed, who loves being an astronout (and specifically one in charge, not one receiving orders) the way Margo loves being an engineer and is currently busy acting with increasing degrees of criminal irresponsibility because he can‘t accept it‘s over.
Margo was right about Aleida working with her on the problem du jour, but she underestimated both the initial impact her appearance would have on Aleida in the positive sense (because I don‘t think Margo was quite clear how much she‘d meant to Aleida), and the way Aleida would still see both her past and current actions as betrayal and treason both, and the last scene underlines that.
Finally: while Margo‘s „why I defected to the Soviet Union, or: how NASA is all about money now and also, capitalism sucks“ tv speech is all Irina written propaganda, the fact it happens in a season where we see the downside of capitalism in ever increasing capital letters (see also: Mars) isn‘t lost on me. Also? Remember how Ed switched from NASA to Helios when Danielle became the woman in charge of the Mars mission instead of him? The way he acts now, I‘m wondering whether Ed, after inciting a mutiny (which I guess he thinks will end in Danielle begging him to be in charge again and which he will then end, but which will actually end in a Marsian mini revolution with injured and dead people) won‘t end up in the Soviet Union as well, having destroyed his own heroic image in the US.
The Margo and Aleida reunion, including the lead up and aftermath, was of course my favourite of this episode‘s storyline, and was everything I‘d hoped for in its complexity. But before I get into gushing about this, first some comments on events on Mars: I‘d seen other reviewers assume Miles might try to take over Ilya‘s operation, which I couldn‘t see, because frankly, he didn‘t strike me as having the strategic brains, just an endless desire for get rich quick schemes. So when Miles in response to Ilya (deservedly) freezing him out responds by enlisting Lee‘s and another Koreans‘ help, and it turns out North Korean intimidation beats Russian intimidation by sheer willingness to immediately go for physical brutality, well - I was just a bit stunned. Not least because a) I didn‘t think Miles had this much of a vicious streak in him, and b) I also didn‘t think Lee would do this. I mean, the show has presented him (Lee) sympathetic so far. Now yes, North Korea in our world is the all time winner in the brutal dictatorship stakes as well, which means Lee has made it through the ranks in this society, and also learning that Ilya never intended to honour his promise would have embittered him, but still.
(Mind you: this whole idea that Ilya or anyone else could smuggle someone from North Korea all the way to Mars is insane - both that Lee would think it, and that the show so far has treated it as at least remotely possible - but leaving that aside.)
Miles, with typical lack of foresight, doesn‘t seem to have considered Lee will treat him exactly the same way if he can‘t deliver on the smuggle Lee‘s wife out of North Korea and to Mars front, which he definitely won‘t be able to, but given what he‘s just done, my sympathies for him currently are below zero.
I‘m not feeling well disposed towards Ed right now, either. Given his „don‘t do something you‘ll regret“ to Danielle last week, it was to be expected he wouldn‘t react well to being put off flight status, but the fact he NOW rebrands himself as the people‘s man and informs the workers Helios is about to screw them over even more among other things shows Ed has always been aware just how badly the situation of the workers on Mars was, he just couldn‘t be bothered to do anything about it. And now he‘s not doing it for the workers, either, but to stick it to Danielle because she much deservedly relieved him of duty - which Sam immediately sees though, thank you, Sam, for pointing it out, even though the others don‘t seem to notice. (Sam doing her damned best to organize a union and only getting there by incriments until Ed swans in is infuriating in its own right, but strikes me as realistic. Even in the somewhat better timeline, people tend to listen to the old white man over the woman perceived as pushy, go figure.) Anyway, this is probably the lowest and pettiest thing we‘ve ever seen Ed do, and he‘s going to have to do a lot to redeem himself for that one - and not through a convenient hero‘s death, show, something he‘s been yearning for for several seasons now. Currently, I‘m hoping that Kelly - no fool she and very familiar with her Dad - will arrive, realise the truth of the situation and inform him in no uncertain terms of how disgustihng he‘s become, which will finally snap Ed out of his selfishness, but as to what he could do to be sympathtic again…
„We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad“, the Scorpions sang in a better time when we had all such hopes. Like I said, I loved everything about this storyline. Including the fact Irina at first plays this safe and doesn‘t have Margo anywhere near the American delegation (or any other nation), but stashed away in a safe room where she can observe the goings on and feed Irina intel via radio. That makes sense. As does the show letting Margo come alive when (via Irina) bouncing ideas with Aleida long distance, because this kind of engineer problem solving is what she lives for. (And what, btw, got her into trouble back in the day - bouncing ideas off with Sergeii was how it started.)
