WHY WE LIKE IT: The direction and humor.
WHY WE DON'T: The damn angst.
REVIEW: The penultimate episode of the season/series features exciting action, but second viewings aren't kind to it as they expose many plot holes and contrivances. From Breen who randomly ask strangers to share their oil baths with them like it's normal (this part of the heist makes them seem silly indeed) to their not noticing a shuttle exploding inside their exhaust, to the quarantine field around the portal to the Progenitors' tech even though there's no stated reason for it, to Adira's big contribution essentially being pattern enhancers which have been part of the show since TNG (and were used by Discovery in the pre-TOS era), to no one communicating any of this to Saru because they needed a recap, to the one Breen Primarch who heads in their direction being the one who devastated Rayner's planet. Chief among these though is the very nature of the cylinder the crew finds floating between two black holes. Just how did scientists 800 years prior (we're talking just after the Dominion War) build a structure around a hole in space, and how and where did they enter it in the first place? If this Time Lord-type tech were the Progenitors in the first place, that would be one thing, but the dialog indicates the shell is 800 years old, and the puzzle box is a physical key, etc. These guys were surprisingly competent escape room designers, but when you see Burnham struggling with sticking a doodad on a big cylinder, the gap is almost too wide to believe.
The other problem I have with the episode is all the angst-building. This has been a problem with the show for a long time, but with a ticking clock in the background, it's complete nonsense that Culber would show up in Engineering to distract Stamets who is trying to figure out stuff just so they can express worry about their surrogate child Adira. Or for Burnham and Booker to stop in the middle of the mission to have a conversation about their relationship. Saru and his Vulcan fiancée emoting at each other is reasonable in comparison. Thankfully, Rayner tells his acting first officer Tilly where to shove her "fuzzy encouragement", even if I'm not entirely sure what they're expressing by having him avoid sitting in the captain's chair for all this time and finally taking the seat as the climax gets going. Gotta say, I love this particular relationship. Tilly and Rayner are great affectionate foils for one another.
On first viewing, you're not noticing a lot of those problems, and the episode comes off as pretty exciting. Saru prepares for some cowboy diplomacy to stop the Primarch from getting to the black holes. Disco jumps right into a black hole's accretion disc. Part of the crew dress up as Breen to heist the Progenitor portal out of Moll's ship. Discovery has to fly into that giant Breen shuttle bay and try to grab the portal as it's expelled by explosive decompression... just as Burnham jumps into it after Moll. Jonathan Frakes' direction is, as usual, fun and fancy, with nice transitions and strong emphasis on important moments. And there's some humor to be had throughout to lighten the drama.
LESSON: You only sit down when it's REALLY serious.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Fairly exciting stuff, but too many plot holes to call the penultimate episode a classic.
Comments