For All Mankind Recap: Operation Dumpling Freedom

For All Mankind
The Hard Six
Season 5 Episode 2
Editor’s Rating ★★★★
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I love when For All Mankind settles into Humans vs. Institutions mode, when a chain of character beats and plot developments reveals something broader and more thematic about the world the characters work and live within. Often, the characters are fulfilling the role of being active, loyal participants who are keeping an institution humming along. It makes sense; many of these characters are purpose-driven people who want to contribute to a project larger than themselves. That’s partly what Ed Baldwin was getting at in his graduation day speech to Alex last week. (The other part was Ed’s obsession with the Baldwin family legacy and his desire to bask in the reflected glory he believes Alex’s involvement with SDM will yield.)

As “The Hard Six” takes us through the Mars of 2012, though, we can’t help but question the purpose and values underpinning some of those big projects and institutions. A nauseating example of the rot setting into (or maybe baked into) one of Mars’s most essential institutions kicks off the episode. If you’re feeling more generous, and less succinct, we could call it the non-malicious, yet still potentially catastrophic, lack of preparedness within the MPK. Officers including Boyd and Sheriff Palmer are frog-marching Lee Jung-Gil from his apartment to their processing station following his arrest for the murder of Yoon Tae-Min. The perp walk takes them down the flight of stairs leading to the mall/food court, allowing everyone present to see Lee in cuffs and to hear his wife, Moon Yeong, who is just behind them, screaming for help. It’s instantly a spectacle, attracting a bunch of people including Miles, Alex, Lily, and Ed, who ask the MPKs what exactly is going on. The MPKs have not been briefed on talking points for this arrest and don’t impress anyone with their responses. To be fair, this is the first-ever homicide investigation on Mars, so it’s new territory for everyone, but perhaps Palmer shouldn’t threaten everyone after his actions have attracted a large group of people who are asking the most basic questions about Lee’s arrest. It’s poor form, an effect heightened by the inescapable resonances with our present political moment here in the US of A. 

Unsurprisingly, Ed is the first to leap into action and to Lee’s aid, but his attempts to leverage his decades of clout and relationships all come to nothing. He can only gain access to Lee in the pokey by getting arrested himself for removing his ankle monitor. He gets an audience with Governor Polivanov (referred to in the subtitles by the sweet diminutive Lenya), only to be blindsided by Polivanov’s aggressive, prosecutorial questioning style about both Lee and Ed’s past actions. Do they teach that in cosmonaut school? Even reminding Dev of how much he owes Lee, as an explorer, fellow scientist, and Goldilocks Heist participant, comes to nothing. Ed can call him a self-centered asshole all he wants, but Dev already knows that about himself. He’s sorry for what Lee is going through, but he’s got to maintain his laser focus on building Maru. 

Now, just as Dev is going to Dev, Ed is going to Ed, and I’m here for it. Ed is self-centered and self-aggrandizing, and he’s also going to find a way to do the most right thing whenever possible. To Ed, Lee simply should not be extradited to Earth to face charges for a crime he did not commit, and he’s going to prevent it or go down in the attempt. Maybe I’m more susceptible to this particular quality of Ed’s because all of The A-Team and M*A*S*H I watched as a child led me to valorize rebellious and caring military personnel, but a reckless pain in the ass who is also righteously correct laying it all on the line to prevent an injustice is extremely my shit.

Operation Dumpling Freedom is surprisingly no-frills: quietly commandeer the hopper that’s slated to fly Lee to the next shuttle bound for Earth, render the MPKs unconscious by messing with the air pressure, and fly hell for leather to the ISN base so Lee can claim asylum and hang out there instead. Being free in exile is an imperfect solution, but it’s by far the better option. Palmer is, of course, beyond incensed at having been out-maneuvered by this ragtag crew once again, and I can only sit back and chuckle, and maybe sprinkle a few very mature nyah nyahs on top for good measure.

