Star City's Creators Explain Episode 3's Big Traitor Reveal [Exclusive]

T-minus 10 seconds until liftoff — of spoilers, that is — for Episode 3 of "Star City."

"Star City" has been one of the biggest TV surprises of 2026, a prequel spin-off series of one of AppleTV's best sci-fi shows, "For All Mankind." This is not just a show explaining the origin of what we already saw in the flagship series, however. "Star City" infuses the alternate timeline love of space exploration from "For All Mankind" with the Cold War paranoia and political intrigue of "The Americans." 

So far, the season has focused on two big plotlines. There's the space story, wherein Rhys Ifans' Chief Designer is publicly working toward a Moon base for the Soviet Union while secretly working on plans to explore Venus.

Then we have the spy thriller story, involving a mole in Star City who is working for the Americans. This is where we get the one big origin story in "Star City," devoted to the best villain in "For All Mankind": Irina Morozova (Agnes O'Casey). The identity of the traitor is finally revealed at the very end of this week's episode, when Ruby Ashbourne Serkis' Tanya and her cosmonaut husband Valya (Adam Nagaitis) go to the opera. Suddenly, Valya disappears, and we see him at the end of the episode talking to a woman. Though we are led to believe, like she does, that he might be cheating on her, the reality is a lot worse. The woman is his handler, and Valya confesses he planted a transmitter on a lunar module that nearly killed the crew. He's the mole.

/Film had the chance to talk to "Star City" co-creator Matt Wolpert, who cited Russian tragic romance literature as an inspiration for this reveal.

"There is this great tradition of tragic romance in Russian literature that was a big inspiration for us in developing the story of the show," co-creator Matt Wolpert said. "I think this concept of this kind of pure love that he has for his wife driving him to do things that he would never have done under other circumstances and putting her above the state."

It is clear from the scene that Valya is not happy with his arrangement and is being coerced by his handler, which Wolpert says is part of the tragedy that he's doing this not out of malice.

"I think that Valya is a patriot on a certain level also, so that makes it even more difficult to betray the country that he serves to protect his wife, or do whatever he can to protect his wife," Wolpert explained. "And so those kinds of decisions that characters are forced to make, that's the heart of drama. In many different ways, I think different characters throughout 'Star City' are confronted with those same choices."

It is clear that "Star City" has more in mind than a clear-cut mole storyline like the ones that were the bread and butter of "24." Just like we get a compelling origin story for Irina Morozova that paints her as an idealist slowly being broken down by the rigid system of the KGB, and just like we have a well-meaning but foolish Chief Designer that acts like Otto Hightower, so too are we getting a traitor story that has more to it than first meets the eye.

His reasons may be complicated, but now we know Valya is the traitor. How long until the KGB finds out?