Star Trek: Discovery - That Hope is You Part 2 Review

DIS "That Hope is You Part 2"

What a difference 30 years makes. In the 90s, Trek shows generally employed a classical point-and-shoot technique. There were 26 hours to fill, and only so much time in which to do it. In "That Hope is You Part 2", season finale of Discovery year 3, director Olatunde Osunsamni spins the camera around like it's on a pendulum. The communication of chaos and disorientation is clear, and the injection of energy as the season comes to a climax. While not hitting the dizzying heights of last season's "Such Sweet Sorrow" finale, "That Hope is You Part 2" satisfyingly closes the book (pun intended) on the season, with full-circle story elements and engaging action.

The main emotional component of the episode comes from Saru, Culber, Adira, and the briefly corporeal Gray, stuck on the dilithium planet with Kelpien arrested development case Su'Kal. While the other characters are running and gunning, Saru helps Su'Kal to uncover an inevitable, poignant truth: Su'Kal's grief at losing his mother manifested in empirical form and caused the Burn. A voiceover from Burnham casts in iron the thematic takeaway, that Su'Kal's isolation mirrored the galaxy's turn toward surviving-not-thriving, and his rescue by empathetic sentients parallels the nascent rebuilding of the Federation.

The connection, however, comes off as slightly more an intellectual one rather than hitting as profoundly emotional. Burnham calls Su'Kal's moment of trauma one of "disconnection". Indeed. But that seems a clinical or detached way to sum up a boy losing his mother and becoming terribly alone. To be sure, "disconnection" certainly captures his years of isolation, but seems inadequate to describe the single moment of trauma that caused the Burn. Not a serious issue, just a nitpick on semantics.

The Su'Kal thread comes with a bunch of ticking clocks. There's the radiation poisoning, the holo-program degrading ("dream is collapsing", you might say), and the structural instability of the ship itself. Su'Kal, a Kelpien constantly surrounded by a simulacrum of reality meant to educate and entertain, is not unlike Peter Sellers' character from the movie Being There, a socially unadjusted recluse who only in middle age leaves his house and who only knows the world as filtered through his beloved TV channel-surfing. Saru shows Su'Kal Kaminar, a planet past its Dark Ages with technologically advanced cities. Unlike in Being There, Su'Kal won't become an advisor to the Federation President. At least, I don't think.

Back on Discovery, Tilly and the bridge crew deal with oxygen deprivation and a desperate plan to drop the ship out of warp. Tilly impressively gives a rallying speech while totally out of breath. Elsewhere on the ship, Burnham and Book take on the villains head on, which is where the episode takes on the comforting shape of an action movie. Lead Burnham vs. main villain Osyraa, sidekick Book vs. henchman Zareh. And Zareh makes the rookie mistake of threatening the man's cat, which rallies Book into dispatching him. Unforced error.

A lot of this action makes inventive use of the turbolifts, which freely hover through the ship like the ride vehicles in Disney World's Tower of Terror. After a fight in the data core, Burnham kills Osyraa, takes control of the ship, hooks Book to the spore drive, and for the coup de grace detonates the warp core to destroy the Emerald Chain flagship.

The end of the episode is an optimistic one. Burnham is promoted to Captain, revealing the show's true commitment to one Captain per season. The crew get new 32nd Century Starfleet uniforms. Aditya Sahil, the lone sentinel Federation desk jockey from "That Hope is You Part 1" at the beginning of the season, is brought to Federation HQ. Trill rejoins the Federation, with Ni'Var considering it. And Discovery starts boldly going again. "That Hope is You Part 2" wears the mantle of climactic season finale well, and leaves the show in a good place for the future. 8/10.

Stray observations:

- Another Star Trek show promoted its lead character from Commander to Captain in the finale of its third season: Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko.

- Gray Tal is briefly rendered corporeal by the Kelpien holo-program, setting up Culber's promise that he will find a way for Gray to be "seen". Very intentional choice of words.

- I failed to mention this last week, but the episode "There is a Tide..." was the 800th episode of Star Trek aired. An incredible milestone. And that makes the throwback to Alexander Courage's original series theme at the end of the finale even more apropos.