Star Trek Discovery 1.09 "Into the Forest I Go - Review:
Directed by Chris Byrne & Written by Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt
The ninth episode of Star Trek: Discovery is unfortunately the last of the show we're going to get until next year due to its midseason break, but the show sure found a way to go out on a high note, picking up from where we left off with the Discovery about to confront the Klingons Ship of the Dead, cloaked by an invisible forcefield, to protect the defenceless Pahvo. Discovery itself is all alone, and has been ordered back to Starfleet to abandon the planet as it won't receive aid. Lorca is then faced with a choice, does he disregard a direct order from Starfleet to save the planet and potentially end the war?
So their plan is simple, infiltrate the Ship of the Dead and establish a link with the Discovery. It's a classic Star Trek infiltration style technique that works for the most part, and Ash and Michael are able to sneak on board. However it turns out that it was a bad idea bringing Ash along as whilst creating the links, they spot a human lifesign on board and head to investigate to find Admiral Cornwell, captured and unable to lose her legs, but alive. Cornwell just so happens to have been thrown into the same cell as L'Rell, who was Ash's tormentor whilst he was a prisoner of war. I was admittedly expecting them to reveal that Ash was actually Voq there and then with the flashbacks that Ash was experiencing to L'Rell's torture (Side note: Is this the first time we've seen Klingon nudity on screen in the history of the franchise? Not quite sure that was something I particularly wanted to see, but we've had it regardless), which could have possibly been the transformation into a human that Voq was experiencing. However, they didn't, but they did end up dropping the most blatant hint so far, with L'Rell's exchange with Ash hinting that more is to come between the two at the end of the episode. It's also good to see that they haven't dropped Ash's PTSD completely, and hopefully this will be a slow and gradual process - that is assuming of course, he doesn't turn out to be Voq in disguise.
With the Ship of the Dead destroyed, the Discovery finally agrees to head back to Starbase 46 (New Starbase alert!) like it should have done in the first place if Lorca had been following the Admiral's orders. But rather than punish him for disobeying command at least for the moment, Starfleet are going to reward Lorca with a medal for his services. Lorca tells Stamets that he's not going to accept the offer and give the medal to him as he was the one that pulled off the jumps, with the intention of using this to manipulate Stamets into continuing his jumps with him as they have discovered paths to potential alternate universes, and infinite possibilities. Stamets, despite being keen before the 133 jumps, has now decided that he will make one last jump to get his team home safe and after that he's done for good. You almost instantly get the feeling that something is going to go wrong with this one last jump before it even happens, and as a result, it doesn't end up being surprising when it does.
I love how the show is handling everything so far. It's proven itself to be incredibly effective at what it does and I hope that Star Trek fans who tuned out after the first episode come back to give it a shot. It's more nuanced and more powerful, and has taken time to develop its characters who first seemed too standoff-ish at times in the pilot. Everything here was super thrilling and really engaging to watch, the high stakes nature of the conflict really helping to add to its depth. Michael has grown and this episode was hugely important for Ash, too. Even Lorca and Stamets have become more developed and open, although Lorca is as manipulative as ever. And Tilly just continues to be pure gold, one of the more amusing moments of the episode dropped where she accidentally told Culber about the side-effects that the jumps have on Stamets, assuming that Culber already had been told in the process. I hope one of the episodes in the back half of the season that we get next year puts Tilly to the forefront, because if we can have a Saru-centric episode, why not a Tilly one too?
Either way, this is it until January by the looks of things. We've had a glimpse of a teaser into what lies in store for Star Trek next but beyond that, nothing much is known about the series. Either way I cannot wait to see it return because I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far and can't wait to see what the show does now that it should be moving away from the confines of the Klingon War, which has been arguably the series' weakest part.
What did you think of Star Trek: Discovery's midseason finale, Into The Forest I Go? Let me know in the comments below and stay tuned for the second half of Season 1 which returns in January on CBS All Access and Netflix outside of the US and Canada.
