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Here we are, the next-to-last episode of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, and it feels like they are aligning this season’s Captain Pike storyline — which he know ends with him being doused with massive amounts of radiations (but will that happen in the finale or is that still something down the road a bit for him?) — as well as reconciling the fact that the Discovery has never once been mentioned in any previous Star Trek series set after the events of this one (and that would be all of them except for Enterprise).
And if you watched any of the Short Treks that premiered before the second season, they seemed to be separate from anything that’s happened this season. Until now, the closest we got to a tie-in was the episode with Saru returning to his home planet that connected to the third short, ‘The Brightest Star’. This week, we got a direct connection to the first short, ‘Runaway’, which a two character piece that featured Tilly encountering a stowaway on the ship, Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po (Yadira Guevara-Prip), or Po for short, 17-year-old queen of Xahea. While she was unsure of herself as the newly installed queen of her planet in the short, now she is fully in control. And apparently Discovery has been directed to Xahea by another signal, which thrills Tilly since the two bonded over ice cream, and it just so happens that Po is a science whiz. They need her to help power the time crystal, proving yet again that the signals are not random, but being sent by someone from the future.
But not Michael’s mother since her time travel suit is kaput. But we can’t forget that upon first diagnosis of the suit, it was coded to a person’s DNA, and that DNA was originally thought to be Michael’s. Which now puts all of the pieces together that Michael did indeed travel to the future to try to stop Control. Which also means their efforts to destroy the Discovery failed. And that also bore out as the sphere data, which has some sort of sentience, has disrupted the ship’s auto self-destruct mechanisms. Michael’s realizes that the only way to keep the data from Control, with ControlLeland breathing down their necks, is to take Discovery to the future, far beyond the reaches of Control. But how to do that with a time crystal no one knows how to power up?
Po’s arrival was fortuitous in that she was able to construct a method that involved the ship’s spore drive but the result of that meant the drive would take 12 hours to recharge once the procedure was completed. And with Leland only a few minutes behind them, time was of the essence in getting the crystal charged and it was going much too slowly. Prior to the attempted self-destruct of the ship, everyone from Discovery evacuated to the Enterprise, and we got our first good glimpse of the bridge … still a bit more sleek than the classic TV series version but it no longer has holographic communications. Georgiou’s reaction to the color scheme, ‘Orange … ick,’ was hilarious. We even got to see the original turbo lift controls, as well as hearing the classic sliding door sound effect. And the crew in their multi-colored uniforms with a lot of Red Shirts on the bridge.
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But with the destruction of the ship off the table, Michael knows that she alone must take the ship to the future. The only problem is that once the crystal is powered, there will be an overflow of energy that will burn it out, preventing Burnham from returning to the present. This gave us the first really emotional moment of the episode with the crew standing in her honor as she prepares for the one-way trip, also giving Sarek and Amanda a chance to pay a final visit to their daughter (Sarek’s psychic connection with Michael alerted him to what was about to happen). Even Sarek seemed to tear up a bit. And that was just the first time we needed Kleenex this week. And even more emotional was the moment between Hugh and Paul. It seemed like they were about to reconcile but Paul said he was going to go away and take some time off after all this, and Hugh said he was going to stay on the Enterprise.
When it became clear that Michael was punching a one-way ticket, she was surprised by the return of the essential personnel who told her they would not let her do this alone. She said they would be leaving everything they knew behind, including their families, and they all stood with her saying this is their family. Cue more tears as every crew member recorded goodbye messages to their loved ones. Among thos staying with Michael were Staments — so no R&R for him — and … Spock. Fascinating. How is that going to play out? It seems that perhaps even Po is staying on board to help manage the crystal. One person who is not staying is Ash, who believes he needs to stay embedded within Section 31 to keep anything like this from happening again. Another emotional goodbye! But it appears Georgiou is also staying with Discovery, letting Pike know she’s Terran from the Mirror Universe before beaming him and Tyler back to the Enterprise. Pike’s response, ‘What Mirror Universe?’ with a wink of his eye, was cute.
But with Control and a flotilla of Section 31 ships about to arrive, time is literally running out and no one has any viable options of how to power the crystal faster. Earlier, Michael had touched the crystal and saw a massive battle, most likely the one brewing with Control and Section 31, that left an unexploded torpedo in the hull of the Enterprise. She thought she could change that future by telling Pike to stop trying to blow up Discovery. But the only way to fully charge the time crystal now was to remove the cage around it that was containing the energy. Jett Reno volunteered to be the one to manage the power transfer, shooing Stamets and Tilly out of the room (shade of Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). Removing the cage and touching the crystal, Reno saw the same future Michael had seen.
But the clock has run out as the Section 31 ships converge and surround both Discovery and the Enterprise. Before leaving Discovery, Pike appointed Saru as Discovery’s new captain — and who didn’t see that coming? — and the two captains prepared their ships and their crews for battle.
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery begin streaming Thursdays at 8:30 PM on CBS All Access.
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