Triage

## Chronology

"**Triage**" is the ninth episode of the second season of *For All Mankind*. It was released on Apple TV+ on April 16, 2021.

## Synopsis

The rivalry between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts intensifies as last-minute changes impact the Pathfinder plan.

## Plot

Paramedics try helping the injured cosmonaut while Alex Rossi, the commander, spoke to Houston on the line. The Moon Marines tell the commander that they had perceived a hostile intent, but the cosmonauts had only been reaching for their translation cards. Ellen Wilson asks them if they were sure that there were no weapons on sight before she took the incident to the president.

Ellen tells General Bradford and Margo Madison that the situation was not good, and Margo points out that wars have started over a lot less.

Gordo Stevens approaches his ex-wife Tracy and asks her if she is okay. She tells him she is, but asks him how she could make her hand stop trembling. He tells her to give it time.

Ellen, Margo, and Bradford watch the news, where the Soviet Union mentions they would not be intimidated and knew that the United States had plans to bring nuclear weapons to the Moon and said that they would get in the way and destroy them before they got there. Bradford tells them that there had just been a launch from Sakhalin islandW - the *Buran* shuttle, which the CIA says was armed. Ellen mentions that was a problem since it could orbit space, shoot them down and they would never even see it coming. Margo takes her glasses off angrily once everyone leaves.

They track the Soviet shuttle at DODCOM, but after three hours, they find that they had done was dock it with their space station *Mir*, which made Margo think that they were overreacting. Bradford would like to believe that, but mentions that they had been stockpiling fuel on that station. Suddenly, *Buran* launched and Bradford mentioned it could shoot Sea Dragon 17 down before it entered lunar orbit, which worries Ellen since the Moon was being blockaded.

Molly Cobb gets visited by Ed Baldwin, who makes fun of her for having to use glasses, when she had made fun of him before. He teases her about getting old, but she tells him that DoD was taking over his mission and tells him about the *Buran* situation. She informs him that his new launch date would be in a couple of days and she tells him to be safe.

Ed tells Gary Piscotty and Sally Ride that they would be going up against *Buran*, which Sally mentions would be one hell of a test flight, since many things could go wrong. Ed acknowledges that, but tells them they needed to make sure Sea Dragon 17 could reach the Moon, escorting it to Jamestown. He tells them about their guns, since they might need to defend themselves returning, also having to destroy *Pathfinder* if they returned to hostile territory. He tells them that he understood if they wanted to drop out of the mission. None of them drop out but Sally asks if there were nuclear weapons aboard Sea Dragon 17, to which Ed sincerely responds that he does not know.

Nick Corrado gets a telex and hands it to Rossi in which the commander of Zvezda tells them that he wanted to send a team for the cosmonauts. Rossi tells him to answer that the cosmonaut was unconscious and his superiors would be consulted regarding his request.

Molly greets her husband Wayne, who tells her that her injecting antioxidants into her eyes seemed a bit extreme, but she tells him that her glaucoma was too. He believed her doctor was only telling her what she wanted to hear, but she tells him that 92% of his patients recovered their sight but he told her that the doctor had no sources, but she defended the doctor, who was from Guadalajara. He worries about her and says that it is risky, but she tells him that she needs it and they get into the car.

Kelly Baldwin watches the news while her mother Karen cooks. While Kelly talks about what she sees, Karen does not pay attention and tells her to get everything ready for when Ed got home. However Ed walks in and tells them that he could not stay since he had to leave, but wanted to say goodbye to them both. Karen does not pay much attention to Ed, though and simply cooks until she interrupts Kelly to tell her that Ed could not promise them that he would be okay since it was unrealistic, which Ed says is right. They hug, and Ed asks Karen if she could walk him to the car.

When they go outside, Ed asks her if she is okay and she coldly tells him she is tired and tells him she would explain why she was behaving weirdly once he got back since he had to focus on *Pathfinder*. However, he told her that he would not be able to concentrate until she told him. She tries to avoid telling him, but he reminds her of the pact they had made to not keep secrets from one another. She reveals that she slept with someone else and she did it sober and knowingly. Ed asks who, since it mattered to him and asks her if this was a way of asking him for a divorce, but she tells him they need counselling, which angers Ed since he thought marriage was a thing where you either wanted in or out. She tells him that he does not like living in the gray, which Ed does not understand. He gets in his car and leaves.

