"Legacy" is the eight episode of the fourth season of For All Mankind. It was released on Apple TV+ on December 29, 2023.
Synopsis
Plans are made with interplanetary ramifications. Ed begins working with an unexpected partner.
Plot[]
Sergei Nikulov is living in Iowa under the name Sergei Bezukhov and works as a physics teacher at the Spiro T. Agnew High School. He is seemingly enjoying his new life together with his new wife Muriel. One evening, while brushing his teeth, he hears Margo Madison's defection speech on TV and watches it with shock. Muriel, who is unaware of her husband's connection to Margo, comments on how surprising it is that Margo survived and defected. Later, while reading the newspaper, Sergei sees that she will be returning to Houston as part of the Goldilocks capture mission. At work, he is heavily distracted by the news, and one morning, instead of driving to the school, he impulsively turns south towards Houston.
At Happy Valley, Miles Dale is still running the bar and his smuggling business, while Edward Baldwin and Samantha Massey talk in the bar about Dev Ayesa. Ed argues for Samantha to meet with Dev and listen to what he has to say. Palmer James and members of the new security detail enter and shut down the bar, citing the M-7 charter on contraband. Miles insults Palmer who brushes him off. Ed and Samantha leave, while other Helios workers can be seen being stopped for security checks. They discover that the lower levels of the base are being sealed off, both by the elevators being hardwired and the access doors being welded shut, as retribution for the strike.
Ed and Dev arrive in Ed's quarters and are surprised to find Kelly Baldwin and her son Alex in his room. Ed has forgotten that he promised to look after Alex, while Kelly travels to the Korolev crater as part of her S.E.E.K.E.R. program. Kelly and Ed discuss parenting techniques, before Ed agrees to look after him. Before Kelly leaves, Alex asks if she will be coming back, which she confirms. Ed and Dev decide they need a babysitter and leave Alex with Joanna Chapman in the hydroponic garden.
Eli Hobson meets with Margo in her office at the Cobb Space Center, where she has both a US Marine and Soviet agent as a security detail at her door. Eli offers to walk her to the conference room for a meeting on the Goldilocks capture mission. On their way, they run into Nuri Prabakar and Margo greets her and congratulates her on her new position as project manager, but Nuri responds coldly. Eli tries to write it off as her being busy.
The capture mission is discussed in three locations: The conference room in Houston, the Ops-Comm room at Happy Valley, and in a secluded room in the lower levels of the base. In Houston, Eli Hobson asks Margo to present the plan to other members of NASA, Helios, and the M-7. At Happy Valley, commander Danielle Poole explains the mission to her team leaders, while at the lower deck, Dev is briefing his co-conspirators Ed, Samantha, Gerardo Ortiz, and Veronica Hunt.
Margo explains that they will need to have Ranger burn for 20 minutes to slow down the asteroid to allow it to use a gravity assist from Mars and redirect it towards Earth orbit. Due to the lack of computing power at Happy Valley, everything will be calculated on Earth and then uplinked to Happy Valley, who will then relay it to the spacecraft. Meanwhile, Danielle presents the plan to her crew and also explains that the relay will be sent via a satellite in Martian orbit, which will send the burn orders to a discriminator box on board Ranger, and if Ranger does not receive the correct encryption it will refuse the burn. In the secluded room, Dev explains his plan to steal Goldilocks, by burning 25 minutes instead of only 20, which will slow down the asteroid enough to fall into permanent orbit around Mars. The conspirators begin discussing how to hijack the signal and ensure that Ranger burns for the correct amount of time. They agree to build their own version of Ops-Comm, and for Samantha to change out the discriminator box onboard Ranger. Although Samantha has reservations about doing so, due to the risk involved, as well as the belief that she will not be part of the crew after the strike. However, at the M-7 team meeting to set the final crew, Dev manages to ensure that she is kept on the crew. Dani leaves it to Ravi Vaswani, the commander of Ranger, to decide. Ravi argues that her experience from the Kronos capturing mission could be helpful. Dani agrees saying that Samantha's heart was in the right place and it would be a gesture of good will, but sends Palmer on the mission to keep an eye on her regardless.
At another conspirator's meeting, Samantha says that she can help them obtain the hardware necessary for the fake Ops-Comm, by utilising Miles' smuggling operation.
After the meeting in Houston, Margo asks Aleida Rosales about her family and her son Javi, but Aleida cuts her off and says that she will work with her, but she is never allowed to talk to her about her family ever again before leaving.
Ed and Dev return to Joanna, who says that Alex has been great and was helping her with her work. Ed calls out to Alex, but they discover him missing. Ed and Joanna frantically search for him throughout the sector, beginning a PA announcement before Joanna calls out that she has found him. Ed is angry and yells at him first, but when Alex says that he was looking for him, he calms down again, in contrast to how he had previously treated Shane.
In her hotel room, Margo listens to jazz music on the radio and eats a hamburger with visible happiness, having seemingly missed it in her time in the Soviet Union.
On Happy Valley, Miles goes over the list of supplies needed for the second Ops-Comm room. He argues that it will be difficult, as the hardware will be considered classified and will be placed into the secure section of the docking bay where he does not have access. Ed and Dev argue with him, asking if he's saying he can't or won't do it. Dev then presses the issue by pulling out an anecdote about his original Helios partner Richard Hilliard, and how Hilliard had been risk averse too, and how if he had listened to him, he never would have got anywhere. He ends by asking if Miles wants to be a millionaire or billionaire. Ed and Dev leave, Miles having agreed to the plan. Ed talks about Alex with Dev, stating that he responds well to Dev. Dev then shares another anecdote about his own father, and how he had broken one of his rocket models, and how he had been made to rebuild it with his father passing instructions. He shares that it was when he felt closest to his father. He leaves Ed with another piece of his own brand of wisdom he learnt from his father, stating that there are birds that fly backwards because they want to look where they've been, because that's where they're going. Ed humors him.
