How PERPETUAL GRACE, LTD Shows Us The Broken Promise Of Humanity’s Greatest Accomplishment

Americans have a fascination; a deep love for the Apollo 11 moon landing. We see this rendered on countless films, one of the most defining moments of not just the United States, but of humankind. On July 20th, 1969, humanity accomplished what was thought impossible and that it occurred in a particularly tumultuous and arduous decade for the nation, it’s understandable. That, and the moon landing happened when a lot of our greatest directors and creatives were children or young adults. It was a formative moment for the generation that followed, where families across the country, the world even, staring at their television sets and sitting close to their radios hearing anxiously every step of Apollo 11’s journey.

And when that phrase was spoken into existence; a phrase that the speaker would have no idea of the wide and continuing effect it would have on culture itself was uttered: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, it engulfed and transformed the generation that grew with and followed humanity’s greatest accomplishment. “We achieved the impossible”. We did something that we could only write about, but now, with our own eyes and ears, we can say that we went to the stars and returned. And this love of this historic moment inevitably led to a romanticizing of the sacrifices that were made to accomplish it.

The U.S. spent billions of dollars and years of repeated failures to reach the moon. The lives, programs, money, and time sacrificed over this period made more and more people believe that it frankly wasn’t going to happen. But it did. Such steep financial costs propelled Apollo 11 to make the lunar orbit, and, hand in hand with the time it was accomplished and with our country’s continued glorification of its capitalist founding, Apollo 11 invigorated capitalist beliefs. Because what is focused on is the success; the reward, not the cost, both financial, moral and spiritual. The influence of Apollo 11 has never been so well-portrayed, and with such subtle and sharp commentary, as it has with EPIX’s Perpetual Grace LTD.

Perpetual Grace LTD acts as a representation of the American people’s relationship to the moon landing

Eight minutes into “When Doves Cry”, the sixth episode of a 10-episode first season, we’re treated to a lengthy flashback detailing Lillian’s (Jacki Weaver) upbringing and life before meeting her future husband. We see her growing up in an orphanage and there being raised by the various other girls, and years later, we see her as a young woman in a bar with friends; a bar where she’ll ultimately meet Byron (Ben Kingsley). It’s not shown in detail, rather it’s part of the background, but we see the television airing the moon landing. The night they meet would be the beginning of a long, criminal journey, where they’d con churchgoers, where they’d twist the goal of a church to meet their own. As Neil made that first step, so did Lillian and Byron; a step that they’d make knowingly, gladly, together.

With Perpetual Grace LTD, the cultural touchstone of the moon landing can be seen not just in the background, but in character actions and justifications. Like a long shadow, the moon landing hangs a specter over every character’s motivation and act. It’s more obvious in some, seen with that couple’s first meet. It can be seen in the series’ intro, played to the opening theme, “Comet” by the Jones Sisters, where we see an astronaut floating, spinning, above the earth. Now far and away from where they were, looking down on the earth’s atmosphere beneath their feet, coupled with lyrics detailing a state of happiness, completeness, peace. The generations that followed lived in that long, dark shadow, and Perpetual Grace, LTD is determined to portray that.

Every episode reminded viewers of the event, the cultural milestone, that was Apollo 11, and how it overshadows, colors, and influences both knowingly and unknowingly the events of the story. The series is explicit with Apollo 11’s influence with the character of Felipe (Efren Ramirez), whose goal is to be the first Mexican astronaut. This event made him who he wanted to be. Every character on this show was either old enough to remember the moon landing or was born directly after. And the series knows that the moon landing is like a crater, impacting everything that came after it. So, Steven Conrad and Bruce Terris decide to tackle that head-on and show how it did. And how else can they show it than by displaying the moral, financial, and spiritual sacrifices made by every character on this series for a goal that seems farther and farther away?

With James (Jimmi Simpson), it’s more direct and obvious with its influence, with his father being a former astronaut himself, only to go mad while in orbit when James was a child. James continues to call him, well knowing that his father won’t verbally answer, only holding his phone to his head while roaming around his hometown in astronaut garb. But he does this because maybe he’s hoping that he’ll answer back, or it acts as a reminder for viewers of the catastrophic influence it’s had on the public’s consciousness. We and James can’t let go.

We keep going back to it, and James can’t help but go back to him. And whether we know it or not, it’s conditioned us to believe, deep down, that tremendous costs are necessary for the pursuit of our goal. And this is seen with every one of James’ actions. His goal can be seen as “good” or “right”, wanting to provide money to the wife he’s widowed and the children he’s made fatherless. And as he admits, it’s more done to alleviate the guilt of his own role in the man’s death.

Perpetual Grace, LTD demonstrates the lengths we’ll go in the pursuit of success, and how the lunar landing has had a hand in that

But nonetheless, he, and us see the goal to be a good, righteous thing. But is it worth what he’s doing, fooling a couple (albeit a criminal, dangerous one) into believing that their son was dead? Or how he caused irreparable physical damage to a young teen; damage that will forever alter how he perceives and interacts with the world? Or how he’s tricking a Texas Ranger into wasting his time investigating him over the death of a child, and how it gives false hope to that child’s father that justice may be finally found? Or how he robbed Felipe of the only chance he’ll ever have of becoming an astronaut simply because it was in the way of his own goal? Time and again, he’s shown to cause damage to countless people, and for what? He’s nowhere closer to his goal than he was days ago; actions ago, but he continues forward, believing, deep down, that it’ll push him further towards his goal. But, as I said, he makes those silent, one-way calls to his father, and it is clear what he represents: us, the American public.

We will constantly trudge forward sacrificing whatever he deems is “worth it”, not just because of how our American environment implants capitalistic views of the world, but because of Apollo 11. We look back, one-sided, seeing how that one accomplishment was made with tremendous sacrifices, and we use it, unknowingly, implicitly, as justification. But we don’t look at the cost of it, we don’t look, or acknowledge, the lives lost, the programs destroyed, the billions thrown away, to achieve something that by and large may not have been worth it.

James doesn’t acknowledge that his father won’t, can’t answer his questions or reply to his words, instead, he continues talking and marching forward. And so do we. Apollo 11 isn’t just an accomplishment, it’s a state of being, of floating above without the weight of our worries, our crimes, everything that makes our lives a constant struggle to live in. Apollo 11 was a form of reward for that long, devastating, revolutionary decade of the 1960s. We were united to witness it, drawn away from our own existences to look at what we can accomplish, what you can accomplish, what I can accomplish. And that, coupled with American capitalism, of the ideology that acts as its destructive engine, blinded and gave a broken promise to the world after.

Apollo 11 pushes us forward, instilling us a promise that is disingenuous, dangerous, leaving so many as the victims of one’s success. We think about the first step, never the journey. Apollo 11 wasn’t an accomplishment, as Perpetual Grace, LTD demonstrates. No, it was a false promise.

Am I reaching with this assessment of the EPIX series? Did I explain my point well enough? Or am I seeing something that isn’t there? Please tell me in the comments.