In the previous episode of Hulu’s The First, Laz and Hagerty worked to get congressional approval for funding the next mission to Mars. In The First season 1 episode 3, Hagerty’s return forces a member of the crew off the mission.
The Grim Reaper
Kayla and Hagerty met with Laz and Robert Cordine for their input. With Hagerty’s return, there was redundancy in the skills of the crew. They would need to cut someone. Two crew members, Aiko Hakari and Matteo Vega were essential for their engineering and medical skills, respectively. So the choice fell between Nick Fletcher and Sadie Hewitt. Fletcher had experience in space, while Sadie had never been to space before. But Sadie was a scientist, and her presence on the mission was necessary for their work on the surface. Laz and Robert deferred to them. The decision would be up to Hagerty, the mission commander.
Aiko would be having the crew over to celebrate Sadie and her husband’s anniversary. Hagerty elected not to attend since they knew he would be making the decision. Instead, he watched footage of a training exercise the crew had undergone.
500 Miles
Kayla advocated for Sadie, claiming that her science background was essential to keeping the scientific focus of the mission. In the past training exercise, Sadie and Fletcher had to drag Kayla on a stretcher through a Louisiana marsh and make it to camp by a certain time. Fletcher insisted they had to leave Kayla to make it on time, but Sadie refused. Fletcher left Sadie to drag Kayla by herself. Time expired, and Sadie and Kayla arrived five hours late.
Hagerty told Kayla he was cutting Sadie. He cited the training exercise since Sadie’s instinct was wrong. Kayla felt an enormous amount of guilt. When Sadie had applied to the program, she was hesitant about accepting the position. She would be years behind in her research if it didn’t work out, and she would be uprooting her husband whose career was taking off. Kayla had promised her she would succeed.
Starlings
There was a problem with the MAV capsule that was already on Mars. After a software update, Vista received no response from it. There was no way for them to know if it was working properly. The MAV was there to make its own fuel, and if it didn’t work, the crew would be marooned there. Laz asked Robert to hold off on putting it in his report. He warned her about the line she was crossing since he had a responsibility to the taxpayers. In the end, she apologized for putting him in that position, and he agreed to give her a week or two.
Not in the First Year
Denise’s coworker Finn invited her to go out after a shift. She brought him and some friends back to her painting studio where they listened to music and drank. Finn started smoking marijuana, and the two of them kissed. She told him she couldn’t be in a relationship in her first year sober. Hagerty came in upset, and she had them leave. She insisted she was fine and invited him to one of her meetings. Despite the temptations, she seemed to be doing well.
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