For All Mankind 4×04 “House Divided” is all about the Korzhenko coup’s consequences, both personal and political. In Margo’s case, it means working under Irina Morozova at Star city and, because of that new opportunity, a noticeable return to actually being someone instead of suffering as a shadow. While the new regime basically offers her a chance to be the same — if older — Margo we met years ago once again, it also offers everyone else familiar territory. But their shades of history repeating itself aren’t quite so attractive. Namely, this new leadership for the Soviet Union means a return to political tensions, and everything, everywhere — from the Earth all the way to Mars — is in jeopardy all over again.
She’s back
Many important things happen in For All Mankind 4×04, and a lot of them center around how an argument gone wrong on Mars can threaten global alliances. The episode also provides key insight, through Margo — as an outsider on the inside, a ghost haunting Star City, invisible and never to be acknowledged by others — about how the new regime is running Roscosmos. And, certainly, that particular insight helps us, as viewers, to see just how serious things can get with respect to the first problem — perhaps even with echoes of Season 2’s ending still entering our nightmares.
But, for this particular viewer, none of the “bigger” picture matters. Because in “House Divided,” I saw two people I’ve dearly missed this last decade (both the real-life one and the one in the show). The first, most obvious, of those two people is the “old” Margo Madison. The other? Myself, back when I was — bragging here, a bit. Whatever — the best of the best in my undergraduate Mathematics program. Back when staying up all night, trying to write the most elegant and correct proof, trying to solve something from nothing and often ending up short and starting over again…was the best feeling in the world. When solving a problem was more important than breathing air. (And certainly more important than resting or saving paper. RIP to all the trees I killed with those discarded drafts.)
So, yeah. Margo’s journey in For All Mankind 4×04 is, for me, both beautiful and painful, both uplifting and gutting. No longer having that purpose, that feeling, that chance to have this exact experience — ok. Not quite exact. Your girl’s more into theory, and Margo’s clearly doing applied work, genius engineering type that she is — is something worse than drowning. But. The beauty is, of course, in being able to look up at the screen and see that someone did it right. And everyone involved in filming the way Margo Madison comes back to herself in “House Divided” just…gets it.
It’s in those moments, when she’s getting set up to start looking into Semenov’s accident report, and when she’s flipping through those pages, carefully writing down all her calculations and notes, that something in Wrenn Schmidt’s demeanor, her onscreen presence — even the energy she gathers around her — starts to shift. There’s a real sense of the character actually coming alive again. Everything she does starts to suddenly have a sense of determination. Even just getting that desk organized, laying out everything she needs, brings Margo back. Little by little, bit by bit…and then, all at once, she’s there.
Maybe the best way to describe Margo’s development here is to say you get this sense of a flower starting to come back into bloom after a long winter. It’s those petals unfurling, reaching out toward the sun. In this case, the sun just happens to be some physical and mathematical insight…and that feeling you get when it all finally clicks (Sorry, not sorry, for getting overly poetic or whatever here.)
When she finally gets up, after quite literally working until the building is as empty as it previously felt when no one would speak to her, something is different. There’s suddenly a purpose in Margo’s steps again, instead of all that shrunken wandering. Sure, age has still given her that limp in her step, but something no longer feels senseless, lost, defeated. Even just a quick break is a mission — gotta find that caffeine. Because she’s doing what she loves again, what she was always made to do. And it shows. Not only that, but it even gives her enough confidence back to actually have a real conversation with Tatyana. Maybe there’s some hesitation before she offers to look over the spin vector calculations, and maybe she’s still a little guarded. But this is not at all the same Margo Madison from the season premiere.
It’s not even the same Margo from the beginning of the episode. Look at Schmidt’s choices, how she’s more alert, how she doesn’t make Margo sink into the wall quite so much in final meeting with Director Morozova and the others. She doesn’t (yet?) have a seat at the table, but she’s just more present. All these tiny details are so brilliant, as always. And they just make this character and everyone around her so real.
If only.
House “Hi, Bob” Divided
If there’s anything about For All Mankind 4×04 that doesn’t quite make sense, it’s the Ed and Svetlana of it all. Yes, there were nuggets of “this person is special to Ed” before now, particularly the whole weird hand-caressing situation in the previous episode. But I’m not sure we needed for Ed to (apparently) feel that kind of way about her, or for the kiss, or for the shot when they say goodbye in front of everyone to look like a wedding setup or something. And…this is coming from a reviewer who usually loves to ship. So, yeah, it’s a surprising take to have. But here we are.
