For All Mankind's Krys Marshall unpacks season 4's frenzied finale

[Editor’s note: This interview contains spoilers of For All Mankind’s season-four finale.]

If there’s one thing For All Mankind will do, it’s deliver a jaw-dropping finale that evokes intense emotions ranging from shock to sadness. The Apple TV+ drama’s fourth season-ender is no different, especially when it comes to everyone’s favorite NASA commander, Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), who remains the show’s beloved breakout.

In “Perestroika,” the fourth-season finale that dropped January 12, the class warfare brewing on Mars comes to a head. A rowdy physical fight breaks out at Happy Valley, endangering everyone on base. As Dani struggles to contain the brawl, she gets shot in the chest and collapses into the arms of Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman), her longtime friend and current nemesis. Now, every FAM fan knows the show isn’t afraid to kill off its protagonists, so even Marshall wasn’t initially sure whether Dani would stick around for the show’s future.

The actor talks with The A.V. Club about her long discussion with For All Mankind’s showrunners about the finale, why she’s excited to spar on-screen with Kinnaman, and the therapeutic process of playing a character who’s aged over four decades during FAM’s run.

Krys Marshall: One of the things I love about For All Mankind is nobody is spared. As we saw in season two, Tracy (Sarah Jones) and Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman) bite the bullet. It happens in the season-three finale with Karen (Shantel VanSanten) and Molly (Sonya Walger). So we know that at any given time, any of us can be killed. There was a lot of back and forth if Dani would make it through season four. Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, our showrunners who also wrote episode 10, and I had a long discussion about what the world would look like if Dani died from her bullet wound. They wrote a version of the script where she dies.

Ultimately, they didn’t go ahead with it. I don’t know if it’s because they personally couldn’t do it or because they have plans for her in season five. But they decided against it. For me, I could see a world where either was a beautiful ending. We tragically lose Danielle, and it’s the kind of gut punch we’re used to with FAM. But I also love that we didn’t go in that direction. We end season four on a relatively more thoughtful, hopeful note. We’ve seen Dani enter [the show] as this twenty-something young woman in an all-male program, a Black woman in an all-white program. She enters that astronaut candidate room in season one shy and anxious. She can hardly speak her name. Now we see her in season four, and she’s an accomplished commander, a mother, and a grandmother. Something is rewarding and healing in watching those final moments of her in the finale, reuniting with her family, and it feels like all is right in the world. But again, it could’ve gone either way.

AVC: A lot of thrilling things happen in the finale. Right before Dani is shot everyone’s fighting and tensions are high. There’s a moment when Dani and Ed share this look, and it holds so much emotion because they’ve been through major downs this season. What was it like to portray their relationship in this critical moment?

KM: Something glorious about telling a story over seasons, but also over four decades, is we get a rich, deep payoff of what it’s like to know somebody for a long time. Anybody who has siblings or is married or has had a roommate for a long time knows that familiarity breeds contempt. The kind of friendship Dani and Ed have, it’s not something that happens over five or ten years. It’s a relationship with someone who’s seen you down and out, who has seen you struggle. Both of them have been marooned on the moon. Ed has witnessed Dani become a widow. Years later, she got to see him go through it.

As seen in season four, these people nearly died in Happy Valley on Mars when they were stuck there for almost two years with food, fuel, and water running out. When you experience something so traumatic with someone, it changes the DNA of that relationship. It’s no surprise that the fracture of this big friendship began years ago and continues to get fractured over time. I do think Dani loves Ed very much, but she’s resentful and angry. She realizes this is what happens when you let a wound fester. We see that come through a head in season four.

AVC: One of my favorite scenes of the season comes in episode five, when Dani finally gets to tell Ed off at the end of their argument. She’s one of the few people who can put him in his place. What was your favorite scene to film?

KM: It has to be that one. All of episode five was difficult for me in the best way. Maybe not difficult, but let me say challenging. Reading the flashback scenes, the moments of Danny Stevens [Casey W. Johnson] breaking down and turning to Dani saying, “Can I please come back?” That moment gave me chills, having to tell him no. She sacrificed her life, she gave him her portions despite knowing they didn’t have enough ration for everyone to make it. For Ed to know how much she did for him, and then Danny taking his own life, and using it against her felt like a slap in her face. He knows good and well he’s gone too far.

As an actor, that scene was a fun challenge. We shot it for maybe six or seven hours, doing a take again and again. Some were very angry, with lots of yelling and tears. Some were quieter, subtler, and more muted and restrained. I’m grateful we work with directors who allow us to stretch it and decide on a variation that feels honest to the characters. I remember ending that shooting day sweating. It felt like we both really left it out in the field. I love working with Joel because he equally loves to go there with me.

AVC: The other thing you both have in common is you’ve been a part of FAM from the beginning. And that means that in season four, Ed and Dani are much older. They’re both grandparents now. You had to use prosthetics to age up quite a bit. What was it like to sit through that process and see Dani at this juncture?

KM: I loved the ritual of doing the prosthetics and makeup. As a little girl, I enjoyed playing with my dolls and I enjoyed watching my mom get ready and apply makeup. It was therapeutic and meditative going through the long process daily. I get to not be afraid of the idea of what it means to be a female actor on TV. I don’t have to worry about “Do I have lines on my face?” or “Am I skinny enough?” or “Do I have lipstick on my face?” These are outdated ideas. I loved that I got to play a woman with wisdom in her eyes. She has age and experience. I saw it as freeing and a badge of honor. It was fun to test stuff during the makeup and ask if we were pushing it too far or not. We didn’t want it to be cartoonish and overt. It had to be a subtle hint of a woman who is in her fifties. We had to do justice to Dani’s age and life story, and I think we did it.

AVC: A big issue Dani deals with in season four is the upper-class/lower-class battle between Helios workers and management. What did you think of FAM tackling this? Did you miss playing that astronaut version of Dani?

KM: Whether mankind is in the depths of a submarine or on Mars searching for life, I think that wherever you go, there you are. So it doesn’t surprise me that at the forefront of space exploration, figuring out ways how to create long-standing habitats on another planet, we’re all still human beings. With us, we bring class warfare, division, capitalism, in-fighting, and jealousy. It’s happening right now on Happy Valley in the show, but it could easily happen in a kitchen sink drama or someone’s living room. I love that part of our story. We’re talking about ways in which mankind interacts with the world. Tethering our story to real human behavior keeps us honest.

AVC: In FAM tradition, the finale ends by hopping over to 2012 to set up the next season. Where would you like to see Dani in a potential fifth season?

KM: Every time I try to make predictions about what might happen next, I’ve been wrong, so I’ve stopped trying. I mean, when we met Dani at the end of season one, she went back to Earth to be there for her partner and help him readjust after his time in the Vietnam War. I assumed that heading into season two, they would have children and be happily married. I did not expect her to be in her early thirties and a widow. They always, always surprise us. We have no idea where season five will pick up. But I have confidence our writers will continue to tell authentic stories fit for our show. One of my favorite things from seeing my progression is there are still glimmers of that young astronaut; she’s present in the Dani of today, too. It doesn’t matter what her circumstances are; she’s always going to be there.

For All Mankind is available to stream now on Apple TV+.

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