Line #7 Recap/ForAllMankindS02E07DontBeCruel


1	The shocking loss of a key NASA official may ruin the planned U.S.-Soviet mission.
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3	!!Tropes
4	* AmbiguousSituation: Bradford offers logical refutations to the idea of [=KAL=] 007 really being used for espionage, viz, the insecurity of using a commercial airliner owned by another nation, and naming a different type of aircraft as the source of the photos he later shows Margo. However, the way he says this leaves his truthfulness open to interpretation.
5	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In real life, while the ''Buran'' did seem to borrow a lot of the American space shuttle's design, the ''Energiya'' was actually a liquid-fuel booster system rather than a solid-fuel. It did not have the same O-ring flaw that doomed ''Challenger''. Of course, the show is Alternate History.
6	* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Thomas Paine died of cancer in 1992. Here, he is killed when Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet fighter.
7	* DisconnectedByDeath: Thomas is on the phone with Margo when the Soviets shoot down his plane.
8	* DontBeRidiculous: The Air Force colonel says that the Russians may have thought [=KAL=] 007 was equipped as a spy plane. When [=NASA=] asks if it ''was'', he replies with this phrase and points out that the plane was property of a private company based in a different country, and therefore it would make little sense to use it for sensitive US espionage operations.
9	* ForWantOfANail:
10	** While the episode takes place three years before it actually happened, NASA had already identified the flaw in the O-ring that caused the ''Challenger'' disaster and corrected it.
11	** The engineer who speaks to Danielle Poole doesn't give a name but is credited as Sergei Korolev, who was known as the father of the Soviet space program. The real Korolev died in 1966, and his survival into the 80's is an implicit factor in the Soviets beating America to the Moon.
12	* KilledOffForReal: Tom.
13	* MiseryPoker: When Danielle complains about being jailed in her room, the Russian engineer says that a nice warm hotel is ''nothing'' like jail and begins describing what actual Soviet prison is like in a way that makes very clear he was in one himself. (Sergei Korolev ''was'' arrested in one of Stalin's Great Purge and nearly starved to death in a gulag.)
14	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: It's clear the loss of Tom (not to mention how she could have been on the same flight if not for a family emergency) is shaking Ellen to the point she's willing to let NASA be militarized rather than lose anyone else.
15	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Despite orders not to, Margo, while not openly saying it, is able to warn Sergei of the flaws in the Soviet's shuttle to prevent a disaster that would kill hundreds.
16	* StandardSnippet: Invoked; when flying the marines to the lithium mining site, Helena starts humming Wagner's ''StandardSnippet/RideOfTheValkyries'' over the radio, and everyone on the craft joins in.
17	* ToAbsentFriends: When Danielle sits down with the engineer, she offers a toast to fallen comrades in the Russian tradition, pleasing the engineer with her knowledge of their customs.

Context Recap / ForAllMankindS02E07DontBeCruel