For All Mankind Season 5, Episode 3 Review and Recap

Take the ongoing murder mystery subplot and gurgling tension between Mars citizens, which lead to a constant stream of arrests in trying to find out more about who planned the breakout for Lee Jung-Gil, who has been officially granted asylum at the ISN base. Celia Boyd (Mireille Enos) and her awkward investigative vigilante streak into Kuragin’s sketchy shipments still might turn out to be explosively fascinating, but here her affect feels extremely off-putting to the point that I don’t know how much I actually care about the half-touched incident on Earth that got her sent to Mars in the first place. Miles Dale’s (Toby Kebbell) quid pro quo negotiations with Palmer James (Myk Watford) to get Miles’ daughter Lily (Ruby Cruz) out of jail (since she finally got caught spraypainting “Free Mars” on stuff) was also an example of a painfully executed script.

One other bright spot was Alex’s scene fixing up his cool Mars bike, where Sean Kaufman finally gave his first standout (if low-key) performance in talking through his feelings over his grandpa with Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi). Having their two energies mingle helped a lot, I think, in further shaping Alex and his place in the show. On the other hand, Kelly (Cynthy Wu) felt more disconnected than ever. She’s grown up in a family where reason and courage trump outward projection of feelings, but the scenes where she’s finally learning about Ed’s cancer and getting into spats with him as his end-of-life caregiver ring hollow. She looks at the busted Sojourner ship more lovingly than her own dying dad. Yes, the emotional alienation is the point, but I wish there was more nuance there than a constantly furrowed brow.

With one Mars resident gone, another rises to take their place: Aleida (Coral Peña) is headed to Mars to help repair Sojourner so that it can get to Titan for an investigation of the promising proteins. (The phone call that brings her into this episode – the news that Kuragin knows about Titan – felt like the writers stuffing in introducing that idea wherever they could.) Her prison visits to Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) remind me why this show desperately needs Schmidt around. She gives more personality in one eye roll than practically any other scene this season has had thus far; I’m begging, let’s follow her into some women’s prison shenanigans.

Transmissions From Happy Valley:

• Ed’s emergency room scenes: The Pitt on Mars.
• Wow, were the Apple Newton phones front and center this episode. Big, distracting bricks! If only they looked as good as the REAL Newtons (not sarcasm).
• The Rosales rigatoni… does anyone on this show know how to make a good-looking pasta????