"House Divided" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of For All Mankind. It was released on Apple TV+ on December 1, 2023.
Synopsis
An accident on Mars strains relationships, while Miles embarks on a risky venture.
Plot[]
At Happy Valley, cosmonaut Svetlana Zakharova and Helios worker Vasily Galkin are arguing about the direction the Soviet Union is heading, while working on the surface together. Zakharova states that it is a return to the times of Stalin, while Galkin is supportive of President Korzhenko and his policies, calling Zakharova a traitor, leading her to attack him. In the scuffle, Galkin's suit is punctured accidentally, leading him to be placed into a hyperbaric chamber.
Danielle Poole decides to confine Zakharova to the base for 60 sols without pay, which Ed Baldwin disagrees with, stating that she is crucial to the Asteroid Capture Program. Zakharova informs them that this is irrelevant as she has been recalled to the Soviet Union to face trial for attacking Galkin, who is the nephew of a Politburo member. Believing that Zakharova will not face a fair trial, Danielle and Ed decide not to let this happen, and inform NASA.
On Earth, NASA Administrator Eli Hobson, agrees with the decision made on Mars, although is informed that by the M-7 treaty, each member has the right to recall their people at any time for any reason. Hobson believes that he will be able to straighten things out by simply talking to Irina Morozova, the new head of Roscosmos. Although Morozova does not budge, insisting that the M-7 treaty allows for this to happen. When Hobson tries to claim that the treaty was signed when Mikhail Gorbachev was in power and so is no longer valid, she responds by stating that if that was the case, then any treaties signed by President Wilson must also no longer be valid. She also dismisses the idea of Zakharova being treated differently due to Galkin's family connections, calling it propaganda.
Margo Madison is permitted entry to high level meetings at Roscosmos, where Morozova states that the United States is not abiding by the treaty, and that they will not hand over Zakharova to face justice for injuring the nephew of a politburo member. When a member of the meeting, Lev Babanin, tries to intercede and claims that Zakharova is necessary for the asteroid missions, Morozova asks if he was stabbed in the back would he hand back the knife to the attacker, before having his copy of the report about the Kronos disaster given to Margo instead. The report, which would be handed to NASA, states that it was an error with the American built Ranger 1 engines. After the meeting, Margo goes over the report, instead finding that the anchor's used to attach the asteroid to Ranger 1 had been incorrectly made by Roscosmos due to a conversion error between imperial and metric measurements. She also helps a member of Kirill Semenov's team, Tatyana Volkova, with a calculation error she is having.
On Mars, the Helios workers are complaining to each other about Poole's treatment of Zakharova, insisting that if the tables were turned and a Helio's worker injured a cosmonaut, they would be facing harsher penalties. Miles Dale, after sending a martian rock home, where his wife was offered $5000 for it, asks Ilya Breshov to expand their smuggling business into exporting Martian rocks, believing that this would be a bigger money maker. Ilya refuses, arguing that it is an easy way to be caught, and that sticking to the plan is the way to go. Miles instead begins to plan to sell the rocks himself.
The Happy Valley computer programs are now utilising Cyrillic as they have been reset to their intial Soviet specifications. Danielle asks Yevgeniy, the Soviet controller in charge, to change them back as she is commander and this will set back their work, but is informed that the Soviet Union no longer recognises her as leader. An emergency meeting is held, where it is stated that the CCCS countries have sided with the Soviets, while only India remains neutral between the two factions, while security is going to be needed for Zakharova due to the anger on the base about her.
Margo meets with Morozova and informs her of the conversion error that had been left out of the initial report. Morozova calls in Semenov, who denies the accusation that his team made the error, before Morozova pushes him on this, stating that the error should have been plainly visible and that it was deliberately left out of the report. Semenov admits to the error, and claims responsibility as it was his team that made the error, and so he is responsible. He is taken out of the room by Morovoza, before she returns, reciting a poem to Margo, and showing her a photo of the engineering team for the first Moon landing in 1969. Sergei Nikulov is in the photo, with Morovoza telling Margo that he was an old friend.
After the humilation Hobson faced during the meeting, he is questioning himself at home, before his wife consoles him, talking about their retirement plans, and how he shouldn't be working now anyway. She begins to talk of places they should visit when he retires, including India, which gives Hobson an idea, leaving abruptly for the Cobb Space Center.
