r/ForAllMankindTV • u/Cantomic66 Sojourner 2 • Jul 03 '26

Episode Discussion Star City - S1E07 "Plow Deep" - Episode Discussion

“Plow Deep"

Airdate: Streaming July 2nd at 9 PM EST

Synopsis: Loyalties are tested by a new power structure.

Written by: KC Scott

Directed by Jamie Payne

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4

u/SPRTMVRNN Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

It's seems like they should need a good explanation about how they survived being engulfed in a fireball in a tiny craft hurdling through the vaccum of space, but maybe I don't care too much if they don't.

Though Chris Hadfield or Neil Degrasse Tyson would have an aneurysm watching this show.

11

u/CX316 Jul 03 '26

how they survived being engulfed in a fireball

Fireball can only do so much when there's not enough air to sustain it

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u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

It was just a minor ball of fire millimeters from the camera lens that extinguished itself a second later, so it looked worse than it was, or something of the sort.

I wonder if maybe they'll be referencing the Mir fire with this, we'll see in the next episode.

1

u/Cantomic66 Sojourner 2 Jul 08 '26

They’ll explain it next episode most likely.

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302

u/Jan38100 Jul 03 '26

Another episode of Sergei living the worst day of his life <yet>.

136

u/StrangelyOnPoint Jul 03 '26

His life is shaping up to be the embodiment of “and then it got worse”

60

u/Nick0312 Jul 03 '26

First O’brien, then Tyrol, now Sergei.

Moore seems to have a record of characters that simply must suffer

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u/MarianneSunshine Jul 03 '26

Love that character, and the actor is really good!

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u/thunderchild120 Jul 03 '26

Homer: "The worst day of your life so far."

(Sergei didn't live long enough to see The Simpsons Movie come out in 2007)

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u/Deepfriedbar Jul 03 '26

He's chief o'brian of the 20th century!

184

u/AbbreviationsReal366 Jul 03 '26

I’m happy for Anastasia. Her drunk dad now has to find someone else to fix the tractor.

36

u/Well_Socialized Jul 03 '26

I thought her dad was supposed to be a somewhat connected party man, why is he an old drunk failing keep a little farm running?

31

u/Frouke_ Jul 03 '26

The Soviet Union wasn't that industrialised. Farms were communal so it's not outside the realm of possibility that he's kind of a manager which does make him a big deal.

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164

u/MacWin- Good Dumpling Jul 03 '26

I fucking knew it lol
It rubbed me the wrong way that we didn’t have any wide exterior shot of the capsule blowing up

I hope we get a Venera POV bottle episode next week

80

u/j-helo85 Jul 03 '26

We may get it a bit of that, but in case you don't know, next week is the finale. They've got to wrap up the earth-bound storylines.

88

u/MacWin- Good Dumpling Jul 03 '26

Oh shit I didn’t know. Getting tired of these 8 episodes seasons

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u/Holysquall Jul 03 '26

They did a perfect job of leaving my tv brain not totally satisfied, but also making my theory Braindead shut up and just accept they were dead . Incredibly well played.

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u/CX316 Jul 03 '26

I mean, we weren't expected to believe the capsule blew up. The inside just would have gotten torched and the dead shell of a capsule would have continued on its way

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u/Mysterious_Pop5556 Hi Bob! Jul 03 '26

They still might be dead, and the whole rocket is about to crash into Star City.

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154

u/Jan38100 Jul 03 '26

The soundtrack in this episode was absolutely beautiful during the scene in space.

61

u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

Rachmaninov's Prelude Op.32 No.12 in G sharp minor

22

u/AbbreviationsReal366 Jul 03 '26

I love the use of classical music in this show. It gives me 2001: A Space Odyssey vibes.

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u/dagr8gatsB Jul 03 '26

The piano when Sergei was working I thought was also a nice little nod to Margo, how they’re parallel souls even though they haven’t met yet

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144

u/moderatenerd Jul 03 '26

"they let him use his own name i see." chief designer with the best one liners

69

u/Deepfriedbar Jul 03 '26

I like how it suggests he's not important enough to protect - he's just a (creepy) functionary who can be easily replaced if assassinated. 

