Pretty much every other episode of Star Trek is a upright “ Hey , everything ’s broken ? ” or “ We encountered a thing and everything ’s broken ? ” character of episode . On the latest Discovery , basically five of those episodes pass off at once — but after deplume themselves out of multiple wringers , the crew might be in better shape than ever . Mostly .
“ An Obol for Charon”—a reference to the ancient Greek tradition of place a coin in the mouth of a drained someone , so that they may tip Charon , ferryman to the underworld , and get safe passage across the river Styx — is really a merging of two classic variety of Trek stories . The first is the “ Oh god , everything ’s broken ” variety of story I mentioned already . But the other — and the causal agent of everything being broken — is the old “ deep entity could mean harm to the bunch but is in reality benign ” classic : a gigantic , superheating organic orb that rips the Discovery out of warp while it tracks down Spock , who ’s on the ravel after last week ’s family drama .
Soon enough , the orb uploads a virus to Discovery ’s computer systems , and basically , everything blend in stunningly wrong — threshold stop working , the worldwide translator break down , life support starts go haywire , power conduit overload . You name it , it breaks . Once again , this is n’t actually a new affair on Star Trek . From malfunction holodecks to failing tycoon system of rules , ships sound haywire is an occurrence with a honestly startling level of regularity — to the point that dealing with said problems never really find like that much of a threat .
But what makes “ Obol ” stand out is that it really , really hits home just how bigStarfleet starshipsreally are — and how , in realness , if even the most basic problem with a computing gadget system or the translator affected a ship with a work party of 100 of different mintage and nationality , things would be way more disastrous than someone on the bridge tutting at a faulty viewscreen or something . With the translator barf everyone ’s speech into different languages every few seconds , communicating between the bridge gang and the balance of the ship ’s sections becomes at once impossible . With door electronic jamming , no one can move in and out of their various sections to either fix things or go fix things elsewhere . It ’s frenzied and disorienting in a way these sorts of proficient malfunction have never really been presented in Star Trek before — contribute a level of hectic tension and threat to the legal proceeding .
That tension is also compounded by the fact that , underneath the cataclysm of the Discovery ’s systems going haywire , “ Obol ” throw two more plotlines into the mix , as if things were n’t already sucky enough for the Discovery crew this episode .
First , down in engineering , the “ May ” being extracted from Tilly last calendar week breaks slack and latch onto her again , unveil that the reason she ’s bonded with Tilly is to attempt to force Discovery to give up hit spore jumps which are damaging its mycelial plate ( oh expect , a 2d excuse to not habituate the spore drive ! ) . It leaves Stamets — and a of a sudden returningJett Reno — attempt to save her while being trapped in Engineering with only canonic medical supply . The other is a bit more directly dangerous : The vibrations the orb is always giving off have ostensibly triggered a biological physical process in Saru that impact all Kelpiens , that fundamentally prepare them for either fearsome frenzy or death at the men of the predator specieson their homeworld . Without the latter to figure out the trouble , Saru basically either has to accept going mad or kill himself , as per the customs back on Kaminar .
It ’s a whole lot , in an episode that is already doing a whole damn lot . But as Saru ’s condition worsens , “ Obol ” slows down a bit and rent the storyline with the Orb being and Saru ’s impending death dovetail joint into some really intriguing mirrors . As he and Michael slipstream to translate whatever the Orb is trying to communicate through its computer virus , we ’re treated to a heartbreaking telephone exchange where Saru struggles with the regrets that he could never fall home and see his sister , choosing to intrust Michael with maintaining all of his meticulous Starfleet logs after his death to observe his memory and one day reelect it to Kaminar . Aside from metaphorically plunk a dagger into Michael ’s spirit , that grim guess leads to the two realizing the orb is basically essay to do the same ( pass on its recorded knowledge ) , letting them save the 24-hour interval by convincing Captain Pike to lower Discovery ’s shields and accept the message as a peaceable enactment instead of assuming hostility . Dying , millennia - older giant star orb puppet : not as regretful as you ’d been lead to believe !
But while the Discovery make back to normal , Saru does n’t , even with the orb gone , and it ’s here that “ Obol ” really begins to polish on a character level . Saru ask Michael to be the one that kill him before his body is driven into hysteria , have a ceremonial tongue to his fear - sensing ganglia as an act of clemency , and it pretty much breaks Michael in a way nothing else she ’s been through on the show so far has ( which has already been a whole hell of a flock ) . It ’s a brilliant flake of acting from Sonequa Martin - Green — we see those protective , Vulcan - y barriers Michael ’s had around herself all this prison term just entirely crumple aside when she finds herself incapable of vote down the man she visit as the comrade she never had after squeeze herself to push Benjamin Spock aside as a tyke .
gratefully , she does n’t have to . As some leave-taking giving , whatever the Orb ’s vibrations did to accelerate Saru ’s condition also leads to him actually surviving it long enough that his ganglion just … come off , before Michael can ritually sever them . It ’s an interesting scuttlebutt that every other Kelpien just gives into the fear and promptly offer themselves up to die rather than brave out the outgrowth , albeit in an accelerated timeframe , as Saru did — one that has some fascinating parallel with Saru’sexcellent Short Treks minisode .
