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Mary Fan: Well we’re nearly at the end of the season, and the penultimate episode takes us where all good treasure-hunt adventures end up: the big confrontation with the baddies in the metaphorical treasure room. The Discovery crew’s possum maneuver cost them so much time, they arrived at the location of the Progenitors’ tech only for Moll and the Breen to snatch it out from under them. But, because Michael was the one who actually mind-scaped her way to the clue, only she has the cryptic message that will help decode it. Moll opens up the container with the tech only to find a big white light that looks an awful lot like the dimension of the Deep Space Nine wormhole aliens. And like a good tyrant, she sends a random soldier to investigate… who promptly gets pulled in and vanishes. I got major Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade vibes from that bit.
Victor Catano: He was… unworthy.
Mary: Exactly.
Victor: It was a very fun episode. I liked the pacing and the subterfuge and the action beats. However…
The episode starts with Discovery and Moll finding the structure in space between two black holes. And it ends with the structure in space between two black holes. So they spent 40 minutes to go from Point A to Point A, only blown up.
And I think that’d be fine for episode 9 of 16, but for the second-to-last episode ever? It feels like a lot of wheel spinning.
Mary: Eh, I didn’t mind so much. I thought it was a fun mission — sneak on board disguised as the baddies is a classic Trek move. It ended in failure — they didn’t get the tech — but also, that was kind of necessary if they wanted an excuse for Michael to step into the void (had to drive ’em to desperation first). And you knew from the moment the void showed up that she would end up in there.
Victor: Sigh. I guess… I liked the covert mission, but it just felt oddly pointless to me since everything ended up where it started. I do get your point that they couldn’t just have Michael dive into the portal without a good reason
Mary: Yup. And they had to get Moll in there, too. Which, I guess, is why they had the Breen snatch the device.
Victor: I’m just so damn annoyed with Molly. (Argh, MOLL, Not Molly, autocorrect! Haven’t you heard me complain about her enough to get that right?) I haven’t cared about her arc at all all season.
Mary: Yeah I really don’t buy her leading the Breen. Especially since she didn’t even have any kind of fancy title. If being the wife of the Scion confers her status, shouldn’t that give her some kind of title? Instead we had a Breen dude call her by her name and that felt weird. At least Book seems to have given up on her.
Victor: And the other Breen Primarchs agree with you! They’re coming to claim Moll’s ship and troops!
The whole of Moll’s villain path just feels so weird to me. Discovery’s writers clearly want us to view her as a worthy rival to Michael and also sympathize with her character. Why else let her live this long, leading up to a series finale confrontation in the portal space?
But I don’t. I just don’t. I find her smug and irritating
Mary: Yeah, same. Which would be fine if she also seemed dangerous, but she doesn’t. Like, you don’t buy for a second that Michael can’t beat her. Again, if they’d started the season with her at the helm of a Breen ship, then maybe she would have at least felt like a credible threat. Instead, we spent half the season wondering why the entire Discovery crew couldn’t deal with two lone mercs.
Victor: Yes, and have the big reveal be it was a human bent on revenge leading the Breen. Have it be someone from last season reappear in the villain role. Heck, I’d be ok with one of those Jade Syndicate characters!
Mary: Her motivation is pretty annoying too. She just wants loooooove… well, that again doesn’t make her very threatening! Couldn’t she at least have had imperial ambitions or something?
Victor: Yeah, like she blames both the Breen and the Federation for L’ak’s death and will destroy everyone?
Mary: Imagine if she’d gone to L’ak purposely trying to claim the Breen throne… she knows he’s this disaffected Scion who ain’t like the other Breen and would be vulnerable to her wiles. Hey, maybe she falls in love along the way, but still, intentional conniving…
Victor: Were you as worried as I was that they were going to kill Saru on his diplomatic mission to slow down the other Breen ships?
Mary: Saru! I’m so excited to see him back. Yeah I’m worried he won’t last. They might give him a big sacrificial death in the finale.
Victor: I was thinking they would kill him off and then Moll and Michael would have to fight over who gets reborn in the alien dimension. But now, I’m thinking they will end the series on Saru’s wedding.