Palmer’s woes don’t end here. He may have an even bigger problem on his hands now that Celia Boyd is conducting an actual investigation into Yoon’s death. On a tip from Moon Yeong about Yoon secretly working a night shift for Kuragin (Helios’s main competitor), Boyd stakes out the Kuragin facility. There’s definitely a crew of folks out there, and they’re receiving cargo that is not on the books. Kuragin’s blank refusal to answer any of Boyd’s questions when she pops over to their offices to request employee records only piques her interest further. Determined, stubborn, and a true believer in protecting and serving? Palmer is going to hate seeing this very inconvenient side of Boyd. This is all starting to give me second-season-of-The Wire vibes, so no worries, Palmer! I will love it all enough for the both of us.

The gap between Palmer’s and Boyd’s priorities has been clear since poor Yoon was on the slab in the hospital wing. Boyd wants to get justice for Yoon and is eager to investigate all leads, wherever they take her. To Palmer, Yoon’s death being a homicide does not make it any less of an inconvenient bureaucratic matter than it was when they thought Yoon had died by suicide. Palmer is aligned with Polivanov, wanting the issue to be resolved ASAP so that order can be restored and everyone can move on, getting back to the true purpose of Happy Valley: mining iridium for use on Earth. To them, Mars is an international business venture focused on resource extraction, but a distinct Mars culture has been emerging among the people who live there, and they have different priorities than the powerful corporations that run the show on The Red Planet. 

For all that Dev is leaning into his city planner era, he’s still all about the hard science, too. Early results from a Helios team’s remote work on Titan (the largest of Saturn’s moons; I include this detail because my brain got stuck in a loop of wondering if the planet in question was Jupiter or Saturn, and I’m probably not alone in that) look very promising for protein-creation. Their timing is good, because Kelly’s project is being defunded, leaving her professionally adrift. Surely she can help out? The project lead, Walt, is a cautious protocol-follower and not inclined to undertake a manned mission, but after a furious pep talk from Ed (“you roll the hard six!”), Kelly convinces Dev to invest in turning Walt’s project into a manned mission, and to appoint her the mission’s lead pilot. I hope she’ll also resume the role of Mission DJ as she did in Season Three. 

Unfortunately for Kelly, her work-life balance is about to get way more complicated. Operation Dumpling Freedom goes perfectly from Ed’s perspective, right up until he starts coughing up blood and not taking in enough oxygen to take off once Lee has reached the ISN base. Boyd arrives in Ed’s hopper to arrest him, only to find Admiral Adama, I mean Baldwin, unconscious. The old man’s number might be up. 

Houston, We Have Some Bullet Points:

• Palmer threatening Miles with making it widely known that Miles gave up the location of Ayesa’s 7 during the Goldilocks heist is almost laughable as an attempt at blackmail. Miles, you held out heroically for many hours under torture. I’m astounded that they don’t already know, and don’t think you’d be in for any serious long-term repercussions. Just get ahead of it and tell your pals before Palmer does. Threat neutralized! 

• One thing I’ll say for Palmer: his line delivery of “SON OF A BITCH!!!” upon realizing that Ed is taking Lee to the ISN base is an all-timer. Easily up there with Angie Jordan’s “Ham!!” on 30 Rock, which taught me that “ham” can be multisyllabic.

• Confession time: I had to look up Titan. I knew it was a moon of one of the gas giants, but couldn’t recall if it was related to Saturn or Jupiter. I also had to look up the phrase “roll the hard six”, and found that it refers to a dice roll of six with 3+3 rather than 1+5 or 2+4. It’s hard because of the statistical improbability (3%, according to this gaming smarty) of a 3+3 roll. It’s also an allusion to one of For All Mankind’s recent space opera ancestors, Battlestar Galactica. I’d forgotten that Edward James Olmos’s character William Adama uses the term several times over the course of the series. It’s a nice little shoutout to Ronald D. Moore, who developed both series.