'For All Mankind' Season 2 Episode 4 Spoilers: Will Ed Baldwin and NASA succeed in beating the Soviet Union?
Spoilers ahead for 'For All Mankind' Season 2 Episode 4 titled 'Pathfinder'
In the previous episode of Apple TV+'s space drama, we saw how Edward Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and his wife Karen (Shantel VanSanten) got into a huge fight over their daughter Kelly's choice of higher education. Kelly (Cynthy Wu) wanted to pursue her higher education at the naval academy where she wanted to learn to fly, be like her father. However, Karen is initially not sure that she wants her daughter to follow in the footsteps of her husband.
In fact, she is worried about how safe her daughter would be and that she is reminded of her dead son Shane. However, after she speaks to Tracy Stevens (Sarah Jones), she gets the clarity that she needs, and that is to let her daughter choose the life that she wants to live. So she agrees to let Kelly apply for the Naval Academy in Minneapolis. The same college that her father went to.
The two of them believe that he would be excited, however, he is freaked out the moment he hears this. In fact, he had a panic attack and says no, without hearing Kelly out and that brings about an argument which soon turns into a massive fight with Karen physically attacking Ed.
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It is at this time that he tells Kelly and Karen that he never wants to be put in a position where he is not there for his family. This is also the reason why he gave up on returning to the moon after his assignment 10 years ago. However, it is something that he misses and Karen realizes the same after their argument. She allows him to go back and her permission is important because she is the one who usually picks up the pieces that he leaves behind in the wake of following his dreams.
Of course, after having taken over the Outpost from Pam, there is a semblance of life that she leads which is her own. However, she realizes that Ed needs to go on tours to keep him happy. This comes at the right time because NASA has learned that the Soviet Union has taken over their mining site on the Moon where they had found traces of plutonium.
This happened when the astronauts had vacated the site to return to the Jamestown base. As a result, the Americans plan on sending officers with military training to the moon to take over the same site and then stand guard 24/7.
In a follow-up measure, NASA will also equip the Pathfinder, a space shuttle that caters to the military's needs and requirements and Edward puts himself on the tour to lead Pathfinder to the moon. While on the surface, it looks like the Soviet Union and the US are trying hard to make peace with their PR campaign set on the moon, but behind the scenes, a war is brewing and the US hopes to win the same with Pathfinder.
'For All Mankind' Season 2 episodes will release every Friday on Apple TV+.