Rossi calls Moon Marine Helena Webster and they gather with the rest of the marines, who would be receiving the Soviets.

Ed is at a bar and looks at a woman on the other side. He takes his ring off and after a while he goes into a room with the woman, who he starts kissing. He tells her he needs to slow down and after a while she asks him how long he had been divorced. She starts undoing his pants and tells him not to think about the divorce, but he tells her about the rough spot, which she tells him she does not want to know about. After a while, she leaves while he apologizes.

The cosmonauts walk into Jamestown, where they are received. Colonel Tsukanov is welcomed and told to wait while the Soviet doctor, Dimitri Mayakovsky, could look at the injured comrade Rolan Baranov, but Tsukanov insists on going with the doctor, which was not agreed upon. In the end, Tsukanov agrees to stay behind guarded by a sole marine.

Dr. Mayakovsky tells the Americans that they were doing many things wrong, and tells Webster that she had done an unprovoked act of aggression and should be charged before an international court.

At Mission Control, everyone gets ready for *Pathfinder* and Sea Dragon's launch, which worried Margo. Sea Dragon launched successfully while Bradford and Ellen watched *Pathfinder'*s launch. However, Ed was thinking about his conversation with Karen. They separated from the carrier aircraft and headed straight for space with a lot of power and made it into orbit. Ed tells them that flying into space had always been a wonder and now they had finally done it.

Mayakovsky asks Dr. Kouri, the station's doctor, if she knew why Baranov was not waking up and she mentions possible brain damage. He tells her that they would not know until he woke up, which he wanted to happen under his supervision and asks that they prepare him for travel. Dr. Kouri tells him that he knew that he would not survive the trip. Rossi tells him that the could protest his government, but the cosmonaut would not leave Jamestown if he had a chance to survive.

Mayakovsky then asks to see the other cosmonaut, so he is brought to his fallen colleague, who had been burnt severely. The Americans offer to help carry him, but Tsukanov tells them that they would not touch him, while his voice cracked.

Molly tells Wayne that she was going to go to the Cape in order to help with the launch of Apollo 75, but Wayne knew she was lying. She did not care and he tells her that if she went to Guadalajara, he would not be there when she returned. She tells him that he would finally be free of what she had put him through and asks if he knew how much of a burden he had been and leaves when he questions her guts.

Cosmonaut Rolan Baranov wakes up, so Webster calls for the doctor. Baranov realizes he is at Jamestown and tells Webster that he wanted to defect to the United States.

Ellen tells Margo and Bradford that since the cosmonaut had requested asylum, they would grant it, which is what the president had said. Ellen tells them that the plan was to get him to the United States on the next shuttle the next month. Margo stops Ellen and asks her if she had asked the president about Apollo-Soyuz. Ellen says that they had not, but would recommend that they cancel it if she was asked her opinion. Margo asks if they could wait to see if the Soviets launched Soyuz and Ellen agrees to see how things played out.

Danielle Poole and Nathan Morrison discuss whether or not they would actually be launching Apollo 75. They sit while they wait for Soyuz to launch. At Mission Control, Margo tells Bill Strausser and Aleida Rosales that they had received no word from Moscow yet. As they wait, Margo gets a call from Sergei Nikulov, who happily tells her that Soyuz had launched. Margo thanks him and tells them that they were ready to launch as well.

Molly turns back from the airport and heads home, only to find out Wayne had already started picking up his things. She tells him that she hopes he had a thing for old blind ladies, so he tells her that white canes and dark glasses turned him on, and they kiss.

Larry Wilson talks to Lee Atwater about Ellen. Larry does not trust Lee because of his methods, but the man tells him that people liked drama more than truth, so people would love Ellen in congress since she was a hero and believed she could even be a president someday. Pam Horton walks in and greets Lee. When Lee leaves, Larry tells Pam that he was Reagan’s special assistant and wanted Ellen to run for congress. Pam asks if he really meant it and they both laugh, but Larry believes in her. However, Pam mentions that it was impossible since she was involved with Ellen.

