Whew. I've written a whole bunch of notes for this one, indicative of how much I've loved it. Rated 10. The whole episode was rife with callbacks to lore, hints towards the future with Zora/the Sphere AI and the usual emotional moments and highly enjoyable crew interaction.
So, we finally have confirmation that the symbiont is named Tal and that they have knowledge reaching back to at the very least the 2390s, based on that captain wearing the PIC uniform. Adira's journey to the center of the mind gave me similar vibes to
Saints of Imperfection, and also of
Equilibrium, naturally. Her soul-searching vision also reminded me a bit of Rey's one from
The Last Jedi. Don't laugh, that's a good thing for me. The whole sequence was beautiful and heartbreaking, especially after isoboramine was name-dropped and it became clear she was blocking Tal's memories off because they were traumatic. The entire vision of her together with Gray was saturated with a tense buildup towards something tragic until it practically shattered everything in the form of an asteroid smashing into their ship. And then, it all culminated in a cathartic scene of Adira and Tal finally joining, and the Trill accepting her after a rocky start, once again helping to rebuild the Federation one planet at a time.
As for the B plot, I loved Hugh being the emotional center of the episode for once, especially as he voiced much of my own concerns about the crew needing some release after having borne the weight of the world on their shoulders for two seasons. I'm a bit disappointed they didn't get to have their "thank god we're alive party" (oh the headcanons), but the dinner gave us so much more. With Saru not even waiting for Burnham to arrive back from Trill, Paul and Tilly looking ready to jump at each other's throats, Georgiou trolling Saru when he was trying to give a speech, Tilly making a hilariously inappropriate haiku after Georgiou made one (even though that enjambment in the first line was really clunky, tsk tsk) and so on... it looked like it would be a glorious exercise in cringe comedy, until it suddenly wasn't, and Paul's complete inability to process his own emotions as well as Keyla's severe PTSD crashed down hard on us. The moment she started laughing without any joy, it was obvious this won't end well.
I also liked the scenes wrapping up the sequence, both Keyla admitting she needed help to Hugh as well as Tilly kindly repaying Saru for him cheering her up in
Far from Home, complete with Paul arriving to apologize to both of them. I was also intrigued by the Sphere AI finally asserting itself and deciding to help the crew with their stress. Will it actually develop into Zora in the end? I hope so. I laughed when it briefly flashed on Saru's computer and began giving him suggestions; almost as if it couldn't bear him getting nowhere anymore, rolled its imaginary eyes and said "oh, for fuck's sake."
My usual stream-of-consciousness thing:
- Burnham has grown so much. She's even toying with Adira when she wants to go down to Trill alone. I still want to see how she had opened up though.
- The oceans of Trill aren't violet, not canon!!!
Tropical Trill and the caves of Mak'ala look reasonably similar to how they did in Equilibrium, though.
- One bit I really liked from the dinner was the "aye" roll-call, with Georgiou, who was up until then busy trolling Saru, joining in with "I never said 'aye', but I'm here," then raising her glass. She does have a heart, deep down. Shriveled, gray like a Romulan's, possibly emitting toxic fumes, but it's there.
- The arrival of the hosts very much reminded me of Aang or Korra seeing visions of their predecessors in the Avatar franchise. Adira is now responsible for the balance between the four nations, it's canon.
- One of the syllables said by the Trill at the end was "zhian-", a neat call-back to the zhian'tara ritual.
- Like others have said in the trailer thread, the 32nd century Starfleet uniform has definite Bajoran vibes with a dash of Babylon 5's Earthforce.
