Will You Take My Hand?

Overall, I liked the story that Star Trek: Discovery told with its first season. Despite many twists and turns, and apparent resets of its premise along the way, it really was all of one piece, building to this conclusion. I'm just not so sure they stuck the landing.

I get what they were going for here. Though there were moments throughout the season where some people doubted the sincerity of the writers' devotion to female empowerment, this final episode really showed us where they stood. It all came down to women in every important role in the story. Burnham had to thwart the evil plot of Mirror Georgiou. She had to stand up to Admiral Cornwell. She had emotional support from Tilly. And in the end, it was L'Rell who stepped up to force the Klingon Empire to fall into line. It's a fantastic construction.

But the logic was strained. How exactly could they know that L'Rell would behave as they wanted if they let her go? Why would she not prosecute a campaign against the Federation to its ultimate end, once they'd shown her their weakness by releasing her? How about the rest of the Klingons? L'Rell is a nobody who served for a defeated and disgraced leader. Why listen to her? She shows up at the High Council waving an iPad and saying she has the power to blow up the world. What possible reason would anyone have to believe her?

We knew the season wasn't going to end in the destruction of the Klingon homeworld -- but then, that wasn't put out there until part way through this episode. Still, I at least needed to feel like the twist that ultimately happened was at least as dramatically satisfying as the plan they'd put on the table in front of us at the end of last episode: that Discovery was going to map key locations from inside the planet to set up a possible offensive strike. But the twist with L'Rell was lacking for the reasons I mentioned above, and the substitute "big showdown" between Burnham and Georgiou wasn't nearly as dramatic as advertised. Nor, again, very logical -- Mirror Georgiou is literally Hitler, on a galactic scale. No principle of "honoring one's word" justifies turning her loose to terrorize the universe. (Similarly, how could you justify letting go an intelligence resource like Ash Tyler/Voq?)

But at least some little moments along the way were satisfying. Having L'Rell open the episode by giving us the "Previously on Star Trek: Discovery" in subtitled Klingon was amusing. The barbs traded between Georgiou and Saru over her desire to eat him were wonderfully pointed. The confrontation between Burnham and Cornwell was great, where Burnham stood up to assert what Star Trek is for both the whole bridge crew and the audience. (Her speech at the end was also quite inspiring.) The short appearance by Clint Howard as an Orion druggie was another great moment for long time Trekkers, who will recall that as a child, Howard appeared in one of the very first episodes of the original series. (That wasn't the only way the show came full circle, but I'll get to that shortly.)

It was a fantastic episode for Tilly, arguably the show's best character. Sure, there were laughs in her being chastised for half-heartedly saluting the Emperor, and later falling into a drug haze, but her dramatic moments were even better. Her assurances to Burnham that she had her back really meant something, because of how far Tilly had come as a character over the season. We saw that she was watching out for Burnham too, in every action. (I loved as they walked down the corridor, early in the episode, and Tilly positioned herself deliberately between Ash Tyler and Burnham.)

The writers also set up for next season in the most tantalizing way. Without making a total cliffhanger of things (the season's story did resolve, after all), they gave us room to speculate on all manner of things that might be ahead. First, we're getting a new captain. Who it might be, what actor they might get to play him or her, is prime for conjecture. (What if they took inspiration from having Jason Isaacs as captain in season one and embraced a Harry Potter approach? What if Discovery starts going through captains like Hogwarts goes through Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers? You could conceivably attract some real A-list talent with the promise of single seasons or less.)

Then, of course, there was the tease of taking us back to where Star Trek all began by ending on a rendezvous with the Enterprise. (And a full, new performance of the original series theme song -- soprano, bongos, and everything.) This is very much "where it all began," as we're talking about the Enterprise commanded by Christopher Pike in the original series pilot "The Cage." So not only can we spend the hiatus waiting to hear who they'll cast as Pike, we can wonder about whether the other crew members of that episode will make an appearance -- do we get a new Number One, a new Dr. Boyce, a new José Tyler? (And will they get more of an actual personality than they had before?)

Then, of course, there's Spock. He was there in "The Cage" too, and judging by the surreptitious look between Michael Burnham and Sarek right at the end of the episode, showing him is something the writers know they can't cheese out on here. Seeing the actual dynamic between brother and sister is something that needs to happen. And is there any chance of coaxing Zachary Quinto back to television to reprise the role, or are we going to get Spock #3?

Those last few minutes of the episode really kind of overshadowed the episode that came before, in many ways. Overall, I was satisfied by this season of Discovery, and though we can expect the break to be long, I'm very much looking forward to the next. But for this episode itself? I'd mark "Will You Take My Hand?" a B-. Great character work with Burnham and Tilly, but the rest was a rather nonsensical and anticlimactic end to a fun ride.