Wayne Cobb

> You do this and I won't be here when you get back... I won't watch you do this.
>
> Wayne Cobb, in Season 2, Episode 9, "Triage" to his wife Molly Cobb to save her from herself, as she attempts to obtain dangerous eye surgery.

**Wayne Cobb** is the husband of Apollo astronaut and first American woman in space, Molly Cobb.

## History

### Season 1

In October 1971, when Molly goes to space for the first time on Apollo 15 with Ed Baldwin, Wayne attends a launch party with Ed's wife Karen, bringing her a bottle of MezcalW, to which she responds with hidden disgust. He later shares with her that he has been having nightmares about the spacecraft crashing and killing Molly and Ed. Karen angrily shuts him down, saying that they do not talk about that. Wayne is dissapointed at the way Karen reacted, and later tries to speak to her, although she dismisses him, telling him that it is time to leave. Karen notices that Wayne has a distinct smell about him, which her friend Tracy Stevens tells her is cannabis. Karen is shocked by this, and goes to his house to confront him, telling him that if NASA finds out, it could ruin Molly's career. Wayne begins to talk to Karen further about the dreams, and how he paints them to help him overcome them. Karen confides that she too has dreams about this, with a recurring dream of a tiger chasing her through a forrest occuring when Ed was shot down during the Korean WarW.

Wayne later attends another party at Karen's house, where he brings her a garish painting of a tiger in a forrest. She thanks him, then quickly sets it aside out of view. They watch the TV broadcast from the Moon together as Molly and Ed are searching for ice inside the Shackleton crater. After news of their success comes through, they embrace.

During the Apollo 24 incident, Karen again goes to Wayne's house, unsure of why she is there, but needing someone to speak too. She tries cannabis for the first time, where Wayne tells her that he had been studying Organic Chemistry, but was expelled, leading to his father to disown him and how instead of being upset, it had been freeing for him, as he could now focus on what he wished to do. Meanwhile in space, Molly was almost lost during an accident, but was able to be saved, leading to her return to Earth.

### Season 2

In 1983, Molly is back on the Moon as part of the Jamestown crew, where during a major solar flare, her and Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels are caught on the surface. Molly is able to reach safety in a lava tubeW, but Ockels crashes his rover while trying to reach her and is incapacitated. Due to the radiation from the solar flare, Molly leaves her shelter and secretly rescues Ockels to save his life. Exposing both of them to massive amounts of radiation that Molly hides by leaving her dosimeter badge in the cave.

Molly is sent back to Earth as even as her dosimeter shows green, she still received an unhealthy amount of radiation. On her return, she is not feeling well and her vision is shaky. Wayne meets her, embracing her and telling her no one would notice that she was not feeling well. Wayne and Molly later play a round of golf with Ed and Karen. Ed smells marijuana, but Molly informs him that Wayne and Karen would both deny having smoked it.

Molly begins to have vision issues and is diagnosed with normal tension glaucoma by her ophthalmologist, Dr. J. Mitchell. At home, she asks Wayne for a beer. But even though he is holding it out for her, she does not react until he is virtually in front of her face, leading her to snap and that he shouldn't be sneaking up on her. He tells her that he had been holding it there for a while, and she finally admits the truth of what happened on the lunar surface and how she has glaucoma.

Later Molly sees a Mexican doctor who tells her that he has a cure for her glaucoma by injecting antioxidants into her eyes. Wayne is worried for her, and despite Molly's pleas that 92% of his patients have success. Wayne tells her that he has no sources, and is just after her money, as the treatment will cost $10,000, and that it is more likely that she will go totally blind or worse if she goes through with it. Molly is undeterred and says that she needs this.

Molly later lies to Wayne saying she needs to go to Cape Kennedy to help with the launch of Apollo 75, but Wayne tells her that he saw that money was missing from their account and that she is going to Mexico instead, and that if she does, he will not be there when she gets back. She tells him that he would finally be free of her and how much of a burden he had been on her. She leaves when he questions her guts, telling her she is giving up.

Wayne begins to pack his belongings to leave, when Molly returns early having turned around, she tells him she hopes he has a thing for blind old ladies, to which he replies that dark glasses and white canes turn him on. They then embrace.

### Season 3

Wayne continues to have a strong friendship with Karen, making cannabis infused "Goo Balls" for her at her house.

During the bombing of Johnson Space Center in 1995, Molly dies saving people from the building, using her blindness to her advantage to navigate the darkened and smoke filled halls. The Johnson Space Center is renamed the Molly Cobb Space Center in her honour, leaving Wayne a widower.

### Season 4

In 2003, Ed is secretly growing marijuana in his greenhouse on Mars, with the seeds having been supplied by Wayne.

## Trivia

Wayne is one of the few side characters appearing in all of the first 3 seasons of *For All Mankind*, spanning a timeframe of 25 years, from 1970 to 1995.

## References

1. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 1, Episode 5: "Into the Abyss"
2. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 1, Episode 9: "Bent Bird"
3. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 1: "Every Little Thing"
4. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 2: "The Bleeding Edge"
5. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 8: "And Here's to You"
6. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 9: "Triage"
7. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 5: "Seven Minutes of Terror"
8. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 10: "Stranger in a Strange Land"
9. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 4, Episode 3: "The Bear Hug"