Trying to find words for the level of talent on display in For All Mankind 4×06 is difficult. Describing performances as “raw” or “emotionally devastating” seem useless. Both descriptors manage to be far too overused in relation to the many, many powerful moments this series delivers in every single episode — and they fall embarrassingly short, anyway. Then again, nothing else really comes to mind. Maybe the only way to sum it all up would be to say Coral Peña and Wrenn Schmidt are artists, always masters of their craft in their own right, yet something so much stronger when their characters come together — including, and especially, in their most human moments.
Or, on second thought, maybe we have our answer right there in that one word — human. To explain the full range of someone’s humanity, or the full impact of art on a viewer, is an impossibility. Why, then, should describing performances that paint such beautiful, heartbreaking images of so many aspects of their characters’ humanity come more easily? This episode, and those moments between Aleida and Margo within it, defy explanation. At least, there’s no short or easy way to sum them up. Because they exist, at their core, in the intersection between what it is to create art and what it is to simply be.
The reunion
Sometimes, when we watch a television series, we have certain things we want to see. In the event that those things come to pass, we have expectations. Often, the creative team has other ideas, and we immediately decide the content isn’t good enough because it’s not exactly what we convinced ourselves we just had to have. For All Mankind 4×06 does not have that problem — to say the least. We spend most of the hour on edge, thinking that it can’t possibly happen, thinking we’ll have to settle for just Margo cast off in what looks like a supply closet, watching Aleida on camera and working the problem through her handler.
Despite their initial collaboration coming indirectly, they remain so perfectly in sync, even coming to the “five years” conclusion at the same time. It’s a blast from the past, watching these two equally-brilliant women with the same drive — the same love for the work — pushing, and pushing, and pushing each other to make the impossible seem possible. But, of course, the cruelty is that Margo gets to know she’s working with Aleida, in a way — even if she can’t actually reach out — and Aleida…doesn’t have a clue. At one point, when Irina makes the mistake of using the “work the problem” line, there is that slightest moment — there and gone — where Peña reacts. Just the tiniest bit of recognition, then nothing.
Schmidt gives us plenty of similar little moments — a tiny grin, early on, when Margo sees Aleida on camera. Or, there’s the way her eyes light up with inspiration, with a possible solution to the problem of a 40-year wait for a return on investment. There’s even the fight in her, the passion when she reminds Irina that “the whole point of the project is that it’s not just for us today. It’s for the future.” The quiet acceptance that, yes, she will have to come forward and let the world see her as a traitor if she wants to actually solve this thing with the one other person she can solve it with.
All of those things are remarkable, on a similar level to the many other aspects of both actors’ work we’ve praised before. But it’s what they do in the hotel scene, from that first moment when Margo has to force herself to knock, that is, quite simply, everything. Inside Aleida’s space, she looks…lost. And she should be, seeing as how she’s not part of Aleida’s world anymore. Then, when Aleida comes back and hears that voice — when she sees Margo turn around and face her — Peña’s face is the epitome of someone who has seen a ghost. Because, for Aleida, that’s exactly what happens here. For Aleida, Margo Madison is dead. Has been for years…but there she is. A haunting, an apparition, something completely impossible and unbelievable.
…and then, time for us to be completely and totally wrecked.
In For All Mankind 4×06, Aleida has two seemingly different reactions to Margo’s presence. But, really, they’re one and the same. The way Peña stands, still as a statue, in that doorway as so much disbelief, and hope, relief, and something like heartbreak flood through her increasingly tear-filled eyes rings so profoundly true to what we might experience if, suddenly, someone we lost was alive and well before our very eyes. And the hug, even as Margo’s trying to explain herself — the way she rushes over and squeezes so tightly, it’s surprising the woman doesn’t break — that, too, is perfection. After all, if she lets go, maybe Margo will disappear again. And Schmidt’s reaction, stunned, then slowly — oh, so slowly — melting into her own relief, her own happiness and comfort…
Maybe the only thing to say to all of it is just…yes. Thank you for that.
But, later, reality sets in, and things get more complicated. Margo explains her escape to Aleida, then kind of glosses over the last several years. Throughout, she sounds tired, apologetic, just a touch bit regretful. And, eventually, Aleida goes from that initial outpouring of love to right back where she was when she first found out about Margo sharing secrets with Russia. This is the fight she didn’t get to finish in 1995, and she’s going to try to get through to Margo with her years of pent-up frustration and anger. Naturally, what she’s really upset about is that Margo wasn’t there when the bombing occurred and hasn’t been there since.
And this is where Peña takes things up yet another notch, as Aleida rips open her old wounds and shows them to Margo. It’s like experiencing it all with her all over again, like being haunted by these traumas with her across all these years. Like we’re right back there with her, peering into the hell on Earth that was once Margo’s office. It’s there, in every time she has to gather herself before finishing a line, in the tears just building and building in her eyes.
