Star City Season 1 Episode 5 is the kind of hour that reminds you why slow-burn Cold War dramas are so satisfying when they finally start to pay off. We’re at the midpoint now, and the show isn’t wasting any time, moles are getting exposed, missions are getting complicated, and almost every character is one bad decision away from total disaster.
Everyone’s Worst Fears Are Starting to Come True
The episode opens with Irina sitting squarely at the center of a crisis she didn’t fully choose to be in. Now that she knows Valya is the mole, her mind is already racing ahead, specifically to the woman he was seen with that night, and what that connection might mean for people she cares about. That’s when things shift quickly to Tanya.
Irina nudges Tanya toward the idea of getting away for a while. But before that conversation goes too far, she drops a revelation that reframes everything: she works in Building 12, and she’s been listening to Tanya this whole time. There’s something genuinely uncomfortable about that moment, and the show doesn’t shy away from how destabilizing it is. Tanya doesn’t take it well, she starts to spiral, and honestly, who could blame her? Irina then shows her the wiretap hidden in the wall. It’s a lot to absorb. She promises to get Tanya out before things go sideways, but we’ve all watched enough of this show to know promises here carry real weight and real risk.
Meanwhile, the wrong man is still behind bars. When the Chief Designer learns that Sergei has been arrested, he goes straight to Lyudmilla about it. He manages to get Sergei released, but not for free. It costs him a favor with her superiors, and you get the sense that debt is going to matter later.
Sasha Says Goodbye, and Anastasia Holds It Together (Barely)
On a quieter but no less emotional front, Sasha and Anastasia are growing closer by the episode, which, of course, means the show is about to put some distance between them. Sasha tells her he’s heading to Siberia and won’t be back for months. He’s not lying exactly, but he’s definitely not telling her the whole truth either. Anastasia keeps it together while he’s there, but the moment he’s gone, she lets herself feel the full weight of it. That beat hit harder than I expected.
Irina Plays a Dangerous Game, and Somehow Wins Round One
Back at work, Irina quietly erases the evidence on a tape while Vika Yegorova watches her with barely disguised suspicion. It’s a nerve-wracking sequence, the kind where you’re holding your breath waiting for someone to ask the wrong question. While Vika heads down to the Records room, Irina takes the window to forge a stamped pass, Tanya’s ticket out of Star City. The clock is very much ticking.
At the lab, the Chief Designer lays out what he and Sergei have put together: a plan to move the astronauts out without triggering any alarms. They’re classifying the launch as an unmanned delivery of a Zenit weather satellite into Earth’s orbit. It’s a clean cover story. The harder problem is getting to Baikonur undetected, which means the team will be sealed inside the bathysphere for several days before they can move. The physical toll of that much time in zero gravity is a genuine concern, and the show doesn’t let us forget that every single person on this mission is fully aware of what they’re signing up for.
Valya Makes His Most Desperate Move Yet
Valya shows up at the lab while Sasha is voicing real doubts to the Chief Designer about Chadra’s competence for the mission. Sasha’s preference is clear, he thinks Anastasia is a far better fit, but the Chief Designer shuts it down. The media attention surrounding Anastasia makes her too much of a risk right now, and the two men end up in a real argument over it. It’s one of the episode’s better scenes, two smart people who both have a point, stuck in a situation where neither fully gets what they want.
The next day, Irina hands Tanya the forged pass and tells her to go, she’ll follow once she’s cleared things up. But then the authorities swarm in and arrest Valya, and Irina instantly understands what that means for Tanya. Guilt by association isn’t a small thing here. It could get her killed.
And then Vika drops the hammer. She’s had tapes of Irina meeting with Tanya the whole time, and she plays them for Lyudmilla. When Irina walks into the office, you can see it on her face, she knows she’s cornered. But here’s where the episode gets genuinely satisfying: Irina doesn’t fold. She reframes the entire situation, arguing that she deliberately infiltrated the apartment to find the mole. She hands over her evidence of Valya’s deception, and it works. Lyudmilla forces an apology out of Vika, though she’s clearly keeping a close eye on both of them going forward. My jaw actually dropped a little, it was a beautifully executed reversal.
Over at the office, Tanya shows up to warn Valya that he’s been exposed. She goes off on him, tells him he needs to run, and when he begs to leave with her, she makes it clear that’s not happening. There’s this raw, painful scene where Valya can’t even fully explain why he became a mole in the first place. He watches her walk away, and it’s heartbreaking in the way only this kind of show can pull off, not melodramatic, just devastatingly quiet.
Valya, still trying to stay ahead of the people closing in on him, arrives at what he thinks is the only move left: he loads himself onto the Venus mission. The Chief Designer approves it without knowing what he’s really approved. Tanya, meanwhile, makes it to the address Irina gave her. And Sasha, before departing, leaves a note for Anastasia, a small, tender gesture before everything gets much more complicated.
Why Episode 5 Suggests Star City Is Just Getting Started
This was a strong episode, probably the tightest of the season so far. Hitting the midpoint of a limited series always carries pressure, and Star City handled it well by doing the thing good dramas do: it answered some questions while making the remaining ones feel genuinely urgent.
Valya’s exposure as the mole wasn’t a shock, the show had been building to it, but the way it happened, and especially what he does after, is what makes this episode work. Smuggling himself onto the Venus mission is both completely desperate and completely logical for his character. He has nowhere left to go. What concerns me is what comes next: if word reaches the Americans about what Russia is really launching, everything falls apart. And Valya now has every incentive in the world to make that happen.
Irina continues to be the most compelling character in the ensemble. She’s operating in a world where one misstep could be fatal, and she consistently outmaneuvers people who have far more institutional power than she does. The scene where she flips the script on Vika and Lyudmilla wasn’t just clever plotting, it showed how she thinks, how she adapts in real time. I’m fully invested in her at this point.
The Sasha-Anastasia thread remains the emotional core of the show, even when it’s pushed to the background. It’s doing that thing great dramas do where the personal stakes make the political stakes feel even heavier. You’re not just watching a space race, you’re watching what people sacrifice to be part of it.
Star City is building toward something. Episode 5 makes that feel inevitable.
Star City Season 1 Episode 4 | Star City Season 1 Episode 6
