The Apple TV Plus sci-fi thriller conspiracy show Constellation has seen its strangest episode yet in the form of episode 6, "Paul is Dead", which came out on Wednesday, March 13.
This latest episode jumps straight back to the beginning of the show, and presents us all the information again... except with one big change. This time, our main character Jo (Noomi Rapace) doesn't survive, while the person who died in the season premier Paul (William Catlett) makes it through.
What's going on? Well, it's another handful of notes and trail of red string on our cork-board conspiracy map of the entire Constellation show, but the wider picture is slowly becoming more clear.
So let's dive into our Constellation episode 6 recap, of "Paul is Dead". Spoilers for the hour-long episode ensue, so you've been warned.
Paul is not dead
The episode begins where the first did: Jo is on the International Space Station (ISS), calling her daughter Alice (Rosie/Davina Coleman) while Paul is working on the CAL experiment. As before, there's a surprising breach which causes the ISS to decompress... but this time Jo hits her head on a window and dies. We also see a wide shot of the ISS with the orange cosmonaut's body flying away.
On Earth, Magnus (James D'Arcy) has to tell Alice that her mother is dead. They go to the European Space Agency (ESA) as before, and everything from the episode is reversed from the first episode, with Magnus and Alice going through everything that Wendy and Erica/Frida did before.
In space, Paul is going through what Jo did before. He bids farewell to his follow astronauts, and tells them to let ground control know that they lost the CAL... however they don't know what he's talking about.
Paul is left on the ISS with Jo's body as he fixes the second escape capsule. He keeps imagining that he can hear her breathing, and at one point the bag on her face strangely floats away. He asks ground command what to do about the body, as he's worried that it's too damaged to survive re-entry. He also moves her into another section of the ISS, and when he touches her, gets a flash to her being alive (just as she had in an earlier episode).
A hero's welcome... or a villain's one
One night, Magnus finds Alice hiding in a wardrobe, watching episodes of space accidents. He gets angry with her and tells her to leave, but she refuses. So he walks away, and later, she sees through the cracks in the wardrobe Jo walking towards her... just like Jo saw in the first episode. But she's not actually there, as Alice finds when she bursts out of the wardrobe.
Later, an upset Magnus has to tell Alice that they're leaving Jo's body in space.
We get another parallel to episode 1: as Paul is preparing the escape shuttle, there's a bolt malfunction, which can only be fixed by someone on the main ISS. However it's mysteriously resolved while Paul is still in the shuttle, and when he looks out the window, he sees a shape that looks like Jo staring back at him.
Paul is given a hero's welcome on Earth, even when he calls his wife Frida (she corrects him to Erica). But he doesn't acclimatize well — when he puts flowers on Jo's memorial tree, he sees the dead woman doing the same.
Over dinner, Alice asks Paul why he didn't bring back her mothers' body. He explains that ground command told him to, and tells Alice why in graphic detail which upsets Magnus, who escorts out the young girl. Paul also sees Jo's memorial, but he sees his picture in her place.
We see Wendy and Alice playing hide-and-seek (as in episode 3), and follow Alice as she runs into a parking lot and stamps on her toy rabbits. When Wendy, confused, asks her about these actions, Alice simply tears out the eyes of the rabbit too. Later, she tears up the pictures and stomps on the presents that they had prepared for Jo's return.
At an inquiry, Paul talks about his CAL experiments, however no-one knows what he's talking about, and show him evidence that he was actually working on a different experiment at the time of the accident. It's explained to Paul that the CAL experiment was abandoned 12 years prior! Paul is also asked about his decision to leave Jo's body behind — he thinks he was ordered to do so, but the blame is being shifted onto him.
Magnus speaks to a therapist about how to look after Alice, given her violent outbursts, and he's told to let her say her farewells.
Bud Caldera versus Henry Caldera
Paul watches a video about the Apollo 18 tragedy — if you'll remember, that's the one that Bud/Henry Caldera (Jonathan Banks) was on. Paul goes to the ESA and asks his boss about Henry Caldera. She thinks he's talking about Bud Caldera, and she doesn't know where he is, but she refers to Apollo 18 as NASA's greatest tragedy which isn't how he remembers it.
Over breakfast, Paul gets hostile with his wife and child, who seem defensive back. Paul tells Wendy that she needs to be a friend to Alice, who must be going through a lot.
At Jo's service later, Alice doesn't want to get out of the wardrobe she's hiding in, and Magnus gives up on trying to convince her. When Paul arrives with his family, he's too upset to enter, telling his wife that he feels guilty about the failure of the ISS and leaving a body up there. He also implies that he thinks Jo might still be alive up there, which Wendy overhears.
Paul eventually goes into the service, and takes the Lithium pills (remember, the ones Jo refused to take). Once again he tells Wendy to check in with Alice, and is brusque with his daughter. Wendy returns with Alice, and bluntly tells her that Paul thinks Jo might still be alive. Just then, both Paul and Alice see the Alice from the other dimension (remember, from episode 4) and freak out.
Later, Magnus tells Alice that they should get away for a bit. He wants to go to Mexico or Legoland but she's insistent that they go to their cabin in Sweden.
The next morning, Paul's boss comes to visit Erica. Paul is missing, and the boss tries to pitch the astronaut rehabilitation program to the woman, however she just wants them to find her missing husband.
We find out where Paul is: he's tracked down the man he thinks is Henry Caldera, who trained him at NASA after saving all of his Apollo 18 crew and was working on the CAL with him. However this is Bud, who was the sole survivor of his Apollo 18, and has never met Paul before. He's living as an alcoholic in a nasty apartment.
Bud keeps telling Paul to leave, but Paul is insistent that he needs answers for what's going on — so Bud pulls out a gun and shoots Paul!
In Sweden, Magnus and Alice get snowed into their car, and can't drive the remaining few kilometers. Alice insists they walk the rest of the way. At the cabin they light a fire and look at the creepy pictures on the wall, which are another callback to The Changeling (another Apple show, which keeps getting referenced in Constellation).
Magnus has a mini-breakdown, and apologizes to Alice that he's the parent she's left with. That night, Alice gets woken up by headlights outside the cabin. She peers out of the window and sees Jo getting out of a car! Then the episode ends.
