Halfway through its debut season, Apple TV's Star City has firmly carved out its own identity as a tense espionage thriller, distinct from its predecessor For All Mankind. While space exploration and technological ambition remain central, this prequel spin-off dives deep into the shadowy world of surveillance, secrets, and the personal cost of loyalty. Nowhere is that more painfully felt than in Episode 5, when Soviet cosmonaut Valya Mironov's hidden life as a KGB mole comes crashing down on his marriage.
Valya (Adam Nagaitis) has been trapped in an impossible position: cooperate with state security or risk everything for the woman he loves. His wife, Tanya (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis), is a political radical whose activism makes her a target. To protect her, Valya agrees to spy—starting with small tasks, but quickly realizing there's no easy way out unless he secures a spot on the Chief Designer's (Rhys Ifans) upcoming Venus mission. The pressure builds until Episode 5, where the truth finally surfaces in a devastating public confrontation at Star City.
The Affair That Broke the Marriage
Before Valya's secret is exposed, Tanya has been hiding one of her own: an affair with Sasha (Solly McLeod), Valya's best friend. Serkis reveals that the relationship was never meant to be love—it was about escape. "Where we find them, it's a pretty established affair. I think it's been going on a while—maybe a couple of years, but on and off," she explains. "It was about the sex for both of them, a kind of release, a secret they could hold onto for themselves. Something to make life a bit more exciting, a space where she could be in control." Guilt lingers, but for Tanya, the affair felt like survival.
Nagaitis, who learned about Valya's mole trajectory from his very first audition, says the character's motivation was clear from the start. "Essentially, it's just a doom scenario for this person. My chief task became figuring out why—why do you do that? Is it just because you don't want to get shot, or is it another reason? The reason becomes the love of his life. He does it for this woman; he would rather he die and suffer than she does."
Planting Seeds Without Giving Away the Twist
Nagaitis emphasizes that he never tried to deceive the audience with his performance. "You don't design a character trajectory based on deceiving an audience. That's not my task. Mine is, 'Where was I yesterday? Where have I just been? What am I doing now?'" Instead, he focused on small, telling details—like the way Valya handles his coat or bag—that editors and directors could later use to hint at his secret life. "When I come in and drop my coat off, you can wonder what's in his coat, or why he is so insistent on getting his bag from there, or why a stopwatch is so important."
The Episode 5 confrontation between Valya and Tanya is a masterclass in restrained devastation. Filmed in a relatively public space where they can't afford to make a scene, the scene forces both characters to confront their betrayals with quiet intensity. "As a moment, it's such a devastating thing," Serkis says. Nagaitis recalls the filming vividly, noting how the scene felt "organic" and emotionally raw.
For fans of intense character-driven drama, Star City continues to deliver. With the mole reveal now in the open, the question becomes whether Valya and Tanya's marriage—and their lives—can survive the fallout. New episodes stream weekly on Apple TV+.
