For All Mankind Season 5 Just Gave Us The Show's Darkest Space Death [Exclusive]

Spoilers for the "For All Mankind" Season 5 finale ahead.

"For All Mankind" is generally an optimistic show. Its alternate timeline, where the space race never ended, has allowed the series to explore a much brighter reality — one where streaming never took off, climate change didn't become a problem, and so on. But that's not to say the show can't be dark. Quite the opposite, "For All Mankind" has touched upon the gruesome horrors and dangers of space exploration throughout its run. Experiments often go wrong, while things as small as loose screws or bolts have caused monumental disasters and many deaths.

As it turns out, though, the Apple TV series saved quite possibly its darkest death yet for the Season 5 finale. As the Earth-based Off-Planet Expeditionary Force executes a "Dune"-esque invasion of Mars in response to the Martian revolution, Martian resident Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell) plots with the planet's governor, Lenya Polivanov (Costa Ronin), to take down the OPEF command in one fell swoop. Except, by one fell swoop, I mean they're all lured to a single room when Miles increases the oxygen, causing a short-circuit that burns everyone inside alive.

/Film had the chance to speak with "For All Mankind" showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert about the scene and why it was important for Miles to make such a hard decision. Per Wolpert:

"It was a very important scene for us actually because it felt like we're telling the story of a revolution, and it would feel inauthentic if there weren't real difficult moral choices being made by people on both sides. Especially with Miles, this is a character who has confronted those kind of questions of morality throughout his time on the show, and this is probably the most difficult he's had to make."

It's clear Miles and the Martian revolutionaries are backed into a corner. They've been starved by the Earth's governments placing an embargo on food and supplies to the red planet. Now, Earth has sent a kill squad to execute everyone on sight, no questions asked. So, outgunned and outmanned, Miles decides the best course of action is to take out the entire OPEF command, even if it means burning them alive.

As Matt Wolpert noted, "[Miles is] willing to do it because for him, he's fighting for his family, his home, the lives of the people around him, and so, he's willing to make that choice also so other people don't have to be confronted with [it]."

Indeed, this is when Miles becomes a true leader. He's been pushed into that position by others since Season 4, when he inadvertently became a union leader while protesting the treatment of blue-collar workers on Mars. But until now, Miles was reluctant to embrace that role and the responsibility that comes with it. As such, this is Miles willingly becoming a leader capable of making truly hard choices and living with the consequences.

"Throughout history, in these types of revolutions and rebellions, people have to make really ugly choices to get to something that they want and that is important for them," Wolpert added. "So, I thought that Toby [Kebbell] did a great job in that scene, and you really feel the toll afterwards of he knows what he just did and now he's got to live with that."

Unfortunately, the show's resolution to the Mars revolution story didn't hit as hard, but at least we got this shockingly dark moment. You can stream "For All Mankind" on Apple TV.