Constellation Episodes 1, 2 & 3: Created by Peter Harness, “Constellation” is a new psychological thriller series streaming on Apple TV+. It combines the elements of action, science fiction, and mystery thriller to present a fairly complicated tale. The series follows Jo, who encounters a disastrous event while being in space. After making a heroic journey back to earth, she realizes that a few crucial pieces of her life are missing. We see her trying to understand the hidden truth behind their space travel and its devastating impact on her personal life.
Noomi Rapace (“Millennium Series,” “Lamb”) stars in the leading role, whereas Jonathan Banks (“Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul”) and James D’Arcy (“Agent Carter”) are in key supporting roles. The series just had its three-episode premiere on Apple TV+, with episodes that are 50–58 minutes long.
Spoilers ahead.
Constellation Episodes 1, 2 & 3 Recap:
Episode 1: The Wounded Angel
The first episode introduces us to the central characters and the issues they are dealing with. Former astronaut Jo Ericsson (Noomi Rapace) drives to a cottage with her daughter Alice (Davina/Rosie Coleman). Jo keeps looking back as if someone is following them. You get a sense of paranoia from her behavior. Five weeks before, she was in space – whereas Alice was in their home in Cologne, Germany, with Jo’s partner, Magnus Taylor (James D’Arcy). Jo is a part of the ISS (International Space Station), which is positioned 286 miles above Earth. It is jointly owned by NASA, Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (European Space Agency), Canada and Japan.
From Rocket Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, Henry Caldera (Jonathan Banks) communicates with Jo and her associates and assists in any way he can. In the space station, Paul Lancaster (William Catlett) suddenly suffers a heavy blow – after an object hits the exterior of their station and breaks it open. As a result, they lose contact with the ground team. By the time they can reconnect with NASA, Jo notices a fire break open on another side – the Soyuz 1 evacuation capsule. So, they all have to move to another part of their station. However, Paul’s arm gets stuck in one of the walls, which limits his ability to move freely.
Jo, Audrey (Carole Weyers), and Yazmina (Sandra Teles) make their best efforts to save Paul. While Audrey performs CPR on him, Jo goes out to assess the damage to Soyuz 1. She deems the damage irreparable. Eventually, she stumbles upon a hole with orange fabric inside. Out of nowhere, a corpse in a space suit appears in front of her. It startles her. Ilya (Hendry David) comes out to help Jo get back inside the station. However, in her shell-shocked state, Jo notices that the body is of a cosmonaut (a Russian astronaut). By then, Paul loses his life.
Soon after, Michaela Moyone (Chhipo Chung) from NASA tells them that there is life support for just one person in Soyuz 1. So, Jo tells others to move to Soyuz 2 in the hope of safe evacuation. Although Soyuz 1 has enough breathable atmosphere for Jo, it does not have enough power to get her home. She will have oxygen and power in the ISS every 45 minutes to repair the damage. In between, she loses all contact with the Earth. During that time, she drew a figure like the one she saw leave and float in space. She sends it to Irene Lysenko (Barbara Sukowa) from Russia, which puts her under stress.
Soon after, Soyuz 2 successfully lands on Earth. Ilya, Audrey, and Yazmina safely return. Henry is concerned about his research. So, he requests Irene to retrieve his CAL machine and considers it a crucial factor in their mission. Magnus and Alice soon arrive at the Russian Space Center. Right after, Jo loses communication with the ground team. She returns to her damage control duty but gets interrupted by a set of strange sounds. Jo heads in their direction to hear intense knocking on the surface. However, she does not find anyone who may have caused it. Even weeks after this incident, Jo keeps hearing and seeing things that aren’t there.
Episode 2: Live and Let Die
Weeks after Jo’s return to Earth, she remains in a state of paranoia. In the remote cottage, she imagines seeing Alice in two different places – as if two versions simultaneously exist (for her). Before this eventual state of confusion, Jo struggled to stay alive on the ISS. She realizes that she has only 6 hours and 45 minutes worth of life support remaining. Back on Earth, Henry continues pushing for the search and rescue of Soyuz 1. Irene thinks it is impossible, considering there is no sign of life (loss of communication with Jo). Michaela also refuses to help him.
Magnus learns that Jo will have to calculate her own re-entry to the Earth’s orbit. Meanwhile, while working on damage control, Jo again starts hearing some strange sounds. She hears some indescribable gurgling followed by Paul’s voice. So, she floats in another direction to notice Paul’s arm. She holds it and imagines that he is trying to pull her toward him. Eventually, she realizes that it is just the disjointed arm they had to cut from Paul’s body. Soon after, she hears a recorded message from Roscosmos stating that she has approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes left to evacuate.
Finally, when there are only 15 minutes left, Jo records a message for Magnus and puts it on her suite. The team on the ground loses touch with the ISS, but Jo manages to reach the Earth’s orbit soon after. Roscosmos realizes this and sends their teams for her rescue. Iris and Magnus also head there to meet Jo. Once she lands on Earth, Henry gets hold of his machine for his research and finds something that he is looking for. Jo stays disoriented even after reaching the Earth.
Episode 3: Somewhere in Space Hangs My Heart
After returning to the Earth, Jo needs some time to acclimate herself to the Earth’s atmosphere. Alice worries about what is happening to her mother. After the initial medical procedures, Jo meets her team to speak with Paul’s widow – Frida (Rebecca Scroggs), and their daughter, Wendy (Sadie Sweet). However, Jo mistakenly calls Frida by a different name. Meanwhile, Henry tries to understand the data present on the CAL machine. His associate, Eryn Lafferty (Eleanor Fanyinka), believes it could only survive in space. But the reality is different.
Soon after, Henry had to join Ian Rogers (Shaun Dingwall) at a space convention and debate him. He hates the fact that he needs to tolerate it. Meanwhile, Jo and her teammates have to provide answers about the collision. Jo claims that she saw the mummified body of a woman wearing a USSR flight suit and helmet. Irene debunks her theory, considering they have records of all the cosmonauts – and none of them are known to be dead or missing. She counters Jo by asking about her oxygen check inquiry. Jo mentions thinking she was hypoxic – meaning she was getting insufficient oxygen to her brain. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing at the time.
Constellation Episode 3 Ending, Explained:
What does Henry learn about CAL?
Alice finds it hard to reconnect with her mother. Jo keeps sensing things that aren’t there. Besides, she has to contend with the tireless questioning from Roscosmos, where Irene refutes her claims of the existence of a dead astronaut. Alice also experiences disorientation as Jo does. She sees Wendy kicking her soft toy rabbit, only to be confused about whether it happened or not. They have a fight where Wendy says her mother thinks Jo is losing her mind. Later, Alice has a word with Henry. He explains the possibility of different realities based on who perceives it.
Jo imagines seeing Paul after his death. Eventually, she takes back her claim of seeing the dead astronaut. On the other hand, Henry firmly believes that a condensate sustained in the CAL machine from space to the Earth. Eryn rejects his hypothesis. Still, Henry keeps working on it to conclude. He believes it is a result of the observer effect. At the space convention debate, Ian argues that Henry shared multiple lies in his book about space travel. He claims that Henry’s memory is unreliable. Later, Irene reveals that she has lymphoma and is going to die soon.
After spending time with Irene, Henry bumps into Ian, who continues to question his past claims. Henry feels like he has had enough of Ian’s blabbering. Suddenly, he asks Ian to fix the gaps in his memory and help him find answers for them. Then, Henry starts mentioning himself in the third person, as if he is not Henry. He gets agitated to the point where he throws Ian into the ocean. Meanwhile, we learn that Henry imagines people to be corpses, as Jo probably did in space.