At Aleida's house, she walks out to her car, before being shocked to see Sergei. He begins to introduce himself, but she says she knows who he is and asks what he's doing here, and that he shouldn't be here. He implores for her to hear him out. He then explains the reason why Margo had shared the NERVA engine design with the Soviets, that he had been asked to get it from her by the KGB, but refused, and how his handler then sent agents to her room during the IAC conference, threatening to tell the FBI, but she refused, only then did they strangle him in front of her. Aleida responds with shock, and Sergei is surprised that Margo did not tell her, and how she had sacrificed everything along with her honour to save his life. Aleida then says that Margo had let her think that she was dead for 8 years, and how she had never tried to reach out. Sergei argues that she could not, and that a defector in the Soviet Union is a glorified prisoner. Aleida says that she knows that, but she does not know how to forgive her. Sergei nods and says he understands, and asks where would she be today if Margo hadn't helped her, He then asks to help him talk to her.
At Happy Valley, Ed is reading a book in his quarters. Alex is supposed to be asleep, but tells Ed that he's scared. Ed asks what he's scared of, and if he's afraid of him. Alex says that he looks like a bear. Ed laughs and looks at his reflection in a photo of himself and Shane. Ed then says that he used to read stories to Kelly and asks if Alex wants to hear one. Ed then begins to read from The Sand Pebbles as Alex listens on.
At the Korolev crater, 6,375 kilometers away, Kelly looks over the crater, with her team looking after the S.E.E.K.E.R's.
In Houston, Margo is sitting in the viewing gallery looking over the new Mars Mission Control, as Aleida walks in and hands her supposed updated state vectors from their tracking stations, saying that there are variations from the predicted paths. Margo opens the file and finds a note attached to the papers with a mathematical equation on it. She says that she will look over the calculations and let her know what she thinks.
Miles' smuggling plan is in operation and the Helios workers begin to wheel out their supplies from the docking bay. Miles is stopped by a member of the security detail who asks for his requisition form, and asks to look inside one of his boxes. Miles opens the box to show that there is simple food products inside, and he and the rest of the team are able to pass. Miles is praised for keeping his cool, but says that his work with Ilya Breshov taught him to cover his bases. They go through the boxes and find they have all the hardware except for the discriminator box, arguably the most important piece of the scheme. They discover that it had been transported, but was taken to the secure room. Ed asks if they can get to it, but Miles says that the lock is too difficult to bypass, and while there is an intake vent into the room, it is only 12 inches wide. Ed and Dev share a knowing look. They later ask Alex if he wants to help them, offering the chance to back out, but Alex says he wants to do it, and he crawls through the vent and into the room. As Ed and Dev speak to him through the vent, Alex says that he can see the box, but it is on the top shelf and he can't reach it. Ed says he can come back, but Alex instead climbs up to get it, banging can be heard from the room, and a member of the security detail goes into the room, but Alex is already out with the box, and is praised by Ed and Dev for his work.
Margo goes over the note in her hotel room, translating the equation into coordinates and a time. She flushes the note afterwards. The coordinates point to a local diner, where Sergei is sitting alone waiting at a table. The waitress says that they are closing and he has to leave. Sergei thanks her, leaves the entire contents of his wallet, and walks out to his car. He finds Margo waiting and is pleased to see her, but Margo insists that they cannot rekindle their affair anymore now that they have separate lives. Sergei cuts her off and informs her that she is not safe. He continues by describing how Irina was his handler in the KGB and was responsible for the destruction of both of their lives.
On Ranger, Ravi communicates with Happy Valley, as the crew go about their work on their way to Goldilocks. Samantha stares at the discriminator box she needs to swap out and whispers a frustrated profanity.
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
- Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales
- Tyner Rushing as Samantha Massey
- Svetlana Efremova as Irina Morozova (credit only)
- Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison
- Daniel Stern as Eli Hobson
- Piotr Adamczyk as Sergei Nikulov
- Myk Watford as Palmer James
- Sahana Srinivasan as Nuri Prabakar
- Vinny Chhibber as Ravi Vaswani
- Tess Lina as Veronica "Ronnie" Hunt
- Jessica Tuck as Christine Francis (voice only)
- Rhian Rees as Joanna Chapman
- Ely Henry as Dr. Seth Razack
- Heather Lee as Muriel Bezukhov
- Elliott Ross as Maximus Taylor
- Salvador Chacon as Gerardo Ortiz-Niño
- Moses Jones as Rich Waters
- Noor Razooky as Faiza Khatib
- Ezrah Lin as Alex Poletov
- Cindy Jackson as Holly "Sparks" Edmondson
- Michael Lee Joplin as Charlie Parfitt
- Katarina Morhacova as Nina Rozhenkova
- Timothy E. Goodwin as Cliff Hooper
- Autumn Bell as Bethany
- Eli Fucile as Harry
- Charles Maceo as Andy Whistler
- Mark Kwak as Park Chui Moo
- Brooks Anne Hayes as Bobbie
- Emil Beheshti as Hotel Waiter
Appearances[]
Events & missions
Goldilocks capturing mission
S.E.E.K.E.R.
Vehicles & vessels
Locations & stations
Notes[]
- For this episode, actress Cindy Jackson was erroneously credited as "Holly 'Sparks' Madison" instead of "Holly 'Sparks' Edmondson".
External links
Soundtrack
Soundtrack of episode 4x08, "Legacy" on Tunefind
Transcript
- Transcript of episode 4x08, "Legacy" on TV Show Transcripts
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