Away Season 1, Episode 1 recap: Go

Away Season 1, Episode 1 recap: Meeting the Atlas crew.

In the opening moments of Away Season 1, Episode 1, we meet Emma Green (Hilary Swank) during a debriefing on the moon’s lunar base. She’s uncomfortable recapping a crisis moment to Dr. Putney (Michael Patrick Thornton) that occurred earlier. For now, we only see it through dramatic moments intercut into the scene. Her superior wants to know how she’s feeling, but Emma would rather prepare for the launch to Mars.

Two weeks earlier, Emma and her husband, Matt (Josh Charles), attend their daughter Lex’s (Talitha Bateman) soccer game. Instead of taking the shot, she passes her goal-making opportunity to a teammate, who misses.

Matt and Emma encourage Lex to take the shot next time as they make their way to a press conference ahead of Emma’s big mission. It’s an option for the press, and viewers, to meet the Atlas crew.

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Aside from Emma, the team is composed of representatives from multiple nations across the globe. Dr. Kwesi Weisberg-Abban (Ato Essando) is the only team member to have zero space experience, but he is a leading botanist looking forward to growing life on Mars.

Misha Poponov (Mark Ivanir) is a Russian cosmonaut, the most experienced of the crew.

Next to him is Lu Wang (Vivian Wu), one of the world’s finest chemists and a woman of little worlds. Finally, from India comes accomplished pilot, Ram Arya (Ray Panthaki).

Asked about the families they’ll be leaving behind when they embark on this three-year mission, Emma reveals her husband is also a trained astronaut. Unspecified health reasons have forced him to retire, but he will serve as the mission’s chief engineer from Mission Control on Earth.

Back at home, Emma, Lex, and Matt enjoy a family dinner on the patio beneath fairy lights. Lex brings up a question asked by one of the journalists. Is it true there is a 50-50 chance she won’t survive the trip? Matt tries to reassure Lex that will not happen, but Emma is more honest about the risks involved with space travel.

She visits Lex in her bedroom later, gifting her a sterling silver bracelet with three charms, for the earth, the moon, and Mars. Emma tells her the string woven between them represents her making her way back to Lex.

Then she shares a moment with her husband as he plays the piano. Matt confesses that each day she launches is the worst day of his life because, for a moment, he has to wait and see if her shuttle will fail to launch, blowing her to pieces. It’s why he wanted to hide the reality from their daughter. Still, he believes Emma is a hero, and he would have gone in a heartbeat if the doctors would have let him.