Article contributed by Jasmina Demirovska
In episode 3, the crew of the Discovery got to visit their home planet Earth, and got a new member called Adira, who has joint with a Trill symbiont that can access memories of its previous hosts. One of these hosts was Admiral Tal, who sent the message to the Discovery.
This episode begins with Culber, who describes the trip to earth as eye-opening but also as a reality check. He checks all members of the ship for their health, and offers some crew members to talk as they seem to be sad. He also checks Adira, which seems to be completely fine, but she cannot access the memories of Admiral Tal. He suggests bringing her back to the symbiont’s planet Trill in order to get back her memories, but the crew does not know if the Trill are still peaceful all these years later. Saru establishes contact with a commissioner from Trill, and he seems to be more than delighted to help Adira and thus the symbiont, as the Trill’s population has decimated due to the Burn and every symbiont is needed.
Stress Levels
The scene cuts to Stamets, Tilly and Saru, when Saru asks Stamets about his well being after the last jump. He explains that Stamets and his abilities are too valuable for the Discovery and he wants Tilly and Stamets to have a back-up plan, should something happen to Stamets. Saru leaves, and Tilly suggests an idea to Stamets, namely to build a new interface with dark matter energy. Stamets quickly dismisses the idea, clearly being annoyed about her suggestion.
Meanwhile, Dr. Culber interrupts Burnham in her research about the Burn, to ask her to accompany Adira to the Trill. He explains that Michael and Adira both have lost a lot in the past year, and that Michael can empathise with Adira and offer her emotional support while on Trill. Michael agrees and accompanies her.
Dr. Culber then goes on to Saru after all his tests on the crew members. He tells him that everyone is physically healthy, but their stress levels are way too high, due to the circumstances. He thinks that the crew does not feel connected to the new world, or rather the new time. Saru then searches for ideas to reduce their stress levels.
Adira and The Symbiont
The scene cuts to Michael and Adira on Trill. They meet the leader and a few guardians in a beautiful garden of theirs and explain that Adira has joint with a symbiont. They realise that Adira is a human, which is an abomination to them because she is connected with a symbiont. Usually, a symbiont only connects with Trill. They dispute whether or not they should help Adira, or if they should forcefully disconnect the Symbiont from her. One guardian wants to help her, so they can build up their population again, another guardian is disgusted by their joint and wants to immediately disconnect them, which would lead to Adira’s death. The leader, however, decides on a middle ground and lets Adira live, but wants her and Burnham to leave Trill. Their leaving would mean that the Discovery cannot access Admiral Tal’s memories, and all their efforts were in vain.
The guard that wanted to disconnect Adira and the symbiont gets the task to escort them to their shuttle, but instead he corners them and attempts to go through with his own plan. It turns out that Burnham does not act according to the Federation’s ethics anymore, because she stunts all of them with her gun, instead of talking to them first. The other guard, in favour of the joint, sees them and wants to lead them to the Trill’s sacred cave called Mak’ala in order to access the symbiont’s memories and help them. Adira enters the cave’s pool, while Burnham and the guard watch over her.
The Crew’s Solidarity
During this, Saru searches for ways to reduce the crew’s stress levels through the ship’s computer. Upon asking for tips, the computer glitches and suggests a private meal with the bridge crew and a free night for the rest. At this point, some viewers might remember that the computer and the ship got hacked by an AI system in season two, but we do not know what caused this glitch now.
The meal with the bridge crew begins with a few encouraging words from Saru, and they seem to genuinely have fun with Haiku’s. They urge pilot Detmer to also say one, but she loses it because she is mad at Stamets for taking all the credit for flying the ship by jumping with the spores, even though she is also flying the ship as the official pilot. Tilly stops their arguing by pointing out that they can only get through this hard time as one crew. The mood is ruined, and they start leaving the room one by one. Saru’s mission to reduce their stress has failed with this attempt.
Adira’s Memories
Burnham, Adira and the guard get caught by the Trill’s leader, while Adira’s levels are dropping. Because of this distress, Burnham is allowed to enter the pool and help Adira. However, Adira is gone. Burnham has to find her and guide her back out. Michael finds herself in the symbiont and finds Adira. It appears that the symbiont wants to connect with Adira. Only after Burnham talks to her and gives her emotional support, she lets the symbiont get closer to her.
We see Adira’s memories now. She is seeing her boyfriend “Gray”, a trill who was supposed to join with the symbiont while Adira watched over him. He did successfully join with it. After the joint, Adira is giving Gray a present, a box with a blanket that she made herself. Just seconds after receiving the present, an asteroid hit their ship and Gray did not make it. In order to save the symbiont, Adira lets it join with her, even though she is human.
Back to Burnham and Adira in the symbiont, the past six lives of the symbiont’s host show themselves to them. One of them is Gray, and one is Admiral Tal. Adira can now access all of their memories, even though they are slowly coming to her. They get out of the pool, and the leader and other guardians apologise for their previous behaviour. They offer to lead Adira, but she wants to stay with the Discovery.
Peace
On the ship, Tilly tells Saru that everyone made the decision to come to this time, as to say that it is not his fault alone. Stamets also apologises to Tilly for not appreciating her enough, and even offers to talk about the new interface. Detmer also apologises to Dr. Culber, and wants to accept his offer of talking to him, as she thinks that something is wrong with her.
The scene cuts to the whole crew sitting and watching a movie, filling the room with laughter. Saru theorises that the sphere data they protected in the past, now wants to protect them and set up this movie. Which would also explain why the computer glitched before — it was the sphere data, attempting to find a solution for Saru.
Meanwhile, Adira shows Burnham the algorithm from Admiral Tal. He knew how to find the Federation’s headquarter. When Burnham exits the room, Adira is not alone. Gray is sitting beside her, but neither of them knows how that is possible.
Overall Thoughts?
I really liked this episode. We do have the usual action and excitement we know from Star Trek Discovery, but this episode seemed a little more refreshing and positive with lesser fight scenes than normal. It focused more on mental well-being, which I think we need to see more in movies and series in general. Also, it did not really end on a cliffhanger this time, but rather with more hope for the future, and once again, new characters.
