For All Mankind Recasts a Major Character — Is History About to Repeat?

For All Mankind loves a generational handoff, and Season 5 just tossed a new legacy character into the mix right as the show settles into the 2010s. With the old guard basically gone (Ed Baldwin is out of the picture) and Ed’s grandson Alex Poletov already getting plenty of spotlight this year, the series just pulled back the curtain on another familiar bloodline: Avery Jarrett. Yep, that AJ. Gordo and Tracy’s granddaughter. Danny Stevens’ daughter.

How the show keeps aging up its cast (and its consequences)

Across five seasons, the series has hopped forward a decade at a time and quietly promoted kids from background extras to headline players. We saw it with Kelly, the adopted daughter of Ed and Karen Baldwin; and with Gordo and Tracy Stevens’ boys, Danny and Jimmy, who went from bit parts to full-on catalysts, for better and (definitely) worse. Season 5 doubles down on that formula. Alex Poletov has been front and center, and now Avery steps out of the shadows too.

Season 5’s curveball: Meet Avery Jarrett (aka AJ)

The episode plays coy at first: we meet a Marine recruit strapped into a polygraph, fielding questions that scream red-flag check. The candidate wants OPEF — the Off-Planet Expeditionary Force — and the interview digs into past instability. Then it gets personal. She’s asked about taking her stepfather’s last name — her mother ’s call, she says. She’s asked about her biological father — he died when she was a baby, and she doesn’t consider him her dad. That’s the moment the puzzle snaps together. AJ is Avery Jarrett, daughter of Danny Stevens and granddaughter of Gordo and Tracy, now played by Ines Asserson.

Trying to outrun the Stevens family baggage

Avery is keeping her family history at arm’s length. Can you blame her? Here’s the Stevens track record she’s trying not to repeat:

• Gordo had a breakdown on the Jamestown moon base.
• Danny managed to top that spiral and, through reckless decisions, got multiple astronauts killed.
• Avery shows flashes of that same volatility — including a blow-up at Commander Danielle Poole, who she assumes is sandbagging her OPEF shot.

But the show doesn’t leave her there. Avery actually takes Poole’s advice: cut the front, be honest about why she wants this assignment, and stop pretending she’s bulletproof. In a second evaluation, she lets the armor drop and speaks to the trauma of losing her father. That breakthrough does the job — she clears the test and gets into OPEF.

Why Avery’s reappearance matters

The writers could’ve just let Danny’s daughter vanish after a couple of cameos. Instead, they bring her back right when the series is most interested in legacy — how the past shapes (or warps) the future, and how tiny choices early on echo decades later. For context: the last time we saw Avery was Season 4, when Dani Poole showed up at her ninth birthday party. Before that, she popped up as a baby a few times in Season 3. Now she’s center stage.

Can she actually break the pattern?

Early signs point to maybe. Listening to Dani got her what she wanted and seemed to crack something open emotionally — basically the opposite of how Danny and Gordo handled their demons when they had chances to course-correct. If the show’s telling us anything, it’s that Avery’s already choosing a different path.

Where she’s headed (and why the moon might just be a layover)

After making OPEF, Avery celebrates with her unit and learns her first posting: the moon. Classic first stop. She steps outside, looks up, and you can feel the pull — longing, fear, resolution, all of it. But let’s be real: the series is actively steering toward unrest on Mars. If that bubbles over, it’s hard to imagine OPEF not shuffling assets. The M-6 governments, plus Helios and Kuragin, would want reinforcements fast. If/when that happens, don’t be shocked if Avery gets rerouted to the red planet — and ends up on a collision course with Alex Poletov.

This show loves to circle back on its own history, and putting Gordo and Ed’s grandkids on opposite sides of an off-world flashpoint feels exactly like the kind of full-circle arc they’d aim to stick by the end of the season.