Across its five seasons, For All Mankind has delivered a sprawling, decades-long yarn. Starting in the 1960s with one change to history, Russia being the first to step on the moon and kickstarting an alternate history fueled by the space race, the series has gone to other planets and entertained fans with its distinct characters and fresh take on what one change would do to the history of the world. At the center of the show, though, despite a massive ensemble, there has been one stalwart character: Joel Kinnaman’s Admiral Ed Baldwin. The latest episode, though, appears to be setting the stage for the thing no fan of the series is ready to accept: Ed Baldwin’s potential exit.
For All Mankind’s New Episode Ends With Ed Baldwin’s Life Unclear
The start of Season 5 of For All Mankind made two things very clear: the first, Ed Baldwin is still very much alive and kicking despite clocking in at 81-years-old, and the second is that he has been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. Ed’s health and inability to die despite countless historic moments have been a running joke for fans, with many believing that the show being renewed for Season 6 could only mean that Ed would appear as a brain in a jar (or have a robot body). Despite this, the new season has made it clear that Ed is not immortal, though he certainly believes he is.
The Season 5 premiere of For All Mankind ended with one kind of cliffhanger, with the arrest of Lee Jung-Gil for the first murder on Mars. This week’s episode picks up almost immediately afterward, though, with Lee being prepared for extradition back to Earth. Ed naturally opposes this, thinking Lee deserves a trial on Mars and that on Earth, he’ll almost certainly be killed by the North Koreans as retaliation. As a result, Ed hatches a plan to help his longtime friend, working with some of his fellow Sons & Daughters of Mars to break Lee out of custody and fly him to the LSJ (??), a base with no extradition with the M-6, allowing Lee to continue living on Mars without being stuck behind bars (for a crime he almost certainly didn’t commit).
The trip is a tough one, with Ed forced into the pilot seat of a hopper to make sure Lee gets out safely. As they make the trip and attempt to get away from the Mars Peacekeepers, things start going poorly for Ed. While flying, Ed’s cough becomes more pronounced, leading to the reveal that he’s coughing up blood. Fans may recall that Ed was told by Dr. Mayakovsky that if he flies again, it might kill him, and it starts to look like the doctor is right. After landing, and when Lee makes his way to the LSJ base, Ed is left alone on the hopper, where MPKs approach with their guns drawn. After they reach Ed, Peacekeeper Celia Boyd (Kinneman’s former The Killer co-star Mireille Enos), finds him unconscious and calls for medical assistance immediately. The episode ends there, making it clear that Ed may have flown his last time.
Ed Baldwin’s End May Be Near
Given everything that Ed Baldwin has been through over the course of For All Mankind‘s five seasons, including living on the moon alone for weeks, piloting the inaugural Pathfinder shuttle, surviving on Mars for months, and even hijacking an asteroid, he seemed invincible. The latest episode concludes in a way that forces us as fans to realize that Ed’s super-sized list of accomplishments had to end at some point.
For All Mankind has never been shy about killing off main characters in the series, either, showcasing emotional send-offs throughout the show, some of them tragic accidents or the results of extreme violence. The series has been prepping the audience for this time from the beginning, and the writing on For All Mankind has never been one about deception or sudden surprises. Things get set up and then paid off, with elements like Aleida Rosales’ developing engines to get to Mars seeded as early as her pyromania in Season 1.
Despite being the lead for the entire series to this point, and largely the main character, For All Mankind has always been about a bigger picture than Ed Baldwin, despite being one of the characters present since the first episode; it’s literally in the name. Assuming that his actions in this episode do go down the road that it seems to be headed, it would be a great ending for Ed Baldwin’s story. Not only would his final act be in helping a friend (a former North Korean, which ties back all the way to Ed’s life before the show as a Korean War veteran), but it would also continue his arc of defending the efforts that it took to make life on Mars a reality. Ed has already made it clear in just two episodes of Season 5 that Earth is far from his mind and that Mars is his home; now it seems like he might die there.
