The story properly begins in episode 3 of Constellation, the psychological sci-fi thriller from Apple TV Plus that debuted on Wednesday, February 21. Episode 3, or 'Somewhere in Space Hangs My Heart', is the final of the three episodes released on that date, so hopefully it'll be enough to get you hooked for the weekly roll-out from now!
We've been following the astronaut Jo (Noomi Rapace) who makes a narrow escape from the International Space Station (ISS) after a mysterious science experiment causes its destruction. However the odd things she witnesses up in space don't stop when she returns to Earth, and after episode two, we're now fully back on solid land.
Want to know what's going on? Our Constellation episode 3 recap will help you follow along in case you're confused, and we've also got a guide on how to watch Constellation if you haven't seen it yet.
That's important, because spoilers follow"
Homecoming
As with the past two episodes, we begin by the frozen lake in Sweden. Jo is leading Alice (Rosie/Davina Coleman) to the cabin she saw at the other side, and Alice is dropping items so they've got a trail to follow back.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming five weeks prior. In Star City, Russia, Jo is recovering from her time in space. However Alice seems odd (remember, we've had some double-daughter shenanigans going on), and she keeps worrying that Jo is actually dead.
Jo is part of a press conference where she explains that her mission still has nine months of work left. She also talks about how she's enjoying how Earth is full of smells, which space isn't.
Later, when some of her team are sitting around a table together, she refers to her dead team-mate's wife as 'Erica'. 'Erica' corrects her to 'Frida'... and Jo is perplexed because it definitely was Erica before!
Cruise woes and failed experiments
Also in Star City, Henry (Jonathan Banks) is talking to a scientist who's helping him, Eryn (Eleanor Fanyinka). He tells her that he re-created the space experiment on Earth and got the same results, but she tells him that this is impossible.
We return to Bud (also Banks), who we briefly saw last episode. He's a retired astronaut who's now on a Comic-Con-esque convention cruise where he's meant to be debating someone who thinks the moon landing was a hoax. However, Bud really doesn't want to be there.
An investigation into the ISS disaster begins. Jo finds it odd that she's the only one in the crew who remembers hearing an emergency alarm — it also didn't show up in her video — and she also hears that odd sound, the moaning which Jo investigated in episode 2. Also, the panel isn't impressed when Jo insists that the object which hit the ISS was a dead body. Russian space leader Irene (Barbara Sukowa) thinks that Jo was suffering from hypoxia, and hadn't gotten enough oxygen so was hallucinating.
When doing some strength-building exercises later, Jo begins to hallucinate the ISS. She's given some supplement pills, but she's suspicious about them. Later, she has dinner with husband Magnus (James D'Arcy), and his initial coldness seems to slowly pass... but then Alice calls for "daddy" which upsets Jo now that she's back.
We return to Bud, who's mid "debate" with the conspiracy theorist. Despite Bud explaining some scientific principles to the audience, the theorist is convinced that either Bud is lying or was lied to. He uses the fact that Bud got the name of his dog wrong in his book to 'debunk' him.
Henry is struggling to recreate the experiments despite insisting to Eryn that he already did. Finally, he succeeds... but when he tries to take a photo of the screen showing the results, the camera preview actually shows a screen in which the results aren't showing. Huh? Instead, Henry traces over the screen with a pen and paper. When talking to Eryn about it, he either thinks that this is the observer effect, or that he's going mad.
When walking down a corridor, Jo collapses. Alice runs to get Magnus for help, and while she's gone, Jo has a vision of the wardrobe door (remember, from the end of episode 1). This fades when her husband returns. During some inquiries later, the space panel insists that the body Jo saw was actually a space refuse bag, but Jo doesn't think that's correct.
Quantum hide-and-seek
Later, Alice and her friend Wendy are playing hide-and-seek around Star City. While hiding, Alice sees the lower half of Wendy as the girl throws down the toy that Alice loaned to her (from episode 1) and stamps on it. Alice emerges from hiding to confront her... but she's not there. After looking for Wendy, Alice finally finds her and confronts her, but the other girl maintains innocence. They fall out.
Later, Henry finds Alice on some swings and joins her. He explains to her quantum physics, about how something can be in two contradictory states at once until it's observed — remind you of the plot of any TV show? Henry returns Alice home to Jo, and as another space veteran, lets her know that she can talk to him if she needs.
Jo and her fellow space crew go for a walk to the memorial tree for Paul. They discuss the body she saw, and while some think it could be a body from a failed and covered-up Russian space program, others think that Jo is simply crazy. When at the tree, Jo hallucinates Paul, which lends credence to one of those theories...
At the next inquiry session, Jo is finally convinced to just say that the body she saw was a bag. This ends the inquiry, and Jo is finally allowed to return home to Cologne. There, she thinks they've bought a new car as it's a different color to the one they owned before, which baffles both Magnus and Alice as it isn't. Also, forgetting about gravity, Jo drops a glass of water (she's used to the lack of gravity keeping it floating about).
Irene visits Henry to share a glass of wine. She tells him that she has a late-stage lymphoma and this might be their last meeting. He puts on some music and they have a romantic dance, however mid-spin, he hallucinates her as being a dead body which ruins the romance somewhat.
At the same time, Bud is having a drink on his cruise. He goes to the conspiracy theorist and asks him for a walk. On the deck of the ship, he asks the man to help him remember what happened on his failed Apollo 18 trip: he remembers that he fixed the entire spacecraft's damage, but then blacked out, and his crew were all dead. However the theorist just thinks that this is part of Bud's fraud, and starts to taunt him... so Bud, in a fit of rage, pushes him off the cruise ship!
Finally, we return to Sweden five weeks in the future. Alice doesn't think that there is a cabin, and that her mother is hallucinating. Jo agrees... but tells Alice that the girl is a hallucination! Jo tells Alice that she doesn't think the girl is her real daughter, to which the girl asks where her real mother is.
We end by seeing the flashing lights of emergency vehicles driving down a snowy road, presumably near the duo.
