Greg Wheeler 29 May 2026
The Chain
Star City Ep 2 begins with Luna 16 returning to Earth after the successful mission on the Moon. It’s still touch and go for a while though, especially as they are 450km off course. Anastasia and Valya crash-land in the wilds, and when Anastasia opens the hatch, she is greeted by a monstrous bear.
Eventually the Russians pick the pair up and take them to safety, where Lyudmilla waits for her. Deputy Chairman Tarasov is here as well and he’s not happy about her outburst with the speech.
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Indirectly, he threatens her not to cross the Soviet Union and keep herself in line.
Anastasia readies herself for a procession through Red Square before taking off for Paris to celebrate Russian victories, but the threat is looming over her head. But she cannot go as a single woman, for that would be bad for the state. They make her marry and, coincidentally, her husband is Sasha.
This guy, you’ll remember, was the one Irina listened to on the wiretapping that mentioned Yana’s family. It enables the State to kill two birds with one stone, to keep an eye on both of them, and also to silence the pair if either of them should step out of line. Irina has to hear them both.
The Chief Designer has his own troubles. The government forces are all focused on this goal, the intense focus on building a Lunar base and continuing the space race, instead of the bigger picture. It frustrates him, however, as the Chief Designer thinks they should look further afield and cast their gaze on the neighbouring planets.
That goes in one ear and out the other, especially when Deputy Chairman Tarasov wants the Chief Designer to accelerate the launch of Zvezda for the Paratrooper’s Day celebrations in a few months. The Lunar base designs are more than a year away, and the Chief Designer can’t believe this reckless time jump. He knows it’s a death sentence but they’re not taking any of it and they make him get to work.
Along with his fellow designers they try to come up with a theory to get the cosmonauts there and set up in one piece. The only interesting idea is to use inflatables, but that’s risky too. However he does go to see Sergei Nikulov that night and question him about his intellect and quick thinking.
The Chief Designer is impressed and calls Sergei in to discuss his secret plans of plotting a mission over to Venus. As long as the officials feel they are working on the Lunar Base, they can work in secret to bring this dream to life.
Of course, it also comes with big risks. They would be defying direct orders from the Central Committee and risking serious trouble if discovered. Sergei hesitates not a second. He nods fast.
Meanwhile the tour to Paris is about to start. Lyudmilla is here to watch over Irina as she begins to set the place up. However, she doesn’t bug the lift, which is certainly an oversight as Sasha and Tanya have a rather heated chat there.
Although Anastasia is still feeling the after-effects of what she went through on the moon.” With all those journos it’s noisy atmosphere in Paris is stifling compared to the peaceful bliss of the Moon’s surface.
Sasha decides to sneak out of the hotel and go exploring with her. They end up in a loud bar, there’s a whole bunch of drunks and people doing drugs. In the toilet Irina is approached by a woman who appears to be working with the Americans.
Anastasia will not play, but the woman leaves her card anyway, just in case. This is enough for Anastasia to make up her mind they should go home. Interestingly, this woman is a plant, placed there to test Irina’s resolve. That night she tells Lyudmilla that Anastasia is loyal to her.
Lyudmilla is determined to make use of Irina’s skills and with fellow worker Galytzin working on the transcribes, the pair jet off to pay a visit to a German prisoner, interrogating him for answers.
They have put Irina in charge of translating everything they are saying as she knows German. Here she sees the brutal reality of what it is in the Soviet Union ranks. Lyudmilla is getting impatient and after a good amount of back and forth, decides she’s just going to blow the man’s brains out if he doesn’t say anything.
Finally Irina grabs a boiling kettle and dumps water on the prisoner’s face. The man screams at him and finally tells him his contact lives at Rykestrasse. He could only get things across the border, but the man seems to be having a hard time getting anything into Star City.
Lyudmilla breaks it up before Irina can find out what it is. She is impressed by Irina’s work.
Through it all, Sasha and Anastasia are eventually married. The Chief Designer was here too and knew that Anastasia would not go to the Moon again. She’s too valuable to the state and they’re not going to let her go.
Meanwhile, security is tightened at the monitoring department as the hunt for the mole intensifies.
Review of the Episode
Star City is back with an interesting episode that ramps up the drama, especially with Irina and Anastasia. Both ladies have their own inner turmoil and it is interesting to see how their paths converge and how they are heading for opposite ideologies.
Irina has begun to toe the line of the Russian way of doing things but by the end of this episode she’s all in on the torture and trying to do what’s “right” for the Motherland.
Meanwhile Anastasia started as a State-planted puppet but through her experiences, she’s evolved and changed into a much more competent player than she ever was before. She’s married to Sasha and doesn’t seem to be the mole, but it’ll be interesting to see how she plays into the story anyway.
The drama has been a bit slow overall, but still endearing all the same, especially with the Chief Designer now working hard on establishing plans for Venus. But the ending does promise things are about to get a lot more intense.