'For All Mankind' Episode 8 'Rupture' highlights how women are placed under closer scrutiny than men in similar situations
'For All Mankind' may be a show about space but that doesn't mean it's limited to standard sci-fi fare. The series has incorporated a lot of social and political commentary, bringing out many of the darker elements of the time period it's set in, especially homophobia and sexism.
Episode 8 'Rupture' is no exception in this regard, with a very clear example of women being treated differently than men in highly similar situations. After Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) intentionally broke her hand so she and Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman) could return to Earth without revealing Gordo's mental instability to NASA, she is now the latest excuse for people around the country to decry NASA's decision to include women in the space program.
It's not just Dani who is put under the scanner just because of her gender. The death of Patty Doyle (Cass Buggé) during training is brought up once again as another example of women being "unfit" for space, even though her death was caused by malfunctioning machinery.
The real kicker is that we've already seen men being placed in similar situations on the show without being forced to undergo similar cross-examination. The explosion of the Apollo 23 shuttle, for example, wasn't blamed on the astronauts who were hospitalized by it or the crew who worked on the shuttle.
That was also an accident caused by malfunctioning machinery, and a much more tragic one at that considering a dozen people were killed but it never even occurred to anybody to blame it on the gender of the people involved. As far as the public knows, Dani's situation is also just another accident, something that could happen to literally anyone, and there is no logical reason whatsoever why her being a woman should have any bearing on the incident.
The male astronauts on the show have made their fair share of mistakes with nobody batting an eye but with the women, every error is a matter of public debate. Nobody thought to criticize the show's version of Neil Armstrong (Jeff Branson) when he crash-landed on the Moon but if it had been a woman piloting the LEM in the same situation? That would probably have been enough to bench her for life.
'For All Mankind' Season 1 Episode 9 'Dangerous Liaisons' will land on Apple TV+ on December 13.