WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Season 1 of Space Force, now available on Netflix.
Netflix's Space Force throws Steve Carell's General Naird to the wolves as he's placed in charge of Colorado's Space Force unit to get "boots on the moon by 2024." However, apart from being a bumbling idiot and having some equally incompetent people around him, Naird has a family life steeped in the turmoil that complicates his life in huge ways.
He's faced with being a single parent to a rowdy teen in Erin (Diana Silvers), but what really makes this a stunning twist is the show initially kicked off with him being happily married to Maggie (Lisa Kudrow). Apparently, she did something "very serious" after they were uprooted and sent to Colorado, but rather than reveal what happened to her, Season 1 keeps its biggest mystery a secret.
The show shocked fans in the one-year time-jump to see Naird saying he's off to visit his wife, only to appear at a Colorado prison. Seeing as Naird keeps his job, fans wondering what the heck did Maggie do, especially because at no point in the 10 episodes this Eason do any of the key characters slip up and provide details. The only insight the show gives the audience is she's in the slammer for 40 to 60 years.
The incarceration does have conjugal visits where she and Naird try to have sex, but her character's kept as such an enigma. The female prisoners take to her as she heads their book club and when Erin chats with some of them during rec time, they see Maggie as a leader and den mother. It's why we're further perplexed when Naird visits another time and she has cornrows. It turns out she has a gangster side and has made solitary confinement for beating up someone who stole her sourdough bread.
Maggie has an aggressive side hiding beneath her cheery, bubbly Legally Blonde demeanor and Naird knows she's not to be messed with. It's easy to tell he fears for people who dare to cross her in prison too. And to make it even crazier, she's involved with an officer and wants to explore her bisexuality as much as possible, leaving Naird clueless as to who's the woman he really married. She even asks for an open marriage and urges him to find someone else, creating an awkward scenario when she breaks out with her lover and gets in a chopper with Naird after Erin's rescued from junkies in the finale. It's an awkward family reunion and as much as fans are hoping for a sliver of the truth, there's nothing to parse through.
For such a sentence, theories are aplenty with fans wondering if she hijacked a plane as she didn't want to go to Colorado and some thinking she might have assaulted a member of White House staff as the war council has been condescending to her husband. Given the nature of the show, it seems like it'll be a serious crime with a touch of ridiculous tacked on.
Carell and co-creator Greg Daniels have admitted it's fun keeping everyone in the dark with so many vague hints, building the show's humor while teasing the dark side of such a lovely lady. They told Collider they expect to reveal the truth later on but it shouldn't come as a surprise if the series never does. Regardless, Maggie's definitely a breakout character in the limited time and hopefully, fans are able to learn what turned her into an enemy of the state.
Created by Greg Daniel and Steve Carell, Space Force stars Carell, John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers and Tawny Newsome. Season 1 is currently available on Netflix.