“…like, for a moment, I thought, ‘I’m in the clouds. This is heaven. I must be dead.’ But it was just…the side of the building was gone. The whole side of the building. I don’t know how long i stood there thinking about heaven. And I hoped — I hoped…and I prayed…that you were in heaven, too.”
Even after all that, even as hearing about Emma’s body makes Margo have to physically turn away, Margo still wants to work on this problem with Aleida. And Aleida, like, physically can’t look at her when she pleads with her. But Margo does convince her, eventually. Because for as much as Aleida wants to yell about how Margo doesn’t know her anymore (another wow moment), she does. Always has, always will. Because the things about them that brought them together and made them one of For All Mankind‘s most stunningly, achingly beautiful stories haven’t changed. And it’s when Margo tells Aleida that she knows regret that things start to turn around. That’s when they start to work the problem, even as Aleida still has to collect herself as they go.
How do you tell a story that does justice to finding out someone you loved — who you thought died in one of the worst, most devastating (there’s that word again) ways — has been alive all along? Well. In the case of this series, and this particular duo, you do it exactly like this. Basically, show every single thing about those hotel scenes, especially the longer one, to everyone who wants to study the arts. It is an excellent example of everything: how to write, how to move, how to act, where to focus a camera, and how long to let moments breathe to gain maximum emotional impact.
And here we are, again, saying we don’t think words do it justice. So, maybe we should just have said it’s everything. They’re everything. And there’s no exaggeration or fangirling for the sake of fangirling here when we say For All Mankind 4×06 broke us, built us back up, and then…maybe broke us a little more. If none of this makes sense, or if all of it’s still not enough, we’ll just say we’re defenseless against the impact of Aleida and Margo even on a normal day. And this was, uh…above and beyond that. To say the least.
Meanwhile, on Mars…
When Schmidt and Peña aren’t busy trying to destroy us through Margo and Aleida, Joel Kinnaman spends For All Mankind 4×06 showing us just how far gone Ed Baldwin is. This is not our Ed, full stop. He’s like some irritating, pathetic echo of himself. Which is exactly the point. Ed’s first moments in “Leningrad” are just…sad. He’s stuck in his little room, bored, can’t really exercise at anywhere near the same level he used to, and just not his best self at all.
So, off Ed goes to make himself feel better about himself. He’s been laid low, so he literally goes to the lower levels to get what he thinks is respect. Down there, it’s an event for Admiral Baldwin to make an appearance. And when he gets sloppily drunk, he can brag his way through how he figured out about Ilya’s bar all by himself. He can give advice on how to fix the still to make the alcohol better. Most importantly, he can recount stories of all the places where he’s had moonshine, all the places where he’s seen black markets — all the places he’s had adventures, where he’s earned glory.
Throughout all of this, Kinnaman makes it work. He creates a damning portrait of a man who was once so great — occasionally wrong or a pain in the ass, yet always still, overall, good — and is now…simultaneously obnoxious, hilarious, and pitiful. It’s easy for us to forget that this guy who’s telling repetitive tall tales about his past is someone who’s seen and done it all. Somehow, Ed is both a stranger and someone we are very, very disappointed and angry with here. Which is exactly what we need for what comes next. Because Ed is, quite obviously, on a new mission now that he’s been “shitcanned.” He needs to find purpose for himself and something, anything that keeps the blow to his ego at bay.
“Well. That is true. I am an old pot stirrer from way back when, but uh…this one’s shaken, not stirred.”
Enter the perfect opportunity when Palmer knocks on his door, asking him to sign off on some pay and bonus rates. He joins the workers, encourages them to listen to Massey about striking. Admittedly, this part of the episode and the union arc overall is frustrating. We’d like to see the strike truly be, one hundred percent, framed as the collective good that it is — not all about Ed Baldwin’s last desperate grasp at something, anything to do that helps him both stay busy and stick it to the man. (Or, in this case, stick it to the woman since Danielle’s the one who removed him from flight status.) But it also makes a strange sort of sense, seeing as how Ed has always leaned toward taking risks and also tends to find himself in leadership positions.
Besides, if it all means giving Kinnaman the chance to do something completely different with Ed and make it so very entertaining and believable, we’ll take it. We’ll take it, and we’ll keep asking for more. (But, seriously, we’d like to get “good” Ed back at some point. We can have nice things, right? Right???)
More on For All Mankind 4×06
- Actually spent the first part of this episode with my heart is in my throat, like “no way are they going to be that close to each other and also that far away.” Just…gutting to think about that as a possibility.
- “That’s Life” as the song selection for this…ouch?
- Super editing to make Ed’s position changes, tossing and turning in bed, look like they were choreographed to the music, though.
- Loved watching Ilya go from just…frozen, to “what’s the trap,” to excited about Ed drinking in his bar. Marinov’s great in this role — a true gem.