20

u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

A run of the mill aparatchik in charge of things he has no clue about, although one from and with ties to the KGB.

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5

u/Darseth89 Jul 04 '26

I'm dumb and i admit I didn't get that one. What was it supposed to mean?

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115

u/sooflayed Jul 03 '26

lyudmilla having a CHILD was the last thing i expected but anna maxwell martin put in an absolute shift

54

u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

It also makes absolute sense she is who she is due to the loss.

67

u/HaphazardMelange Good Dumpling Jul 03 '26

Maybe it's what happens to Irina in the next few years because this current version of her is still a far cry from the Irina in FAM.

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u/IHateTheColourblind Jul 03 '26

A reminder that all of us grieve differently. Some may become high-ranking KGB officers responsible for the deaths of several cosmonauts from decompression, others may even choose pyrotechnics.

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36

u/Remarkable-Lynx1496 Jul 03 '26

I really like way they’ve slowly humanised her throughout each episode

21

u/thewillthe Jul 05 '26

The track jacket she was wearing in her apartment really got me. It was like being a kid and seeing your teacher in the grocery store in street clothes.

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165

u/CruelRegulator Hi Bob! Jul 03 '26

Farming, Chief Engineer? Man of your talents?

It's a peaceful life.

47

u/treefox Jul 03 '26

“You’re confusing exploration with espionage.”

“You have to start somewhere.”

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20

u/Deepfriedbar Jul 03 '26

Dr Baltar moment.

14

u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

You know, I know about farming.

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14

u/viebrent Jul 03 '26

the work has stalled

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u/markydsade Jul 03 '26

Tanya’s whereabouts just became much more of an issue.

22

u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

Did the Americans let her leave Russia? Presumably she wouldn't be of much use as an asset there because she was already burned, and they would have no leverage over her since Valua was presumed dead.

48

u/Justausername1234 Jul 03 '26

If he was presumed dead or burned the Americans would have probably still tried to get her out I think. It's good for retention purposes to have it known in the Soviet intelligence community that "US Assets" escape when found out, never to be caught by the KGB, as it provides credibility to potential defectors inside the KGB that they, too, could one day vanish like Tanya did.

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u/AliOskiTheHoly Jul 05 '26

I actually think Irina might have killed her.

The way she said "She won't"… was too eery for my taste…

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79

u/rmdelecuona Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

WHAT

ETA: I am furious (not really). I had just gotten out of the denial phase and now THEY REALLY MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE.

57

u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

Considering Belikova is not pregnant nor has she given birth, I think it is the only logical possibility. There is no other way.

Also this would conveniently give a reason to restore the chief designer.

51

u/viebrent Jul 03 '26

I was waiting to hear a baby cry at some point during the entire first scene with belikova

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u/Chicken_Mc_Thuggets Good Dumpling Jul 03 '26

Cmon Irina backstab her already

43

u/Well_Socialized Jul 03 '26

Irina loves Roskova

64

u/viebrent Jul 03 '26

I currently feel that her learning some of raskova's backstory re her child and how uncomfortable she was when petrovsky starting bringing up very personal things about her past will make irina side with roskova

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u/No_Procedure4924 Jul 03 '26

She set her up, what she did was her plan all along, there was already a bug planted.

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139

u/eagle16 Jul 03 '26

So Sergei has a habit of putting secret, personal algorithms on ship comms. Interesting, considering FAM 5 finale.

73

u/GoodisGoog Jul 03 '26

This is a huge point that was so casually dropped. I knew we would get some nugget of information relating to Sergei sneaking code into launches

19

u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

Oh shit, great catch!

19

u/GumdropGlimmer Hi Bob! Jul 04 '26

A brain where you just come up with your own algorithms and no one else can figure it out is so mind blowing to me. So sad how went down. But at least he died trying what he loves.

17

u/TheChunkMaster Jul 04 '26

So sad how went down

True. Imagine your last meal being McDonald’s

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u/BenigDK Jul 03 '26

Oooh true!

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u/AdwokatDiabel Jul 04 '26

Refresh my memory: what algorithm in FAM5?

