Abhiroop Das
Co-created by Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi, and Matt Wolpert, Apple TV’s ‘Star City’ reflects on the world set up in ‘For All Mankind’ from the other side of the Iron Curtain. While the space race is perpetually fueled by one nation’s advancement over the others, there are also several internal battles that are played out on a daily basis, often without any physical weapons whatsoever. One such battlefield turns out to be the eponymous Star City, a military settlement designed to train cosmonauts and advance space research. However, between locked borders and constant surveillance, the many bright minds who live in this town cannot help but feel dimmed out. In the season 1 finale, titled ‘The Wolves,’ we learn exactly what becomes of the cosmonauts aboard Venera, as well as the people supporting them back on Earth. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Star City Finale Recap
‘Star City’ season 1 episode 8 begins by proving that Sergei’s calculations are right, and that the spacecraft Venera really did survive the fire. However, only Sasha and Lakshmi can be seen aboard the ship, which suggests that Valya might not have been as fortunate. Back on Earth, Sergei rushes to the Chief Designer’s home with this message, but has to convey it discreetly, as the whole house is bugged. The problem that remains, however, is that the cosmonauts aboard Venera will likely still get arrested the moment they land in the Soviet Union, which means that they must devise a plan to land the ship in Finland and then somehow communicate it to the cosmonauts without alerting anyone in the process. While the Chief Designer promises to send Sergei the calculations for the pivot in time, there is still the question of transmitting that message.
After convincing his contact in the space center for one more chance at communicating with Anastasia, Sergei awaits the Chief Designer’s calculations, though they come with a cost. The act of alerting Anastasia to the codes doesn’t go unnoticed by Irina, and she alerts Lyudmilla about what might be going on behind their backs. In a flashback sequence, we learn that all three cosmonauts survived the initial explosion, but trouble started when they realized that the ship had been put off-course and was now headed towards the sun. In a desperate and heroic maneuver, Valya chose to sacrifice his own life by going inside the inside capsule, and then using it as a counterweight to change Venera’s direction. However, the capsule can only be operated if someone is inside, which means that Valya has to detach from it and then make his way down to the hostile surface of Venus.
In the present, Anastasia is able to send the codes to a dormant Venera, where it is recieved by Sasha and Lakshmi. As hope fills their heart, Anastasia finds an opening to call Sasha and hear his voice again, promising him that there’s a way out where he survives. Down on Earth, however, Sergei’s exploits are revealed, and he soon gets picked up by the Soviet troops and sent to the Chief Designer’s home, where the veteran is being tortured relentlessly. Unable to see the Chief Designer’s plight, Sergei tells Lyudmilla about the plan, only to learn that the person who was seemingly being tortured was a fake, and the real Chief Designer is alive and well, but arrested. Back in space, Sasha and Lakshmi are able to make the important pivot amidst tight gravitational tugs, just as we get glimpses into the past, of Valya breaching Venus’ atmosphere and landing on the surface for a few glorious moments, before being crushed to his death.
Star City Ending: Why Does Sasha Turn Himself In? Will He Be Killed?
At the end of ‘Star City’ season 1, Sasha and Lakshmi make a miraculous journey back to Earth aboard a run-down, half-destroyed Venera, only to be targeted by the Soviet troops. Though their initial plan is to evade Soviet territories altogether and make a landing in Finland, Lyudmilla learns of this ahead of time and sets up a counterattack. A single aerial strike is all it takes to violently shift the ship’s landing trajectory, leaving it two kilometers short of the Finnish border. As Sasha and Lakshmi desperately run for their lives, battered by Earth’s gravity and chased down by armed soldiers, Sasha makes a curious decision to stay back at the last second, allowing himself to get arrested as Lakshmi walks over to the other side.
Though Sasha’s actions can feel puzzling at first, especially since he was the one pushing the hardest for the journey back home, there are two main reasons for this self-sacrifice. The first is that he allows himself to be the scapegoat, taking the heat off Lakshmi. Had both of them made it to the other side of the border, the Soviet troops might have launched a more serious retrieval campaign, potentially risking Lakshmi’s life even more. In that moment, Sasha identifies her as the one who deserves returning to safety more than him, which is why he lets go, absorbing all of the soldiers’ attention and giving Lakshmi a precious few seconds to complete her journey across borders.
The deeper reason Sasha stays back, however, is that it allows him one last chance to be in Anastasia’s company. Earlier in the spaceship, he laments that making a perfect exit to Finland would mean that he never gets to see Anastasia again, and in the end, we realize that this is not a reality he would ever be happy with. While he is going to be sent for a harsh imprisonment, it is unlikely that he will be killed, given the national significance of the mission. In that case, there might be many more opportunities for him to reunite with Anastasia, even if it’s from the other end of a prison. On the other hand, the Soviet higher-ups might be too keen to bury any and all evidence of this space mission, even if it means killing Sasha. If it means even one more meeting with Anastasia, though, Sasha is willing to take his chances.
Will Anastasia Get Arrested?
