‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Subverted a Classic Trope in Its Penultimate Episode

Spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery “Such Sweet Sorrow” past this point.

You know the drill: in order to save the world/universe/whatever, a ship needs to be destroyed, and it can only be taken care of by one person staying behind. Either that person sacrifices themselves, or they figure out a swerve and pull them out at the last second; but it’s the hero proving they’re heroic by giving up everything. Heck, Star Trek: Discovery has even hit the trope with this season’s death of Airiam (Hannah Cheeseman). Yet in tonight’s penultimate Season 2 episode “Such Sweet Sorrow,” they smartly subverted that trope in the most Star Trek way possible, by having the whole crew sacrifice themselves alongside Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green).

Most of the episode is table-setting for the finale, a rarity for Discovery. Surrounded by black-ops ships from Section 31 that are now piloted by the evil artificial intelligence Control, the crew of Discovery makes a rash decision: they need to destroy the ship. But first, they very slowly and calmly evacuate everyone onto the Enterprise, giving us our first glimpse of the gleaming new bridge of the classic ship. Queue up angry, old-school Star Trek fans complaining that it didn’t look like they built the bridge for $5 and mostly made it out of cardboard; and also, please ignore said “fans.”

They can’t destroy Discovery, though, because the ship contains sphere data — millennia of knowledge recorded by an ancient, mysterious sphere that’s fused with the ship and is protecting it. Due to grabbing some time crystals (don’t ask), Michael has seen that trying to destroy Discovery only leads to Control — in the form of Section 31 chief Leland (Alan Van Sprang) — killing everyone and winning. So they come up with an alternate plan to use Michael’s mom’s Red Angel suit to essentially drag Discovery through a wormhole and hide it in the future. Turns out, Michael was The Red Angel after all, jumping through time and leaving a trail of signals for the crew.

Now, if you somehow skipped the Star Trek: Short Treks that aired before Season 2 started, you might have been confused about the help they got from Po (Yadira Guevara-Prip), an alien princess/genius who helps them figure out how to hook the time crystal up to the ship and get enough power to travel in time. But if you did watch the Short Treks, you may have a fair idea of where this is going, as the second episode “Calypso” features Discovery drifting alone in space for a thousand years, developing an AI named Zora, and waiting for the crew to come back and visit her. Will this tie into the season finale? I mean, probably.

Back to the episode, Michael decides that she needs to be the one to go into the suit (it’s coded to her/her mother’s RNA), which means she’ll be heading to some unspecified point in the future forever. She says her goodbyes, the crew prepares, and generally it seems like that trope mentioned above, the hero’s sacrifice. That is, until the best scene in the episode drops, where Michael is getting ready to depart when she’s confronted by the whole crew in the hallway: they’re all coming with her, even Tig Notaro.

It’s a beautiful, sweet, emotionally charged moment on par with Saru’s (Doug Jones) “we will not accept a no-win scenario” speech from Season 1’s “What’s Past Is Prologue” — a rallying of the troops moment that speaks to the togetherness and power of the Federation, and the very soul of Star Trek itself. The underpinning of the franchise has always been that we are stronger together than apart; and even with all of Burnham’s heroics, or Kirk’s, or Picard’s, it always comes down to the crew being willing to give themselves up for the greater good. It’s the same choice Pike (Anson Mount) faced last episode, knowing that he’s going to be destroyed mentally and physically down the road but deciding to make the choice that’s good for all sentient life instead of his melty, melty face.

So Pike heads back to the Enterprise, while the crew of Discovery, including Spock (Ethan Peck) and now under the command of Captain Saru heads into battle with Control in order to escape to the future, forever.

There are a ton of questions left hanging here as we head into the final hour… Where did the sphere come from? What are the final two signals? How does Spock end up on the Enterprise, if he’s in the future with Discovery? Is Control actually the origin story of Star Trek big bads The Borg, as has been speculated intensely online? Those are the top line questions, but a lot needs to go down before we wrap up Season 2. Hopefully, the finale will continue to subvert tropes in a smart, emotional way; just like they did in the second to last hour.

Star Trek: Discovery airs Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on CBS All Access

Stream Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access