I’ve been sitting on my thoughts about Discovery’s finale, “That Hope is You, Part Two” because, quite frankly, I didn’t know what to make of it, and I figured that if I did not write up a review, I would never do it at all. While I find the finale completely adequate and well above average, something about it has left me cold.
It did not surprise me once.
After setting up the problems last week like a row of waiting dominoes, the peices fell exactly as we expected them to. The Burn was what it was, Osyra was defeated just as we thought she would be, and the Federation came together just as we suspected. A new age dawns in the Star Trek Universe and Discovery sails into that optimistic sun peeking over the horizon.
…and it’s fine, it’s just fine… but it was exactly what we expected.
I’ve often chided movies and television series for not giving the audience what they want, but what they want and what they expect are two different things. The Burn is the result of a mutant child screaming? Weird flex, but okay, but what is it really?
Oh, it was a mutant kid screaming.
Well, at least they’ll do something surprising with Osyra… She got such great development and would be an interesting recurring character.
Oh… they shot her.
Again, don’t get me wrong… this is not a bad episode by any means. I mean, sure, it was so by-the-numbers that its lack of surprise was almost surprising and the turbolift action sequence was one of the dumbest things I’ve seen on Star Trek in a very long time — how big is this ship, anyhow?
I do have to say that, for years, I defended the depiction of the turbolift system on Discovery as being an abstract depiction — an x-ray of the ship, so to speak, only for this episode to completely screw the pooch, cross its eyes and say, “Nope! Dis how duh ship look on inside! Look at alllllll this empty space!”
It’s a Federation starship, not a Tardis, for goodness sake. This makes the turboshaft in Star Trek V look sane by comparison!
My parents used to say it best: “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed,” and, that’s my attitude, I’m not mad at this episode… it’s fine, but I am disappointed that there wasn’t… more. After a season that has been so on point and amazing, it is a bit of a letdown for the finale to be so darned ordinary.
Still, it was very nice to finally see the crew in the 32nd century garb at the end of the episode and to see Burnham take the center seat at last. I am worried about Saru and what it means for him and I really hope that Doug Jones isn’t leaving or even stepping into a reduced role because he really is the best thing to happen to Star Trek since they shoved Jeri Ryan in a catsuit.
Overall, despite my misgivings about the finale, the third season of Discovery was a phenomenal streak of episodes. Between this and the run of Lower Decks… the 24 weeks of Trek, I feel like the little girl from The Vampire Diaries: I want some more.
Jason Gaston 