Via this season‘s big MacGuffin, Golidlocks the iridium asteroid capable of changing the world, being available to catch only for a very short while, Margo convinces Irina to let her out herself as alive so she can talk to Aleida directly and thus find a solution - but ata a price. Again, here the show played it just right - Irina does warn Margo that she‘ll become the most hated woman ever in the US (and to her old friends) if she does this, and by the end of the episode, when Margo does pay for the privilege of talking to Aleida with a propaganda broadcast about her defection, we see this coming true, the fact she and Aleida had their engineering breakthrough doesn‘t change that. And the reunion with Aleida itself - it starts in an echo of their first reunion with Aleida as an adult woman and Margo showing up in her van, with Aleida ihn the bath/restroom in both cases and not realizing who Margo is until she sees her face. And then Aleida‘s immediate reaction after shock is just pure joy and happiness, because Margo is alive, and Margo meant/means the world to her. I loved that the show gave them this moment, and THEN, after Aleida has time to get her bearings and think through the full implications of Margo being alive, and to finally hear from Margo what happened back in the s3 day with her forwarding tech intel to the Soviets, let Aleida show the sense of betrayal, the resentment, and the incredulity when Margo still insists on not having done anything wrong, not really.
The Margo/Wernher von Braun => Aleida/Margo parallels continue, as this also echoes WvB‘s absolute refusal to admit real responsibility when confronted by a young Margo who has just gotten disillusioned about her mentor. Again, with of course the important difference Margo hasn‘t committed war crimes involving slave labor. But I stand by my guess this parallizing will continue to the point where Margo WILL be in a situation where she‘ll have to choose between getting what she wants but also being responsible for a crime against humanity, and being ready for prison.
„She‘s an engineer‘s engineer“ Margo says about Aleida to Irina in her attempt to convince Irina that Aleida might react with hate to the news about Margo but will still work with her to solve the Goldilocks problem. And when Aleida asks her why she didn‘t stay to face her responsibility a decade ago Margo says she considered it, but the idea of prison and never being able to work again was too much. Living for what she can do best has always been Margo‘s way - and this has been true for both Aleida and this show‘s version of WvB. But we‘ve also seen the dark side of this focus and drive that enabled great breakthroughs, and I don‘t just mean the glaringly obvious, i.e. WvB‘s war crimes. Right now, you could say we get yet another illustration in Ed, who loves being an astronout (and specifically one in charge, not one receiving orders) the way Margo loves being an engineer and is currently busy acting with increasing degrees of criminal irresponsibility because he can‘t accept it‘s over.
Margo was right about Aleida working with her on the problem du jour, but she underestimated both the initial impact her appearance would have on Aleida in the positive sense (because I don‘t think Margo was quite clear how much she‘d meant to Aleida), and the way Aleida would still see both her past and current actions as betrayal and treason both, and the last scene underlines that.
Finally: while Margo‘s „why I defected to the Soviet Union, or: how NASA is all about money now and also, capitalism sucks“ tv speech is all Irina written propaganda, the fact it happens in a season where we see the downside of capitalism in ever increasing capital letters (see also: Mars) isn‘t lost on me. Also? Remember how Ed switched from NASA to Helios when Danielle became the woman in charge of the Mars mission instead of him? The way he acts now, I‘m wondering whether Ed, after inciting a mutiny (which I guess he thinks will end in Danielle begging him to be in charge again and which he will then end, but which will actually end in a Marsian mini revolution with injured and dead people) won‘t end up in the Soviet Union as well, having destroyed his own heroic image in the US.
