It’s time for the penultimate episode of Discovery. The reality that the show’s actually ending next week is definitely setting in. The final season’s been an interesting ride, but now it’s time to see if the show can end satisfyingly. This week’s Star Trek: Discovery ‘Lagrange Point’ (Season 5, Episode 9), sees the Discovery crew and the Breen racing to the destination of the Progenitor’s technology. It was written by Sean Cochran and Ari Friedman, and directed by Star Trek veteran director and legend Jonathan Frakes!
Can the Discovery crew get to the technology in time? Will Burnham’s covert mission into the Dreadnought succeed? What’s in store for the Federation when the news of what’s going down hits them? Will Moll (Eve Harlow) lead the Breen with stability, or is she desperate and in over her head? Lots of questions and only a short episode to answer them! Let’s delve into the second from last episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “Lagrange Point”!
WARNING – Spoilers below for Star Trek: Discovery ‘Lagrange Point‘ (Season 5, Episode 9).
Saru and T’rina
Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
A very happy and welcome surprise opened this episode. Saru (Doug Jones) is properly back. From the beginning of the show in 2017, Jones has been singled out for praise multiple times. He’s been my favorite character in the regular cast for some time. Unfortunately, this season has sent him off to the sidelines. While around at Federation HQ, the Discovery crew is exploring the depths of the galaxy. For me, his absence has really been felt on the ship.
In this episode, he’s planning his wedding with T’Rina (Tara Rosling). I’m sure it’ll make an adorable scene in the finale, and they’re a really cute couple. Unfortunately, between the start of the season and now, we’ve skipped over a lot of the planning. Discussing the threat the Breen poses to the galaxy, he’s in a much more powerful position than he ever has been. In a surprising power move, he moves to negotiate with Primarch Tahal as they approach the Discovery.
That’s about it for his story in this episode there. A couple more hugs with T’Rina, but nothing in the realm of him actually making contact with anyone or doing anything. After that decision to be a badass ambassador, he spends the rest of the episode standing around. Knowing how crowded the finale is going to be wrapping up everything, I do wonder what’s going to come of this story.
Dreadnought Infiltration
Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
The bulky, fun part of the episode is when the Discovery crew infiltrates the Breen Dreadnought. Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) cooks up the plan after the Breen manages to snatch the Progenitor’s capsule out of space. It’s a little silly, but it’s still awesome. The sequence evokes all the other ship infiltrations you can think of gorgeously, look no further than the Death Star sequences in the original Star Wars! A little familiar, but fun nonetheless.
The rest of the crew selected includes Book (David Ajala), who goes with Burnham to get a transport marker on the capsule. Powering down the shields are Adira (Blu del Barrio) and Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon). Rhys briefly got to be acting captain, and now he’s heading an important part of the away team. It’s a position that could’ve been filled by one of the main cast, but I’m glad it wasn’t. Letting the bridge crew develop is cool, but it’s a shame it’s at the expense of all the other characters.
A lot of the bridge crew characters we’ve come to know over the past few seasons have been seriously absent this season. It’s made the bridge and the crew feel a lot less familiar in the final season. Still, I’m glad one of them’s getting meaningful development. Seeing him take on martial arts to take out some Breen was awesome. Also, we got to see Book flirt his way out of a situation, which is just endlessly funny.
The Portal
Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
It comes out pretty quickly that the capsule doesn’t actually contain the Progenitor’s technology. Naturally, there’s still another barrier to anyone’s success. At this point, nobody’s going to have time to actually use it. The inside of the capsule is actually a big inter-dimensional portal, dragging people toward the technology. It’s basically a glorified light show, bringing people into the unknown.
Frakes as a director makes pretty good use of the really bright green light. What could’ve been unremarkable or even dull ends up looking pretty damn good. Scenes around the capsule are well done as well, with a very cool close-up of Moll. He really taps into her desperation, evil, and slight uneasiness in what she’s doing. She’s not power hungry, and just wants her true love back, who she puts into a pattern buffer.
Star Trek: Discovery ‘Lagrange Point‘ refers to the sweet spot between two space bodies, in this case, black holes. This is where the capsule was, floating in stability for 800 years. It’s a little disappointing that it’s only floating there for 5 seconds, making the title a little pointless. There was potential to do something cool with where the capsule was, but no. Although as a double-part finale, nothing goes too smoothly, with Moll and Burnham both racing through the portal before the end, into the unknown.
Rayner’s Plan
Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
It wouldn’t be an episode of Discovery without scenes set on the Discovery. The captain is on the away team again, which remains a bafflingly silly decision. This leaves Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) in command of the ship, a post he’s become very familiar with over the last few weeks. Once again, I’d love to see him get a command of his own again. We only have one more episode with him, so I hope he gets a nice conclusion.
The ship remains cloaked for the bulk of the episode, only coming out when it really needs to. Burnham and Book are about to get found out, so Rayner reveals to Moll that Discovery survived. Sadly this didn’t end up accomplishing much. Within mere minutes, the pair were found out anyway. While it’s a fun plan and a badass sort of moment, it didn’t end up doing anything.
The ship cooks up another plan, to raid the shuttle bay, throwing out everything, including the capsule, out into the vacuum of space. The sequence of the ship raiding the shuttle bay was gorgeous. Visual effects work on modern Star Trek is always generally pretty good, but this was phenomenal. It was a great way to close out the episode, followed by a really exciting hook from Rayner. The end of this episode was genuinely faultless, I have no complaints, and I cannot wait to see how this season, and the show, ends next week!
Conclusion
Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
The penultimate episode – Star Trek: Discovery ‘Lagrange Point‘ – is an action-packed romp. Infiltrating the Dreadnought was pretty tense and the show had quite a lot of fun with it. Saru’s also properly back despite a seriously reduced role this season, and he’ll definitely be in the finale as well. I hope the story thread they set up between him and Tahal manages to pay off satisfyingly.
Introducing an inter-dimensional portal to the Progenitor’s technology was an interesting choice this late in the game. Just one last barrier and obstacle before they get there. With only Burnham and Moll on the other side, there’s potential for some real fun next week. Her friends on the Discovery aren’t giving up on finding her, either. Rayner’s whole “failure is not an option” speech was nothing short of amazing. A very exciting end that leaves me wanting to watch the finale now.
Star Trek: Discovery ‘Lagrange Point‘ (Season 5 Episode 9) streams via Paramount+ in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Latin America, France, Germany, Brazil, South Korea (via Tving), France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It is also available on CTV Scifi / Crave in Canada and TVNZ in New Zealand. The show is also available on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.
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