Haz Mazaro

Story: All In

Written By: Sean Cochran

Series: Star Trek: Discovery

Year: 2022

 

Book and Tarka have successfully escaped with the prototype spore drive, but in order to finish creating Tarka's DMA destroying weapon, they need isolynium.  While starfleet orders ship to all known possible dealers in the volatile substance, Burnham knows where Book is most likely to try and get it, a black market dealer outside Federation space that they used in their courier days. While Discovery is ordered to gather more data on the Species 10-C location because she is too closer to Book, Vance secretly orders her to complete that mission but also use her knowledge of Book and his contacts to bring him in at the same time.

So the episode ends up mostly on this hidden casino, where Burnham and Owesekun head to find Book and Tarka, who are already there.  It becomes a battle of the highest bidder.  Owesekun wrestles and Burnham bets on her (whatever), and Book and Tarka try to earn money by finding the cheaters in the casino for the operator of the place, Haz Mazaro.   Both succeed in getting him what he wants but he also has two other bidders now as well...and he decides to put it all on the line in space poker.  It comes down to Book and Burnham...and while she tries to convince him to give up this plan, to end it...he decidedly decides to end it by betting it all, and his hand beats hers. He has basically broken up with her now.  

With Book and Tarka off with the major component of Tarka weapon in hand, Burnham returns to HQ where she admits she knew she would lose, but did put a tracker on the isolynium.  They can find them.  Meanwhile Stamets has analyzed the newest data and they believe they have figured out more about Species 10-C, they live in some kind of crazy space shield or something.  It would take a tremendous amount of power to keep that going...and then they look at all the DMA hits, and they realize a certain element in those sectors are now totally missing. The DMA isn't a weapon, it's a mining operation. And if that is just their mining equipment, and where they live is crazy powerful: what could their weapons be like?  If Book and Tarka blow it up, it could mean devastating consequences for everyone. 

I would like to criticize this show's forced character scenes that don't always work. Often, this show throws in a single scene that is about some side character's growth or personal issues...and it doesn't gel with the story at all.  Up until now most of those scenes were Gray/Adira scenes and they were mostly boring and the same thing every time. This time they made it a Culber/Stamets scene, in which Culber is angrily cleaning their quarters because he is mad he can't do more as a therapist.  Honestly, the Culber as stressed counselor story that has been running through this season has been so dull I don't think I've mentioned it until now.  It feels like "we need characters to have some sort of personal issues right?" and they just had no real ideas this year, and so mostly that has been "Gray is person!" and "Culber is stressed!"  It feels superfluous, because they are scenes tacked on to episodes and rarely feel natural.  And what's more, it isn't needed.  They just had nothing for those characters to really do this year, but they have personal issues that are coming up naturally in Saru's journey from his homeworld, and espeically in Book and Burnham's relationship in the aftermath of his homeworld.  But hang on lets spend a few minutes while Culber says "I must do more, yet I do too much!"yet again.  

Anyhow, this was another decent episode. It isn't my favorite, but the ending reveal was pretty good.  

NEXT TIME: Return of Nhan