It’s the penultimate episode of the season and things certainly look bleak for Discovery and it’s crew. The USS Discovery has been captured and the Emerald Chain is heading toward the nuFederation. This episode really kicks it up a notch with Burnham and the crew of Discovery fighting to take back the ship while Osyrra and Admiral Vance negotiate for peace with Osyrra demanding that the Emerald Chain be recognized as a valid government.
but…
Is it a ‘Good’ Episode? Yeah, there’s some spoilers here.
There is a lot to like in this episode as it is clearly setting up the finale with Discovery in danger and the nuFederation at risk of pretty much ceasing to exist. The thing is, this all feels a little forced and out of nowhere as…this season was clearly about discovering the origin of The Burn right? I mean, that’s what they kept saying, and pretending to do until they found a Mutant Kelpian Manchild who threw a fit and wiped out all of the dilithium except for the massive Dilithium planet he was on.
Did I miss something or did that plot line just get prematurely resolved so that we could focus on Osyrra and her completely out of left field demand for peace? They even try to humanize her through the eyes of a chair bound scientist who apparently never knew just how evil his boss was…but of course he starts to see the ‘real’ Osyrra. Seriously, the writing is all over the place this season and boy does it show. I almost feel like this is one of those stories that we wrote in grade school where everyone gets to write a sentence and a class tells a story together. You always get some joker tossing in a monkey wrench or a poop joke and the end turns out a complete mess that makes no sense at all. Sure, it might be a beautiful mess, but the parts sure don’t make the whole make much sense.
All that aside, if you can ignore the fact that this episode forces this season to suddenly become about the fate of the nuFederation and the Emerald Chain, it’s not a bad episode. In fact it is a pretty well plotted and fun entry that feels just like the any classic hostage situation resulting in a mini revolution. Where it’s going with this? I don’t know. I mean we have several major crew members stuck on a planet that is killing them, several others stuck on a stolen ship which might kill them, the nuFederation stuck in a negotiation that might kill it and Burham with a gash in her leg that you know is going to ‘might kill her’ at some point too. I guess we have to wait until next week for the finale to really judge this story arc but so far, it is both impressive and totally out of left field, which isnt necessary a good thing. (or a bad thing…)
Gleanings, Questions and cool bits: (some spoilers here too)
- What is the deal with Osyrra’s accent. She is worse that Carrie Fisher on the first Star Wars film. For some reason Osyrra kept slipping into a British accent and then back to an American one, sometimes in the same sentence. And no, this isn’t an Orion thing…it’s just a really lazy one.
- Stamets refers to Adira as his child! Yeah, we knew that was coming!
- So the ship’s AI is now in robot(s) form? Ok…curious as to where this is going.
- Tilly really steps it up as acting Captain, realizing her fault in losing the ship literally minutes after taking command. There’s a little Killy in this Tilly and it’s not bad to see.
- Admiral Vance finally admits what we knew all along….replicated food is made of shit…literally. Shit deconstructed at the molecular level and reformed into food. No wonder the replicators never could make a good bowl of Tomato soup on Voyager, it was literally shit soup!
- Stamets being sent back to the nuFederation against his will when he had a chance to save his husband and child…yeah, that is NOT going to fair well for Burhman when they meet up again.
- Oh yeah…Book and Burnham finally admit their love for one another…pretty much damning Book to death by the end of this series.
- anyhow…until next time, enjoy the sneak peeks below!
Thanks for reading the SciFi TV Review, I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you! Some teasers of next weeks episode below!
For more reviews: check out the weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more Trek goodness check out our Retro TV Reviews here.
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Late To The Game 10/15/2020
Special Thanks to Memory Alpha as they are one of the best sources for details on Star Trek information available. Although I have a pretty deep knowledge on the subject, they have proven invaluable as a regular resource.
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