It’s the finale!!!! And here is the missing second part of the two parter promised at the beginning of the season. I admit, it’s clever and I like that they tie the entire season together like that, I just wish it hadn’t confuddled me into thinking I’d missed an episode somewhere!
Meanwhile, back at the dilithium planet – Saru tries to get through to Su’kal, but the enviroment is destabilising. Tal finds them, giving them the medication, and the holo manifests a representation of Grey too. Hugh, Grey and Tal search for an exit while Saru goes to continue with Su’kal.
Meanwhile as Osyraa’s ship fires on the outside of the Federation’s shields, Discovery is being fired on by all the ships inside. Somehow Discovery, despite being an old (albeit upgraded) ship, seems to be holding up very well. The senior crew fire fight there way to the bridge supported by the Sphere controlled DOT bots which … don’t seem to really being doing that great a job at anything other than being shot. Erm. Staments tries to explain to Vance about the planet and the need to jump back, but before he can tell him about he cause of the Burn Vance has him taken away – to be fair the situation is dire enough that I don’t think there really is time to process that information, so this is a good execution of the ‘not now kiddo’ – considering the chaotic battle they are in. Staments would have a better time talking to someone else higher up who could then relay that to Vance.
Suddenly Ni’varan ships warp in to help stop Discovery from escaping, but Burnham hails Vance to let them go. After a stare down, he agrees, and the ships warp away.
Osyraa demands that Aurelio gives her the higher dose of truth serum for Book, who is resistant to the dose he has. When he refuses, she chokes him, into unconsciousness. It does come across as rather overly supervillain betrayal, in order to facilitate Aurelio’s face heel turn.
Saru continues to try and get through to Su’kal, telling him about the Burn and the holographic area created for him by his mother. Osyraa continues to torture Book and torment Burnham into giving over the details. Burnham convinces Osyraa to let her speak to Book up close – and then in a marvellous moment I honestly didn’t expect raises a force field around them, kills the two guards and revives Book. The scene does a good job in setting up Burnham to convince Book to talk so that it’s genuinely a great moment when she turns the tables.
Burnham sends an encoded message to Tilly, using references to a birthday party which is cute. Tilly realises it means Burnham wants her to knock out the nacelles, by using a bomb, a dangerous mission. Saru continues to tell Su’kal of the wonders of the world Outside – as he is getting through to him, the monster reveals itself. Saru tells Su’kal he needs to face his fear. Culbert and Tal realise that, due to the subspace property of dilithium that Su’kal has spliced with, when he screams loudly the soundwaves are transferred into subspace, and across the galaxy – causing the Burn.
The Elder Holo has disappeared but Saru assures him that they are there for him, and will keep him safe. They need to go into the room Su’kal is scared off. Meanwhile the Senior Crew start to pass out, with the exception of Owosekun, who practiced holding her breath for long periods of time growing up and so has more strength left to her.
Burnham rides the outside of a turbolift in order to arrive at the data core, leaving Book behind to cover her. There she is shot at by Osyraa and they fight. Owosekun reaches the nacelle and places the bomb, destabilising the ship from warp. Osyraa’s ship takes Discovery inside of it, while Book kicks Zareh to his death (a move disappointingly signposted by the whole ‘villain gets the upperhand but then mocks the good guy so the good guy suddenly is able to win just like that’ cliché but oh well). Osyraa pushes Burnham literally through a wall???? but she then shoots Osyraa in the face from it and sets about restoring the data core, reestablishing their control to their ship. Life support is restored, saving the senior crew’s life. Tilly orders Burnham to take command, who orders them to use their warp core to blow themselves out of Osyraa’s ship, and then use Book to use the Spore Drive to jump them.
Saru and Culbert encourage Su’kal to step through his fear and though the door. Through there is the device to turn off the holo. The holograms disappear revealing the entirety of the ship. Su’kal asks the ship to show the final entry of the room, which is his mother’s death. It was the scream that followed that caused the Burn, the trauma of losing his mother and everyone. Su’kal turns around to see Saru in his Kelpian form.
Osyraa’s ship explodes from the inside (which seemed an unnecessarily homicidal act when it appears they didn’t need to be outside the ship in order to jump???). Meanwhile Suk’al’s mother’s recording thanks the away team for rescuing Su’kal, who understands he was responsible for the Burn, but wants to fix his mistake. Discovery arrives in time to beam them away as the ship falls apart. The ship reunites with the fleet, who are positioned as a guard of honour for their return. Burnham narrates the need for connection, the thesis of the season, and for a society to come together to work towards bettering themselves – amongst this we see a shot of Burnham smiling over seeing Culbert, Tal and Staments reuniting, but Staments, after a brief hesitation, cooly ignores Burnham’s presence. Osyraa’s Chain has fractured due to her death, and the Federation makes progress, with the Trill rejoining, and other worlds considering it. Saru returns to Kaminar with Su’kal, to reintroduce both of themselves back to their own planet they have been away from for some time. Burnham reunites with Sahil, the first Federation representative she met in the future, the person who rewarded her faith while she rewarded his, now in Starfleet uniform. She seemed surprised to see him – so did she completely forget about getting him all that time she had been home??? (I mean I imagine she told them about him and only now have they managed to reach him.)
She meets then with Vance, who greets her more warmly than I’m sure we’ve ever seen him. He explains that while she did not do things the right way, her way ultimately worked. Her efforts to struggle to find her place as Starfleet in this time inspired him to do the same. With Saru’s blessing, Burnham is promoted to captain (she seems shocked for some reason, even though she had spoken about it with Saru prior to her meeting with Vance, enough to seem pleased about it?).
The Federation finally apparently splashed out and upgraded Discovery’s uniform just in time for the final scene:
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| It’ll take me a while to get used to it, and decide how I rate it amongst the other uniforms, it does have a very classic yet bland aspect to it? I think I prefer it if the majority of the colour was the division colour with grey rather than grey with colour. |
The crew all welcome her excitedly (apart from Staments who is torn), as she finally takes her place on the Captain’s chair as the CO. “Let’s fly”, Burnham commands as the ship warps away to the theme of The Original Series and we get a quote from Roddenberry which reinforces the mission statement of this series:
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| It’s just a tiny shame it has to be so overtly explained for the people you know won’t get it otherwise, instead accusing the series of just being SJW-shooty-pandering |
At end of season three, I definitely continue to grow appreciative of the show. It took it’s time building up to it for sure, but it is definitely without doubt encapsulating what Star Trek should mean – the showrunners have always said this is meant to be the Trek for the contemporary age, and telling stories of how unity over division and progression over fear is the way forward is definitely the Star Trek stories we need telling today. This entire season has been an exploration of what can happen to a society faced with issues like capitalism, scarcity, and fear can be reduced to, and how the solution is to be accepting and collaborative and join as one.
And with that, we end season three. That ending more than any other ending to Discovery leaves me very much wanting for more. We have Burnham finally in the chair, we don’t end on a cliffhanger but a ship ready to take on the universe, settled and as one. We have the juicy drama between Burnham and Staments to resolve. And I am eager to explore it.
IDIC
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