The Grey

## Chronology

"**The Grey**" is the tenth and final episode of the second season of *For All Mankind*. It was released on Apple TV+ on April 23, 2021.

## Synopsis

Season finale. Tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union reach an all-time high on the Moon, throwing multiple missions in jeopardy.

## Plot

At Mission Control, Bill Strausser and Aleida Rosales supervise Apollo-Soyuz, when Frank Sedgewick tells flight director Irene Hendricks that Jamestown was depressurizing, so he tried to contact them to no avail. Margo Madison finds out, and Alex Rossi comes in, saying that they had been having some issues with their sensors and pressure returns to normal.

At Jamestown, Alex Rossi is held captive by the Soviet cosmonauts who infiltrated. However, all doors are locked. Viktor Tsukanov asks for Rolan Baranov, but Rossi does not know where he is, so he gets punched in the face.

Ed Baldwin aboard *Pathfinder* thinks about his wife Karen until he is called by Gary Piscotty, who tells him to sleep, but he does not accept. Gary tells him they are two hours away from the blockade line, which is where they would face Buran. Gary asks him if he is okay, but Ed tells him to get back to work.

Ellen Wilson makes it to Mission Control, where she is told by Margo that the Soviets were asking for more time before docking with no reason given. Margo is optimistic, but Molly Cobb tells them it has to do with the lunar blockade. Margo asks about Buran, but Ellen tells her it is classified which Margo finds ridiculous since they would not be able to make informed decisions.

Gordo Stevens looks out the window of the room he is stuck in with Tracy. They realize the inside was depressurized. Gordo realizes the Soviets had infiltrated the base, so he tells Tracy to hide. Rossi tells the astronauts that he was being held by the Soviets, who were offering an exchange between him and Rolan Baranov.

Rolan tells the others that they needed to do as they said, but Moon Marine Helena Webster says that it was not up for discussion since they were under the president's order, adding that even if they gave Rolan back, Rossi would probably be killed anyway. Rolan tells them the Soviets would not leave until they had him, but Vance Paulson says that they would make the Soviets leave.

Karen walks to Sam Cleveland's building, where he asks if she ever worries about Ed on the Moon, so she tells him that she tries not to think about it and tells him that pot is a good solution. Sam asks her what she would do next, but she admits she was not sure. Sam tells her that if she was having second thoughts about selling The Outpost it was fine, but Karen tells him she was sure.

Ed tells Houston and his crew that they would pass the blockade point. They do not see the Buran on their radar. They ask Houston about it and are told that they were on the dark side of the Moon, which was a relief for Gary, but Sally Ride tells him not to get confident.

Ronald Reagan speaks to the Soviet leader, who tells him that if the United States fired on Buran, the Soviet Union would respond in a substantial way.

Sergei Nikulov tells Margo that they would need to delay docking once more since they needed more time, which Margo does not agree with. Sergei apologizes and tells her that the best he could do would be giving her their state vector for their next docking opportunity, which Margo writes down.

Ellen tells Margo and Molly that they could not keep this up, but Margo does not want to give up since they were on the brink of war. She asks Ellen for one more orbit, and she gives Margo 90 minutes. Molly tells Bill Strausser that they had one more orbit before they called it quits, which Aleida protests since people had worked very hard. Molly asks Bill who Aleida is and mentions she likes her when she sees her attitude.

Danielle Poole on Apollo 75 is angry, saying that they did not go that far just to wave at each other from a window. She tells her partner Nathan Morrison to raise Soyuz. They copy and Soyuz commander Stepan Alexseev tells them that his comrade Radislav Orlov continues to struggle with space adaptation, which makes Danielle laugh since he was still vomiting. Danielle tells him that she felt the handshake would not happen and Stepan says he feels the same.

Margo walks to a telephone outside JSC and dials the number that Sergei secretly passed to her. He picks up and apologizes and she tells him to come clean with her. He admits that they were having avionics issues, which Margo does not buy, but he tells her that if he told his supervisor that they were having problems, then the mission would be called off. He tells her he was trying to do the best he could, but she tells him that she could only do one more orbit.

