The Good of the People

Story: There Is A Tide...
Written By: Kenneth Lin

Series: Star Trek: Discovery

Year: 2020

Osyraa has Discovery and is making it look as if it is escaping her own ship while heading towards Federation Headquarters, thus tricking Starfleet into letting her in.  But she isn't there to blow it all up, she is there to try and negotiate for peace...and proposes a union between the Emerald Chain and the Federation.  Burnham and Book crash his ship into Disco's cargo bay...but while Book ends up a hostage with the rest of the crew, Burnham is crawling through Jeffries Tubes with a device that hides her lifesign, and she John McClaines her way into trying to retake the ship, save the crew, or get Stamets out of there so Discovery can't jump.  

Osyraa also has a scientist on board, one she hopes can replicate what makes Stamets so special.  He believes Osyraa is more than she appears because she has given him a life, a life he might not have had due to his own disabilities. Stamets points out that she may be more, but she is also just as nasty as she appears.  This comes to a head when Osyraa returns to Discovery, after Admiral Armstrong only agrees to her peace treaty plan if she will submit to facing trial for her crimes...and she takes it out on the Andorian who helped the hostages escaped.  It is clear this did not sit well with the scientist.  

It's a decent episode.  The Burnham Die Hard elements are little too Die Hard (she even loses her shoes!), but the end where she sends Stamets off the ship and keeps him from jumping back to save Hugh and Adira, the two people he cares most about, it's pretty heartbreaking.  I mean she has to try and save Stamets and the Federation from Osyraa...but at the same time she is forcing him to possibly lose his family forever, and he points out that they CAME to the future for HER.  Ouch.  

Next week will be the finale, and we will see if they are successful in saving the ship, the Federation, and the landing party left back in the nebula (who do not even appear in this episode).  The trailer tries to make it seem unlikely there will be any happy ending and that the Federation will be officially dead or something.  That feels like a red herring.  We shall see how this all plays out next week.

NEXT TIME: Taking Back the Ship