Wanting like nothing a lot because the Star Trek tackle the Mouth of Sauron from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the Furies are violent and manipulative, threatening to kill all of the cadets if their calls for aren’t met. Enter Nus Braka. Given how prevalent the information of Giamatti’s involvement on this collection has been all through its pre-release advertising, all of us just about needed to know that he’d be again sooner or later. And the sketchy plot — which includes every thing from overt mendacity and theft to emotional manipulation —that unfolds feels completely in line with every thing we’ve come to find out about this character up till this level. That he turns into the most effective of a variety of dangerous choices type of feels just like the story of his life in microcosm.
Despite the fact that it feels prefer it needs to be apparent from the soar that Braka is mainly utilizing Captain Ake for his personal functions, Giamatti and Holly Hunter are dynamite collectively and make what’s, admittedly, a reasonably thinly drawn vendetta really feel extremely compelling. The 2 play these characters as if they’ve the advanced, established historical past of Professor X and Magneto, reasonably than the pretty shallow and poorly sketched revenge plot they’ve shared up to now. Giamatti’s gleeful cruelty and harsh truths — he will get downright nasty about Ake’s son’s dying and the emotional compromises required of any being pressured to stay on an extended sufficient timeline — strike with painful precision, and although Hunter retains Ake stoic and grounded sufficient that her breakdown at episode’s finish lands all of the tougher.
Whether or not Braka’s determination to workforce up with the Furies to execute a secret third plot involving stealing superior experimental weaponry from a close-by Federation starbase for his personal ends is a narrative any of us will care about previous this level is a query solely the remainder of this season can reply, nevertheless it’s all the time good when the present cares sufficient about its viewers to no less than strive to shock them. And to its credit score, “Come, Let’s Away” really manages to try this a number of instances.
It’s a on condition that no less than a few of these children have been possible solely launched for the sake of being cannon fodder, nevertheless it feels significantly impolite to kill off one of many solely two Conflict Faculty college students who’d be given sufficient of a character to be recognizable to viewers. Alas, poor B’Avi, we hardly knew you. However no less than you fought bravely and managed to show Caleb some invaluable classes concerning the humanity of these we dislike! (And, look, burying him along with his favourite house journey comedian guide bought me. I’m not fabricated from stone!!)
However whereas Caleb will get to be…properly, predictably Caleb, all through most of this hour, that is Tarima’s episode by means of and thru. (Despite the fact that she’s by no means even technically a part of the kidnapped mission.) It’s a very satisfying swerve on condition that this can be a character who hasn’t had a ton to do past function a love curiosity and the revelation that she’s highly effective sufficient to show a whole squad of alien enemies into mud together with her thoughts is….properly, let’s simply name it sudden. (And very thrilling.) Don’t get me improper, Tarima and Caleb have a brilliant candy bond, and Starfleet Academy has well dialed down his preliminary playboy-esque instincts in favor of giving his reference to Tarima time to construct some actual layers. However we’ve already seen one Betazoid within the Star Trek universe consigned to being little greater than a romantic companion; we don’t have to do it once more. (And I say what as somebody for whom The Subsequent Era’s Troi and Riker have been a formative romance.)
Zoë Steiner’s efficiency walks a high quality line between softness and metal, and there’s one thing deeply gratifying about the way in which Tarima refuses to make herself smaller with the intention to win Caleb’s approval or affection. Actually, if something, this entire episode is about this character lastly deciding to unleash her true self — to cease limiting what she’s able to with the intention to make these round her really feel higher or safer or extra like her equal — and it’s not simply an act that saves a variety of lives, however one which fully reorients our understanding of this character and what the longer term holds for her. For the second, that future seems to be a coma, however that is Star Trek; everyone knows that’s not going to final. However, personally, I’m actually excited to fulfill the younger girl who comes out the opposite facet of it.
