How Apple TV’s Sci-fi Masterpiece Just Set Up an Epic Final Season No One Could Have Predicted in 2019

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When For All Mankind debuted on Apple TV+ in 2019, it posed a fascinating “what if” scenario: what if the Soviet Union had won the space race and landed on the Moon first? This question has driven the show’s compelling alternate history for five seasons, taking the story across our solar system. Now that Season 5 has finished and Season 6 is confirmed, fans are getting a glimpse of what’s to come. Be warned: the following contains spoilers for the Season 5 finale.

When For All Mankind first came out seven years ago, it was groundbreaking, focusing entirely on lunar orbit. Season 2 continued that, but honestly, the show has really taken off since then! I never would have guessed it would expand to exploring Saturn’s moons, let alone actually find life out there. Now that Season 5 has finished, it’s clear we’re heading towards the end of the series, but I’m excited to see how everything wraps up – there’s still so much potential for amazing stories.

For All Mankind Puts the Pieces in Place for Season 6

The fifth season finale of For All Mankind brings most of the main storylines – including the struggle for Mars’ independence and the trip to Titan – to a satisfying conclusion. However, it also sets the stage for future episodes to delve deeper into these developments. Importantly, the crew’s mission to Titan was a success: they discovered life on Saturn’s moon, proving that humanity isn’t alone. The lifeforms they found are based on methane, rather than carbon like life on Earth, and while the implications of this discovery aren’t yet clear, it’s certain to have a significant impact on the future.

The discovery on Titan came at a great cost, as Kelly Baldwin tragically gave her life to save her crewmates. She appeared to die in a liquid pool near the alien life they’d found on Saturn’s moon. It’s unknown how her death will affect the life on Titan or how they’ll respond, but it means Alex is now the last surviving member of the Baldwin family. Currently on Mars with Lily, Alex will likely grapple with feeling alone after losing his entire family, though the Baldwins have always been a strong and resourceful family, suggesting he’ll be able to cope.

As a huge fan of the show, I was really surprised by the latest developments heading into Season 6! It turns out Mars is officially a new nation, with Miles Dale as its first President – a quick newspaper flash confirmed that after the conflict with the M-6. I’m super curious to see how they’ll navigate international relations, making treaties and alliances with Earth’s countries. They’ve got a strong bargaining chip, though – Mars is now the main source of iridium. And it looks like Leonid Polivanov might be coming back to Russia to take charge, potentially becoming a key ally for Mars. The news also revealed that the Soviets, along with Brazil and China as part of the Independent Spacefaring Nations, have already sided with Mars. It’s setting up to be a really interesting power dynamic!

The season 5 finale of For All Mankind resolves a key storyline involving Avery Jarrett and sets the stage for future events. Following the conflict on Happy Valley, Avery has chosen to remain on Mars and has adopted her father’s last name, “Stevens,” as seen on her new Helios-branded spacesuit, signifying a departure from her military affiliation. The episode concludes with Avery approaching the pod where her father was exiled and ultimately died on Mars, suggesting she’s come to terms with his past and is paying her respects.

One storyline that needs attention is what will happen with Margo in Season 6. She’ll likely still be in prison, if she survives, but given how important Margo has been to the show since the beginning, it would be disappointing to both the audience and actress Wrenn Schmidt if the series didn’t give her character a meaningful conclusion in the final season.

For All Mankind’s Biggest Season 6 Tease Is Very Dangerous

The most thrilling part of each season finale of For All Mankind is always the final minute. The show has a pattern: each finale jumps forward in time to the next decade, signaled by a popular song from that era, and ends with a hint of what’s to come. For example, the Season 1 finale used Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” to show the story moving into the 1980s, while Season 2 featured Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” to jump to the 1990s, and this pattern continues.

With Season 5 taking place in the 2010s, the next season will move to around the present day, and the show’s creators chose a fitting song to mark the transition. As the final scene pans from Saturn’s moon, Titan, past the planet and out into deep space, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” begins to play, confirming the jump to 2020. The song perfectly matches the new time period and hints at what’s to come: a massive spaceship appears in the distance, accompanied by the lyrics, “I’ve been trying to call, I’ve been on my own for long enough…”

As a space movie fan, when I first saw this ship, I thought it was something brand new, built for deep space exploration. But fellow For All Mankind viewers will instantly recognize it as the Mars-94! It was originally a Russian ship from the nineties, part of the first attempt to reach Mars. Sadly, the crew really pushed the engines too far, they failed, and the reactor went into meltdown. You’d think that would be the end of it – just a drifting wreck. But the show confirms it’s still out there, and unbelievably, still functioning after all these years!

A screen within the ship suddenly came to life, displaying text in Russian. This indicated that someone had reactivated the ship and regained control. A quick translation showed the words “Detection,” “Nikulov,” and “Loading.” It seems “Nikulov” refers to the late Sergei Nikulov, who assisted Roscosmos with the Mars-94 rocket project following a blackmail incident involving Margo Madison. The reason his information is being used to access the ship now, after all these years, is unclear.

The reappearance of the Mars-94 spacecraft in For All Mankind is another fantastic example of how the show’s detailed world-building continues to create compelling storylines for attentive viewers. The big mysteries now are: who reactivated the ship, and what’s their ultimate goal? Past season finales of For All Mankind have hinted at plot points that weren’t fully explained until several episodes later, so we likely won’t understand the full picture with Mars-94 for at least three or four episodes into Season 6 – hopefully we’ll be discussing it around this time next year.

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2026-05-29 17:11