Gordo watches the news and tells Tracy there was nothing about Jamestown. He tells her that last time he was there he watched a lot of Bob NewhartW, which he nearly memorized and tells her that they would act them out. He tells her that the only thing he looked forward to was fighting with her on the communication device. He tells her that there used to be an antenna which they used which might still work.

The Moon Marines suit up and grab their guns, walking through Jamestown and depressurizing.

Gordo manages to connect the antenna and Tracy sees that the American marines were moving forward. She calls them and they recognize her, telling them that she was fine. A cosmonaut approaches Vance from behind and she tries to warn him, but he can not hear her and is shot and dies.

The other marines realize this and approach the cosmonaut, who shoots another marine. The cosmonaut sees Tracy, but is shot by Webster. Webster approaches her fallen teammate, whose suit was depressurizing. They got him into a pressurized room but the bullet had gone through to a nuclear reactor's primary coolant pump.

Margo tells the CAPCOM to contact Rossi, but they get no response.

Margo finds Ellen and General Bradford and tells them that Jamestown was not responding. Margo says that there was a backup, but Bradford tells her that it might not be that simple and reveals that there was a second reactor in order to make weapons on the Moon which meant there was no failsafe. She tells them to forget that it was nonsensical to have nuclear weapons on the Moon, but to keep it from the people in charge was wrong. She storms out of the room after that.

Aleida gets a snack and suddenly hears a radio sounding. She walks into a small room and hears Gordo talking. She reveals herself and Gordo greets her. Aleida runs to Margo and Molly and tells them and all of them rush with her.

Molly asks Gordo and Tracy if they had been in contact with anyone, but Gordo reveals that the comms had been taken down and they had no suits. Margo tells them that in about 45 minutes there would be a massive nuclear meltdown which would kill everyone on the base and rendering Shackleton uninhabitable for a thousand years. Gordo asks what they can do and is told that they could swap out the cable connectors from the backup computer to the primary loop, but they had no way to reach them with no suits on. Gordo asks how far the cables were and says that he could get to them, but Tracy and Margo tell him it was not possible. Molly defends him, however, and says that if they gave him some sort of protection, he could last longer outside.

Ellen tells Ed about Jamestown and he remembers he put everybody on that base. Sally asks why they would attack Jamestown, but they do not know. Ed tells them that they saw a weakness in them and Bradford tells them that they were their last hope. They start losing signal as they reach the far side of the Moon.

At Outpost, Karen pours herself a drink and is joined by Kelly, telling her that she had sold the bar. She tells her daughter that she sold it because it seemed right and tells her that she did not know what she would do now. Kelly tells her that she could not imagine her doing nothing and is told that maybe Karen would go to India or go back to college. Kelly asks her if she and Ed would be getting a divorce when a siren started sounding. An emergency broadcast started to sound and they both go downstairs.

In NASA's Mission Control, the siren starts sounding, so Ellen tells them they're in DEFCON 2 since the Soviet fleet off the coast of Panama is threatening the southern United States with ten nuclear bombs threatening Houston alone. Margo tells everyone where the bomb shelters are at, telling them that whoever wanted to go should go, but only one person leaves. Margo tells Bill that they would need to bring Apollo home.

Danielle is not happy about being called home and calls Soyuz afain, but does not get a response until Stepan tells her he has heard about the news as well. She tells them that she was tired of being used and being told what to do and tells Stepan that at least LaikaW got to do their mission. She tells Stepan that they should just go for it.

Gordo and Tracy start making an impromptu space suit and are told what to do by Molly. He is asked if he wants to change his mind, but he does not and shuts down their communication. Tracy tells him that she would be going with him since they had a shot at making it back together.

Karen and Kelly watch the news. Kelly tells Karen that she went to see her birth father after looking him up. Karen is in shock and says that she did not know she wanted to meet him, but then tells her it's okay and asks what he was like. However, Kelly tells her that she did not talk to him since they both had their lives and families.

