It’s been seven years since Apple TV launched its service. One of the signature shows that has been part of the streamer since the beginning is For All Mankind, the alternate history series focused on the space race.
For All Mankind season 5, which is the penultimate season of the series, just premiered on Apple TV. The new season focuses on turning to the next generation and the next set of stories. We’re also moving closer to the present as the premiere, “First Light,” picks up in 2012.
A time jump
As in keeping with the series, we get a big jump into the future for season 5. And, per usual, we get a quick trip through the history of what has transpired in the near decade since we last captured the action of this world in the season 4 finale. It’s also been two and a half years since the fourth season launched, which makes the introduction helpful in bridging the gap.
Many of the shows original stars are gone, but Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) remains. His Ed is still living on Mars. He was given a pardon for his actions in the uprising, and he’s living with his family. He’s also living with Stage 3 cancer, a diagnosis and a prognosis he’s hiding from his daughter.
Kelly (Cynthy Wu) is continuing to work on the Goldilocks asteroid, but it’s been a fruitless process to this point. She’s getting frustrated and losing hope. It doesn’t help that she’s getting pressure from Earth, either. Though her friend Aleida (Coral Pena) wants to support Kelly, funds are tight. It doesn’t help that Dev (Edi Gathegi) is pushing Meru, a Mars city of the future. It’s an ambitious and expensive endeavor that is draining company resources, no matter how realistic it might not be.
That forces Aleida to make some tough decisions. She ends up having to cut Kelly’s funding to keep her other projects afloat and keep the company strong. She’s struggling at work and at home, as her daughter (Olivia Aguilar) is rebelling. She turns to her long-time friend Margo (Wrenn Schmidt), who is in prison as a result of her taking the blame for last season’s big finale incident. Though they’re separated by prison bars, they are able to lean on each other and restore the friendship from an earlier time.
The next generation
Back on Mars, Miles (Toby Kebbell) is running a business and living with his family as a pillar of the community. He’s a leader on Mars. His wife Amanda (Shannon Luccio) is there, and his daughter, Lily (Ruby Cruz) works at his place and is graduating from high school. In fact, Lily is among the first group to graduate.
It’s a class of four that includes Alex (Sean Kauffman), Kelly’s son. While many in the class have their future laid out, including Lily, who is bound for college, Alex doesn’t have a direction. His grandfather Ed tries to get him involved, and Kelly tries to offer support, but Alex is rudderless. He uses his VR device to see the beaches on Earth.
Lily, meanwhile, has mixed feelings about leaving. She is secretly behind tagging that is meant to challenge the status quo on the base. She pushes her father to get involved in the local activist group, but he wants her to focus on college. While her future might be university, her heart is on Mars.
Alex, meanwhile, decides to go for a joyride in the wilds of Mars. While he’s out on a bike in a suit, he makes a grim discovery that threatens to change things.
A murder on Mars
Out in the wilds of Mars, Alex finds a body. That leads to a call for the base authorities, led by Celia Boyd (Mirelle Enos). It’s suspected to be a suicide, someone driven mad by space that walks out on the surface and gives up. It’s happened before, but Celia suspects something doesn’t make sense.
She pushes for more answers, and it turns out the man died before he was subjected to surface conditions. So, what they’ve found isn’t a suicide; it’s a body dump. That leads to questions and outcry that reaches Earth. It’s potentially the first murder on Mars. But by the episode’s end, the physical evidence points to a suspect—Ed’s old friend Lee Jung-Gil (C.S. Lee).
It’s so nice to have For All Mankind back! I’ve enjoyed the show since it first debuted. And while the fourth season didn’t match the heights of some of the earlier seasons, it remains a compelling and unique journey into a parallel timeline.
Still, the first episode after a time jump always has a lot of work to do in terms of setting the stage, introducing new characters, and pointing us where we’re going to go. This season might have even more work ahead as we move past the show’s original stars, focus on a new generation, and set up the endgame in its sixth and final season. In short, there will be a lot to pack into these next nine episodes. I can’t wait to see where we go.
For All Mankind streams Fridays on Apple TV. The fifth season is 10 episodes, streaming weekly through May 29.