Reflecting on last week’s resolution, Burnham monologues about family, looking at a holographic clip show tree. Book makes an off hand remark about his dad just so we know he wasn’t close. Which is probably relevant to later. Book wants to find out who is responsible, Burnham wants to continue to investigate the DMA. Somehow to Book this is a conflicting goal … ???
QUEEN! GRUDGE IS BACK! Love that cat.
Saru namedrops previous franchises, and expresses optimism about the mission. After some commentary on Zora’s emotion, we get a cute swiping segment of the eager crew rushing to assignment. Leaving Gray alone (lol – really? You think that’s lonely???).
As Discovery flies into the Eye of Sauron, the ship suddenly goes still, the screen is blank and there is no sensory input. Tal says this is scientific impossible (didn’t Voyager co through a similar thing), as Burnham sends one of those cute robot things. The cute robot thing (DOT) then disintegrates!!!! Whilst screaming. Sad 🙁
They shoot what is effectively a flare along the DOT’s path, until it flickers out. They work out the thing out there will hit them in three minutes.
Gray talks to the Zora, about their ‘numbness’ by having no outdoor sensor. Zora lists all their internal sensors, and they bond (Zora tells a joke). Gray offers to help by playing a game with Zora, if to just make them feel useful.
Burnham makes the decision to abort the mission, a mature out-of-character decision. But with no sensors, they are unable to. Burnham orders a risky jump, which Book takes over so Staments can monitor any data. The jump (for the first time???) fails, shocking Book and stranding them.
Uh ohhhhh
So as was obviously foreshadowed, Book sees an image of his father, who uses this opportunity to berate him. Book decides his dad isn’t real and wonders out, and is taken to sickbay. The doctors diagnose it as a sensory hallucination. It will take time for the hallucinations to stop. Staments reveals that in the void is causing issues with the network to prevent them to jump. However the shock to Book has given them energy to analyse.
The game Gray is playing sufficiently distracts Zora so that they are able to detect something on the exterior, before detecting a breach on a deck, which the ship seals just in time, but trapping one crewmember, who dies. Gray tells the bridge about what just happened, and they speculate a way out, but Zora seems unsure they can do it.
Book’s hallucination returns, and he argues with it (unusually for the trope, everyone else sees his response). The bridge crew brain storm a way to get out. Owosekun tries to argue to be allowed to fix a potential issue in engineering, but Saru decides it’s too risky. When she tries to argue back, Saru sternly shuts her down – it’s the first time we’ve seen this degree of conflict, so it’s a subtle way of showing the tenseness. Saru defuses the situation with his trademark inspirational talks, as Burnham tries to inspire Zora past her fear.
Using the evidence inside Book’s brain, they determine the DMA is from outside the galaxy, and that allows them to identify a material they can follow out of the void, using sonar. Zora pings, and they hit a trail. But it may be too far. Burnham decides the only risk is to store everyone in the pattern buffer. Everyone beams into it apart from Burnham. Owosekun apologises for her outburst by providing some backstory … is this going to be recurring??? I mean .. it’s an odd way of dealing with the criticism of no backstory but okay.
Book returns to his ship to find his father, who has changed his tune, putting himself down for his weakness allowing himself to obey the Chain hunting sacred animals. He then claims that Book has the same weakness. Book decides to believe his hallucination is also real, as it allows him to believe all his people are still around. On that (relatively easy?) note, he says goodbye to his dad, wishing him a happy birthday, and collects Grudge (good catto).
Burnham does a BadAss Slow Walk down a corridor in protective gear to the bridge, which is sparking everywhere. Life support is deactivated on the ship. Burnham, alone with the ship, commands the ship. Zora finds it hard to concentrate, and expresses her fear. Burnham continues to reassure her, and encourage her. I mean … I’d be curious to know how effective this is, maybe I should listen to this when I can’t focus! They discuss emotions, and the power it will give them. The barrier rips parts of the ship – parts of Zora – off. The bridge heats up, painfully cooking Burnham. Zora sings Stormy Weather to distract the captain.
Burnham wakes up in sickbay to find out they escaped and everyone survived. Back at Starfleet, Book and Saru discuss the enemy, and Book’s feelings. Saru offers understanding, referring to the Ba’ul. He confides that he still feels rage at the modern day Ba’ul, despite the generation divide. He tells Book his feelings are valid, and a worthy struggle to overcome. I guess there’s some stuff here to ponder on after the episode.
Zora and Burnham talk on Burnham’s Tree, and Zora creates her own tree, with every member of the crew on a branch. Burnham expresses her appreciation of Zora.
This was a great episode – I love how they balanced the optimism and drive going into the mission with how hopeless and powerless they quickly felt. It really helped build up the danger and stakes – at one point I was even wondering if they were going to kill off Burnham, it definitely would have been a fitting ned if they needed to. There were a lot of character moments, even if there’s no real continuity for most of them them (in the sense of continuous momentum, rather than narrative continuity), and in a way I do like how we only get glimpses of some of the crew’s lives, not everything. It makes the crew seem more real and us more a part of it – after all we never hear every conversation of all our colleagues in real life but often we still hear enough, bits and pieces, not the complete picture, but enough to still get a feel. In a sense we get that here, although on the flip side – pieces of fiction aren’t meant to be realistic so I understand why some people feel robbed of character by it.
But I like interesting and non-conventional ways of storytelling, and when Discovery tries that – it does it well, I think.
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