‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Stars on the Season 2 Premiere’s Tensest Moment

Towards the end of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premiere, there’s a moment — and spoilers past this point — where it really seems like Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and ship doctor Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) are going to die. That’s nothing new necessarily for Star Trek, the characters in the franchise are always in life-ending danger at nearly all points. But the way Bush and Olusanmokun play the moment, you believe this might be it for the duo.

“They’re two people that have been through a lot together, that appreciate each other, that have a lot of respect for each other,” Olusanmokun told Decider on the moment. “And they know they’ve given their lives to this journey of the Enterprise. To find themselves on a mission and that it’s all about to come to an end… They’re faced with that thing that they’ve always had to answer in a way: will you give your life for the cause? And in that moment, they believe they were given their lives and a cause. So it was a powerful moment. Or at least maybe I shouldn’t use that word. It was a beautiful moment to play. And I hope it came through.”

For those who haven’t seen the episode. Here are the circumstances… A faction of rogue Klingons are trying to create a false flag operation in order to restart the war between the Klingons and the Federation. In order to do that, these baddies have essentially created a fake Starfleet ship, down to the callsign and look of the vessel. This “Starfleet” vessel is supposed to fire on a Klingon vessel, and since it’s in restricted space, the war would ostensibly start again.

The only problem for this rogue faction, the Enterprise catches wind of the operation thanks to Chapel and M’Benga, who just happen to be on board the ship. Stuck in the airlock with furious Klingons on one side, and the Enterprise ready to fire on the ship at any moment in order to prevent the false flag from happening, the medical duo decides instead to take their one spacesuit between them and jump into the vacuum outside.

“M’Benga and Chapel have been through so much together, and in their [lives] there’s so much moving around them all the time, there’s so much pressure on them to deliver and to look after people,” Bush added. “There’s a sense of home that they find with each other… M’Benga is my safety, the person who knows me… There’s a familial bond there. In that moment, where we’re coming to terms with the fact that we might die, holding on to each other’s focus is like coming home before the end. There’s a safety and a peace in that.”

As you might expect, they do live — though barely — and make it back onto the Enterprise in one piece. And even more positively, we now know a lot more about the bond between these two fan-favorite characters, beyond the fact that they both work in the medical department of the ship together. Hopefully, though, they can stay safely on board the rest of the season.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.