What Happens To The Goldilocks Asteroid & Happy Valley

The Goldilocks heist comes to a nail-biting conclusion in For All Mankind's season 4 finale. What's next for the future of Happy Valley and Mars?

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for For All Mankind's season 4 finale!

Summary

• The season 4 finale of For All Mankind brings hope for the future of Happy Valley, but not without drama and intense moments.
• Margo's decision to sabotage the Goldilocks mission has significant consequences, including her arrest and the potential downfall of Irina at Roscosmos.
• The Mars riot and Dani's gunshot wound lead to a reevaluation of NASA's leadership and a renewed focus on the organization's original mission.

The future of Happy Valley is secured as the Goldilocks mission comes to an end in For All Mankind's season 4 finale. While it ends on a more hopeful note than the devastating season 3 finale, For All Mankind season 4 doesn't pull its punches when it comes to drama. From the fight between Samantha Massey (Tyner Rushing) and Palmer James (Myk Watford) in the vacuum of space to the violent riot that almost claims the life of Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), For All Mankind's season 4 finale is a rollercoaster. Although Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) are successful in their plan to secure the future of Happy Valley, it's a hard-fought victory.

Meanwhile, the shocking murder of Sergei Nikulov (Piotr Adamczyk) in For All Mankind season 4, episode 9 forces Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) to defy her KGB handler, risking her freedom in the process. For All Mankind's season 4 finale, "Perestroika" is a thrilling conclusion to the story of the Goldilocks asteroid that reconciles many of the feuding characters. Ed and Dani are reconciled after she's almost killed, while Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell) reconciles with his mentor, Ilya Breshov (Dimiter D. Marinov). With such a harmonious conclusion for many, For All Mankind's season 4 finale teases a thriving future for the Mars program in season 5.

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Why Margot Wanted To Ruin The Goldilocks Mission

Having discovered that Irina had ordered Sergei's death, Margo resolves to honor her friend's legacy, no matter the cost. Previously, in For All Mankind season 4, episode 9, "Brazil", Sergei had echoed Ed and Dev's belief that mining the Goldilocks asteroid in Earth's orbit would end the investment in the Mars program. Margo agrees with Sergei, and knowing that Irina could easily have her killed once she stopped being useful, she decides to take a stand by sabotaging the Goldilocks mission. With the Goldilocks asteroid in orbit around Mars, NASA, Roscosmos and the other M-7 nations would have no choice but to continue funding Happy Valley so that they could access the hugely valuable iridium.

Margo's decision comes at a vital moment in For All Mankind season 4's asteroid heist. With Ed and Dev's Ghost Ops center exposed in sublevel 4, the team had to relocate to the North Korean sector of Happy Valley to continue the heist. Using North Korean communications to reach Massey, Ed, and Dev instructed her on how to gain control of Ranger 2's systems to trigger the Mars orbit capture burn. When NASA realized what Massey was trying to achieve, they wrote a code that would effectively lock Massey, Ed, and Dev out, allowing Ranger 2 to trigger the burn that would send them, and Goldilocks, en route to Earth.

To counteract this and secure the future of Happy Valley, Margo wrote alternative code that would supersede NASA's shutdown command. Knowing that Margo would be unable to plant the code herself, Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña) did it for her. It was a brave final stand, especially as they both knew exactly what Irina and the KGB were capable of. Finally, Margo took the blame for the code, saving Aleida from legal reprisals, and sacrificing her diplomatic immunity. As Margo was taken away from Molly Cobb Space Center in cuffs, Aleida hugged her former mentor, their relationship fully healed after Margo's perceived betrayal in For All Mankind season 3.

How Margot's Arrest Impacts Irina & Roscosmos

Irina Morozova (Svetlana Efremova) returns to Roscosmos from Houston, to find KGB men in her office, looking through her files and asking her to take a seat. As the door shuts ominously behind her, it's clear that Irina's time as director of Roscosmos is at an end. Earlier in For All Mankind season 4, Kiril Semenov was disappeared by the KGB for his failure during the ill-fated Ranger 1 mission. It's now highly likely that a similar punishment awaits Irina Morozova for her role in the failure of the Goldilocks capture mission.

