Summary
Star City was never going to deliver a happy ending, obviously, but it does pull off a dynamite can’t-miss finale full of genuine suspense.
It’s only right that Star City caps off Season 1 by continuing the tremendous run of form it picked up in recent episodes. It seems such a shame to me that nobody seems to be watching this in the numbers Apple TV would probably like, since I’ve already explained why it’s a better show than its predecessor, a position I still hold after an excellent ending that doesn’t resolve things, obviously, but pays off the build-up with legitimate tension and excitement.
Episode 8, “The Wolves”, is quite tightly focused as well, which is welcome for a show that was all over the place in its earliest episodes. The key concern is whether the Venera 7 can land safely back on Earth, after it was revealed in the previous episode that the mission may have been a success and the crew might even have survived. This folds in Anastasia’s arc, of course, since she isn’t just up in space for no reason, leading to a payoff that satisfies emotionally, not just plot-wise, even if things are left pretty up in the air.
Valya’s Sacrifice
Through intermittent flashbacks, we see how the Venera 7 crew survived Lyudmilla’s depressurisation of the vessel. The lack of pressure extinguished the fire, saving everyone but leaving them adrift and off course. They’re going to miss Venus by a margin, which is problematic since they need to use the planet’s orbit to sort of slingshot themselves back towards Earth (I think?).
Valya comes up with a solution for this, but it’s a fairly permanent one. If he gets in the bathysphere and heads down towards the planet, it’ll propel the main craft enough to get back on course. The downside is that it’ll be a one-way trip. However, Valya is a proven traitor, something that even Sasha hasn’t quite come to terms with, and he’s bound to be a bit more forgiving than the Soviet Union itself. So, the decision is made.
In sacrificing himself, Valya also completes the mission. The Soviet Union made it to Venus. But will that count for anything?
A Risky Plan
Now that Sergei knows the Venera 7 is still intact and its crew is potentially alive, he takes the news to the Chief Designer, who finally seems a bit excited in his exile. However, he points out the obvious – the craft can’t land in the Soviet Union, as the crew will be immediately intercepted and killed as traitors. The Chief Designer offers to provide the calculations to push the Venera 7 away from its proposed landing spot in Kazakhstan, but it’s up to Sergei to relay this information to Anastasia aboard the Salyut-1, so that she can relay it to Sasha.
Everyone involved does their job. The landing spot is changed to Finland, outside of the Iron Curtain, which leads to a touching farewell between Anastasia and Sasha, since they both know that in her saving him, she’s preventing them from ever being able to have a relationship. However, some things are worth the sacrifice.
It looks like we’re gearing up for a happy ending, with Petrovsky eagerly awaiting the craft’s landing in Kazakhstan, having no idea its course has been changed. But Star City has other ideas.
Irina Puts Herself First
As predicted, Irina has to make a ruthless decision to further her own career and give Lyudmilla a leg-up over Petrovsky. So, she blows the whistle on Sergei’s collaborating, selling him out to Lyudmilla. Under the guise of the Chief Designer being tortured, Lyudmilla forces him to confess the new landing site.
After, Sergei is imprisoned, along with… the totally unharmed Chief Designer. They must have used a double to con him into a confession; a classic play from the Soviet Union, which now has the advantage. The only wildcard is Anastasia. After seeing the Venera 7’s landing capsule take a missile and land on the wrong side of the Finnish border, she uses the Salyut-1’s emergency landing craft to touch down and make an assist.
Race Against Time
Anastasia borrows the truck of a local couple to race to the border, just as Sasha and Lakshmi are running there on foot, pursued by the KGB. Lakshmi takes a bullet, but Sasha drags her to the Finnish line – oh, I’m sorry – so that she’ll be safe from their pursuers. However, when he sees Anastasia being arrested behind him, he decides to stay behind and allow himself to be arrested rather than abandon her.
It’s an emotional, human moment for Star City to end on. But it’s not quite a conclusion. With a glimpse of Tanya, now in Paris, and all of our major characters alive and in hairy predicaments, there’s plenty of meat on the bone for a potential Season 2. I’d be all for it.
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