Apple TVFrom the beginning, Star City was never going to be like its parent series, For All Mankind. Taking place parallel to For All Mankind Season 1, Star City’s goal was to tell the story of how Roscosmos forged a path forward after beating NASA to the Moon in this alternate timeline. However, unlike FamK, in which the alternate history conceit created seemingly open-ended possibilities for the future of world events, Star City was somewhat constrained by the fact that it is, in a sense, a prequel, or at least, a mid-quel to For All Mankind.And so, in Star City’s final episode, the biggest question the show had to resolve was simple: If the USSR sent people to Venus in the For All Mankind timeline, and two of those cosmonauts survived, how come we didn’t know about it? Here’s what happened in the season finale of Star City, how it connects to For All Mankind, and whether or not we’ll get a Season 2.Spoilers ahead.Star City Episode 8, “The Wolves,” ending explainedCol. Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin) is on the warpath in the Star City finale. | Apple TVGoing into Episode 8, the biggest conflict in Star City is obviously the idea that the Venera mission is returning to Earth, despite the fact that we’d assumed everyone had been murdered. Turns out, Sasha (Solly McLeod) and Lakshmi (Priya Kansara) are alive, and Valya (Adam Nagaitis) ended up taking a capsule down to Venus, where he is crushed almost immediately. The main thrust of the episode is whether or not Sasha and Lakshmi will be shot by Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin) as soon as their capsule returns to Earth. At the same time this is happening, Anastasia (Alice Englert) is aboard the USSR space station Salyut 1, and figures out a way to pop down to Earth, so she can be there the second her husband, Sasha, lands.It’s a big, dramatic and romantic gambit, and in the end, even though Sasha can get to freedom by crossing the border into Finland, he chooses to stay with Anastasia, even though neither of them will likely be free. Lakshmi, in theory, makes it to Finland, making her the only character from Star City who could, in theory, tell people in the Western world of the secret Venus mission. Meanwhile, Tanya (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) has been smuggled out of the USSR, and in the final moments, we see her in Paris, now with blonde hair, living her life in secret. How the Star City finale connects to For All Mankind Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Tanya | Apple TVThe biggest connection to For All Mankind in the Star City finale is the way in which Irina Morozova (Agnes O'Casey) takes a few steps closer to becoming the more ruthless KGB operator we know from Season 4 and Season 5 of For All Mankind. At the end of Star City, we see Irina reflecting on the absence of Tanya, noticing that her daughter is playing music on the piano, the song “Undun” by the Guess Who. This is a 1961 hit from the band the Guess Who, which Tanya was listening to in the third episode of Star City on a bootleg “bone record.” Having Irina think about Tanya is an interesting moment, because we know Irina liked Tanya and, on some level, helped her not get pulled down into Valya’s treason scandal.And yet, this moment seems to represent the idea that for Irina, evidence of past betrayal will still linger, even when certain people are gone.Will Star City Season 2 happen?The cast of Star City earlier this year. | Dave Benett/Dave Benett Collection/Getty ImagesAs of this writing, it appears that Star City is a limited series, and there’s no indication that a second season is planned. The ending of the show also seems to reflect a kind of finality to the story. Whereas various For All Mankind finales have jumped forward into the future, Star City seems to end in 1970. Also, outside of Irina and Sergei (Josef Davies), who have future paths in For All Mankind, most of the characters in Star City have had their stories concluded. A hypothetical Star City Season 2 could give us more of the Chief Designer (Rhys Ifans) in exile, or further development of Irina, but the tone of the finale doesn’t suggest that.Instead, Star City has delivered on its basic promise — to show this part of the alternate timeline from the Soviet perspective — and in doing so, provided a few surprises along the way. With For All Mankind Season 6 set to conclude that series in 2027 (or 2028), it seems that this timeline, in both the past and the future, is focused on endings, even if those endings are bittersweet.Star City and For All Mankind stream on Apple TV.