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This week’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery, ‘The Sound of Thunder’, was all about characters questioning who they are. In a very brief scene to kick off the episode, we caught up with Hugh Culber who has learned that while his inner Hugh is the same before he got sucked into the mycelial network, the outer Hugh is a brand new thing, so perfectly reconstituted that he doesn’t even have the scar on his shoulder he’s had since he was a teenager. While Stamets is thrilled to have his partner back, Hugh isn’t so sure he’s who Stamets thinks he is.
But that all took a back burner to the bulk of the episode which focused on Saru who also underwent a major physical change a couple of episodes ago. But what is Saru becoming? With his fear somehow being suppressed and something new growing in him to replace his threat ganglia, Saru’s attitude and demeanor are changing as well, openly confronting Captain Pike at one point on the bridge in front of the crew. The old Saru would never have the balls — or the ganglia — to do that.
What really set off this new behavior in Saru was the appearance of another of Captain Pike’s ‘red things’ … which turned out to be at Saru’s home planet Kaminar. Pike and Burnham are now convinced that the red lights are leading them to sites of potential catastrophes to intervene, while Tyler isn’t so sure that the red things aren’t actually causing the catastrophes. The signals also seem to come with the Red Angel, who shows up to seemingly do good. But the question here is why are they at Kaminar?
It also throws out the question that always becomes a major plot point for Star Trek series — how can they intervene without violating the Prime Directive? And does the Prime Directive matter if they’re working hand-in-hand with Section 31? Even before Section 31 was involved in the hunt for Spock, Pike gave some super advanced technology to the humans who had been whisked to another planet during the third World War. Saru willingly left Kaminar to fly among the stars knowing he’d never be able to return to Kaminar, a pre-warp race, without violating the biggest rule in Starfleet.
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But needing information about the Red Angel is more important than rules, so Saru and Burnham transport to the surface to see if they can speak with a priest, perhaps Saru’s own father. But how will he explain his disappearance and return, along with Burnham who is definitely not Kelpien, without saying much? Aah, there’s his sister, just tell her everything. Burnham does go a long way to justifying this breach of protocol by noting the Kelpiens know about warp drive and starships because of their overlords, the Ba’ul. So go ahead, Saru, spill all the beans.
Except sis has a few different thoughts about Saru’s return. She’s happy, sure, but she’s also pissed because everyone thought he was dead, or had been taken by the Ba’ul for asking too many questions. Saru never considered the torment his people were going through assuming the worst about his absence and fearful of what the Ba’ul would do to them next. But she also knew the truth about him disappearance because she saw the light go into the sky, the ship he was on with Georgiou. So, okay, fill her in on all that Starfleet stuff, just don’t mention the ganglia thi … oh, alright, tell her all about that too.
Tell her the Kelpiens’ entire existence has been a lie. That won’t rattle anyone. Unfortunately, Saru’s reappearance on the planet has alerted the Ba’ul and they want him. Beaming back to Discovery, Saru is ready for a verbal smackdown with the Ba’ul who finally contact the ship to demand the thing the humans stole from them — Saru. Before he can do any more damage, Pike orders Saru off the bridge so he heads right down to the transporter room to go back to stand up to the Ba’ul and save his sister and his village.
The Ba’ul don’t take this very well and surround the Discovery with ten ships locked and loaded. But after Saru beams away, the ship loses his signal. He’s just gone and the Ba’ul ships stand down. And that’s because they got what they wanted, a two-fer really as Saru and his sister are now on the Ba’ul ship confronting one of their captors (which is a really creepy, creature covered in black ooze like something out of a Guillermo del Toro nightmare). The creature insists that the balance must be maintained and Saru doesn’t even know what he is.
What he is? As Burnham, Tilly and the robot lady try to sort through the data from the giant orb they’d encountered a while back to find something about Kelpien and Ba’ul history, it’s finally revealed that the Kelpien were the predators, practically wiping out the Ba’ul centuries earlier. The Ba’ul can’t have that again, so that’s why they perform ‘the culling’ while the Kelpiens have no idea that can survive vahar’ai. The Ba’ul also have drones that can do terrible things while you’re shackled to a wall, but Saru’s newfound bravery also seems to give him a bit of roid rage and he rips those shackles right off. Not before the new replacement for his ganglia make an appearance, shooting sharp quills at the Ba’ul creature.
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Furious that Saru has gotten the upper hand on their ship, the ship rises from the waters off the coast of Saru’s village then activates all of the pylons in the villages to wipe them all out. Pike tries to take some out with photon torpedoes but there are too many. But a sudden burst of energy takes out the all the pylons and Saru gets his first good look at the Red Angel … which looks very human. Saru had been able to contact Discovery and they came up with the plan to really break the rules and force the Kelpien population to go through vahar’ai — without their consent, mind you — so they can live long, happy lives without fear of the Ba’ul. It may be a good idea on paper so the Kelpiens are no longer prey, but we’ve already seen Saru get a bit aggressive so what could this eventually lead to on Kaminar? It’s mentioned earlier how the planet is nearly a paradise — aside from the Ba’ul — and everyone lives in peace and harmony. I want to be optimistic about this change that’s going to sweep over them, but I have a bad feeling that the various villages will eventually be warring against each other.
And what of the Red Angel? What is it? Who is it? Any thoughts? Tell us what you think!
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery begin streaming Thursdays at 8:30 PM on CBS All Access.
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