The Weight

## Chronology

"**The Weight**" is the fifth episode of the second season of *For All Mankind*. It was released on Apple TV+ on March 19, 2021.

## Synopsis

Ed's reckless behaviour at NASA shakes the foundation of the Baldwin family. Tracy attempts to readapt to life in space.

## Plot

Tracy Stevens' shuttle makes it to the Moon and as she looks around, she smiles and calls the place beautiful. However, her fellow astronaut tells her that he had not been recording, so they reenact the scene.

Karen Baldwin wakes up at night to a phone call. She and Kelly sit at the breakfast table, and she tells her daughter that she was devastated by the phone call and could not live like that. Although Kelly tries to comfort her mother, Karen is not convinced. The phone rings and Kelly picks up, and is told that Ed was fine. Karen says that it was good for Kelly to know what it was like when situations like this happened.

Later, Ed arrives at the house, they both worry since he looks terrible, but he mentions that all that happened was that he had gotten wet. Ed apologizes, but Karen seems a little off, and says she would go to work even though it was 6 A.M. Ed turns to Kelly, who tells him that it had been a long night for both of them.

Tracy walks into Jamestown, where she is greeted by fellow astronauts, who tell her that they are excited to see her and mention that they think it was a good idea of Tracy to show the experience. They take part in a welcoming tradition they do at Jamestown, and astronaut Nick Corrado takes off a patch, which they give her, naming her the new "Linus of Jamestown". Tracy asks why she was the Linus and is told that it was because she was the newbie. Alex Rossi, the commander of the base, tells Nick to give Tracy the new orientation which he agrees to do. He shows her around and tells her what they usually do in there. Nick tells her about the time he watched her save Molly Cobb on TV when he was in high school, which makes her feel old, but he tells her that it changed his life. As they continue the tour, Tracy stops to look at a picture of Gordo and Danielle Poole with her broken arm, which has "don't let this happen to you" written on it.

Gordo and Ed are sitting in Margo Madison's office, listening to their recordings while on their jets. They are joined by Thomas Paine and Molly Cobb who pauses the recordings and asks them to give her a good reason why she should not pull their tickets. Gordo says that he takes full responsibility, but Molly asks him when he had ever done such a thing. Ed tells her that he cannot take him off *Pathfinder*, but she reminded him that she could. She tells them that they have one last chance and tells them to leave. Thomas asks Molly if that was it, since he wanted a harsher punishment, but Molly told him that it was not that big a deal since things had gotten out of hand, which happened all the time. Thomas reminded her that the jets were expensive; Margo also told Molly that she should set a certain tone, but Molly reminded them that she would handle them as she saw fit.

Aleida Rosales walks into the Johnson Space Center and looks around, going to the visitor's room of Mission Control, where she always used to sit as a kid. She starts jumping up and down in excitement and looks at her employee card feeling happy. She makes into the big room, and greets Bill Strausser, who she tells she does not have a story. She tells him that she is not much of a talker, but is welcomed to Apollo-Soyuz anyway.

Tracy is told by Doug Price that her job would be to take anybody rotating back home to their shuttle, also getting the new crew and bringing them to Jamestown. Her other job would be to retrieve unmanned cargo from various points on the surface. She tells him that she understands that she was just a truck driver up there, and Doug says that they get a lot of pilots who thought they were better, but tells her that the job was a dangerous one. When she tries to operate the shuttle, she runs into some trouble, but Doug helps her get hold of it.

Ellen Wilson visits Pam Horton, who is reading poems in front of several people. She sees Ellen in the crowd and smiles. When she finishes, she congratulates Pam, who tells her that she lives in Austin now. The two get to talking a little before a woman named Elise, Pam's partner, shows up. Ellen greets Elise, who tells Ellen that they hear about her a lot. They leave and Ellen starts walking out of the library, but is stopped by Pam, who tells asks her if it would be weird if they grabbed a drink sometime, which Ellen agrees to.

Gordo watches Tracy's Moon interview. At Jamestown, everybody gathers around to watch it as well. After the show, Tracy goes to bed while looking at a picture of her with her sons. Before she could go to sleep, the ventilation system turned on, which annoyed her and did not let her sleep very well. The next day, she got to work, and the same pattern repeated for the next few days, which started making her feel slightly depressed.

Gordo tried on his spacesuit and started working out, while cleaning up his house, and throwing away his alcohol. The next time he saw Tracy in an interview, he turned the television off. He tried feeling comfortable in his helmet and was found in the closet with one on by his son Jimmy, who asked him if he was okay. Soon enough, he started getting thinner, but still felt insecure in his helmet.

One night, Tracy grabbed a midnight snack. When she saw nobody was awake, she locked herself in a room and lit up a cigarette, while blowing air in order to get rid of the smoke.

At Cape Kennedy, astronauts are preparing guns, which would be brought to the Moon. One of them complained that they did not even know when they were supposed to shoot them, and Molly tells him that it was their lucky day, since she had the rules of engagement for use with her. She tells them that they needed to understand that they should only fire if they were up against a hostile act or intent.

