‘Star City’ Cast Unpacks New Arrival, Surprise Hookup & More in Episode 4

There was a new arrival to Star City in this week’s episode as the Chief Designer’s (Rhys Ifans) Venus mission began to fully take shape. Meanwhile, things took a steamy turn for two cosmonauts, and Valya’s (Adam Nagaitis) betrayal was finally uncovered. Warning: Spoilers for Star City Episode 4, “Dark Forest,” ahead!

The episode began with a flashback to showcase how Valya first became an American asset; as it turned out, Tanya (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) had been under surveillance for dissident associations before meeting Valya, and her illegal activity was enough to flip him, after they were married… which certainly explains his lashing out over the contraband music from last week’s episode.

In the present day, Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin) was under immense pressure to find the culprit behind the transmitter and enlisted Irina (Agnes O’Casey) to run point on the investigation while she took a tongue-lashing over it in Moscow. Though Raskova was assured she didn’t need to worry for her own safety, she knew that was not true.

“There is no trust, and it’s all about just keeping your head above water,” Anna Maxwell Martin explained of her character’s mindset. “That’s all she’s doing moment to moment.”

Speaking of distrust, Tanya was still reeling from seeing Valya speaking with his handler — whom she thought might be a lover — and consulted with Sasha (Solly McLeod), who was taking his fellow cosmonaut’s death to heart and blamed himself for the costly mission failure.

Belikova (Alice Englert) was also despondent upon learning that she would never fly another space mission again and was instead resigned to live out her days as a figurehead for the Soviet state. After a booze-fueled romp with some well-meaning schoolteachers with rockets, her “husband” Sasha brought her home, and the two had a war of words that turned surprisingly romantic.

“I was surprised, to be honest. I think it was because, in many ways, they were both people who are trying to cope…. They’re both pretty odd, and they’ve been trying to go about it different ways. And I really enjoyed it. I like their connection because I think they actually know each other,” Alice Englert said of the characters’ unexpected hookup. “They weren’t trying to come off a certain way. They’re still trying to figure themselves out. But I like it, because I feel like there’s a mutual respect, there’s a, ‘You’re a human being,’ feeling to it. I think before that, Sasha tended more to romance, there was more intrigue…”

“It’s a more raw version of Sasha,” Solly McLeod agreed of Belikova’s impact on him.

The episode also marked the arrival of Lakshmi (Priya Kansara), a brilliant scientist who was recruited specifically for her work on oxygen replenishment in space travel. Though she had a less-than-warm reception to Star City, and her husband was terrified of being surveilled in their home, she was still delighted upon finding out she was essential to the Chief Designer’s secret mission.

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“It’s terrifying moving to another country, going to a place where nobody knows you and starting work in a place where you’re not already necessarily established,” Priya Kansara said. “But something that I think is really incredible about her is her strength. She walks with all of her strengths, which really is her confidence, and she knows that she’s good at what she does. And that’s the thing that I think she keeps coming back to whenever she feels unsure, whenever she’s uncertain about the place that she’s in, she’s like, ‘Oh, no, wait, you’re a brilliant scientist.’ That’s really her kind of anchor, and it’s the thing driving her. So it was really wonderful to play with those quite conflicted emotions and to discover this world as she does, whilst also being wonderfully strong throughout the whole thing.”

She was chosen, alongside a reluctant Sasha and an eager Sergei (Josef Davies) to not only aid in the mission, but also to man it.

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As for why she agreed to it, Kansara estimated, “In the show, it feels like they have a choice. I feel like they also don’t think they have a choice because of the surveillance and how stringent everyone is, and how the system works there. And so also, she kind of goes along with it because she has such a deep passion for this work and for space. But I mean, if you have the opportunity, and you love what you do that much, you might not want to say no because you know that opportunity might not come along again, and she’s very determined to be the best that she possibly can in her field, and so this feels like that opportunity for her as well. So whilst it’s quite conflicting and it feels dangerous and scary, I think, again, it’s how that drive and that passion for the work always comes to the forefront for her. ”

Sergei was, of course, a major part of the story in For All Mankind, but for Josef Davies, getting to bring this new, as-yet-unexplored side of him to the fore in Star City was a true treat.

“He’s such a pivotal, amazing character in For All Mankind. It was amazing to be able to tell a different story of his. I think a lot of the main focus on the Sergei story at that point is, of course, the love story with Margo,” the actor said. “So, it was nice to be able to tell a completely different side of him, which is the younger, more energetic, hungry, driven person, and to see how that is molding him, to see who we eventually get to see at the end. So, it had to feel familiar, and it had to feel like everyone knew him already.”

Of course, the biggest development of the episode was Irina’s discovery of Valya’s dark secret, as she identified the mystery transmitter piece as part of his cologne bottle. Dun dun dun….

Star City, Fridays, Apple TV