Heartwarming / For All Mankind

Season 1

"Into the Abyss"

• At first Karen Baldwin shuts down Molly's husband Wayne, but after the two open up to each other about their fears regarding their space-travelling spouses, when Wayne visits Karen's house to watch the Shackleton Crater landing and exploration, she welcomes him in and keeps reassuring him each time Molly hits a snag.
• Ed knows that Molly is the right person to be sitting beside him in the LM while they're descending.
  Ed: This is as close as I got on Apollo 10.
  Molly: Stick with me, kid. I'll take you all the way this time.
  Ed: That's the Cobb I was looking for.
• Ed and Molly finally get what they've been working towards for so long. Ed came so close on Apollo 10 and Molly never even got the chance to start when the Mercury 13 program was canceled, but now they've both landed on the Moon for real. While he definitely recognizes his own personal achievement, Ed also realizes how important Molly being the first woman on the Moon is.
  Molly: Wow!
  Ed: We're really here.
  Molly: I have never wanted a cigarette more in my entire life.
  Ed: You've come a long way, baby!

"Hi Bob"

• Gordo has to be evacuated back to Earth when he starts to crack up mentally. This will not only mean the end of his career as an astronaut, but his flying license will be taken from him. So Danielle 'accidentally' breaks her arm so they have another excuse for the medical evacuation.

"A City Upon A Hill"

• Molly makes a point of telling Margo that her decision not to risk Apollo 25's crew in a rescue attempt was the correct call.
• Gordo personally gives Tracy the gold pin worn by astronauts who have returned from space, reminding her that she swore she’d get it upon entering the program.
• After Marge Slayton has spent so much time working to comfort Karen through the difficulties of Ed being stranded on the Moon and losing her son, Karen is right there without a moment's hesitation to comfort her when she finds out Deke died on Apollo 24.
• Deke Slayton, a member of the Mercury Seven who never got to fly in those missions due to a medical condition, ends up being laid to rest on the moon with a gold pin of his own.
• The Time Skip at the end implies that nine years later, Ed and Karen have come to terms with Shane's death to have a semblance of a normal life.
  • The fact that, in season two, we learn that they adopted a daughter makes the moment even better.

Season 2

"Rules of Engagement"

• When Kelly reveals she wants to join the Navy, Ed has a furious breakdown promising to sabotage any attempt to let her go and even orders her out of the house, leading Karen to start shoving him. Many other shows would probably milk this for all the drama it's worth, but instead Kelly nips it in the bud, stopping the fight and refusing to back off until Ed admits his reaction was due to his long-repressed guilt over being stuck on the Moon when Shane died, allowing him and Karen to finally openly discuss those feelings and move forward.

"Pathfinder"

• When Ed puts forward Dani's name as the commander of Apollo-Soyuz, Tom brings up how she broke her arm on Jamestown, and Ed and everyone else in the meeting sticks up for her even though she isn't there and likely will never learn about what they said.

"Don't Be Cruel"

• While in captivity with no explanation in Star City, Dani gets a visit from a Russian who introduces himself only as "an engineer" who has brought her vodka, a sausage, and a knife. Although she is understandably suspicious and is hesitant to sit and drink with him, she accedes and offers the traditional Russian first toast To Absent Friends, which pleases him. The engineer proves to have no malevolent intentions—instead, he shares that he wanted to visit the stars since he was a boy and that in spite of all the cynical political maneuvering around Apollo-Soyuz, he himself thinks that it really could change the world, and assures her that when she is let out of the room she can do it with her head held high.^note The engineer never gives his name but is credited as Sergei Korolev, who was instrumental to the Soviet space program before his real-life counterpart died in 1966.

"The Weight"

• The grave for Deke Slayton that Ed and Ellen dug is still there, but it's no longer a simple stone cairn—it's been adorned with tokens and trinkets that other astronauts have left in tribute to their old leader. Tracy visits it when the base commander takes her to task and gains a measure of comfort and clarity by "talking" to him—a habit she's shown to continue when her frustrations with the tedium get too much.

"The Grey"

• When the Apollo/Soyuz docking mission is successfully completed, Ellen receives a phone call from President Reagan. Expecting to be chewed out because she disobeyed his orders, she is instead surprised when he tells her "It's beautiful." Soviet Premier Andropov feels the same way as Reagan, and the two world leaders use it as a catalyst to start de-escalating tensions between the superpowers before a nuclear war breaks out.

