I'm glad I was right about the impending time jump and there wouldn't be any drama about Ellen becoming president.
...but I really hate what's happened with Margo. I knew this was coming since the season two finale but that didn't make the turn any easier. The KGB crony was right: No matter how Margo justified her actions for purely scientific progress and peace, the FBI would consider her a spy and a traitor. I don't look forward to the truth coming out. Make no mistake, the truth
will come out. It's just a matter of when. And when it does, it's going to
break Aleida's heart.
Not surprised Karen tried to poach Aleida, nor was I surprised she turned the offer down despite the financial benefits and her husband's complaining. I did like how Aleida kept quiet about her job offer while bidding Bill farewell. She let him have that little victory of self-esteem. I was a little surprised that Kelly aggressively fought for her spot on the NASA mission but it makes sense. More surprising is that Ed actually kept his cool and congratulated her on the move, no matter how disappointed he was. Kudos on him for that.
...but he still has a long way to go. Danny is a complete mess and Ed cannot see it, just like he couldn't with Gordo. Times have changed and Ed doesn't see how alcoholism is a disease and how uncontrollable Danny's toxic behavior
will become. On the plus side, with the time jump, we don't have to worry about the awful Danny/Karen thing. Unless we discover that Dev decided it was good to have Karen on the mission. Gods, I hope I'm wrong about that.
The only other surprising thing is I fully expected Molly to get poached, too. I just checked back and Sonya Walger is no longer in the credits. So unless they're now doing the "credit only for episodes she's in" method, I guess that's the last of Molly. Realistically, that makes sense, but damn, I want more Molly!
The mention of Dev wanting to include a poet or painter as part of their science crew, and Ed's immediate reaction, reminded me of this quote from
a New York Times obituary of Edgar Mitchell that I saw going around Tumblr recently;
In the Apollo years, NASA sent military test pilots into space, not poets or preachers; they came back in possession of extraordinary knowledge that, by dint of personality or professional inclination, they seemed helpless to communicate. As the Gemini and Apollo astronaut Michael Collins once put it, “It was not within our ken to share emotions or to utter extraneous information.” Asked what it was like to go to the moon, Apollo 12’s Pete Conrad replied: “Super! Really enjoyed it!”
(Also of relevance is
this reply to the circulating quote about Al Bean's decades-long post-space period spent painting to express unique experiences like "being on the moon.")
I thought about that, too, broadly speaking. I do agree it's a good idea to have an artist on such a mission and maybe Dev ultimately won that argument.
IMO she's gonna find proof of past life on Mars and gonna be the new "Baldwin" main character in the future.
I think you're right. She and Aleida are the long-term characters for this show. I'm very curious to see how their stories develop over the decades.
With that in mind, while Aleida is the flight director now, I can't imagine her staying put. Going to just the Moon isn't going to sate her appetite and she'll want to go back out to space again.