As a series focused on the historic geopolitical tension between the U.S. and the USSR, For All Mankind has always been unique because, overwhelmingly, the show presents a timeline in which Soviet Communism didn’t dissolve, and the space race continued much in the way that it had in the 1960s. In Season 5, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the brinksmanship of the ‘60s and '70s is interconnected with the alternate 2012, in which humans from various Earth nationalities are banding together to free Mars. But in Episode 5, “Svoboda,” one flashback to events between Season 4 and Season 5 provides a crucial detail about the real power players on Mars, and could retroactively give us a clue to the upcoming spinoff series Star City.
Spoilers ahead.
