Much more effective than the first two episodes, although it was still not without its issues. Since this episode had a simple A/B/C plot structure, I'll break it up this way:
The A plot involving Michael, Tilly, and Michael's mom hunting down the "rogue" Qowat Milat was great almost all of the way through. Unlike the Qowat Milat cameo in Season 3's Unification III, it actually felt like there was some story purpose to including them here rather than just a Picard memberberry. The inclusion of Tilly was somewhat random, but I've gotten used to including Tilly in missions for random reasons - and her character works best when allowed to be the "comic relief" in an episode anyway. But the episode actually felt like it was interested in somewhat deepening the worldbuilding already done by Chabon. This focus on worldbuilding is somewhat of a rarity for Discovery, and was welcome - as was the introduction of a new species rather than just showing a familiar face in peril. The episode gets dinged a bit however because Michael's "why don't we just fix the cryostasis?" proposal is blindingly obvious. I understand that the QM warrior was not a scientist, but...really, she didn't think of that? Came across as the Idiot Ball trope - that the writers didn't know how to make the episode work without putting in an obvious solution to the viewers/everyone other than the antagonist. On the other hand, I loved the conclusion of the episode, where she is remanded to Ni'Var's custody and is presumed to have gotten off scot-free. I absolutely love it when Trek doesn't give us pat answers/conclusions, and this had some shades of DS9.
I have mixed feelings on the B plot regarding Grey finally being incorporated. I did appreciate the use of existing Trill lore, and seeing Guardian Xi again from Forget Me Not - both were nice uses of continuity. And although the episode didn't hit me the way that that one did (which is my favorite of the series so far) I did get genuine feels at moments for Adira and Gray's relationship - something which hasn't happened in ages. I'm also happy that this "arc" is finally over and they can move on to doing new things with the characters. That said, I didn't like how they stretched out the incorporation process for teh dramaz, even if the scenes in the interim with Adira and Culber were good, as the outcome of the process was never in doubt for us as viewers. I also...don't know what to think about the implication that there was some sort of "Grey soul" floating around before it connected with the synth body, which could actually sense Adira. Seems to fly in the face of the materialism of Star Trek.
The C plot involving Stamets and Book on Ni'Var initially seemed like a waste of air time, but the payoff was great with the mind meld scene. I am glad that they didn't have Book suddenly "better" when on the verge of suicide last week. This could work as a conclusion of the "Book is fucked up" character arc, though some additional scenes later in the series would be fine with me. Stamets didn't get anything to do other than be grumpy and shoot off technobabble, but that's Stamets 90% of the time anyway.
Aside from that there were various "character moment" scenes which didn't fit neatly elsewhere, like Tilly's discussions with Saru (which were pretty transparently put there so Saru had something to do in this episode). I found these less grating than last week overall, because there was at least a feeling that the characters are going somewhere rather than just spinning their wheels in an attempt to fill up air time.
The A plot involving Michael, Tilly, and Michael's mom hunting down the "rogue" Qowat Milat was great almost all of the way through. Unlike the Qowat Milat cameo in Season 3's Unification III, it actually felt like there was some story purpose to including them here rather than just a Picard memberberry. The inclusion of Tilly was somewhat random, but I've gotten used to including Tilly in missions for random reasons - and her character works best when allowed to be the "comic relief" in an episode anyway. But the episode actually felt like it was interested in somewhat deepening the worldbuilding already done by Chabon. This focus on worldbuilding is somewhat of a rarity for Discovery, and was welcome - as was the introduction of a new species rather than just showing a familiar face in peril. The episode gets dinged a bit however because Michael's "why don't we just fix the cryostasis?" proposal is blindingly obvious. I understand that the QM warrior was not a scientist, but...really, she didn't think of that? Came across as the Idiot Ball trope - that the writers didn't know how to make the episode work without putting in an obvious solution to the viewers/everyone other than the antagonist. On the other hand, I loved the conclusion of the episode, where she is remanded to Ni'Var's custody and is presumed to have gotten off scot-free. I absolutely love it when Trek doesn't give us pat answers/conclusions, and this had some shades of DS9.
I have mixed feelings on the B plot regarding Grey finally being incorporated. I did appreciate the use of existing Trill lore, and seeing Guardian Xi again from Forget Me Not - both were nice uses of continuity. And although the episode didn't hit me the way that that one did (which is my favorite of the series so far) I did get genuine feels at moments for Adira and Gray's relationship - something which hasn't happened in ages. I'm also happy that this "arc" is finally over and they can move on to doing new things with the characters. That said, I didn't like how they stretched out the incorporation process for teh dramaz, even if the scenes in the interim with Adira and Culber were good, as the outcome of the process was never in doubt for us as viewers. I also...don't know what to think about the implication that there was some sort of "Grey soul" floating around before it connected with the synth body, which could actually sense Adira. Seems to fly in the face of the materialism of Star Trek.
The C plot involving Stamets and Book on Ni'Var initially seemed like a waste of air time, but the payoff was great with the mind meld scene. I am glad that they didn't have Book suddenly "better" when on the verge of suicide last week. This could work as a conclusion of the "Book is fucked up" character arc, though some additional scenes later in the series would be fine with me. Stamets didn't get anything to do other than be grumpy and shoot off technobabble, but that's Stamets 90% of the time anyway.
Aside from that there were various "character moment" scenes which didn't fit neatly elsewhere, like Tilly's discussions with Saru (which were pretty transparently put there so Saru had something to do in this episode). I found these less grating than last week overall, because there was at least a feeling that the characters are going somewhere rather than just spinning their wheels in an attempt to fill up air time.
