For All Mankind Season 4 Episode 7 Review: Crossing the Line
Mars gets its own version of Hot Strike Summer on For All Mankind Season 4 Episode 7, “Crossing the Line,” as the Helios workers organize in favor of better working conditions, more pay, and an end to the multinational idea floated last week, which would see the Goldilocks asteroid redirected toward, and then mined in orbit around, Earth.
As you might expect, this sudden embrace of workers’ rights doesn’t go over well with the folks in charge of Happy Valley, the Helios execs, or the world leaders back on Earth, who are all freaking out over the prospect that the strike might keep them from getting everything online — or working the countless hours required — to capture Goldilocks at all.
One of the best things that “Crossing the Line” does is give a bit more context for Ed’s sudden decision to not only support the striking workers but to take on a central leadership role within their little rebellion. There’s something almost poetic about the idea that what Ed wants is for Mars to be more than another resource capitalism strips for parts.
He wants Happy Valley to be a real, sustainable colony, a genuine outpost of exploration, the next step for humanity’s journey into the stars. And establishing it as an asteroid mining hub gives them a chance to do that — to create jobs, to attract residents, to give the site a purpose and importance beyond the scientific research Kelly is so keen to do, but that Ed thinks is boring.
Ed doesn’t have any plans of ever returning to Earth. He wants to live out the rest of his life on Mars (or beyond, probably, if he makes it that long). But if Happy Valley is only seen as a money-making opportunity — something to exploit for resources just as long as it’s cheap and convenient enough to do so — it’ll never reach its full potential. In his view too many people aren’t invested in making Mars work for its own sake, but rather their own bottom lines.
(His weird dismissive attitude towards scientific research is something I’m going to need Kelly to set him straight on, immediately, though.)
But where For All Mankind at least makes an effort to add some depth and content to Ed’s point of view in this conflict, it bizarrely chooses not to do the same for Dani. If it felt out of character last week that she’d be so dismissive of worker concerns when the show made such a point of her understanding the unrest on the base earlier in the season, this week, it’s like she’s a pod person.
The show does almost nothing to justify Dani’s obsession with capturing Goldilocks, her willingness to union bust, or her decision to put the lives of her crew in danger (and then blame the strikers for the fallout!) in the name of getting the fuel generators back online.
People literally die because she is determined to find a way to keep the asteroid timeline on track, and we don’t even see her reflect on that in any real way. (And, no, one guilt-stricken expression over a burned maintenance worker is…not the same thing!)
For All Mankind seems to want us to believe that her obsession has something to do with the fact that the minerals on Goldilocks could change things for the better for a lot of people on Earth, but that’s the sort of vague pronouncements that an awful lot of companies tend to use about new advancements and products. If it’s really important enough that it justifies this by any means necessary behavior, then then show has done a terrible job of explaining those stakes to the audience.
Because right now? It just seems as though Helios and several major Earth governments are more interested in making money than anything else, and are happy to let Dani do their dirty work so they can do so.
Dev’s arrival shakes things up in an interesting way. Yes, he bribes and coerces and promises immunity enough that he manages to get the vast majority of the strikers to lay down their proverbial arms and come back to work. (There are literally about five people, including Ed and Massey, who don’t.) But he also apparently has some…rather unconventional ulterior motives.
To be fair, Dev’s been a fairly inscrutable and downright bizarre figure this season. He’s honestly looked depressed more than anything else, even when executing what is essentially a hostile takeover on his own company.
For All Mankind hasn’t done a ton of work to explain why this sort of man — with literally every advantage on Earth — would want to leave his life behind to go colonize another planet. But it still oddly kind of tracks, and I have to admit the whole “team up with Ed to do an asteroid heist” plan is so incredibly bonkers that I’m ready to see where it goes.
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- The DMX needle drop that closes this episode is art.
- “Crossing the Line” is so compelling as an hour of television that it will probably surprise some of you to realize that Miles, ostensibly our primary POV character among the lower deck Helios workers and the architect of his own Happy Valley coup last week, does not appear in it at all. It’s an odd decision, given that he wouldn’t have been allowed to remain neutral on the subject of the strike and the fact that his BFF Tassey is one of the ringleaders just makes the whole thing even weirder. (It’s also a glaring sign that Miles is kind of awful as a character, as I didn’t miss him or his story at all — and I suspect I’m not alone in that.
- Margot’s diplomatic immunity situation isn’t as compelling as the show seems to want me to think it is — at least not yet. Sure, she’s being sent back to America, but her presence is almost solely meant as a tool to embarrass the U.S. government, and remind them that one of their best and brightest left them behind for the bright lights of communism. Does anyone — even Aleida, really, think she’s actually any kind of genuine security threat? I did have a moment at the end of the episode where I was briefly convinced that Margo was about to set shock assassinated on her way into NASA HQ, though. Her being back in Houston just feels like a narrative trap in waiting. (Just not the way the show is positioning it right now.)
What did you think of this episode For All Mankind Season 4 Episode 7? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
New episodes of For All Mankind stream Fridays on Apple TV+.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Lacy Baugher
Lacy Baugher is a digital strategist and freelance writer living in Washington, D.C., who’s still hoping that the TARDIS will show up at her door eventually. Favorite things include: Sansa Stark, British period dramas, the Ninth Doctor and whatever Jessica Lange happens to be doing today. Loves to livetweet pretty much anything, and is always looking for new friends to yell about Game of Thrones with on Twitter. Ravenclaw for life.