Have you been keeping up with Apple TV+’s trippy astronaut-gone-wild drama Constellation? Have you been constantly asking yourself, What is happening? and Who is this guy now? and Why does my head hurt? I mean, obviously, if your answer to my first question is “yes,†then your second answer is too. To watch Constellation is to question Constellation … and also your sanity.
Now, the series, which follows Swedish astronaut Jo Ericsson, who returns to Earth after a catastrophic accident aboard the ISS only to find her reality doesn’t make sense any longer, hasn’t explicitly said, “Hey, this is a show in which people exist in two separate universes and sometimes because of space and quantum physics, people can accidentally swap places with their counterpart and get trapped in the wrong universe,†but that is definitely what’s happening here. The first five episodes of the season have followed Jo as she unravels and then begins to realize what’s happened to her: During that collision, she swapped places with the other Jo and is now stuck in a universe that is not hers. Let’s call it Universe A. The sixth episode, however, finally lets us spend extended time in the other universe, starting the story over in Universe B.
With a deeper understanding of both of the universes we’re dealing with here, it felt like a good time to parse the people, objects, and events we’ve come to find exist in both A and B; sometimes these people, objects, and events are exactly the same, but in many cases they are not at all. And in certain cases, some of these people, objects, and events start off in one universe and wind up in another (FYI: we’re always talking about people based on their Universe of Origin). If your head is already starting to hurt again, hopefully this guide to Constellation’s two universes can alleviate some of the pain. (But not all of it. I’m not a miracle worker.)
Jo Ericsson
Universe A: Technically, the Jo from Universe A is dead. Like so, so dead. She dies during the collision in space when Paul Lancaster’s work on the CAL messes with quantum entanglement and sends her over to Universe B, where she slams her head on the ISS bay window. Out of legit terror that really no one should blame him for — get off his back! Freaky space and science stuff is happening! — Paul leaves Universe A Jo’s dead body up on the ISS in Universe B.
Now that all of that’s out of the way, what about Jo as, like, a human? Well, this version of Jo was apparently a little bit colder than the one we know more intimately. Although she was close with her daughter Alice, she never taught her Swedish, and she definitely was having an affair with Frederic, the head of the European Space Agency. On one hand, good for you, Frederic is very handsome! And runs a Space Agency! On the other: poor, sweet Magnus!
Universe B: Jo from B had a very healthy relationship with her husband Magnus, her family unit was endearingly close, she taught Alice to speak Swedish, and she definitely did not play the piano. None of this matters much, though, because Jo from B is trapped in Universe A. She survives the collision on the ISS, but it somehow tossed into a universe that is not hers, and without fully understanding what’s happening to her, she feels like she’s losing her mind. The few people who know exactly what’s going on are helping NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, et al. keep the astronaut problem covered up, which means she looks like she’s losing her grip on reality to everyone else. On the plus side, she can play the piano over in Universe A without ever having learned. Sorry, there are very few plus sides to her situation! I am looking for a silver lining here!
The Collision on the ISS
Universe A: In Universe A, Paul Lancaster is working on the CAL — a NASA experiment with quantum physics — and Jo Ericsson is video chatting with her daughter Alice when a collision occurs. No alarm went off before; things were suddenly just exploding and on fire and Paul Lancaster was trapped, needing his arm amputated, before dying onboard.
Universe B: In Universe B, Paul Lancaster is working on a much less complicated device, Jo is chatting with Alice, an alarm goes off, and some sort of collision occurs, cracking the glass of the bay window, creating, well, a shitshow on board. Jo from B gets catapulted around and then in the middle of some sort of bright light, she sees another version of herself (Jo from A) falling down toward the window. Jo from A smacks her head on the glass and dies.
Paul Lancaster
Universe A: Paul — initially the Commander on the ISS — has the inverse experience of Jo. Paul from A, who at the time of the collision is working on the CAL with Henry Caldera, swaps places with Paul from B. Paul from A gets trapped in Universe B where no one knows what the hell the CAL is and Henry Caldera is known as Bud — and he’s a massive drunk and screw up who definitely did not win a Nobel Prize. Like Jo, Paul from A in Universe B begins to feel like he’s losing his mind. His wife’s name is different, his daughter is scared of him, and he keeps seeing and hearing Jo all over the place. He knows the CAL is the key, but Bud Caldera (more on him later) offers him no help — instead, he shoots Paul in anger.
Universe B: Is Paul from B’s fate worse or better than his counterpart’s? He swaps over into Universe A and immediately dies. It’s grisly, but at least he doesn’t have to watch his entire world unravel? I told you, I’m looking for silver linings here.
Apollo 18
Universe A: The 1977 mission to the moon is best known for its return, in which Commander Henry “Bud†Caldera managed to fix a malfunction on the ship and save his two fellow astronauts. Caldera becomes a national hero who goes on to win the Nobel Prize for his work in quantum physics. This work leads to his experiments in the Rocket Propulsion Labs for NASA — including the invention of the Cold Atomic Lab that he sends up with Paul Lancaster on the ISS.
Universe B: The 1977 mission to the moon is best known for its return, in which Commander Henry “Bud†Caldera was the only survivor after a malfunction on the ship he was unable to fix in time to save his two fellow astronauts. It’s NASA’s greatest disaster and turned Caldera into a joke … and then an alcoholic depressive.
