Full spoilers follow for Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 8. Read our review of Discovery Season 3, Episode 7 for where we left off. [poilib element="accentDivider"] In this week’s Discovery, “The Sanctuary,” Book (David Ajala) gets a visit to his home planet -- and his troubled past -- while Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) tries to figure out what exactly is going on with the afflicted Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh). Plus, the mystery of The Burn continues while the best C-story team in forever -- Anthony Rapp’s Stamets and Blu del Barrio’s Adira -- get some nice screen time together. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=[URL]https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/02/star-trek-discovery-season-3-episode-8-clip[/URL]] It’s an interesting moment for Book to be confronted with the ghosts of his past, as Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) only just decided to stay permanently onboard the Discovery in last week’s episode. Of course, that put the courier in the position of having to decide whether or not he would stick around with his lady love… or move on without her. This thread winds up working best when it has to do with Book and Burnham’s relationship, with the actors who play the pair once again doing great work to convey the warmth and playful nature between the two. For example, Booker’s wishing he could show Michael his planet when it was in its prime is such a charming sentiment -- we all know that feeling of wanting to share something with a loved one -- as is Michael’s response that she’s gonna love it no matter what. Once Michael and Book return to Book’s homeworld, which is facing an ecological threat that apparently only those nasty buggers in the Emerald Chain can fix, we meet Cleveland’s brother, or “brother” (played by Ache Hernandez). “You couldn’t face a planet you abandoned on your own,” he tells Book. “It’s you who can’t face yourself. Never could,” Book replies. Not technically related, these guys are brothers in that “bro” kind of way, but obviously they’ve been through some shit over the years. Unfortunately, the dynamic between Hernandez and Ajala doesn’t quite click, and their turn from adversaries to allies seems a little too pat. One wonders if the family that Book felt so estranged from (mentioned in the season premiere) is still out there, or if this is solely who he was talking about. I hope the former. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-trek-discovery-season-3-photos-the-sanctuary&captions=true"] We also get to meet Osyraa this week, leader of the Emerald Chain and played by Janet Kidder (Margot’s niece). She’s been mentioned previously, and here she really, really wants to get Ryn back. Played by Noah Averbach-Katz, Ryn is the Andorian who Book saved a couple of episodes back. Ultimately we learn that Ryn is a hot commodity because he knows Osyraa’s greatest secret -- that the Chain is running out of dilithium. I’m not sure that this makes much sense, since Ryn was previously living in that scavenger slave camp and could’ve told a hundred different randos about the dilithium. But regardless, Averbach-Katz -- abrupt and bursting into the captain’s office to demand an audience -- brings a different edge to the Starfleet-y feel of the Disco’s day-to-day. Hopefully he sticks around for a while. He also gets to (sort of) save the day when he and Emily Coutts’ Detmer go for a version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Book’s ship. As for Georgiou, the mystery of her condition deepens, though the latest flashback she experiences would seem to indicate that my previous theory about it all relating to Mirror Michael Burnham (her adopted daughter) is totally off base. Nope, it looks like that’s a younger Georgiou that she’s remembering… Also, what exactly is going on with her face morphing like that? Whatever it is, it certainly seems grave based on Dr. Culber’s reaction to the tests they ran. Other dangling threads include the reveal that The Burn song -- was that a Power Station single in the ’80s? -- that everyone keeps hearing can be traced to a signal coming from the nebula where that galactic catastrophe originated. Also, there’s a ship in there somewhere issuing a distress signal. And then there’s Adira, who reveals that Gray (Ian Alexander) isn’t talking to them anymore for unknown reasons. So… a lot of questions but not much by way of answers this week. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-trek-discovery-season-3-exclusive-character-images&captions=true"] Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:
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- Man, everyone talks about the Federation in such negative terms these days.
- Tilly has settled into the role of First Officer pretty well so far, but it’s still a big pill to swallow. How many members of the Disco crew secretly hate her now for jumping over all of them in the chain of command?
- Saru’s quest for a captain’s catchphrase of his own is amusing. “Manifest!”
- Stamets plays the piano? Renaissance man!
- So Cleveland “Book” Booker isn’t his real name, eh?
- Noah Averbach-Katz is Mary Wiseman’s husband IRL.
- Adira makes it clear to Stamets that “they” is their preferred pronoun, which clears up some confusion on that matter since del Barrio’s character had been announced before the season started as being non-binary but was referred to in their first few episodes as “she.”
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