SPOILER ALERT: Do not read until after you’ve watched “That Hope Is You, Part 2”
Now that we all know for sure what caused The Burn (Su’Kal yelling when his mom died) and we know how Osyraa met her bitter end (thanks Michael). But the Season 3 finale, “That Hope Is You, Part 2” left a bunch of questions unanswered. In the Discovery writers’ defense, they set up a whole lot… more than they could answer in 13 episodes.
Let’s look ahead at what might be in store for Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season, which is in production now!
What about the music?
The story about this common tune that was thread from society to society… everyone seemed to know it. It was like the intergalactic version of “Ice Ice Baby.” Adira played it on the cello (thanks to Gray’s help), the Barzan family on “Die Trying” knew it too. It seemed to come up in a few episodes, but we never learned why.
This might be something we learn about in Season 4. Perhaps the writers ran out of time to explain it, or they wanted to plant the seed for a mystery that they’d solve in the future. Long term planning is fine with me.
Will Stamets forgive Michael?
Even though it worked out in the end, she basically blasted him out into space while Culber and Adira were getting poisoned by radiation. That was a highlight of Season 3 — Anthony Rapp’s performance was haunting. When he yelled at Michael that his “whole life” was in that nebula, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Stamets was mad.
What happened to Linus and Lt. Nilsson?
About Episode 9 or so, we stopped seeing these two very popular characters. We learned that Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) was molting somewhere and Nilsson (Sara Mitich) just disappeared without notice. Nilsson was replaced on the bridge by Lt. Ina (Avaah Blackwell) which was fine… but what happened?
I guess that something happened to Sara Mitich’s hair after the Mirror episodes, where her character had dark hair instead of the usual blonde. Perhaps they couldn’t get her hair right so she was done for the season. Just kidding. Maybe.
Will Saru return to Starfleet?
At the end of “That Hope Is You, Part 2,” Saru went back to Kaminar to take care of Su’Kal. Now, this took me as a little strange, because Su’Kal was over 100 years old. How much taking care of will he need? Maybe Kelpians age very slowly and when he gets to 125, he’ll act a bit more independently.
Will Book stick around?
When they first introduced the character of Cleveland “Book” Booker, some compared him to Han Solo from Star Wars. Which wasn’t too far off. He was kind of a smuggler with a very cool ship, and he had a hairy co-pilot. But in Wars, Solo alway wanted to leave the Rebellion. Will Book (David Ajala) stick around? At the end of “That Hope Is You, Part 2” he was on the bridge but was not in a Starfleet uniform. Book told Michael he hated uniforms.
Will the Federation clone the spore drive?
Now that someone else besides Stamets (Book) can make the Discovery jump, will the Federation begin equipping their ships with spore drives? That would mean that we’d likely need a bunch of folks from Book’s home world (Kwejian) to fly the ships for the Federation. That seems unlikely.
What will happen to Aurellio?
He was on the wrong team, but he seemed like a good guy. Aurellio (Kenneth Mitchell) played a big part in the final part of the mission to defeat the Emerald Chain. It would be great to have him as a regular on Discovery… so who knows. But why did the DISCO cast trust him immediately? Seemed a bit odd. It wasn’t like Aurellio swore an oath or anything.
What about the Ferengi?
The Emerald Chain took over all trade routes and everything in the galaxy… but how did they do it? I can’t believe that Quark and his kind would have let that happen without a fight. I hope we see some Ferengi in Season 4. Perhaps they will fill in the void left by the Emerald Chain’s absence.
Will the ship be retrofitted to match the gray uniforms?
Probably the most controversial thing that happened in “That Hope Is You, Part 2” was the new suits for all the Discovery crew. At the end, when Michael sat in the captain’s chair, we saw that the crew traded in their blue for the 32nd Century gray. Will the crew (the people who create the show) redress the Discovery set in order for the new uniforms to look like they fit? Perhaps more white… like we saw at the Starfleet HQ offices.
Will we get a new five-year mission?
I compared Michael to James T. Kirk a while back. Some poo-pooed this idea, but she said herself that she doesn’t believe in no win scenarios (just like Kirk did in Star Trek II)! Will Vance send the Discovery out on a long-term mission… instead of meeting new people and planets, would the Discovery be trying to win back some Federation planets? Sort of a reverse Kirk mission. It could be fun!
What about Adira and Gray?
In “That Hope Is You, Part 2,” Adira, Saru, and Culber got to see and interact with Gray, thanks to the advanced holo program. Could they rig up a portable holo projector (much like the Doctor had on Voyager) to allow Gray to be more than an imaginary friend in Adira’s head? Don’t scoff… remember that we’re in the 32nd Century now.
Star Trek: Discovery is streaming in the United States on CBS All Access.
