'For All Mankind' Episode 6 sees Margo acquire Saturn 5 explosion report from von Braun but faced with corrupt NASA, she capitulates
In episode 6 of 'For All Mankind' titled 'Home Again', we see Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) being forced to meet the mentor she has now come to hate. Former NASA director Wernher von Braun (Colm Feore) lets NASA administrator Harold Weisner (Wallace Langham) know he will hand over the findings of rocket Saturn 5 that exploded before its launch only to Margo.
Before Margo had learned of von Braun's past work that implicated in the deaths of many Jewish people in Germany, she had a great mentor-mentee relationship. They discussed science, art and more, with a passion and all of that disappeared when Margo had to face the truth.
She stopped contacting von Braun and cut off from him, but the man is not done mentoring her. When he met her this time, von Braun had a lot of things to say and one of them happened to be about the truth about the explosion of Apollo 22.
Margo now holds the key to the explosion of the Saturn 5 rocket which killed 12 members of NASA including its director, Gene Kranz. She got her hands on it only because von Braun ensured he handed his findings regarding the explosion to no one but Margo.
He had his reasons for wanting to meet Margo in person. It included him reasoning with her about the "sins" he had committed in the past. Most importantly though, he wanted to let Margo know the world doesn't operate the way she thinks it does.
He begins by telling her the truth about her father. How her father, a talented physicist saw his life's work become weaponized and used to kill thousands of people. The consequences of this broke the man down, so much so, he couldn't even connect with his daughter despite wanting to, desperately.
The only man he confessed his feelings to happened to be von Braun, who had gone through a similar situation in Germany. So after his death, von Braun's friend wanted von Braun to tell the truth to his daughter, Margo, who has misunderstood her father to be a man without feeling.
She believed he was never capable of emotionally connecting with anyone including his wife, and is certain he never paid attention to his daughter. Of course, her belief is shattered when she learns the truth.
He then adds to this by explaining how the explosion was caused because of the manufacturing defect of the LH12 valve in the rocket. This doesn't surprise Margo who had heard of this before. The word on the street was that the valve was the cause of the explosion.
However, von Braun explains how this goes way deeper than the valve. He tells her the contract for manufacturing this valve had been given to a company in Colorado Springs during his time in the 1960s, but this had changed in 1973. The year when the new President had taken the office and it was given to a constitute that supported the sitting president, Teddy Kennedy.
He also points out this contract signed by NASA helped the current government with something big. Something as big as the Equal Rights Amendment wonders Margo and von Braun confirms. She believes Weisner would take the right call and make von Braun's findings public, but Braun is certain Weisner is Kennedy's man through and through.
He tells Margo, "Every political system is flawed, every bureaucracy is corrupt." Margo hands in von Braun's report over to Weisner and sees him do exactly what her mentor said he would.
Weisner makes the report a classified document, and revealing any part of it to the public, would result in her arrest. Having been warned by von Braun, Margo has already made a copy of the report and uses it to get her the position she deserved -- flight director. She has now become a part of the corrupt system.
The next episode of 'For All Mankind' can be streamed on Apple TV+.