'For All Mankind' Episode 9 'Bent Bird' features one of the most high-risk missions we've seen on the show so far
Spoiler alert for 'For All Mankind' Season 1 Episode 9 'Bent Bird'
While the political and emotional drama that we find in the AppleTV+ show 'For All Mankind' is quite entertaining in itself, we all know the real reason we're watching this series is for the cool, daring missions in space. 'For All Mankind' has delivered a number of thrilling episodes about NASA missions and Episode 9 'Bent Bird' has one of the most high-risk missions yet.
Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) has now been stuck at Jamestown base on the Moon for over 150 days and with the death of his son, NASA is facing immense pressure to bring him home. With the pressure, something was always bound to go wrong and that's exactly what happens.
When Ed's would-be rescuers, the Apollo 24 crew, are left stranded in Earth orbit by a malfunctioning computer, Apollo 25 is sent up under the command of Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger), the first American woman in space, for a daring maintenance job. Molly is as stoic and courageous as ever and it almost seems as if they might just pull off the mission.
Unfortunately, the job goes south pretty quickly and Molly's life is (once again) placed in danger. Though Molly is rescued thanks to some daring flying by Tracy Stevens (Sarah Jones), under the guidance of her husband Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman), Apollo 24 is lost in space with no way for NASA to communicate with the ship.
The episode also had parallel storylines about how Ed and his wife Karen Baldwin (Shantel VanSanten) are separately trying to deal with the loss of their child. 'Bent Bird' really satisfied our appetite for drama, action, and emotion while also setting up a lot of things to come, including a potential lunar war.
'For All Mankind' Season 1's 10th and final episode will arrive on AppleTV+ on December 20.