Miles begins to put his plan for collecting Mars rocks into action, asking Samantha Massey for her help, as she has rover access and he does not. She angrily refuses to help, leading Miles to go off on his own. Massey goes to Poole alone to complain about the treatment that Zakharova is getting, calling it fucked up that she nearly killed a Helios worker and can still walk around freely.
Miles ventures out to the Martian surface, utilising a Helios suit from the original mission back in 1995 after being informed that all modern suits have been booked. He struggles to find the rocks he is after, before noticing one on an outcropping. Upon reaching to get it, the ledge falls from underneath him and he slides into a fissure.
In Houston, Hobson manages to make a deal with India and the Soviet Union, whereby Zakharova will face trial in India, placating both sides. Danielle agrees to this and informs Ed who reacts with anger, saying that this is typical of Danielle and that she is simply trying to save her own career, to which Danielle responds by telling him that this is typical of him, as he defends those he believes in, regardless of the circumstances, such as Gordo and Danny, and that it's his fault for what happened to Danny Stevens. Ed tells her to say what happened, she is reluctant before refusing to say the words, and instead says that her decision is final and Ed leaves.
In the Helios common room, they begin to grow worried about Miles not returning, and Samantha takes a rover to look for him, discovering him at the bottom of the fissure, alive, although running out of oxygen and with communication issues on his suit. She pulls him using the rover's winch, then responds angrily, saying that the only reason he isn't dead is because of the suit. She stitches up a wound on his arm before heading back to Happy Valley.
In the Roscosmos cafeteria, Margo sits with Tatyana who is crying as her mentor Semenov has been taken away by the KGB and that no one including herself did anything when it happened. Margo tries to console her, knowing that it was her actions that led to this.
Zakharova is packing up her room, in order to board the vessel back to Earth, when Ed tries to get her to stay, telling her that she can hide on the unfinished 4th level of Happy Valley. She stops him, kissing him, and telling him that she won't ruin his career to try to save her. She begins to leave, and Ed tells Palmer James that he will escort her. Palmer tries to stop him, telling him that there are a lot of angry people out there, but he insists.
Cast[]
- Joel Kinnaman as Edward Baldwin
- Toby Kebbell as Miles Dale
- Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole
- Edi Gathegi as Dev Ayesa
- Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin (credit only)
- Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales (credit only)
- Tyner Rushing as Samantha Massey
- Svetlana Efremova as Irina Morozova
- Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison
- Daniel Stern as Eli Hobson
- Robert Bailey Jr. as Will Tyler
- Goran Ivanovski as Dimitri Mayakovsky
- Dimiter D. Marinov as Ilya Breshov
- Masha Mashkova as Svetlana Zakharova
- Myk Watford as Palmer James
- Eduard Osipov as Vasily Galkin
- Jessica Tuck as Christine Francis
- Shannon Lucio as Amanda Dale
- Billy Lush as Mike Bishop
- Rhian Rees as Joanna Chapman
- Kathe Mazur as Katherine Hobson
- Gediminas Adomaitis as Kirill Semenov
- Ania Bukstein as Tatyana Volkova
- Salvador Chacon as Gerardo Ortiz-Niño
- Moses Jones as Rich Waters
- Jo Kelly as Maya Estime
- Zylan Brooks as Flight Director Jen Hughes
- Rachael Thompson as Leia Ascott
- Alexander Terentyev as Lev Babanin
- Luke Barnett as Mike Shaw
- Nicholas Kolev as Yevgeniy
- Danielle Nottingham as Vera Martil
- Emil Markov as Leonid
- Danny Yang as Controller
- Martina Vachkova as Cashier
- Yasen Atanasov as Engineer #1
- Martin Petrushev as Engineer #2
- Dimitar Bakalov as Fyodor Korzhenko (uncredited)
- Al Gore as POTUS (archive footage, uncredited)
Appearances[]
Events & missions
Vasily Galkin incident
Vehicles & vessels
Locations & stations
External links
Soundtrack
Soundtrack of episode 4x04, "House Divided" on Tunefind
Transcript
- Transcript of episode 4x04, "House Divided" on TV Show Transcripts
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