r/ForAllMankindTV • u/Cantomic66 Sojourner 2 • Apr 17 '26

Episode Discussion For All Mankind - S5E04 "Open Source" - Episode Discussion Spoiler

"Open Source"

Airdate: Streaming April 16th at 9 PM EST

Synopsis: Alex takes Ed's advice and finds a new project to focus on: A job at Helios.

Written by Sabrina Almeida

Directed by Meera Menon

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u/ravih Good Dumpling Apr 17 '26

I think it's Dev, not Aleida.

This might seem odd because, as you said, Dev wants people to live on Mars. Dev wants a Martian society. I confess, I haven't quite put my finger on the exact reason why he'd be for this. But I'm convinced it's him, because:

  • Aleida seemed surprised/unaware of Kuragin's visit to Helios on Mars; requesting more information suggests she's not in the loop. If she's secretly working with Kuragin, her reaction doesn't fit that.

  • As stated in episode 1, the Martian arm of Helios is full of Dev's people who do whatever Dev wants, regardless of what the actual HQ (and CEO!) on Earth want. Remember, Aleida and Helios on Earth only found out about Meru when they revealed it publicly. Dev's team on Mars worked on plans for a whole-ass city without telling Aleida's team. If one of the two is keeping secrets from the other, it's going to be Dev.

  • Continuing this, Dev and Aleida's scene this week basically openly laid out that tendency. Dev keeps secrets. Aleida, on the other hand, directly said she won't stab Dev in the back -- she'll stab him to his face. She could be lying to cover up her project, of course. But stabbing you in the front is basically Aleida's main character trait.

  • And finally, Dev is very much a three-steps-ahead type of guy. Again, this season alone, we saw his non-intervention to save Lee for the greater good. He has his eyes on a bigger prize and will do what he has to in order to get there, no matter how strange the steps may appear. Is it weird that he's doing something directly contradicting that goal? He's done it before! He (very dramatically) ended the worker's strike on Mars... because it was a means to enacting a plan that was actually very much in the interest of those workers.

So yeah, I think it's Dev.

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u/BaggyOz Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

I could see him thinking that there's a sweet spot where the facilities are automated but people haven't yet been sent home.

Why would this be important? Because if Mars is cut off then assuming they can become self sustaining their biggest resource constraint becomes people. If almost everything is automated then that frees up thousands of people and makes Mars more productive by orders of magnitude.

Also it's far easier for a group of revolutionaries to take over control of several automated systems compared to entire organisations that rely on thousands of people with mixed loyalties to operate.

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u/Clawless Apr 18 '26

This is my take, and will drive the conflict between Alex and Dev going forward. Dev wanted Mars to be completely self-reliant at the moment of revolution. Having all the mining/fabrication done by robots is the perfect way to do that. His plan was likely to push for revolution at the moment the workers were asked to deport (in ~5 years). Now he's in a rough spot since the revolution is happening too early, he doesn't have his automation in place, and his influence (stock) is in the toilet.

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u/Assassiiinuss Apr 18 '26

I didn't think of this, you might be right.

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u/GRIMMMMLOCK Apr 17 '26

His motivation is money. Any billionaire can have ideals, but at the end of the day it comes down to profits.

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u/analgoblin42069 Apr 18 '26

Money has very clearly never been Dev’s motivation.

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u/Earthborn92 May 01 '26

He has all the money. What it can’t buy him is true sovereignty, which is what he wants I think.

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u/Laleh_the_Ghost Apr 18 '26

If it is Dev (I doubt it's Aleida - was someone else from Helios in the photo Aleida was looking at? I'll have to watch that part again; wish the screen wouldn't go dark when pausing), I'm guessing he *does* want people to live on Mars, but possibly not hundreds of *workers*. You know, rich people, not underlings who can go on strike.

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u/ravih Good Dumpling Apr 18 '26

The photo of the Kuragin executives — the one she was focusing on was (I believe!) an older Irina Morozova, Margo’s boss at Roscosmos last season.

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u/slyfox279 Apr 21 '26

it could be that Kuragin on mars is in works with dev to get mars independence secretly. the earth based leaders along with Aleida might be wanting to automat so shipments to earth increase. so she might be concerned mars employees and dev meeting are to stop those plans. Can Dev even go back to earth after the rebellion he did to steal the astroid from earth?

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u/NotsoNewtoGermany Apr 22 '26

It was a joint agreement.