Yay Tilly’s back!!!! Starfleet HQ is warping to help with evacuation (coz apparently it’s a ship too?). The situation is dire – as it is back at Discovery, with the ship trapped as Tarka heads to the power source.
Burnham confronts the delegates, Ndoye admits her betrayal, and my computer crashes so I miss a bit 🙁
// Rewatching this bit afterwards: Burnham is pissed off, and confines Ndoye to quarters.
T’Rina melds with the 10-C it seems and finds out that they have a hivemind, and so find it hard to understand individuality (T’Rina says unlike the Borg but then does not expand on how so). Tarka tries to convince Booker to come with him to the universe he is trying to get to, saying his family will be there, but Reno points out they are just their alternate selves.
In order to burst out of the orb to catch Tarka, Discovery prepares to burn its spore drive to use the energy to punch through – a move that will leave them with a journey that would take decades to get home. The ship suffers heavy damage, and the drive explodes, but they speed after Tarka. Booker uses a Grudge’s cat collar (it was used to disrupt holograms as she hated them, but can also work on forcefields used with holograms) to escape out of the force fields and punch Tarka. Reno transports back to Discovery to update them as the outer part of the DMA hits Earth. The ships prepare to defend it as the Bridge Crew and Ndoye realise that the only way to stop Book’s ship is a suicide hit from a shuttle. Ndoye volunteers.
Vance orders the evacuation attempts to end and the ships to leave. Tilly and Vance stay behind to provide covering fire. Booker tries to get Tarka to stop the breach, convincing him (which seems a cheap and easy resolution) that Oros would want him to stop. He agrees, but says he can’t stop the device in time. Ndoye crashes the shuttle. She is teleported away but Booker and Tarka survive the crash, but are stranded. Tarka uses the remaining power to teleport Booker away, then attempts to use his machine to use the impact of the ship into the energy source to teleport him to Oros’s universe. Booker meanwhile starts to materialise onto Discovery, but his ship explodes and his signal disappears. He is lost.
Martin-Green does a great job of playing a Captain whose overwhelmed with grief but is trying to maintain her composure. We’ve seen Captains in Star Trek before cry – but rarely (if ever) in front of their crew. This is a great scene of honest emotion and it’s heartbreaking.
The 10-C bring Discovery back, expressing an understanding that their species isn’t a hivemind like theirs, but of different beings. The bridge crew of Discovery, as well as the delegates, are brought on to the 10-C home world. Giant, tentacled, linked, Lovecraftian appear. I feel the crew’s fear. Rillak tries to communicate their individuality but also communal nature of their society. They explain that Tarka and Booker acting separately from the rest. She explains Tarka’s lost and Booker’s family lost – I’m surprised complicated concepts are able to be translated this early in working out their Rosetta, rather than just explaining they were afraid. But they do and they explain to the 10-C that their DMA is destroying their worlds. The 10-C move away the DMA, and the planets are saved, to everyone’s relief.
The 10-C pick up on Burnham’s grief and ask why. She explains her connection to Booker. And … of course … they just bring him back to life. Like lol no big deal can just recreate dead people now. Anyone else have any requests?
Ah spoke too soon – they intervened in the transport, but didn’t understand what it was.
Booker makes an ecological plea to shut down the DMA for good, not just use it in empty space where it still leaves waste, and come out from their protective bubble. As he finishes his emotive plea, his forehead glows and the 10-C ponder. They realise their harm and feel regret and sorrow, and vow to fix it.
Vance and Tilly celebrate the win. The 10-C lower their protective bubble, and use their wormhole technology one last time to take Discovery home. The TOS theme plays as Discovery flies to the light. The crew celebrate as Tilly and Vance come onboard. Saru and T’Rina hold hands, which for Vulcans is basically sex.
Burnham reflects on their mission as Rillak visits. She tells her she is now ready for the Voyager captaincy, but Burnahm as expected still refuses. They discuss Booker, and his sanction. Burnham goes to see Booker, who is tasked to help families displaced by the DMA as penance, which is a fairly … appropiate punishment. It does mean they part ways for a while. They might see each other again but – well in real life people struggle to survive distance so. Fiction. Bleurgh.
Burnham monologues the journey, surmising that the 10-C are making the effort to clean up. Everyone takes the opportunity for down time in what is a very uplifting and cute scene. Who gets to keep Grudge with him! Yay! And the Burn and DMA has helped further unify the Federation. The President of United Earth declares its intent to rejoin the Federation.
And we end on a shot of Earth.
This was quite the strong ending – sadly my enjoyment was interrupted by a computer crash, and having to catch up typing when it resumed, but it nicely ties up the ecological themes, especially those with Booker, as well as continuing the show’s larger theme of unity, understanding and peace advocacy – something needed now more than ever.
And that is it for Discovery Season 4! But we still have Picard, which I will cover on my YouTube channel every week!
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