While NASA prepares a relief mission, Karen awaits devastating news in the hospital.
This episode provides examples of:
- Call-Back: In "Hi Bob", Ed mentions having a bottle of Chivas Regal under lock and key at Jamestown. We see him necking it at the end of the episode as he drowns his sorrows.
- Career Versus Man: Thanks to Margo's mentorship, Aleida is accepted to a prodigious maths and physics program, putting her on the fast track to work at NASA someday... just as she's started a relationship with a boy at her current school. Margo tries to impress upon her that she'll have to work ten times as hard as any of the men to be accepted, and that means leaving behind anything "distracting".
- Cassandra Truth: Tracy assumes his seeing a shrink is just an excuse for an affair.
- Death of a Child: Shane is rendered brain-dead from the accident and soon dies.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Ed does this after learning that Shane has died.
- Hope Spot: When Karen gets in contact with Dr. Weddle, the neurologist who works with NASA, to get a second opinion, he seems more optimistic about Shane's condition and his chances of recovery.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Karen is filled with guilt that her last encounter with her son was to slap him in the face and yell at him.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ed thinks the condolences sent to him by the Soviets are some kind of trick or mind game (which, in all fairness, it may have been).
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The commander of the Soviet base sends a fax to Ed about the news of his son out of (possibly) genuine sympathy.
- Token Minority: A pair of astronauts clearly sum up the feelings of many in the public on how Harry and Ellen were chosen simply to check off "boxes" with the public.