Honestly, sticking to Sveta just being a key part of Ed’s crew and not adding in all the excess would’ve made for a better goodbye. Given who Ed Baldwin is, and how he and one Danielle Poole have the history that they do, keeping things less messy with Svetlana wouldn’t have sacrificed any of the big moments either. Ed would’ve still been argumentative, and “big mad” (as I called it in my notes), about Svetlana’s original punishment for what she did to Vasily — however accidental — and Dani still would’ve still let him push back…right up until she was done. As in, “I’ve made. My decision.” kind of done. (Punctuation 100% heard that way and intended to be placed where it is there.)
Of course, someone at Happy Valley would have to care very much about Svetlana for everyone to rally around her and risk major global repercussions for doing so. But I’d argue that merely being one of the space people family would be enough. Friendship is not less than…whatever old man crush we were going for here. Anyway. Enough on the one negative.
In the end, nothing really matters about the specifics of how we got here. It’s just important to know a few things: First, everything old is new again — including the Soviets disappearing people. People like Semenov for screwing up, thus risking embarrassing the regime, and people like Svetlana for seriously (perhaps mortally) injuring someone with major political power. Second, while NASA’s Hobson may have initially underestimated Morozova, he is eventually able to come up with a genius diplomatic solution to the Zakharova problem. Finally, and most important of all, Krys Marshall and Joel Kinnaman not only remain outstanding partners in every scene they do together, but they just keep getting better.
“Time after time, you make exceptions for the people you care about. And now, you’re doing it again with her. You don’t think I see what’s going on between the two of you? Once again, you’re letting your personal feelings affect your judgment.”
In For All Mankind 4×04, we even get to see Marshall let loose instead of having to keep some of Dani’s bigger emotions more contained, and um. Wow. Just wow. Danielle Poole has tried to stay calm, and measured, and fair for decades…but she has had enough of Ed’s bullshit. (Same.) It’s never easy to watch two characters we care about fight, never easy to watch two people who care very much about each other and have so much history lash out like this. But Ed and Dani’s argument in this episode is just pure art.
Oddly enough, though, it’s the quieter moments that still hit hardest. Not Kinnaman’s near roar when he says Ed’s line about how “whatever happened to Danny” isn’t on him, no. The best work is when Ed’s not himself, when he’s more vulnerable. It’s in the in-between, in things like Kinnaman’s entire demeanor as he plays an Ed Baldwin who’s basically begging his friend to understand what he means when he says Svetlana’s important “to the base” and for “the capture team.” There’s this raw humanity in the performance, this pain underneath all that…Ed. That’s what works best — what always has, really.
And for Marshall, it’s always in how she plays off of whoever she’s working with — especially when it’s Kinnaman. It’s the reactions, always the quick reactions. Here, though, it’s not the flashes of Dani’s barely-restrained anger, or the way she really seems to consider what those around her are saying and try to judge fairly. It’s when she just stops talking, stops fighting, cuts herself off before finishing her sentence about Danny because it just hurts too much. When she looks utterly and completely haunted by the memory she won’t even let herself really have. And it’s when Ed starts twisting that knife in earnest, taunting Dani to “say it,” and all we see rolling off the reaction shot is something broken…just before she forces herself back together so she can go back to being Commander Poole, not Danielle, again.
Basically, what we’re saying here is they destroyed us, as usual. Except in new and somehow worse ways.
More on For All Mankind 4×04
- “Will Korzhenko save us the same way Stalin did? Shooting dissidents in the forest and dumping their bodies in pits?” Surprised Vasily wasn’t found dead after this alone. Honestly, between him sounding like your average MAGA cheerleader and the “spreading your legs in front of the West” misogyny (so, still, like your average MAGA), Sveta did nothing wrong.
- It’s like Margo’s invisible at the beginning. And then.
- “My first priority is to the safety of this crew.” Nothing but respect for my Commander.
- “If I can hash out a deal with the UAW, I guarantee I can with her. I like working with the Russians. They’re direct.” Clownish.
