Well, this was rather underwhelming season finale to me. Mind you, not a complete disaster like “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans”, but still very emblematic for how the entirety of the season felt to me. Looking back it was quite the rollercoaster of quality: Liked or loved “Hegemony, Part II”, “Shuttle to Kenfori”, “Through the Lens of Time”, “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”, “What Is Starfleet?” and “Terrarium”. And was disappointed or dismayed by “Wedding Bell Blues”, “A Space Adventure Hour”, “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans” and now this one. The good and bad almost switched on and off this season.
I quite liked the whole “What if” sequence of Pike and Batel being able to kind of live out their lives together. It was nicely shot and acted and I appreciate the surreal quality they gave it with the recurring door-knocking like in a bad dream, and the falling star (?) that Pike kept seeing. I didn’t need them having a kid, but it helped making their life together seem fulfilled and happy, even if it was just an illusion. What can I say, I’m just a sucker for these kind of almost David Lynch’ian and certainly Kubrick’ian sequences that seem to follow a sort of dream logic.
But other than that the episode was rather baffling to me. Completely unbelievable how Batel would just accept her “fate” to — what exactly? — spent the rest of eternity as a lifeless statue? She seemed
waaay to easily convinced that that’s just what her whole life had been leading up to. As someone else said earlier in the thread: “prophecy storylines“ are only interesting when there’s something in the end subverting the expectation of the prophecy. But not here: We just learn what Batel needs to do and she just does it, no problems or twists whatsoever. That moment right after the “What if” sequence ended was really strange in that regard: So apparently these characters just spent their long lives together, and yet Pike almost doesn’t seem like he’s interested in seeing her go. The way that was staged left me scratching my head and asking, “Was this really it?”
The musical montage at the end was neat, though, and I liked how Una was just there for Pike, in case he wanted to talk. That’s what friends are for. And Pike seeing the falling star again over the planet was also a nice touch.
But everything else was just so weird about this episode. Spock for whatever harebrained reason having to mind meld with Kirk, just to spoon-feed us the idea that these two are going to be super best friends. God forbid these two characters can’t just become friends the normal way like regular people; no, telepathy needs to be involved. And the way it happened just casually in the bar made it even weirder. The only saving grace was Ortegas’ bemused look.
Korby was kind of interesting when they first introduced him earlier in the season, but by this point he kind of got on my nerves, to be honest, so I’m kind of hoping that was the last we saw of him and he’s now lost. That fakeout with him needing to be rescued and then he just casually walks into frame could not have been lamer. And why did all people on this planet seem like uninterested NPCs that couldn’t be phased by anything? And what the hell was that strange ceremony all about where they were gouging out their eyes? This seemed like from a completely different version of the script, where they planned to follow up on it later.
So yeah, I’m disappointed that this is how the season ended, but it’s kind of on par for the rest of it, to be honst. This is obviously still leagues better than all of
Discovery and
Picard, so I’m not too worried. And I guess at the end of the day, if they manage to still put out absolute highlights like “Terrarium”, I can live with a handful of duds. But I would be lying if I said I’m not disappointed, because the first two seasons started out so strong. Hopefully the writing will improve and be more consistent come season four and five.