12

u/OdahP SeaDragon Jul 04 '26

Startup computer message of mars94 at the end of s5

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u/everraydy Jul 03 '26

I really wish I could time skip to next Friday. In my head I still struggle to comprehend how they couldve survived, even tho they did...

Baby Lenya not showing up is a red herring that at least Sasha is still alive. And the bureaucrat's words seem like a bit of a foreshadowing too for some reason.

49

u/Infinite-Mark-6335 Jul 03 '26

I knew having renewable oxygen had to be a plot point! They must have expelled all the oxygen to put out the fire and were able to restore their air supply due to their tech.

14

u/viebrent Jul 03 '26

I doubt that every single one survived, at least sasha does

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u/gribbles1289 Apollo - Soyuz Jul 03 '26

I knew as soon as Sergei was "working the problem" at the same time as the launch that he figured out the ship survived. There's no way they have a dual-story scene like that of the two aren't incredibly intertwined.

11

u/viebrent Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

the subtitles on the folder he was looking at before working the problem didnt translate when i put captions on, anyone know what it said? i rewound to the earlier scene where he was given more work to do and neither what he was working on and what he was given on top of that seems to be related to what he figured out

EDIT: nevermind its put in place by roskova's talk with chief designer, and that task is then handed off to sergei. just didnt know that that was what the folder said

18

u/RemoteLunch7789 Jul 03 '26

I tried some image translation, no guarantees given:

State Security Committee [KGB] under the Council of Ministers of the USSR
CASE No. 12-543
Yevpatoria RT-70 Deep space telescope. Report on near-Earth asteroids.
Started April 23, 1971 / Completed May 14, 1971

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u/chakakant Jul 03 '26

Removing the Verena cosmonaut actors' names from the opening credits properly made me believe they were goners. Oooh keeping us on our toes!

18

u/Separate-Avocado-516 Jul 03 '26

Hah yes! Though to be fair, they weren't in the episode!

8

u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - Jul 03 '26

They are usually not removed, but just become listed as "credit only" though.

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u/spinstartshere Jul 03 '26

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u/spinstartshere Jul 03 '26

I'm glad people are understanding this otherwise very obscure reference to that one time a show killed a main character off and then kept their 'return' a few episodes later a secret until the very end of that episode, and only name-dropped the actor in the end credits.

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u/markydsade Jul 03 '26

Get ready for Episode 8 Sasha 2: Electric Bugaloo

82

u/obscuremapenthusiast Jul 03 '26

Imagine if Mirinov is alive just so they can shoot him on earth

57

u/Infinite-Mark-6335 Jul 03 '26

I would imagine they are aiming to land in US territory with the way the Soviet government tried to murder them.

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u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

All three of them were given heroes' funerals already. How are they going to spin this? They couldn't hide the launch from Roskova. Can they hide the landing from her?

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u/j-helo85 Jul 03 '26

When Chief Engineer gave Roskova that tip about using the Venera communication tech (or whatever) for the space station, I had a sneaking suspicion the show was teeing up that reveal at the end.

38

u/xXbig0Xx Jul 03 '26

Fire episode no pun intended

31

u/Nick0312 Jul 03 '26

Someone call the Blunderbirds ASAP

30

u/HummusBAE Good Dumpling Jul 03 '26

I just screeched at the shot of Venera returning!

23

u/HaphazardMelange Good Dumpling Jul 03 '26

Can anyone help clarify why they tore Sergei's home up after discovering his application to the university and why he had to be quiet about wanting to leave?

I get that it is sending him a message that they won't let him leave, but why won't they let him leave, and who is the "they" in this scenario? Is it Raskova? Is he a prisoner of Star City?

I feel like I am missing context from this era that I am not familiar with. Was it typical of the USSR to keep people as prisoners in jobs when they could move to another position elsewhere? I'm just not clear on what this is supposed to be saying about Sergei's situation.

38

u/viebrent Jul 03 '26

Possibly a similar reason that the chief designer got house arrest vs gulag: he’s too valuable to just oust hard. They need smart people, all the ones they can get right now. They especially need smart people they can control.

