Mid-season Finale. All the plots. All the action. All cliffhangers? "Into the Forest I Go"
The Discovery is ordered to rendezvous with the fleet. Anyone who's seen as much Star Trek as me knows that they never rendezvous with the fleet! Why not? Because fleet shots are expensive and difficult to film (sadly...) Besides, it's more dramatic to break orders and go rogue, I guess. Capt. Lorca and crew have their own plan. Defend the innocent planet of Pahvo (from last episode) from the impending Klingon attack. Sneak aboard their vessel and install trekno-babble devices to overcome the cloaking system. For reasons that require an impassioned character-clarifying speech, Michael Burnham convinces the Captain to let her go on the away mission with boytoy Tyler. Why did the Captain want her to stay? Because he, like the writers, enjoys a good impassioned character-clarifying speech as well, and promptly gives in after he gets it. Also, he's preoccupied with his own subplot. He needs to convince Stammets to conduct 133 spore-drive jumps because science and reasons and stuff in order to collect that cloaking field data from the devices they installed. Seriously, the trekno-babble is strong this week, reaching Star Trek Voyager levels. I joke, but this is actually the most interesting plotline in the series and it's clearly coming to a head in the midst of a space battle with the Klingons. What more could you ask for? Burnham and Tyler (because couples always get sent on missions together) sneak aboard the Klingon ship and discover Admiral What's-Her-Name in captivity. She was betrayed by Lorca in Episode 6, I think, but she doesn't know that yet. I expected a little tension from her reunion with Lorca but it must've ended up on the cutting room floor. Instead the drama revolves around Tyler's PTSD at the sight of his Klingon torturer (rapist?). There's some tension again as I expected his inevitable reveal as the albino Klingon not seen since Episode 3. Once again, nothing. The PTSD is played reasonably believably but the torture scenes, despite a few flashes of what I think is Klingon nudity, obscure everything else so that I'm still pretty sure his "torture" was in fact some sort of brain-transfer with the albino Klingon. I'm starting to believe Tyler doesn't even know this about himself. Maybe he's a sleeper agent. I'm not sure, but they better not conceal it for too much longer because everyone is starting to see it coming anyway. Stammets' secret side-effects are discovered by his boyfriend, Doctor Culber, but Lorca convinces him to do these 133 jumps anyway, in spite of the damage it has already caused and will cause if he continues. Even Stammets is like, "That's a lot of jumps," but Lorca is clever and promises Stammets what he really wants. If they do this and win the war, the data they collect performing the jumps will open the door to new inter-dimensional possibilities. In other words, they'll be able to boldly go to parallel universes or something, which is exactly the kind of outside-the-lab opportunities Stammets has always dreamed of. He agrees. And when I say drama ensues, I actually mean this is the most fascinating and suspenseful portion of the series so far. The dynamics with his boyfriend are far more resonant than Burnham with Tyler, and you just know something will go wrong as the scenario plays out. Anthony Rapp imbues his portrayal of Stammets with genuine fear and that gives weight to the self-sacrifice. But the writers drag it out slowly, making us feel and count the jumps one by one, at a certain point, instead of a quick montage. Even his Doctor/boyfriend, after failing to convince the Captain to abort, must participate in prolonging the agonizing experience as Stammets' consciousness is torn across the cosmos repeatedly. As a bonus, we're treated to some great visuals as the Discovery itself flickers in and out around the Klingon ship, decimating it with some classic photon torpedoes. In the end everything works. They rescue the Admiral. They decipher the cloaking technology. Destroy the Klingon ship. Avenge Captain Georgiou from Episode 2. Stammets survives the jumping. Lorca is given a medal for breaking orders. And they even capture that evil Klingon chick (which will probably come back to bite them). So where is the twist? If you've been watching closely, like me you expected any number of twists by now. The Admiral discovering Lorca's betrayal? Nope. Tyler exposed as a Klingon (or at least a bad actor)? Nope. Saru cracking under the pressure? Nope. Stammets accidentally jumping them into the Mirror Universe? Or switching with his Mirror-Self? Or any concrete consequence at all? NOPE! Well... Okay, so just as you're starting to think the writers botched it, they do sneak in one last foreboding, "Everything's okay, so let's all go home" conversation between Stammets and Lorca (Wait, isn't Burnham the lead character? Who cares, they're wasting her. These guys are more interesting). Stammets says he'll do one more jump to get everyone home to safety, but then he's done. Lorca seems cool, but then betrays him (because that's what he does) by pushing buttons at the last second. When they jump home, something goes wrong. Stammets goes all transcendent-like, and the Discovery reappears somewhere new. "Where's the starbase?" "Is that debris from the Klingons?" someone asks, but whatever this last second twist is supposed to be, we'll never know. It's not Starbase 46. It's not where they're supposed to be, or anywhere else they recognize. It's just... We don't know. Which isn't as cool as it sounds. Some dramatic irony would've been appropriate here, something familiar to the audience if not the characters (like a ship from the Mirror Universe, or even a classic Constitution class ship from the Original Series, hinting that we've been in an alternate universe this entire time). Also, the new environment could've triggered Tyler's Klingon secret, or the beginnings of it. The Klingon prisoner could've broken out in the chaos. Any of these would've been tantalizing and kept fans talking for the next two months, eager to catch the return. But this ambiguity sorta kills their own momentum. We're promised strange new "discoveries" for 2018's final episodes, and ominous warnings that the crew may boldly go "too far" this time, but nothing firm to latch onto or get excited about. Conclusion: An uneven first half to the season leads to an uneven attempt to tie it all together. The strong parts are still strong, and the weak parts are still weak. I had hoped this episode would "redeem" the previously weaker episodes by giving them new relevance and meaning, but it mostly glosses over the implications at the end. The action was quite impressive (despite being traditionally brief) but the episode just couldn't harmonize all its various characters and dramatic opportunities. Lorca and Stammets continue to shine with subtext and depth, but the writers just can't figure out how to consistently use Burnham to her potential. She avenges Georgiou by recovering her dogtags and Saru seems to forgive her with a silent expression, but it all feels hollow and tacked on. This is what it looks like when you can't stick the landing. It's not bad, but it's not the must-see television that non-Trekkies will have an interest in. It remains good enough for those who already want to like it and will put up with anything. Like me. The possibility of another reset to the status quo has potential and it's the direction I would've taken the show for sure, but I would've liked more specifics about what I could expect when we return, rather than just my own imagination. I'm hoping for a Sliders-style meandering through the multiverse, free from Star Trek continuity and canon, where we can encounter even stranger new worlds. But that's just me. I guess we'll find out in January!
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