- Margo jumping in to call Aleida’s numbers “conservative,” right as she’s losing support. Feelings? I’m having them.
- Tying the two big stories together here: Ed Baldwin should watch For All Mankind 4×06 and play a drinking game. One shot of Ilya’s vodka every time Margo Madison facepalms. (You’re welcome in advance, Admiral.)
- “Jesus fucking Christ…sorry. Holy fucking shit.” “Much better, XO.” Nice of them to make us think this episode was going to be a comedy before doing…that to us.
- “I was sent to prove that this base was worth the years of blood and sweat and tears it took to establish a Mars operation. Good people died up here, and I knew some of ‘em. Now is our chance to show that their sacrifice wasn’t in vain.” It’s the way Dani blew out that breath and then sat down to just…level with Palmer for me.
- “That’s why you got that aftertaste of…cinnamon mouse-ass.” The delivery here.
- …and then, whatever that mouse imitation was.
- “If we don’t band together, they’re just gonna keep screwing us every chance they get!” That part.
- “She seems very confident.” “Well. With good reason.” Bold of Margo to try to explain that away with talk about Helios and leverage, when we all know it’s because she knows how brilliant Aleida is, period.
- That slight hesitation from Schmidt before Margo chimes in to fix Irina’s 40-year time estimate…Just the way she holds that finger out, stiffly, before going ahead and pressing the button to chime in is art.
- “I can’t wave a magic wand and create entire new fleets of spacecraft and their associated infrastructure out of thin air. And even after it’s built, we — we still have to launch those systems to a planet that’s 30 days’ travel time away on a good day. Oh! And then we have to actually mine the stuff, and — oh yeah — bring it all the way back home. It takes time.” I absolutely love a sarcastic, mocking queen who has zero fucks to give about so-called diplomacy.
- Aleida: Terrified string of Nos. Margo: Pissed off “what?! No!” The connection.
- Best problem-solving duo in history or best problem-solving duo in history.
- “You do not. Fuck with Ilya’s business. Do you understand?” I’m 100% with Petros here. Miles has become the world’s most entitled ass.
- “So you stole that data, too?” “We didn’t steal anything.” “Really? Like to talk about the NERVA engine design?” The cold, controlled anger…utterly lethal, not to mention something she’s clearly been waiting to bring up. And then: “Sorry. Please go on. Tell me about our eight techniques and how useful they might be today.” That delivery is one big “fuck you,” and I’m here for it.
- “I know them all.” “That’s true.” I’m not crying, you’re crying.
- Relatable on all the aches and pains getting out of bed. Kinnaman really sells it.
- Same goes for this: “…it’s just the middle of the afternoon…” “Yeah, I guess I’m just a lazy fuck.”
- “Because I know her.” The quiet on this line! “She’s an engineer’s engineer. And when she digs in on a problem, she becomes obsessive. Same as me. It’s in our nature.” Our nature. So true. “She might be upset with me. She might hate me, but she will not be able to let this go until she finds a solution. Right now, I guarantee you, she’s pacing up and down in her hotel room trying to crack this. Same as me. She will be at it all night and all day tomorrow. So will I. If we work together, we can pull this off.” Everything about this…yes.
- “My…my drug is the work. This work.” Yep. See also: “She’s back.”
- “I can’t believe…I…Oh, my god!” Me, watching this episode.
- “I went looking for you. Soon as I could stand. Started walking through the building, went to your office, pushed through the outer doors, and…there was just open air.” Is there, like, an address to send therapy bills to?
- “You’ll leave here, you’ll go home, and you’ll be tortured by the fact that there was a solution to be had and it was just out of reach. It’ll eat at you and fester, and by the time you finally get the solution — because you will get the solution. You know you will…” What she really means is, “I know you will.” Eight years of no contact, and Margo Madison is still Aleida Rosales’ biggest fan. As she should be.
- “I know all about regret! Believe me, I know all about it! About sleepless nights spent going over and over things in the past that you can’t change.” Kill me now.
- “Hate me if you want. But work the problem with me.” Look at the way Peña’s holding her body, like Aleida’s trying to guard her guts even as she’s obviously considering Margo’s offer after this. The look over her shoulder goes from “you betrayed me,” to “can I trust you now,” to “ok. Let’s do it.”
- You can even see the moment when Margo recognizes that Aleida has made her decision.
- “Bottom line is, y’all are screwed.” (Me at me…and the whole world, really.)
- Does no one else actually notice the parts of Margo’s speech about “her” decision and why “she” made it when she is clearly having to force herself to say them or.
- Danielle Poole, watching that broadcast…man, if looks could kill! Krys Marshall didn’t have as much time in this episode as usual, but she made what she did have count between this and that little scene between Dani and Palmer.
- TL;DR: Guess this episode was good or whatever. Not a big deal at all…
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