Away

Houston, Atlas. Initiating descent.

T-minus seven minutes to touchdown.

Atlas crew, prepare for atmospheric entry.

- -

- -

Commander!

Time to wake up.

- Wake up, wake up, wake up! - Hey.

You were supposed to remind me to set my alarm.

- What time is it? - After eight. Get dressed.

I can hear my dad downstairs. He'll kill us both if he finds you here.

Your dad doesn't know you and I got back together?

No, and he's still really on edge

because we haven't got my test results back,

so we should definitely tell him about us on the day my mom's landing on Mars.

Lex, breakfast!

Oh, breakfast sounds good.

Very funny. Get dressed.

Come on. I can sneak you out this way.

What's wrong?

Nothing. I know another way out. Come on.

- Wait up a second. - Isaac...

Just one second. I wanna show you something.

Lex!

I'll be right down.

- What? - Remember the night you spent in my truck?

Took a picture while you were sleeping.

- Okay, that's creepy. - Not of you.

Check it out.

See how one of them kinda looks redder than the rest?

That's Mars?

I know you gotta watch the landing with your dad.

I just... wish I could be there with you.

Me too.

- Send me that photo? - Already did.

- I'll be as quiet as a mouse. -

Okay...

I know you're into eating a big meal to settle nerves, but, Dad,

this is ridiculous.

Here's what I'm thinking. We invite a bunch of people over.

Mel, Cass, your entire soccer team...

We let them distract us before we go to NASA for the landing.

Keep our minds off of what's about to happen.

Have you not looked out front?

No. Why?

I just don't think this is the best place

to take our mind off of what's about to happen.

Is there a journalist out there?

NASA told them our house was off-limits.

Yeah, well...

And I thought the Pegasus landing was intense.

Nope.

What?

You're not gonna spend the next ten hours with cameras in your face

asking about nightmare scenarios that will never happen.

What are you saying?

You wanna get out of here?

Let's go over this one last time.

Misha, Kwesi, Lu, you'll batten down the hatches in here

while Ram and I complete the checklist upstairs.

I want everyone suited up by 19:30,

at which point we'll ascend to the command module,

and Ram will initiate the landing sequence.

Right. If you've never experienced a landing before...

You're obviously talking about me. You can just say "Kwesi."

Well, none of us have landed on Mars before, my friend.

Yeah.

We'll be entering the atmosphere

at approximately 20,000 kilometers per hour,

and we'll have less than seven minutes to slow down.

Ideally to zero kilometers per hour, Kwesi.

Right. We're gonna be pulling 8 Gs,

and our ship will be engulfed in fire.

For all intents and purposes, we will be riding inside a comet,

and when our retro thrusters engage,

it will feel like an explosion has gone off inside the rocket.

- -

- Commander! -

We'll be landing here,

in Utopia Basin.

Pegasus will be waiting for us 300 meters to the east.

Assuming Pegasus didn't burn up into a million pieces.

Pegasus will be exactly where it's supposed to be.

Per the international agreement, we'll remain on board

while Lu touches down

and transmits her photograph back to Earth.

Yeah.

Someone's about to become more famous than Neil Armstrong.

Can I say one thing?

Ten hours from now,

we are going to be standing on Mars.

They're here.

You ready to make our great escape?

Let's do this.

- - You know, your mom's a real badass.

I know.

Where are we going?

To see a friend.

- Thanks again for having us out. - Not a problem.

Oh. And that's for you, Matt.

You don't think I'm seriously gonna wear this?

Wear the hat!

I'm definitely with Cass on this one.

- Yeah. -

Y'all ready to do some riding?

Hey.

So, I never thanked you for being so cool

and not telling my dad when I spent the night with Isaac.

I mean, we still haven't gotten my results back from the CCM test, and...

Don't do that, okay?

- What? - Use your health to...

What?

Well, you've been keeping this secret from your father for two weeks,

and now I'm an accomplice to that.

An accomplice? Really, Mel?

You two okay back there?

Yeah, we're good.

You are go to cease centrifugal arm rotation.

Copy that.

Let's get this ship ready for landing.

Confirming rotation is ceased and all systems are nominal.

Commence retraction of Zvezda, Unity, and Zarya on my mark.

Three, two, one.

Agh. Come on.

What?

What is it?

- We've got an issue with the solar panels. - Oh, you've gotta be kidding me.

Of course I am.

But you should see your face right now.

You think that's funny?

Come on, Emma, I was just lightening the mood.

What is going on?

Can we get back to the checklist, please?

Is this about what happened during our spacewalk?

When I said how I feel?

Ram.

Because if I crossed a line, then I'm really, really sorry.

But I thought we might be about to die.

We still might.

What?

Okay, you need to tell me what's going on.

And it's not a matter of if you crossed a line,

you did cross a line.

I'm your commander.

- I have a responsibility. - I know you're my commander.

- And you can't compromise that by... - I wasn't compromising anything.

Whatever you feel for me, I do not feel.

Understood, Commander.

Ram...

Like you said, we've got a checklist to complete.

Excuse, uh, naive question,

but why... why are we saving these plants?

They're dead. What's the use?

Uh, the organic material can be repurposed to build an even better garden on Mars.

If only everything lost on this journey could come back, huh?

You know this one?

So, blind man walks into bar,

picks up his seeing-eye dog, starts spinning it.

Barman says, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Just looking around."

- Misha. - Yeah?

It occurs to me, I never said I was sorry.

Sorry for what?

Well, it must be terrifying to lose your vision.

Kwesi...

No, when a piece of my heel floated away, I got scared, and that was just my foot.

But Ram assured me that it was natural.

No, more than that. Necessary.

To survive space, our bodies must adapt.

So, perhaps losing your vision isn't such a bad thing.

Oh, believe me, Kwesi, it's, uh, it's bad.

Or perhaps...

you're ahead of the curve.

Ahead of the c... Mmm...

You're saying what? That we all will go blind in space?

I'm saying we will learn to see in a different way.

Uh, Kwesi?

I was thinking, before we begin to descend,

I hoped you might say a few words?

Are you asking him to... to pray? What?

Lu, since when are you religious?

No. No, I'm not. I'm just, uh...

Okay.

I'm going blind,

Lu finds God...

Lu, I would be honored.