When it first premiered back in 2019, one of the launch titles for the Apple TV streaming service, For All Mankind, asked a simple question, one that has propelled its narrative for five seasons now: What if Russia beat the United States to the Moon? That simple question has sent the series across our solar system in a distinct science fiction world that acts as an ever-compelling alternate history to our own. Now, with its fifth season having completed and Season 6 officially on the way, fans finally have an idea of what comes next for the sci-fi masterpiece. Suffice to say, spoilers will follow for the For All Mankind Season 5 Finale.
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Season 1 of For All Mankind set the bar exclusively in lunar orbit, something that would continue into Season 2, but as the scope of the series has expanded, so to has the distances that the characters in the show are willing to travel in the name of scientific discovery. No one could have predicted seven years ago, when For All Mankind premiered, that not only would the series be venturing to the likes of Saturn’s moons, but that they would actually find life when they got there. With Season 5 complete now, For All Mankind is clearly headed for its endgame, but there’s still a lot of great story left to tell.
For All Mankind Puts the Pieces in Place for Season 6
The Season 5 finale of For All Mankind wraps up the majority of the larger plot threads that had defined the episodes, like the fight for Mars’ independence and the journey to Titan. That said, it puts all of these stories in a place for the next batch of episodes to further explore them. For starters, the mission crew to Titan succeeded in their initial goal, locating life on the moon of Saturn and proving that we’re not alone in the universe. The team deduces that the cellular lifeforms they find are methane-based, unlike the carbon-based lifeforms from Earth, and though that means it’s not immediately clear how that will change the history of humanity, things are absolutely going to change.
Unfortunately, the discovery on Titan wasn’t without tragedy, as Kelly Baldwin ultimately sacrificed herself to save her two crewmates, seemingly perishing in a pool of liquid surrounded by the life they found on the moon of Saturn. It’s unclear how this death may alter the life on Titan or who they might react to it, but the biggest development with this that we can know is that it makes Alex the last remaining Baldwin in the series. Still living on Mars with Lily, Alex may struggle with the isolation he feels after having no family left, but given the resilience that all Baldwins have shown across the series, he’ll no doubt make it out okay.
Mars, of course, is also in a distinct place heading into Season 6. A blink-and-you ‘ll-miss-it newspaper clipping confirms Miles Dale has become the first President of Mars, describing it as a new nation following the conflict with the M-6. What remains to be seen is how Mars will establish itself via treaties, pacts, and alliances with all of the other nations on Earth in the aftermath. Being the main exporter of iridium back to the planet obviously gives Mars a lot of leverage and value. On that note, a major ally that Dale might have back on the pale blue dot is Leonid Polivanov himself, who seems poised to perhaps return to Russia and take over the Soviet Union after Fyodor Korzhenko was removed from power. The same newspaper reveals that the Soviets and the Independent Spacefaring Nations (which include Brazil and China) have allied themselves with Mars.
Finally, one major plot thread that For All Mankind‘s Season 5 finale wraps up and gives us some clear set-up for the next story is with Avery Jarrett. In the aftermath of the conflict on Happy Valley, not only has the marine stayed on Mars, but she has also clearly taken her father’s name, as her astronaut suit now says “Stevens” and is also clearly a Helios-marked suit, rather than a military one. The episode ends with her approaching the pod where her father was exiled, and eventually died, on Mars, an indicator of accepting her dad for who he was and paying her respects.
There is one thread that doesn’t get much set-up but which we still have to ponder, Margo’s status in Season 6. The character will no doubt still be in prison in the next batch of episodes, assuming she’s still alive, but For All Mankind has had Margo involved since the very first episode, and it would be a slap in the face to the audience and actress Wrenn Schmidt to not give her a proper send-off in some way when Season 6 arrives.
For All Mankind’s Biggest Season 6 Tease Is Very Dangerous
Of course, the most exciting thing about any season finale of For All Mankind is what happens in the closing minute of the episode. As the series has established over the course of its run, each finale leaps ahead into the next decade, accompanied by a song from the era to confirm to the audience that time has moved forward, but also with a major tease about what’s going to come next. Season 1’s finale included “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” by Tears for Fears to indicate the leap into the ’80s, with Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” in Season 2 for the jump to the ’90s, and so on.
Since Season 5 has been set within the 2010s, the next season will jump to around our current timeline, and the chosen song was a perfect one. As the final shot of the episode moves from the moon of Titan orbiting Saturn, pushing past the ringed planet to the depths of space, a familiar tune begins to play, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” with the series then confirming a jump to 2020. The song not only fits the time period that the series has now found itself in, but the tease that accompanies it, as a giant ship is seen floating out in space, accompanied by the lyrics, “I’ve been trying to call, I’ve been on my own for long enough…”
Though at first it may seem like this is a vessel meant for extensive exploration of the stars, For All Mankind fans should immediately recognize this ship as none other than the Mars-94. Initially launched by the Russians in the ’90s as part of the original race to the red planet, the ship was abandoned after the crew pushed their engines too hard, causing them to fail and sending its nuclear reactor into meltdown. One might have assumed that the ship would have just blown up on its own as it drifted through space over the past thirty years, but For All Mankind not only confirms it’s still out there, but also, somehow, still active.
A screen deep inside the ship turns on, with Russian text appearing on the screen to indicate that someone, somewhere, has seemingly turned it on and regained control of the ship. A rough translation of the text on screen reveals the words “Detection,” plus “Nikulov” and “Loading.” One assumes that the “Nikulov” in question is in reference to the late Sergei Nikulov, who helped Roscosmos build the Mars-94 rocket after Margo Madison was blackmailed by the Russians. Why his credintials are being used to access the ship after all this time, though, remains a mystery.
The return of the Mars-94 ship into the equation of For All Mankind is yet another great example of how the show’s extensive mapping of its world continues to yield exciting stories for keen observers. Though the biggest question about this is two-fold: Who turned on the Mars-94 ship? And, what are they planning to do with it? Previous teases that arrived in For All Mankind season finales were often pulled from later episodes in the season, so we may not have full context on this until we’re at least three or four episodes into Season 6, which we’ll hopefully be talking about this time next year.
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