‘The Astronaut Wives Club’ Season Finale Recap: Explosion On Apollo 13

In Thursday’s episode of The Astronaut Wives Club, Apollo 11 has lifted off and left Earth’s gravitational pull, and for the first time, man is going to the moon. Titled “Landing,” Trudy is approached by a group of investors at the launch pad who want to put money into her courier business. The question here is whether she can manage the stress of keeping her already precarious marriage together and pursuing her own ambitions. Before too long, history is made when Apollo 11 announces that “the eagle has landed” and man takes his first steps on the moon.

‘The Astronaut Wives Club’ Season Finale Recap

This calls for a party, and the women head to a ball where Betty Grissom is reminded of the loss of her husband Gus by men who arranged to have his badge left on the moon in memory of him. Meanwhile, a brutal rally is gathering outside the venue for the ball where Xavier is part of the protest against the space program, believing that as an African American he will never have the opportunity to be part of the space program.

When Trudy’s husband Gordo finds out about her business opportunity, he isn’t happy, believing that her venture is a threat to their solidarity. In the next scene, Trudy finds out that Gordo has been replaced in the Apollo 13 mission and is appalled by her husbands passive attitude towards another man being in the position they both worked so hard for him to be in.

Betty shows up at Marge Slayton’s house with what the ladies assume is a love interest. They soon find out that he is actually a lawyer and Betty intends to sue NASA and the company that built the capsule for the death of her husband. Marge challenges Betty on the decision to do so.

The women wait in suspense as news breaks about an explosion that takes place on Apollo 13, and a solution is improvised to get the crew home safe. Marge accepts Betty’s decision to sue.

After the scare with Apollo 13, Louise opens up to Trudy about the reason why she does not want her to get a divorce. Louise feels she has a home with the rest of the girls in the club, and is afraid that if Trudy splits with her husband, she will be lacking in support from the group. Trudy reassures her that no matter what happens, they will always have each other and nothing can effect the camaraderie they have built by being in the club.

The show closes with an overview of the lives of the wives and their husbands following the years of the Apollo missions: Louise and Alan remain married for 53 years and died within weeks of each other; Jo remains married to Wally; Annie become a spokeswoman for various causes, and her husband John runs for senate and eventually elected; Trudy divorced Gordo and started her own courier business; Rene is given her own nationally syndicated talk show; Marge continued to lead astronaut wives and Deke gets medical clearance to fly in 1975, becoming the oldest astronaut to go into space; Betty won her suit against North American and never remarried.