Away Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Negative Return

Away Season 1, Episode 2 recap: The Atlas settles into their journey.

Away Season 1, Episode 2 begins with the Atlas crew adjusting to their mission to Mars. They video chat with people from around the world and we meet Lu’s husband and son.

On Earth, Lex wakes up at Melissa’s house after spending the night with them while her father remains in the hospital. We meet Melissa’s daughter, Cassie (Felicia Patti) who Lex used to play with as a kid. Lex is eager to get to the hospital to see her dad.

Matt’s nurse checks on him, he can’t seem to feel anything below his waist, but she doesn’t give him any answers, only says his doctor will be in soon to go over his neuro vitals.

Back in space, Emma begins deploying the various pods and devices to get the ship settled for the long journey to Mars while George and Darlene watch from Earth. The gear includes solar panels, sleeping pods, and other technical details. Gravity is restored to the crew quarters.

Away Season 1, Episode 2 recap: The crew reaches out to their loved ones.

A surly Misha continues to act dismissively toward Emma and her position as commander, even as they make their official plan. Ram demands that Misha try and be more respectful toward Emma. Misha snaps at Ram, saying that he has no idea what he has had to sacrifice to be there.

In a brief flashback, we see Misha with his wife and daughter, Natalya. He constructs a puppet and Natalya is ecstatic over his creation. We briefly saw Misha with a few puppets in the first episode, too.

Ram patches Lu into a call from Mei Chen (Nadia Hatta) at Ground. She says China’s directors need to speak with her. In reality, Mei wants to check in on Lu. Based on their brief conversation, the two might have feelings for one another. Someone at Ground keeps a watchful eye over Mei, which is interesting.

Misha, too, makes a call before the EVA. He contacts his now-estranged daughter, Natalya (Olena Medwid), who is now all grown up with children of her own. Misha wants forgiveness for something before he makes the spacewalk, I assume in case he dies. Natalya brusquely forgives him, although, by her tone, you can tell she doesn’t mean it.

Continuing the theme of every one contacting their loved ones, Emma reaches out to Matt. He reminds her that in space, all that matters is her and Misha. They need to trust each other and their instincts, no one else. They’ll know what’s right.

“Tell me you love me when you get back inside.”

She makes one final call to Lex, who has returned home for the first time since she had to call 911 for her dad, even though she lies to her mom and says she’s at her friend Annie’s.

Away Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Misha and Emma make the spacewalk.

Before Misha and Emma make the spacewalk, they must go through the decommission chamber. Inside, Emma reminds him that all they have out there is each other. Even though Misha doesn’t trust her, he’s going to have to learn how for this to work.

As they slowly make their way down the length of the shuttle tethered together, the entire world, including Matt and Lex, watch with bated breath. But before they can reach the panel, they’re told to pause as Lu notices there is an electrical hazard ahead.

To get to where they need to go, Emma asks Misha what his plan is, whatever it might be, she’ll follow it. She knows this is his area of expertise and they don’t have time to wait for Ground. Misha volunteers to form part of a long tether and throw himself to the panel. Emma says no, she’ll go.

She makes it to the joint and notices one of the cables got stuck on the back of the panel’s hinge. To fix it, she’ll have to move to the opposite side of Zvezda and the only way to do that is to untether herself so she can get the leverage to float to the edge and flip around. It’s extraordinarily risky, but they don’t really have a choice.

It’s a nailbiting moment as Emma let’s go and floats to the edge. Thankfully, she makes it and manages to fix the hinge. To get back to where she needs to go, Emma is forced to put her entire trust in Misha as he reaches for her hand and tells her to untether her suit so he can pull her back. For a moment, Misha is the only thing anchoring Emma to the panel and preventing her from floating off into the abyss.

As the retreat back to safety, Emma issues the order for Ram to launch the panel, and they watch as Zvezda finally makes a successful deployment.

In the airlock, Emma asks Misha what he said in Russian before they initially headed out. He says he asked his wife’s spirit to watch over them. Then he warns Emma she might eventually have to give up her family for this job. He speaks from experience.

Another flashback shows his wife‘s funeral. Misha was unable to return home before she died. He begs his daughter’s forgiveness and she makes him promise never to leave again. Obviously, he breaks his promise, which might be why he yet again asked Natalya’s forgiveness earlier in the episode.

As Episode 2 comes to a close, the crew make a toast to Emma and Misha for their success. But Ram isn’t pleased. For one, he doesn’t understand why Misha seems to think he’s the only person who has made sacrifices to get there. As for Emma, he’s upset that he vouched for her to Darlene and then she went and did something so reckless.

”We need you alive.”

In the final moments, Emma tucks herself into bed and imagines that Matt is there, too, spooning her and keeping her safe while “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison plays in the background.

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All ten episodes of Away Season 1 are now streaming on Netflix.

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