The futures of Earth and Mars hang in the balance as the asteroid capture mission proceeds.
Tropes:
- Allohistorical Allusion: The leak of the torture of Miles Dale is implied to be a similar scandal as the leak about the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib
. - Asteroid Miners: The theme of the season comes to fruition as a mining station is constructed on Goldilocks with the asteroid locked in Mars orbit.
- Bait-and-Switch: Given the show's record for killing off a major character in the season finale, it looks like Dani's gunshot wound is going to be fatal. She actually survives and makes it back to Earth.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ilya saves Miles from being tortured by the KGB agent.
- Big Damn Reunion: Colonel Lee is finally reunited with his wife on Mars.
- Blood from the Mouth: Dani coughs up blood into her oxygen mask while being treated for her gunshot injury
- Call-Back: Margo tells Aleida about when she confronted Wernher von Braun about the concentration camps.
- Chekhov's Gun: A literal example. The North Korean pistol that Colonel Lee brought to Mars and was used by Danny to kill himself ends up in the hands of a Helios worker. It's then found by one of the security deputies during a search and ends up wounding Dani.
- Everybody Lives: In a first for the series, the season ends without any major character deaths.
- Never Suicide: Aleida and Margo quickly realize that Sergei was assassinated by the Russians.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Goldilocks would have made it to Earth orbit, if Irina hadn't had Sergei killed, leading Margo and Aleida to retaliate by sabotaging Ranger 2's engines.
- Perp Walk: The Soviets having waived diplomatic immunity, Margo leaves MCSC escorted by the FBI, in handcuffs and with her head held high.
- Time Skip: The episode ends in 2012, with a mining station firmly established on Goldilocks.
- You Have Failed Me: Implied. Irina returns to her office at Roscosmos to find people avoiding looking at her and men searching through all her papers. As she failed in the efforts to bring the asteroid to Earth and therefore benefit the USSR, her future is in doubt.
