I honestly don't know how to rate this episode.
On one hand, it was generally a fun ride.
On the other, it was utterly nonsensical (the turbolift, the Michael/Osyraa fight - I still don't get what happened there, Gray, the whole Burn explanation), repeatedly saccharine and made me cringe several times.
I'm in the same boat. I was entertained, but I still had issues with the episode and the season overall.
The whole episode felt like they took every idea they had left over in the writer's room and crammed it into this episode.
Grey can exist in this holo environment, but neither him or Adira seem that broken up outside of the first moment that they have to leave or that they can't stay and figure out how to replicate the technology. Yes, there was radiation, but they didn't even given it a second thought.
Su'Kal goes from a whiny kid that can't deal outside of his holo environment to suddenly being able to accept it and shut down the program. He is also able to watch his mother die all over again and not cause anything close to the Burn or the hiccup he let out in his introductory episode.
Aurelio is over the moon about how awesome Osyraa is, but he is suddenly switching sides and pretty easily accepted by the Discovery crew. It feels like he is a contrivance just to bring up that Book can operate the spore drive, which in itself feels like the writing staff forgot they blew Stamets out a window last week and needed a quick way to jump back to the planet.
The turbolift scene was action movie silly. I'm not engrossed in Discovery's specs to argue whether or not it would even fit in the available space. And frankly, if they were going to do a CGI set, why not do one with a high railing or something in the engine room proper or something. His history with Book was a good second option, but I would've loved to see Tilly outsmart him in the end, even if it doesn't jive with her being a killer.
I liked that the secondary characters had a lot to do in the last two episodes, something I have been begging for all season. Using Owo to save the day was also a welcome change. Between this episode and the Terra Firma two parter, Oyin Oladejo has been given scenes to work with and she has risen to the challenge.
The Burnham captaincy begins. We knew we were going to get here eventually. I will be upset if it comes at the expense of Saru and Doug Jones in a negative way. The character of Saru and Jones' performance have been bright spots throughout Discovery's bumpy (in my opinion) run. If he is given a role of ambassador/envoy/something that is essentially a step up and has him appearing regularly, I can go with that. He has the realization that he was never meant to be that captain he always looked up to Georgiou to be and this was his true calling. But if he comes back to be first officer or is relegated to one or two episodes a season, the series will have lost one of its true stars.
Those are probably the ugliest uniforms in Starfleet history.
This season has frustrated me. I will never understand why every little storyline needs to be tied up in a nice little package at the end of season. They had no idea what to do with Georgiou early in the season and the Terra Firma could've been the beginning of her new series. Neither the reason for the Burn nor the end of the Emerald Chain needed to happen this year. As much as I loved Oded Fehr, I would have stretched the season out and have finding the Federation be the finale.
I'd give it a five.