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What Miles' Riot Means For The Future Of NASA

After being brutally tortured by both US and Russian intelligence, Toby Kebbell's Miles Dale snapped and took violent action to prevent the hostile breaching of the North Korean sector. It quickly descended into a riot, with the tensions between the Helios workers and the astronauts coming to a violent head. The fact that the riot very nearly claimed the life of Dani ensured that it made the news back on Earth. In the closing moments of For All Mankind's season 4 finale, NASA director Eli Hobson (Daniel Stern) looks despairingly at a newspaper story about how his organization backed the brutal treatment of detainees like Miles in Happy Valley.

Given that Eli's term as NASA director in For All Mankind season 4 led to a strike, a brutal riot, and the shooting of Danielle Poole, it seems unlikely that Hobson will remain in post for much longer. Now that Ed, Dev, and Margo have secured the future of space exploration, NASA may turn away from capitalists like Stern in favor of a new director who has their eyes on the organization's original mission. Somebody like Will Tyler (Robert Bailey Jr.) would be an ideal candidate for NASA director in For All Mankind season 5.

The Significance Of The Gun That Shot Dani Explained

The gun that shot Dani during Miles' Mars riot was last seen in the For All Mankind season 3 finale. The gun originally belonged to North Korean cosmonaut Lee Jung-Gil (C.S. Lee), who used it to defend himself against Dani and Grigori Kuznetsov (Lev Gorn). After disarming Lee, Dani buried the gun underneath the sand, marking the spot with a wrench. While some fans believed the gun would play a role in what happened to Danny in For All Mankind, it instead played a role in seriously wounding Danielle. A panicked security officer had discovered the gun in the locker of a Helios worker and tried to use it on the rioters, firing it in the ensuing struggle.

Dani was critically wounded, bringing the residents of Happy Valley back together as they all stood vigil outside the sickbay. Once again, Lee's gun strengthened the relations between the Martian astronauts and workers. In For All Mankind season 3, its burial allowed Lee to build relationships with the likes of Dani and Ed. In the season 4 finale, the horror of Dani's gunshot wound reminds everyone of what they're working toward, inspiring them all to put aside their differences. It's heartening to know that everyone will be pulling together in Happy Valley once more, to start building the positive future envisioned by Margo, Ed, and Dev.

Why So Many North Koreans Are Smuggled Into Happy Valley

Lee's wife is finally smuggled into Happy Valley, but there's a surprise when it's not just Moon Yeong (Chen Chen Julian) who arrives on Mars. Moon Yeong is joined by several other North Korean defectors, fleeing the authoritarian regime for a life on Mars. In Happy Valley, they're building a society free of nationalist boundaries and government persecution, and Ed and Lee both state that they've swapped the Blue Planet for the Red Planet, calling Mars their home. That's clearly why the North Koreans are making the decision to move to Mars, and the operation is presumably being bankrolled by Dev as a thank-you for Lee's role in the Goldilocks heist.

For All Mankind Season 5's Time Jump & 2012 Setting Explained

As is tradition for a season finale, For All Mankind's timeline jumps ahead in the closing moments of season 4. As Dev looks up at the orbiting Goldilocks asteroid, the camera zooms out to reveal Mars in 2012, nine years after the events of For All Mankind season 4. In the intervening nine years, a sprawling facility has been built on top of the Goldilocks asteroid, which is presumably the command center for iridium mining.

The base is named after Grigori Kuznetsov, who tragically died on Ranger 1's first asteroid capture mission in FAM's season 4 premiere. As For All Mankind season 5 will be set 43 years after season 1, making it unlikely that viewers will see Ed Baldwin, Margo Madison, or Danielle Poole in a substantial way. Instead, For All Mankind season 5 will likely focus on the next generation of the space program.

Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu) will continue to search for life on Mars, while Samantha and Miles could find themselves in senior positions on Kuznetsov Station. That's if they've avoided criminal charges for their role in the heist and the ensuing riot. Back on Earth, Aleida will presumably be in charge of Helios' attempts to bring the precious iridium from Mars. At the end of For All Mankind season 4, the future of the space race is looking very bright indeed.

All episodes of For All Mankind are streaming now on AppleTV+.

For All Mankind

Imagine a world where the global space race never ended - For All Mankind is a thrilling "what if" take on history that explores what would have happened in the race to the moon between the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as the space programs and the race's effects on the astronauts and their families in the aftermath. The Apple TV+ series hails from Ronald D. Moore and stars Joel Kinnaman as a NASA astronaut. For All Mankind also features historical astronauts like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.