Henry “Bud†Caldera
Universe A: Jo’s situation might be confusing, but if you really want to twist your brain into a pretzel, start thinking about Henry “Bud†Caldera, the only person (that we know of) who experiences the slipping between two universes and is alive in both of them. Just like Jo, the Commander Caldera originally of Universe A is trapped in Universe B and vice versa. Up to this point, we’ve only seen the Caldera of Universe A over in B, where he prefers to go by “Bud,†and wow is he in a bad way. The onetime commander of Apollo 18, he’s now depressed and an alcoholic, spending his post-NASA years hawking a book on one of the bleakest cruises of all time where he is constantly having his story questioned by a snotty-nosed reporter.
In episode three, we learn that all of Bud’s troubles stem from this Universe switch. He knows he saved his fellow astronauts on Apollo 18, but suddenly he blacked out and came to and they were both dead. Since he’s stopped taking his Star City Vitamins, he’s become more of a threat to his multiverse twin — who he knows is treated like a hero and has gone on to do great things — and in episode five, we saw him actually threaten the other version of himself with an iconic Jonathan Banks reading of “boy, am I gonna fuck things up.†If Bud is planning on figuring out a way to get back to Universe A, he should do it quickly, since over in B, he not only pushed that snotty-nosed reporter to his death at sea but just shot Paul Lancaster, who showed up at Bud’s apartment also very confused about his own reality.
Universe B: Okay, so all of that means that Henry Caldera, the authoritative quantum-physics guru working for NASA in Universe A, is actually from Universe B. He did not save his Apollo 18 crew, but fate — or physics, I guess — smiled down on him and swapped him with his counterpart, sending him into the Universe (A) where he would become a hero. Henry runs with the accolades and begins a lifelong journey of attempting to understand just what the hell is going on up in space. He’s also in a steamy little situation with Irene Lysenko, so that’s nice. Of course, it’s all set to be ruined now that Bud is infiltrating his mind and, uh, his bladder.
The CAL
Universe A: The Cold Atomic Lab, a device built by Henry Caldera to learn more about quantum physics in space, seems very cool, but when Paul Lancaster gets it working on the ISS, all hell breaks loose and people begin slipping into the wrong universe. It’s currently being held hostage by Jo Ericsson because (1) she knows it is the reason her reality is so … “off,†and (2) because for some reason (probably the same reason as No. 1) it allows her to listen to the audio tapes from other space missions that those freaky Observatory twins managed to capture from the other side.
Universe B: The CAL does not exist here. Seems much simpler!
Irene Lysenko
Universe A: It remains unclear whether the Irene Lysenko we’ve been hanging out with in Universe A — the Irene Lysenko who runs Roscosmos — is originally from this universe or if she, too, did a little switcheroo. What we do know for sure is that she knows about the switcheroo and feels connected to her other self, whom she refers to as her “sister.†We also know she has Stage 4 lymphoma and cannot get enough of Henry Caldera.
Universe B: Here, Irene Lysenko died on her mission in the ’60s and her body is floating around space — and rammed into the ISS either in this universe or in A … or in both! Who is to say, really. This dead version of Irene goes by Valya and haunts Alice from A’s dreams!
Magnus
Universe A: A schoolteacher whose students do not know how to use glue!! He also was estranged from his cheating wife before she went up into space, and when she comes back a year later, he says very sad things like that he knows something is different about her because now she looks at him as though she likes him.
Universe B: A schoolteacher whose students do not know how to use glue!! He also is forced to grapple with the fact that his loving wife died in a horrific space accident and her body will be stuck floating around in the abandoned ISS all while his daughter, Alice, refuses to accept that her mother is actually gone. (She has good reason to act this way, but Mag does not know that!)
Alice
Universe A: Yes, her name is Alice, and yes, she carries around a stuffed white rabbit at times, we get it. Jo and Magnus’s daughter is going through the looking glass! Alice, like Henry “Bud†Caldera, has interacted with her multiverse counterpart but is still alive. Unlike the Calderas, the Alices have remained firmly put in their universes of origin. How is this possible? We don’t know yet, but Alice was on video chat with her mom at the time the CAL did its thing, so it’s possible that’s why she can see through the liminal space between universes.
Or maybe it’s all about the power of a mother-daughter bond? Who is to say? Alice from A almost immediately knows the woman purporting to be her mother, the one who returned from space, is not her mother. She can tell something is off before anyone else. The fact that this Jo is confused why Alice doesn’t speak Swedish or call her “Mamma†or thinks their car should be red all set off alarm bells for this 11-year-old. She’s also into hiding in closets (a liminal space that allows her to connect to the other Alice, perhaps?), and is haunted by dreams of the corpse of a female cosmonaut floating around the Earth.
Universe B: Alice from B, or Alice in Braids, if you will, is told that her mother has died in space. Alice doesn’t buy it for one minute — mainly because she keeps seeing and hearing her mother, who seems to be still very much alive. If only she could get to her. She’s also into hiding in closets and is haunted by, well, her dead mom and also another version of herself popping up places they shouldn’t be — like in the middle of their living room when her dad is trying to hold a memorial service for her mother. That’s traumatizing! Still, in both universes, it seems like it’s Alice who has the best grasp on what’s happening (which isn’t saying much, but it is something). She might not understand quantum physics, but she understands her love for her mother. Maybe the Alices can be an example of how multiverse counterparts can have a healthy, functional relationship. Let the Alices be the examples. Yes, that means you, Calderas.