Spoiler Alert: This post contains major spoilers from the third episode, “Home,” of Season 5 of “For All Mankind,” now streaming on Apple TV.
There’s a bitter irony that Apple TV’s For All Mankind series, which has spent five seasons fantasizing about what it would be like if space exploration never stopped, finally bid farewell to its original space cowboy on the same day that Artemis II returns to Earth after completing its first manned mission around the moon in half a century.
Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman), the pioneering astronaut who fought tooth and nail to help America reach the moon after only helping to colonize Mars 30 years later and losing to the Soviet Union, met his end in the third episode of Season 5, aptly titled “Home.” Apple couldn’t have paid a higher price for the perfect timing and goodwill space marketing of the Artemis II mission. Because the overlapping stories prompted fans to champion the fictional, hopeful story at the heart of “For All Mankind.”
“I think it’s beautiful,” Kinnaman told Variety. “There’s something about this show that I absolutely admire, and I think others do too, that it had the optimism and the courage to strive for better angels.”
This is how Kinnaman sees Artemis’ leap into real exploration, and the hopes for more space missions that come with it. But at the same time, he can’t help but think back to the eight years he lived among the stars of the 1960s space race that never ended, created by the historical revisionists of Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivy, and Ronald D. Moore. Ed was always at the forefront of their mission. A brash, loud, and resolute leader, he risked his life at every turn to earn Americans past, present, and future the bragging rights of having led the charge to the final frontier.
Provided by Apple TV
After all, it wasn’t stuck on the moon, or later on Mars, or even the bureaucratic red tape that brought down the great Ed Baldwin and infuriated him at least once a season. It was time, age, and his body that raised the white flag. During the first two episodes of the season, doctors begged him to rest after being diagnosed with a progressive disease. But did that stop Ed from rallying the Sons and Daughters of Mars to help his friend CS Lee, Earth’s first accused of murder, escape from prison? No, it wasn’t. However, the rescue efforts caused significant damage to Ed, and his body never fully recovered. After sharing some time with his daughter Kelly (Cincy Wu) and grandson Alex (Sean Kaufman), including an adorable scene where they throw buckshot shots at each other while listening to Ed’s wedding song, “Love Me Tender,” he passes away peacefully in his bed at the end of episode 3.
Kinnaman was one of the original cast members of the series, and creators credit him with being a big part of why Apple TV was greenlit as one of the original lineup when it launched in 2019. So killing off the lead actor, even though he was well into his 80s by season five, was a very important part of moving in the right direction.
“Ed, I have to say, as immortal as he is as a show and as a character, and as much as he was at the center of everything, he was the most difficult ending to craft,” says Nedivy. “The more we thought about this season and the new generation coming in with the grandchildren, we felt like we had the motivation to make this handoff while helping to inform Alex’s story and really everything that comes next. We always approach it from a place of asking if there’s more story to tell with the character and what’s best for the show as a whole. This was the first time we felt that answer was the perfect time to say goodbye to Ed, even though it hurt for us.”
The final day of filming brought even more intensity for Kinnaman. The final scene, in which he is reunited with his best friend Gordo (Michael Dorman) and his wife Karen (Chantelle VanSanten) during the early stages of the space program, is a memory of his deathbed moments as a young man. Both passed away several years ago, but have returned to the scene. Due to the nature of the show, Kinnaman has already said goodbye to most of his original co-stars, many of whom died in the show’s various space missions and bombings over the decades. However, the final walk as Ed, walking side by side with Gord, was moving.
“I was completely confused,” Kinnaman says. “The last day of the show was a very chaotic day. I was filming with Michael and I was so touched to meet him because he became a dear friend of mine. All the memories came back and then I said goodbye and gave a little speech to the staff and just had tears in my eyes. It ended around 1 a.m. and then I… I was driving home completely filled with this feeling. But at my house, six of my friends from Sweden were playing a championship with my wife, because they were waiting.”To show up, we all rode up the coast in three big cars to Burning Man, where my wife and I were getting married. ”
Provided by Apple TV
Season 5 of For All Mankind was filmed in 2024, but Kinnaman said he’s still unraveling the emotional milestones packed into that weekend and is proud of the story beats that managed to pay off in Ed’s final episode. The first was a much-discussed but never-seen flashback to his time as a soldier behind enemy lines in South Korea. Kinnaman, Nedivi, and Wolpert talked for years about exploring that part of Ed’s service, resulting in Ed being captured and nearly killed. But those horrifying moments as he fled on foot, wounded, never to be depicted again, stood in stark contrast to the quiet final moments in which 81-year-old Ed found peace in his final hours.
“I remember in the writers’ room saying, if there’s ever a right time, now is the right time,” Nedivi says. “As we get closer to the end, which often happens with our families and people, it felt natural because what comes flooding in are memories from the past. When you see these flashbacks happen, it’s not just random flashbacks. These are memories that he’s reliving in the moment that he’s going through this, and they’re informing him in the present.”
Breaking the dam of his past trauma also allows the memories of Gord, Karen, and their son Shane to enter, and they all welcome him into that proverbial light in the episode’s final sequence. Wolpert says Shane is the one who impresses him the most. Ed envisions Shane at the same age he was when Shane tragically died, so he is reuniting with the perfect version of the people closest to him.
“The amount of loss that Ed has experienced in his life is amazing, so it was important to bring him back to his friends, not to say this was heaven or they were waiting for him or whatever, but to give him the memories of them and his first spaceflight,” Wolpert says. “It was like the first Gemini space flight that he did. That was the beginning of everything for him. Having them witness that and having him go from here on a metaphorical level felt like the right way to bring it all back to the beginning.”
Ed is often held up as a hero among fans and throughout the history of the series, but he was never an easy character. He chastised authorities at every turn, risked multiple missions, and avoided death on multiple planets based on a hunch that he knew better. He was a complicated and sometimes difficult man. Kinnaman thinks they captured the crowd with his death.
“I think in the end they imbued him with all these heroic qualities, but he’s also a selfish bastard with a huge ego,” he says. “Some of his most heroic moments were definitely about his own ego. But he was always ready for a moment of self-sacrifice. He’s always willing to help a friend. I love that in his final act they were able to really capture the whole essence of Ed.”
Before the fifth season premiered, Apple ordered a sixth and final season of the series, which is expected to begin production soon. In the final bit that brings the story to the present, could the death of the mighty Ed foreshadow a similar fate for the last two surviving original characters: the now-imprisoned Margo (Len Schmidt) and the earthbound retiree Daniel (Kris Marshall)?
“You can’t avoid death,” Wolpert said. “But I think it was also important for us to establish early on that not everyone has to die to leave the show. So by the time we’re done, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve killed off all the OGs.”
“We’re bloodthirsty, but not that bloodthirsty,” Nedivi jumped in to add.
Whatever happens next, Kinnaman doesn’t want to know about it. “I asked them not to send me any scripts after I die. I don’t want to watch it. I don’t want a link to the show. I just want to watch it with everyone, because right now I have one and a half seasons to be just a fan.”
It was in the script for For All Mankind that Kinnaman always found the true heart of the show. Although obviously biased, he believes this writing is some of the most underrated on television. He said he rarely received comments from the creators about Ed’s choices and never even had a final request for his character. However, he requested one thing that has not yet been reflected in the program.
“I always wondered, ‘Where are the aliens?'” Kinnaman says. “I kept showing them the videos and I was like, ‘This is happening!'” They always said, “Oh, we’re too down to earth for that.” But I want an alien! ”
