'For All Mankind' Season 1 Episode 6 'Home Again' exposes dirty politics hiding behind glamor and idealism of space exploration
Whether it's in the real world or the fictional world, space exploration has always been a glamorous affair. Astronauts are like rock stars to us, immensely important people who risk life and limb to go where no man has gone before.
On the surface, space agencies like NASA often appear to be idealistic paragons of science, forging ahead for the sake of all mankind without giving any thought to petty divisions of politics, gender, race, or any other such qualifier. One of the best things about 'For All Mankind' is that it humanizes these larger than life figures and in the process, it brings out the darker side of the space program, one that's just as flawed as any other organization forced to bend to political demands.
'For All Mankind' Episode 6 'Home Again' delves deeper into politics than any of the other episodes of the season. The episode shows how the destruction of a rocket on the launch pad ends up sparking an inquiry led by Administrator Harold Weisner (Wallace Langham) that quickly turns into a witchhunt, all while the real culprits, people at the highest levels of government, hide the evidence of their corruption.
In part, this is made possible by the fact that starting with Episode 6, the show is firmly in fictional territory. While real-life events like Watergate are referenced, the fictional world's history has taken a decidedly different turn from what happened in our world, which allows the writers a lot more freedom to incorporate the things they want without bothering too much about historical accuracy.
'Home Again' has a lot of moving pieces and while it's a solid story, we're more interested to see where all these pieces fit in. While most of the previous episodes were very self-contained, Episode 6 feels like just an introduction into a complex story of conspiracies and political turmoil. We don't know where it'll all end but we're eager to see how exactly this story plays out.
'For All Mankind' Season 1 Episode 7 'Hi Bob' will arrive on Apple TV+ on November 29.