Unless the Emperor sent someone to pick him up from the Shenzhou, that wasn't Saru. He wasn't on the shuttle with Burnham and Lorca.
I'm a simple guy. A nice juicy Kelpian burger with ketchup, mustard and cheese and I'm good to go. BTW @φ of π, great thread.
I also thought it was Saru at first glance, but according to Memory Alpha, that Kelpien was played by a different actor: Clayton Scott.
It is sad. Underneath the jokes it was bad enough Georgiou was reduced to a meal in one universe and a pantomime baddie in another. Not sure the writers expected giggles from showing the Kelpiens being a menu item either.
Open a new thread for that kind of discussion... Has nothing to do with cooking Kelpians, by the way, i want to taste some female Kelpian...
Apparently there was some confusion because the assisted audio track for the visually impaired referred to it being Saru, which Nardino insists was a mistake.
I suspect they were giggling too but they also have a serious motive. This is set up for a future moment between Her and P-Saru. Remember Burnham lying to him about not seeing M-Kelpians, because they were slaves? That's going to be hard enough to (someday?) apologize to him for but now another layer has been added - how is she ever going to explain having eaten one? Coming Soon to The MU: Kentucky Fried Kelpians.