- Could’ve done without Riley’s porn request, especially since the name “Riley” and military-style stuff now has me thinking about Buffy Summers’ bland AF college boyfriend. Didn’t need “sick fuck,” porn, and that dude in my mind. Nope.
- “More people means more risk, more mouths to feed, more ways to get fucked!” Ilya gets me.
- Look: I know she’s part of the bloody coup and all that whatnot, but we kind of stan how just…stone cold Irina Morozova is in her so-called negotiations with Hobson, ok? (“Negotiations,” in this case, equals “woman hands arrogant white dude of a certain age his ass.”)
- “If you were stabbed in the back, Comrade Babanin, would you hand the dagger back to your assailant.” I just—. In this house, we support Irina Morozova’s rights and wrongs.
- It’s like Massey’s 100% right here, but also…that’s not why they’re keeping Sveta from being sent back to the government that recently took over the Soviet Union via bloody coup.
- “The truth is, they don’t give a shit if one of us gets hurt. Or worse.” Relatable.
- “If only the coffee were worth the effort.” “I’ll take anything right about now.” I’m with Margo.
- …OMG and the caffeine kicked in immediately. Look at her figuring out a solution after barely glancing at Tatyana’s work! Queen.
- “I know. We all know who you are.” Ok…but do they really? Like, Margo Madison and not Margaret Reynolds? I call bullshit.
- “No one even so much as says hello.” Someone hug her. “Director Morozova…she made it very clear that we should keep our distance.” I have so many questions.
- “A woman without coffee is a dangerous woman.” ME.
- That whole scene is so perfect, really.
- “Soviet Union no longer recognizes your role as commander.” Danielle Poole, offended by the disrespect, is always so much fun to watch. But can y’all stop disrespecting her already?
- “Wish Kuz was here. He wouldn’t have put up with any of this shit.” “Yeah, you got that right.” You can see decades of friendship and memories passing between Marshall and Kinnaman when they say these lines. How.
- It’s Toby Kebbell’s timing on “yeah, fuck that guy” for me. Just jumps right in. (Sorry to Dev Ayesa, I guess.)
- Ahhh, that suit brings back some very not great memories. And, based on that face, some even worse smells.
- That’s what you get for fucking with Mars just because you got greedy. Bye.
- Really interesting Massey/Poole scene. It’s again a place where you can see that Dani is simultaneously not to be fucked with (“how do you know what her punishment’s gonna be”) and willing to hear people out. And we also get to see Tyner Rushing, as Massey, bring in a lot of layers. The respect and caution Sam shows when initially approaching Dani, mixed with the willingness to stand up for what she thinks is right and push back in a way that’s effective, makes for excellent TV. It’s also an interesting little contrast to who she is with “her” people downstairs.
- “You and I, we’ve been through worse.”
- Honestly, aside from not quite getting the nuance with the whole Zakharova situation, I just really love Massey in general.
- See also: “You fucking asshole! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
- “Great news, Rover 7. Please smack him in the head for me.” Hero.
- Margo’s “dear God, pathetic” expression when Semenov admits that someone screwed up conversions is everything.
- The poem is real. And the section they chose…almost too on the nose for Margo.
- A photo of Sergei???? Crying.
- “I know what you’re capable of. All of them, they’re afraid. Afraid of their own shadows. You are different. The Americans took you for granted. I will not.” Can’t tell if praise or a threat on that “I will not” part. Probably both…but look at Margo’s pleased little grin. Going with praise for her sake.
- …and, pretty sure, “you are different” is a nice little callback to Margo calling herself different once upon a time.
- “It’s not like one day you wake up and decide you’ve made enough of a difference.” Alternate timeline won’t have COVID-19, or will at least have different results, based on this line.
- “…Gordo on Jamestown…” Cries in “Hi, Bob.”
- And for what it’s worth, I do, in fact, remember Dani pleading with Ed that Danny wasn’t ready. And Ed being a big ol’ ass about it.
- Margo would know a thing or two about mentors…
- For all the faults of Svetlana’s goodbye scene, it still has its moments. The way the camera just stays on Ed after she walks away is great. Love watching Kinnaman pull that emotion back in as Ed gets himself under control before facing everyone.
- ….not a fan of seeing him snub Dani like that but mostly because it hurts.
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