A new Spock always brings new Time Travel troubles in another tumultuous episode! "Light and Shadows" Burnham finds Spock in the first place she looks. Our hero and protagonist Michael Burnham gets permission to check in with her step-mom, who swore in Ep 3 she'd find Spock first, but is just hanging out on Vulcan as if she isn't simply harboring him there in a cave. Burnham does her patented serious face, so Spock-Mom caves and... wait for it... takes her to the cave! Your welcome. After 6 episodes building up his absence through a series of vague chases, misdirections, and meddling distractions, we finally catch up with Spock, and his reveal is rather... ordinary? He's just hiding in that cave after all, with little fanfare, not masterminding his continued evasion as he's been described thus far. If anything, he's barely aware of his surroundings. He's raving mad. Did he have help this whole time? Ethan Peck with a beard is still surprisingly effective, perhaps even more so than Zachary Quinto was in 2009 without one. I guess one of the most iconic science fiction actors of all time isn't so irreplaceable after all...? (RIP Leanord Nimoy) Peck brings an aloof detachment back to the role that Quinto overlooked, as well as that unexpected beard, which totally works for me. It's a visual metaphor that this Spock is not in his normal mind. What also works is Peck's deep, throaty voice, which like Nimoy's, conveys complex cerebral intelligence with a flat emotionless affect, as he rambles off what seem like arbitrary numbers. Good thing he said them backwards so the galaxy's greatest spy agency couldn't crack the coordinates to next week's episode! (Hint: It's Talos IV!) Section 31 Super-Spies have never been so bland. Sarek convinces Burnham and Spock-Mom to surrender Spock to the clandestine organization because if they think Spock holds the secret to the Red Lights, it actually is in their best interest to help him if they want what he knows. It's a bit of logic no one bothered to mention when everyone was busy racing to catch him, and also reminiscent of Season 1 in the way it voids multiple episodes of unnecessary plot delay. Why spend so many episodes trying to outmaneuver them only to hand him over immediately? Similarly, as soon as they surrender him to Section 31, Burnham decides to escape with him yet again, thus voiding half the plot of this very episode! On the plus side we get to see Michelle Yeoh return and finally cut loose with her martial arts skillz, as she secretly assists in the escape and continues her maniacal manipulations within the spy agency. To what end, you ask? To command her own TV spinoff, of course. Capt. Leland is such a dunce. Meanwhile the Discovery deals with a Time Rift (because there's never been one of those in Star Trek before). It appears where last week's red light had been. I thought the time travel theory was just a hypothetical, but everyone seems to be treating it as established fact this week, including the writers. So much for ambiguity. Pike decides he has to be the one to pilot the shuttle that goes in because he feels bad missing the war last season. Ash Tyler goes too because he's on the cast list. Readers of this blog know full well I don't care for the guy, and this week... he kinda worked for me! By writing my annoyance with the character into the story itself (Pike doesn't trust him and can't seem to stand him either, because: Klingon), he suddenly feels appropriately cast: as the annoying guy! Bravo, writers, bravo. He follows Pike because he wants to know where Burnham got off to (he suspects it's to find Spock, which was sorta his job). What follows is a less than silly buddy-road-trip bonding plot complete with cyber-squids. Of course they get lost in the Time Rift. And of course they become pals, or at least learn to appreciate each other by the end of the episode, despite Tyler refusing Pike's orders and making broad accusations at him. Pike even sees a brief vision of the future where he shoots Tyler, as they blindly try to navigate the time stream, but keeps it to himself. Don't be fooled. This marks the third (or fourth?) Tyler death-fake we've been given since meeting him. The dude always pulls through. But it doesn't bode well for their bonding time. They launch a probe but the probe comes back with 500 years of advancements and tries to kill them with tentacles. It's a pretty sweet squid-looking probe-monster and it wraps Tyler up in the classic death-squeeze. Pike recognizes the moment from his vision and takes the shot, not to kill Tyler but to save him.. Stamets uses his Tardigrade DNA to navigate the Time Rift and beam aboard the shuttle and then beam them all back before the self-destruct goes off, in an easy ending that should satisfy all the classic Trek fans (ba-da ching! cue laugh track).
Also, The cyber-squid from the future infects Discovery with a virus, but it really just infects Airam, also known as Computer-Head Girl, so... Stay Tuned! Conclusion: This scattershot episode has a bunch of stuff happen really quickly which is all kinda interesting in theory but felt kinda flat in terms of drama or stakes (compared to some of the previous episodes). Everything developed and resolved a little too easily and conveniently. But Burnham finally felt like she mattered to the story again, Pike got lots of screen time, timey-wimey stuff is always terrific, and they even made me like Tyler a little (for now). So it's a narrow victory! I'll take it, because next week's revisiting of Talos IV proves to be one for the ages! Captain's Blog Supplemental: Geez, the special effects are looking good this season! Saru's command disposition is a lot more... Confident this week. I like it. Nice to see more of Vulcan than just volcanoes and mountainous meditation monasteries for a change. These people can travel faster than light, they must live in buildings somewhere! Sheesh. Question: Why does the shuttle clang so loud when Burnham lands it every time? Answer: She's a xeno-biologist, not a taxi driver! Owosekun now has a third way to pronounce her name. Memory Alpha, you have your work cut out for you. Computer-Head Girl turns out to be a real android afterall. I look forward to more info on this. Or like... Any info. At all. Did anyone else know she was an actual robot and not just a robot-looking blue-skinned alien? Didn't they concoct some crazy time travel crap the last time they recast Spock? Must be in the contract. Discovery has been renewed for Season 3! Hurray! Now just don't fire any producers or showrunners and it's destined for success!
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