WHY WE LIKE IT: The fruits of the previous episode. An unexpected cliffhanger.
WHY WE DON'T: Admiral Janeway will always put my teeth on edge.
REVIEW: The first half of this mid-season finale has so much action, it sometimes gets lost in its own details. We've got robot scorpions after the heroes. We've got rocket pack action. We've got Jankom using his cybernetic hand. We've got the miners finally understanding one another thanks to Starfleet's universal translator (don't think too much about the techno-Babel involved) and declaring their love to each other and/or collaborating to get themselves free of the asteroid. Jankom deferring to Rok for the science solutions. Drednok action where the evil robot looks more fearsome than ever. Gwyn at the Diviner's mercy, then Janeway, faking her corruption and now upgraded to be solid, pretty ruthlessly fighting him. So we can excuse some things falling through the cracks, like clearly seeing the Proto-Core being taken from Murf.
That's all quite exciting, but the meat of the episode is in the second half. The Diviner reveals his homeworld is not YET destroyed, and that he's come from the future, at least 50 years hence, to prevent its destruction, which he blames on the Federation. I don't know if it was bungled, but first contact caused (will cause) the society to splinter into joiners and traditionalists, break out into civil war, and they eventually blow themselves up. I dunno, Diviner, sounds like that's on you. (And also, terrifyingly analogous to the culture wars of today's Earth.) Gwyn also learns that the Protostar has been infected with a computer virus that would make Starfleet ships fire on one another, so the ship can never go home, because that would be disastrous. Gee, maybe the Diviner should have just let the kids alone and they'd eventually reach the Federation... So okay, this is status quo protectionism, right? The crew can't go to Federation space, where they'd likely lose the ship and end their adventure. Not quite...
Just as the Diviner is about to kill Dal, Zero shows up, takes off its armor and shows its true self to the Diviner, a self that makes people go maaaadddddddddd. Hard core punishment. Unfortunately, Gwyn gets a glance at the Medusan, which renders her catatonic. By the time she's better, she's forgotten all about the last few hours, including that key piece of information. And the Protostar heads for Federation space... WHaaaa?! So the happy ending - miners taking the Diviner's ship (I thought they might be used as background crew for the Protostar, at least the kitty, but no), Janeway making a big speech to tie the kids' progress into the show's title, etc. - is actually a pretty effective cliffhanger.
And then a bonus scene. ADMIRAL Janeway (groan, sorry, I have residual Nemesis annoyance) on the U.S.S. Dauntless (did she commission this and name it after the fake Federation ship in Voyager's "Hope and Fear"? Weird reuse), in a Lower Decks era uniform, detects the Protostar and orders an intercept. She's looking for Chakotay (hear that, shippers?) and doesn't suspect a thing. Well... if Starfleet is going to be destroyed, Janeway is the one to do it, pursuing the "needs of the one". (Sorry, sorry, I guess I just like the hologram better.)
LESSON: Don't look at Medusans is a lesson we have to learn every 55 years or so.
REWATCHABILITY - High: The episode ends one chapter of Prodigy with a bang, and leaves you wanting more.
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