While Sasha and Anastasia’s love story gets a tragic ending before it can even fully bloom, an even bigger point of concern is whether she will meet a similarly cruel fate. In order to save Sasha’s life, Anastasia makes the bold move of hijacking her spaceship’s exit capsule and making a sharp landing on Earth, breaking all semblance of order and protocol. While this is exactly the kind of violation that can get someone killed, Anastasia is still in the unique position of being too important and well-known to have an extreme fate. Back when she disobeyed commands during her lunar mission, Lyudmilla threatened her with murder, and the prospect of bringing in a near-look-alike to replace her. However, that was before she became a feminist icon in the Soviet Union, and now she has a lot more soft power.
Killing, or even imprisoning, one of the most famous cosmonauts ever would be a matter of great disgrace to the Soviet Union, which means that, at best, she will be banned from space travel forever, and likely put on house arrest. While this may eliminate her chances of reuniting with Sasha, it is still a fate better than death. To that effect, she can also use her political power to get Sasha a more lenient sentence, as the entire world will likely soon know of what has happened to the couple, and optics are of paramount importance. Nonetheless, with this audacious a move, Anastasia’s time as a cosmonaut has almost certainly come to its end, but it’s likely that she’s had her fill of space and doesn’t hold any of the regrets that she used to.
Will Lakshmi Reunite With Her Husband?
Though Lakshmi is able to make it past the Finnish border just in time, the journey ahead is far from over. To begin with, she has a serious gunshot wound on her leg that needs immediate medical attention, especially when her body has only barely acclimatized to Earth’s pressure and atmosphere. Even past survival, her greatest challenge is a political one, as she will likely have to fight for the Soviets to release her husband, that is, if he’s in their captivity. The last we hear of Lakshmi’s husband is during their attempt to kill Valya, and since then, it is very likely that he has not set foot out of Russia. However, given that the Soviets came to believe that Lakshmi is dead along with her crewmates, her husband may have returned to India.
In such a scenario, Lakshmi’s reunion with her husband and family will likely not be that hard, and the only problem will be one of staying safe from Soviet covert agents, who might be sent to other nations to silence her by any means necessary. The bigger problem, however, is if it’s revealed that her husband didn’t make it out of Russia, as in that case, he will most likely get imprisoned and tortured as a means of putting pressure on Lakshmi. Earlier, with the Chief Designer still retaining some of his powers and prestige, such a fate likely could have been avoided. That is no longer the case, however, and Lakshmi might just get stuck between a rock and a hard place, even after staring death in the face and coming back.
Where is Tanya? Will the Soviets Find Her?
Far away from the political chaos of the finale, one that leaves us with one cosmonaut dead and three in peril, Tanya seems to have escaped the system and started anew. After leaving Irina behind, Tanya most likely gets help from the American agents and settles in Paris, as is implied by a flash-forward scene at the very end of the season. Her new life seems to be one marked by confidence, as everything, from her fashion to her taste in music and her conversations with the local community, indicates a level of freedom that she simply could not experience in Star City. However, not everything is sunshine and rainbows in Paris, as in the very last scene, we see someone tailing her, and it is someone we likely already know.
Though we don’t get a clear look at who this mystery stalker is, it’s very likely that they are the fake US agent instituted by Lyudmilla to smoke out potential traitors early on in the season. While this essentially means that Tanya is doomed, and perhaps only a few moments away from being discovered and arrested, or perhaps even killed, this might be jumping to conclusions. It is equally possible that the person tailing Tanya is an actual US spy meant to ensure her safety, especially as she’s an asset connected to one of their most successful agents to date. While Tanya likely doesn’t know that her husband made it to Venus and then died, she has already made peace with that chapter of her past and is ready for a fresh start, regardless of how she gets it.
What Happens to Irina, Sergei, and the Chief Designer?
Beyond the central characters of the season finale, we don’t get a lot of updates about the fates of Irina, Sergei, and the Chief Designer, and are ultimately left to draw our own conclusions. With Radimir’s campaign effectively reduced to dust, power is likely to return to Lyudmilla, and she has all the intention to raise Irina as her protégé. While things are directly leading up to Irina becoming the powerhouse that she is in ‘For All Mankind,’ there is still a lot of road left to cover. Notably, we still don’t know the details of her past, and how she is connected to some of the most powerful people in the Soviet Union. Moreover, there is still the question of her daughter, who is introduced in this show but is never mentioned in ‘From All Mankind.’ Whether Irina is able to track Tanya down before all hell breaks loose will likely be the event that defines the course of both their lives.
The last we see of Sergei and the Chief Designer is when they are put up in a truck that is likely being taken straight to prison. While the Chief Designer enjoyed a degree of safety before the season finale, that privilege is likely to be rescinded now. A potentially worse fate awaits Sergei, who has now participated in not one but multiple acts of treason. However, based on ‘From All Mankind,’ we know that Sergei goes on to become a very important character and a powerhouse for the Soviet space program. How we go from point A to B will likely be at the heart of his character arc going forward, just like it is the case for the Chief Designer, Anastasia, and many others.
Read More: Is Star City Based on a Real Military Town in Russia?
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