Ed Baldwin and Danielle Poole have been through a lot together throughout For All Mankind. We thought their friendship was unbreakable, but is that the case?
Caution: This post contains spoilers from For All Mankind Season 4, Episode 5.
When Dani was sent up to Mars, there was a lot of emphasis on her being the one who could rein Ed Baldwin in. However, it’s clear that even she can’t do it. Ed is on a self-destruct setting, and it’s going to take a lot to get him out of it.
He’s also an old man stuck in his ways. Dani has grown and developed with the times. She’s weathered the changes, but Ed left NASA and remained with a private company when things didn’t go his way.
Now it looks like Ed’s attitude is going to end a decades-long friendship. Is there anyway to salvage this?
Will Dani and Ed mend their friendship in For All Mankind?
Things came to a head for the two of them in For All Mankind Season 4, Episode 5, although this argument has been brewing for a while. Dani ended up pulling Ed off the asteroid mission, and then removed him from his role as the XO at Happy Valley.
This demotion risks everything. This is something that Ed may not forgive her for, even though it was the right thing to do. And depending on how Ed retaliates, Dani may not be able to forgive him.
Dani and Ed have been through disagreements before and made it through to the other side. Back in Season 3, Ed was supposed to lead the NASA mission to Mars, but Molly’s decision was overruled and Dani was given the position instead. That led to Ed manning the private mission to Mars in an attempt to become the first person on Mars—in the end, we found out that the U.S., the Soviets, and the private company failed as North Korea had already done it without anyone realizing!
The two ended up making up after some harsh words were said. It suggests that they know that they can mend things, but everything goes too far eventually. Is this one of those cases? Has everything that’s happened over the years, including the loss of Danny, just been too much for them?
Well, Kelly is on her way to Mars to work on her research, and she’s bringing Alex with her. This could be just what Ed needs to get him head back on track, which will then help to mend the friendship between Ed and Dani.
For All Mankind Season 4 airs on Fridays on Apple TV+.