Away is made up of a crew of highly trained and intelligent astronauts, but even among them, there are some who shine less bright than others.
Netflix’s Away is just as much about personal relationships and struggles, as it is about space travel, perhaps even more so. The characters are made up of a host of astronauts, as well as Lexi, the daughter of two astronauts. The Atlas mission to Mars is the first of its kind, and as such has chosen five people at the top of their fields for its crew. As an unprecedented mission, the Atlas crew are faced with a number of seemingly impossible situations that they must overcome.
There is no doubt as to the intelligence levels of the Atlas crew, but there are some moments where the characters are a bit too human in their mistakes. As a result, there are undoubtedly some characters who shine in their quick decision making and level-headedness, and others who seem in relativity to be not quite so cut out for the job.
Emma
Emma, played by Hilary Swank, may be the commander of the Atlas mission, but she still manages to make a slew of careless mistakes and misjudgments. Relative to her equally trained colleagues aboard the mission, Emma makes probably more mistakes than anyone else. From the beginning of the series, Emma was under scrutiny for accidentally igniting a fire while trying to prevent one.
Following this, she insisted on putting herself at risk and tending to Ram while he was highly contagious – knowing that this could potentially leave the crew without both a commander and a second-in-command. Worst of all, Emma again put herself at extreme risk as she sacrificed the water rations that she had, to ensure that one of the plants could stay alive, resulting in severe dehydration.
Lexi
Alexis Logan, Emma and Matt’s teenage daughter is, for the most part, a responsible and intelligent teenager. However, as the reality of both her father’s illness and her mother’s absence begin to set in, Lexi starts down the path of the rebellious teenager and gets herself into an accident at the worst possible time.
While Lexi’s dad, Matt, is trying to adjust to life in a wheelchair and take care of his daughter, Lexi takes it upon herself to start riding bikes with her new boyfriend. This quickly turns sour as Lexi falls from the bike, injuring herself, and ending up in the hospital. Lexi’s behavior may be typical of her age, but it appears all the more reckless considering her family situation.
Kwesi
Dr. Kwesi Weisberg-Abban, the expert botanist, is undeniably great at what he does, he is, however, often made to seem less intelligent than the others, as he is significantly less experienced in space travel. Despite Kwesi’s position as the least experienced in the crew, he has not been responsible for many mishaps.
The biggest mistake of Kwesi’s happened early on in the mission, the ship was experiencing a chemical leak, and Kwesi instantly tended to it, removing the panel covering the area to get to the source of the leak. This, however, was the wrong move and exacerbated the problem which then had to be tended to by commander Green who worsened the situation further. The situation could potentially have been initially avoided, had Kwesi not tried to help.
Matt
Emma’s husband Matt is clearly one of the top engineers at NASA, and while he may consistently come up with solutions to problems aboard the ship, he is also responsible for a few poor decisions of his own. Matt appears to often put his relationship with Emma above the well-being of the mission and the rest of the crew.
One of Matt’s poorer decisions was made as he was recovering from his stroke. A friend of his at the rehabilitation facility recommended that when being tested, Matt should hide his true progress, so that he could remain longer at the facility and recover better in the long term. Matt seemed to consider this idea, however, at the last minute, he decided to ignore it and get discharged from the facility so that he could look after Lexi – potentially impeding his long-term recovery.
Ram
Ram Arya is a medical doctor and also the second-in-command aboard the Atlas mission. Ram has made fewer bad decisions than some of his colleagues, but he does sometimes let his romantic feelings for Emma get in the way of his work. However, while he was sick Ram was adamant that Emma leave him be and not put herself and the mission at risk.
At the beginning of Ram’s illness, he was suffering from a hallucination and attempted to open the airlock door. Luckily, this hugely dangerous situation was brought under control quickly and the crisis was averted. To Ram’s credit, on one or two occasions, he has gone above Emma’s head and made decisions as second-in-command, despite his feelings for her.
Misha
Cosmonaut Misha Popov is the most experienced crew member on board and has logged more hours in space than anyone else. He is also one of the most rational and intelligent characters in the show. Misha frequently puts his colleagues in their place and calls them up on their mistakes, and he also doubts the capabilities of commander Green.
As the mission progresses, Misha’s eyesight starts to deteriorate and he tries to hide this from his fellow crew members. As an attempt at hiding it, Misha memorizes the letters on the eye-test chart and almost gets away with it. Misha’s sight deterioration is worrying for all, but he quickly puts their mind at ease as he continues to be able to fix the water system by touch.
Lu
Dr. Lu Wang is a Chinese chemist and taikonaut, and the most intelligent member of the Atlas mission crew. Like the other characters, Lu goes through a host of personal difficulties throughout the mission, but she rarely, if ever, lets it affect her work. As the crew realizes that they have no way of knowing if their supply ship, Pegasus, has landed safely on Mars, they begin to consider turning back.
Lu, however, has the idea to use InSight to test for a sonic boom and see at least if Pegasus has broken the atmosphere. Lu also knows InSight’s frequency by heart thanks to a childhood fascination with Mars. Lu goes above Emma’s head for this, and it all pays off as the crew safely land on Mars, thanks to Lu’s quick thinking.