Pam leaves Ellen a letter in which she tells her that she still loves Elise, hoping she understood and leaves. Larry walks up to Ellen and she tells him about the letter. Larry comforts Ellen, who does not understand and cries.

O Jamestown, Tracy gets ready to smoke a cigarette, but hears Gordo singing a song for her. She asks him to quiet down and tells him to stop. He tells her to enjoy wine he smuggled into the base in a bottle of mouthwash, which she thinks is terrible. He tells her he knows her and knows she is always in control, which scares him, but he did not want to run away from her anymore. She opens the door to the airlock were they smoke and the two walk in.

In Jamestown's control room, Jonathan Gatos tells Natalie Bishop that everything looked good. He asks her how much time would go by until they were back on nuclear power and she tells him that they were already using it since they new rods were in. She explains that they are currently calibrating the actuators, which was good since now they would be able to quit the power saving protocols. When Jonathan looks through a window, he sees a cosmonaut who has a gun and aims it at Jamestown, shooting until the window cracked.

Immediately, the air is sucked out, with everything being blown through the broken window. The astronauts make it into another room, except for Gatos, who was left behind and was thrown out of Jamestown and into the lunar surface. Three cosmonauts with guns walk in through the broken window.

## Cast

show/hide list

**Main Cast**

* Joel Kinnaman as Edward Baldwin
* Michael Dorman as Gordo Stevens
* Sarah Jones as Tracy Stevens
* Shantel VanSanten as Karen Baldwin
* Jodi Balfour as Ellen Wilson
* Sonya Walger as Molly Cobb
* Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole
* Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin
* Casey W. Johnson as Danny Stevens (credit only)
* Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales
* Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison

**Guest Starring**

* Nate Corddry as Larry Wilson
* John Marshall Jones as Nelson Bradford
* Lenny Jacobson as Wayne Cobb
* Noah Harpster as Bill Strausser
* Meghan Leathers as Pam Horton
* Piotr Adamczyk as Sergei Orestovich Nikulov
* Alexander Sokovikov as Rolan Efimovitch Baranov
* Michael Benz as Gary Piscotty
* Ellen Wroe as Sally Ride
* Scott Michael Campbell as Alex Rossi
* Daniel David Stewart as Nick Corrado
* Connor Tillman as Vance Paulson
* Michaela Conlin as Helena Webster
* Leonora Pitts as Irene Hendricks
* Josh Duvendeck as Nathan Morrison
* Charlie Schlatter as Paul Michaels
* Linda Park as Amy Chang
* Tim Jo as Steve Pomeranz
* Kayla Blake  as Dr. Kouri
* Lauren Sweetser  as Jewel
* Dustin Seavey  as Lee Atwater

**Co-Starring**

* Andre Boyer as Jason Wilhelm
* Eugene Alper  as Colonel Viktor Tsukanov
* Goran Ivanovski as Dr. Dimitri Mayakovsky
* Jinny Chung  as Liz Phang
* Julie Brett  as Natalie Bishop
* Timothy Ware-Hill  as Cameron Wolfgeher
* Alim Kouliev  as Soviet Diplomat
* Joe Sobalo Jr.  as Jonathan Gatos

**Other**

* Joe Daru  as Cal (uncredited)
* Roman Mitichyan  as Cosmonaut (uncredited)
* John Barry Womble  as Reporter (uncredited)

## Appearances

### Events & missions

Mission:
 **Sea Dragon 17**Mission:
 ***Pathfinder* maiden flight**Mission:
 **Apollo 75**Event:
 **Attack on Jamestown**
### Vehicles & vessels

 **Soviet rover** **Sea Dragon** **Shuttle Carrier Aircraft** ***Pathfinder*** **Saturn IB**
## External links

### Soundtrack

  Soundtrack of episode 2x09, "Triage" on Tunefind
### Transcript

  Transcript of episode 2x09, "Triage" on TV Show Transcripts