Spoiler warning for the For All Mankind season 5 finale.
True to form, For All Mankind season 5 has been as riveting as its predecessors, with the strife on Mars having boiled over into full-out war. Controlling MOCC is the end goal for both sides of the conflict, and with Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell) desperate to make up for his betrayal in season 4, the lengths he’s willing to go to gain Mars’ independence become extreme.
Episode nine of Apple TV’s long-running series showed Alex Baldin (Sean Kaufman) and Avery Stevens/Jarrett (Ines Høysæter Asserson) joining forces in a bid to save Marcus Haskell’s (Barrett Carnahan) life, after Alex panicked and shot his friend. Unable to return to the medical bay – which has few supplies left – Alex went to Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) instead.
On the other side of the base, Governor Leonid ‘Lenya’ Polivanov (Costa Ronin) seemingly turned on Happy Valley, offering to help the OPEF take back control. Having watched Lenya slowly become one of the coup’s core members after a, frankly, tense kidnapping, questions abound as to whether his loyalty ever really changed.
Meanwhile, on Titan, Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu) continues to keep the secret of her hijacking of Sojourner-1 as she and her crew struggle to find alien life on Saturn’s largest moon, resulting in Elena Beaufort (Kristina Klebe) puncturing her suit.
To quote the disarrayed OPEF, everything is “FUBAR”. How will For All Mankind season 5 end – will Mars survive the military onslaught? Will Kelly find proof of life, having risked her colleague’s lives in the pursuit of it? It’s time to find out.
For All Mankind season 5 ending explained: Did Kelly die?
Nobody is safe in the For All Mankind universe, as fans well know.
Having bid a tearful farewell to Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) earlier in season 5, many have wondered if any other major characters will fall. Rather shockingly, the show loses another Baldwin, though not the one you’d expect.
Despite Alex being in the thick of it throughout episodes 9 and 10, he survives; Kelly, however, isn’t as lucky. Left without a means to contact Sojourner and limited oxygen supplies, Kelly forfeits her own life to ensure that Elena and Walt Griebel (Christopher Denham) make it back safely.
Similar to Ed’s final moments, Kelly’s passing is poignantly beautiful.
What happened to Lenya?
Though looks can be deceiving, OPEF failed to get the memo. Using his role as governor to his advantage, Lenya, who’s wearing an electronic tag MOCC is tracking, misleads OPEF so as to locate their command centre.
Now aware of their location, Miles decides to raise the O2 levels in that room to 100% before remotely igniting an electrical system. Everyone inside will be burnt to death.
Lenya, having turned off his tag, attempts to remove himself from the room to ensure he escapes before ignition. It all appears to be going to plan until a captured Ilya Breshov (Dimiter D Marinov) is brought to OPEF command.
Conscious that time isn’t on his side, Lenya tries to convince Ilya to leave with him. However, Ilya no longer trusts Lenya, and so he protests. Becoming desperate, Lenya begs Ilya to listen before he forcibly pushes him from the room, just as Miles ignites the oxygen; the door is blown shut, and the room explodes into flames.
For All Mankind is known for leaving fans aghast, but this moment is arguably one of its most distressing.
Why did Aleida partner up with Irina Morozova?
Having taken out OPEF’s command, the Marsies leave MOCC to make a final stand in the business district. Aleida, who’s not only disgusted by Miles’s actions but is still fearful for Sojourner, stays behind to try to reestablish communications.
She’s not alone though, as Irina Morozova also stays behind, much to Aleida’s disapproval.
While there’s no love lost between these two women, they recognise the importance of getting comms up and running. Whether motivated by ruthless cunning or a genuine desire to help Mars, Irina informs Aleida that old KGB surveillance satellites deployed during her time at Star City are still in polar orbit.
Unsurprisingly, Aleida is already aware of them, revealing that they’re no longer functional. Taught to always “work the problem”, however, Aleida has an epiphany: the M-6 has only targeted functional satellites and not defunct ones. All they need to do is restore power to one of them, which means they need Helios’ resources.
Is Dev able to redeem himself?
Back at Helios HQ, Dev has been trying to win back Alex’s approval; first by helping save Haskell’s life, then by sending medical supplies to Happy Valley’s medbay. Still, Alex views Dev with scorn. Their uneasy reunion takes a backseat though, after Aleida and Irina arrive.
As is often the case in For All Mankind, there are no easy solutions; although a sound proposal, Helios still isn’t high enough to clear Mars’ mountains to establish comms. With Aleida fresh out of ideas, Dev posits that they merely need a bigger antenna, which, rather fortuitously, is available in the form of Kuragin’s space elevator. It’s by no means a smooth process, but thanks to some technical finagling from Alex, comms are restored.
Several video messages from Moscow are received, one of which explains that a ceasefire has been ordered, though the USS Bradford has been unable to reach OPEF troops to inform them, thanks to Miles’s incendiary schemes. Miles’s folly realised, Aleida gasps, “Oh God, they’re gonna kill each other for no reason.” Unfortunately, the troops won’t stand down without direct orders from their commanders, and the Marsies are too far away to be notified of the ceasefire. The situation appears hopeless.
That is, until Dev offers to manually redirect the elevator’s signal. Naturally, this isn’t without risk, for Dev must scale said elevator all the way to the top.
Concurrently, Alex has to somehow reach the business district, which is on the other side of the base, before further blood is spilt. Going on foot is futile, so Alex employs unorthodox methods in the form of his motorbike to make it in time.
Does Mars find peace?
It’s improbable, not to mention foolhardy, yet both Dev and Alex succeed in their tasks. As Dev teeters on the edge of the elevator, Alex narrowly avoids getting shot thanks to Avery sabotaging one of her squad in the nick of time. It feels like an agonisingly long wait, but finally, the ceasefire order comes through.
Just as quickly as events escalated, normality returns to Happy Valley, the devastation of Mars’ brief but bloody war seemingly forgotten as Miles is sworn in as the new governor. Despite the sudden sentimentality, there’s an undercurrent of unease as Lily Dale (Ruby Cruz) looks on, the truth of her father’s past weighing on her.
Elsewhere on Mars, Avery visits the North Korean pod Danny Stevens (Casey W Johnson) was exiled to, in a full-circle moment that sees her come to terms with her paternal lineage.
Life on Titan and the future of space exploration
Ironically, Kelly did indeed find life on Titan, though it came at the cost of her own. Due to her staying behind, Walt and Elena made it back to Sojourner to share the details of this discovery, ensuring that Kelly’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
As is customary in For All Mankind finales, the show jumps ahead several years, this time to 2020. Our brief glimpse into the future takes us aboard the doomed Kosmos-1 as its internal systems come back online.
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