The explosion of the launch shuttle, taking out the maintenance crew and Eric Laden's Gene Kranz, is certainly a surprise, the loss of life also leaving Ed, Gordo, and Danielle (at least for now) stranded at the moon base in a situation where the strain and stress of unforeseen consequences weighs heavily on those in the stars, and those at home. The episode becomes a test of hard lessons for characters, as they each find the threshold of their work rubbing against their personal lives. The long-distance relationships between Gordon, Tracy, Karen, and Ed start to find their breaking points. With Gordo and Tracy now separated, and Karen and Ed struggling to talk, the extreme level of long-distance they find themselves in becomes this impossible task of trying to keep a connection when their lives have become so different and now. It's especially apparent during the final scenes, with Ed's thousand-yard stare. Ed, Gordo, and Danielle must be reaching a breaking point, stuck for so long in such a small, isolated quarters, where privacy and time alone is a thing of the past. The monotony of the work and little else is so easy to read on Joel Kinnaman's face, showing that he may not return the same man he lifted off as. The final moment, of Gordo hopping off and noticing red signal lights, brings up a fascinating possibility. The FBI are busy rooting out spies and security risks back at home, but what if Gordo, in need of something new, starts to befriend the Russians? The bases aren't that far apart, in the grand scheme of things, and so a meeting between the two teams isn't out of the realm of possibility. Margo may realize that every system is corrupt, to use her own words, but it's the people doing the best they can who make the difference despite that system.