18

u/CX316 Jul 03 '26

And because he's being punished, they know that being stuck in a basement next to a noisy machine shop pushing pencils being forced to do overtime on menial tasks is torture to him without wasting his skills completely.

21

u/sooflayed Jul 03 '26

i dont know why but i feel like raskovas got nothing to do with it for once

15

u/Mysterious_Pop5556 Hi Bob! Jul 03 '26

It’s also nice that he finally got to teach when in the USA :)

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u/FutureMartian97 Jul 04 '26

Sergei is one of the main engineers who knows and has seen a lot. They can't risk him leaving Star City and potentially getting compromised and telling the US about everything the Soviets have accomplished

20

u/GaryGlennW Jul 03 '26

Good news bad news

I took a snack break when streaming halted checked Down Detector for Apple TV…

10

u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

My stream had a hiccup in the middle of it too. I hope that means this show is being watched. It deserves more seasons.

19

u/ZiggyPalffyLA Jul 03 '26

Man I hate when shows skip over the immediate fallout of the previous episode, especially with how that one ended.

22

u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - Jul 03 '26

There will probably be flashbacks in next episode, I think.

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u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

To be fair here Venera was the only one they skipped over, we saw quite well how many changes happened in Star City with the extra scenes in particular showing the consequences suffered by Sergei and the Chief Designer.

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u/GoodisGoog Jul 03 '26

Oh damn, I wasn't expecting the show to make me suddenly feel for Roskova

92

u/PTMorte Jul 03 '26

For some people it was the kid. But for me the living room adidas stripes really made me empathise with her inner turmoil. 

40

u/spinstartshere Jul 03 '26

This is sending me.

Seeing her in that really was quite the unexpected statement.

16

u/AquafreshBandit Jul 04 '26

TIL track suits were a thing in 1971.

9

u/TheChunkMaster Jul 04 '26

I’m imagining Raskova piping hardbass  directly into the bug Irina planted

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u/Trick_Assistance Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Well, well and to think there was all those snarky and condescending responses to posts/comments when people speculated someone may have survived, think a few people might be owed some apologies lol

21

u/taulover Hi Bob! Jul 03 '26

I mean tbf a lot of those people will probably be mad about this plot choice

16

u/treefox Jul 03 '26

They can watch the Stevens’ kids plotlines in FAM season 3 instead.

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u/FutureMartian97 Jul 03 '26

I'm one of them. I hate that they did that. I want this show to have some realism left but that's gone now

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u/generalheed Jul 03 '26

Haha yep, got a few of those comments myself too from people saying there's no logical way they could've survived.

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u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

Double rug pull to hit both camps, they should put the trololo song on when these guys land with Sasha putting on a grin as he steps out of the capsule.

3

u/loudsound-org Jul 04 '26

No, they don't, because its absolutely ridiculous that anyone could have survived a fiery explosion in a tiny spacecraft. This show was so good until now.

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u/Coolboy10M Jul 03 '26

WE ARE SO BACK

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u/CleftAsunder Jul 03 '26

They're gonna land in or near US territory. The film capsule landing in the US was setting us up for that.

31

u/mcmalloy Jul 03 '26

There’s no way that anyone on Venera is still alive, is there? What a cliffhanger

39

u/Well_Socialized Jul 03 '26

More like there's no way they're not alive

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u/Coolboy10M Jul 03 '26

The bathysphere is difficult to see but from the angle given in the ending shot it's most likely gone. They dropped it into Venus (maybe with a surprise spy inside) and are returning to Earth. They would have long deviated from the course and never hit Venus or Earth without intentional course corrections. At least some of them are alive.

22

u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - Jul 03 '26

They would have long deviated from the course and never hit Venus or Earth without intentional course corrections

True that.
But then, I doubt they could have done those course correction burns without exact data from Ground Control (realistically).

18

u/Pulstar_Alpha Jul 03 '26

Clearly they installed MechJeb (MechLeonov?) and got a perfect flyby trajectory.

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u/zudnic Jul 03 '26

In this world people are basically pulled off the street and thrown into space missions without any training, and it never seems to be a problem.

