Logline
Series Finale. Trapped inside a mysterious alien portal that defies familiar rules of time, space, and gravity, Captain Burnham must fight Moll – and the environment itself – in order to locate the Progenitors’ technology and secure it for the Federation. Meanwhile, Book puts himself in harm’s way to help Burnham survive and Rayner leads the U.S.S. Discovery in an epic winner-takes-all battle against Breen forces.
Written by: Kyle Jarrow & Michelle Paradise
Directed by: Olatunde Osunsanmi
As a show with so much promise, I often felt Disco reached for big concepts but never quite managed to get there. It would get bogged down with pathos and dragged out plot lines. Unfortunately, season 5 felt no different. This episode dragged on and on for me. Mol and L’ak had mostly become irrelevant and were completely unnecessary in this episode.
I get the series got axed and additional scenes were shot to round things out. But that random “we’re all hugging” scene? It was weird. And didn’t the actress who played Detmer say their absence was planned and revealing anything would be a big spoiler or something? Well. No, it really wasn’t.
Kovitsch was Daniels? I think at that point of the story, he could’ve been anyone and it wouldn’t have landed. He could’ve been Sloane (not dead after all!) and it would’ve made as much sense and be just as meaningful to the story.
The progenitor plot? With a tick list of “clues” and “challenges” to lead the way, but ultimately we decide your worthiness to reshape the universe as we know it with a geometry puzzle? I can’t even.
Discovery had potential, back in the day, but disappointed year on year. I had hoped this final season would offer redemption, but alas. Decent bunch of actors, but with subpar writing that usually went nowhere coherent. I won’t miss it. Glad it’s done. I hope Paramount learnt some valuable lessons from this and moves things on.
This was … a DISCO episode.
Lengthy but meaningless action sequences? Check. Shaky cams all the damn time? Check. People talking about their feelings at the worst possible moment? Check. No apparent command structure and people just doing whatever they want? Check. One-dimensional villains? Check. Flamethrowers on the bridge? Check. (although, to be honest, those are so absurd that I’ll actually miss them)
I liked the future scenes because they were noticably slower and cerebral than pretty much anything that Discovery did during its five seasons. I wish they would have done something like that more often.
But yeah, that’s it. I’m somewhat glad it’s over. I liked the first two seasons of the show. Despite their flaws I appreciated that they’ve tried something new in the Star Trek franchise. And ultimately that led to Strange New Worlds, so I’ll have to give them credit for that. Anything after the season 3 time jump was not my cup of tea though. There was never enough worldbuilding for my taste because so much screentime was devoted to Burnham and Book, and that meant that the 31st century never really felt “real” to me.
Maybe I’ll rewatch seasons 1 and 2 somewhere down the line but I have no interest in watching seasons 3-5 again. I’ll just treat them as Burnham’s fever dream or something like that.
I had placed a huge bet on Owo and Detmer warping the ISS Enterprise in at the last minute to save everyone’s bacon, and now I’m homeless
To just intentionally abandon a sentient ship in the void for an unknowable amount of time is incredibly cruel. Solitary confinement is torture.
I think that makes certain assumptions about how Zora engages with the world, which may or may not be correct. I’d really like to rewatch “Calypso” as it’s been ages, but Paramount+ seems to have…misplaced the Short Treks in my country.
The whole reason they came to the future was that Discovery’s computer couldn’t be disabled or removed after merging with the Sphere data and becoming Zora. So (she?) is always online and conscious. She spent almost a thousand years alone before Craft’s arrival. At the time, I could have accepted some disaster that forced the crew to evacuate (or killed them all) and Discovery became lost, with a final order to hold position. But for Starfleet to intentionally put the ship (from which Zora cannot be separated) in deep space and abandon it, I cannot interpret as anything except cruelty.
Whoops, fixed a typo in my comment.
What I’m trying to say is, I don’t think it can be called cruelty if Zora, in her capacity as an artificial intelligence, doesn’t mind. It may not be accurate to assume she will react in the way a human would.
Discovery has always been a mixed bag for me.
I was fine with their changes to the Klingons, but disliked the emphasis of action.
I liked Pike and Spock (an Strange new Worlds), bit disliked the final battle with a million ships/drones.
I liked the jump into the future, but disliked the reason and resolution of the Burn.
I liked the threat of the DMA and its consequences, but the interpersonal relationships of the crew lost their appeal to me.
Season 5 was one of the weakest for me.
The Breen and the new XO two positives for me.
The crew, the Progenitor Tech and the search for it were all boring for me. Especially the established characters are more annoying than interesting to me.
Mol and L’ak ruined the season for me, more specifically Mol. A cross between a tantrum-having toddler and rebellious teenager, she added nothing to the plot. Her random connection to Book was blatantly manufactured and added nothing.
I actively had to stop myself from skipping scenes with her. I was close to just stop watching this season, since the rest wasn’t too compelling either. I really dislike when antagonist keep sticking around, because the heroes try saving them (from themselves). It’s okay to let a horrible person bleed to death, Michael.
I’m glad it’s over. It could have been better, but also worse. I think this season showed it was a good decision to end it now.
