For All Mankind Season 5 Introduced The Show's Biggest New Villain

That's one small step for man, one giant spoiler for the Season 5 finale of "For All Mankind."

"For All Mankind" doesn't really do villains. If anything, the show's biggest villain is either the dangerous nature of space exploration or human politics that impede technological advancement. At the same time, however, it does feature some conventional antagonists — namely, the recurring Irina Morozova (Svetlana Efremova). Irina takes a ruthlessness and coldness approach to her work, whether it entails exploring outer space or sacrificing lives for the sake of politics. Now, though, the "For All Mankind" Season 5 finale has introduced a new villain who's somehow even worse than Irina.

Meet Elena Beaufort (Kristina Klebe), a German geologist who works in Happy Valley and is part of the Sojourner-Titan mission to find extraterrestrial life. And while she hasn't had much to do on the show up to this point, that's no longer the case — as Elena's now responsible for the death of Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu), something she did absolutely nothing to prevent.

Let's recap. After the Sojourner-Titan crew makes it to Saturn's moon Titan, Elena, Kelly, and Walt Griebel (Christopher Denham) venture out to investigate a possible match for alien life from a probe. Unfortunately, Elena gets injured and punctures her suit while climbing a mountain, resulting in a cryogenic burn to her already injured leg. Mind you, all this takes place as Mars deals with an invasion straight out of "Dune."

Then, when the Sojourner-Titan team's rover breaks down, they're left without a way to get back to their shuttle. This also means no one will know about their discovery, and there's not enough oxygen left for all three crew members to walk back. So, what does Elena do? Quietly let someone else take the fall.

Granted, once she grasps their predicament, Elena tries to apologize for ruining everything with her injured leg, which Kelly immediately shuts down. After all, if it hadn't been for Elena's injury, the crew would've never found extraterrestrial life. Still, that doesn't change the fact that there's not enough oxygen for all three crew members to walk back to their shuttle, and upon being confronted by this reality ... Elena stays silent. She doesn't even try to volunteer to stay behind out of politeness; instead, she waits until both Kelly and Walt volunteer to be the sacrificial lamb before (correctly) noting that her injury means she should probably be the one to die on Titan.

Of course, both Kelly and Walt are too polite to just let Elena play the hero without fighting back, so they shut down her proposal. But rather than insist that she be the one left behind and acknowledge that she's the only one of the three astronauts without a family waiting back at home for her ... Elena remains quiet.

This is basically the equivalent of the side eye monkey GIF or the Homer Simpson hiding in the bushes meme. Elena knows she is the logical solution to this predicament. She is injured, she doesn't seem to be critical to the study of the new extraterrestrial life form the Sojourner-Titan crew has found, and she doesn't have a family. (Her husband apparently died off-screen two episodes ago.) And yet, she would rather let Kelly die in her place — and this after we already lost one Baldwin this season.

Goodbye, Kelly, it shouldn't have been you. Elena, we won't forget this. "For All Mankind" will return for its sixth and final season in 2027.