The conflict on the moon could spark World War III.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: No real or proposed nuclear device that has ever been sent to space has been as dangerous or lacking as many redundancies as the one that threatens Jamestown in this episode, it's somewhat justified by the General saying that in order to keep it secret they had to forgo hooking it up to said redundancies. But furthermore the throwaway line that a meltdown would "make Shackleton uninhabitable for thousands of years" is not how radiation works.
- Darkest Hour: Midway through the episode the world is on the brink of nuclear war, in space Pathfinder and Buran are in the middle of a standoff that can trigger said nuclear war, and over on Jamestown, the Soviets have seized control of most of the base and are about to take the rest in order to recover the defector, oh and a shootout between the Marines and the Soviet soldiers results in the Jamestown nuclear reactor's coolant system being damaged, so it's about to go into meltdown mode and irradiate the entire Shackleton Crater, killing everyone there.
- Double Tap: The Soviet cosmonaut who kills Paulson first shoots him in the back, then fires two more rounds into his body to finish him off. He's about to do the same thing to Lopez before Webster saves him.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Gordo and Tracy go out with a bang saving everyone, American and Soviet alike.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: "Come As You Are" by Nirvana plays in the end just in time to herald another decade-long Time Skip to the mid-90s just like how "Everybody Wants to Rule The World" played at the end of Season 1.
- Honey Trap: The Soviet higher ups try to use the connection Sergei and Margo have established to turn Margo into an intelligence asset - pointing to how Margo already helped them with Buran.
- Killed Off for Real: Gordo and Tracy.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Margo is naturally not happy to learn there's been a second nuclear reactor on the moon for years.
- Monumental View: Prior to the Time Skip, the last scene of the arc is Margo standing at the Eternal Flame at John F. Kennedy's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. The grave site includes the graves of his then-deceased children—Arabella, a stillborn daughter in 1956; and Patrick, who died two days after birth in 1963—but not one for Jacqueline Kennedy, who would still be alive in 1983.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: What makes the KGB think Margo could be turned into an intelligence asset? Her willingness to warn the Soviets of the danger with the O-rings on Buran.
- Poor Communication Kills: A severe risk in this episode when Pathfinder and Buran encounter each other on the far side of the moon, where their respective governments can't contact them and tell them that World War III has been called off. It's only Ed's decision that keeps the Apollo-Soyuz resolution from being a Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story.
- Take a Third Option: At Sally's prompting, Ed decides to destroy Sea Dragon himself rather than allow Buran to shoot it down or pre-emptively shoot down Buran, both of which would result in war between the USA and the USSR. His actions are subsequently covered up as a mechanical failure on Sea Dragon's part resulting in an explosion.
- Unwitting Pawn: Margo is unaware she's being set up to become this for the Soviets.
- Wham Shot: The Time Skip final scene as a suited figure lands on Mars in 1995.
