I have two big questions going into the season finale ofStar Trek: Discovery.
1.Does anything that has happened since the Battle of the Binary Stars actually matter?
2.Does this show think that Starfleet needs to cowboy the f up?
Credit: Jan Thijs/CBS
The first question is about plot, the second focuses on theme.
I assume that the writers ofDiscoverybelieve the answers are, respectively, yes and no.
Discoveryloves curveballs, has built a narrative foundation on ever-shifting quicksand.
So, Im hesitant to say we have any final answers.
But the seasons penultimate episode seemed to walk back much ofthe twisted fun of the Mirror Universe arc.
The crew barely talked about Lorca, the charismatic commander who spent months transforming them in his warlike image.
Cue the return of Ash Tyler, with Voqs memories but not Voqs personality.
(Maybe LRell buried Voqjustenough to get him into place for a big Klingon transformation?)
Weird, though, this episode treated the Voq reveal as a personality hiccup.
You finally went there with someone, Tyler told Burnham about their relationship, Andthings got complicated.
Gyeesh, Ill say!
And this episode vanquished all complexity from those scenarios, like Admiral Cornwell phasering Lorcas fortune cookies into oblivion.
Meanwhile, Emperor Georgiou was under house arrest.
And now they are going along with a plan that handsDiscoveryover to the most vicious fascistic Terran of all.
Michelle Yeoh playing a horrible person playing a decent person is fun.
And, again, the first season ofDiscoveryhas prepared us for further backstabbery from the Emperor.
My bigger issue with this twist circles back to Question #1: Have we movedanywheresince the premiere.
The Battle of the Binary Stars saw Georgiou, Burnham, and Saru fighting Klingons.
Sarek was there, too, sort of, checking in from across the universe.
In the finale, theyll all be kinda reunited, fighting the Klingons.
(Yeesh, even Detmers there!)
I guess you could call this story cyclical.
But it also feels frozen.
Things have changed,sort of.
Emperor Georgiou is a mass-murdering woman Burnham just met.
YetDiscoveryis hanging a lot of drama around this relationship.
But I dont know.
Which, again,is not necessarily a bad thing.
One big thing has changed since the pilot episode ofDiscovery.
The Klingons we met back then were fascinating, curious, multifarious beings.
Were primed for a reckoning on all fronts.
