(Star City, Episode 4) takes the series further into Cold War paranoia, showing just how much foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated the Soviet space program. As the investigation of the recent spacecraft incident heats up, personal relationships start to crack under the weight of secrets, suspicion and political pressure.# The Americans Close In
The episode opens with an American operative who has been trailing Valya and Tanya for years. Photographs and surveillance reports indicate that Tanya was the primary target at first. Her interest in Western culture and music was viewed by intelligence handlers as a weakness.
But the Americans soon found a better way. Instead of recruiting Tanya directly, they decided to put pressure on Valya. They threatened to ruin his wife and destroy her life. They forced him to cooperate. This explanation finally puts an end to the hard situation Valya has been through all season.
Unfortunately Tanya doesn’t know the truth. She is sure that her husband is unfaithful to her and starts looking through his things for proof, but is unable to find anything to substantiate her suspicions.# A New Direction for a Sabotage Investigation
Lyudmilla is still leading the investigation into the spacecraft failure at Star City. As the engineers inspect the wrecked vehicle, they find evidence that suggests espionage, not mechanical sabotage.
Sergei discovers a hidden micro-transmitter apparently installed after the craft was finished. The finding confirms someone deliberately broke into the program.
Lyudmilla’s discovery places her in opposition to the Chief Designer. He criticises her actions in the previous mission openly, saying her interference put the whole operation at risk. Their disagreement is a sign of mounting tension between political control and scientific direction.# Lakshmi Comes on Board with a Key Role
The story welcomes a major new character in the form of Indian scientist Lakshmi Chadra, who arrives at Star City with her husband, Manu.
Neither is met with a particularly warm welcome. Manu gets suspicious of his environment, feeling that he is being watched at every turn. Given the atmosphere of surveillance throughout the series his fears are hardly unwarranted.
Later, Lakshmi finds the Chief Designer working late into the night. What starts out as a casual conversation quickly becomes an important recruitment effort. He appreciates her skills and asks her to be part of an ambitious future mission to Venus, becoming the subject of the program’s next big goal.# The Search for the Mole Gets Hotter
Lyudmilla wants to know where the transmitter is coming from and sends Irina to find out. She even arms her with a pistol, emphasizing the importance of the mission.
Lyudmilla interviews scientists and engineers while Irina is more direct. Her search eventually leads to a suspicious individual trying to destroy documents in a supply room. She burns all but a small amount of paperwork before she can intervene, but the encounter is confirmation for her that someone is actively covering their tracks.
The irony is that neither of the women knows that the person involved in the conspiracy is Valya.# Grief Still Haunts Crew
The emotional impact of Arseni’s death continues to be a major focus.
Sasha is overwhelmed with guilt that he should have done more in the failed mission. The shuttle pilot blames himself for the tragedy and finds it more and more difficult to support his grieving wife as he tries to cope with his own trauma.
Valya cuts him off before he can say something that will get him in trouble and says that they should worry about staying alive, not about pointing fingers and assigning blame. The advice is uncomfortable for its hypocrisy, given Valya’s own secret activities.
And Anastasia, meanwhile, is still out on the road, a beloved hero. She talks about her accomplishments in space and motivates many citizens. But below the public adulation she appears increasingly frustrated and out of touch.
For the first time, she might be accepting a painful reality: that spaceflight may not be in her future.### A New Mission Emerges
The investigators go after spies. The families deal with their own turmoil. And the Soviet space program continues.
The Chief Designer gathers a team for a daring new mission. Sasha, Pavel and Lakshmi had been chosen as the principal players, Lakshmi’s advanced life-support system being pivotal to the project.
The schedule is extremely aggressive. The team is told that launch preparations will start immediately, and the mission will leave in only three days.
The statement aggravates an already tense situation.# An Expensive Error
More and more evidence is coming in, but Lyudmilla makes the wrong conclusion.
She believes Sergei to be the mole, and orders his arrest. Another obstacle in the search for the real perpetrator is his public dismissal and imprisonment.
The decision shows how dangerous assumptions can be in a system motivated by fear and political pressure. The real spy is still out there, but an innocent man is paying the price.# Irina’s Big Find
The biggest development of the episode comes when Tanya visits Irina.
Irina gets up to go to the bathroom, while Tanya is talking about her worries about Valya. There she discovers something odd, concealed inside a bottle of perfume.
It turned out that the object was a spring connected to the transmitter that had been found earlier during the investigation.
The entire case is transformed in an instant.
This discovery doesn’t answer everything, but it brings the investigators closer than ever to exposing Valya and the secrets he has worked so hard to hide.# Recap of Episode 4
Episode 4 is one of the strongest episodes of the season finally giving context to Valya’s actions. The series does not depict him as a willing traitor, and instead shows a man caught in impossible circumstances, manipulated by his devotion to his wife.
Introducing Lakshmi adds a new energy to the story and broadens the scope of the space program beyond its current cast. Meanwhile, the emotional struggles of Sasha and Anastasia continue to bring some of the most compelling character work in the show.
More importantly, the episode ups the ante on the espionage storyline. Irina’s discovery puts Valya in immediate danger, and with Sergei wrongly imprisoned, the investigation seems closer than ever to the truth.
As the Venus mission quickly approaches and several characters reach their breaking points, the series ends the episode on a tense cliffhanger, with the promise of major consequences in chapters to come.## Rating: 4.5 out of 5
An intense episode of espionage, emotional upheaval and major plot points that advance all the major storylines.