For All Mankind ended its second season with a devastating twist that shaped how the sci-fi show would work going forward. As one of the best and longest-running Apple TV+ sci-fi shows, For All Mankind is one of the platform’s flagship projects within its genre. When its second run of episodes concluded back in 2021, the finale took everyone by surprise with a shocking pair of character deaths, and For All Mankind has since built on the moment to make it even more compelling. With For All Mankind season 5 on the way, the ripples are still being felt.

For All Mankind‘s alternate timeline begins with the Soviet Union winning the space race, increasing the already-fierce rivalry between the Russians and the USA. The event serves as a huge catalyst, sending the show spiraling off into the realms of historical fiction rather than a biographical drama. Of course, one of the biggest divergences between the show’s events and genuine history is that the space programs of both nations move much faster than they did in reality. At times, the developments don’t feel like science-fiction at all, but they are. However, For All Mankind intentionally lacks the utopian edge.

For All Mankind Season 2’s Finale Came Frustratingly Close To Giving Gordo & Tracy Their Happy Ending

Michael Dorman’s character came very close to winning his wife back for good

Gordon “Gordo” Stevens (Michael Dorman) and his wife Tracy (Sarah Jones) have an incredibly dysfunctional relationship in For All Mankind season 1. Sure, Gordo’s alcoholism and infidelity create the majority of the problems, but it’s still obvious the pair shouldn’t be together. By the beginning of For All Mankind season 2, they have finally called it a day. As the season progresses, Gordo gets several opportunities to win back the mother of his children, and he pulls it off when they’re stationed together at the Jamestown lunar base. Unfortunately, the site of their reunion also becomes their doom.

The Stevens’ sacrifice saves the entire base from annihilation, but it’s still devastatingly upsetting that they spend what little time they have left after reuniting in such peril. The moon is a dangerous environment at the best of times, but heading out wrapped head-to-foot in a makeshift spacesuit made of tape gave them very little chance of survival. For All Mankind even makes the audience dare to hope by showing Gordo and Tracy just about managing to get back in time before their improvised gear fails, making the shot of them dead in the airlock even more hard-hitting.

Why Gordo & Tracy’s Story In For All Mankind Couldn’t Have Ended Any Other Way

For All Mankind doesn’t do happy endings

For All Mankind has bursts of optimism, but space very quickly swallows them up. It isn’t a show that thrives on positive events, and it wouldn’t be nearly as good if it did. It was always unlikely that Gordo and Tracy would have survived their dangerous moonwalk, even by real-world logic, but it becomes even more of a certainty that they’d die when it’s considered what show the events happened in.

Allowing Gordo and Tracy to survive and grow old together would have been too off-brand in the grander scheme of things.

Despite all the obstacles faced by the characters in For All Mankind, the Apple TV+ sci-fi show relentlessly tries to build to something approaching a storybook ending. At the time of the season 2 finale, this may not have been quite as embedded in the show’s formula, but in retrospect, allowing Gordo and Tracy to survive and grow old together would have been too off-brand in the grander scheme of things. Still, it doesn’t stop their death from being any less depressing.

For All Man Kind Season 2’s Ending Made Sure The Show’s Future Would Remain Unpredictable

Apple TV+ has made sure it’s impossible to tell where the story will go next

Gordo’s redemption arc receives a great deal of attention in For All Mankind season 2. As such, it seems very much like Dorman’s character is going to get what he wants. Not only will his return to the moon serve as a sort of immersive therapy after his breakdown at Jamestown in season 1, but regaining his physical and mental health is strongly implied to be what he needs to do to win back Tracy. For All Mankind ticks all these narrative boxes, but then makes the last-minute decision to make it all end in tragedy.

The Stevens’ death established a strong precedent for the show’s future. In short, no one is safe, and expecting a happy ending will only end in brutal disappointment. The ethos has even extended to characters who are presumed safe on Earth, as strengthened and demonstrated by the deaths of Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) and Karen Baldwin (Shantel VanSanten) at the end of season 3. For All Mankind‘s season 2 finale wasn’t the first time characters had died unexpectedly, but it made sure the audience knew it would continue.