WHY WE LIKE IT: That final pull-out.
WHY WE DON'T: That's a lot of epilogue. I also hate it when they reuse titles (though the Enterprise episode of the same name prefigures what we'll find out later about the origins of the anomaly).
REVIEW: Whatever I think of the repetitious nature of an anomaly threat this season, I have to admit Discovery knows how to handle these things in a way that doesn't rely on pointless technobabble. Obviously, this is a [tech] problem with [tech] solutions, but even that part of it is pleasantly analog. In a way, the fact that the [tech] explanation of this being two black holes crashing into each other is proven a red herring means the show knows technobabble is pretty pointless. Once the missing is under way, I think we can understand what's happening pretty well - Booker has to go into the anomaly's dust shell to get better readings of it, there's an umbilical chord, and it he must rid it out on a gravity wave, as if the ship were surfing. And it's all fairly exciting when, on paper, it's really just about scanning something. But the stakes feel high, there are moments where all seems lost, what feels like an Apollo 13 moment where everyone helps figure out the solution (AND take a moment to congratulate each other, we don't see that enough in shows like this), and it ends on a cliffhanger that makes the mission's success feel like the first step towards total disaster, with an amazing pull-out shot.
And Discovery needn't do all that because it also knows that the [tech] stuff is only a background for human drama. Booker has just lost his world and his family, and when he's not wallowing catatonically, he's forcing himself to relive it. Now he insists on flying through his planet's debris? No wonder he sees "ghosts" in there. He's in fact haunted by having noticed birds freaking out before the planet was destroyed and thinks he could have saved his family. A member of an empathic species, we wonder if he feels things more acutely too. So no, he's not ready to pilot the mission even if he has the best shot at doing so successfully. He'll lose hope, need Burnham to focus him back into shape. Stamets, projected as a hologram, is only on hand to throw gas on the fire, as these two have an apparently antagonistic relationship (this is a weak element for me, the explanation stemming from the previous season which seems a bit far away now to glean a fuller context) despite having much in common (as the two ship jumpers). But even if Booker has isolated himself physically and emotionally, everyone else acts like he's part of their family and remind him that they are there for him. It's a pretty strong climax as a result.
And then it goes on for another 10 minutes. With no distinct time slot on streaming services, shows can now be any length they need to be. That can be a good thing and Discovery certainly uses a lot of its allotted time to give as many characters in the cast as possible something to do. We just didn't need everyone to debrief at the end of this. Some key moments in the subplot sequences include... Saru coming back and offering to be Burnham's XO (damn, that sucks for whoever had the job before - was it Brice? - and it passes without mention) and dropping wisdom bombs almost immediately. I don't know how much I buy Tilly's sudden crisis of the soul (more on this as it develops), but starts here. Though she's more of a hardass and someone younger officers like Adira look up to, she still gets a couple of amusing moments. And then there's Gray who is about to be "incorporated" into an android body just like Picard's (we're told the failure rate on this technique was so great, it DIDN'T break the universe when Soong created it), which is couched in terms similar to transitioning. A good use of continuity to bring the character into the solid, visible world. Speaking of technology, the episode also goes out of its way to introduce a holodeck and a private communications bubble, and mention Zora's hand-picked name. At least some of this is being set up for future episodes.
LESSON: Deep Space Nine was right, Klingons can love Ferengi. Just don't expect cute babies.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Does a good job with the A-plot, but the balance is a little off when it comes to incorporating the subplots into it.
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