For All Mankind: How Is Ed Baldwin Still Alive In Season 5?

This article contains spoilers for "For All Mankind" season 5, episode 1, "First Light."

One of the best sci-fi shows on Apple TV is almost back! "For All Mankind" is a fascinating piece of hard sci-fi because it spends so much time building verisimilitude for its fictional universe, while also occasionally pulling some truly insane Bugs Bunny-style cartoonish shenanigans.

The show takes place in an alternate timeline where the Soviets put a man on Earth's moon before the U.S., which creates a ripple effect that causes the space race to never end. The two superpowers are instead set on a never-ending space and technology race that allows humanity to reach the cosmos. It's a rather inspirational show about how we could have prioritized science and made the world a better place — and how we still can. But while the science is sound (or at least believable according to NASA consultants), one thing just doesn't make any sense. No, not the Martian colony, or the attempts at finding alien life, or how "For All Mankind" seems to be going full anime in season 5. The most unbelievable part of this Apple TV show is that Joel Kinnaman's Ed Baldwin is still alive.

Though "For All Mankind" has an ensemble cast that grows and changes with each season thanks to the show's time jumps and frequent killing of characters, Ed has been with us from the start. Considering every season jumps ahead a decade in time, starting in 1969 and reaching 2012 in season 5, that is an obscenely long time for Ed to still be around. Not only is the man 81, but he's gone through so much that it shouldn't be possible for him to still be alive.

So, how is Ed Baldwin still alive, exactly? Let's investigate.

Let's start with why Ed Baldwin should be dead. He's a daredevil test pilot and veteran astronaut — careers that don't exactly correlate with long lifespans. Ed has experienced many potentially life-ending disasters throughout his long career, and somehow survived them all. He's outlived his first wife, his son, his best friend ... heck, his best friend's entire family. He's been stranded on the moon for nearly half a year. He survived the explosion of the Polaris Orbital Hotel, and even led a revolution on Mars. He is either an actual immortal, or the luckiest man on the planet — a tragic figure destined to outlive humanity, fated to take the species to the stars.

Throughout all of this, Ed has also somehow managed to stay in a position of power everywhere he goes, from NASA to Helios to the colony on Mars. It's borderline ridiculous just how "For All Mankind" has managed to keep Ed around as a key figure in the story for so long, with barely a demotion or consequence to the man's health.

Which brings me to another point. Being in space exposes you to constant radiation, which heavily increases the risk of cancer. Sure, we still have living astronauts like Buzz Aldrin (who is 96, far older than Ed), but he only really went to space twice, spending a total of 12 days there. By comparison, Ed has spent a significantly longer amount of time in space. He wasn't exposed to the solar flare like some of the other astronauts (RIP Molly Cobb), but he's been in space longer than anyone alive in the universe of the show.

"For All Mankind" is sadly ending with season 6 (for good reason), and to make matters worse, Ed Baldwin probably won't see the end of the story. Throughout the first episode of season 5, Ed is seen with a pretty nasty cough — in addition to the hand tremors he had for most of season 4. Turns out, decades of prolonged exposure to radiation while in space have finally taken their toll, and Ed has stage three cancer. Worse for him, his flying days are over. As Dr. Dimitri Mayakovsky (Goran Ivanovski) explains to Ed, exposure to rapid change in pressure can give him a seizure or cause internal bleeding.

Ed Baldwin is a tough sumbitch and an extremely stubborn guy. Of course, he hasn't told his family about his diagnosis, as he most likely is in denial and will continue to avoid acknowledging his mortality.

Co-creator Ronald D. Moore has long said that he views the show as a sort of prelude to "Star Trek" (via TrekMovie.com), meaning that the alternate history of the Apple TV series could theoretically lead the way to the bright and technologically advanced future of something like "Star Trek." Well, there is at least one instance of human consciousness being transmitted to a robot in that franchise, so why not do that to Ed?

We've established that the show is seemingly incapable of getting rid of this octogenarian daredevil, so if explosions and starvations can't kill him, why should cancer? Let Joel Kinnaman trade the heavy old man makeup and prosthetics for a cool sci-fi robot suit!

We'll see if Ed takes one more giant leap for mankind as "For All Mankind" season 5 continues weekly on Apple TV.