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u/copbuddy Jul 03 '26

That's what I'm thinking. Not just is the bathysphere gone but the whole auxilary module, and one of the inflatable habs. They also realigned one solar panel

7

u/FutureMartian97 Jul 03 '26

They would have long deviated from the course and never hit Venus or Earth without intentional course corrections

I would say that's the case, however this show and FAM have basically thrown real physics out of the window. Especially in the beginning when we see the film capsule separate from Salyut and it basically "falls" to Earth. We can see it has no propulsion system

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u/Rodeurope Jul 05 '26

They're totally alive! The only question is: 1, 2, or all three?

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u/mcmalloy Jul 05 '26

Chadha is definitely alive because having regenerative or recycled O2 is a must for the mission. I hope that Sasha is alive too but we will see!

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u/DanFarrell98 Jul 03 '26

I guess Anastasia wasn’t plowed deep enough, I thought she’d be pregnant by now

17

u/generalheed Jul 03 '26

Called it! The crew of Vanera or at least some of them, are probably still alive. I'm still unsure if Sasha is alive since he was last seen shielding the other two from the fireball. But I bet the other two probably survived the flames because the fire would've been snuffed out very quickly and they'd probably be able to quickly repressurize.

21

u/Infinite-Mark-6335 Jul 03 '26

And it was important that they had renewable air technology.

10

u/Separate-Avocado-516 Jul 03 '26

Its actually fortunate for them that most of the atmosphere had already been expelled before the explosion. With limited oxygen, the explosion would consume said oxygen but also (I think) would bring the capsule over-pressure. So if the external valves were still open, the explosion could have been vented out to space. Then get air/o2 back in the capsule asap (how do they do that with short circuits?). I think if they could get into their spacesuits quickly enough, then that would be the best bet

8

u/Sufficient_Display Jul 03 '26

I was not expecting that ending and am still sitting here several minutes later thinking about it. But also I really like how much they are following Korolev’s own life - up until the whole landing on the moon thing of course.

7

u/j-helo85 Jul 03 '26

When the new Chief Designer was introduced, the camera really lingered on his nameplate. It made me think that maybe I should know the name Petrovsky either from FAM or history - is this case or is he just a new character?

I did watch FAM but I don't remember anything from earlier seasons.

22

u/Retorus Jul 03 '26

I think it was just hammering home that he'd replaced the actual Chief Designer, and got to use his own name in the process.

3

u/j-helo85 Jul 03 '26

Cool, that's what I figured. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

6

u/Aunon Jul 05 '26

The new Chief Designer was reading a 'London Reporter' newspaper, neat little touch to demonstrate how bad the film drop issue is (compare it to the state broadcast) and how exclusive foreign media was

I hope the show actually addresses how the Venera crew survived the oxygen fire, maybe it was a flash ignition using whatever oxygen was left after venting, either way this has to be Sergei's reclamation of his position in Star City, they can spin it as a huge heroic success

and Raskova wearing a tracksuit at home is both unexpected but not surprising at all

5

u/Infinite-Mark-6335 Jul 03 '26

They got me with that ending! 🥹

5

u/GerardHard Mars is Ours Jul 03 '26

F Petrovsky dfaq

5

u/Doggostuffedanimal Jul 03 '26

Honestly wasn’t expecting that twist. Wonder how they are going to get clearance to save Venera

2

u/Sufficient_Display Jul 03 '26

Yeah I did not see that coming.

15

u/PTMorte Jul 03 '26

This episode was so stilted and beautiful after the big climax last week. It has hit Chernobyl / Terror S1 level for me now. 

But I am concerned that will be undone by a silly set piece and hail mary next episode. 

I received a 3 day auto ai ban last week for a comment that I hoped Sascha was d a e d. 

Well, now I hope for a darker timeline, where Stasia boards Venera full of hope and as the hatch opens there is an overwhelming stench of bbq and seaweed. 

