Saru is so determined not to second guess himself based on what Michael is saying that he leans a bit too much into Lorca's ruthless captaining, rather than considering his own usually grounded reactions or even Captain Georgiou's influence.
The power shift between Saru and Michael brings up a lot of old resentments, with Michael undermining the captain's orders in pursuit of her own interests and Saru arguing that she's still engaging in exactly the same kind of behaviour that killed their previous captain. Michael's resolution to spare the tardigrade from more suffering puts her at odds with Saru, who's determined to jump as many times as is necessary to find his captain and protect him in the way Michael didn't protect Captain Georgiou in the premiere – regardless of what it means for the tardigrade. Over on the Discovery, with Lorca captured, the position of acting captain falls to First Officer Saru and the idea of choosing pain comes down to Michael's concern that using the tardigrade to power their spore drive is hurting it, backed up by Dr Culber's assessment that the creature is deteriorating with each jump.
In the story of what happened to his last command, Lorca effectively passed that torture on but did so on his own terms, something he justifies later by saying everyone chooses their own pain and the pain he's chosen just helps him "to remember". It's a revelation that ties in nicely with the episode's main focus this week of "choosing your pain" – a concept established in the Klingon prison cell as inmates are asked to accept torture for themselves or pass it onto their cellmates. Harry's taunting prompts Lorca to explain what really happened during his last command: he made the decision to blow up his ship and his crew after a Klingon ambush to spare them the slow, humiliating, public death that he thought awaited them on the Klingon homeworld of Qo'noS. Related: 7 lessons Star Trek: Discovery has learned from Game of ThronesĪnd, thanks to the introduction of Discovery's version of con artist Harcourt Fenton Mudd ("Harry for short"), we also learn that it's an instinct Lorca has always had. (It's a clumsy bit of foreshadowing that the promo trailers gave away anyway.) But the episode soon allows Lorca to take centre stage as he's taken prisoner by the Klingons.Ĭutting Lorca off from his crew so soon after establishing the dynamics of the Discovery was a bit of a risky move on the show's part, but it did manage to take the determined and commanding Captain we've already met and turn him into a smart and calculating prisoner fighting for his life and making ruthless choices in the name of survival. His need to prove the hero is swiftly shut down by superior officers who reveal the Klingons have identified the Discovery's spore drive as Starfleet's secret weapon.
It starts slowly as Captain Lorca goes through the motions of Starfleet command.
#STAR TREK DISCOVERY SEASON 4 EPISODE 5 SERIES#
No longer is this series slowly establishing character mannerisms and teasing out the episode's stakes as it goes instead, it's launching straight into multi-faceted plot lines and complex character interactions, and delving deep into the morally grey decision-making of a command under pressure. They've taken time to build up the world of Star Trek: Discovery so far, but now the introductions are clearly over.
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