*Pathfinder* gets a radio in which they are told they were violating a space treaty and would be fired at if Sea Dragon did not leave immediately. Sea Dragon would be within missile range in five minutes, so Ed tells Gary to open the payload doors, which reveals their weapons.

Bill tells Apollo how to get back down, but Danielle refuses and tells him they would proceed with the docking maneuver. When Margo tells her that she gave her an order, Danielle said she was choosing to ignore them, and told them to better begin docking procedures or they might crash with Soyuz live on national TV. Molly says that she does not care what Danielle had said since she had been given an order, which makes Margo comment that maybe that was the result of getting away from not following orders, but before Molly could react, Ellen tells them that it was okay for them to proceed, since at least one good thing should happen on that shitty day. Aleida does not believe it, but Bill lets her talk to the astronauts, which Margo encourages. Apollo begins approaching Soyuz and they ultimately dock.

At Jamestown, astronauts are being forced to move while Gordo and Tracy covered themselves up. Webster shoots at the Soviets, who fire back at her.

When Tracy and Gordo are finally covered in duct tape as their suits, Gordo tells Tracy he loves her, and she returns the words. They put their masks on, depressurize, and run outside with time running. As they move, they start bleeding from the pressure as their suits started coming off. They manage to get the job done and start running back. Gordo falls, so Tracy picks him up and they run together. When Tracy falls, Gordo picks her up again and they start losing sight. They passed the fifteen seconds, but made it back into the airlock and tried to pressurize it once again.

Danielle opens Apollo's hatch, and so does Stepan. The two of them face each other and greet one anther, shaking hands successfully and smiling at the camera facing them.

Ellen is called by the president, who told her Apollo-Soyuz was beautiful and inspirational, which Ellen felt they needed. Reagan asks for the status of *Pathfinder* and Buran, who were still out of communication range.

In lunar orbit, Buran tells them that they had two minutes to leave, but Ed tells them that if they were fired at, they would fire back. Sally wondered if they were bluffing, but Ed did not believe so. He tells her to lock weapons system on their target, but Sally says that there must be another way. Ed says that they have orders, but Sally reminds him that he is the commander of *Pathfinder* and also reminds him of when he testified on Apollo 10. Ed tells her to lock weapons system on target once more, but when she does not do it, he tells her she is relieved of duty. Sally does as he tells him, but then points her gun at him. He tells her to put it down, but she tells him she was not joking. Ed gets up and tells her to shoot him, since he knew she would not. He points his gun at her as well, and Gary tells them to stop this insanity.

Buran had missile lock on Sea Dragon 17, so Ed sits down again, telling her he would do what he had to and shoots Sea Dragon down. As the Buran passes them, they can see the cosmonauts inside. Houston contacts them and Ellen asks if they had engaged with Buran, but Ed says they had not, which Ellen is relieved to hear.

Reagan flies to Moscow, where he and Premier Andropov decide to stop fighting one another. At Jamestown, the Soviets start backing down. With everything finished, Rossi and the rest go to the galley's airlock and find Gordo and Tracy slumped over, having succumbed to their wounds and dead due to the pressure.

The United States holds a grand funeral for the two heroes, where they are thanked by Reagan for their sacrifice, courage and service. Later, at Tracy and Gordo's graves, Ed cries and leaves a deck of cards on top of Gordo's. Molly, Ellen, Danielle, Jimmy, Danny, Karen and Kelly cry as well. Karen leaves Tracy flowers. After the funeral, Ed and Karen hug and both go their separate ways after Kelly hugs him as well.

Margo gets a call from Sergei, who called to convey his respects. Margo understands and he tells her that they were heroes for the entire world. He asks if she would be at the ICSE conference in the UK that summer and invites her for a drink if she goes. She says she would check if she would go and that she would see what she could do. After the call, Sergei is told he did a good job by a superior, who tells him that by the time Margo realized she was working for them, it would be too late. Margo, unaware of her counterpart's circumstances, silently reminisces at the grave of John F. KennedyW.