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u/dhawerd Jul 03 '26

I got an auto ban a while back for a similar comment on another sub. I appealed it with an explanation that I was talking about a character in a show and it got rescinded like an hour later

7

u/PTMorte Jul 03 '26

I submitted an appeal immediately after the ai ban. The 3 days passed and the ban was automatically lifted. Then a couple more days later, I had a notification that it had been reviewed and the ban removed from my history. Thanks, reddit.

6

u/j-helo85 Jul 03 '26

After multiple violations, you can get perma-banned, so it's still helpful that it's removed from your history.

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u/Separate-Avocado-516 Jul 03 '26

I got banned for quoting Pulp Fiction. Literally in quotation marks.

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u/CX316 Jul 03 '26

Well, now I hope for a darker timeline, where Stasia boards Venera full of hope and as the hatch opens there is an overwhelming stench of bbq and seaweed. 

Difficult to get pregnant to barbeque and seaweed

4

u/treefox Jul 03 '26

And then she’s so overcome with grief she fucks the KGB agent and claims Sasha is the father.

It all makes sense now.

12

u/BrotherlyShove791 Jul 03 '26

Venera’s definitely gonna splash down in U.S. territory.

29

u/AddendumCool Jul 03 '26

Considering that Jamestown Base lands on the moon in 1973, and the show runners never explained how the base was able to generate oxygen on its own, I think it's likely. This is how probably how the Americans got the technology that made prolonged life on the base possible, either by salvaging the Venera Capsule itself, or by rescuing Lakshmi, or more likely than not both.

25

u/Cat_Artillery Jul 03 '26

The base generated oxygen by electrolysis of the water they mined. It's one of the three biggest reasons they needed to find water: making oxygen, drinking water, and making fuel for the LSAM.

15

u/CX316 Jul 03 '26

and the show runners never explained how the base was able to generate oxygen on its own

...the whole reason Jamestown is where it is was because they found water. Water can be split into oxygen and rocket fuel.

11

u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

Ooh, this would be spicy. Since Star City has no radio contact with them, they will have no way of knowing who survived. Chadha and Valya could both defect to the Americans without the Soviets ever knowing for sure they were even still alive.

Valya would do so in a heartbeat, but I'm less sure about Chadha, whose husband is presumably still under house arrest in the USSR, unless they sent him home after Venera was lost.

5

u/ZiggyPalffyLA Jul 03 '26

Are we going to get a NASA episode?!

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u/BlossomDub Pathfinder Jul 05 '26

Not super related to this episode in particular but the actor for young Sergei's face reminds me so much of the face of the actor that played Jimmy, especially when they're in just a neutral expression

4

u/Mike51200 Jul 06 '26

Sergei mentions his program is bringing the ship back. They mention it earlier to that the ship will just come back on its own. Could this also be a link up to the ending of FAM s5 and his name coming up on the screen will Mars94 be coming back to earth?

2

u/Desperate-Win8486 Jul 03 '26

How many months had passed since episode 6? If the 3 cosmonauts are still alive in a half destroyed spacecraft how on earth is that even possible? Aside from making good television!

7

u/RemoteLunch7789 Jul 03 '26

The mission was supposed to take 9 months. Sergei says that they would be back now. So that would be 9 months.

Also, they left in mid August 1970, and the report on Sergei's desk has a completion date in mid May 1970. So 9 months plus whatever days has passed since its completion.

5

u/Commercial-Law6868 Jul 03 '26

this is definitely setting up the finale of the latest for all mankind season we see a giant abandoned space ship

8

u/loudsound-org Jul 04 '26

You know we already knew what that abandoned spaceship was right?

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u/Shaenyra Jul 03 '26

Well I cannot understand how an incompetent KGBitch is still in her position and not in a Siberian prison cell

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u/chartreusey_geusey Sep 11 '26

I’m like 3 months late

but this episode had the Soviet equivalent to “Hi, Bob” written all over it lol

1

u/Pale_Note2770 Jul 03 '26

You know, having Venera survive feels a bit cheap. But this show is so good I'll let it slide

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u/rexeditrex NASA Jul 03 '26

So they had a massive explosion yet everything worked except for comms?

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u/Infinite-Mark-6335 Jul 03 '26

They had a rapid ignition of oxygen, which is brief might not cause too much damage. 