Mary: That would be fun, if a bit eye-roll-y.
Victor: I like Saru, and we know how much this show loooves its feels
Mary: Oh speaking of loooooove… How stupid was it that Michael and Book had a heart-to-heart in the middle of their covert mission?! Just because they lamp-shaded it doesn’t mean it was less stupid. They couldn’t have had this convo BEFORE?
Victor: Ugh, yes. I thought the same thing.
Mary: I literally yelled “SERIOUSLY?!” And the way it was filmed, with the floating faces, took away from the emotional impact.
Victor: Yeah, I was all, “Come on, Disco! What are you doing?”
Mary: Because they were in their Breen costumes, they couldn’t look each other in the eye or anything. And the actors were forced to act straight to the camera rather than to a scene partner. It looked really, REALLY stupid.
Victor: Talk about the flattest possible way to have a big emotional scene
Mary: Couldn’t they have done it in the shuttle, at least? Oh, Disco.
Victor: The finale is filmed all like the confessional cam on The Real World. Just single shots of the crew emoting.
Mary: Hah!
Victor: I would like to see Rayner’s, though. “Damn space hippies!”
Mary: I loved Tilly and Rayner’s interactions this week.
Victor: Absolutely the best. “You know why I made you acting first officer? You’re smart, you’re a good leader, and if we were in a foxhole together, I wouldn’t kill you. Unless you do more of that warm-and-fuzzy encouragement.”
Mary: That was the most Rayner thing ever
Victor: Where’s our Rayner spin off?
Mary: I also loved Tilly eyeing him and noting that he never sits in the captain’s chair. And it was clever of them to show Rhys casually getting up out of it early in the episode, which emphasizes how weird Rayner is being.
Victor: I’m sure it’s something to do with not wanting to sit in the captain’s chair again unless it’s permanently his.
Hey, you want to add romance? You could’ve done a classic slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers with Tilly and Rayner. I’d like to see that a lot more than Book and Michael sorting out their emotions.
Mary: Hah! That would have been so, so problematic. He’s her boss!!!
Victor: Oh yeah, that totally stops people in the Federation. Picard and Crusher for sure had the HR Handbook on their bedside table.
Mary: Hey we never got Janeway and Chakotay because of it.
Victor: What happens in the Delta Quadrant…
Mary: Poor Janeway had to make herself a holographic boyfriend because as the boss she couldn’t date anyone. Anyway I digress….
How fun was it seeing space dads Stamets and Culber see off space baby Adira on their first big mission?
Victor: Very cute. I liked Stamets trying to go in their place. “I can code! Just not as fast…” Sit down, old man!
Mary: Yup haha. And the look on his face when he realized Adira was volunteering. “No, not my baby!!!”
Victor: They still haven’t done anything with Culber’s spiritual awakening, aside from having him smile a lot.
Mary: Yeah I wonder if they’re going anywhere with that. I mean, there’s still a chance the Progenitors’ tech will come into play, but it’s looking unlikely since Michael has yeeted herself into another dimension.
Victor: That’s what I mean about this being a weird episode for the second to last one. I assume that next week will be a supersized episode, and the bulk of it will take place in the portal with Moll and Michael facing off. But there are a lot of threads they threw out there this season they haven’t followed up on.
Mary: Prepare for runtime overload!
Victor: Three hours of teary Burnham.
Mary: I gotta say, the Breen have turned out to be a disappointment. There is nothing unique about them. Just another warrior race.
Victor: Yeah, they seemed cool and mysterious, but if Moll can just shoot one and take over… I did enjoy Book accidentally flirting his way into an oil bath.
Mary: Yes, that was amazing. Also the argument about paperwork. Michael had some fun this week.
Victor: The finale is the crew of Discovery and the Breen having a giant oil bath.
Mary: Hah!
Victor: What would you rate this week?
Mary: I’d say a solid 4. It was fun to watch, despite its issues.
Victor: I’ll agree. It was fun, and we got Saru and cranky Rayner.
See you at the oil bath!
Oh, and speaking of Lagrange points…