Danny Stevens is having dinner with Karen and Kelly. When Ed joins them, he salutes Ed, who tells him to stand down. As soon as Ed sat down, Danny left. Karen told Ed that she did not think he would be joining them, and Kelly brought Ed a plate, but also left. Ed tries to break the silence between him and Karen by saying he wanted to watch a movie, but she spoils it for him and leaves him to eat dinner alone.

As Tracy fell asleep, an alarm rang, and everybody grabbed their oxygen mask. The alarm said that a toxic atmosphere had been detected and mentioned that everybody should prepare for evacuation. However, it turned out to be a false alarm since it was only a blocked vent in Tracy's bed. Later, she apologized to the commander, telling him that she could not sleep, but he told her that they were a month in and she had five months left to go. Alex started offering some advice, but smelled alcohol, and asked her if she had been drinking. Tracy covered her mouth and shook her head, but he realized she was drunk and told her he would write her up. She begged him not to and he agreed to give her one more chance. However, he told her that she would not be doing any more interviews or press, and would also be assigned to work a second shift in addition to her other one.

Tracy left and went to Deke Slayton's grave. She told him that she had finally made it to the Moon, but said that it was just a big ball of dirt and felt alone. She started crying and said she missed her children, bed, and bathtub. She realized she should be happy, but now that she was on the Moon, but felt everything was empty.

Gordo was underwater with an oxygen tank, when he was met with his kids. He told them he was training for the Moon, and they told him that he had been acting weird. He told them that there was a lot to keep track of on Jamestown, and he needed to be prepared. Danny asked if what he meant was about what had happened last time he was there. He mentioned all he knew was what had been mentioned on television. Gordo tells them that up there he tried being strong and keep it together, but told them that it was not always going to be okay. He told them that on the Moon he realized he was weak and was trying to burn it from his head before he went back up. Danny asked him how it was going, and his father answered that it was not going so good. Danny mentioned that maybe they could help, and shoved Jimmy into the pool.

Pam and Ellen grab their drink, where they talk about their lives. Karen told them that the next round was on the house, and Pam told her that she had done a good job making it not look like a shithole anymore, but mentioned the plants did not quite fit in. Karen told her that nobody liked them and offered her the bartender job whenever she wanted, but Pam told politely declined, saying she lived in Austin with her girlfriend. Pam asks if they wanted kids, and Ellen said that they had discussed them, but were not sure. Pam replies that Elise definitely wanted them, but she was not so sure. Pam asks her if Ellen had ever figured out which poem was about her, since it took her a while to write it, but mentions that she had now gotten her shit together. Pam looks at her watch and mentions that she had to leave and they say goodbye to each other. However, soon after, they were in Ellen's house having sex.

Astronauts bring the guns to Jamestown, where they're greeted by Alex Rossi and Tracy. An astronaut named Charles Bernitz mentions it was his first time on Jamestown, and is granted the Linus patch. Rossi tells Tracy that she would be training Bernitz, which she agrees to.

Danny looks at a NASA ashtray at Outpost and realizes Karen had the same ashtray on her coffee table. Danny tells her that he remembers one night he and Jimmy were over at Karen's house misbehaving, which was annoying Ed, but when an adult went over to berate them it was Karen who did it, but was secretly relaxed with them, which made him realize she was the best mom ever. He also remembered one time he went to her house and heard her Elvis music, which she was dancing to by herself. He changes the mood by saying he still thinks about Shane pretty much daily, considering what happened to be the dividing moment of his life. Karen mentions that she felt it too and held his arm, telling him that he had done a good job that day. They wished each other a good night and he left.

Later, Karen played the song *"Don't be Cruel"W* performed by Billy SwanW and started dancing to it.

## 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 (credit only)
* Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin
* Casey W. Johnson as Danny Stevens
* Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales
* Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison

**Guest Starring**

* Dan Donohue as Thomas Paine
* Noah Harpster as Bill Strausser
* Scott Michael Campbell as Alex Rossi
* Meghan Leathers as Pam Horton
* Daniel David Stewart as Nick Corrado
* Connor Tillman as Vance Paulson
* Michaela Conlin as Helena Webster
* Nick Toren as Tim 'Bird Dog' McKiernan
* Tim Jo as Steve Pomeranz
* Chris McKenna  as Doug Price
* Alex Alomar Akpobome  as Paul DeWeese

**Co-Starring**

* David Chandler as Jimmy Stevens
* Zac Titus as Charles Bernitz
* Andre Boyer as Jason Wilhelm
* Chris Cortez as Steve Lopez
* Mele Ihara  as Elise

**Other**

* Jeff Bergman as Johnny CarsonW (voice) (uncredited)

## Trivia

While at Jamestown, Tracy is also recording audio reports for various FM radio stations. One of these radio programs is "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s", a weekend show of the fictional radio station "K-Billy" from the 1992 Quentin TarantinoW movie *Reservoir DogsW*.

## External links

### Soundtrack

  Soundtrack of episode 2x05, "The Weight" on Tunefind
### Transcript

  Transcript of episode 2x05, "The Weight" on TV Show Transcripts