A New Year + Star Trek: Discovery "There Is A Tide" recap

It’s the first day of a new year, and while I usually love the opportunity to start over and do something fresh, this year is different than any other. I’m trying to acknowledge my despondent feelings, rather than pushing them down and burying myself in work to avoid how terrible everything feels. It’s been a hard few weeks, especially because as much as I want to stay in bed all day and just wallow, I have a sweet, energetic toddler who needs me. But it’s a new year, and I hope it will be a better one than the one we’re leaving behind.

Eventually I might get around to looking at what I accomplished in 2020 professionally, but honestly, this year was bad for me work-wise. I had to quit my job to care for my child when childcare shut down in March (and my remote workplace was very unsympathetic to the demands of caring for a toddler in the midst of a global pandemic, despite touting flexibility as a perk of working there). I’ve been picking up the pieces ever since. I’ve done really well, considering, but right now it’s hard to separate the accomplishments from the pain.

One thing I am very proud of, though, is that I was asked to contribute to StarTrek.com on a piece about what we learned from Star Trek in 2020, by Kate Gardner. I took my inspiration from the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s third season, “That Hope Is You, Part I.” (Incidentally, the season finale, airing next week, is called “That Hope Is You, Part II.”)

But, in case you came here to read about Star Trek: Discovery, and not my musings on the year, here’s the recap for this week’s episode, “There Is a Tide.”

🚨🚨 Spoiler alert: The rest of this email discusses the most recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “There Is a Tide” in detail 🚨🚨

I know I skipped writing about last week’s episode, “Su’kal,” (because of the aforementioned toddler and the holidays), but I am not going to include it in this week’s recap because there’s so much other stuff to talk about. All I’ll mention is that (a) I absolutely love Wilson Cruz as Ship Dad and (b) that was nowhere near my many theories about The Burn. I’m not sure if I’m disappointed by it or not, I think that the way it plays out will say a lot about how I end up feeling about it. I will say I trust the writers of Discovery at this point, and they have proven themselves to be very, very good at telling a compelling story.

This week’s episode was incredible, surprising, and strangely hopeful, considering its subject matter. Osyraa has taken over Discovery and is heading for Federation HQ. Things don’t look good at the beginning of the episode, but I had absolutely no idea how things would play out and turn in completely unexpected directions.

Until now, Osyraa has been a pretty one-note villain for me. She’s the stereotypical Orion, complete with strange tiny bangs I don’t quite understand. But this episode completely changed my perception of her. The last thing I expected was for her to walk into Federation Headquarters and ask for peace. Star Trek is often black and white, but when it delves into those murkier shades of gray, it’s always powerful, and this was no exception.

Admiral Vance was also exceptional in this episode. He’s so suspicious of her, and rightly so — but that moment he lets his guard down and admits how badly he wants peace is so heartwrenching. But he also knows he’s asked his people to sacrifice, and even to die, for principles, and so he can’t agree to the peace he knows the organization, and the galaxy, so badly needs unless Osyraa is willing to stand trial for the crimes she’s committed. That’s the sacrifice she needs to make, the test of whether she really has the best interests of her people at heart, and of course, Osyraa refuses.

This was also a chance for Discovery’s excellent bridge crew to shine. One of the downsides of being in such a large ensemble cast is that every single person in this show is incredible but they don’t often get their moments in the sun. I absolutely loved seeing this team band together, and the faith they put in Tilly to retake the ship. I almost cried when Book told Tilly that it was because he trusted her that he wanted to stay behind.

Speaking of Book — him and Michael are just one of the best things about this season. I love his influence on her, his love for her, the way he gives without asking her for anything in return, the space he’s carved himself on the ship, everything about the way David Ajala has made his presence felt in this season of the show. There are honestly too many great things about the third season to do any of them justice in weekly recaps, but I felt like it’s been too long since I discussed how much I loved him.

I’ve left the best part of this episode for last — Stamets. Paul has had some great storylines in the previous seasons, but this season has focused on other characters. Which is fine! That’s part of being part of a large Star Trek cast. I’m so happy, though, that Anthony Rapp got to dig deep for this episode because goddamn. What a sight.

I was thrilled to see Ken Mitchell, who played various Klingons in the first and second season of the show, including Kol and Tenavik, wearing a human face as the scientist Aurellio. I loved this performance on multiple levels. First, it’s good to see Mitchell, who revealed his ALS diagnosis last year and appeared in a wheelchair on the episode, in Discovery again. Second, he shows us a new side to Osyraa, one capable of compassion. But as Stamets argues so effectively, the fact that it’s the only side of her that Aurellio has seen doesn’t mean the rest of her doesn’t exist, a fact that Aurellio learns all too well after Osyraa kills Ren on the bridge of the ship.

I teared up when Stamets talked about his child to Aurellio, but that didn’t prepare me for what was to come — his insistence on jumping back to the Verubin Nebula immediately because his family — his partner, Hugh, and his child, Adira — are there. They’re all he has left. I sat in silence during this performance, just stunned and heartbroken and bereft. Many of us have lost people this year. We’ve made sacrifices for the greater good and watched our lives crumble around us. We’ve reached and passed breaking points, when we thought we couldn’t take any more, and yet more piled on, again and again. Stamets’ pain in this episode was all our pain, all our hurt, all our despair, and watching this on the eve of the end of the worst year of my life was so cathartic.

In the end, Michael knows that to allow Paul to stay on Discovery is to hand Osyraa the keys to the spore drive and the future of the Federation. She incapacitates him with a Vulcan nerve pinch and sends him back to Federation HQ, away from the ship. I do believe that Hugh, Adira, and Saru will survive this ordeal, but the question is will Stamets’ and Michael’s friendship?

All I can say is I’m really looking forward to next week’s season finale.