WHY WE LIKE IT: Rayner, Rayner, Rayner!
WHY WE DON'T: What's Fate doing in here?
REVIEW: Saru has accepted the ambassador posting and will be leaving Discovery (the ship, not the show) soon, and there is SOME attempt at letting us think his last mission could be fatal. All that "you're the bravest soul I've ever known" stuff, coupled with music that sounds like it's out of the OG movies, as well as the retcon that the crew call him "Action Saru" and his chance to prove it by distracting killer security drones... Well, there was a vibe. Perhaps even a frisson. Our boy Saru will survive, but either way, he's making room for Rayner to be drafted after his forced retirement/demotion following his mistake last episode. I know he doubles down on defending his actions and shows contempt for the politicians in the room, but it still seems harsh to put someone out to pasture for accidentally inspiring villains to adopt your strategy and use it against you. It's a convenience to put the character aboard Discovery.
Conveniences are this episode's biggest problem, in fact. After Booker makes contact with Moll and L'ak, even he - a Star Trek character - has to admit that Fate is somehow playing a role. It seems Moll is the daughter of his mentor, the previous Cleveland Booker. Not something she's proud of given how she reacts to Book's name, but what were the chances? We'll be off to Trill soon, and Adira just brought up Gray. I also find Tilly and Adira's floundering trying to figure out how to stop the Promellian security system rather suspect. This keeps Rayner alive and in the running for new XO when he remotely shows up to push them along and ask the right questions. But it seems like the answers are rather obvious, so the scene feels manufactured as a result. We need Rayner to simultaneously be disgraced and prove highly competent and useful to the crew (indeed, he's mission-focused, not ambition-focused, which endears him to Burnham eventually) so that he can be given a second chance. This is what they've decided the theme of the entire show is, and they're right. Burnham bounced back from her own disgrace to become captain, and the ship itself was taken out of time and given a new life in the future, where the crew gave the Federation its second shot at life, and so on. A "hawk" in a world of "doves", and as per Saru's advice, not a yes man in the least. Rayner's recruitment is probably the best scene in the episode.
As for the quest for the Progenitors' technology, the next clue, first map fragment, etc. are found on a dead Promellian planet - sharp-eared super-fans will recognize these as the dead aliens from TNG's "Booby Trap" even if their statues have more eyes - hey, we don't look like Shiva or Anubis either - and I always like it when Burnham gets to use her anthropology skills in an episode. Acting as a kind of Indiana Jones (respecting sacred spaces rather than feeding museums, of course) is kind of a sweet spot for her. I also love it when she drops the Vulcan exterior and lets out an accented colloquialism like "Dammmn!". If the EMP solve was a little long in coming, the basic archaeology - reading poems, realizing there are decoy verses, etc. was all well done.
LESSON: Everyone deserves a second chance.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Too many iffy plot contortions, but otherwise a solid chapter in the quest arc.
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