But most significantly here , the trauma of even bear to contemplate euthanizing Saru makes Michael bring in that she ca n’t hide out from the chance to rebuild her relationship with Spock , regardless of the hurt that frazzle their James Bond in the past times . Look at these characters , being reasonably emotionally sizeable and support each other through personal crises or else of bottling it all up ! All it took was a big ol’ death foreign revolve sending everything upside down and almost getting everyone on Discovery kill .
“ An Obol for Charon ” is an installment that is , at time , almost too densely busy for its own commodity — seek to poise three unlike plots aboard the ship , on top of the heightened threat of the entity , jeopardize to play it all crashing down into a mess . But in the attack of the crucible create by the Orb ’s virus , something that ’s clearly been said rather than show in Discovery ’s yesteryear is finally forged : a proper sense of friendship and camaraderie between the extremity of the crew .
The bridge crew all solemnly rising from their stations as Saru seemingly walks to his own end , Tilly and Stamets blab together as the latter fix to literally drill a hole into her head and perform OR to save her , Saru and Michael having to tearfully hold up each other in the face of Saru ’s seemingly impending death . These are moments of emotion between these reference that never really presented themselves in Discovery ’s first season , where at proficient it matte up like these citizenry scarcely roll in the hay each other , and at worst , that we scarce knew them .
With this season already going beyond — beyond here meaning that it actually gives the bridgework crew lines of dialogue and actual banter with each other , the most canonical pattern of “ going beyond ” possible — to make us truly care about this crew , it means emotional moments like this actually feel earned , instead of being pulled out of nowhere ( looking at you , “ we are Starfleet ” momentin the season one conclusion ) . Re - forging Saru and Michael ’s relationship together in particular , and mirroring repairing that human relationship with her “ find family unit ” buddy , with Michael ’s actualisation that she needs to do the same with her adoptive comrade , is a huge present moment . Not just for the unexampled direction it sets Saru in — spare of the fear that ’s literally governed his entire animation for the first time — but also the path it position Michael on , freeing her of some of the doubts she ’s been holding since the commencement of the time of year that , initially , feel like theythreatened to create play for the sake of it , plainly out of the fact she refused to be open about it with the people around her .
peradventure that these excited beats superintend to set down at all means that Star Trek : Discovery has finally paid its obol to Charon now too — and pull in safe transit to a raw reality . Except this is not some metaphoric track to Hades Discovery is on , at least any not more , but an loss from a dark and tempestuous position to one a bit lustrous . The drive there might have been a bit rocky at maculation , but at least the itinerary forrader looks like plainer sailing .
Assorted Musings
Oh hey look , Number One showed up for a number ! deal her single view was basically all we ’d see ofRebecca Romijn ’s takeon the original bit One of Star Trek’sfirst pilotin the trailer , I fear we wo n’t actually see her again any clip shortly . Which is a shame , she makes a estimable replicator hamburger ordering .
Making the seemingly throwaway stemma from the previous instalment that Saru was that guy wire at Starfleet Academy — who bothered to take as many Federation languages as he can — a key part of actually starting to solve problem with the translating program in this episode was really clever .
MORE LINUS THE SAURIAN PLEASE . God sanctify him and his multiple sinuses . I kinda hope that the fact him getting a frigidness really sucks just becomes a running matter until , one solar day , lacertilian snot salvage the whole ship .
So , Tilly ’s been transported into the mycelial connection “ wood ” that Stamets was snare in last season , right ? Via … being put inside the May organism ? eldritch . possibly she ’ll relegate into Culber while she ’s there !
Because this show seems to on the spur of the moment be grip with pulling potentially black result out of seeming victories , the elbow room Saru emphasizes that he abruptly sense “ muscular ” after having his fear - ganglia hang off makes it seem like not every change about him subsist the Kelpien ’s biological suicide is going to be for the good . We ’ll have to wait and see , but pairing that line with the fact he ’s now burdened with the knowledge that his multitude do n’t really have to offer up themselves up to their predators or go insane — and is restrict by the Prime Directive from going home and telling them that — seems it ’s going to create turmoil ahead for Saru .
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