The camera pans away into the atmosphere, then overlooking the entire Earth, then panning over to the Moon, and finally zooms in to Mars. The year is now 1995, and a pair of booted feet step onto the red planet, their identity unknown.

## 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
* Coral Peña as Aleida Rosales
* Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison

Guest Starring

* Jeff Hephner as Sam Cleveland
* John Marshall Jones as Nelson Bradford
* Noah Harpster as Bill Strausser
* Leonora Pitts as Irene Hendricks
* Scott Michael Campbell as Alex Rossi
* Piotr Adamczyk as Sergei Orestovich Nikulov
* Nikola Djuricko  as Stepan Petrovich Alexseev
* Alexander Babara  as Radislav Semenovich Orlov
* Alexander Sokovikov as Rolan Efimovitch Baranov
* Ellen Wroe as Sally Ride
* Michael Benz as Gary Piscotty
* Nick Toren as Tim 'Bird Dog' McKiernan
* Dave Power as Frank Sedgewick
* Connor Tillman as Vance Paulson
* Michaela Conlin as Helena Webster
* Chris Cortez as Steven Lopez
* Josh Duvendeck as Nathan Morrison
* Daniel David Stewart as Nick Corrado
* Alex Alomar Akpobome  as Paul DeWeese
* Tim Jo as Steve Pomeranz
* Charlie Schlatter as Paul Michaels
* Linda Park as Amy Chang
* Kayla Blake  as Dr. Kouri

Co-Starring

* David Chandler as Jimmy Stevens
* Eugene Alper  as Colonel Viktor Tsukanov
* Julie Brett  as Natalie Bishop
* Timothy Ware-Hill  as Cameron Wolfgeher

Other

* Joe Daru  as Cal (uncredited)
* Jeff Bergman as Ronald Reagan (voice) (uncredited)
* Roman Mitichyan  as Cosmonaut (uncredited)
* Ronald Reagan  as Self - POTUS (archive footage) (uncredited)
* Bruce M. Stockert  as Man in Audience (uncredited)

## Appearances

### Events & missions

 **Jamestown incident**Mission: **Apollo-Soyuz**
Handshake in spaceUS vs. USSR:
 **Standoff in lunar orbit** **Reagan meets Andropov** **Funeral of Gordo & Tracy** **Boots on Mars** (timejump 2003)
### Vehicles & vessels

 ***Pathfinder*** **Sea Dragon 17** **Apollo 75 CSM** **Soyuz capsule** **Buran shuttle**
### Locations & stations

 **Jamestown base** **Earth's orbit** **Lunar orbit**
## Closing monologue

> On April 3rd, 1972, a C-5A Galaxy transport plane with 243 infants, children, volunteers and crew took off from Saigon as part of Operation Babylift. One minute, 23 seconds later, the plane crashed into a field. Forty-seven children were rescued. I was one of them.
>
>
> There are these moments that shape your life, moments you have no control over. If the pilot had banked left instead of right, if the south had won the war in Vietnam, if the Russians hadn't beat us to the moon...I always thought things happen for a reason. Good and bad, there's a design, a plan.
>
>
> But lately I've started to wonder if maybe we just say that to make ourselves feel better. Maybe we're just drifting from moment to moment trying to do what we think is right. To give some meaning to our lives.
>
>
> So who am I? I'm Hanh Nguyen, born in Saigon, daughter of Le and Bing Nguyen. And I'm Kelly Ann Baldwin, raised in Houston, daughter of Karen and Ed Baldwin. A child of the space program.
>
>
>
> Is this the journey I was meant to be on? Applying to the Naval Academy, following in my father's footsteps? I don't know. All I know is the more we look back, wondering what might have been, the less we're living for today. And the future...John Lennon probably put it best: "Everything will be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, it's not the end.
>
> Kelly Baldwin

## External links

### Soundtrack

  Soundtrack of episode 2x10, "The Grey" on Tunefind
### Transcript

  Transcript of episode 2x10, "The Grey" on TV Show Transcripts