Star City Season 1’s Penultimate Episode Is About People — Review

Critic’s Rating: 4.8 / 5.0

4.8

In authoritarian societies, individualism is not celebrated.

It’s all about systems, with the state being the largest of them all.

People are treated like a means to an end. Names are less important than titles because each person is as replaceable as the next.

It is something that emerges in Star City Season 1 Episode 7, “Plow Deep,” but the show offers a message of hope by proving that an individual can never be erased.

Their roles might be replaced, and their truth suppressed, but their impact on other people’s lives continues.

Star City is ready to move on from the devastating accident that claimed the lives of the three astronauts. When we catch up with the story nine months later, the Venera mission is a footnote.

Technology has been repurposed, and roles have been reassigned. Those who survived have been buried in arrests and basements.

The Heart Always Goes On

But when someone has interacted with people for years, they simply don’t vanish.

Sasha is not going to stop mattering to Anastasia just because the regime wants it to, and Tanya won’t stop mattering to Zoya.

It’s an uplifting message that salvages what could have been a sad, maybe even frustrating, episode, as the narrative tries to keep the wheels rolling.

People’s impact on others varies, but the weight is the same.

Some, like the former Chief Designer, have a sweeping effect that inspires people to make great discoveries, while others, like Tanya, have an impact on a little girl whose world is not the same without her.

And some impacts are borne by a single person whose life takes a different trajectory because of loss.

Anastasia and Sasha’s story had barely begun, yet it was cut short. Mourning feels like a performance because not only is she mourning someone she cared about, but she’s also mourning the potential of what could have been.

Even though we don’t see him, Manpreet must also be mourning the loss of his wife and the life he had come to realize was shrouded in so many secrets that never received a satisfying resolution.

The flip side is also true, because it’s never just flowers and sunshine. Even the bad people get remembered.

We see this through Irina and Lyudmilla, who have developed quite an intriguing relationship.

The system comes for everybody, and even when Lyudmilla has dedicated herself to it, she isn’t spared from its erasure.

But Lyudmilla’s dark mentorship — defined by clinical ruthlessness and calculated reinforcement — has forged a twisted, parasitic bond.

It shows Irina who she could be if she continues walking in Lyudmilla’s footsteps. It’s admirable and shocking in equal measure.

The Cogs on the Machine Are Just Parts

And even for the best of people, escaping the system is hard. Years of conditioning simply don’t disappear into thin air just because circumstances have changed.

The system convinces you that what you’re doing has value beyond your comprehension. So it prescribes your purpose and ensures you stick to that role forever.

It’s partially why, once again, the former Chief Designer agrees to help Ludymilla despite knowing his advice will almost certainly be used for the wrong purposes.

He wants to protect Star City, the place he has poured his entire life force into. That’s the common ground between him and the Night Witch.

And for those that the system has convinced that they have one kind of value and one kind of value only, even the smallest breadcrumbs are celebrated.

Anastasia had resolved to live a life of restriction, never to return to space again. But when the opportunity presents itself, she jumps on it despite knowing it has nothing to do with science.

Is it justifiable to participate in something you know is wrong just because you’re benefiting in one way or another? Chief Designer and Anastastia weigh the pros and cons and decide it is worth it.

Saving Star City may be worth the risk of advancing spying that can almost certainly cause a large international conflict, and being in space once more is worth creating a charade to fool the international community.

However, some risks are worth it because if you’re right, the reward is unquantifiable.

While rotting in the cube he was moved to after the Venera fiasco, Sergei makes a discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew.

Things in Space Work Differently?

Every episode of Star City is armed with a twist, and this hour hints that the Venera Three never perished in that ill-fated mission.

For nine months, they’ve stayed the course and are set to return to Earth soon.

It’s a spectacular narrative pivot, especially after the show spent the previous hour convincing us that they were gone. The question now becomes: how did they survive?

It is a well-executed sequence as Sergei finds a needle in a haystack, finesses his way into the control room, and discovers the transmission.

Including Anastasia gives the development emotional weight because she had barely finished mourning Sasha, and now he might be alive after all?

If the Venera Three have successfully entered Earth’s orbit, the stage is set for an absolutely bonkers season finale.

Gut Check

“Plow Deep” is another excellent episode of Star City. It succeeds by weaving the missing characters into the lives of the remaining characters so they don’t feel like they dropped off the face of the Earth (even though some did).

Over to you, Star City fanatics. What did you think of the story this hour? I expected the narrative to lose steam after Star City Season 1 Episode 6, but it recovered nicely.

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.

Say something in the comments, share if you’re moved to, and keep reading. Independent voices need readers like you.