Season 3

"Polaris"

• After Season 1 and Season 2 having so much tension between Margo and Aleida, it's great to see that Margo has become a part of Aleida's family and the two are on such good terms.

"Game Changer"

• Ellen and Larry are shown to be raising a child together.

"All In"

• At dinner in The Outpost, Karen and Ed take it for granted that Kelly will be joining them over at Helios instead of sticking with NASA. Kelly has some natural trepidation over telling them that she's not (because she's just persuaded Dani to make her Sojourner's biologist). After a Stunned Silence, Ed gets up from the table... so he can give her a big hug and say how proud he is that she wants to earn her achievements on her own two feet, and the three of them fall into ribbing each other over who's going to win the race to Mars.

"Happy Valley"

• Rolan Baranov, the Soviet defector from Season 2, is now a member of the Sojourner's crew, having obtained an American citizenship, established a family and embarked on a successful career within NASA with his aerospace engineering expertise. He even gets into the spirit of Operation Jolly Roger (Sojourner deploying a solar sail to take the lead the the race to Mars), as a testament to how well he has integrated into the American way of life.
• Upon learning that the Soviet mission is in trouble, Ed takes all of five seconds to decide to go to their aid, even though this would mean Phoenix won't have enough fuel to make it to Mars.

"Seven Minutes of Terror."

• Karen's message to Ed while high on "gooballs" (homemade marijuana edibles) is super-sweet and rather cute. Pity that it's not Ed we see watching the message.
• The reaction of the joint NASA/Roscosmos crew winning the race to Mars. Everyone in Mission Control is overjoyed, be they American or Soviet. The bitter rivalry between these two nations sparked the colonization of the Moon and nearly lead them to the brink of war. Now they're about to explore another world together.
  • Special mention goes to the interaction between Margo and Sergei. Their relationship was pushed for all the wrong reasons by the Soviets and will almost certainly cause trouble for Margo down the line, but it was also what sparked the cooperation between NASA and Roscosmos (officially or otherwise) that resulted in this moment.
    Margo: We did this, we made this happen.
    Sergei: Yes, we did. We did!
  • There's also Danielle's radio call of a safe landing, informing NASA that Sojourner had safely landed "eight human beings" on Mars. Not x Americans and y Russians, eight humans.

"Bring It Down"

• While Jimmy is on a mission to infiltrate the JSC, he is taken aside by an astronaut who knew his parents and shows him a memorial board for Tracy. He reads a letter from a little girl who became inspired by her, and for the first time, realizes just what his mom meant to people.

"The Sands of Ares"

• When it becomes clear just how badly things have gone on Mars, Dev snaps out of his Heroic BSoD and promises Karen that he'll do everything in his power to find Ed. He may be a jerk, but he's definitely not a villain.
• Dev and Margo finally open up to each other during a lull in the rescue planning, with the former sharing his father's backstory, and the latter reassuring him that the mistakes that have been made with the Mars mission shouldn't detract from everything else he's achieved. Followed up by Dev being the one to figure out how to save Ed and Danny.
• Ed comforting Danny after the latter blames himself for Shane's death and everything that's gone wrong with his life since.
• When Alexei dies, Ed sees how despondent Kelly is over his death and quickly realizes that they were more than just fellow astronauts, bringing her over to give a fatherly hug.

"Coming Home"

• Ellen comes out, and along with that, announces that not only will gay men and women be able to openly serve in the military, but Will will also be granted a Medal of Freedom. Everyone back on Mars celebrates accordingly and Baranov even apologizes for his homophobia toward Will earlier in the season.

Season 4

"Glasnost"

• The opening newsreel has a couple of bombshells:
  • Ellen managed to legalize gay marriage during her second term, and by 2003 she and Pam are now, finally, Happily Married.
  • After decades of hostility and Realpolitik, the United States and the Soviet Union have put their differences aside and formed an alliance to explore and develop Mars together. The Cold War is over.
  • Shortly after the bombing, the Johnson Space Center was renamed as the Molly Cobb Space Center, in honour of the first American woman on the moon who died attempting to escort people out of the collapsed building to safety.