Episode 1 focused on Michael Burnham, who landed on an unknown planet, called Hima, in her time-travelling suit in the year 3188. She met Book and got to know a little bit of the recent history, mainly that the Federation is gone. The episode ends with Burnham and Book meeting the only man of the Starfleet and agreeing on looking for other members of the Starfleet.
The Unknown Planet
The second episode focuses on the Discovery and the crew. We see them crashing onto another unknown planet, one that looks like it is made out of ice. It seems like this planet is not the same on which Burnham has landed on. Upon crashing, the main crew has survived, but Lieutnant Detmer, the navigator of the ship, seems to be dizzy or unwell. Saru and the others quickly deduce that they did not land in Terralysium, where they wanted to arrive at, but they also cannot fly away or call for any help, as the ship has been damaged. Because they do not know where they are and whether the inhabitants are friends or enemies, Saru wants everyone to stay inside the ship and help with the repairs.
Now that a lot of crew members have been injured during the crash, Culber has to awake Stamets from the coma he induced in season two, earlier than expected, as he needs the bed for people with worse injuries. Stamets clearly is still unwell, but everyone who can help with the repairs has to do so — so he starts with his work. While he does that, Detmer is declared healthy, with no concussion or so, about which she seems to be surprised.
Tactics
Meanwhile, Tilly gathered some information about the unknown planet, mainly that there is life and that they have rubindium, an element they need for the ship. She also detects that there is no dilithium on this planet. From episode one, we know that dilithium is very scarce and valuable in the future they are now in. We still do not know in what year they landed on this planet, but now we know that it has to be somewhat in the same time zone as Michael.
While Tilly presents her findings, she struggles to find the right words, and Georgiou attacks her verbally as she wants to proceed as quickly as possible, and find Burnham. Saru shuts her down, and suggests that Tilly and him should look for life on this planet, and someone that can help them with rubindium, but doing so while minimising the contact with people. Georgiou, however, thinks that they should not care about the people, and possibly harm them. Saru does not want to abandon the Starfleet’s beliefs and commands that Tilly and him will do the mission, while Georgiou and Nhan should help with the ship’s repairs. They obey, as Saru is the acting captain of the ship.
Saru and Tilly exit the ship, during which the audience gets to see beautiful landscapes again, and explains to her that he wanted to have an engineer whom he could trust with him, so he chose her over Georgiou. While walking, they catch sight of a person walking in the distance, and start following him.
The scene changes to Georgiou and Nhan, during which they talk about the ice surrounding the ship. Apparently the ice is parasitic and “eats up” the ship, which means that they have to get out of there before nightfall. During this conversation Georgiou tells Nhan that sector 31 would have wanted her to take over the command, and soon finds a way to distance herself from Nhan when finding an excuse to get away and “help with the repairs elsewhere”. During this episode, we see Georgiou wanting to give commands a lot, and have to remember that this Georgiou is from a parallel universe.
Strangers
The scene changes again, and we see Tilly and Saru following that man. Tilly thinks that he might lead them into a trap, but Saru tells her to be brave as there is no other way to get help. They get teleported into what seems to be a bar, and the strangers hold up their guns. Tilly and Saru explain that they are from Starfleet and quickly cite a regulation to prove so. The strangers lower their guns and seem hopeful that they might receive help from Tilly and Saru. One of them introduces himself as a miner called Kal and says that they call the planet “The Colony”. The strangers say that they might have been followed by a man called Zareh, and bargain with the crew members. Tilly and Saru want their communication device to be repaired with rubindium, while the miners would get dilithium from them. While they wait for the repair, Saru asks who Zareh is, and the miners wonder about them not knowing about so many things.
Just when the device is repaired, Zareh, a courier, arrives at the bar and is not surprised to see Tilly and Saru. He immediately knows that they are from the Discovery and quickly deduces that they are time travellers. He kills Kal for helping them, and wants the ship’s dilithium — while accompanying them there. He does not give them a choice and wants Tilly to go to the ship during darkness and get the dilithium, knowing that she probably would not return. Meanwhile, the crew members would die from the parasitic ice. Suddenly, Georgiou gets thrown into the bar, and starts attacking Zareh verbally, as she always does. An epic fight scene ensues and Georgiou and Saru take all of them down. Georgiou says to Zareh “What you call pain, I call foreplay” and points the gun at him. Saru talks her down from shooting him by reminding her that he is the captain, and after briefly pointing the gun at Saru, she gives the gun to him. Saru gives the gun to the barkeeper and says that Zareh’s fate is in his hands. As Zareh threatened the barkeeper earlier, he simply states that Zareh should walk out of the bar and into the darkness, which might as well be a death sentence with the parasitic ice. During this commotion, Tilly points out that the daylight is gone. Thankfully, the barkeeper gives them is personal transporting device so they can safely get back to the ship, and welcomes them into the future.
Thanks to Jett and Stamets, the electricity in the ship is back on, and everything is mostly repaired and functional. As they struggle to get out of the ice that has now covered the whole ship, an enemy vessel appears above them. Saru goes the Starfleet way, and wants to open a channel first. They open it, and Michael appears on the screen. Everyone is relieved to see her, even though she looks different. Tearfully, she says that she waited one year to see them.
Overall Thoughts?
First of all, Michael with braided hair suggests that something might have happened to her at this planet, something that changed her as a person. So I am very curious what that might be. However, I find this episode to be a little bit chaotic, with a too many scene cuts, so it might be hard to follow what task everyone is on right now. Also, without re-watching the first two seasons, it could be hard to remember Georgiou’s (Michelle Yeoh) story, as there is no recap of it in the beginning. But, this episode is still very exciting to watch, with the beloved Saru (Doug Jones) and Tilly (Mary Wiseman) finally returning in this season. Also, now that we see a different Burnham in the future, I am looking forward to see what happened to her in this one year without the Discovery.
