After the successful T’Kal-in-ket and being reunited with her mother, Michael decided to stay with her crew and the Discovery, finally feeling like she belongs again.
Episode 8 begins with Georgiou, seeming to have told the Discovery’s primary physician Culber that she experiences black outs, and he wants to get to the depth of it. However, Georgiou is not making it easy for him, barely revealing any information. Culber warns her about her condition and she lets him examine her.
While Culber examines Georgiou, Book finds Michael at the corridor and hastily tells her that he has to go home to Kweijan. Apparently, Osyraa and the Emerald Chain got to the planet. Michael suggests to get help since the planet is two weeks away at full warp. They ask the Admiral for help. Saru suggests to go there as observers and the Admiral agrees under the condition to jump away when they feel threatened.
We finally get a first look at Osyraa, and see Tolor from episode six, who wanted to trade dilithium with Georgiou and Michael, who were actually looking for Book and the black box. During their fight in episode six, a few of the captured fled and one of them was Ryn. Osyraa asks about him. But she already knows that he left with Book. Osyraa kills Tolor by feeding him to a Tranceworm, a creature Book tamed in the first episode.
The Data
Stamets and Adira analyse the Ni’var data and comes to a conclusion that the Burn started in the Verubin Nebula. They not only find the point of origin but also a signal coming out of the nebula. The signal sounds like music, it is the melody that Adira played on the cello and the Barzan family hummed. Saru reacts to the signal and after combining the melody with a star near the nebula, they find a Federation’s distress signal, meaning that a ship must have sent the signal and is lost there.
After Saru and Tilly leave the room, Adira corrects Stamets when he said “she” can find an algorithm. Adira prefers the pronouns “them” or “they”, and Stamets responds with a heartwarming “okay”.
Later, Adira reveals that Gray is not talking to them anymore. Stamets says that maybe Gray needs some space.
The crew gets ready for the jump to Kweijan. They do not get a response when hailing Kweijan. An armed ship approaches them, so Saru sends Book and Michael to the planet. Meanwhile, Ryn demands to speak to the captain as he wants to leave the ship, because he doesn’t trust the Federation.
Michael and Book reached the Sanctuary. Some people cornered Book and Michael. As it turns out, the leader of this group is Book’s brother, Kyheem.
As Culber examines Georgiou, she is having another episode. Georgiou is seeing a dead person, and screams “San”. With that scream she awakes and hurries away.
The Enemy
Book and Kyheem argue. Kyheem doesn’t want the Federations help, but he seems to work with Osyraa. Osyraa apparently demands to get Ryn, who is currently at the Discovery.
Osyraa’s ship arrived at the Discovery and scans the ship. Saru wants Michael and Book to come back and tries to get a message to them, while Osyraa is hailing the crew. Osyraa calls Ryn a wanted criminal, demanding to get him transported to her immediately. According to Osyraa, Ryn has signed a contract and broken it. Saru reminds her that this is slavery. She threatens the Discovery to transport Ryn to her vessel within five minutes, or she will destroy the Discovery and Kweijan.
Osyraa talks to Kyheem. Kyheem mentions bringing Book to Kweijan was his end of the bargain, so Osyraa now wants Ryn, Book and Michael. He refuses, so she threatens to cut Kweijan off from her help through the harvest, meaning famine. As Kyheem doesn’t budge, Osyraa opens fire on the planet, burning the beautiful forests.
Saru demands to know why Ryn is so important to Osyraa, but he won’t tell them.
Philippa is overwriting a security code and takes a look at her medical record, which is completely red, which probably means that she is in a critical condition. Culber finds her, while Philippa just wanted to run off to help Michael.
Kweijan’s defence system gets destroyed, so Burnham and Book want to repair it, while the Discovery tries to find them to get the messages to them and get them back on the ship. As the Discovery cannot find them, Ryn says that he knows where to find them. He wants to help them for Book’s sake. As the Discovery is at the scene under the condition to only observe, they are not allowed to shoot Osyraa’s ship. So Tilly suggests to use a non-federation ship to shoot. Detmer and Ryn fly Book’s ship and open fire on Osyraa’s ship.
Kyheem sends his people to get Book, as Osyraa demanded. But Michael and Book fight their way out, until Kyheem shows up himself and starts fighting Book. Kyheem almost kills Book, but Michael stops him.
Osyraa hails the Discovery after Detmer damaged her ship quite severely. Osyraa only says that she will have her revenge and bring down the Discovery and the Federation and vanishes.
The Discovery helps Kyheem with Kweijan’s harvest, by moving the locusts. When the work is done, Ryn reveals to Tilly that the reason Osyraa wants him back is his knowledge about their dilithium. The Chain is running out, and he was the only one to know.
Overall Thoughts
So, we finally got to see the enemy’s face and a battle between her and the Discovery. Personally, I think that Osyraa did not make much of an impact, at least not as much as the other enemies in the earlier seasons, but we will see what tricks she has under her sleeves, hopefully.
It is also beautiful to see that the series is introducing a character under their preferred pronouns, proving once again that the series is tackling important issues while entertaining their audience.
