What Lies Ahead in For All Mankind’s 2020?

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Okay, so I’m about to talk about the very end of For All Mankind’s fifth season – specifically, the finale episode, “This Land Is Our Land.” Just a heads-up, I’ll be revealing major plot points, so if you haven’t finished watching yet, you might want to come back later!

Woody Guthrie, the singer who wrote the famous song “This Land Is Your Land” (which inspired the title of the For All Mankind season five finale), would likely have mixed feelings about the people of Mars, or “Marsies.” He’d probably dislike their focus on taking resources, but he’d admire their ability to work together. By the end of this season of FAM, the Happy Valley colony transformed from a place where even saying “Free Mars!” was prohibited, into a much more liberated community.

By the end of “This Land Is Our Land,” it’s still not certain if Mars is completely independent from Earth. However, it’s clear that the workers mining iridium from the Goldilocks asteroid – the people who keep both planets functioning – successfully rebelled against the powerful M6 alliance. They stopped a plan to replace them with automation, and elected their own representative to negotiate with Earth. It was a time of empowerment for the people of Mars, who celebrated their newfound freedom much like Woody Guthrie envisioned with his famous highway.

What’s coming up next for fans of the show? Today marks the premiere of Star City, a spin-off set during the Soviet space program in the 1960s. Beyond that, a sixth and final season of the original show, FAM, is planned, though we don’t have a release date yet. The recent ending of “This Land Is Our Land,” with its promise of fairer treatment of Mars, also sets up some intriguing questions that will likely be explored in FAM‘s final season. Here’s a look at the storylines, characters, and mysteries we’re most excited to see unfold.

How free is Mars, really?

“This Land Is Our Land” concludes with two key events. First, fighting stops between the Earth-based OPEF Marines – who were attempting to take back the Happy Valley base on Mars, acting on orders from the M6 and eliminating anyone in their way – and the native Marsies, who were defending their planet and continuing their attacks on Earth. Later, Leonid Polivanov, the governor of Mars, officially appoints Miles Dale as the planet’s new president. However, it’s still not certain if Mars has truly become independent. A memorial dedicated to fallen Marsies, titled “In Memory of Those Who Gave Their Lives for a Free Mars,” is open to interpretation, and Earth-based news suggests Helios still maintains some influence on the planet.

With Miles’s daughter, Lily, now aware that her father was forced to work with the Martian Peacekeepers against his own people, a lot of interesting questions arise. Will Lily confront him about it? Even though most of the Peacekeepers are gone, could information about this collaboration still surface and be used to blackmail Miles, potentially threatening his leadership of Mars and its newfound independence? And given FAM’s tendency to create conflict through strategic debates, we can hope the next season will show Mars grappling with these challenges and deciding its future direction.

Kelly made contact with aliens, right?

Kelly Baldwin, along with scientists Walt and Elena, made an incredible discovery: a life-form based on methane on Saturn’s moon, Titan. Kelly was so eager to lead the mission that she took charge, a move her father would have admired. She even volunteered to stay on Titan, sacrificing her own return to ensure Walt and Elena could safely reach their ship. Now, Kelly has found water on Titan, containing a glowing, shimmering substance. This raises huge questions: Is this another form of life, different from the first one they found? Could it be evidence of, or a communication from, an alien civilization? And, in a fun nod to Apple TV’s other shows, will Kelly encounter the alien from Margo’s Got Money Troubles? The author is hoping for a sequel to For All Mankind where Kelly is living happily among extraterrestrials.

What happened to Lily’s camera?

Journalist Lily was filming when OPEF Marines attacked, killing both the native Marsies and the Peacekeepers – who were surprisingly allied with the Marines and fighting the Marsies. When the Peacekeepers failed to respond to a secret code, the Marines killed them without hesitation, then continued their mission to kill more Marsies, leaving the bodies behind. The last we see of Lily’s camera, Alex has it inside the Helios compound. Dev finds it and is deeply upset watching the footage of the killings. But what happened to the camera and the evidence of the Marines’ violence after that? It’s possible Dev kept it hidden for years, using it as a way to gain power over the M6.

Is Dev’s Meru idea dead?

Okay, so the big question hanging over this season is: is Dev’s vision for Meru – this supposed perfect city on Mars for a million people – completely dead? It seems the Marsies’ victory against the Helios, Kuragin, and M6 automation plans throws a wrench in everything. And honestly, the more I learned about Meru, the more unsettling it became. Dev pitched it as a utopia, but it quickly felt like a gated community for only the people he considered worthy. The revelation that he was willing to deport all of Mars’ unionized workers to automate Happy Valley and only allow his ‘ideal citizens’ into Meru? Chilling. He did have a moment of seeming self-awareness, admitting to Alex that he was so fixated on bringing the ‘right’ people to Mars, he missed who was already there. But a nice sentiment doesn’t erase his actions. He literally engineered a crop failure in Happy Valley – a failure that killed a teenager – after already stealing their medical supplies and actively working against their independence. So, while that admission felt significant, I’m incredibly skeptical. I need to see a lot more before I believe Dev has truly abandoned his plans for Meru, or that he’s genuinely changed.

Whose old-age makeup will be as entertaining as Joel Kinnaman’s?

The latest season of FAM jumps ahead eight years, from 2012 to 2020. This means the characters will be noticeably older when the sixth season starts. We’re left wondering how the show will visually age our favorite characters – will Margo have more wrinkles, or will Lee need help walking? Will Dev’s hair turn completely gray? Given how the show aged Joel Kinnaman’s character into an octogenarian, I’m hoping to see even more elderly characters causing trouble in space.

Are any more of Danny Stevens’s relatives out there, or are we safe?

Honestly, how much longer do we have to endure the frustrating storyline of Danny and his impact on the show? While Ines Høysæter Asserson is doing a great job playing the character – who was originally portrayed as subtly disturbed – there’s no real reason for AJ to remain on the show beyond this season. It doesn’t seem like she’d ever choose to stay on Mars, and she’s already come to terms with her father’s death, which feels like a natural conclusion to her arc.

What are the Soviets up to?

A recurring question this season of For All Mankind centers around Irina Morozova and her motivations. When she arrives on Mars with the Kuragin delegation, she subtly suggests to Governor Polivanov that he could potentially become the leader of the Soviet Union. Irina is a powerful and resourceful figure – a survivor of the gulag who has regained influence within the KGB – and it’s intriguing to see how her actions this season – building a relationship with Lenya, reconnecting Aleida with the Sojourner crew, and attempting to negotiate a deal between the Soviet Union and Mars to weaken M6 – will unfold. (More scenes with Costa Ronin would be greatly appreciated!) Adding to the mystery, the Soviet spaceship MAPC-94, which was abandoned in space after a decades-old engine failure, unexpectedly reactivates in the final moments of the season. Is it a spy ship intercepting and transmitting electronic messages back to the USSR? (And again, we need more Costa Ronin to investigate!)

What’s the deal back on Earth?

Season five saw widespread protests against capitalism around the world, with demonstrators advocating for change. Now, fans are wondering if season six will feature a revolution against President Bragg and embrace a futuristic, socialist society, much like in Star Trek. We’ll likely find out in the opening montage of the new season.

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2026-05-29 21:56