Family tensions come to the fore in the penultimate season 2 episode of the space TV series "For All Mankind," which airs Friday (April 16) on Apple TV+.
A sneak-peek YouTube clip from the Apple TV+ shows the Baldwin family having a difficult moment after NASA astronaut Edward Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) gets called to space early to fly NASA's fictional Pathfinder shuttle for a mission with military involvement. (The show plays off real-life space history with a number of fictional elements.)
"That's so rad. Why did they move it up?" Baldwin's teenage daughter, Kelly (Cynthy Wu), asks when he breaks the news to the family.
"Well, that's classified," Baldwin replies.
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Kelly asks if Pathfinder will be used against the Soviet fleet for a conflict within the show, at which point her mother, Karen (Shantel VanSenten) breaks in.
"Kelly, he just said he can't tell you," Karen Baldwin snaps.
Viewers of Season 1 of "For All Mankind" might remember the Baldwin family facing a tragedy during that season, which has formed much of the backdrop for the tension between the Baldwin couple throughout the current season. So when Kelly asks her dad if he'll be okay, Karen gets angrier.
"No, he can't promise you that," Karen says as Edward looks at her with a sad, yet resentful look. "He can't. Do you want to be in the Navy, Kelly? This is part of the gig. Sometimes you get deployed without any warning, and the one thing you can never do is promise the people you leave behind that you're going to be okay. Because they will hang onto that promise like it's a lifeline."
To find out what happens next with Pathfinder – and how the Baldwins move forward for this argument – tune into Episode 9, "Triage", on the streaming platform Apple TV+, which requires a subscription of $4.99/month. Season 1 and almost all of Season 2 are now available.
We have a spoiler-free discussion of Season 2 on collectSPACE to talk about how the show's shuttle era compares to real-life space history. More information (with spoilers) is available on Apple Podcast's "For All Mankind: The Official Podcast." The App Store also has an augmented reality experience called "For All Mankind: Time Capsule."
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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