This one almost felt like a season opener all over again. And right at the start, I'll admit that I didn't expect Michael to show up so soon, but I'm glad she did at the end. Once again, I felt intrigued by the world-building aspects, especially programmable matter again. Also, while I know many will feel problematic about the V'Draysh getting namedropped due to Calypso not fitting into the continuity, it still sounded alright after we heard Zareh speak the pidgin. I'm no linguist, but it sounded plausibly like a simplified future descendant of English and other local languages. I also liked the automatic transporters at the entrance of the cave too.
Overall, the story felt a bit simplistic and formulaic, and it was no surprise that Georgiou would venture out on her own after her spat with Saru (I do hope she didn't hurt Linus though). I enjoyed seeing her trying to push her weight around, and while Saru prevailed in the end, it looks like their conflict regarding authority will remain a fixture of the season. And of course, despite the bleak situation they've found themselves in, it still ended on a hopeful note with Federation values withstanding the threat of a lawless universe around us. I was kind of expecting the bartender to blame them for Kal's death, and this being subverted was one of the few genuine surprises at the end. Of course, one might argue whether Saru putting Zareh's life in his hands was hopeful naiveté on his part or if he was merely washing his hands, especially given the cruel mercy of sending him out into the ice.
The comparable weakness of the story was compensated for with mainly two things in my eyes: first, the standoff with Zareh was genuinely tense and suspenseful, and it perfectly underscored how out of their element the crew is, especially with him instantly figuring out where they came from and how much of an advantage that gave him. Second, the crew interactions were absolutely lovely; they reminded me of the same thing in
Brother. Be it Paul and Hugh's loving bickering, the frenemy banter between Paul and Reno (complete with Gene, poor Gene, he has the worst job in the world, shoveling Leland), Georgiou and Nhan sniping at each other, or even the friendship moment when Owo realized Keyla was absolutely not okay... these were all well acted and made the crew feel so much more like real people. I admit, I had already said the same thing about Season 2's opener, so it might be taken with a grain of salt.
But, the crown jewel of personal moments was still Saru and Tilly's relationship, best exemplified by their discussion on the lake. After Paul's absolutely horrid "use less words" advice (seriously, making someone self-conscious about the very thing that they do when they're nervous, way to go, Paul), Saru truly acted like a commanding officer for her, signaling his acceptance of her nervousness ("Keep talking, ensign"), and being able to politely get her to collect herself. So I'm almost willing to forgive him for not allowing her to say WTF. After how much of a jerk Georgiou was to her, especially considering she was the one making her nervous in the first place, I would've surely let her drop an F-bomb or two. OK, I'm a shameless Tilly fan, I can't help but dedicate an entire paragraph to her.
Best one-liners:
- "You have some, uh, Leland on your shoes." - gross. Especially after seeing poor Gene.
- "My partner brought me out of a coma and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."
- "T-shirt has a hyphen." - of course Paul would try to spell it out, and of course Hugh wouldn't let him win. I had to laugh out.