On the last episode of Astronaut Wives Club, Deke got re-grounded, Max and Louise entered dangerous territory in their friendship, Trudy and Gordon worked on re-kindling their relationship, and the girls deal with their new ‘competition’ in the form of the Gemini 9 wives. The full recap for Astronaut Wives Club’s previous episode is here
The couples arrive at a new exhibit for the Mercury crew. Trudy has to escape early, and the Mercury wives regroup in one corner to complain about seeing the Gemini wives there. Rene points out a reporter and says she’s going to get a job by talking with him. Trudy arrives outside to greet a female pilot. Annie gets swarmed by a few people who claim to be fans- and when they hear her stutter, they bolt. Rene introduces herself to the reporter and makes a case for herself. He tells her to meet at an address. Max sees Jo and goes to talk to her, but Marge intercepts him- apparently he’s leaving for California for another job. Louise is upset over it and hurries off. Back at the hotel, Trudy and her visitor- her sister talk about their own love of flying, and her sister notes that there’s a new program for female astronauts, and she’s part of it- and wants Trudy to be part of it, too.
On the way home, John mentions to Annie that he’s been in talks for being switched to the Gemini Program. Gordo arrives home and Trudy and her sister corner him about the program. He’s skeptical. Trudy takes it as a challenge and is ready to go make another case for women being allowed to be astronauts. Louise and Max meet up at a diner to say goodbye, and Max tries to extend an olive branch.
Trudy, her friend and a handful of other women make their case in court. As expected- sexism is running rampant in it and the men hearing them out are skeptical and shoot everything she says down. Rene arrives at the meeting spot- and is met with sexism as well- and Rene immediately isn’t fond of it, but she still tries. When he doesn’t let up and objectifies her to boot, she tells him off. He comes back with a dig at Scott and when she asks what it’ll take to prove herself, he gives her an outrageous number of articles to do. She’s surprised. In the courtroom, the Mercury pilots that’re for the womens’ causes are John. The court points out a lot of John’s errors in his own space travel career, but he digs his heels in and seems to get a win, only for him to turn around and say the space program isn’t ready for women, and Scott says women don’t belong in space, and should be test pilots at best, so the case is essentially thrown. That night, Max and Louise get into deeper water that seems to be approaching an affair.