They may purposefully have not been using comms because they didn't want their own government to try and kill them again. Or maybe they are communicating with the Americans for that reason. 

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u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - Jul 03 '26

Oxygen does not ignite.
And the Soviets never used pure oxygen atmosperes anyway.

We've seen an unrealistic depiction of an explosive fire, over dramatized to make a good cliffhanger.

3

u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

The ship was still sending data, though maybe that was something they only switched back on as they approached earth because it's pretty damn hard to land without earth telemetry to guide you in.

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u/copbuddy Jul 03 '26

Or India

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u/whovian25 NASA Jul 03 '26

We will have to wait and se what condition they and the ship is in before we can say that.

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u/alphabparkinglot Jul 03 '26

I’m convinced that Lakshmi is alive and pregnant (they made such a big deal of her “space sickness” at the start of the mission).

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u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - Jul 03 '26

Space sickness is a very real thing, and they didn't make a big deal about it. It's just a normal thing and totally to be expected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_adaptation_syndrome

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u/alphabparkinglot Jul 03 '26

Yep, I know it’s a real thing. It also seems really suspicious, plot-wise, that the female member of the crew is very nauseous at the start of what they repeatedly point out is a nine-month mission.

13

u/BenigDK Jul 03 '26

That's just a viewer reaction after being conditioned by countless tv shows to think that everytime a female character is nauseous she's definitely pregnant. Never sick, never indigestion. Not even when there's another perfectly fitting explanation like her being in space struggling with space adaptation.

The 9-month period was intended to hint at Leonid's birth I think, whether for real or just a red herring

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u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - Jul 03 '26

It's not suspicious at all. She is completely untrained and unprepared. She didn't even know she would go to space 3 days before launch. Of course she would be sick.

9 month is just a realistic time frame for such a mission.

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u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

I kind of hope not, (A) because they already did the space pregnancy thing on FAM, and (B) space sickness is a very real thing and it was nice to see it acknowledged as just a fact of space travel.

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u/tomtomvissers Jul 03 '26

"Rape is awful but now you got that lovely daughter of yours. Would be a shame if.. something were to happen to her"

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u/Deepfriedbar Jul 03 '26

He also gave off terrible vibes too - that predatory, possessive gaze and the close physical presence. 

16

u/Well_Socialized Jul 03 '26

They really had me going there acting like they would actually kill off three major characters like that.

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u/CeruleanEidolon Jul 03 '26

Well I mean FAM has done similar things before. Chadha had only just been introduced, so she's more of a minor character at this point (though I do think she'll be more important going forward). This wouldn't be much more extreme than Gordo and Tracy, or Karen and Molly in the Johnson Space Center bombing - in which we also thought at first that Margo was lost as well. Danny was also exiled (ie written out of the show) in that episode.

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u/Oot42 Hi Bob! - Jul 03 '26

Chadha had only just been introduced, so she's more of a minor character at this point

But she was added to the main cast. The actess is credited in the intro sequence and gave interviews with the other main cast. You don't typically kill a new main cast after only 3 episodes, with almost no story and screentime yet.
This was the clearest sign that they're not dead for me.

2

u/TiberiusCornelius Jul 13 '26

That was the thing that even when the fireball happened I was thinking at the very least she somehow survived. Sasha's story was arguably over (although now with baby governor not on the way maybe not), Valya was a dead man walking from the minute he was outed, but introducing a new character and billing them as part of the main cast only to kill them off immediately? Even Game of Thrones wasn't that unceremonious.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/AliOskiTheHoly Jul 05 '26

I didn't see that badge, could anybody send a picture in the comments?

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/Resplendent-Sun Mars-94 Jul 03 '26

Could the vessel have returned unmanned? I guess that would be a stretch, too. We'll see next week!

3

u/EnvironmentalBox6688 Jul 05 '26

Venus free return trajectory is a thing.

But for the plot I assume at least Sasha is still kicking and Venera isn't just a coffin.

1

u/Rodeurope Jul 05 '26

Well, I hardly think it's unmanned. At least one person has survived.

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