Clearly, the creators of For All Mankind aren’t going to spoil anything. They’re not going to craft a mysterious, potentially game-changing finale and then just explain what it all means in an interview. They want you to come back for the sixth and final season. And we’ll do just that.
That doesn’t mean, however, they have nothing to say about it. And, in a new interview, showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert discussed all the big moments in the season five finale and how they’ll play into season six. Without revealing anything specific, of course.
If you haven’t finished season five of For All Mankind, beware of spoilers.
In an excellent interview with Collider, Nedivi and Wolpert addressed all our burning questions. Why kill Kelly? What did she see? What does that Russian ship mean? How important will the aliens be next year? You can read the full interview at that link, but here are just a few of the highlights.
Starting with Kelly, Nedivi and Wolpert revealed that while they knew they were going to kill her father, Ed, early in the season, it wasn’t until a little later that they realized Kelly had to go too. Partially, it was because she never got to reveal the reason they were on Titan—she disobeyed orders, a truth that her captain, Walt, never found out about. “I think that’s what you feel in the finale when she says it should be her, that it’s not only right because of the reason she gives Walt, in terms of his family and Alex being grown at this point, but also because we know that a big reason they’re on that planet is because of what she did on the ship,” Nedivi said. “So, in a way, it’s the thing she isn’t saying that is also to us one of the justifications for why that sacrifice makes sense. Which is not to say it was an easy one for us to make dramatically, because we’ve grown so close to this character and to that actress over the years.”
As for her walking into the pool of methane and seeing the creatures she helped discover, it seems as if there was no larger implication there other than it was a fitting way to send her off. “That was something we kind of found in the writing, because we were looking for a way to basically not have it just be depressing, and it was such an emotional, grief-stricken moment,” Wolpert said. “The self-sacrifice was beautiful, but it was tragic, and to give her that last glimpse of, ‘Oh, this is bigger than I ever could have conceived it was,’ and then her walking into that pool of liquid methane and seeing the life that she’s been looking for decades surrounding her and giving her that last positive moment at the end felt like a really nice combination of sadness and joy.”
When asked about what the discovery of life on Titan means for the future of the show, Nedivi was a little more revealing, but not much. “I think the show is always pointed towards a more hopeful future,” he said. “I think this season in particular has been quite dark with what happens on Mars, but we felt this storyline was the thing that would carry us into the final season of the show, and so we always knew where we were going with it in terms of this discovery. We didn’t know exactly how it would play out until we were writing it, but I do think this moment is a symbol of where the show is going and what the focus of the show will be moving forward in terms of this discovery. The ones who left Titan only think they had a small sample, they’re not realizing that this amount of life exists and what that means in terms of future exploration, so I think that’s definitely been one of our focuses as we get into season six, but of course we’re not going to talk about it more than that.”
As for what that final time jump to 2020 means, with the Russian ship just floating into space and coming to life after decades, all they’d confirm was that it’s important. “I would say what we want people to take away is an intriguing question about, yes, there’s this dead ship that’s been floating in space for decades, and is coming back to life, and there’s an opaque message, and what does it all mean, really, which will fuel some of the story of season six,” Wolpert said.
The pair are currently filming season six, which will finally see the show reveal what our present is like in this alternate timeline. And, considering humans are living on Mars and have discovered proof of life in the galaxy, we’re guessing it’ll be quite different.
Head over to Collider for much, much more from Nedivi and Wolpert on the finale of For All Mankind season five. It’s currently streaming on Apple TV.
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